My friends will all agree that I am a cheapskate, so my lunches tend to be $2.50 vegetable fried rice from the cart or $3.50 half falafel sandwiches from Mama’s. But recently, I had to splurge on a lovely char-grilled rib eye — medium rare, of course — served with crispy shoestring fries, and a mixed green salad at Chris’ Jazz Café, our 2007 Best of Philly Jazz Club.
The cost? Just ten bucks on Fridays. If you’re keeping score, this is less than you’ll pay for a cold sandwich and small fountain soda at Marathon, making this one of the best lunch deals in the city. Of course, the rib-eye would have best been accompanied by a glass of pinot, but like I said, I’m cheap, so I opted for the 50-cent draft beer.
I think English muffins are the perfect quick breakfast food. It gives my carb-addicted appetite its much-needed fix, without the danger of overstuffing that a doughy bagel poses. (Plus, bagels here suck — but that’s another posting). But it wasn’t until I had a sweet, large, plump Portuguese muffin at the Fountain Restaurant at Four Seasons that I realized how many breakfasts I’ve wasted on Thomas’s.
It never even crossed my mind that there was something else out there. So, I went hunting for a better muffin, one that didn’t shrink when toasted, that was heartier, had more surface area and didn’t taste like cardboard. My search of Portuguese muffins failed, but I was pleasantly surprised by the house brands that Whole Foods and Wegmans are putting out (the regular and whole wheat). Both are larger, saltier, and nook-and-cranny-er — all the better to hold your topping of choice. (If you care: cream cheese and jelly for my husband, cinnamon, sugar and butter for our food editor, and straight-up whipped cream cheese for me.) Even if you are a dieting spray-butter-er, I promise you’ll never go back to Thomas’s again.
Image, wikimedia.org
Sunday mornings in your house may not be as relaxing as kicking back in your favorite coffee shop, but this perfect-anytime cake from Mount Airy’s High Point Café is certain to slow things down a bit. The sweet taste, crumbly exterior and hearty texture will stand up to that strong cup of joe.
Coffee Cake
1 ½ c. unsalted butter, plus extra to prepare pan
1 ½ c. granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 S c. cornstarch
1 S c. all-purpose flour, plus extra to prepare pan
2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 apples, skin on, diced into ¼-inch squares
A sure way to impress your holiday guests: dinner catered by the chefs at Le Bec-Fin. Catering is just the latest tweak to the more than 35-year-old Le Bec formula. Remember when the menu was only in French and the waiters only in black tie? Now Georges Perrier is offering “global cuisine” and “international menu options” for catered parties of 15 to 250.
What will it take to get the famed, five-star food in your dining room? Packages start around $75 a head for a three-course meal (food only) — though an appearance from Chef himself will be a little pricier.
Few new spirits are as distinctively different and delicious as Voyant Chai Cream, a Bollywood riff on the Baileys theme. The inspiration for this decadent Dutch liqueur is masala chai, the milky spiced and sweetened tea popular in Southeast Asia. Voyant is beautifully complex, fragrant with exotic spices like cardamom and cinnamon in addition to strong base notes of black tea and vanilla. Real Dutch cream, emulsified to prevent separation and spoilage, adds a silken texture. Like your coffeehouse’s chai, it’s equally delicious served chilled or heated. For a real treat, try using Voyant in place of vanilla and sugar when making whipped cream for holiday desserts like pumpkin pie.
In honor of Thanksgiving, one of the few holidays we can all agree on, three versions of the turkey sandwich, all fit for gobbling
So Special: Main Line Jewish-deli stalwart Hymie’s offers the belly-busting Schlemiel, piled high with thickly sliced roast turkey breast, mounds of slaw, and a generous schmear of Russian dressing, perfectly accompanied by garlic pickles from the relish bar.
After five years confined to her miniature Blue Bell restaurant, Alison Barshak is expanding. Barshak signed a lease yesterday on the second spot — no name yet — slated for a spring 2008 opening on Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington, just four miles from her Alison at Blue Bell.
What you’ll be excited about: the 100-plus seats, a private dining room, a full bar and a credit card machine, plus Barshak’s signature seafood-centric globe-trotting menu. (Expect influences from Barshak’s recent travels in Scandinavia and Vietnam.)
What Barshak is excited about: Nationally known kitchen designer Mark Stech-Novak and a kitchen large enough for a chef’s table and — gasp — a walk-in refrigerator. “We’ll make ice cream,” she says. “We’ll have tasting menus. This is a chance for us to stretch. To do more with the food.”
A couple of weeks ago, I heard a report on NPR about people in Brooklyn who raise chickens in their backyards, providing farm fresh eggs year round. I just bought a house in Fishtown, and I’m wondering if I can legally keep chickens? – Sarah G., Philadelphia
Funny you should ask, since I’ve been wanting a chicken for years and that same report on NPR renewed my interest. In fact, my wife, once a strong detractor of the chicken-in-the-backyard idea, also heard the story and now wants a chicken. Unfortunately, the City of Philadelphia thinks otherwise. According to Jeff Moran, spokesperson for the Department of Public Health, anything defined as a farm animal (chickens, pigs, goats, etc.) is prohibited except at a licensed slaughterhouse. Oddly, horses are not included in the ban. So you’re not allowed to have a chicken, but you can keep a 1,000-pound Appaloosa in your garage. Too bad you’re not allowed to eat it.
