Thursday, July 22, 2010

Philly Weekend: Architecture and Pretty Good Food




I spent a wonderful weekend in Philadelphia and met up with my stepmom, who was there for a sustainable agriculture conference. We soaked in a few wonderful meals, and some even better design, a couple of our favorite things. She has a history as a blacksmith, and introduced me to the killer ironwork of Philadelphia's Samuel Yellin, which I found very inspiring.



Sort of a high/low thing going on here...

They just DO NOT make 'em like they used to.



Built in boot scraper.



We visited Capogiro Gelato, that uses local and seasonal ingredients. We both tried several flavors, then had a dish of two, then repeated that process and I don't regret that part at all. I was excited about the sweet Amish milk option, and the fact that they had pale pink Queen Anne cherry AND black cherry.



We had an awesome all-out dinner at Parc on Rittenhouse Square. A beautiful french brasserie with endless tables, interesting details, great lighting and great service. Many tables are on the sidewalk, and there is a large transitional section of indoor/outdoor space. I think I could live there.



Trout Amandine, perfectly and simply done.

Glintyness after dinner.




The lighting and floors at Parc.


A flavorful gazpacho and knockout buckwheat blueberry pancakes at a noisy hipster pub.

The train station kicks ass, in a very grown-up way.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Red Hot Summer



















Friday, March 26, 2010

Past and Present Pattern

Passover is approaching. I was at Landau's this week, a fairly large Jewish grocery store in Boro Park, Brooklyn, where it was Pesach-Madness everywhere you looked. The entire store has been thoroughly reorganized for the onslaught of good business that the holiday necessitates. The endcaps are stocked for the season, with latex and powder-free rubber gloves, intricately braided candles, pre-packaged tiny packets of breadcrumbs, and clear signage for what is Kosher For Passover. The cleaning product aisle is impressive, since families will be performing a full-tilt spring cleaning. I bought some Chrayonnaise dip, a puree of beets, horseradish, vinegar, spices and mayo. There are lots of beets-with-horseradish and horseradish-with-beets situations, but I hadn't seen this smooth electric version. I also picked a soft and graphic marbled rye from the rapidly declining bread corner. There was an enormous mound of gnarly fresh horseradish, and I can only imagine the vapors it will release in its processing before reaching the Seder tables..a powerful scent drifting in the spring air.



Sunday, February 14, 2010

Love Appears









Friday, February 05, 2010

Oh, Canada...



Happy New Year! (For my thoughts on that, see saucylittledish). I spent the past weekend in Toronto (which Canadians seem to pronounce "Tronno") for a wedding, and though there was plenty of drinking and dancing, I had eyes for all the food things that crossed my path.



There were a lot of festive goings on and when everyone crashed the afternoon after the wedding I went to the grocery store for an hour and a half. I could have tortured someone by dragging them along, but it was probably better I went alone. It can be useful to go with someone so I don't look as insane as I go though every aisle in slow motion-and it defends against getting in trouble for taking pictures...Oh well, I had a fine time. I went to an incredibly regular, mainstream neighborhood grocery store, which luckily still gave me plenty of perspective, though I would have loved to visit more kinds of places. Grocery stores give me an idea of what makes a place tick. I had forgotten that they sell milk in bags here, (and are way into recycling) and everyone has a handy oval milk pitcher in their fridge. (I did not see smaller pitchers for cream). I am so tickled by this, I must have really needed to get out of town. Seriously, I am really excited about these minorly different customs.











More dairy: I decided to buy cheese, hoping the pasteurization laws would be less stringent than in the U.S. (I have pined on about this before). I picked some soft, young French cheese too, because I wanted cheese made from milk from French cows...(Meux). All of the cheeses list the milkfat and moisture content on the packaging, and I bought a camembert, a "washed rind" young cheese, and some "pressed cottage cheese". We also had that old standby black pepper Boursin. I honestly am not sure if they were much different than what I can get in New York, but they were meltingly lovely anyway.











This was the best flavored hummus I've ever had. If you examine the photo close-up you will see it includes apricots, almonds, spices and honey. It wasn't overly sweet or over seasoned, just perfectly balanced and interesting. Word.



I couldn't resist this tiniest of pimiento jars that was all the way from, well, Tennessee.



I couldn't get away without throwing some meal together. It was my wedding present. I made a vegetable soup and and a potato leek soup, and a pasta/green salad situation. We had bread with those luscious cheeses and humus and jam alongside.



Real fruit gummies. My favorites are cherry and black currant, and of course there were hardly any of those, darnit.



Popcorn being thrown out behind a movie theater. I was surprised at first, but I suppose if they dumped two of these every day, and they just scattered it on the ground, the street would look like a sandy beach with obese pigeons and black squirrels lolling like walruses freezing to death.

Though this minitrip made me ever hungrier to go farther afield, thank you Canada for adding some depth to my marinade, as it were.