It's All About the Food

After SakeFest, GR and I went to dinner in Center City. (I know the area east of Broad and west of Washington Square has a catchy name -- maybe Washington Square West -- but it's not catchy enough for me to remember.) During our wanderings, I spotted TBar, 117 S. !2th, which I'd wanted to try since first learning that my old neighborhood went upscale a few years after I moved out. That, and we were down to PG Tips loose tea for breakfast.

TBar is both retail and restaurant; I was interested only in the retail. They have an extensive selection of loose teas: black, oolong, green and flavored. Prices start at $6.50 for two ounces, making it some of the most expensive tea I've ever bought.

However, there are lots of ways to make an informed choice. Most or all teas can be purchased in a pot; TBar offers a large "Book of Tea" with extensive descriptions of the teas; staff offer to let you smell the loose tea. I just picked from the descriptions.

If you are used to the to the supermarket descriptions of English breakfast, Irish breakfast, Earl Grey and Dareeling, you might be lost. The teas are described by country of origin (Indian, Ceylon), and some have tea grades (like SFTGFOP: Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe). Teas are organized by TBar name; to find an assam requires perusing the descriptions. There were a number of flavored teas and a wide selection of green and oolong.

English Breakfast: A not-to-strong, well-balanced basic tea. There were no surprises and likely to be acceptable to anyone used to Lipton. The second brewing was nearly as good as the first, and also good cold.

Nilgiri: Delicate with lots of bright notes. The second brewing was not nearly as good as the first; all of the bright flavor was lost.

Mt. Everest: Mildly smoky but not heavy. The second brewing was close to the first.

Moonlight PM: Billed as low-caffeine and tastes it; tea doesn't lose it's caffeine easily or well. The only good decaf I've found so far has been Barry's Gold, an Irish import.

For years, Philly tea enthusiasts were limited to the Spice Terminal, Fantes and other stores in the Italian Market. Although the teas were better than the supermarket, none had the variety or quality offered by Steap and TBar. It's wonderful to see the selection expanding: no more mail order for me!

Will I go back: I'm inclined to keep my purchases at Steap, which has better prices and as wide a selection. On the other hand, if I'm in the area and looking at a near lack of tea for the weekend, I wouldn't mind trying the Russian caravan or other teas.

Posted by SusieJ at 09:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

GR and I went to Sake Fest. Most memorable events: the catgirl, octopus salad from Fork, Gekkikan sake cocktails (a mohito and something with pineapple juice -- I'm happy to say I identified both the mint and the pineapple), crisp and fruity bubbly sakes, and best of all: dinner at the unfortunately named Lolitas on S. 13th.

Tasting wine makes me feel incompetent enough; it reduces me to the mantra of philistines everywhere: "I know what I like!" Sake just seems out of my league: I have few chances to try anything other than Gekkikan (I live in Pennsylvania, home of the most draconion liquor laws in the country). Additionally, I can't even distinguish between labels, let alone read them!

Sake Fest has been put on in past years, and seemed the perfect place to learn about sake. Its the perfect place to learn about new-to-you sakes if you are already comfortable with sake, but it was bad for a beginner.

There was no way for me to know what I was tasting or comparing. Each importer had their own printed material about the sakes they offered. There was an overall guide to all vendors and their wares, but it was merely a list -- not very useful. I eventually settled into a plan of tasting each table's cloudy sake to be able to compare apples to apples. At one table I just worked my way through four of their dryer sakes. (Turns out my cooking sake -- Fu Ki -- is dry. Who knew?) By the end of the night, I could apprecieate the difference between sweeter sakes and dryer sakes, and the cloudy (or milky) sakes. Of course, I liked the bubbly sakes.

Although the room wasn't packed, the tables were so small that it was a slog to get through and get a tasting cup. Attendees tended to get to the table, get a cup, stand right there blocking everyone else while tasting ... and get a taste of something else. Uniform materials about the sakes from each vendor would have been fabulous, especially if the material showed a picture of the bottle, the name in English, a general description (dry vs sweet), and a place for tasters to make notes. It could be part of the packet handed to attendees (drinkers?) with their fuschia wrist bands.

Honestly, I'd rather spend $55 on a few bottles and taste at home with friends!