Anyone living outside of Philadelphia might have better luck with the backyard chicken coop, though your neighbors might not be too pleased if you live in a King of Prussia McMansion. I couldn’t find any countywide laws that restrict your ability to raise poultry at home, but individual townships and cities might have their own rules. If you’re ready to buy a chicken, this handy website should get you started.
Standing at the front of the Tria Fermentation School classroom one recent afternoon was Jenny Lefcourt, one half of wine importers Jenny & François Selections and an engaging storyteller. Lefcourt was here to introduce the city’s wine experts to her portfolio of natural French wines — often organic, often biodynamic wines, fermented without laboratory yeasts, added sulfites or other unpronounceable stuff, from handpicked grapes. A bonus of this determinedly low-tech backlash to “industrial” wine: appealingly offbeat winemakers who name wines after fairytales, become a vintner after years as a steelworker, and sail boats around the world.
These stories add a lovely aroma of romance to the wines, but the city sommeliers — there was representation from many local restaurants, among them Davio’s, Panorama, Le Bec-Fin, even, briefly, and volubly, Georges Perrier himself — couldn’t be enticed by stories alone. They came to taste the results of these back-to-basics methods in the bottle. I could get technical about it — well, Lefcourt could get technical, explaining how plowing the vineyards increases acidity, why not using chemicals in the growing process allows for the use of indigenous yeast — but these quirky, personal wines are memorable — love them or hate them — on taste alone. It is wine that, as Tria wine director Michael McCaulley noted over the din of wine chatter, inspires conversation.
Start talking at Tria’s Sunday School, the restaurant’s weekly wine deal. This week you’ll find the mellow cab franc-based Domaine Cousin-Leduc Anjou Rouge, from winemaker Olivier Cousin, who plows his Loire vineyard with his horse Joker.
Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin bestowed yet more praise on Philadelphia in the pages of her December issue, naming the risotto alla Kristina at James one of the ten “Best Restaurant Dishes of the Year.”
But we knew that: the playful, Venetian-style (translation: it may not look like perfect risotto to you, but trust us) risotto made its first appearance in our pages in March, when we demanded chef Jim Burke share the technique for his loose, slightly brothy rice dish, richened with oysters and processco. Find the recipe here, or head to the restaurant, where it — and the delectable roast chicken — is a staple of Burke’s ever-changing menu.
My friends will all agree that I am a cheapskate, so my lunches tend to be $2.50 vegetable fried rice from the cart or $3.50 half falafel sandwiches from Mama’s. But recently, I had to splurge on a lovely char-grilled rib eye — medium rare, of course — served with crispy shoestring fries, and a mixed green salad at Chris’ Jazz Café, our 2007 Best of Philly Jazz Club. 
I think English muffins are the perfect quick breakfast food. It gives my carb-addicted appetite its much-needed fix, without the danger of overstuffing that a doughy bagel poses. (Plus, bagels here suck — but that’s another posting). But it wasn’t until I had a sweet, large, plump Portuguese muffin at the 
Sunday mornings in your house may not be as relaxing as kicking back in your favorite coffee shop, but this perfect-anytime cake from Mount Airy’s High Point Café is certain to slow things down a bit. The sweet taste, crumbly exterior and hearty texture will stand up to that strong cup of joe.
A sure way to impress your holiday guests: dinner catered by the chefs at 
Few new spirits are as distinctively different and delicious as Voyant Chai Cream, a Bollywood riff on the Baileys theme. The inspiration for this decadent Dutch liqueur is masala chai, the milky spiced and sweetened tea popular in Southeast Asia. Voyant is beautifully complex, fragrant with exotic spices like cardamom and cinnamon in addition to strong base notes of black tea and vanilla. Real Dutch cream, emulsified to prevent separation and spoilage, adds a silken texture. Like your coffeehouse’s chai, it’s equally delicious served chilled or heated. For a real treat, try using Voyant in place of vanilla and sugar when making whipped cream for holiday desserts like pumpkin pie.
In honor of Thanksgiving, one of the few holidays we can all agree on, three versions of the turkey sandwich, all fit for gobbling
After five years confined to her miniature Blue Bell restaurant, Alison Barshak is expanding. Barshak signed a lease yesterday on the second spot — no name yet — slated for a spring 2008 opening on Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington, just four miles from her 
A couple of weeks ago, I heard a report on NPR about people in Brooklyn who raise chickens in their backyards, providing farm fresh eggs year round. I just bought a house in Fishtown, and I’m wondering if I can legally keep chickens? – Sarah G., Philadelphia
Standing at the front of the 
Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin bestowed yet more praise on Philadelphia in the pages of her December issue, naming the risotto alla Kristina at