beXnlog

City of Pretzels, Grits and Mousse

As some of you might know, be and i spent last weekend in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. be was attending the huge NCLR conference and i was merely tagging along, in search of a nice air conditioned hotel room and a reason to sit and read the new Harry Potter book all weekend.

The first thing i noticed is the pretzel fever. One could buy all sorts of pretzels: chocolate covered, fresh buttered, plain hard, covered in sprinkles and even cookies shaped like pretzels. The second thing is the cheesesteak rivalry. Cristin, a native Philadelphian, filled me in on the cheesesteak war:

Jim's Steaks -- a couple of locations in the city, but definitely one on South Street -- this cheese steak purveyor is the fave among actual Philadelphians. The most talked about cheese steak shops are "Pat's" and "Geno's" in South Philly, mostly because they are HUGE and are situated directly across the street from one another, each purporting to be "the best." But most Philadelphians, actually like Jim's the best. I'm not sure what the "vegetarian" steak is, but it's worth a try!

Third, that Bill Cosby was always hankering for hoagies on "The Cosby Show" back in the 80s. Hoagies are basically submarine sandwiches. I didn't recall Bill's attempts to sneak in a few bites; apparently the family always caught him in the act. This is essential Philly info because Bill's from Philly and hoagies can be found all over. This i learned in a car ride with Kavita & Adam (another native) and be. And lastly, there is a shocking amount of vegetarian options in a city so enamored with cheesesteaks and hoagies!

Our hotel was in Center City, the downtown part right by the convention center. The bus stop, Chinatown and the mall were all within a few-block's walk so we didn't even use public transportation (SEPTA) at all. Here's a roundup of our food adventures. When we weren't eating, be was at the conference and i was either reading or working on a stupid grant.

Friday:
We bussed in during a heavy rainstorm, and after trudging to the hotel we ended up at Taco Bell. A lot of our options were already closed and we weren't yet familiar with the area. Note the Crunch Wrap was pretty good, and they didn't blink an eye when we asked for beans instead of meat.* We were still hungry later that night so we walked across the street to the 7-Eleven. I was absolutely shocked to see that they stocked numerous vegetarian sandwiches and wraps, salads, pre-cut fruit and cheeses! I picked up a fake chicken sandwich and some sugar: the new Limited Edition Key Lime and Passion Fruit Almond Joy bars and old skool Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets. Yum! Just the right fuel to wait in line for HPHBP with a bunch of kids and a lot of adults!

Saturday:
For breakfast we checked out the Reading Terminal, a large indoor food hall with vendors selling everything from coffee to imported cheeses and cookbooks. We had: danish, Rainier cherries, sliced Italian bread, a bad baguette and fresh roasted coffee. In the Lancaster County Amish section we gorged on: various cheese cubes, a truly hot & spicy cheese, Amish pretzels with honey mustard dip, homemade apple pie (which be though was too sweet but the crust was an awesome balance of flaky and tender), homemade chocolate walnut fudge and loads of old skool candy (Squirrel Nut Zippers, Chick O Sticks, Goetze's chocolate caramels and "Cows"). After my two visits to Reading Terminal, i walked around the "Latino Expo" at the conference which reaped a bag of corporate loot. For dinner we did take-out from the Cherry Street Chinese Vegetarian Restaurant. I ordered the fake chicken dish they recommended - the fake chicken chunks were ultra battered deep, deep, DEEP fried nuggets, served with steamed broccoli and a hot garlic sauce on the side. It was tasty but not really what i wanted. be ordered dumplings which i thought were too doughy. I'm sure it's a good restaurant but we just ordered the wrong things.

Sunday:
be and i met up with Kavita & Adam for an excellent brunch at the Geechee Girl Rice Cafe. It's in Germantown so we rode in their car next to the river and through a lush park. At Geechee** Girl we all ordered the sweet mint iced tea and biscuits, be and K got the shrimp n grits, A got the Southern breakfast and i ordered the greens, plain grits and cornbread. Since it's an independent, family-run business the service isn't fast but it's super friendly. But as for the food, it was all super yummy. be was swooning over his shrimp n grits - and he previously claimed he hated grits! I loved my yummy biscuit and flavorful greens but the cornbread was the dense, sweet cakey style that i'm not so fond of. But besides the cornbread everything else was awesome, or as K would say: CHUB. On a not as chub note, we had Olive Garden for dinner since i wanted those damn breadsticks. I'm saying, they really should just sell them to-go, 4 breadsticks for $2.00.

Monday:
On K & A's recommendation, we had lunch at Morimoto, the first restaurant venture for famed ex-Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, formerly head chef at Nobu in New York. be was mentally prepared to get the $50.00 sushi and sashimi chef tasting menu but our waitress actually suggested him the $28.00 sushi lunch set. She said the amount of sushi is the same but it's a different set of fish. I ordered the vegetable tempura lunch set so we both got miso soup with buttery soft, creamy fresh tofu chunks and a baby greens salad with fried shallots. My lunch came with wasabi fried rice - a bowl of sticky rice mixed with egg, seaweed bits and having a slight wasabi fragrance. I was surprised at how good the soup, salad and fried rice were since they didn't sound that appetizing on the menu. Maybe i'm just used to mediocre soup and salad at other restaurants. My tempura actually came as a "pancake" of matchsticked vegetables in a light, crisp batter. It was again, surprisingly delicious. When it arrived it didn't look that great but it sure was tasty. Now as for be, he got a plate of different sushi pieces and a spicy tuna roll. He's always hated the tamago (egg omelet), spicy tuna, and gari (pickled ginger) but he actually really enjoyed those things at Morimoto. And he LOVED the sushi selection, which included river salmon, Thai red snapper and fancy tuna. He claimed it was all exceedingly good, and he didn't even order the highest grade stuff! We both wanted to see if their desserts would be up to par, too, so be got the Oolong Tea Poached Pear with ginger ice cream and a sesame snap, while i got the Mango-Shiso Mille Feuille White Chocolate Mousse with diced mango, shiso leaf and black sesame served with coconut tapioca pearls. Both desserts were excellent, hearty portions of greatness. The poached pear contrasted well with the creamy, gingery ice cream and sweet crisp sesame snap. My light mousse was offset well by the fine filo dough strands and fruity sauces. Overall we were both very satisfied with our lunches and would certainly go back just to eat at Morimoto!

We bussed back after lunch - it was much too short a trip! We didn't get a chance to do the touristy stuff, check out more food places and get a real feel for the city. I really wanted to try Rita's Water Ice, which Cristin says contains chunks of real fresh fruit. I also didn't get a chance to try those "vegetarian cheesesteaks" nor the other numerous vegetarian restaurants in Philly. Good thing it's only a 2.25 hour bus trip! Thanks to C, K, A and O for all their Philly advice!

*be and i were once driving through NJ and decided to pull over at a rest stop. At the Taco Bell, we ordered our usual double-decker and hard shell tacos, requesting beans instead of meat - and ended up getting into numerous verbal arguments with the staff! They insisted it was "against the rules" to substitute beans for the meat. Even after talking to the manager we just gave up in frustration at their ridiculous rules. I've eaten at a lot of Taco Bells all over the country and i've never had any problem with a substitution. I guess it's another sign: i need to give up all fast food forever!

**From their website: Geechee was one name for the enslaved West African peoples who lived on the Sea Islands and coastal areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Northern Florida. Gullah, from the country of Angola, is another name for the language, culture and peoples who inhabited these areas.

posted by beXn @ 12:13 AM