Dakar, Senegal

Local beer in Dakar,

THE BEST french fries with anchovy sauce,

and super yummy local fish topped with tangy salsa and a side of seasoned rice.

Most of the restaurants i got to go in Dakar were beautifully decorated with a pile of fruits as such. Not to mention those tall handsome bartenders... So yummy.


AND...
I was so lucky enough to be invited by a local family on a small island called Goree, and the big mama cooked this amazing (gigantic) plate of what's similar to paella. The dish was big enough to feed 8 of us little Japanese people. I think it was the best chicken I had ever had in my life. (I can call these chickens and goats grew in their backyard "truely" organic.)

and Yes, i would go back to Dakar again anytime for that plate of paella.

Please find more pictures of Africa on my blog

Southwark

How did I ever miss eating at Southwark?

Is it because it's been there forever? Is it because it gets overshadowed by the 4rth Street Famous Deli? Is it because I get a hankering for Coquettes pate whenever I'm in that area or The Royal Tavern's Nachos?

I dunno but I'm an idiot because this place is a winner on all accounts.

I greatly admire a damned good bartender and service. Anyone who can make a good cocktail, be knowledgable about your food and can do it with casual attentiveness and wit gets all my money. We got drinks we normally never get because no one knows how to make them well anymore. Like a hot toddy with a lemon spiked with cloves and just a hint of honey. Or a an old fashion, if anyone gets the gin fizz please let me know how it is.

The food is no less awesome. A farmers cheeseplate that made me tear and desserts that made me want to give up a first born.

All this wrapped up in the most beautiful old dark wood bar with the always flattering type of bar lighting.

Southwark
701 S Fourth St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 238-1888

DairyLand

When you live on the west coast, things like Dairyland just don't exist. Maybe that's why I stick it out through the rough winters and humid summers of Philly, for the random discoveries of things like Dairyland.

I mean you can get a Snyder's Pretzal cone ( I know I know I was kicking myself for not getting one......) You can get 2 hot dogs and an ice cream for under 3 bucks. You can get soft serve, turkey chili, hard pack ice cream, a handmade chipwich and a malted milkshake. Oh and it's a drive-thru, with handwritten menus, and it's next to the drive thru beer distributer!

Seriously this is just the beginning of sunny days and places like this.

Aprons

I was going up to Germantown for work and I had asked our friend Nicole where to have lunch, since Germantown was her hood. She immediately reccommended Aprons. Which is Italian and Soul Food. Living in South Philly made me opt for the soul food option of the menu. I've learned that normally you can't do 2 things equally well, ones gotta be better.

The food was delicious, and everything was done really friendly and laid back. Sometimes a little too laid back since we we're in a hurry to get on with our work trip, but it was Friday.

I got the fried catfish which was delcious, fresh tasting, breaded in cornflour, and was light and crispy and not at all oily. And all the sides, especially the fried corn, was delicious!

And the aprons ice tea tasted like a rasberry cocktail.

Aprons
5946 Germantown Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19144
(215) 843-5080

Champagne and Coffee

My friend Caroline just started a new blog, champagne and coffee
opening with some great posts of San Diego mexican food.

Tijuana hot dogs with bacon and jalepenos?
Sounds fantastic.

IN -N-OUT Burger

So I was just in San Francisco for a fun little weekender. Now San Francisco is a total foodie town, I am sure there is much better food to have been had in North Beach. However, we all just wanted something bad, yet oh soooo good. IN-N-OUT burger is a staple of the west coast. A Double-Double (double meat/double cheese) is nothing short of magic. Make it "animal style" and you have created one of the best burgers, with every fixin imaginable, from pickles to special sauce. You can only eat here maybe 1-3 times a year, but that is about how often I get out to the West coast. Now off to the treadmill.

