Drawing for Food Best of Philly 2008

Chau illustrated my picks and vice versa. enjoy.

Best Reason to Wake up in South Philly - Artisan Boulangerie
Artisan Boulangerie aka Andre's - In this strange Pink building across from the mexican taqueria, that's across from the Cantina, is Paris. Fresh baked baguettes and brioches and the best damned croissants in the city, I say this with passion and a little bit of spit. Also as if having the best croissants weren't enough, Andre happens to also have the best coffee in South Philly, because its french pressed fresh and it's make with the best fair trade organic ethiopian beans. He also makes a lot of the bread goods for Honey's and Di Bruno Bros. All that and he doesn’t even have a register yet. (kc)

Andre's
1648 South 12th St

Best weird diner that you've walked past 400 times and never knew it was there - Pinky's NY Cafe
This place never looks like it's open, and well, sometimes it's not. It really is comforting in a neighborhood full of rapid gentrification that those little places where the same 400 pound septa driver sits in the corner and reads the paper and complains about the eagles every single day still exist.

Pinky's is exactly that, dark and pink and packed with hospital staff and construction guys getting take out. The wait for food can be long in the morning but it's actually really good. The staff is friendly including "pinky" himself who I think is the original owner. Plus they have creamed chip beef on toast and grits so I'm sold. For lunch they have ny style deli sandwiches named after celebrities. Seems that 30 years ago in philadelphia the thing to do was open up a combination philly/ ny diner/jewish deli where we get things like pastrami omelettes with a side of scrapple.(hk)

Pinky's
1824 South St



Best Donuts - Frangelli's Donuts
Frangelli's Donuts, Fresh Italian Cream pumped before your eyes with an old fashion hand pump!? I will never lay another hand on a Dunkin' Donuts Donut. (kc)

Frangelli's
847 W Ritner St


Best quaint atmosphere that isn't annoying-
Cafe Con Chocolate
Very welcoming staff, in a an actual sincere real human being way, maybe because they're in the ghetto and need customers, get in there before it's full of yuppies like every place in my neighborhood (graduate hospital). Great huevos rancheros, and great coffee that comes in big giant mugs with delicious froth. Don't let the bagels & japanese specials throw you off, the mexican stuff is as authentic as anywhere else, plus they have a mariachi band. (hk)

Cafe Con Chocolate
2100 S. norwood (at snyder)



Best Burger - 5 Guys and Fries
5 guys and Fries, I crave you like a bad ex-boyfriend. I love a fancy pub/restaurant burger, but what is it about this greasy bag full of fries and smoshy double patty burger that makes me sweat with anticipation.(kc)

5 guys
1527 Chestnut



Best Hot Dogs - A.P.J. Texas Wiener Restaurant
APJ wins for pure atmosphere, the unique taste of the dog, the "greek sauce", and the fact that it's the last standing piece of history from what used to be philadelphia's red light district. They've been there since 1920 - should probably be a historical landmark, god forbid they lose their lease and we end up with a panera bread or something. APJ also splits their dogs (like my mom used to do) which creates more surface for sauce. They also do breakfast. Moe's in grey's ferry is close second, I love them for taking the hot dog seriously, but their hot dogs are really huge, and on giant rolls, it's like eating a meatball sandwich, and honestly I actually prefer a regular sized hot dog, so you can eat 2 or 3 or 4 with different toppings. Texas Weiners on snyder is solid as well. (hk)

APJ- 47 N 13th Street (near filbert)
Moe's - 2601 washington ave (at grays ferry ave)
Texas Weiner - 1426 snyder ave (near broad)



Best Square Pizza/Delivery Pizza - La Rosa!
I admit, I live in South Philly, it's hard to come across bad pizza and when you do, it's really really sad. But this little gem on Broad St. is the best square pizza in Philadelphia. Not too thick, not quite a sicilian and a crunchy crust. And a plain is still 7 bucks for pizza that feeds 3 bellies till its full. They don't even have a menu, you just tell the family what you want and they will let you know if they can make it. (kc)

La Rosa
2106 S Broad St
(215) 271-5246



Best Hoagie - Cosmi's
I love cheesesteaks, but I really think a a good hoagie is the defining philadelphia sandwich. I eat a lot of mediocre sandwiches because most of the good stuff is down in south philly. Most pizza place hoagies are pretty boring, usually too many pickles or cheap meat or peppers with the stem still on them or something. The worst is the soggy bread that falls apart because they put 1/2 a gallon of vinegar on it. And then there's Wawa, Wawa hoagies are junk; stale bread, sweaty cheese, sketchy cold cuts, way too much mayonnaise - there's no reason to eat that in this city.

Cosmi's sandwiches are always piled high with quality meat and good seeded italian bread (I assume it's sarcones, if not sarcones has some competition). Everyone always picks sarcones, chickie's, primo as the best in philly, maybe for location or atmosphere but I honestly think Cosmi's is the king. I've had many, many Cosmi's sandwiches and they're always fantastic with the perfect balance of bread / meat / cheese / toppings and they have the serious italian stuff- prosciutto, mortadella, sopresetta, pepper shooters, etc -from a place that just looks like a corner store.(hk)

Cosmi's
1501 S 8th St.



Best Bar Snacks - Pub and Kitchen
For 3 bucks I normally can't get duck liver toast with cornichons, or home made malt vinegar crisps. Which is a shame, because having this just makes me want to drink more.(kc)

Pub and Kitchen
1946 Lombard



Best Mexican - El Jorocho
I used to eat here all the time a couple of years ago and it was always good, but now it's amazing. Stopped in the other night and the menu has expanded with all kinds of amazing stuff, Tripe tacos, Barbecued Lamb, Soups, 74 different mexican breakfasts, cemitas (mexican sandwiches kind of like a cuban). They seem to have re-arranged the dining room and expanded the kitchen, it was also busier than I remembered and the food was great. This place is the real deal and I just found out they deliver so get ready for 2009 to be the year of El Jorocho.(hk)

El Jorocho
13th & Ellsworth


Best Sangria - Amada
Damn Amada, you make everything great. Like Cheese dipped in Cheese. But for this round, I'm giving you the sangria crown. I don't know if the fruit is soaked in vanilla or cinnamon or something, but nothing is more smooth and exotic tasting than Amada's House sangria. And I love all things served in a ceramic pitcher. (kc)

Amada
217 Chestnut St.


Best Sorbet - Southwark
Southwark, reknown for their excellent service and bartenders who make a well crafted drink, have my favorite sorbet in the city. I'm not a sorbet getting' gal either. Why go for icy water when you can have some kind of chocolatey sticky thing. But this sorbet, which changes daily, can be anything from cranberry champagne to orange Compari. It's always refreshing and surprisingly satisfying.(kc)

Southwark
701 S 4th St.



Best stuff we haven't eaten yet

Khyber
apparently they serve food now,including a chicken fried steak sandwich with sausage gravy, sounds awesome.
56 S. 2nd St.

Taco Truck
you know it's gotta be good.
4th & Washington

ansill

so I worked with a guy who used to cook at Ansill and always told me that I needed to eat here, especially being a fan of "head to tail" eating. I finally made it and it was fantastic - the food is actually not as crazy as some might have you believe, most of the "offal" dishes are pretty classic and really delicious. steak tartar with cognac, awesome; crispy pork trotter with pickled red onions and purple mustard, really really good.

The trotters (pigs feet) are braised, then the meat is pulled off, mixed with secret ingredients and formed into a sausage shape, cooled and sliced into medallions, then breaded with egg & panko bread crumbs and pan fried.

also had bone marrow on toast and baked eggs with black truffle & porcini mushrooms (wow). my only complaint is that every dish was "garnished" with a giant stack of bread-we ordered almost all appetizers so i guess that's my fault. Anyhow the food is incredible, especially for the price and they are byob (no fee) on tuesdays. also bar menu until 1am all week, which is sort of unheard of for this kind of food in philadelphia.
Ansill
627 S 3rd St

New Bowls

New Year New bowls, and dishes suddenly look different.

Here we have a roasted chicken salad, and then Green Coconut Curry with Soba noodles.

Barrette Beer Dinner - Dec 18th

Who agrees to cook for 40+ people on their 29th birthday for a 3 course beer tasting? I do.

I was recently asked to plan and cook for Barrette's monthly Beer Dinner. Barrette is a local bar at Vanderbilt and Bergen in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Friend and owner Erica was impressed by my Thanksgiving crockery and asked me to plan the next one. The brewery of the night was Pennsylvania Brewing Company. We met up with their representative and tasted a few flights to pair the courses. The one request was that the menu be style toward German food.

I however, do not cook German food, not often, not really ever. Have I ever made a Spaetzle? No. So I tapped a very good friend and culinary school grad to help me out.

Our decision was to make it semi-authentic, but not break out the sauerkraut.

Appetizer.
German Beer Cheese Soup and Homemade Soft Pretzels. Paired with Penn Pilsner.
This came out really great - The soft pretzels were delicious and a perfect dunkable addition to the thick cheddar soup.

Main.
Pork Tenderloins wrapped in apple, fresh sage and bacon. Red Cabbage and Caraway, and German Potato Salad. Paired with Penn Dark Lager.

The tenderloin came out perfectly. Who doesnt want pork wrapped in more pork? The sweetness of the apple and the herbacious sage complimented. Over the pork we had simmered down apples, maple syrup and lots of cinnamon into a sweet and delicious sauce.

Dessert.
NY is a little cupcake crazy. So we decided to join the ranks with a (not at all German) but mistakenly so Texas Sized German Chocolate Cupcake.

The cake was amazing, tangy from the buttermilk and just enough sweetness. The frosting was overboard. oooey, gooey, and dripping over the sides. So rich and delicious. - Paired with Penn Bach - dark and malty.

