Jerk Chicken from Gigi & Big R

All weekend I'd been working on this soul food cover for Philadelphia Weekly, drawing and looking at pictures of fried shrimp, wings, catfish, macaroni and cheese and various forms of chicken, and thinking a lot about Carribean food and fish hoagies, and realizing that there's a TON of soul food spots way out west and north that nobody ever writes about in all those "best fried chicken" articles.

So the other day I was in West Philly and thought I'd check out some food trucks, but it was late and everything was closed.. except for Gigi and Big R off on a dark side street near 30th street station. Super awesome jerk chicken, insanely flavorful but not crazy spicy.. dirty pile of rice & beans soaked through with jerk juice. Delicious.

There's a reason they beat out all the hipster trucks at the Vendy Awards and also these guys are open 7 days a week and LATE I think until 9 or maybe even 11?

Chef Volas

James-Beard award winning, "secret" Atlantic City Italian-American restaurant in someone's basement. This and Mr Joe's Cafe are so far my favorite "red gravy" spots in the Philadelphia area. 

great bread

romaine, pepperoni, croutons, pepperoncini

penne, bolognese

spaghetti, blush sauce 

The pasta is awesome here, super super simple like shucked & chopped to order clams with butter and parsley. Love it.

broccoli rabe

Giant pounded and breaded veal and chicken parm. This is a half order. Whole fish Puttanesca style specials sounded good too. Everything is huge here so you can share and it's 10 times more affordable than you thought. BYOB and maybe the best service of all time.

limoncello

frank's banana cream pie

Don't miss the limoncello cream pie or the banana cream that supposedly Frank Sinatra had delivered to his dressing room after every show in AC.

  

Why anyone would go to an Asian-fusion slider restaurant full of people wearing designer ultimate fighting clothes, or pay thirty dollars for food poisoning at a buffet (the other dining options in Atlantic City) instead of coming here boggles my mind. 

 chefvolas.com

Zeps from Eve's Lunch

A Sandwich A Day: Zep from Eve's Lunch in Norristown, PA - on Serious Eats.

Moe's Hot Dogs still Delicious

Stopped into Moe's for the first time in a while! This a 2-alarm Engine 47 (deep fried) with pepper hash and spicy mustard.

Always forget that they do deep fried hot dogs..definitely the way to go here since the other option is steamed. Yes they serve the dogs on big hoagie rolls which I'm not really into but willing to overlook since Moe's is otherwise awesome.

Max's Cheesesteaks

I've been driving past this cheesesteak spot smack in the middle of North Philly Time Square (Broad & Erie) for years and finally got it together a few months ago when we were doing the Best Cheesesteak thing for Serious Eats. Max's didn't make the cut for Serious Eats but this place is really one of a kind.

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.

Hoagies & Zeps from Pudge's in Blue Bell

So my dad wanted to have an "East Norriton Birthday" the other week which meant tomato pie from Corropolese (apparently my father has been going to Corropolese for 30 years, but I never heard about it because my mother says it tastes like "ketchup on wonder bread") and hoagies from Pudge's.


If you remember the post on Spor's in Trumbauersville you'll understand my parents are the kings of secret small town PA food spots. When I tell them about some place I read about "on-line" they usually say "Oh yeah we've been going there since before you were born".


So... what the hell is a Zep you ask? A regional subgenre of hoagie found mostly in Norristown. At some places or to simple people it's just another name for a Hoagie.

A classic Zep has thick sliced pinkish cooked salami (think bologna with peppercorns) and mild provolone on a roll from Conshohocken Bakery that's sometimes wider and flatter than a Philly hoagie roll. One of the signatures of the Zep is NO LETTUCE and lots of onion, some tomato, oregano, and maybe hot pepper spread.


Another rule of the Zep is only one meat. You can get a turkey zep or cheesesteak zep or chicken salad zep but if there's more than one meat (or lettuce) it becomes a "special" or a hoagie, depending on where you are.

I have yet to hit the legendary Eve's Lunch or Lou's Lunch one or both of which invented the Zep. But the one pictured above from Pudge's was damn good. The cooked salami is really different and more refreshing, reminded me more of a White House sub or Lee's hoagie than the salty meats, sharp provolone and crusty rolls of Philadelphia Hoagies. They use the authentic Conshohocken Bakery rolls - softer than a seeded italian, but sturdier than a squishy steak roll, and delicious.



Also tried a turkey hoagie and the "Ultimate Italian" (genoa salami, proscuitto, sopresatta and sharp prov) which was more like the Philly sandwiches I'm used to. Good stuff and it's got me ready to go on a Zep tour of Norristown.

Pudge's
1510 Dekalb Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422-3300
pudgescheesesteaks.com

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

More Philly Sandwich Madness - Navy Yard Dinic's, Porky's Point and Bizini's Seafood Steaks and Hoagies.

The last (for now) in a series of crazy Philadelphia sandwich posts for Serious Eats, we did Hoagies and Cheesesteaks a couple weeks ago and this time it's Roast Pork, Cutlets, and all the rest. You can read the real thing on Serious Eats - this is basically just an excuse to post more pictures.



Starting off with the best - Dinic's in the Navy Yard made some of the most delicious sandwiches of the 40+ places we tried over the last couple of months. Not "the best" as in "I don't know what else to write" or "I'm saying it's better than everything else because it's really obscure" but actually THE BEST.


Hard to compare with John's Roast Pork or Nick's Roast Beef's Pork (also in the article) because the pork we had was pulled rather than sliced. Definitely better than Dinic's in the Reading Terminal and even Porky's Point that I want to be the best because it's so freaking cool.


Speaking of Porky's Point this place is incredible, I first went there last year with the amazing Rose Luardo to shoot some video of us eating pigs ears. The owner / manager was nice enough to hang out and tell us the history of the place, which in the 70's was a regular cheesesteak and roast pork stand in what was then an Italian neighborhood. When the area went Puerto Rican instead of getting bitter and racist they changed the menu.



The Roast Pork on the sandwich is the same they put on the classic PR platter with rice and beans and whatever else. Ask for the sandwich covered in "gravy" which is the slightly spicy red sauce they put on everything. It's terrific.


And seriously try some mofungo and pig's ears too... so good.


Another awesome find was Bizini's. If you read this blog often you're probably aware of my obsession with Fish Hoagies. I've been trying to find some really good ones and Bizini's is up there. Most I've had have been relatively small, flat filets but these were thick, dinner sized portions of perfectly fried, fresh flounder. Insane. If we do another one of these slideshows I'd love to do all fish hoagies.





Read more on Serious Eats.
Philadelphia: Roast Pork, Cutlets, Meatballs and More Sandwiches You Should Eat