With The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book, Carolyn Wyman may have just written the definitive book about all things Philly cheesesteak. Beginning by describing the cheesesteak’s birth and also including chapters on cheesesteak culture, recipes for different cheesesteak components and concoctions, and “cheesesteaks abroad” (with “abroad” translating as “anywhere but Philly”), the bulk of Wyman’s book is the individual descriptions of 38 local steak joints ranging from the obvious to the unexpected. Each cheesesteakery’s entry is accompanied by a box containing useful info such as directions, specialties, grill seasoning, and type of roll used. Full of photos both new and vintage as well as heaps of interesting factual tidbits, The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book could teach even the most die-hard cheesesteak fanatic a thing or two. It also includes a DVD called This Is My Cheesesteak by Ben Daniels, which provides even more info. Get your hands on a copy now if you want to be well-read by the time of Wyman’s bike tour of some of the steak stands included in the book on July 11. You can also attend her slide show and book signing at the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia on July 22.
Carolyn Wyman Releases The Great Philly Cheesesteak Book (AKA “The Bible II”)
Aired July 2nd, 2009 on Books and Cheesesteak. 0 Comments
Have you been feeling peer pressure this week to head down the shore on Saturday for the 4th of July but are feeling reluctant to spend the entire weekend eating taffy and cheese balls? Then leave your friends to battle it out on the A.C. Expressway and assert your independence by sticking around Philly (and don’t stop trying to convince your friends, too), where there are several special culinary events going on in addition to all the backyard barbecues.
Naturally, our top recommendation for the day is to head over to the Piazza At Schmidt’s for a whole day of revelry at The Sync Stage. Before, in between, or after sets by the virtual who’s who of Philly bands, stop by Darling’s Diner, The Swift Half gastro-pub, or Vino wine bar for some local food and refreshments. We cannot recommend The Ghost of Mary — a sort of deconstructed, green tomato Bloody Mary — at The Swift Half strongly enough.
For an Independence Day that the founding fathers would surely appreciate, the Kite and Key is having an indoors/outdoors “Party on the Parkway.” Going on all day (11:30 am - 11:30 pm), there will be Yards drafts including $3 Ales of the Revolution (Thomas Jefferson, General Washington and the Poor Richards) inside and $4 Brawlers outside. They tell us there will also be other beer specials, plus giveaways and special foods made with Yards’ wort.
If you’re looking for a more opulent 4th of July, Blackfish in Conshohocken is having a Lobster Bake from 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm. For $45 (plus tax and gratuity), Chef Chip Roman’s four course menu includes lobster corn chowder, a lobster “slider”, short rib stuffed grilled lobster tail, and red, white & blue cobbler.
If you’re in West Philly, don’t forget about the Vegan Bus.
For those with a sweet tooth, kids, or no fear of Sunoco Welcome America events, you can spend $5 and get all-you-can-eat access to ice creams and water ices from over 20 manufacturers at Penn’s Landing from noon – 5 pm on July 3-5. Proceeds benefit children with leukemia.
Have we missed anything? Would you like to invite us over to your house for a picnic? Tell us in the comments.
The water-cooler chat topics have all been exhausted. You’re forcing your eyes to concentrate on that Excel spreadsheet against your will. You can hear a coworker in a distant cubicle lol’ing at something you’re sure is either lowest-common-demoninator-inane or well past its prime (It’s probs. that “dramatic chipmunk” video. Again. Ugh.). As your fulfilling day is drawing to a close, your mind has begun to drift to thoughts of where to spend happy hour. Our suggestion: Head over to Supper, where from 5-8 pm today, they will be ringing in National Picnic Month by serving a dozen types of specialty deviled eggs created by chef-owner Mitch Prensky. Here’s the full list:
Sriracha Deviled Egg with pickled daikon, carrot and coriander
Pistou Deviled Egg with ratatouille
Horseradish Deviled Egg with steak and Roquefort
Deep-Fried Scotch Deviled Egg with country sausage
Wasabi Deviled Egg with uni and crispy nori; Saffron Deviled Egg with salt cod and roasted garlic
Black Truffle Deviled Egg
Chevre Deviled Egg with Spring Asparagus
Lobster Deviled Egg with dill crème fraiche
“Bacon and Egg” with braised bacon and cheddar
Smoked Chile Deviled Egg with corn-red onion salsa
Vadouvan Spiced Deviled Egg with roasted cauliflower and mint
Our palates are particularly intrigued by the Deep Fried Scotch Deviled Egg… sounds very interesting. To go along with all those eggs, Supper will also have $3 cans of Sly Fox Beer (Pikeland Pils, Phoenix Pale Ale and Royal Weisse Ale). If you can’t make it to tonight’s festivities, don’t worry. Supper will have a month-long special of four deviled egg halves (the selection will change daily) with a can of Sly Fox for $6.
Supper. 926 South Street. 215-592-8180
Vegan Bus Rolls Into Philly For 4th Of July Extraveganza
Aired June 30th, 2009 on Animal Rights, BBQ, BYOB, Events and Vegetarian/Vegan. 1 Comment
Attention vegans, vegetarians, and the veg-curious: Don’t give up on finding something to do on Saturday, the 4th, just yet. The Vegan Bus is coming to Clark Park, teaming up with Vegan Drinks Philly and Public Eye: Artists for Animals for a day of games, art, music, and food of course. From 11 to 3PM there will be activities for children and families, with vegan BBQ, veggie burgers and hot dogs.
For dinner, the Vegan Bus will roll on over to the New Harmony Restaurant for a $20 vegan dim sum feast with the Public Eye and Vegan Drinks Philly crew. Space is limited to 40 people so if you want a seat, remember to RSVP. As always, New Harmony is BYOB, and this being the 4th of July, we’re sure there will be plenty of booze to go around.
What is the Vegan Bus, you ask? The Vegan Bus is a big green school bus that runs on waste vegetable oil, occupied by activists and artists, cruising the country using art and media to create connections between dietary choice, health, ethics, and sustainability, along with promoting tasty vegan munchies!
New Harmony Restaurant, 135 N. 9th Street. 215-627-4520
Send Yourself To Fork, Etc. Summer School For Free
Aired June 29th, 2009 on Classes, Events and Free. 0 Comments
The good folks at Fork and its store-next-door, Fork, Etc. just sent us a whole slew of summer dinners and events they’ll be hosting over the next few months, but what caught our eye was this little series of either free or low-priced classes going on throughout the summer. Dig:
Thursday Night at Fork, etc: A weekly tasting and learning event from 6 to 7 p.m. Schedule includes:
July 2, Rosé Wine Tasting, $10 per person;
July 9, How to make your own Mozzarella, free;
July 16, Pasta Making, free;
July 23, Using Fresh Herbs with Branch Creek Farm’s Judy Dornstreich, free;
July 30, Canning the tastes of summer, free;
August 6, Heirloom Tomatoes with Branch Creek Farm’s Mark and Judy Dornstreich, free;
August 13, Allagash Beer Tasting Reception, $15 per person;
August 20, Olive Oil Tasting, free;
August 27, Local Cheese Tasting, $10 per person.
Not bad, right? Especially now that I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here is all wrapped up.
Fork & Fork, Etc. 306 Market Street. 215-625-9425
After launching back in February, Daniel Delaney’s VendrTV has gone all 2.0 on us, adding the ability to comment through Facebook Connect, a soon-to-launch gift shop, and something called a “blog.” While it might take us a while to wrap our heads around that, what we can grasp immediately is that they have put up a new episode devoted to UPenn’s Magic Carpet cart, which specializes in vegetarian street food. Delaney interviews owner Dean Varvoutis and talks about some of the menu’s offerings (including some tasty-looking tofu meatballs), but the highlight of the video is the very, erm, enthusiastic final customer he interviews. We wonder if Varvoutis views her ringing endorsement as the local equivalent of this.
Did you know that the Pennsylvania Hospital at 8th and Spruce holds its own weekly farmers’ market? Held every Wednesday from 11:30 am to 4 pm through October 7th, the market aims to give hospital workers and the surrounding community easy access to healthy, fresh produce (including a crowd-mesmerizing kohlrabi). We haven’t been yet…how does this farmers’ market stack up to its like-minded brethren citywide? Is it worth visiting? Let us know in the comments.
Bridgewater’s Pub: The Gem Of 30th Street Station
Aired June 24th, 2009 on Uncategorized. 2 Comments
What to do when you’re dropping off a friend at 30th Street Station and you both want to get a bite to eat before the train leaves, but you don’t want to settle for Au Bon Pain, Auntie Anne’s, or the rest of the fast food options that the station has to offer? We faced just that predicament last weekend, and the solution was fairly obvious: Bridgewater’s Pub, the sole sit-down restaurant at 30th Street. We may have spoken somewhat disparagingly about it in the past (well, at least about its location), but we were eager to give Bridgewater’s another shot. The menu, designed by Chef Fredrick Price, has most of the traditional pub fare you would expect (Black Angus burger, barbecued ribs) alongside some dishes that you definitely wouldn’t (kangaroo, ostrich burger). We decided to start off with the duck sausage appetizer served atop a bed of wild rice pilaf with pecans and cranberries. The sausage was pleasantly salty, nicely offset by the nutty taste of the pilaf. All in all, it was a good, hearty appetizer. After that, we were ready for the main course: The hangar steak salad and the crab cake sandwich. The hanger steak was slightly tough but flavorful, and the salad (which included Romaine lettuce, chopped egg, shaved manchego, red onion, peppers, cucumbers, Mandarin oranges) was topped off with tasty Dijon-paprika vinaigrette, making for a quality light lunch. What certainly wasn’t light was the crab cake: It was enormous and delicious. Though the menu said it was served with sweet potato fries, it came with regular fries, but the crab cake was so big that it didn’t really matter though, as it reduced the fries to mere garnish status (even though they were tasty). We didn’t have time for dessert, though the rustic vibe of the menu leads us to think that the bread pudding would have been a hit…we’ll definitely give it a shot next time when we’re not in such a hurry. Perhaps best of all, Bridgewater’s has a nice selection of beer on tap and in bottles, including the hard-to-find Innstadt from Germany, so import snobs won’t have any reason to complain when you tell them that you’re going to the train station to eat.
Bridgewater’s Pub. 30th Street Station. 215-387-4787.
Illustrator, writer and apparently proud owner of an iron colon Hawk Krall considers the notorious Philly Combo over at SeriousEats. For the uninitiated, Mr. Krall has kindly drawn you a diagram for just what that is and how it works. Go there, look at it. Gulp.
Tastykake Face-Off: Tropical Fruit Flavored Snack Attack
Aired June 24th, 2009 on Junk Food and Tastykake Face-Off. 3 Comments
Welcome to today’s Tastykake Face-Off, where Philadelphia’s hometown hero snack product goes up against the competition in a fight for top snack bragging rights. The winner will be carefully selected via analysis of several key criteria discussed below. Today, a mysterious stranger from the South has entered the ring: The Banana Flavor MoonPie. With no comparable banana flavored Tastykake available, the scope of the match-up will be expanded to include “tropical fruit,” and thus, the Coconut Junior will represent Tastykake in this match. Let’s get it started…
Continue reading ‘Tastykake Face-Off: Tropical Fruit Flavored Snack Attack’
