A few Philadelphia restaurant micro-reviews

I've hit up several very good to great restaurants in Philadelphia the last few months, so I figured I would post some quick thoughts.

Will: This French-inspired BYOB on Passyunk Avenue features a seasonal menu with really well prepared food.  Nothing outrageous, just very, very good.

Townsend: Another French restaurant on Passyunk Avenue, but this one features an interesting wine list and a very wine-savvy staff.  Great food, but my favorite part might have been the wine descriptions offered by our server.

Le Virtu: I've been meaning to visit this Passyunk Avenue Italian restaurant for some time now (this Passyunk Avenue sure has a lot of great places to eat).  It did not disappoint.  For places known for their pasta, like Le Virtu, I often go whatever pasta con vongole dish they offer.  At Le Virtu, the maccheroni alla chitarra con vongole was outstanding.  Chitarra is "guitar cut" pasta, basically like spaghetti but with a square cross-section.  This dish had a little bit of heat and the pasta was perfectly cooked.

Lo Spiedo: One of Marc Vetri's newest ventures, this restaurant located in the old gatehouse of the Naval Yard specializes in grilled and spit-roasted meats.  The menu is pretty funky -- it reads like Italian grilling meets Southern classics.  I really enjoyed the polenta cornbread (with fatty meat drippings), the grilled chicken wings, and the pork ribs with rosemary.

Buena Onda: Buena Onda is Jose Garces's taco joint and my new favorite local place to eat.  They specialize in fish tacos -- my go-to so far are the grilled mahi mahi tacos.  Big bonus: they have a soda fountain stocked with Boylan sodas.

2012 CSA: Week 5

This week I graduated to a full CSA share.  A friend and colleague of mine decided his family wanted in on the CSA, so we agreed to split a full share.  The main benefit, aside from saving money, is that the full shares almost have more variety.  After we divided our loot, I came out with the following:

• Fennel
• Red chard
• Garlic scapes
• Green escarole
• Broccoli
• Dill
• French breakfast radishes
• Zucchini
• Green kale
• Strawberries

Since the red chard (not normally a favorite of mine) looked very nice this week, it gets the photo:

2012 CSA: Week 4

This week heralds the start of fruit share deliveries.  Like last year, it begins with strawberries and applesauce, but hopefully by mid-summer I will be reveling in delicious watermelons, like last year.

• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Deer tongue lettuce given away
• Romain lettuce given away
• Kale swapped for garlic scapes
• English shell peas
• Strawberries
• Applesauce

As I am prone to do, I already gave away the lettuce (I just find it to be a tremendously boring vegetable, and it almost always goes to waste in my refrigerator).

This week, I give you a picture of the wonderfully twisty garlic scapes!

2012 CSA: Week 3

Week 3 of the CSA has arrived, and with it a nice selection of produce:

• Sparkler radishes
• Red kale
• Portabello mushroom caps
• Scallions
• Spinach
• Strawberries

The strawberries, just like last year at this time, were included in my vegetable share (instead of my fruit share, which starts after Memorial Day).  And like last year, they were beautiful, red, and pretty tasty.

This week, though, I will stick with a photo of the sparkler radishes.  Regardless of whether you like radishes, you have to admit they are pretty striking vegetables!

2012 CSA: Week 2

Just like last year, the second week of my CSA happens two weeks after the first week -- go figure.  Anyways, one of the benefits of my new CSA pick-up location (3400 Spruce St., at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania) is that the location is open until 7 pm, so I can even make it after class sometimes.

This week's haul is heavy on the greens:

• Scallions
• Green kale
• Bok choy
• Frisee
• Turnip greens
• Spinach
• Puntarelle stretta (they called it Italian dandelion, but I am not sure about this)
• Cremini mushrooms

This week's photo is of the puntarelle stretta:

2012 CSA: Week 1

After a long period of silence, outside of my shout out for the Van Gogh exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I am back, and once again, I am blogging about my CSA.

At the last minute, I signed up for the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative CSA, the same organization that ran my CSA last year.  I signed up for a half share of a vegetables and one fruit share, which will keep me going from now until the end of October.

I signed up for two reasons: (1) I noticed my diet was steadily worsening through the winter and early spring, and I am certain that having all this fresh produce will improve that; and (2) I enjoyed the CSA last year and I am hoping to do even better with this year's program.

