L2 : Philadelphia

L2 was really an odd bird. I just couldn't get over the strikingly bizarre decor. I felt like I was in an old basement. It was dark and the walls still were in the original unfinished concrete state, which could fly if you go full-hog with that minimalist style. But then you add maroon velvet seats and random decorations seemingly collected from garage sales and flea markets and I couldn't quite decide whether it was more the taste of an eccentric old lady or a goth teenager. Either way, the decor was distractingly strange.


But it was really the juxtaposition of the food and the decor that had me scratching my head. While the decor was dark and oppressive, the food had been prepared with a surprisingly light hand.

Apple & Carrot Soup - My gf and I had never had apple and carrot soup before and while this combination was completely new to us, it really grew on us spoonful after spoonful. In each bite, there was movement in flavor from the initial carrot taste to the sweeter apple flavor. Both were somewhat delicate and subtle, but nonetheless quite good. I want to say that there was celery in the soup, but I just can't recall it at the moment (either it was blended like the carrot or in miniscule pieces - either way it was not a major flavor). This was such an interesting way to begin the meal, making me wonder: is it possible for someone to have such bad taste in interior decoration yet have good taste in food?


Homemade Meatloaf - I never grew up with meatloaf, but my impression of it is that it's most commonly like a meal of turkey and mashed potatoes: heavy and served with a dollop of gravy.

But what the dickens? This was light? The sauce instead of being the standard heavy, fatty gravy was more viscous and hence made the meatloaf lighter yet still moist. I will say however that the flavor was a little more restrained than I would have liked and the accompanying vegetables/potatoes were nothing special. But it was certainly surprising to be able to order a meatloaf and not be stuffed afterwards.


Chilean Sea Bass - Again, the sea bass was light - juicy and almost flaky, the fish was cooked as it should have been; my only problem with it was that it was somewhat low on flavor.


Chocolate cake - Hmm, I'm trying to remember the chocolate cake but am having some trouble. I do recall the little squirts of decorative jam stuff was like overly sweet processed jam. But nope, sorry nothing. Can't recall the chocolate cake.



Anyways, we walked out of L2 satisfied with the meal, but feeling like we probably wouldn't come back. While I liked the soup, the lightness of the cooking and the portions, the flavors just were too plain and the whole atmosphere/decor was a big turn-off.



L2
2201 South St Philadelphia, PA 19146 (Map)
(215) 732-7878
l2restaurant.com | Yelp

Palace Kitchen : Seattle

I end my last post of Seattle, with Palace Kitchen & Bar, one of Tom Douglas's restaurants. Mr. Douglas is apparently the Stephen Starr of Seattle, helping kick-start the Seattle restaurant scene.

I have to first start with the question: What the hell is up with their gaudy neon sign? (I've shamelessly stolen the image from a Seattle travel site to make my point)


The words Kitchen and Cocktails alternate being lit in a very Las Vegas / titty bar-esque gaudiness. I couldn't tell whether this was some sort of Northwest intentially ironic thing or whether their demographic is people who were initially looking for a strip-club, but who are hungry and decide to stay...

The strange thing is that once you get inside, you've got your warm/inviting/modern decor and ambiance, complete with relatively attractive hostess and waitresses.


But whatever, I'm here for the food. And I apologize in advance for the neon gaudy photos. I did my best with Photoshop, but it wasn't working. You can think of it like they are here to match the neon sign.

Oysters 3 ways - raw, fried and clam chowder style. This wasn't bad, but nothing spectacular. How can you go wrong with a fried clam? And while the clam chowder wasn't anything to tinkle my pants over (I am from Massachusetts afterall), it wasn't bad.


Washingtonian Chicken - kumquats & cocoa salt - The chicken was what you wanted a decent chicken to be: well cooked, juicy, tender, and flavorful. But I really really wasn't a fan of the kumquats, which had too strong of a flavor, was a bit too sweet and was just distracting. Strangely, this was a much much larger portion than I was expecting, which made me hesitate to order dessert. But then I did anyway.