Posted by SusieJ at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Nearly twenty years ago, my sister took me to dinner at Upstares at Varalli, because it was across the street from her hotel. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, as she was and is never in town. I'm fairly certain it was a Tuesday.

I also remember clearly where we sat (windows along Locust Street), what I ate (linguine or fettuccine) and most of all, what we discussed: should I start seeing this new guy I'd met? She gave me the best advice ever: yes, date him.

He and I eventually moved to an apartment around the corner and ate at Upstares regularly. We took my father there when we had tickets for Messiah and the Nutcracker; they always made sure we were out in time to make it across the street to the Academy of Music. We took friends who were delighted to discover that Italian food went beyond red sauce. After moving to the burbs, we would occasionally return with out-of-town guests.

While hunting ever more desperately for a place for my fortieth birthday, I finally remembered Upstares, and its downstairs sister Sotto Varalli. Yes, they could fit 25 to 30 of us in a private room and feed us a three-course meal.

The menu started with rocket salad or their field greens salad. Sensibly, most everyone picked the rocket salad, which had the most amazing, large ripe strawberries. These were better than the grocery store carries in June. I had the lobster ravioli, Tobi had the steak, and that guy I started dating had the linguine. We finished with enormous portions of chocolate pyramid or tiramisu (trite, but still excellent). The weakest note was the coffee, but was more than compensated for by the excellent wine selections — I threw myself on the staffs' mercy, and they selected the wonderful Zefiro Prosseco with the appetizers, and the Terlano Pino Bianco and Red Mud Shiraz with dinner. Yes, I had at least a glass of each.

Will I go again? Will I have another birthday?

Posted by SusieJ at 09:05 PM | Permalink

Whenever I'm downtown at night, I like to try a new restaurant because there is always a new place I haven't tried, and if I want to eat the same-old, same-old I can stay at home. Last night it was Miran at 2034 Chestnut after a massage at Total Serenity at 2108 Walnut. The atmosphere is "take out," but he food is better than that.

Miran's a BYOB, and, because I don't usually have a B tucked in my bag, I had the hot tea, which was probably Hyeonmi cha, Korean roasted brown rice tea. It was a wonderful antidote to January in Philly.

I started with the pork and kimchee steamed dumplings, then had the squid bokum &emdash; squid and veggies in a hot-sweet sauce. The dumpling filling and squid might have benefited from a minute less time cooking; the dumplings were not as juicy as I like, and the squid a bit more chewy. However, the flavor was good.

Most dinner entrees are served with "rice and side dishes," meaning short-grained rice and four or five small bowls of kimchee and a small bowl of iceberg lettuce, a slice of a tired tomato, covered in Russian dressing.

Service was casual (the waitress wore jeans and a McNabb jersey &emdash; I though the Eagles were out of consideration?), efficient (I was in and out in half an hour) and friendly (we both like su do ku). As I was finishing dinner about 6:30, the dining room started to fill up and my table was cleared immediately to seat the customers who had just walked in.

Squid bokum has become my favorite dish at Korean restaurants. As happy as I am that I can find something so good (and familiar) wherever I eat, it's disturbing to see Korean cuisine shoe-horned into American expectations of "these are the 20 dishes that $COUNTRY eats." That should have gone out of style with chop suey. If you wanted to define American food, you'd be hard pressed to limit it to 20 dishes. Of course, steak-house menus don't reflect that, do they?

Will I go back? Yes, Miran does at-table barbecue, and I'm sure my husband and son would love it.

Posted by SusieJ at 03:06 PM | Permalink

No longer do people avoiding eggs and dairy have to accept second-string (or third-string, or ...) cupcakes, thanks to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I'd bought this to bake birthday cupcakes for a toddler with severe and extensive food allergies: no one realized they were egg- and dairy-free. This is a great book for anyone baking for vegans, those with food allergies, or anyone who likes cupcakes.

At first, I was hesitant to commit to a full vegan cookbook and tried the sample chocolate cupcake recipe. It wowed everyone, I bought the book, and baked over a gross (a dozen dozen) of vegan cupcakes this summer.

So far I've made the chocolate (with chocolate, mint and coconut icings), lemon-lemon, vanilla, and carrot cake (with cream cheese) cupcakes. All were yummy. The carrot cake is the leading favorite: a few bites of intense, carrot-cakey goodness, perhaps even better than Dorie Greenspan's carrot cake. I am determined to make the green tea cupcakes before winter. Additionally, there are low-fat and gluten-free versions of the basic vanilla and chocolate cupcakes.

