If Pigs Could Fly...

OK, I'm starting to feel a little fickle, making multiple bold pronouncements about "the best bar snack." But I just keep running across really great ones! So, I do still love the Khyber's Pretzel Dog. I'm definitely still heading up to the Memphis Taproom for pasties. I do periodically need those bacon-wrapped, cheese-stuffed figs at Chick's.

But... I think we may have a new champion, and it's hard to imagine a credible challenge to this brilliant concept: Pork Wings.

Yes, that's right, like Buffalo Chicken Wings, but made with a vastly superior raw material. As far as I know, they haven't been doing any weird genetic modifications to cause pigs to sprout wings, these are actually pork shanks, with the bones frenched to make convenient handles. We had these as a special at Cantina Los Caballitos, although rumor has it that something similar is on the blackboard at Royal Tavern.

The sauce is more substantial than the traditional hot sauce and butter coating for buffalo wings, there's a nice barbecue-ish tang to it, and a bit of heat. The blue cheese dip might be a little predictable, but it's delicious, and a revered combo for a reason. The "wings" themselves are much meatier, with deeper flavor and less grease than a traditional chicken wing. It appears that they're grilled, or maybe broiled, definitely not deep-fried, giving them a perfect caramelized crust, but not an oily coating.

This one's going to be hard to beat... so I feel confident getting behind this one as the true champion, the best bar snack in the city.

We couldn't just get the wings though. So we needed some empanadas, which were better than ever. I really loved these when the Cantina first opened, then there was a mid-period when they were still good, but not transcendent, but I'm happy to say that they're back to being as good as ever, maybe better than ever. Tender pastry, wrapping a moist, flavorful shredded meat, that's all I ever ask for from an empanada.

We also got the Pork Anticuchos, rum-glazed grilled skewers of pork, served over a quinoa salad. Somehow I didn't manage to get a good photo of them, but they were quite attractive, but more importantly, delicious, with a nice char on the outside, but remaining juicy.

But the real reason we came was for the Goat Tacos. I've had a few goat tacos at taquerias around South Philly, but I never loved those. I'm not sure what prompted me to try these, they may have been recommended by Shola from StudioKitchen, and when he says something is worth checking out, I believe him!

And indeed, over the last six months or so, these have become one of my favorite things to eat anywhere. There's a depth of flavor to these that leaves most other tacos tasting bland in comparison, yet this version doesn't have that funky, gamey taste that so often shows up in this meat. There's something about the spicing and cooking technique that chef Mark McKinney uses that renders the meat tender, juicy, and vibrant.

I've been especially liking these with a little dab of guacamole and some pineapple salsa, but I'll also happily eat them plain. If you've never thought of eating goat, this might be the place to try it, you won't be sorry.

So, between the pork "wings" the empanadas and the goat tacos, this meal contained some of my favorite things. And the rest was pretty darn tasty too...

Cantina Los Caballitos
1651 East Passyunk Ave
South Philly
(215) 755-3550

The Memphis Taproom

As the edges of up-and-coming neighborhoods continue to expand and blur, it should be no surprise to find a gastropub up on the border of Fishtown and Port Richmond. I doubt the folks behind the Memphis Taproom use that term, they call it a "neighborhood kitchen and taproom" and while it's true enough that the menu is unpretentious and approachable, the ingredients and preparations indicate serious attention to the food. I kind of doubt that bufala mozzarella imported from Italy and vegan Seitan BBQ sandwiches are on the menus at too many other spots in the neighborhood...

Memphis Taproom strikes a good balance, with an esoteric yet approachable beer list and food that's both familiar and exotic. I don't see Cornish Pasties, Kielbasa or Rarebit on nearly enough bar menus, and this place makes me wonder why.

While perusing the menu, we enjoyed a couple draft beers, including an excellent Troeg's HopBack from the hand-pump. Then we started with a special of the day: imported bufala mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes and pesto. The tomatoes actually had flavor (on June 1st!) and the cheese was so creamy, it was hard to understand how it was maintaining a solid form.



