All the Holiday Eating

Christmas Eve
First food gift - an array of british products like "ahhh.. Bisto!" instant gravy and "Salad Cream". I tried the gravy over some grits which I'm sure is wrong but it was pretty good (thanks Helena!)


Picked up a 1/2 sheet tomato pie from Ianelli's on the way to the girlfriend's sisters house in New Jersey (I call it "North" but they say "Central" even though it's all "Subs" and NY teams) and they didn't know what to do with it. Some was heated, other eaten cold, but it spawned a discussion of Newark italian Bakeries so successful overall. Also delicious ham, and every year a 10 lb bag of Ms T's pierogies with brown butter and carmelized onions on the side. Awesome. Then back to the city for late night whiskey.

Christmas Day
Completed the Jersey / Philadelphia exchange by bringing back a dozen giant, puffy, airy, delicious bagels from Bagels & Deli Bakery in Toms River NJ. After these you won't ever try to argue that "there are some OK bagels in Philadelphia" ever again. Piled up with whitefish salad from Dibruno's and a can of Fresca that my dad gets from the dollar store - Christmas hangover instantly cured.

Dinner was a boneless ribeye roast and my Mom's famous brie mashed potatoes. I tried to make them once with fancy pants expensive cheese and "french technique" and they tasted like crap. The secret is cream cheese and bake it in a casserole Mom style. Dessert was mind blowing Gingerbread with some sort of salted carmel brown butter sauce, also amazing. Wish I had photos but sometimes it's just not the time to be an annoying food blogger.

New Years Eve
Back to Corropolese in Norristown for Tomato Pies (full sheets), stromboli bread (f***ing amazing) and 3 lbs of meatballs in the same sauce they use for the tomato pie.




Was thinking of trekking back to Swiacki Meats but whoa Corropolese also carries Kilebasa and Kabanosy so I picked up a bunch of that.


Also proper Zeps from Eve's Lunch right down the street.



Finally found Zayda's Pickles at Cosmi's (actually sourced by DFF research assistant Tim also responsible for these beautiful photos of Czewr's) and don't know why everyone doesn't sell them.


Also more whitefish (I'm addicted) smoked salmon and all that stuff. Somehow 7 bottles of whiskey, most of a keg of beer and lots of wine, gin, champagne, etc.. were consumed by maybe 30 people?



New Years Day
Watched the Mummers on TV even though I live 1 block from Broad street. Ate more Kabanosy and Zayda's pickles in honor of New Years. Finally pulled myself together and went to New Years Day party, bloody marys and bud light. Went to a different party where some guy kept pulling out his shaved balls, and there was an awesome make-your-own grilled cheese station. Went home and ordered Santuccis, the only pizza place in South Philly open on New Years Day at 9pm.



Monday
After 2 days of drinking, helping a friend move into a new apartment at 9am. Awesome. Made better by Mexican breakfast and Mexican Fresca at Los Gallos.




After that, slowly trying to finish off the keg with some board games and Celebre's.



Now, realizing I spent all my money on tomato pie and the bill collectors are calling and I need to do some work and eat nothing but yogurt and quinoa for the next two months.

Pizzaz Benedict

Pizzaz - Celebre's
Eggs - The Family Cow
Sauce - Corropolese


The Best!

Corropolese Bakery

I recently wrote up Corropolese for Daily Slice on Serious Eats but thought I'd post some more photos here. The tomato pie is some of the best I've had but they do so much more. Bread, rolls, doughnuts, hoagies and zeps, and that amazing stromboli bread. Best place ever. Checking out every tomato pie bakery in the tri state area might have to be my next mission.








More about Tomato Pie and Bakery Pizza-

Daily News: Tomato pie is the region's signature dish by Rich Pawlak
Slice: Tomato Pie From Conshohocken Bakery
Drawingforfood: Cacia Bakery
Roadfood: Pusties & Pies A-Plenty in Rome/Utica, NY

Night Market Chinatown - Dueling Pizza Trucks and Hotdog Skewer

I missed the last couple of these things since the first one on Passyunk where everything was closed by the time I got there and ended up eating wings at the Adobe Cafe. Anyway Chinatown is an AWESOME location for the Night Market and it really felt like a real market and not just a foodie PR event. They should do this once a week.

nomad's margherita
margherita from pitruco
One highlight was definitely the dueling brick oven pizza trucks. I wrote up Pitruco for Daily Slice but Nomad was good too, although it's a bit of a bummer that their truck is not going to be a full time thing (sit down restaurant opening next year or whatever). After that were several startlingly weak bandwagon asian-fusion things made by white people that didn't taste like anything. Then pulled pork sandwich from Geechee Girl that was DELICIOUS.


One of the best bites came from the front of Solo, a Chinatown skewer bar a few blocks south of the whole thing that had giant speakers blasting Chinese dance music and a skewer grill set up out front surrounded by a bunch of drunk dudes downing bottles of Coors Light.


The "mini hot dog" skewer was one dollar and the dogs were scored into a crazy pattern and basted in some delicious salty sweet glaze. The lamb was super spicy and sort of fatty in a couple bites but what do you want for 2 bucks?


And of course no trip to Chinatown is complete without a visit to our favorite asian-fusion hotel / bus terminal / sports bar Tazia for shots of "Drunken Pineapple Longsex".

San Lucas Pizza

Just in case you missed my post on Serious Eats, this is pretty much the craziest pizza I've ever had. And the wildest thing is that it's actually good. On Mckean between 17th and 18th, they also sell phone cards and cigarettes.


I kind of expected maybe some canned jalapenos and olives slapped onto a pizza. But this things have real carnitas and al pastor meat drizzled with homemade hot sauce and garnished with cilantro and fresh limes for squeezing. The slices are huge, folded over each one is about as much food as a giant burrito, for 3 bucks.


San Lucas is open 'til 1am on saturdays and only 1 block north of a certain infamous after hours bar. Maybe just stop here and take home some pizza instead of something you'll regret.

San Lucas Pizza
18th & Mckean

Cacia's Bakery

Check out Cacia on Ritner for square pies of all variety. On a friday afternoon the tiny storefront was packed with customers lined up for take out, by the slice or "by the box". Not quite sicilian, the crust is thinner than La Rosa, similar to Stogie Joe's / Santucci's style, but with a softer crust and bigger slices.




I had to try the Pizzaz - I haven't had the courage to order an entire Pizzaz pizza - which, if you don't know, is a crazy obscure only found in (usually south) philly pie that's topped with fresh tomato slices, AMERICAN CHEESE, and pickled sweet yellow peppers. It was stranger than I expected but actually kind of good, think grilled cheese pizza with a hoagie twist from the peppers. I would eat it again, but don't know about a whole pie.




People were ordering it by the box, pronounced "lemme getta boxa bazzaz"... on some of the red white and green south philly menus that land on my doorstep it's even spelled "Bazaz". Awesome. The tomato pie was OK, the white was delicious. And the stromboli looked AMAZING, definitely my next order. I had no idea but they actually have 6 locations - nothern liberties, jersey, etc so there's probably one near you.

Cacia Bakery
1526 W. Ritner Street
Philadelphia, PA 19145

Potato Pizza

I know what you're thinking.. "La Rosa? Again? Haven't you guys written about them 10,000 times?" Yes but I had never tried the potato pizza. Never even know they made it until perusing an old Craig Laban article.


Man it is terrific. I had some of their tomato pie a couple weeks ago. But the potato / rosemary / black pepper on white pie is incredible. I love some wood-fired thin crust truffle-topped whatever, fine if I want to go out and try something new.. but when I just want to order a pizza that I know is going to be delicious every time this is the place.

Otto & Crif Dogs

So I've heard a lot of mixed reviews on the pizza at Mario Batali's Otto in NYC. Didn't exactly blow me away but it was decent. I would say Tacconelli's and even Osteria here in Philly are a notch above.

But what they don't have is probably the best salted caramel gelato I've ever had, pretty ballsy it's more salty than sweet and tastes like something you might rub on a rack of ribs. Awesome.

We also don't have Crif Dogs open for pork-roll wrapped hot dogs at 3am. And the best tater tots in the world, I don't know if they make them by hand or fry them in peanut oil or what but they're always perfect.

Tacconelli's Pizza

I'd never had a Tacconelli's Pizza until last night. I admit I am a bit skeptical of hype, and most restaurants can't ever live up to the near-mythical status that writers tend to give to obscure, mind-numbingly authentic eateries that have been around since 1918. Some folks told me "yeah, it's good, but it's just pizza" But I also got a lot of "you've never been there? what the hell is wrong with you? no wonder you think Lazaro's is good".

So the verdict is Tacconelli's wins. This pizza is incredible. And it really is something special, and not in that duck proscuitto with goat cheese kind of way. Halfway through my second bottle of wine I was just staring at my 6th slice in awe. It doesn't look like much, the toppings are fairly standard. It's the sauce, which is really good, maybe the best, and the perfect crust. Margerita pizza was amazing. Sausage & Onions, fantastic. All very light on the cheese (even the white pie) which is different but it helps the crust stay crispy, and you don't fall asleep after eating 7 slices. Delicious.

It is suggested that you reserve your dough ahead of time. And it might take 2 hours to get your pizza. So make sure you brought some beer or a few bottles of wine, and a bunch of other people. This is not a pretentious restaurant marketing ploy. There's one guy and one oven, the same oven the family has been using for almost 100 years. Closed on mondays & tuesdays. They do take out also. If you see a guy trying to ride a bike down delaware ave with three pizzas balanced on the handlebars, it's probably me.

Tacconelli's
2604 E Somerset
Philadelphia

la rosa update

I found it necessary to re-visit la rosa pizza tonight.
still delicious, still affordable, and they deliver halfway across the city.

Pizza Book!

"The Pizza Book" by Ansley Joe and Gregory Pizzoli is the greatest thing ever and I wish I had done it! Maybe I will do a tiny addition dedicated to sicilian style pizzas.

It's a fully illustrated book about pizza places in Philly, and they are judged solely on the slice. The drawings are awesome and the information is fun to read. 

Highley reccommended to anyone you know moving to a new area of town or to Philly in general. Seriously if I ever move back to the West Coast, I know there will be no comparison pizza wise. And if you don't think there is a difference West Coasters, it's like getting Mexican food here, close but not quite right. 

To get a hold of this gem email: thepizzabook@gmail.com