Braeburn apple crostada tangerine marmalade and buttermilk ice cream. This was too sweet three-times over. The best way to describe it is you take a sweet apple danish, add some buttermilk ice cream and then top it off with a sweet tangerine jam. I just couldn't finish this.



All in all, I don't think I'd return. To me Union, while still lacking an edgy innovativeness that I'd want, seemed a much better end-to-end meal. But then again, Union doesn't have that strangely mesmerizing neon sign...


Palace Kitchen
2030 5th Ave Seattle, WA 98121 (Map)
(206) 448-2001
Palace Kitchen | Chow | Palace Kitchen

Piroshky Piroshky : Seattle

What a fabulous name: Piroshky, Piroshky. It elicits such a Russian image. Together with the fact that it's such a tiny place and that there was a constant line in front makes you feel like you've uncovered a hidden gem. A hidden gem that happens to be in front of the massively touristy and popular Pike Place Market... but who's going to be this logical when you've found a "hidden gem?"


I'm not sure if I'll be able to fair on this place. For one, I've never had piroshkies (?) piroshkys? before. And secondly, I had stuffed myself on breakfast an hour prior, so couldn't find room in my stomach to have more than one of their piroshkies. And they have a good number of piroshkies to choose from.


That being said, my experience at Pike Place Market right before biases me towards giving this place a pretty negative impression. Pike Place Market gives me the same detestable tourist trap willies that Quincy Market in Boston gives me. (As a side note, I think that's why I like Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market so much.) And that together with having an unbelievable mediocre crab piroshky just gives me the impression that this place survives on duping unknowing tourists via its prime location alone.


My issue was that the "crab" piroshky was nothing more than crab creme cheese instead of a ordinary greasy pastry stick. My thinking that they might actually make use of the availability of fresh seafood seemed quite disappointedly unfounded.




Piroshky, Piroshky
1908 Pike Pl, Seattle, WA 98101, USA (Map)
(206) 441-6068
Piroshky Bakery | Chow | Yelp

Salumi (Not really) : Seattle

I forgot where I had heard about Salumi. It's owned by Armandino Batali, father of Iron Chef America and Food Network star, Mario Batali. And it's generally praised by likes of Anthony Bourdain and a number of Chowhounders

Anyways, I get there 15 minutes before their opening time, 11am, (others mentioned that this is the way to go due to its popularity). And as I kicking around pebbles, bored and waiting, I realize that it's Saturday...

... and they're only open Tuesday to Friday.

Aww crap.

Salumi, I'll have to try you some other time.


Armandino's Salumi‎
309 3rd Ave S Seattle, WA 98104 (Map)
(206) 621-8772
www.Salumicuredmeats.com
Chow | Yelp

Union : Seattle

After perusing some chowhound threads (which I can't seem to find now), I ended up picking Union and Palace Kitchen as my two restaurants to try in Seattle. Union is run by self-taught chef, Ethan Stowell, who also runs two other restaurants, Tavolta and How to Cook a Wolf (named after "the 1942 culinary novel by M.F.K. Fisher which spoke of hunger [the wolf] and the joy of eating).

At Union, you have the option to either order a la carte or order 4 courses for $50. I ended up going for the latter and overall, I must say that I was quite satisfied with my meal. The dishes were ingredient-focused, which I'm a fan of and they were all just tasty and well-executed. One minor nitpick was that all of the dishes played it safe flavorwise and I do wish that some of the dishes pushed on one's comfort boundaries a little bit more.


Totten virginica Oysters - w/ lemon, horseradish, EVOO. I guess this was an example of flavors playing a little bit too safe. There was plenty of sugar to nullify the tartness of the lemon, only a touch of horseradish, but not much as to cause a sinus burn. And overall the sauce covered some of the unique, but I suppose to some unpalatable, oyster taste.

Potato Gnocchi - pork cheeks, marjoram - I can't be objective when it comes to fried potatoes things. All I remember was that these were lighter than I expected and then the entire plate was gone.

