beXnlog

Rice Visit

Two weekends ago we were graced by a rare A&L visit. We hit Capogiro, Horizons, Honey's Sit 'n Eat and Brown Betty among numerous other fun stops.

As always, Capogiro and Horizons did not disappoint. ("Oh my god" was the most-uttered phrase at Horizons).

The next day we shared a chocolate cupcake and a pineapple cupcake from Brown Betty, a very cute & sunny cake shop in Liberties Walk. Honestly, the cupcakes didn't look spectacular - pretty simple and perhaps plain - but upon tasting we all found them to be deliciously moist and flavorful. The cake part of the chocolate cupcake was so rich and dense without being pasty and fake-tasting like some other "super chocolaty" ones. The icing wasn't crazy sweet and matched nicely with the tasty cakes. I can't wait to go back to check out more desserts, especially that Sweet Potato Pot!

Before our cupcakes we had a brunch at Honey's Sit 'n Eat in Northern Liberties. I had heard about the numerous vegetarian options and that the food was good. We unfortunately arrived at prime brunch time so our wait was very long (almost an hour!) but we were finally seated at a large table in the cavernous, breezy place. The food mix was mainly American diner with a good chunk of Southern and some Jewish; we were all very excited and couldn't decide on what to order. be chose the vegetarian chicken-fried steak, i settled on an egg & biscuit plate, A got pancakes and L got another breakfast plate. L's brother L got the chicken fajitas while S got the whitefish salad on a bagel. Sadly, they had already run out of vegetarian sausage patties but the adorable tiny Mason jar salt & pepper shakers on the tables made up for that.

Overall i liked Honey's. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst. My breakfast was quite tasty although the grits a tad bland - nothing butter & salt couldn't fix. (I liked the biscuits at Honey's better than the sky-high ones at Morning Glory, although Geechee Girl's are my favorite in Philly so far.) be's mac n cheese was quite good, not quite casseroley but definitely creamy and satisfying. However, the latkes were fried ultra-hard to dark brown triangles and be's veg chick steak was so crispy and oily he could barely finish it. I'll definitely still give Honey's another try; perhaps an earlier visit will reap vegetarian sausage patties and a less-insane fry cook!

The Rices gifted us with very noteworthy items!

1) a loaf of crusty, tasty, tangy sourdough bread from Cenan's Bakery in Vienna, VA
2) a jar of "Aloha Rose" pineapple rosemary jam from Crackpot Gourmet
3) an insanely addictive bag of real kettle corn from Colonial Kettle Corn

I love the way all the products were from small VA companies. All i know is that the next time i'm in VA, i'm stocking up on bread, jam and a carload of kettle corn!

posted by beXn @ 10:28 PM