In my first CSA shipment, I received:

• Dandelion greens
• Bok choy
• Green leaf lettuce
• Scallions
• Fennel leaves
• French breakfast radishes
• Sweet Hakurei turnips

I have already enjoyed a beef and scallion stir fry based loosely upon the classic zi ran yang rou, a dish from the Uyghur people of Central and East Asia.  I also made a surprisingly tasty salad from dandelion greens, lettuce, fennel leaves, and about half of the radishes (I say surprising because I generally find salads boring).

To liven up my CSA blog posts a little bit, I am going to try and post nice photos (obtained from the web) of at least one item I receive each week.  This week's obvious choice: French breakfast radishes!

Fall CSA: Week 6

The fall extension to my CSA nears its end, but the bounty just seems to be getting better:

• Blue Hokkaido squash
• Spinach
• Gold beets
• Napa cabbage swapped for tatsoi
• Lacinato kale
• Bok choy
• Turnips
• Onions
• Sweet potatoes

I made kale chips this week using the previous batch of Lacinato kale, and they were surprisingly good, and nearly insubstantial (it was like handling ancient paper or something).  I oversalted them a little bit, but I will definitely make them again.  I am also looking forward to making something new with the Hokkaido squash -- maybe a soup?

Fall CSA: Weeks 3 - 5

So yeah, I am a bit behind.  I blame it on Thanksgiving (traveled to California and spent the holiday with my mom, brother, and sister-in-law) and grants and stuff.  Ya know.

Anyways, week 3 was Thanksgiving week, so I gave everything to my friends (with whom I am sharing the CSA share).  For week 4, here was my haul:

• Pea tendrils
• Red radishes
• Chiogga beets
• Carrots
• Bok choy
• Yellow onions

Today, I picked up the veggies for week 5:

• Celeriac
• Lacinato kale (I may finally try making these famous kale chips)
• Spinach (looks really good)
• Leek
• Tatsoi and chickweed
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Rutabaga

Fall CSA: Week 2

This week I did not pick up much produce, mainly because I will not have time to use it before leaving for Thanksgiving week.  Instead, I let my friends keep most of the vegetables.  What I did get, however, looks delicious:

• Sweet onions
• Shallots (these stand out because I once read or heard Anthony Bourdain say that using shallots is what separates home cooks from professional chefs)
• Tatsoi
• Purple top turnips
• French breakfast radishes

Fall CSA: Week 1

The Empire Strikes Back!

And you thought I was done posting about my CSA.  Oh no.  I just started my Fall season CSA, again with the same cooperative (Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative), only this time I purchased a full share, splitting it with two other friends.  My haul from this week?  Pretty nice:

• Leek
• Red radishes
• Micro tatsoi
• Tatsoi
• Broccoli
• Hokkaido squash
• Carrots

I am very excited to try the Hokkaido squash -- it looks like a mini green pumpkin.

CSA: Week 25

I have finally reached the end of my CSA journey.  Well, not quite, as I signed up for a 7- or 8-week "fall extension," but I am not counting that.

What did I think?  Well, it was pretty neat not having to go shopping for produce each week.  I prepared vegetables I would have otherwise not used, like radishes and beets, and were introduced to a few new ones, like tatsoi.  The experience also reaffirmed that I find lettuce boring and I need to find a better way (or improve my technique) to cook eggplant.

This was the haul for the last week:

• Red meat radishes
• Yellow onions
• Arugula
• Leek
• Cilantro
• Green cabbage swapped for French breakfast radishes
• Red leaf lettuce swapped for cilantro
• Applesauce
• Red raspberry jam

Excitement at 600 N. Broad

Months ago, work started on the old automotive shop at 600 N. Broad St., just across from my apartment building.  I saw liquor license notices in the windows, so I knew bars or restaurants were coming...but I did not know what they were going to be until now.

Three different spaces are opening up in the old building.  One is a catering/event space called Vie, which looks to be already good to go.  I am pretty disappointed about this one -- the location is perfect for a coffee shop or patisserie, and instead we get a place for wedding receptions and charity dinners.  Oh well. 

However, I am excited by the other two places: a New England-inspired seafood restaurant from Stephen Starr called Route 6, and a Marc Vetri gastropub called Alla Spina (formerly Birreria 600).

These developments complement the 98 loft apartments built just off of Broad Street.  Exciting times in my neck of the woods.

