tuna sandwich

this looked so good I just had to post it. italian tuna with capers, red onions, olives, tomatoes, basil, etc.


ate this while watching karate kid, then worked on comics until 3 in the morning.

tokyo lunch

I'm living in Tokyo right now and I feel like I'm in a different planet. I get on a train every morning packed with sweaty old men in suits while I stare at digital screens on the wall. The ATM machine near the station read my veins on my hand and gave me my money without my card.

Well, the best thing so far is the AMPM, the philly equivalent of WAWA. I paid about $6 for my lunch here in Shibuya.


The $2 salad with green beans, black olives, crab meat, and roast potatos!
How weird!! But it was sooo yummy.


These rice balls cost about $1 each. I had a TUNA MAYO (tuna mayonnaise) rice ball and Spicy TOBIKO with mayonnaise rice ball today. I love the package.... It feels like paper and it looks really cute. I am enjoying my OL (Office Lady) life after all.

our mascot

my dad sent me a card with a photo of the same hot dog statue from Moe's hot dogs and the stand in Japan. Apparently in a nostalgia shop in Blue Bell, PA.

coney island

rumor has it coney island, at least the important parts of it, are going to be gone after this summer. all these beautiful hand painted signs for hot corn, italian sausages, most of the rides, bulldozed to make way for some crappy yuppie condos or something. so for this 4th of july here's some of my favorite food photos from coney island.















also tommorow is the famous 4th of july hot dog eating contest.
nathansfamous.com


so go check out coney island this summer before it's too late!!


Astroland
Wonder Wheel
Nathan's Hot Dogs
Cyclone Roller Coaster
1000 Surf Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11224

Breakfast Remix

I work hard for the money. So when I get to finally sleep in on the weekends I want to go out for breakfast before I go back home to bleed art in my studio. Because you know what? I'm worth it. So here are my favorite options in the nieghborhood.

Apamate - Tortilla Espanol, but is a quiche with manchego cheese and chorizo with a side to strawberry pine nut salad. Eggs sunny side up with delicious crunchy potatos.





Ant's Pants - Bacon Stack - Most ruling egg on a stack of bacon tomato and greens on yummy thick toast. Delicious avacado chedder omelet with homemade salsa.




Pumpkin Market - I forgot my camera (I know I know) - A drawing of my smoked salmon platter - Everything Bagel, cream cheese, yummy smoked salmon, romaine, caper
berries, and olives.



Apamate
1620 South St
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 790-1620

Ant's Pants
2212 South St
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 875-8002

Pumpkin Market
1609 South St
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 545-1173

Korean BBQ

Summer is here in full force and its a time when I sort of want to detox and eat the beautiful seasonal bounty that living in Pennsylvania offers me. Like fresh Jersey blueberries or strawberries and spinach from someones farm in Lancaster. But alas nothing takes hold of me in the summer stronger than grilled meats. That's right BBQ. So on a nice Sunday afternoon we set out for Korean BBQ. It's harder to find Korean BBQ out here in Philadelphia in comparison to where I used to live in Oakland. Oakland had the best Korean sushi and San Francisco had the best Korean BBQ. But there are places popping up here and there in Center City Philadelphia that aren't bad. In fact we went to Miran on Chestnut and it was pretty good.

When you walk in you see these tables with fancy silver grills and spaceship like lowering air vents with a touch of a button. Very fancy compared to the charcoal style chicken-wire-heavy-scary ass bring to your table grills I was used to in Oakland.






We started off with Kim Chee Pancakes. They were delicious and oily and had whole chives and huge bits of kim chee and onions in them. The sauce it came with was a little to salty for my taste though. We also got our delicious side treats. Another stark difference from eating in the Bay Area. Here we only got 4 side dishes whereas normally I am used to getting at least 8 sometimes 10 side dishes. My favorites are always the tiny kim chee'd anchovies. The side dishes here were pretty tame. Although I did enjoy the potato salad and the kim chee was delicious.





Here comes the delicious part, the Bulgogi (thinly sliced marinated beef)and the Kalbi (marinated rib-eye). Nothing is better than getting piles of raw meat and getting to grill them on the hot car rim that is your grill.


In the end I was deeply satisfied. Me and Hawk each had the "King's Piece" the huge bone with mostly fat and gristle on it. But due to the high fat content and the marinating, gets all carmelized, juicy, and delicious. Take my advice though, if you are going to eat this part, it takes a really long time to grill, so put it on a little earlier than right at the end.



Overall a delicious experience, and the staff is super friendly.

Miran
2034 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 569-1200

Confirmed

Ratatouille was awesome. The food looked really good, my favorite was the red onions and all the plated food. Tim pointed out how he liked all the burn marks on the cooks arms. Stick around for the end credits, Pixar always has something good in store, and the animation for it is beautiful.