Japan Pizza Hut

Found this on flickr, possibly the most amazing pizza of all time. 1/2 mini hamburgers with corn and green peas, 1/2 tomatoes, 1/2 sausage and bacon roll crust with fruity ketchup, 1/2 cheesy rolls crust with maple honey syrup?? I would go all the way to japan just to eat this. If pizza hut had this kind of thing here I would eat there ALL THE TIME!!

Difara's Pizzeria

So to add on to the recent pizza posts. I hearby claim to have found the best pizza in my life. Thanks to master of the Brooklyn pie, Domenico Difara. Difara's is a tiny shop on Avenue J + E 15th St. in Brooklyn. Difara is a legend first off and won't let anyone touch his pies but him. His son may get to slice ingredients, but thats all. Domenico has pure asbesto's hands, no gloves, he just pulls the hot pizza pan or pie right out of the ovens. If he is sick or tired, they close, no one runs this shop but him. Honest to God, this pizza can ruin you. Nothing will compare for a while. All the ingredients are imported, three cheese per, and Dom snips the fresh basil over each pie. It is utterly amazing and mezmerizing to watch this man work. Totally worth any drive, wait, you may have to endure.

GET THERE.

Difara Pizzeria
1424 Avenue J
(corner of East 15th St.)
Brooklyn NY 11230
Tel: 7182581367

Meat Loaf

Remember your Aunt Brenda's meat loaf that was made of leftover ground beef, tomato paste, canned mushroom soup and those creepy fried onion sticks? Slathered with ketchup and served with a delicious vegetable medley straight from the 3 for a dollar section of the grocery store freezer?

Well things don't have to be that way. unless you're really nostalgic for biting into dry beef with giant chunks of green pepper and peas in it.

Get some sausage in there, ricotta cheese, wrap it in pancetta, hell you could make BBQ chicken meat loaf, cheesesteak meat loaf with whiz all over it, mexican meat loaf wrapped in tortillas and deep fried (uh.. let me know if this works)... It's just as easy as Aunt Brenda's. Basically mix some meat & junk together, mold it into a brick and put it in the oven. Just make sure there's some good stuff in there to keep it moist & delicious -eggs, milk, panko breadcrumbs, cheese, foie gras, fatback, whatever.

Serve that with a salad and you're good to go. Wedge of lettuce chopped into quarters with some herbs & stuff thrown on top, olive oil & lemon juice. salt.
Easy.

Jumbo Pie

The horrible truth is that while I blog about obscure sandwich shops and lamb brains mostly I just eat pizza. Often from Lazaros which is literally two blocks from my apartment. It's your average pizza joint, calzones, steaks, cheese fries, and above average salads. We ordered the "Jumbo" pizza one day and god damn this thing was huge. The box barely fit up my stairwell. Also hot & fresh since they are only two blocks away.

Lazaro's Pizza
1743 South St

Modern Apizza - New Haven CT

The debate over best pizza in the Northeast is as hot as the ovens they are cooked in. The exception to the rule of best pizza that normally is given to the large thin crusted slices in New York is oddly enough. New Haven, Connecticut. For a long time I have been meaning to get to the legends of pizza in New Haven. I have been to BAR, a great spot with pitchers and amazing thin crusted pizza that still reigns as the best I have ever eaten. Frank Pepe is considered the Godfather of New Haven pizza and also a legend for inventing the White Clam Pie due to his own allergic reaction to mozzarella and tomato sauce. Pepe’s, Sally’s and Modern Apizza are the top three from all reports in New Haven. So on Friday night two friends and I were driving North and decided to make a stop off at Modern.

Modern is a pretty normal looking pizza spot, booths line the walls and pitchers of beer are no problem. We ordered a large half sausage, half cheese and a small clam pie. The pizza was just as it should have been, gooey and with crispy thin crust. The sausage was soft and sweet and the clam pie had perfect cubes of roasted garlic and was served with lemon wedges. Yes, a squeeze of lemon set it off perfectly.

Pair it all up with a nice lager and this meal ranks up there in the pizza books. New York or New Haven…well, I can’t confirm better. But its all good.