The Pasties are an absolutely perfect bar snack: a light, flaky pastry filled with tender beer-braised beef, accented with a creamy horseradish sauce. Really, it's worth a trip just for these. Seriously, you should stop reading and get up there and order some pasties. Thank me later. Along with the Khyber's Pretzel Dog, this is one of those items that, in a perfect world, would be on every bar menu in town. Although in both cases it comes down to execution, and these are done beautifully. The wrappers are crisp and not greasy, the filling juicy and bursting with flavor. I might have liked a more aggressive horseradish kick from the sauce, but I'm a little masochistic that way. Even with the proliferation of empanadas around town, I'd say these are the best meat-stuffed pastries I've had in a while. I'm not sure whether to include Chinese pan-fried dumplings in this comparison, but these were good enough to even give the best of those some competition.

A special of celery root soup was intriguing. I worried it might be a little too hearty and wintery for what was a warm sunny afternoon, but what arrived in the bowl was actually surprisingly light, and infused with more celery flavor than I'd expected. I have to assume some of the tops were incorporated along with the root, giving a fresh, bright, green edge to the earthier root-vegetable flavors. It could have been served a little hotter, and I might have liked some bread alongside it, but those are minor quibbles.

One of the things that drew me to the Memphis Taproom on this particular day was the promise of the Port Richmond Platter. Recognizing the adjoining neighborhood's Polish population, this platter combines Kielbasa from Czerws, potato-filled pierogies, deep-fried potato pancakes and saurkraut. It's just about the perfect thing to eat while drinking beer, especially because each ingredient is so high quality. The pierogies are light and tender, dressed with perfectly sweet caramelized onions. The pancakes (perhaps too spherical to really be called pancakes, but we'll let it slide) are crispy outside and fluffy within, the kraut is fresh and tart. And the sausage... it's just an excellent product, simply split and grilled, and that's all you could ever ask for. Some good mustard is provided, but I rarely applied it, the sausage was so good on its own.

We also tried the Chicken Fried Chicken. The name is a little too logically circular for me - chicken made in the style of chicken-fried-steak, which is steak made in the style of fried chicken - aren't we back to "fried chicken?" This version is made with boneless breast meat, so I suppose it's not traditional fried chicken, but it's missing the creamy gravy that says "chicken-fried steak" to me. Regardless, it's very juicy, tasty chicken, with a good crisp crust, a mild red chile mayo underneath.

The biscuit and macaroni salad were undistinguished, but the greens were outstanding, with a bit of spice adding to their hearty flavor. I'd order this again, and maybe try to get an extra helping of greens... I wonder if we could talk them into offering the greens as a side order? And I'm still picturing this chicken with a cream gravy, and imagining that it would be pretty awesome like that. Still it's good as-is, I really should move past my general belief that gravy is good on most anything.

We were a little too stuffed with keilbasy to even think about desserts (that Port Richmond Platter is bigger than it looks in the photo!) but the Key Lime Tart sounded appealing for some reason. I'm glad we decided to indulge, it was very good, with excellent lime flavor complimented by freshly toasted almonds on top. (Note to purists: notice how it's not green? Finally, someone who makes key lime tart with real key limes, or at least real juice...)

Overall, we were very impressed by the Memphis Taproom. It's a lovely space, nicely renovated with a modern, but still pub-like feel. The beer selection is excellent, and the food is just as good. It's certainly worth the trip up to "Port Fishington" as they're calling that border zone between Fishtown and Port Richmond.

Memphis Taproom
http://memphistaproom.com
2331 E. Cumberland St (at Memphis)
Food from 11:30am-Midnight, 7 days

Pork and Beer at Osteria

I find that most visits to Osteria end up turning into a pork extravaganza. Of course they have lots of other things on the menu, but the pig products are often highlights. So the prospect of an all-pork theme dinner was attractive on its own, but combined with beer from Brooklyn Brewery, it was irresistible. And the dinner did not disappoint: the food was delicious and the beers were not only interesting and well-matched, but also accompanied by commentary from brewmaster Garrett Oliver.

I knew things would be good when someone handed me a glass of Keller Helles within seconds of arrival. Moments later, raw oysters with strips of coppa salami were passed, as was pastrami pork pizza and crunchy involtini do moratori. Once everyone had arrived and gotten settled, the food started coming for real.