Ratatouille

This might be the ultimate illustrator foodie nerdy moment. To see Ratatouille by Pixar AND directed and written by Brad Bird ( eh hem Iron Giant..Incredibles.....tears of love )AND its voiced by Patton Oswald comedian nerd of choice AND its about FOOD. Thomas Keller, the chef at French Laundry is one of the advisors for the food in the movie.
Listen to this interview on Fresh Air with both Brad Bird and Patton Oswald and listen to his amazing Black Angus routine.

Summer Sweets

Nothing is cuter than strawberries and cupcakes in the summer. Well maybe except one piece bathing suits and tapshoes.

Food Illustrations

This is an asparagus illustration I did for the Seattle Stranger a while back. I really enjoyed doing this and I never really realized how alien asparagus looked.



This is a cheese plate I did for the Seattle Stranger's dining out Issue. I love cheese plates. These strawberries were the best to draw. In fact I love drawing food. It's kind of amazing to think that we consume all these different things of shapes, sizes and colors.

key lime pie donuts

...so alot of people are down on dunkin donuts, saying the coffee tastes like chemicals, new stores opening up on every block, every two days shutting out all those mom n pop artisanal donut shops. but I freakin' love dunkin donuts. this key lime pie donut really hit the spot, and i'll take their coffee over starbucks any day.

Osteria

ate at Osteria last week, Mark Vetri's new restaurant on north broad st. Very strange over-60 crowd for a neighborhood that looked like a warzone last time I was there... as soon as I ate this cotechino sausage and baked egg pizza I forgot all about the weird vibe and awkward service. delicious.



640 North Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
http://www.osteriaphilly.com/

drawing and food

drawing food and eating at the same time. ginger rice with shrimp and peanut sauce. sounds fancy but it was literally the last scraps of food in my kitchen... rice, 4 frozen shrimp, peanut butter and a can of coconut milk in the back of the cabinet.

Poor Squids...

I saw poor squids being dried out under the sun yesterday. In Japan, we all love to nibble the bits of dried squid along with a cup of warm sake... These guys were soooo big though. I saw them again the next day, and they had turned golden brown. They got a nice tan.... kawaisooo.

Japanese Chinese Food

My dad's favorite restaurant near my house in Nerima, Tokyo. The seafood dish is super fresh. The scrambled egg white is nice and fluffy.

This cold egg noodle plate is one of my favorite summer specials. Homemade noodle topped with fresh seafood, cucumber, tomato and chicken breast. The soup is sweet, tangy and spicy.

Another cold noodle with spicy chicken salad on top! The nutty flavor is a mixture of roasted peanuts and sesame seeds. It comes with the sweet, tangy spicy soup and you can pour it over if you like.

corned beef special

just discovered a new NY style deli, Herschel's, in the reading terminal market. the sandwiches aren't as enormous as 4th street but the corned beef and brisket were delicious!

Herschel's
Reading Terminal Market
12th and Arch Streets
Philadelphia

toilet fries?

this crazy mural of a potato-head man filling a toilet with fries is from a wild go-kart and 'native american' themed miniature golf course in collegeville,pa. also has a giant ice cream cone, giant dinosaurs, junked cars, crap everywhere. my digital camera bit the dust while I was shooting this stuff, so most of these are cel phone photos.







collegeville pit stop limited
3960 germantown Pike
collegeville PA 19426

Small Foods vs. Fatty Glory

I read in the NY times that the world is retaliating from the small food trend. Large plates of overwhelming fatty food were going to come back with avengence and California clean cuisin will die in it's oily spit. With steakhouses opening everywhere and Momofuku Ramen serving sweetmeats or delicious parts of pig from Mario Battali, I await the rest of the world getting awashed with this food tide. Soon maybe we'll be spreading marrow on our toast. I can't wait.

Untill then though, I will ohh and ahh over tiny meticulously plated cute food.

Here are some shots from super hip *Bar Ferdinand.










A delicious cheese plate with quince cubes, tuna croquettes, charred watermelon with prosuitto, delicious brussel sprouts, asparagus flan and the most delicious tomato salad. The dessert flan was okay, but who can argue with flan ever? We had churros too but I prefer the ones at **Apamate.

* inspired by the most beautifully well illustrated childrens book of a bull who would rather smell flowers then fight. ( as I wipe a tear from my eye thinking about it)

Bar Ferdinand
1030 N 2nd St
Philadelphia, PA 19123

**Most delicious and well priced small plated food in the city.

Apamate
1620 South St
Philadelphia, PA 19146
(215) 790-1620