The reviews were fantastic, everyone had a great time and left full. I turned 29.

fruitcake

I made fruitcake, and it wasn't horrible.
also discovered that "nuts to you" - 20th & chestnut - is awesome.

divan turkish kitchen

right along the gentrification frontier at 22nd & carpenter. went on the friday after christmas and there was almost nobody there so I was a little worried. but the food was fantastic. sorry forgot my camera so you get drawings.

had some crispy fried calf's liver that was delicious, and grilled lamb that a little bit strangely came with flour tortillas as the "flatbread" but whatever it was great. the lamb and beef dumplings were almost like raviolis, in tomato sauce and a yogurt mint white sauce which also seemed a little wierd at first but we were ready to lick the plate clean at the end.

it's also BYOB but with a $10 corking fee (ouch). they have some turkish beer & wine which seems to be the way to go.

divan turkish kitchen
22nd & carpenter

Drawing for Food

This is a delayed posting, but for Drawing for Food's Birthday Hawk cooked dinner for our friends. This included the best celery root soup I ever had, pressed cuban sandwiches, pork tacos with homemade everything, and my new obsession with truffle honey.

what I really eat

believe it or not I was a vegetarian for 5 or 6 years and have much experience in the way of rice & beans.
when I don't have a lot of time or money this is still my staple meal.

I usually keep some pork chops or chicken thighs (dirt cheap) in the freezer, defrost in the microwave and sear in the pan. pull it out, throw in some bacon or chorizo (or not), whatever vegetables are rolling around in the bottom of the fridge - onions, peppers, celery, throw in the rice and toast it a second, maybe add some tomato paste if there's any.

Deglaze with miller lite or box wine or leftover coffee..throw your chicken back in there and a can of beans.. fill the rest with stock or water. Throw in a bay leaf or herbs if you got 'em. (This is a great time to get rid of almost rotten $12 herbs you bought at whole foods for something you never even made) The chicken thigh or leg should be done the same time as the rice as long as you don't use anything too big.

And it's even better the next morning with tortillas and eggs for breakfast. I could eat this every day for the rest of my life.

frog legs

the last place we ate in paris was a tiny rustic looking bistro hidden on a dark alley complete with pictures of old french butchers and pots hanging from the ceiling. they specialize in frog legs.. which I know apparently the french don't really eat but whatever they were delicious, like french chicken wings.







actually everything here was delicious especially the pumpkin soup with foie gras, mixed green salad with goat cheese brik, scallops with truffled potatoes, braised pork. nothing insane just simple and delicious and well made if not a little touristy with the toulouse letrec poster reprints everywhere.

walking around the latin quarter area at night half drunk is pretty incredible, the streets are lined with dudes making crepes and cases full of sandwiches and bars with secret underground caves where beer is 2 euros but coca cola is 6.

roger la grenouille
26-28 rue des grands augustines
left bank/latin quarter, paris

french street food

Being in paris I felt obligated to go into restaurants, but honestly I could have been happy eating nothing but street food the whole time I was there. the streets and alleys are lined with gleaming cases of sandwiches, spinning greek gryo meat, pastries, seafood, crepes, rotisserie chickens, even hot dog and cheesesteak baguettes. I seriously don't know who the hell eats all of this food.

One place even had a huge cornocopia of shellfish just sitting in front of the restaurant. Lobsters, open oysters, shrimp, etc... I thought it was fake but they were real, just sitting out in the street. Here they would either get eaten by bums or shut down by the health department.

breakfast in paris

Breakfast in france usually means a croissant and some coffee. which is great but if you're a filthy american like me you want a giant plate with eggs and a few varieties of meat all cooked in fat along with your bread. So I was happy to find a little tobacco/lottery stand a few blocks from our hotel proudly advertising "petit dejeuner" including "fried ham and eggs".

Past the old french guys smoking and drinking beer at 10 oclock in the morning were a few tables. We sat down and ordered some coffee and croque madam sandwiches which if you dont know is a grilled/toasted/warm ham and cheese sandwich with an egg on top and sometimes bechamel sauce.

The guy at the counter took a big swig of wine and walked into the back to cook up our sandwiches, which were damn good. nothing fancy just good french ham slathered with cheese & topped with fried eggs. and even a little side salad.. pretty awesome for a newsstand full of smoking drunks. Oh and the coffee in france is better than anything else, I dont know why, maybe it's in the water or something, even the stuff that comes out of vending machines tastes like magic.

Korea

In a world where you can shop all nite and the exchange rate is really good, Korea is my new favorite place in Asia. Don't get me wrong, the Japanese are good at snacks and the chinese have good dim sum, but nothing sat better in my stomach than a bowl of rice and kimchee and ginseng honey tea.

Plus where else will you find an apple carved like a cup, filled with fresh apple juice and sochu?

I learned that Duk Bok Gi, rice cakes, were my favorite snacks. And that only really fresh kim chee is served with Mandoo. I also sadly learned that homemade kimchee is a dying art because it costs too much to make it at home.

Bistro La Minette

I popped into La Minette for just a taster of this new french bistro, in an already populated french corner of South Philly.

It was everything I like about eating out. From the high backed red bench that lined the wall to the ceramic jugs that held the wine. High Fives, or as Brielle described our sorbet "Best".

This little corner of South Philly might have stolen my heart for the time being, with Southwark, Coquette, La Minette, and Beau Monde all in 2 minutes of each other.

Bistrot La Minette