Potted pork terrine with artichoke mostarda and brioche
Culatello with rhubarb salad
Brooklyn-Scheider hopfen-weisse

The terrine was absolutely delicious, fatty, smooth, intensely porky. It was nice spread on the toasted brioche, but I actually preferred the more rustic toasts that were also provided. It really reached its apex when paired with the sweet artichoke mostarda. The terrine was beautifully presented in a large jar, which was attractive, but a laughably large portion. Even among the six of us at the table, we barely made a dent in it. We saw many almost-full jars heading back to the kitchen, and it was so heartbreaking to contemplate the fate of the terrine, one of our party made the bold request to take the rest of ours home. They were nice enough to oblige, and she ended up with a HUGE heap of the stuff for later. I must find out what she did with it. Of course it would be fine to just snack on as we had, but we'd also contemplated how it would taste fried-up in a pan with some eggs...

The Culatello (pictured at the top of this post) had a pleasing salty intensity, and was especially good paired with the fine julienne of rhubarb scatted on top.

Snail and black pepper salame spiedini with fava beans

Local One

We've long said that chef Michaud has a way with snails, and this theory was confirmed yet again with this dish. Assertively salty and peppery cubes of salame offset the milder snails and sweet onions, the purée of fava beans providing a creamy backdrop.


Wild ramp ravioli with pigs foot ragu
Testina cannelloni with chanterelle mushrooms
Extra Brune

This was a contender for my favorite dish of the night, the mildly garlicky greens inside the delicate pasta wrappers given richness by the tender, almost gelatinous ragu. I love all the ravioli at Osteria, but this might have been my favorite yet.

But then the canneloni threatened to overshadow the ravioli... the pigs-head stuffing was very mild, more disctinct in its decadent texture than by flavor. But the generous pile of wild mushrooms and dusting of cheese on top balanced the subtlety of the filling, making for an ever-changing parade of chewy, soft, melty, salty, earthy, fatty...

Spit-roasted baby pig with patate al forno and toasted fennel seed
Brooklynator doppelbock

We've had the roast pig here as a special, and loved it, but this somehow seemed even more porky than usual. With its crispy skin, juicy meat, an assertive kick from herbs and olive oil, it really was the ideal roast baby pig. I'm embarrassed to admit that I made some undignified moaning sounds upon my first bite, and I think they may have continued for a while. I'm not at all sure how this manages to be so delicious, it could be down to good ingredients, or the particular method of cooking, or both. In any case, I highly recommend trying it if you see it offered as a special.




Black chocolate stout bavarian with raspberry salad
Vintage Black Chocolate Stout (winter 2005-2006)

A creamy mousse that echoed and complimented the flavors of the excellent aged stout that accompanied it. I really need to drink more beer for dessert.

The beers were good throughout, the earlier, light ones were actually a bit surprising in their complexity. The later, heavier ones were very nicely matched with the food, and the explanations about ingredients, history and process that Brooklyn Brewery's brewmaster Garrett Oliver gave added to the enjoyment.

Loudest applause goes to chef Jeff Michaud for the consistently delicious food, but thank to the rest of the crew for putting it together. I'd come to another one of these things in a heartbeat.

Blue Hill at Stone Barns

If you have the opportunity to attend a wedding held at the restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns, don't hesitate, do whatever it takes to get there...

The setting is beautiful, the food, spectacular, and the service has to be the best I've ever encountered: gracious and generous without feeling stiff or forced.

The full menu and commentary will follow, but in the meantime, the photos above are of butlered appetizers (and I missed a few, like the wonderful salami, and the simple, pristine, perfect baby carrots and bok choy.)

And here's dinner:





I think it's a sign of how entrancing the food was, and/or how much fun I was having that I somehow managed to miss photos of the desserts.

I'll add descriptions soon, I promise!

Porturuvian in the Northeast

It started as a quest for Peruvian Chicken. That particular style of rotisserie chicken, marinated and roasted in a specific way, has been quite popular in New York for a while, but hasn't seemed to make inroads in Philly. But we'd heard it was available at El Balconcito in Northeast Philly. So we trekked on up, thinking that some roasted chicken and ceviche would make for a nice light dinner. We should have known that we're fundamentally incapable of ordering a light meal, but even keeping that in mind, we were unprepared for the banquet that resulted.

First, we'd forgotten that El Balconcito is more than a Peruvian restaurant, it's also Portuguese. The menu is divided in half, and there are extensive options from both country's traditions. Second, given the reasonable prices, we significantly underestimated the portion sizes, and therefore drastically over-ordered. Not that such behavior is a bad thing...

We started on the Portuguese side of the menu, ordering Croquettas de Bacalao (above) and Chorizo. The croquettas did not have an especially assertive salt-cod kick, tasting more of potato, but they were so ethereally light, with a perfect fried crunch, that nobody was complaining. The chorizo was served over a dramatic blue flame, which sadly didn't show-up in the photo, but did add an appealing fresh crispiness to the moderately spicy sausage.

But, let's not lose sight of why we came: rotisserie chicken. We tried to order a whole chicken, but our waitress launched into a long and involved story in rapid Spanish. Did we mention that none of us really speaks Spanish? We can pick out a few words here or there, and know just enough that we can usually stumble through ordering at restaurants, but we were having a hard time following this story. But we did sort out that there was no rotisserie chicken, and even figured out that one has to call ahead for it. We later asked, in very stilted Spanish, when we would need to call, and got a very long and complex answer, from which we extracted the word mañana, so we're pretty confident that one needs to call a day ahead.

There did not seem to be any English-speaking waitstaff, but our server was very nice, and we did fine with some pointing and simple yes-no answers to a few things we could understand: "picante?" "Si!"

But, OK... no chicken... we can handle it, there's plenty on the menu that looks good. When in Peru, what else would one get? Ceviche of course. We ordered a basic fish version (as opposed to mixed seafood) and were unprepared for the HUGE pile of it that arrived, accompanied by a potato and sweet potato. It was very tasty, but would easily have served 8 people. The three of us made a good dent in it, and even used some of the vibrant, spicy, citrusy marinade as a condiment for a few other dishes, but we just couldn't finish it.

Another Peruvian specialty is Lomo Saltado, a stir-fry of beef strips, onion, tomato and french fries. It's pretty strange: the fries are soggy with sauce, the spicing is pretty subtle, and yet we came close to finishing it off, it has an inexplicable appeal.

As a consolation for not getting the roasted chicken, we tried the Chicharones de Pollo. While not anything especially unique, they were very tasty chunks of fried chicken, both greaseless and juicy. One could choose two accompaniments, and not having perceived how carbolicious the meal as a whole would be, we chose rice and Tostones. The fried discs of plantain were good, although we ended up using them as accompaniments for some of the other saucier dishes, rather than as partners for the chicken.

Finally, we headed back to Portugal for what was perhaps our favorite dish of the night: a stew of Pork and Clams. You can't actually see the pork in this photo, but there was a ton of it hiding below the clams, pickled vegetables, olives and crisp roasted potatoes. All were luxuriating in a rich brown sauce, which complimented the tender cubes of pork beautifully. This is comfort food at its best, and a huge portion for under $15.

We accompanied everything with a few Peruvian Beers (Cristal and Cusquena) and still got out for not a lot of money. I think we paid about $90 (pre-tip) between the three of us, and we took about half of the food home.

So now we know: order a chicken a day in advance, and order about half of what you think you want from the rest of the menu. Oh, and we need to brush up on our Spanish...

El Balconcito
658 E Godfrey Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19120
(215) 342-2340

Ken's Seafood - New Chinatown highlight

There's been a lot of activity in Chinatown lately, with a few noteworthy openings and renovations. The corner of 10th and Race is looking much better these days: the old Ho Sai Gai is finally being fixed-up, but even more exciting, a couple of doors away at 1004 Race, Ken's Seafood Restaurant has opened.

Some of us know Ken from Xiao Guan Garden, where he guided us through the best parts of that restaurant's menu. The selections available at the new place are not exactly the same, but similarly there are fresh fish, still swimming in tanks, and other traditional Cantonese dishes. The tanks hold a few different kinds of live shrimp, dungeness crabs, lobsters, eels and several species of finned fish, and there are clams, scallops and oysters on offer as well. The menu also offers such splurges as shark's fin soup, and abalone.