CSA: Week 24

Being away at the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting (in rockin' Hartford) crushed two weeks of CSA shipments for me, but today I picked up my second-to-last delivery...before the 7-week-long fall extension.

• Radicchio
• Red bell pepper
• Leek
• Mixed sweet peppers
• Broccoli swapped for habanero peppers
• Green butterhead lettuce given away
• Mini bok choy
• Mesclun mix
• Jar of red raspberry jam
• Empire apples
• Heirloom cranberries

CSA: Week 21

I have been doing a pretty poor job cooking with my CSA produce, but today the air was brisk and bracing, and I suddenly was inspired to get cooking again!   Hopefully that inspiration yields tangible results this week, i.e., tasty dishes made with fresh, local ingredients :)

• Tomatoes
• Micro radishes
• Lacinato kale
• Red radishes
• Eggplants swapped for red radishes
• Green cabbage swapped for red radishes
• Red butterhead lettuce given away
• Hungarian hot wax peppers
• Applesauce
• Golden Supreme apples

CSA: Week 20

A quick update on my CSA:

• Cajun peppers
• Italian eggplant swapped for more cajun peppers
• Red butterhead lettuce given away
• Sweet candy onions
• Collard greens
• Beauregard sweet potatoes
• Cremini mushrooms
• White mushrooms
• Acorn squash
• Gala apples
• Golden Supreme apples

CSA: Week 19

I failed pretty badly at using my CSA produce last week.  Fortunately, we are starting to get a lot of squash, which keeps, and I have really enjoyed these delicata squashes. 

• Eggplant
• White onions
• Butternut squash
• Delicata squash
• Red potatoes
• Kale
• Green bell peppers
• Green leaf lettuce swapped for baby bok choy
• Green endive swapped for cajun peppers
• Pears
• Apples

In a little over one month, I will be starting the so-called 'Fall Extension' of this CSA -- 7 or 8 weeks of produce, hopefully good stuff for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals :)

CSA: Week 18, back on the horse

I discovered, during this past week without a CSA delivery, that I have become wholly dependent on that weekly delivery of fresh vegetables and fruit.  I do not shop for fresh produce much anymore; this became apparent when I found myself ordering out a lot this week because I lacked ingredients to make proper meals.  Well, no longer!

This week's shipment is pretty solid:

• Tatsoi
• Bok choy
• Delicata squash
• Italian eggplant swapped for more bok choy
• Romaine lettuce swapped for another delicata squash
• Jalapeno peppers
• Red beets
• Flat-leaf parsley
• Portabello caps
• Peaches
• Pears

I have never had tatsoi, so I am excited to give that a try.  As you can see, I also am tired of eggplant, I still do not like lettuce, and I really like the delicata squash.

CSA: Week 17

I have been distracted by deadlines this week, so my CSA post is quite late.  This week's bounty was substantial -- in fact, I gave away a half dozen ears of corn, and still had some to spare.

• Sweet corn
• Delicata squash: I really liked this from last week.  I read that it tastes like sweet potato, and this is a good description.  I made a Thai yellow curry last week, I may try something similar with red or green curry this week.
• Sweet onions
• Green bell peppers
• Bok choy: Strangely, the last time I had bok choy was one of the first deliveries of the season.
• Mixed cherry tomatoes: These have already been combined with the cherry tomatoes from last week, some garlic, white wine, and basil to make a nice fresh tomato sauce.
• Yukon gold potatoes
• Peaches
• Bartlett (I think) pears

CSA: Week 16

I am excited about this week's haul, especially after how delicious the sangria watermelon was last week.

• Yellow patty pan squash
• Italian eggplant
• Garlic
• Sungold cherry tomatoes swapped for an assortment of cherry tomatoes
• Yellow onions
• Delicata squash
• Curly parsley
• Sweet corn swapped for seedless yellow watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• Sangria watermelon
• Apples

CSA: Week 15

This week's theme seems to be tomatoes, as well as a few repeats from the last few weeks (e.g., eggplant, bell peppers, squash).

• Red tomatoes (swapped for gold grape tomatoes)
• Sungold cherry tomatoes
• Garlic
• Yellow straightneck squash
• Green bell peppers
• Italian eggplant
• Yellow wax beans
• Roma tomatoes
• Heirloom cantaloupe
• Sangria watermelon

Mercifully, this week's watermelon was a bit smaller, so it is a bit easier to cart around.