Complaints are few: I upped the cocoa content from 1/3 to 1/2 cup in the chocolate cupcake recipe; Republicans will want to skip the sections where the authors write about "cruelty-free" baking.

Because the recipes usually use oil (rather than margarine) as the fat, each cupcake recipe is super-easy, requiring only two mixing bowls and a whisk. (Icings usually require a mixer to beat the margarine.) Soy cream cheese is the most exotic vegan ingredient I've used so far (green matcha tea the most exotic non-vegan ingredient). If you aren't baking for vegans or the dairy-averse, I see no reason not to use dairy ingredients in the recipes. Plus — import for the parents of toddlers — without raw eggs in the batter, small children can lick beaters and bowls without anyone fretting over salmonella. (I eat raw batter, but certain short household members will need to be much older.)

One important thing: if you are baking for someone who doesn't eat dairy, check your margarine: most margarine contains milk products like whey or casein. Makes sense to me too. You may need to find the vegan section or or make a special trip to the vegan grocery store.

Will I bake from it again? Yes!

Posted by SusieJ at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It wasn't supposed to be another foodie weekend in New York, really. The plan was for the boys to see the Phillies trounce the Mets, and for Anne and I to visit the Neue Gallerie and its cafe. But we'd spent a couple hours at Dean and DeLuca, Sur la Table, and H&M, and a Steuben Day parade in Central Park had the Gallerie's Austrian cafe backed up to a 40-minute wait for a table at 2 p.m., so we turned back to Demarchelier just a block away at 50 E. 86th St.

Generally, I don't eat French because I can't afford it (I'm more the hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurant kind), can't pronounce it and don't have the patience to cook it. I may need to change this policy.

We wanted to try as much as possible, and didn't want to spend $20 (each) on a lunch entree, so we each had two appetizers. Anne began with a salad of field greens, and I had the country pate. This was followed by steak tartare (Anne) and a salad of endive, apples and roquefort (myself). To drink, Anne had Bass (one of three beers on tap) and I had a glass of chablis, at our waiter's suggestion after throwing myself on his mercy. We skipped dessert but had Earl Grey (Anne) and coffee.

With tax and tip it was a whopping $75. It was a lovely, leisurely treat, and quite a wonderful find. And we had the pleasure of helping the nice Spanish couple at the next table find a hotel. It was the first time a cell phone was ever justified at the table.

Will I go back? Probably not, but mostly because I live in Philadelphia, not Manhattan.

Posted by SusieJ at 09:53 PM | Permalink

Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin, 2006

Dorie Greenpsan has written what should be the defining home baking book for the beginning of the 21st century, as important as The Joy of Cooking was in the mid-20th Century. This book is for the home baker, not the pro-wannabe or over-exacting baker targeted by Martha Stewart and Rose Levy Birnbaum. There are a few recipes from her French training and her professional career, but most are American classics (biscuits, apple pie, chocolate layer cake). It covers breakfast through dessert.

This book first entranced me as I read it on my train ride home from work. It is a readable cookbook, more than simply directions. Greenspan discusses what makes each recipe special to her, and outlines basic techniques. By the end of the ride, I was hungry.

I wanted to bake every recipe in the book. I still do.

Her directions are excellent. At critical stages, she tells you what to expect. After cutting butter into flour for biscuits, she says the butter should be size of peas down to flakes of oatmeal, and everything in between. She recommends placing a cookie sheet under most baking pans to prevent over-baking the bottom. Each recipe includes appetizing variations.

Final results have been consistently good, although some recipes have had some easily-recoverable errors in the directions, such as forgetting to include the poppy seeds in the directions for the lemon poppy seed muffins or stating that a melted-chocolate hot-water mixture would be smooth, but actually seized (and un-seized when beaten into the buttercream). With luck, a corrected second edition will be published.

If you have only one book for baking, this is the book to have.

Posted by SusieJ at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The plan was to meet friend Sarah for Saturday brunch at White Dog in UCity. True to form, every time we go to brunch there, we are too early. On this occasion, an entire day too early — White Dog only does brunch on Sundays.