There's a diverse English-language menu with plenty of traditional items, and a smaller one written only in Chinese, and even better, if you can convince Ken that you're really interested, there's even more that the kitchen can do that's not on any menu. Although one can order pork, beef, chicken and duck, seafood is a good place to start here. Whole fish can be simply steamed with ginger and scallion or sauced more aggressively, I find simpler is better with such high-quality, ultra-fresh fish. Just be aware, this live seafood comes with a price: a good sized whole fish may cost between 20-30 dollars, the exact amount determined by weight. But it's worth the cost, the freshness is so evident that afterward you may only crave seafood that is still swimming when you order it.

Most seafood can be prepared various ways, ask for suggestions and pick whatever sounds best to you. Ken recommended some very large, red, live shrimp gently steamed with garlic. Prepared that way, they were sweet, tender and delicate. There are smaller, almost translucent shrimp that are good salt-baked.

There are clam dishes that one doesn't see too often at other restaurants. We sampled ribbony clam bellies, stir-fried with yellow chives.

Even better were Razor Clams, Hong Kong style. The long, thin clams were just barely cooked to an ideal tenderness, joined by crumbles of salty pork.

We were still feeling a little carnivorous, so we asked for Salt-Baked Porkchops. The chops arrived hot and juicy, a light, crispy coating carrying some salt and pepper, creating the impression of a perfect fried chicken. It was quite delicious just like that, but we were also offered a small bowl of soy spiked with hot peppers that added an interesting spin. Although this is primarily a seafood restaurant, they clearly do some good work with pork, and we saw a duck going by that caused us to contemplate distracting the waiter and claiming it for our own. There were several deep-fried dishes going to different tables, and judging from the pork chops, this chef knows his way around a frier.

To help celebrate his opening night, Ken sent us some plump, fresh oysters, and they were great, simply adorned with just the slightest drip of lemon.


Also worth noting was the house special soup, which had a deep, rich flavor, sweetened a bit by lotus root and some fruit.
If opening night is any indication, we've got another excellent choice in Chinatown, serving serious, traditional Cantonese food. Ken's is BYOB for now, expect a liquor license eventually. If you've got a large group, or are in the mood for a party, there are three private room upstairs, each fitted with a high-tech karaoke system and large flat-screen video monitors. We'll skip the off-key singing for now and concentrate on more of the pitch-perfect food emerging from this kitchen.

Ken's Seafood Restaurant
1004 Race St
Philadelphia, PA
215-351-7811

Everyday Good House

We'd read that Craig Laban was going to review this place in The Inquirer, so we decided to slip-in before the rush and check it out on the friday before the review was published. We figured it was a safe bet that if Laban was bothering to review it, it must be pretty good, and indeed it was true. We didn't have the benefit of his review to guide us, but interestingly, we ended up ordering many of the same things he did, and are in agreement that it was all very good, in fact we might have been even more enthusiastic about it than he was. We had no language problems at all. It's true enough that there's no English on the outside of the building, I'm not sure I would have even guessed that it's a restaurant at all from the street. But once inside, there's English on the menus, and most of the service staff we encountered spoke at least a little English, several sounded like they grew up in Philly. So don't let the language barrier dissuade you, it's not an issue.

As is our custom, we ordered entirely too much food, but we wanted to try as wide a range of things as four people could in one trip. As we sat down, the little plates of banchan started arriving, and there was a very nice selection, all of them quite good. We especially liked the tangy shredded greens which worked as a stand alone salad, and as a great condiment for barbecue. The slices of sausages were slightly odd, in that they were not at all odd: they could have been Hickory Farms Beefstick! Not that there's anything wrong with that...

There was good napa cabbage kimchee, some noodles, marinated beansprouts, some greens, some cubes of root vegetables, lots of good things I didn't manage to get in-focus photos of.

I find it very hard to start a Korean meal without a Haemul Pajeon, the seafood pancake that is often a little disappointing. Not so here, in fact I think it might have been the best Pajeon I've ever had: light, crispy with just barely enough batter to hold it together.

But the real draw here is the barbecue, and I was really happy to see real charcoal in the in-table grill.

We opted for their special spiced Kalbi (beef short rib) and some Pork Shoulder.

