Indonesia

So I couldn't eat at an Indonesian restaurant and not try the durian juice. Durian is a southeast asian fruit that smells sort of like raw sewage but a delicacy for some. The waiter didn't want me to order it.

The drink was ice cold and thick like a milkshake, and in the words of one of my friends, "smelled like rotten peach juice strained through a diaper full of dirty cat litter". It does have a very distinct, sort of ammonia-sulphur odor, but the weird thing is when you drink it, it's sweet and smooth but pungent at the same time. It sort of gives you a rush, and then you drink more.

Anyway the food is really simple and delicious. Spicy chicken soup, coconut beef, fried banana, chicken satay, pork and shrimp noodle with egg, all served family style with sides of blistering hot sauce. Lots of other stuff on the menu I 'll have to try soon - coconut milk marinated fried chicken, oxfeet tendon soup, lots of frog and lamb.

Great, friendly service, we got a history on the properties of durian (apparently good for "romance", and in the winter to warm you up) and $40 total for three people, amazing.

Indonesia
1725 Snyder
Closed Monday

Goodburger

Being half drunk at 3 in the afternoon on a thursday, what's better than eating a giant burger in the sun on chestnut street? The decor at Goodburger is sort of a strange Qdoba meets Nightclub vibe complete with blaring dance music. But the burgers make up for it- bigger than a flat, miserable fast food patty but smaller and more manageable than the super fat restaurant burgers that put you to sleep. And lots of free toppings- crispy onions, pickles, all that jazz.

Earlier this year we crowned 5 Guys with "Best Burger" but Goodburger is a close second.The fries were decent and come with a mayo / remoulade deal which is nice, but nowhere near the perfection of 5 guys super crispy peanut-oil brown bag fries. But then Goodburger has beer and wine.

It's sort of unfortunate that the burger market in Philadelphia is already oversaturated. If someone could combine the two, add blue cheese & fried eggs to the topping list, keep the 5 guys fries, replace the club atmosphere with diner booths, keep the booze and put it somewhere that isn't center city, open 24 hours, and not be a chain, that place would win best burger of 2009.

Goodburger
1725 Chestnut

little pete's best reuben

Little pete's is probably my favorite restaurant atmosphere in the city, if it ever closes I might have to move. Awesome staff, big greasy photos of the food on the wall, a tiny kitchen packed with dudes rocking out to reggaeton on their ipods. Always the best mix of people and unapologetic diner fare.

No wraps, no seared tuna sliders, no veggie burgers.. no long winded explanation of the specials, just "whaddaya want", endless coffee and your plate of hot delicious food slammed dawn in front of you about 3 seconds after you order it. Steak fries right from the freezer into the fryer- delicious. And the reubens are the best in philadelphia, period. Ive never had a bad one. Milkshakes are huge and come in the ice cold steel cup.

Unfortunately the place was way too packed to sit down so we got take out but I just couldn't resist taking some shots of my reuben dripping with russian dressing, cheese and kraut. The only drawbacks are that If you do go at 2am, it's packed and there's usually some wasted jackass starting fights with everybody. Which can be funny until he throws a burger at you or something. They deliver 24 hours but to a very limited area.

To be honest I dont stray to far from my usual order and I'm tempted to take an adventure into their dinner specials one of these days - fried fish, liver & onions or chicken croquettes. Or maybe an "individual can of sardines" cold deli platter.

Little Pete's
219 S 17th St
Philadelphia 19103

Pearl's Oyster Bar

The family that works at Pearl's Oyster bar in the Reading Terminal is amazingly Philadelphia. When I ordered the homemade ice tea unsweetened, I recieved a shocking look from our waitress who said "Wha-? C'mon it's sweet tea? I mean whatever, get whatever you want"

So when the guy next to me ordered the ice tea she said "Sweetened? Yeah I thought so, that's what I would get"

The oysters came on ice with just paper cups of ketchup,lemons and a side of horseradish. 6 oysters for 8 bucks not bad.

Hello Amish Diner

If you can get to the Reading Terminal on Thursday or Friday (Saturday is too crowded) I highly reccommend having a leisurely lunch at the Amish Diner. Because you're in Pennsylvania! We may not have the best sushi or all nite Thai noodle bars, but darnit we've got the Pennsylvania Dutch! For 9 bucks I enjoyed a small sloppy joe platter, homemade lemonade and a fresh warm apple dumpling served with ice cold cream.

The sloppy joe tasted like it was made with maple and bacon, on a fresh potato roll. The fries were fried to order and were crisp and salty. The apple dumpling kept soaking in all the cream everytime I poured more into the bowl, it was fantastiche!

Zayda's Hot Pickles

My friend picked these up at Cosmi's along with some cheesesteaks and they are pretty much the best pickles of all time. Nice & crisp and HOT. Dibruno Brothers in center city also makes a decent bright green half sour.

So if you want to support philadelphia and eat the best pickles- there is no reason to buy a jar of brown, soggy corporate pickles ever again.

Izakaya by Katsu-ya

Los Angeles has great food. What I love about eating in LA is that the all food is very different from all the food in San Francisco. Both are excellent but something is very different about both.

While in LA we stopped into Izakaya by Katsu-ya, in West Hollywood. Run by sassy Japanese servers, it was filled with pretty people and an overall delicious experience.

But the best was the spicy tuna, topped with a tiny jalepeno on top of a little rectangle of crisped rice.

Izakaya by Katsu-ya
8420 W 3rd St
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Pabbit donuts

I can't ever turn down donuts. Anytime anyone does donuts as a dessert, I'm getting it. All forms of donuts count too, Beignets, Churros, Donuts, any type of fried fresh dessert.

Thanks Pub and Kitchen for making it happen, bourbon apples, fresh cinnamony donuts, and the best damned vanilla marshmallow creme dipping situation.

Pub and Kitchen
1946 Lombard St
Philadelphia, PA 19146

Melona Bars

I think one of Korea's greatest exports is the Melona bar, or as Tim calls it the Melanoma bar. This tastes almost just like a very sweet Honey Dew Melon. It's hard to imagine I know, but believe it's delicious,and the box rules?!! This is sold in pretty much every 7-11 in Hawaii so it was a normal snack for me after school.

So whenever we come back from visiting my parents, I get a craving.

Lucky for me there is an H-Mart on the way to the Cherry Hill Mall, where you can pick up this and a rice cooker that looks like an alarm clock.

H-Mart

K-Town

I've found myself in K-Town a lot recently.  OB beer, kimchi, awesome food served 24 hours, there are so many reasons.   I usually go late at night after getting off of work but I've found a new reason to go, one of the best lunch specials ever at Kun Jip.  For around $15 you get dolsot bibimbap (sizzling rice in a hot stone bowl with marinated slices of beef, vegetables and a raw egg yolk) and a bowl of  doen jang chigae (a spicy tofu and seafood soup) plus an amazing array of banchan.  The banchan is so good, kimchi (cabbage and diakon), dried and shredded squid with chili paste, pea shoots, a fantastic sweet and spicy pumpkin dish and an incredible egg custard.  

Kun Jip

9 West 32nd St.

New York, NY 10001

Borscht

I've never been a picky eater, even as I child I was pretty adventurous.  Raw oysters, rare steaks, I even remember eating turtle soup with my grandparents.  There is only one thing that I recall being really turned off by and that was borscht.  I think it had something about the bright fuchsia color and the old people connotations.   

During the snow storm last week I was looking through a Russian cookbook and decided it was time to give borscht another chance.  It turned out wonderfully, the combination of beets, cabbage and braised beef finished with sour cream and dill was perfect.  Nothing like the pink sludge of my childhood.

biscuits & gravy

the best hangover breakfast of all time - except maybe creamed chipped beef on toast, which is basically a philadelphia version of biscuits and gravy. It's really easy, all you need is sausage, flour, and milk or cream and some butter, maybe some hot sauce or garlic powder if you want to get fancy.

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.

Nick's Charcoal Pit

I don't know if I've blogged about this before but I LOVE Nick's Charcoal Pit. They deliver too, which I love. These photos just don't do the food justice, partly because Tim and I tried to demolish the food before I even thought about taking pictures. The ribs are awesome pork ribs, with there homemade BBQ sauce, which is tangy and vinegary. The wings are the WHOLE wing, so think twice before ordering 24 like I did once. The wings are just grilled and then tossed in the barbeque sauce. But everything has that really awesome charcoal smell, taste, and charred marks I love. The winner though is there onion rings, which were an unlikely awesome treat. They stuck to the batter and the had a good bite ( fresh onions ) and they arrived CRUNCHY!

Nick's Charcoal Pit
1242 Snyder Ave, Philadelphia 19148
(215) 271-3750

shoo-fly pie at the pope

The Pope, or 'Pub On Passyunk East' isn't really known for it's food. They have some decent wings and pierogies, and lots of great beer.

So when I stumbled over there in the snow a few weeks ago I was surprised to see this amazing sounding special - Lancaster Brewing Co. Shoo-Fly Porter with a slice of homemade shoo-fly pie. The waitress informed us that she grew up in amish country and made the pie from her great- grandmother's secret recipe or something. And god damn that delicious pie & shoo fly beer was right on.

Maybe it was the snow or the fact that I was already half drunk from some 14% alcohol belgian beer but I proclaimed it the best pie I've ever eaten and talked everyone else at the table into trying it.

Pub On Passyunk East
1501 East Passyunk Ave

v-day food porn

Filet mignon and shrimp, surf & turf style with bearnaise sauce, and cauliflower gratin made with goat cheese and
caciatta al tartufo (black truffle sheep's milk cheese).

Tim & Chau brought some fantastic apple pie (not sure where from?). The next day we had some with the leftover truffle cheese on top and holy god damn, somebody put that on a menu already.

Bacon Explosion

The article on the Bacon Explosion hit the NY Times last week.

So of course right before Super Bowl Sunday it was perfect timing. GO STEELERS!
I wavered back and forth on making this horrendous ode to all that is swine. I nearly caved to restraint, but then a challenge was brought forth by our pigskin watching host for last night's game. The Explosion must come!

This is not at all a hard thing to make. You just need to be comfortable with the feeling of immense amounts of pork fat between your fingers. Start by latice weaving an entire package of bacon. I added a spice rub once I finished. Then smear on top two packages or tubes of breakfast sausage. Don't go for italian, I just can't sanction it, the sage and sweetness of your normal tube of Jimmy Dean will suit just fine. Once that is done, sprinkle a large handful of crispy bacon bits on top. Then roll into your cylinder of hog.

I seared off the sides before finishing for about an hour in a 325 degree oven. I then glazed in Vermont Maple Syrup.

You can add any variation to this and as long as you dont sit down and eat the entire thing, you aren't doing any more damage than a couple of sausage patties.
It shouldn't be a regular thing, but it was worth doing once.

Barry is in the White House

Obama is known as Barry in Hawaii, which is pretty hilarious and awesome. The island was pretty darn proud when we got there during the inauguration. 

So here are some Hawaii institutions that require visiting, that are some of our new Presidents favorites. Or at least that what the article in the Star Bulletin had written.

As soon as we landed at home we went to Zippy's, and if you know anything about Hawaii, it's our state diner. My parents love this place, we've been going here since I was 3 feet tall. They are everywhere too, but not in a horrendous Starbucks kind of way. You can get any kind of local food, like a loco moco ( rice, eggs, spam, gravy) or some saimin ( like what my mom is slurping) but you can just get a hamburger and fries too. Here my brother, Tim and I all got the charbroiled teriyaki steak, my dad got oxtail stew ( with mash potatos) , and my mom got a saimin. 

Rainbow Drive-in is another such institution in Honolulu. Loco Moco's, yummy hamburgers and fries, pork long rice, it's basically amazing and has been here since before Hawaii was a state. 






Another thing that is really important to Hawaii and you really can't find anything to fill the void anywhere in the world is, Crackseed or Li Hing Mui. Which is a loose term describing strange salty sweet, dried fruits and seeds. To anyone else who isn't from Hawaii, Asian or not, you will just think its gross. Here is where I began my cravings for pickled mangos, Li Hing gummi bears and dried spicy cuttlefish. But unlike in Chinatowns across the world, something like this is just in the Malls of Hawaii, this is our candy shop. When I get really homesick I order these things onlne. But it's never the same as walking into a shop with these huge beautiful jars.

In case you need to order online.

Saturday Dinner - Hanger Steak with Roasted Pepper Sauce and Parsnip Mash

This is definitely one of my favorite dishes I have created. It's all very simple, but hearty and rich. A great cold winter night meal.

To start I blackened two fresh red bell peppers and combine with chopped garlic, onion, baby tomatoes and fresh thyme in a roasting pan with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roasting that down for about 45 minutes.

Next boiling off some parsnips in salted water until tender, then mash up with butter salt and pepper.

Tonight, I used hangar tonight as the ribeye was a little pricey. Just a simple kosher salt and pepper seasoning before broiling. I cooked mine pretty rare.

To plate, simply take your roasted pepper and tomato mixture and blend in your kitchen blender until smooth. You will have a rich creamy sauce (without the cream). This sauce would be amazing on just about anything else, eggs, pizza, pasta.

Drizzle over your sliced steak and side it up with the parsnips.