Ahi Tuna - Sunchokes, escarole, golden raisins, pine nuts. (I thought I had ordered trout, but this matches the description of what I got). This was like I would cook fish if I could just master doing it. On the raw side, with a deliciously moist and tender texture. The golden raisins added a some sweetness and the pine nuts added some crunchy texture.

Buttered almond, crackers and cheese - light cheese, buttered almond - I forget what cheese this was and with my terrible memory, I can't remember the cheeses that would allow me to describe this one better. But I will say that it paired well with the crackers. The buttered almonds provided an immediate, full-bodied taste, which complemented the more complex/back-end flavor of the cheese and crackers, but I felt a little ambivalent on the simplicity of the almonds coated in butter, almost like they needed an additional flavor or two.

All in all, everything was very pleasingly done and the fact that some of the flavors played a bit too safe would not prevent me from recommending this fine restaurant.

I will also note that the service was quite good as well. Being alone, I ate at the bar and the bartender balanced chatting with me and letting me eat in peace with a great finesse.

Union
1400 First Ave. Seattle, WA (Map)
unionseattle.com yelp

Cow Chip Cookies : Seattle

Last month, I was able to bum around in Seattle for a few days. I've visited the city a couple of times before, but it was interesting this time to be able to concentrate my tourist activities on food related things.

First up, cookies. Hey, what did you expect?

Seattle is a quirky place; I mean why someone would name their bakery, Cow Chip Cookies is a little beyond me. Admittedly, there is the cute factor, but uhh, to state the obvious, you're associating cow dung with something you want to eat.

And their icon just crosses that cute line for me:


Shrug, I suppose I really shouldn't be saying anything, since if a bakery had spectacular tasting cookies, I'd probably champion them even if they were named "I just picked my nose and put my boogers in this cookie" cookies.


Cow Chip - The cow chip is their medium sized chocolate chip cookie. (Their big choco chip cookies are called Bull Chips and their mini versions are called Calf Chips.)

It had a buttery smell to it and was actually surprisingly light, tasting almost like a sugar cookie with added chocolate chips, which actually was a bit disappointing. The cookie just came off as intensely unconfrontational and lacking in personality that made it forgetable.




Horse chip(?) - Oatmeal Raisin - With an offensively artificial cinnamon/nutmeg smell and a taste like the scent of Williams Sonoma or other yuppy upscale stores.




There's something terrifically irritating about a person who tries to be overly politically correct. The same goes for cookies.


Cow Chip Cookies
102A 1st Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 292-9808
www.cowchipcookies.com | Yelp
($Bakery, $cookies, $Seattle)

Phileo : Philadelphia

Ugh, I'm not going to beat around the bush. Phileo was a major disappointment.

I was initially excited when I heard that Philadelphia finally got its own frozen yogurt place, Phileo. But if this is the best Phili can do, I'd rather not have a frozen yogurt place than have this monstrosity.

Aesthetically, Phileo has no shame in copying Pinkberry's distinct cutesy modern-minimalist decor. Fine, whatever. But in terms of execution of their yogurts, this copy-cat just has it all wrong.


Contrasting with the limited number of yogurt flavors offered at Pinkberry, Phileo provides a choice of 20 or so yogurt flavors, ranging from plain to mango. Phileo offers this selection in a self-serve model and charges by weight at $0.49/ounce.



We ended up going with 3 flavors: blueberry, strawberry and plain and 3 toppings: mochi, kiwi and blueberry.

The plain had a tartness similar to that of Pinkberry's, but did not have the accompanying sweet after-taste, making for a very unflavored taste. Whereas with Pinkberry's original flavor, you could probably get by eating just the yogurt, you really need to have toppings with Phileo's plain yogurt.

The blueberry and strawberry flavors were just flat-out disasters. Tasting like artificial powdered flavors, it just reminded me of why the original TGBY frozen yogurt junk died as it should have.

Putting 2+2 together (how plain the plain flavoring was and the artificial flavoring of the other two flavors), it's pretty obvious that the additional "flavors" of Phileo are not costing them anything more to offer. They're just adding concentrated flavoring to their plain yogurt.