Both were excellent, but I especially liked the Kalbi. It wasn't goopy with marinade, yet had a great extra flavor, not merely grilled meat. That said, plain-old grilled meat was just fine on the pork side: it had plenty of flavor from the charcoal, the very high heat giving a really nice sear on the outsides. The staff was really nice about checking-in on the heat source, and changing out the grilling surface a couple of times, so it didn't get too gunked-up and smoky. This was really delicious barbecue, I'm eager to head back for more of that Kalni in particular, but I also want to try their Bulgoki, which Laban seemed to like.

We're also suckers for a Dolsot Bi Bim Bap, a rice-with-stuff dish served in a hot bowl, which creates a beautiful crust on the rice. Here's ours just before dosing it with hot sauce and giving it a stir:

I'm not sure what it was about it, perhaps just the high-quality fresh ingredients, but this was the best Bi Bim Bap I've had.

We also got a Sundubu Jiigae (soft tofu stew) which was assertively spicy, yet delicate, and very tasty.

Along with it we got some of the most beautiful rice I've ever seen. It happened to be quite delicious too.

We also couldn't resist something called a "giant Eggroll" or some such thing, even though we had no idea of what it would be. As it turns out, it was a large scallion omelet, and very tasty, especially with the suggested condiment of ketchup!



The also very kindly let us sample some rice cakes in spicy sauce, and even though we were about to explode from overeating, the chewy noodles were quite good, and the sauce had quite a kick, a nice way to finish up the meal!

Service was very friendly. If we had any complaints, it was something that was our own fault. We had a huge pile of food on our table in rapid succession, I think next time we'll stagger the ordering a bit. All of the food was delicious, I'd say the best I've had yet in Philly, including some other places up in the Northeast. And prices were quite reasonable, partly because the portions were reasonable: not huge platters of meat for $30, these were better sizes for better prices, making it easier to try a few different things on the grill, or leave space for other dishes. Or both.

So, don't let the nondescript exterior intimidate you, inside it's quite pleasant and the staff is welcoming. Most importantly, the food is worth any inconvenience.

Everyday Good House
(Chez Tae Yun)
5501 N. Front St. (at Olney)
Philadelphia, PA 19120
215-276-7942

UPDATE!
We went back a short time later, and again had some great food, although not quite as universal as the first visit. The Haemul Pajeon was once again spectacular, it's absolutely required eating when visiting this place. We had to order the spiced Kalbi again too, and it remains a favorite. I'm really not sure how they do it, it doesn't seem to have much of a marinade on it, nor a spice rub, but it definitely has more flavor than most of the shortribs I've gotten at Korean Barbecue restaurants.

This time we also tried the Samkyupsal (pork belly) on the barbecue and we've come to the conclusion that, as much as we love pork belly, this is not the way we like to cook it. We've tried it at a few places now and we're always underwhelmed, it just doesn't have that much flavor, and the quick, hot grilling doesn't enhance the luxuriousness of the fat, instead it gets a little hard and chewy pretty quickly after the raw stage. So now we know, we'll go with the shoulder/butt when here, and the spicy pork at places like Kim's, but save the pork belly for slow-cooked preparations.

We also got a couple of casserole/stew things, and both times, got some raised eyebrows from the waitress. She was a little surprised that we actually wanted these dishes, and in once case she might have been right... We weren't especially fond of the Pork Bone Soup, even after jazzing it up with the coarse salt and tangy sauce they provided. It just didn't taste like much, although the bits of meat in it were fairly tasty.

We had much better luck with the Oxtail Stew, although again, our waitress seemed a little surprised that we wanted it. It was a little hard to eat: the meat was still pretty firmly attached to the jagged bones, and those were packed pretty tightly into the bowl. But it was worth some wrestling to get at the flavorful meat and spicy, rich broth. We're only guessing but we think those might be mustard seeds dusting the top of this dish - whatever they are, they lend a great layer of flavor to the already intense concoction underneath.

So, we didn't love the pork belly nor the pork bone soup, but everything else was quite good. We liked the banchan, especially the shredded salad, although the variety is a little greater at Seo Ra Bol. And the meats are a little more saucy and flavored at some of the other barbecue places, such as SRB or Kim's or Pan Dol Re. Still, that spiced Kalbi is a winner, the pajeon is unmatched, and the bi bim bap is hard to beat, so we'll be going back to Everyday Awesome House before long, I'm sure!