So, we punted, and went to the Bucks County Coffee just down Sansom Street.

Their menu was limited to pre-made items — no breakfast sandwiches or soups — but then, we were the only patrons at 10 a.m., and there was no later influx of Drexel and Penn undergrads that I could see. (As a former Drexel undergrad, I know they'd just be eating Cap'n Crunch out of the box.)

Pre-made items are from LeBus, and included muffins, croissants, wraps and sandwiches. I played it safe with a croissant that was buttery and probably delivered that morning. Sarah had a toasted bagel with two packages of cream cheese. Jake had a chocolate pretzel, because he'd had yogurt and a banana before leaving the house. Jorj also had a bagel.

My cafe au lait was warm and milky. Jorj had a chai latte. Jake had an Odwalla smoothie. Much more of a coffee connoisseur, Sarah had no complaints about her regular coffee.

Service was prompt and friendly enough.

Would I go back? It's not particularly convenient or breakfast oriented, and we can get a better breakfast elsewhere. But if I wanted a cup of coffee in UCity, I wouldn't avoid it.

Posted by SusieJ at 05:38 PM | Permalink

That was the title of my birthday present from my husband.

We're still married.

This cannot be what I think it is, I thought. He's not a jerk. He's not stupid.

No-one's face could hide the you've-got-to-be-kidding-me thoughts on receiving that title as a present, and Jorj quickly explained that this book was recommended by a co-worker as the only book with recipes of the foods her native Japanese mother makes. He'd mentioned this book (without title) before, and I'd told him to track it down.

Japanese Women (and yes, author Naomi Moriyama admits the title is derived from French Women Don't Get Fat) beats you over the head with how fat Americans (and soon Europeans) are, how skinny and long-lived Japanese (especially women) are, and how it's all due to diet (not a lack of medical coverage for 30 percent of the American adult population) and lifestyle. Eating like the Japanese do at home (not at the sushi bar) will correct this.

She might have a point, but for this book to be a keeper, the recipes need to be very good and quick to prepare. Everything I tried was both good and quick. The recipe for teriyaki fish alone is almost worth the price of the book. Rather than pre-making a teriyaki sauce reduction, Moriyama quickly marinates the filets in soy and sake, sautes the filets, deglazes with soy and mirin, and finishes with quickly poaching the filets in the soy-mirin mix.

The recipes all rely on quick techniques using widely available ingredients -- if not in your grocery, check the sources list in the back of the book. I spent the most time cutting vegetables (hello food processor). The recipes I've tried -- teriyaki, soba noodles, "Tokyo" salad, beef over rice and vegetable stir fry -- are all winners and I've made them all more than once.

Posted by SusieJ at 01:11 PM | Permalink

111 S 18th Street Philadelphia, Penna.

With a Starbucks on every corner and a house blend in every grocery store, a coffee lover need never go without an acceptable cuppa. Tea drinkers, however, are most often confined to the Bigelow/Twinnings/Tazo bag ghetto. Sure, gourmet groceries and even the average mega-mart carry loose tea, but there your choices are still limited to Twinnings and the Republic of Tea.

In Philly, a few stores carry quality loose tea: Fante's and the Spice Terminal are where I usually get my brew. For green and oolong, we go to Ten Ren in NYC, although MotoYamaMoto brand bags from any Oriental grocer are a good everyday choice.

In the past couple of years, the city seems to have become a tea-drinker's Mecca, with a number of new tea shops, including Ray's Cafe and Tea House, Remedy Tea Bar and Premium Steap. (I'm not forgetting The Bubble House, but bubble tea is very much an acquired taste.)

Returning from Suzanne Goin at Le Bec Fin, I walked past Premium Steap and had to give it a try. They have a larger collection of flavored teas than I expected -- flavored teas seem unsophisticated to me. I skipped the greens and oolongs because we have at least two, four-ounce bags of tea from Ten Ren. Old stand-bys seemed the best choices to assess the teas. I asked for English and Irish breakfast and received English breakfast, the house blend, and a sample of keemun.

As much as my tastes have refined over the years, I still like an English breakfast that can put hair on your chest. Alas, the Premium Steap English breakfast leaves one's chest no more hairy than before (much to my husband's relief). All three teas were more delicate than the supermarket standbys. The house blend tasted similar to the English breakfast blend, but the keemun was lovely.

Will I go back? Next time I'm in Center City I'll be experimenting with assam, darjeeling and keemun.

Posted by SusieJ at 10:03 PM | Permalink

Seeing as both the Book and the Cook and I have been around for decades, you would think I would have years of stories of dining on meals prepared by this favorite PBS host, and that FoodTV celebrity at some of Philadelphia's premiere restaurants.

No, I've always talked myself out of it, attending only the local food expo (or "Culinary Market and Showcase") back in the early 90s. I'm a foodie, it was a food expo, there was fun to be had. That for two weeks in March dining experiences were available that usually require a trip to California or New Orleans did not move me.

The Cook

But when a friend suggested dinner prepared by Suzanne Goin at Le Bec Fin, it was the prodding I needed, although perhaps not the event I would have chosen.

At $85, it was one of the most expensive events, and after tax, tip and the wine flight, it was closer to $200.

It was, however, exquisite. Goin and the Le Bec Fin staff prepared five courses from her book, Sunday Suppers at Lucques: an amuse bouche of tomato tart with capers, watercress soup, salmon a la "Lutece", grilled steak, and an almond financier with nectarines and almond ice cream. Additionally, they managed to select wines available from Pennsylvania's notorious (but improving) liquor stores to complement each course.

Every description of the meal that comes to mind is trite: "balanced," "fresh," "delicious," "complementary." The salmon and the steak are hard to consider part of a casual Sunday supper, no matter how professionally and elegantly prepared.

Goin toured the dining room, signing copies of her book and answering questions. After three minutes I can tell you she is pleasant and confident, "Lucques" is pronounced "Luke," and she too was one of a dozen Susans/Suzannes in high school. She also works very hard, because any chef who cooks that well and is that slim goes non-stop.

The Book

Two glasses of wine and I'm a sucker for a new cookbook, plus I was goaded into the purchase by my friend Heather, who is normally a very restrained woman.

Cookbooks that can be read like any other book are my favorite. In Sunday Suppers at Lucques, Goin starts with the family entertaining and Sunday suppers that kindled her love of cooking. She describes the inspiration for each recipe, in turn inspiring her reader. Goin herself or co-author Teri Gelber is an excellent writer, getting out of the way of the prose.

The recipes are divided by season, which makes the "cook local/cook in season" way of life attainable for us mere mortals who need to plan a week's work of menus before shopping, lest we spend each night playing "what do you want for dinner" with our spouse/life partner.

Although I was assured that the recipes were achievable by the experienced home cook, they do seem involved. The watercress soup and salmon might be possible for a Sunday dinner party, when I have two days to prepare.

Posted by SusieJ at 10:01 PM | Permalink

Last century, when we lived downtown, Dock Street Brewpub at 18th and the Parkway was a favorite if infrequent destination. The brew was varied, fresh and local (brewed down at Dock Street), and the food what is now standard brewpub fare, but at the time seemed new and innovative (and might have been). Dock Street's closing a few years ago was just another sign of the end of the 90's.

During the last snowstorm, we were at the Franklin Institute and, having seen that a new pub was in the old space, gleefully trekked down to the Public House for dinner and a trip to memory lane. The snowstorm was just beginning, so the bar and restaurant were quite deserted for a weekend night, something that could be either good or bad.

Turns out: bad.

Even with only a quarter of the tables filled, it still took an hour from the time we ordered until the food tepidly arrived. I had the grilled tuna sandwich, my husband the grilled chicken sandwich, our friends the calamari. We tried to order the hummus appetizer platter for the baby, but they were out of hummus (they couldn't find a can of chickpeas?) and settled for buttermilk chicken tenders.

The calamari was over-battered and the tuna sandwich was tepid. Both the chicken sandwhich and tenders were well-cooked, not underdone, not dry.

Against all logic and evidence, my husband ordered the bread pudding; I had a coffee to keep him company. Of course, the coffee came out first. Not only was it extremely long in arriving, it was dry as a bone. My only guess is the bread pudding was unmade and the chef threw it together, skipping the egg custard, in an effort to get it to the table before last call.

Would I go back? Not unless I was with a group of friends who absolutely could not walk another step without fainting from hunger. I could always have a salad.

Posted by SusieJ at 08:16 PM | Permalink