And that gets at the irritatingly stupid thing about Phileo. It's as if they think that even though they lack quality in their yogurt flavor, they can get by on quantity.

Dude, no one wants 21 differing flavors of elephant shit. I don't care if you color it pink and call it strawberry-flavored. Give me one fantastic flavor and expand from there.

Ugh.

I truly hope that Yogorino holds up better.


PS. One more point, we ended up paying about $6, which is about the same we would pay at Pinkberry, yet another point of irritation.

Phileo
416 South St Philadelphia, PA 19147 (Map)
(215) 873-8361
Yelp
($Dessert, $Philadelphia)

Osteria : Philadelphia

Osteria has probably been the Philadelphia restaurant that I've been wanting to try for the longest time. Philadining's old review of Osteria was the first Philadephian food blog post that I came upon, when I moved here nearly two years ago. Needless to say, I had pretty high expectations for this place.


After seeing so new American restaurants that go for a uber-sleek, modern & minimalist feel, it's nice to Osteria veer towards a more warm and inviting aesthetic. Large windows, hard-wood floors with varnished wood tables give it an atmosphere that would be as accepted in the woods of New Hampshire as in Philadelphia.


My gf and I ended up going here fairly early on a Thursday evening. It was interesting to see the restaurant populate with customers (seemingly coming after work) throughout the night.





Lombarda pizza - baked egg, bitto cheese, mozzarella and cotechino sausage (cured in house). The baked egg seemed too intriguing to pass up. It was quite lovely. In particular the cheeses gave the pizza a particularly wonderful and sophisticated flavor. The crust is thin, but not overly crunchy (some thin-crusts tend to be more like crackers than pizza) and not overly blackened. There are nice touches of parsley and oregano.


Now, I hate to burst any bubbles here. When I first mentioned to my friend that his favorite food network host, Giada De Laurentiis, had a disproportionately large head, that statement ruined the show for him, since he couldn't stop staring at her head afterwards. And I fear my next statement may ruin some people's enjoyment of Osteria's Lombarda pizza. So if necessary, skip the next paragraph.

Ready?

So, my gf and I came to the conclusion that the pizza tasted like an upscale sausage, egg and cheese McMuffin. And once we observed that, we could not go back. Certainly it was tasty and complex and with a gooey egg yolk, how could you go wrong? But that familiar egg/cheese/sausage flavor combination, it was damn hard to not think of the first time you've had that combination in McDonalds. And there it was, the uber-ubiquitous multi-billion dollar restaurant chain had somehow wormed their marketing presence into one of the more renowned restaurants of Philadelphia.


Pig special - roasted all day with salt and pepper rub. I was a little bit disappointed with this, perhaps because my primary expectation for roasted pork is indulgent, juicy pork meat that has been constantly marinated in its own oily, greasy fat. And this was not the case here; the meat almost tasted healthy and it lacked a strong pork taste. Instead the primary flavor was salt (followed by other seasonings).



As for desserts, my gf was leaning towards just going to Capegiro, but when I'm trying out a restaurant for the first time, I'm always curious to see whether they can prepare a complete meal, from appetizer to dessert, well or not. So I managed to convince her to stay.

Coppa gelati e sorbetti del giorno - GF chose the 3 gelatos of the day - Pistachio, chestnut and cranberry. They had a nice sophisticated creamy taste, which was very nice, but I believe that the flavor of the ingredients (pistachio, chestnut, cranberry) should be the primary flavor and this was not the case. If I had my way, you'd have the ingredient-forward flavor found in Capegiro's gelato with this nice creamy aftertaste.


Cannolli with torrone semifreddo, candied fruit and creme anglaise - I was kind of disappointed. Flavor-wise, this was okay. But texture-wise, particularly with the cannolli, it tasted as if it had just been waiting in a fridge. (Why else would the outside of the cannolli shell be cool? I think I've gotten too used to shops which fill their cannolli's when you order.


I don't know, perhaps I was hyping up this place a little too much in my head or perhaps we'll have to visit again and try other dishes, but I ended up being a bit disappointed with Osteria. The lombarda pizza was good, no doubt. I loved the atmosphere and the service was also friendly as well. But the pork and particularly the desserts were just not out of the ordinary.