Hawk cooks for adults

We had a spur of the moment dinner party because Hawk had a day off. So instead of getting paid to cook at his job, he cooked for us for free. Poor guy.

It was amazing of course. Cheese plate with a crazy blue cheese from Spain that had the most acidic bite! And of course Hawk concocted his own Fig, Ginger, Dijon spread to go with it. We also had fresh pizzas and Hawk made the dough from scratch! He made a chorizo tomato sauce and we had a chorizo mussel pizza, and he made fresh pesto with brussel sprouts for the other pizza. But no it didn't end there, we still had salad, couscous, and chorizo braised Chicken. Oh and the best damned fennel lentil salad I ever set my lips upon.

Delicious.

Best Donuts

A friend of mine was in massachusetts recently and brought back a few dozen of the best donuts I've ever had in my life. They're as big as a giant hamburger, and stuffed with insane amounts of filling. Made fresh every day at Atkins Farms country market in South Amherst, massachusetts. Apparently they are famous for their apple cider and "cider donuts" that I have yet to try. They have their own apple orchard so it's all fresh and for real.






Atkins Farms Country Market
Rt 116 & Bay RD
South Amherst, MA 01002

atkinsfarms.com

Forgive me!

I've been working furiously on my solo show in Febuary for Vagabond and I haven't been food blogging!

I apologize!

But please come to the show if you get a chance!

"You Folks" solo show by Kris Chau
Opening Feb 8, 2nd Friday
Feb 8 - March 2
vagabond boutique
37 n. 3rd st.
philadelphia, pa 19106

flaming culo hot sauce

since the summer I've been freezing all the habanero and serrano peppers that were growing on my roof, in anticipation of my second annual holiday hot sauce.

this year i went with a more traditional formula - last year i was messing around with coffee and molasses and whatever, it was good but not too hot.

the hot sauce that you buy in the store is usually fermented, they make a "mash" of hot peppers and vinegar and let it age in oak barrels for months.

having neither oak barrels or time, I opted for cooking my hot sauce which worked out great but my apartment was like a habanero gas chamber for the next two weeks, and my hands burned for about 2 days (gloves? what's a glove??)

flaming culo hot sauce

• shallots, garlic, ginger, vidalia onions, carrots


• habanero, serrano, red bell peppers


• apple cider vinegar


• white vinegar


• salt, sugar

Melrose Diner

I admit parts of South Philly are a little on the ugly side. Especially when it's cold and wet like it has been lately it's hard to find anything charming when its all kind of awash in grey. 

But amoungst these grey streets resides the Melrose Diner. Diners are never a disappointment, especially 24 hour diners. The Melrose already looks cool before you go in, with it's giant coffee cup sign on the outside. 

I went there for brunch and I was expecting some morning South Philly sass from my waitresses. Yes, they we're crazy ( I accidently got 3 checks?) but really really nice, like you'll always be "hey hon" nice. 

The food was regular diner food ( I will review cakes next time, which they are famous for) and came in the greatest dishware, of pink and white "toile". 

I plan on being a regular already.

Melrose Diner
1501 Snyder Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19145-3092
Phone: (215) 467-6644

Breakfast with Brielle

It was just really nice.

Vietnamese Deli

Vietnamese delis are great. Vietnamese hoagies to go, vietnamese coffees sitting and waiting for you to pick up and stir up the condensed milk at the bottom, and yummy strange jelly desserts for the taking.

I finally found one in Philly that I really enjoy. That's super nice and makes a great vietnamese hoagie and its only 3 bucks. They make there own mayonnaise which I also really enjoy. I picked up bbq beef, summer rolls, and this mochi rice dessert that's in this sweet ginger sauce and you pour coconut milk all over it. It wasn't as good as my grandma's but it was close enough. 

cheap and super good!

Nam Phoung ( in the supermarket corner of 16th and Washington )

1601 Washington Ave.