Osteria
640 N Broad St Philadelphia, PA 19130 (Map)
(215) 763-0920
www.osteriaphilly.com | Yelp | Chow

Dana Mandi / Asian Spice Food : The Best Indian "Restaurant" in Philadelphia?

*Edit* Mar 26, 2009 I think this place is called Dana Mandi / Asian Spice Food. At least, that's what their business card says. I just went here again and will add more thoughts on the new dishes.

So a few classmates recently told me that the best Indian restaurant to try in Philadelphia is actually not a restaurant per se, but rather an unassuming Indian grocery store on 42nd & Chestnut, where you walk to the back and order dishes. A few of my classmates had extremely strong praise for this place, one of them going so far as to say it was the best Indian food he's had *ever*.

"Ever?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes, try it out. I assure you this will be the best Indian food you've ever had."

Granted, this guy didn't know I'm a food geek, but still, this statement wasn't something to be taken lightly.

And I must say the whole idea of food being served where you don't expect it charms me in a certain way. I'm reminded of reading about banh mi being served in a video/underwear store in New York (which I have yet to try, but seems something I'd be utterly enthralled by.)

Anyways, I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the place, so I've shamelessly stolen a photo from Google Maps Street View. Talk about unassuming from the outside.


But the inside is what matters and indeed, the place looks just like a simple Indian grocery store, complete with an aisle full of Instant-cook Indian meals and snacks...


...until you walk a little further and ooh, you see glimpses of an open area, large enough for a few fold out tables and cheap chairs.


I won't reveal the dining area; I think that's actually part of the fun. (Plus, I didn't want us to stick out more than we already did.) Fittingly, there's actually a nice TV, which everyone was watching. You can actually rent a movie from the front of the store and pop it into the tv to watch while you're dining. I totally dig it.

As for the food, we went for "full" versions of the saag paneer and chicken tikka. The full refers to the two sizes of their dishes: full and half. We figured we had trekked out of our way to try this place out; we might as well have some leftovers.

And the food was pretty satisfying, almost in the opposite manner of Tiffin. Whereas Tiffin was the for the corporate crowd, this place seems like an Indian Mom is in the back cooking. The flavors are simpler, natural, and welcoming, yet still very well-done.

Saag Paneer Full size - I was a big fan of this. You can actually taste the spinach and I was bowled over by the fresh cheese. Absolutely loved the cheese.

Salty Lassi Half-sized (Compare it to the size of the plastic cup! How big is their full?!?) I'm not sure whether this was a toned down version or what, but I was surprised by how little spices were in this. It did have a yogurty/creamy flavor, but its flavor was one that perhaps purposely was to take a secondary role to the dishes.


Chicken Tikka Full-size - The chicken was well-cooked, nice and juicy on its own. The accompanying sauce (not in photo) was surprisingly sweet and oddly familiar, in my mind, very similar to the taste of ketchup and relish.



Naan The "waiter" recommended for us to get 4 naan, which ended up being quite large. (We ended up taking half the saag paneer and 2 naan home). The naan didn't stand out, but performed its role as the staple to the dishes.



All in all, would I agree that this was the best Indian food ever? Well, it's really quite difficult to say, since it's kind of like comparing your mom's cooking to a restaurant.

But on some level yes, this was one of the most unique and indelible Indian dining experiences I've had. And I certainly would have no hesitation in returning.

Most of the dishes here were by far the least greasiest, most healthy-feeling Indian food I've ever had. Instead of my usual "I stuffed myself silly, hands over my temporary pot-belly waddle" that I walk out of most Indian restaurants, I walked out of this place feeling quite content.

Add in the fact that you can buy some of the Indian snacks, drinks and supplies at the store and try at home, well it's certainly makes for a damn fun and simply satisfying experience.

PS. The waiter spoke English fluently without an accent, so no worries about language barriers.


Dana Mandi / Asian Spice Food
4205 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA‎ (Map)
(215) 387-5250

Menu: