Tinto : Philadelphia

Given the amount of exposure and respect that Garces gets with all of his restaurants and Tinto in particular (Laban, Philly Mag Top 50, Phily Mag on Garces, Winner of James Beard Best Restaurant)  I'm not quite sure what I can add to the conversation.

But I will say that unlike this poster's first experience at Tinto, my gf and I had a pretty nice experience at Tinto.  We both ordered the regular chef's tasting and were given 4 plates each along with dessert.  We loved the dark and the intimate interior, which reminded us our trip to Spain a few years ago.  And the live flamenco music was a nice touch as well.  

Amuse Bouche Parmesan Cheese Rolls - Nothing extraordinary, tasting like cheesy thin crackers.  Can't really get over my association with thin crusty cheddar cheese with artficial snacks. All I could think of was Cheese Nips.

Chorizo Pomplona (?) - w/ house made egg salad, topped with green bean (?). Loved the sausage. Fattiness made it juicy, but not overly oily. The egg salad was pretty good, though I couldn't quite understand how they went together with the sausage

Cheese plate - don't remember what kind of cheese, but I believe some quince jam, honey with bee's nectar, slices of granny smith apple, sprinkle of paprika.  Quite lovely stuff, all of it pairing well.

Berkshire Pork Cheek - Celery Root-apple Puree, alhambra negra demi, marcona almond brittle.  Tender, tender meat.

Duck - Duck confit, serrano ham, black cherry, la peral spread -  Lovely stuff, the dark sweet cherry flavor complementing the more savory gamy duck and spread very well.

Moules Basquaise - mussels, chorizo, frites, lemon aioli - frites solidly done although a little on the salty side, but the lemon aioli made a lasting impression, bright enough to really grab your attention.  The mussels were also nice, in a tomato based soup with chorizo.

Green Beans - haricot vert, almonds, dates, orange segments, paprika, sherry vinaigrette - This combination of ingredients is something that I think I'd try out on my own.  As a result, I didn't think this was that transcendent, only that what I'd do would not be nearly as well-executed.

Butifarra - house-made garlic sausage, lentils, pedro ximenez  - Lentils nicely cooked, balanced out the juicy sausage.

Rodaballo a la plantxa - turbot, sauce pastis, baby fennel, citrus - Thought the fish was slightly over-cooked, but was interesting with the various citrus pieces.

Gateaux Basque - traditional basque cake, pastry cream, black cherries - Pretty nice, this was gone before I had a chance to really think about it.

Bananas y Azafran - chocolate cake, caramelized bananas, saffron crema - Carmelized bananas were nice especially with the interesting saffron cream.

All in all, we came out quite happy with the meal, service and the atmosphere.  I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to be back, but I'm glad to have tried another of Garces' restaurants.

Tinto
116 S 20th St Philadelphia, PA 19103 (Map)
(215) 665-2474
www.tintorestaurant.com‎
Chow

($Philadelphia, $Recommended)

Chinatown Chinese Bakeries : Philadelphia

This post is to summarize my thoughts on the Philadelphia Chinatown bakeries as I get to them. At this point, none of bakeries I've tried stick out as a destination location (as in a visitor to Philly *must* visit the place), so I think this is more geared towards the Philly newbie who likes Chinese bakeries.  (Btw, if you're brand new to Chinese bakery, Wikipedia is the best link I can find right now as an intro.)

But who knows, Philly's restaurants have proved me wrong in the past and I'm hoping one of the remaining ones will blow my socks off and I'll have to rescind that comment.

As an fyi, compared to Chinese bakeries in other cities, Philly's seem to be slightly but relatively cheaper.

In the map below, the pointers with dots in them mean I've visited them and the ones without, mean that I haven't.


View Philly Chinatown Bakeries in a larger map

Green Land Tea House
210 N 9th St Philadelphia, PA 19107-1813 (Map)
(215) 238-1688
- Currently my favorite for their honest and not overly sweet flavoring and baking technique. Particularly dig their buns. Full Review

K.C.'s Pastries
145 N 11th St. Philadelphia, PA 19107 (Map)
(215) 351-1177
- My old go-to bakery. Liked their Egg Tarts and thought their buns while nothing outstanding weren't anything most would complain about.

St Honore Bakery
935 Race St Philadelphia, PA 19107-1805 (Map)
(215) 925-5298
- Am partial to their glutinous rice pancake with red bean (siu bang). Think their egg tart and buns are ok as well.

Mayflower Bakery
1008 Race St Philadelphia, PA 19107-2306 (Map)
(215) 629-5668
- Very light buns, both in texture and in flavor. Interesting pineapple bun. Good technique, but light flavor made it unsatisfying for me. Full Review

New Harmony Bakery
901 Race St Philadelphia, PA 19107-1805 (Map)
(215) 923-7400
- Decent sesame seed ball with red bean (Ji ma gok), but I thought the buns were average. Full Review

Star Shine Cafe

902 Arch St Philadelphia, PA 19107 (Map)

- This seems like it should be more popular than it is.  While, some of the buns are not to my personal liking (mayo in ham/egg?!?), others were fairly decent.  Full Review.

Hong Kong Bakery Shop
917 Race St Philadelphia, PA 19107-1805 (Map)
(215) 925-1288
- Strangely, the egg tart may be my favorite of Philly, but the other buns we tried were unmemorable/average  to needing some work.  Full Review

International Bakery

232 N 10th St Philadelphia, PA 19107-1819 (Map)

(215) 627-5831

- Running much more on the plainer side, even more so than Greenland. Quality not too bad, so if plain is your thing, this might be the bakery for you.  Full Review

Asia Bakery

115 N 10th St Philadelphia, PA 19107-2402 (Map)

(215) 238-9295

- Hooray for serving steamed buns.  No bun uniquely stood out and ranged from "wouldn't order again" to average/accessible bun.  Full Review

Zhong Gang Bakery

127 N 10th St Philadelphia, PA 19107-2402 (Map)
(215) 923-8268

- Interesting custard glutinous rice cake. Buns slightly lighter than avg, but more or less your standard quality. Full Review

Mongkok Station

153 N 10th St Philadelphia, PA 19107-2414 (Map)
(215) 928-9228
- Never wrote a full review of them, but I wasn't a big fan of their buns.

Bread Top House

1041 Race St Philadelphia, PA 19107-1810 (Map)
(215) 925-3802

- Was not a fan. Either too sweet, artificial, generic or dry.  Full Review

($Bakery, $Chinese, $Philadelphia)

New Harmony Bakery : Philadelphia

Continuing on my round-up of Chinatown bakeries, my gf and I stopped by New Harmony Bakery on 9th and Race.


Sesame Seed Ball (Jee ma gok) - Nice crunch on the outside and not overly oily. Not overly sticky or sweet rice paste. But damn, there needs to be more red bean paste than the meager amount inside.


Dan ta - Decent, the crust was slightly more powderly/crumbly than other renditions I've had. But the filling was nothing especially notable.


Ham & Egg - Rather generic and like the average acceptable Chinese bakery. You have your chunk of slightly sweetened egg and your chunk of ham, where the juice of the ham has slightly seeped onto the inside of the bun butt crack making for a slightly juicy experience. The bun also has a sweet lathering as well.


Taro bun - Didn't find the taro insides to be interesting and your bun was your standard slightly sweeten bun.



Raisin Twist - Again, nothing that outstanding about this one either. You standard raisin twist.


This Rec on Chowhound is from 2007, so perhaps things have changed since then, but I didn't really find much here about the buns to be that excited about.

For an overview on all of the Philadelphia Chinese bakeries, here's my roundup.

New Harmony Bakery
901 Race St Philadelphia, PA 19107-1805 (Map)
(215) 923-7400
($Bakery, $Chinese, $Philadelphia)

Mayflower Bakery : Philadelphia

I'm doing my best to do a round-up of Chinese bakeries in Chinatown, this time following up on a few old Chowhound votes for Mayflower Bakery.

Ham & egg - Overall, the flavor or this bun was light. Instead of the usual think chunk of slimy ham, there was a single cold cut slice. I could hardly taste the egg slice and the bun itself was fairly airy. I personally found the lightness in taste a little unsatisfying, but that shouldn't take away from the skill I suspect to make this.


Pineapple Bun (Buo Luo) - The topping is unlike all other renditions of this bun I've had. The crunch lasts past the initial first bite, almost like sugar bits in a smoothie. Like the ham & egg, this was pretty light in flavor, with the topping not contributing much flavor besides a subtle sugary sweetness. Really rather intriguing bun.


Raisin Twist - Tasted more like a loaf of regular raisin bread, with higher proportion of breading to raisins/sugar than other renditions. While not bad, I don't think I'd have my usual hankering for raisin twists with this version.


I suspect that my preferences for buns just differ from the ones made here, since most buns just didn't have enough flavor to be satisfying to me. But that shouldn't detract from the solid baking skills, especially for the Pineapple bun, which was quite unique.

For an overview on all of the Philadelphia Chinese bakeries, here's my roundup.

Mayflower Bakery
1008 Race St Philadelphia, PA 19107-2306 (Map)
(215) 629-5668
($Bakery, $Chinese, $Philadelphia)

Tai Lake : Philadelphia

My parents passed through Phili for a little less than a day and besides taking them to my usual hunts in Reading Terminal Market (Dinics, Dutch Eating Place, Hershel's) and Heung Fa Chun, we also checked out Tai Lake in Chinatown, based on my gf's dining experience.

While we didn't end up ordering what she really liked, the lobster rice porridge (this only seemed to be on their siu yeh [宵夜 = late night snacks] menu), we did have a fairly solid meal there.

Boiled shrimp - After spotting the shrimp in the tanks out front, my parents opted for this relatively simple dish and it was quite nice. My dad explained that you can only really do this at restaurants where you spot fresh sprimp in the tanks. And like the New England lobster, the idea is that the fresher the shrimp, the less flavoring you should put on it. And here the shrimp didn't disappoint, the texture reminding me of fresh lobster.

(These aren't the shrimp we ate, but they photograph better than

the smaller gray ones we did end up getting.)

Black Chicken & Herbal soup - I actually don't remember ever having black chicken before, but the skin of the chicken is black and purportedly, the meat is gamier than "regular" chicken. (See Wikipedia, NYtimes) As the chicken had been stewed in the soup and then the meats/herbs separated from the broth upon serving, this was probably the wrong dish to see the difference between black chicken and regular.

But as for the soup, it was quite lovely, a lot more herbal than the soups I usually make from my measly soup mix (perhaps I add too much meat?)


Steamed Striped Bass - So, it turns out that my over-cooked fish meter might be a little skewed. While flavorful and pretty fresh, the meat was tougher than other steamed fish I've had, kind of like pork that's been boiled (not nearly that bad, but a texture I associate more with land meat). In the past I'd probably call this slightly overcooked, but my parents deemed it due to the type of fish. Shrug, guess it doesn't matter if it tastes good. We plowed through the entire fish.



Chinese Water Spinach (Dow Miu) - Very good, mainly because of its freshness, leading it to be extremely tender and easy to eat. Flavored with garlic and some fu yu (腐乳, salted and fermented tofu)


Sauteed duck tongue with basil - Not sure why they say basil, when it comes with strips of Chinese celery, which are slightly more bitter than the regular celery. The duck-tongue was okay, while the Chinese celery was a bit tough to chew.



Taro Tapiocca Pudding (西米露) - A solid version of the taro dessert to top things off.

This place no doubt serves solid food, but I'm going to hold off saying anything more on this place, since the dishes we ordered are more Cantonese ones and if things can be just judged from the name (Tai Lake is on the border of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces), this place might actually specialize in a slightly different Chinese cuisine.

Hopefully if I get a chance to return, I'll try asking for what they specialize in.


Tai Lake
134 N 10th St Philadelphia, PA 19107-2309 (Map)
(215) 922-0698
($Chinese, $Philadelphia)

Keeping Milk Fresh Longer

A shrinking jug may help keep your milk fresh longer. Apparently exposure to air causes milk to go bad, so this jug shrinks as you use it (think toothpaste tube), permitting milk to be exposed to less air.


Read the full details here

Yogorino : Philadelphia

Folks have gotten a little impatient with how long Yogorino took to open, but after visiting today, I must say that the wait was well worth it.


I think Capogiro has some real competition on its hands and I wouldn't be surprised to find similarly long lines for this place soon.

I'm really pleased to find that it's not just another Pinkberry clone. Rather there's a distinctly Italian spin to it that's distinct enough to stand on its own and something that I might in fact prefer over Pinkberry (I'll of course need to return for further investigation).

There's only one flavor of yogurt, plain, which is not quite as tart as Pinkberry, but has a pleasing creaminess. You can choose from 6 different liquid toppings: white chocolate, chocolate, pistachio, hazelnut, coffee and walnut, in addition to various fruit, nut, and muesli dry toppings.


We opted for hazelnut and strawberry and thought it was delicious. The hazelnut reminded me of hazelnuts in a Lindt truffle and really melded well with the yogurt. The strawberries were fresh and cut in small pieces appropriate for easy scooping.


Just about the only reservation I have is the price. There's 4 sizes: mini, small, medium and large and they were $2.99, $3.99, $4.99, and $5.99 if I recall correctly. These prices include only one topping, with each additional one $0.50 extra.

I suspect these high prices are covering the high-quality ingredients and the fancy cups and spoons (made in Italy), but for those prices, this isn't an everyday treat. (For that, I'm still going to regular Old Nelson Deli for its YoCream yogurt, despite what anyone says.) But I'm more than happy to have this in town and get a particular kick knowing that this is the first Yogorino location in the U.S. (yeah, not New York, LA, but Phili.)

I'll be returning soon, hopefully before the long lines start to form.


Yogorino
20th & Locust St Philadelphia PA (Map)
www.yogorino.com

Store Hours:
 Mon-Thur: 11am - 1pm
 Fri: 11am - midnight
 Sat: 10am - midnight
 Sun: 11am - 10pm

($Dessert, $Philadelphia, $Recommended)

Down Home Diner : Philadelphia

I generally like eating breakfast at the Dutch Eating Place at the Reading Terminal Market, but I had read a Chowhound poster stating their preference for Down Home Diner over Dutch Eating Place. And I've also seen posts about their scrapple as well, so my gf and I ambled on down to give them a shot.

And to get straight to the point, it was definitely nice to try them out, but we were both not really fans. Not that things were bad by any means, just not to our taste. And in all fairness, I will note that it could perhaps be our background at play, since some of things we tried out were new to us.

For example, the scrapple. This was really our first time trying this and well, to us it tasted like a fried slab of dry corned beef hash. I find the history of scrapple to be interesting, especially the fact that it has remained so Pennsylvania-centric, but I suppose it might be one of those things, where I just need some Pennsylvanian native to show me the ropes on how to eat this thing (some eat it with maple syrup or other toppings) and why it deserves more attention.


Virginia salted ham - If one couldn't tell already, I'm not really a big fan of salty things. And the menu does clearly say "if you don't like salty things, you won't like the Virginia Salted Ham" so I will not really comment critically on this one. This tasted very much like some Chinese preserved sausages I've had. The poached eggs on top were pretty decently done.


Country Sausage and Biscuit (unsure of name) - My knowledge of Southern cooking is very limited to say the least and I was expecting an oily sausage/buttery biscuit/heavy gravy all-out flavor assault from this dish. But was somewhat disappointed by this. The sausage was rather dry in some parts and needed to be mopped in the gravy to be manageable.

The gravy was well surprisingly light in texture (a plus) and in flavor (a minus).

The biscuit wasn't as buttery as I thought it would be, just dense and kind of plain-tasting. It also needed to be mopped with the gravy.

The baked apple pieces were fine and a nice respite from the rest of the dish. But huh? I'm focusing on the baked apple pieces?

*Edit* Forgot to mention that the gravy, biscuit and sausage were all luke-warm, contributing to the blah quality of this.


I'm open to hearing from those more knowledgeable about these dishes, because I suspect Down Home Diner's appeal is on those who grew up with these dishes. Personally, I'm keeping with my favorites for the time being.


Down Home Diner
Reading Terminal Market
12th St & Arch Street Philadelphia PA (Map)
Down Home Diner
($Brunch, $Philadelphia)

KFC Recipe Revealed?

Some dude claimed he successfully reverse engineered KFC's famously secret recipe.
 
The Guardian tests out his recipe and sees if they can one-up it.

[via mefi]

Green Land Tea House : Philadelphia

**Edit Jul 27, 2009** Appended zong zi.

I saw a brief mention of Green Land Tea House in Chow, stopped by and inexplicably got a good vibe from the place. I'm not sure why exactly. I found the layout to be kind of strange and not as welcoming as the more open K.C. Pastries. And the location on 9th St seems a bit lonely, away from the main action on 10th St.


But I really wish I had looked through or asked about Chinese bakeries on Chow earlier. I'm going through some older Chowhound threads now on Greenland and other Chinatown bakeries (See here, here, here and here), am learning a lot and it really makes me want to run through all of the bakeries in Chinatown now to see which one is tops, since there hasn't been much activity of late.

Anyways, here's a few nuggets of info. Greenland apparently stopped serving what some considered their best and most unique buns, Mexico buns, peanut butter coconut bun and swiss rolls (not quite sure on this. They had swiss rolls there). They serve zhou or rice porridge and zongzi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), which I'll do my best to try out. There's also a few other recommendations for Mayflower and Harmony Bakery, also both of which I'll have to try out too.

As for the Greenland buns, compared to the places I've been going to before, K.C. Pastries and Saint Honores, they're noticeably more honest tasting and less sweet. I wouldn't say these are a must-try for a visitor, but if no other bakeries pan out, I wouldn't be ashamed to say that this is my regular Chinatown bun shop.

Egg Tart - Thinner outer crust, a little on the flimpsy side and not too crunchy. Egg custard a little plain tasting, which admittedly is better and more natural than the overly sweet stuff, but could be better.


Coconut Pineapple bun - light flaky, delicate flaky covering. Inside coconut not overwhelming. Overall a really light balanced bun. Nice.


Ham & Egg - Juicy piece of ham (granted it's probably not the highest quality piece of meat). Scrambled egg. Comfort food of sorts.


Rice Cake with Bean Paste - Especially nice if you re-pan fry this, where the rice cake will have a nice crunch. Like the other buns, the inside paste is less sweet than I'm used to, tasting more like the beans they originated from, which I'm not sure I'm a fan or not. As you can see in the picture, there's also not that much filling. I'm kind of still leaning towards Saint Honores for this.


BBQ Pork - Like the others, honest tasting would be a good way of describing it. I find the bun to be better-executed than K.C. pastries, almost like a decent brioche.


Yellow Bean (HK) Zong zi & Mushroom Pork Zong zi - Yellow bean was decent, but the mushroom pork zong zi was quite enjoyable. I might get this again, when I get around to trying out their pi dan zho. (Went late in the day and they were out this time)




For an overview on all of the Philadelphia Chinese bakeries, here's my roundup.

Green Land Tea House
210 N 9th St Philadelphia, PA 19107-1813 (Map)
(215) 238-1688
($Bakery, $Brunch, $Chinese, $Philadelphia)

Strawberry Daifuku Mochi: An Unmitigated Disaster

**Edit Aug 25, 2009** My gf lent a hand in making these again and with her help and my last experience in mind, they didn't turn out so badly this time.


Regarding the anko which was the main issue last time, my gf convinced me to pick up some Chinese red bean paste at the local Chinatown supermarket. While it was more pasty and was moldable, I don't think this has quite the right taste. If I were to make this again, I'd probably look up how to make the red bean paste on my own.


Lastly, as for the mochiko (glutinous flour) gram measurement fiasco, we ended up using 1 cup as suggested by Kiteekake's recipe. Despite the recipe saying it made 10 mochi, we ended up with 12 and still thought that each ball had too much mochi. Our preference is that the mochi layer be pretty thin, which might be fairly challenging, given how hot the mochi can be when it first comes out and how quickly it cools and becomes unmanageable afterward.

**Original Post**

After stumbling upon ChocolateAndZucchini's Recipe for Ichigo (Strawberry) Daifuku Mochi, I became rather intrigued with making these. After hearing her describe freshly made daifuku as having "glow and bounce" and seeing her gorgeous pictures...

ChocolateAndZucchini's beautiful Ichigo Daifuku

well it was kind of hard to resist trying, despite never having made anything like this before.

I did a bit more poking around the internet, watching the CookingWithDog video...



... and reading Kiteekake's recipe and eGullet's thread (both of which also have some great looking photos as well).

For those too lazy to click over to any of the recipes (dude, really?), the basic gist is first wrapping the strawberry in red bean paste (anko), secondly cooking up the sticky rice blob (mochi) for 10 minutes and then wrapping the red bean/strawberry with the still warm mochi, which slightly hardens when cooled.

For the 3 specifically Japanese ingredients needed, anko (red bean paste), mochiko/shiratamako (glutinous rice flour) and katakuriko, I was originally planning on trekking out to Philadelphia's (Narberth's) Maido grocery store, which I have never been to. But I had a trip to New York City for something unrelated and ended up stopping by the small Japanese grocery store in Manhattan, Katagiri, instead.

3 ingredients from Japanese grocery store: Katakuriko, Anko, Mochiko

As you might have noticed, I put an X-mark by the can of anko. This is the start of where things begin to unravel. Here's a screenshot from the CookingWithDog video of what the anko is supposed to look like, a paste of red beans:

Here's what mine looked like:

That's right. A baked beans consistency. Aw cripes.

ChocolateAndZucchini actually mentioned that there are different types of anko and according to Wikipedia, there are the 4 types of anko:

• Tsubuan (粒餡), whole red beans boiled with sugar but otherwise untreated
• Tsubushian (潰し餡), where the beans are mashed after boiling
• Koshian (漉し餡), which has been passed through a sieve to remove bean skins; the most common type
• Sarashian (晒し餡), which has been dried and reconstituted with water

I suspect that I got the tsubuan, whereas the intended one was koshian.

Not to be deterred, I proceeded onward and came up with the following strategy. I strained the liquid from the anko, globbed them over the strawberries, put them in saran wrap balls and threw them in the freezer, so that they would be solid for the mochi wrapping.

Next up, making the mochi.

Oh wait. Wait a minute, what's' this? This recipe uses grams for the mochiko. Wait, what? You're supposed to weigh this?

(I told you I've never really done stuff like this before.)

Anyways, to make a long story short, I ended up using an online cooking measurement converter to give me an estimate of how much I should use and proceeded with the rest of ChocolateAndZucchini's recipe.

And needless to say, things turned didn't turn out so great.

I'm quite embarassed to show you my final product. Remember how good the pictures of the daifuku looked. Scroll back up and take a look.

Well here's mine:

Mutants so disfigured I could only laugh every time I saw them.

To make things worse, this is the picture right after finishing forming the balls. You have to let them sit for sometime to cool and after this period, these guys started to bleed anko/strawberry juice, making them far uglier.

As far as taste goes, well they were so-so, but I suspect not quite as good as they could have been.

Le sigh. I'll be trying to make these things again soon, hopefully with better results.

Ichigo Daifuku Links
ChocolateAndZucchini's recipe
CookingWithDog's Video Recipe

Kiteekake's recipe

eGullet's thread

($Cooking, $Dessert, $Japanese)

Guglhupf Bakery & Patisserie : Durham

This was my family's last meal in North Carolina before heading off to the airport to go our separate ways. It was somewhat unfortunate not being able to try out NC bbq and some of the other local restaurants that were supposed to be good, but then again the purpose of the trip was to help my brother move and settle in and logistics frequently constrained our dining choices.

It was also unfortunate that our last meal of pastries at Guglhupf was mediocre to put it kindly.

Guglhupf has a pretty nice space, with outdoor seating and two floors of seating space inside. They've got some pretty interesting large black & white photos on the wall (I suspect by a local photog?). And it most definitely appeals to the coffee-house yuppie looking for that slightly upscale/slighty manufactured quirky atmosphere.

Another way to be put it, as my brother pointed out, was that everyone had a Mac.

As for the pastries, they ranged from mediocre to uniquely bad.

I suppose they probably start off things on the wrong foot by messing up my two favorites: chocolate chip cookies and croissants.

Chocolate Chip Cookie - This is like cake with chocolate chips. Umm, no.

Croissant - Flaky on the outside, but in one of the more unusually disgusting methods possible, butter pools up your mouth on each chew. Oh man, how can people stand for this?

But the other pastries didn't hold up either...

Chocolate Coffee Cafe - Terribly dry.

Oatmeal Craisin - Insultingly moist like those packaged cookies in plastic baggies.

Apple Gratin - Not overly tart or sweet, but just not distinctive. The uniformly soggy texture left a lot to be desired as well.


Fruit Tart - This one in particular astounded me. How can you possibly mangle the fruits in a fruit tart? I've tasted versions where they veer more towards the natural taste of fruits, risking being overly tart if the fruits aren't ripe. And there's also the opposite, where the sugary sweetness overwhelms. But this was like let's cover up the fruit with a tasteless grok so that no flavor comes through.


At this point, I stopped taking individualized notes. But each pastry just seemed to assault common sense in what makes for a good pastry.

Double Chocolate Cookie

Scone

Chocolate Croissant


Omelette with mushrooms (I think?) and salsa - Average omelette. Not a fan of the salsa.


I had found out about Guglhupf via Chowhound, when it seemed to come up over and over again. From this experience, I really don't understand how Guglhupf could be so popular. Perhaps the lunches or dinners are different than their baked goods? Or perhaps more disenchantingly, that I strongly disagree with a lot of the local chowhounders' tastes?

In any case, I will note that there was one dissenting opinion on Guglhupf. If I were to have stayed longer, I would have wanted to try out their recommendation for Gourmandises de France.


Guglhupf
2706 Durham Chapel Hill Blvd Durham, NC 27707-2841 (Map)
(919) 401-2600
www.guglhupf.com
($Bakery, $North Carolina)

NYTimes: Frank Bruni "I was a Baby Bullimic"

A really interesting article from NYTimes food critic, Frank Bruni, on his struggle with being overweight as a kid and teen, "I was a Baby Bullimic."

Don't be turned off by the title. It's sort of true, but also a bit of a cheap hook. The rest of the article is rather good, leading from Bruni's early fascination with food

I wasn’t merely fond of candy bars. I was fascinated by them and determined to catalog them in my head, where I kept an ever-shifting, continually updated list of the best of them, ranked in order of preference. Snickers always beat out 3 Musketeers, which didn’t have the benefit of nuts. Baby Ruth beat out Snickers, because it had even more nuts. But nuts weren’t crucial: one of my greatest joys was the KitKat bar, and I couldn’t imagine any geometry more perfect than the parallel lines of its chocolate-covered sections. I couldn’t imagine any color more beautiful than the iridescent orange of the wrapping for a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

to his later struggles with losing weight, trying the Atkins diet at age 8 with his mother, attempting to fast in high-school to bullimia in college.

The article is fairly long by internet reading standards (9 pages), but by the end, I was wishing I could read more about how Bruni eventually became a food writer, particularly now knowing his childhood background with food.

Anyways, give it a spin: I was a Baby Bullimic

PS. There's also an accompanying slide show, in which you can see pictures of him as a kid and where he admits now looking back that he wasn't quite as overweight as he thought himself to be.

Lime & Basil : Chapel Hill

After a slew of not so great dining experiences, it was nice to come to a place that actually seemed to care about their dishes. Granted, not all of the dishes really worked, but the ones which did were quite refreshing thanks to the fresh ingredients.

The cheery bright green interior didn't hurt either.


House Special Summer Roll - Noticeably fresh leaves, rice noodles and rice paper roll give this a refreshing coolness, much needed in such warm weather. And the deep fried skin adds a surprising, yet very nice change in texture.


Spring Roll - Light, not too oily, pretty tasty. Not too shabby.


Complete pho - One of the mis-steps. The meat was slightly overcooked and the broth wasn't particularly flavorful.


Seafood Rice Noodles (w/ shrimp, pork, bbq pork.) I found this to be a somewhat unusual combination of ingredients, with the broth mostly tasting of the vegetable leaves, which I wasn't a particular fan of. However, certain pieces of pork were quite outstanding: juicy, tender and tasty.


Egg Noodles with Vegetables - Decent. Moist flavorful noodles with fresh vegetables.


House Special Combo Roast Pork - The pork here seems to be pretty good, the one in this dish also tender and juicy, tasting a bit like slightly charred Cha Shao. The steamed egg, the only side that wasn't just a cut vegetable, was decent with an enjoyable stuffing.


Lime & Basil Fried Rice - I'm not sure why we ordered this. Stay away from this. Something, (perhaps the peas?) tasted like they had been frozen or from the can. Very surprising, given the more relatively fresh ingredients earlier.


Oh and one more thing, I had a honeydew shake with boba (not pictured). The shake was was mostly ice-cream, which could be good or bad depending on your own viewpoint, but I must admit that the boba itself was not bad. Pretty decent texture and not the usual over-cooked rubbery grok.

All in all, this is certainly not a destination restaurant and most definitely not authentic stuff, but you could do worse in this area.


Lime & Basil
200 W Franklin St # 130 Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2559 (Map)
(919) 967-5055
Chow

Thai Cafe : Durham

For some reason, this particular morning was like Goldilocks and the three bears. We first stopped at Guglhopf Bakery, only to find it closed on Mondays. Then off to Taqueria La Vaquita, to find it outdoor dining only and on a much too hot day for that. Then a brief stop at Nanas to discover it was too expensive than we were looking. Finally, we decided upon Thai Cafe right down the street.

I wish I could say that all of the restaurant hopping was worth it in the end, but I thought this was pretty ordinary and unexciting.

Coconut Soup - Overly salty, to the point where my Mom added sugar to take away from the fact.


Fried Tofu - Piping hot, but overcooked and fairly tasteless without the sauce.


Basil Leaf Wrap - Unmemorable.


Masaman Curry - Again, nothing particularly bad, but nothing unique or memorable either.


Pad prik - Like any stir-fry dish with a simple sauce.


Crispy catfish - Maybe the best dish of our meal, which wasn't saying much, because it was just a battered, deep fried fish with a sweet duck-like sauce.


Green Curry - Salty, no complexity in the curry.


Just about the only thing that was remotely interesting about our meal was our waitress, who my Mom claimed was one of the most beautiful women she's ever seen. I think I have slightly different tastes than my Mom does, but that conversation at least provided some entertainment value that was lacking from our somewhat lifeless meal.

PS. It sounds like there may be select dishes that are decently done. See this thread and this one.


Thai Cafe
2501 University Dr # 10, Durham, NC‎ (Map)
(919) 493-9794‎

Hong Kong Restaurant : Durham

I had read a few recommendations for Hong Kong Restaurant in Durham on Chowhound. The recs were mainly for their weekend dimsum, but nonetheless we hiked out to Durham to give them a shot.

I found it kind of funny that the place looked well like a suburban house, slightly modified to look like a restaurant. I don't think that this observation can be corroborated with this photo, but here's a pic of the interior anyways.


Anyways, my parents ordered a few of their dinner specials and off the waiter went...

and we waited...

and waited...

and waited.

All in all, we waited for 45 minutes. We finished all of our dishes within 15.

We didn't even get an embarrassed "I'm sorry for the wait, food will be out shortly."

I'm not sure why the service was so bad, but so far as food, it was relatively simple, but decently done. I'm fairly sure I could have cooked a few of these dishes and with a little practice the rest, so if I lived in the area, especially minding the service, I'm not sure I would return. Here's the breakdown:

Chinese Black Musroom with Baby Green - Standardly cooked shiitake mushrooms and baby greens. (I believe with thickened mushroom sauce.)


X.O. Sauce with Shrimp & Scallop - Like the fish below, the shrimp and scallop wasn't particularly fresh, which I don't particularly fault, given Durham's distance from any decent source. But without fresh seafood and with the fairly mundane X.O. sauce, there wasn't really that much to distinguish this dish from any other okay Chinese restaurant elsewhere. This would be decent as a home-cooked meal, but not something I'd drive out to.


Steamed Sea Bass - My parents suspected that the sea bass was from a frozen fillet like those you can generally pick up in Asian supermarkets. Given Durham's distance from the ocean, the fact that the fish hadn't been cooked to particularly emphasize the freshness and the extremely long wait (defrosting the fish?), I'm guessing this might not be so far from the truth.

That being said, the fish wasn't badly cooked. As I said before, it was like a decent Chinese home-cook would have done. However, the completely uncooked scallions pieces were a particularly odd misstep, since those can be cooked in no less than 30 seconds.


Beef Tendon Clay Pot - This was the other dish that I thought could have caused the wait. Again, it wasn't bad, but I thought you could really get this dish, by putting all of the ingredients (beef, beef tendons, mushrooms, bamboo?, greens and perhaps some starter stock) into a slow-cooker and getting this dish.


I hesitate to completely blast this place mainly because the weekend dimsum is apparently recommended. But so far as dinner goes, this was a bit of a disappointment.


Hong Kong Restaurant
3003 Guess Rd Durham, NC 27705-2634 (Map)
(919) 479-8339
($Chinese, $North Carolina)

Shula's 347 Grill : Chapel Hill

Shulla 347 belongs to Don Shula, the NFL coach who holds the record for the most wins in a NFL career, 347. We ended up going here for brunch, since we had stayed in the adjoining hotel.


I find the whole idea of celebrity-owned restaurants to be somewhat fascinating, because I'm curious as to what their decision process was in wanting to do so. Is it purely an investment to sustain their wealth? Or are they secret foodies? I'm guessing some would argue for their vanity, but I suppose I'm more apt to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially Don Shula who seems to be very respected.

Anyhow, the setting was somewhat interesting and gets at the appeal of going to a celebrity restaurant. The walls were covered with autographed photos of famous sports stars, current and past. Ones of Michael Phelps, Muhammad Ali, Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal, and Maria Sharapova were a few that I remember. And there was also a superbowl trophy in a case that you could see up close. It really gets at fans feeling one step closer to these celebrities.

Oh and one more thing. We went on Sunday around 11am and we were the only customers there. While they weren't exactly serving brunch-type food, that wasn't what I would expect.

Especially since the food was pretty solid.

Just judging from the food alone, I imagine Shula's to be a place that serves very consistent, solid-quality food and that could satisfy not overly-critical foodies, as well as those with slightly more conservative palates.

Black & Blue Burger - Blue cheese, cheese angus beef burger. Pretty decent burger, with the blue cheese a little bit overwhelming. Decent fries that were humorously described by our waitress as like McDonald's fries. An upscale version perhaps, but I could see where she was coming from.


Ribs - Ribs were so-so; I've had juicier and more flavorful, but they weren't anything to complain about. The mashed potatoes were pretty tasty if you don't mind a healthy buttery-ness.


Barbeque Sandwich - Decent barbeque, with juicy & tender pork.


Chicken salad - And the chicken in the salad was probably what I liked least. While better quality, I just couldn't shake the echoes of worse renditions of the flaming orange bbq chicken at say super markets.


All in all, this was an interesting experience. The food was pretty solid, particularly considering the reasonable prices, the photos and superbowl trophy made for some interesting side-attractions and our server, while a little inexperienced, was warm and attentive.

PS. Looks like I'm not the only one who was relatively happy with Shula's.


Shula 347 Grill
Sheraton Chapel Hill Hotel
One Europa Drive Chapel Hill, NC 27517 (Map)
1-877-SHULA-347
www.donshula.com
($Burgers / Hot Dogs, $North Carolina, $Steak)

Akai Hana : Chapel Hill

We were kind of in a rush to find a nearby place and to eat something, so we picked something on Google Maps, quickly glanced at the star ratings and ended up picking Akai Hana, a local sushi joint.

In short, this was overpriced for the mediocre quality ingredient and cooking technique here. It's a little unfortunate, as our server was friendly and attentive in a college student kind of way and there was a jazz trio that was hmm, how do I put this kindly, trying their best to entertain.

But I would agree with this chowhound thread (fyi, skip to the last paragraph of the first post). I wouldn't eat here again even if it was paid by someone else.

Anyhow, here's the breakdown:

Miso Soup - Tasted home-made. No particular complaints


Agedashi tofu - Somewhat clean, but flavorless without sauce. the "flapping" and slight flavor of fish flakes (Katsuobushi shavings).


Tempura - Light. Strange to have such a big chunk of carrot and onion. Again somewhat flavorless.


Okay, so the apps weren't so bad, a bit bland, but not atrocious, but this is where things take a turn for the worse.

Sushi ala Carte: Shrimp Tempura, Philly Rolls, Tuna Rolls (Tekka Maki) and a couple of rolls that I forget.

Do you ever have those dining experiences, where you're eating with family, significant others or good friends and conversation lulls and comes to a stand-still. And perhaps you're sharing food, but passing around the plates becomes a somewhat mechanical process? And finishing off those last pieces well, perhaps someone else wants it more?

That was this. I was hungry, but subconsciously I really didn't want to continue eating the pasty rice or the equally perturbing fish pieces. In hind-site, the food wasn't egregious enough to shock you per se, but rather it just gradually squeezed all joy out of eating a meal.


I forget what this was called. Basically, it's sashimi over a layer of rice and oh boy, did finishing these pieces of fish become a chore.

Which I really really hate having to say, because I really enjoy finishing off every rice grain in my bowl. I just felt like shaking the chef and yelling at him, "Where is your pride? Where is your joy of cooking?"


It gets even worse. Given how I felt about the meal, I was pushing to order fewer desserts, but ultimately didn't succeed in convincing someone in my family who will go unmentioned. :P

Green tea ice cream - I only recall thinking that this was geared towards the Americanized palette. Probably store-made shipped from somewhere else.


Sakura Mochi - My family (myself included) has had limited exposure to authentic Japanese food, so I think we were intrigued by this different kind of mochi. But I felt rather stupid afterward for any ounce of anticipation I gave this. It just felt clumsy, both the rice mochi and the red bean.


Tempura Fried Ice Cream - Finally the most idiotic of all of us (me) was responsible for ordering this monstrosity. A ball of so-so vanilla ice cream wrapped in Americanized tempura batter, deep-fried, yet kept waiting long enough so the tempura batter was mushy. Oh and add one of those horrible maraschino cherries on top. Shoot me now.



All in all, I don't regret trying out this place. I think, especially after moving, trying out random places allows you to recalibrate yourself to the local area and figure out the questions like: how good is the "average" restaurant in the area? How enthusiastic/lenient is the general population about food? and other such subtleties.

But I will repeat that I won't come back here, even if someone else is paying.


Akai Hana
206 W Main St Carrboro, NC 27510-2028 (Map)
(919) 942-6848
www.akaihana.com

Locopops : Chapel Hill

Dude, really?

Locopops is a local place that was recommended on Chowhound for its gourmet popsicles.

It was a hot day, mid 90's and pretty humid. I was walking slower. I was talking slower. I'd say this was ideal weather for a nice, cool and refreshing popsicle.

And my family and I really like fresh fruits. We should be fairly ideal customers.

And yet this felt so wrong. This was sooo not a destination place that you recommend to out-of-towners.

Plum & currant - Tasted like sour grape juice. My mom & dad wanted nothing to do with this thing and rightfully so. They even suggested dumping it before we finished. Being the one who suggested this, I was stuck finishing this up.


Mango chile - okay, tasting like fresh mango, but not tasting the heat. Umm, did I just pay for frozen mango puree?



Now if Locopops was a small hole in the wall place selling these babies for cheap, like the endearing fresh juice vendors in Hong Kong, that'd be one thing.

Or if the premium price (a few dollars per popsicle) actually went towards some outstanding fruit and ingredient combinations that were innovative or weren't easily done at home, that'd also be another thing.

But to have to pay "gourmet" prices for popsicles, firstly one of which we didn't even like and secondly, seemed as if you could have grabbed some fresh fruits, blended them and stuck them in popsicle molds yourself, that's too much.

This is not a destination foodie place.

Well, that is unless you have kids (ha that you're not training to be snobby foodies), then maybe.

And lastly, for all my criticism, I will admit the kids' popsicle drawings on the wall were pretty cool. I'm not all curmudgeon, you know.



Locopops
Locations in Durham, Chapel Hill & Raleigh
www.ilovelocopops.com
($Dessert, $North Carolina)

Great Philly Cheesesteak Book Talk

Just wanted to give a heads up on another foodie related talk tomorrow at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Carolyn Wyman's talk on her Great Philly Cheesesteak Book. Here are the details:

Date:	Wed, July 22, 2009
Time:	7:30pm
Place:	Free Library of Philadelphia 1901 Vine St. Philadelphia 19103 (Map) Room 108
Cost:	Free

More details at the Free Library Website. Here's her book on Amazon

Ye Old Waffle Shoppe : Chapel Hill

I think my brother found this place on Google Maps, so we more or less walked into this not knowing too much about it.

Looking on the web now, it's interesting to know in hindsite that Esquire listed it on its 59 Best Breakfast Places in America (#35 in alphabetical order by state) (Here's the full list without having to go through the tedious slideshow layout).

But list or no list, I didn't really find our meal to be all that extraordinary.

We sat at the counter, old-school diner style.


Western Omelette - A decently done, but somewhat ordinary western omelette. My Dad got a side order of grits, which was the first time he or I have had grits. I suspect we're supposed to order it with some sort of topping, as it kind of tasted like plain white rice congee. Strange, I always imagined it would be buttery and fatty, given my rather uninformed image of Southern cooking.


Blueberry Short stack This was a "I have to order" dish, mainly to see how they stacked up (o ho ho, bad pun not intended) to my favorite Dutch Eating Place. The answer was that they didn't. While okay, they didn't have the lightness of the latter. But strangely enough, the scrambled eggs were quite lovely though. They had a more runny/buttery texture that was somewhat reminiscent of the Julia (Childs) recipe. I wish I could say the same for the sausage patties, which were overcooked and dry.


Waffle Combo My brother generally abides by the rule to order the dish that the restaurant calls out in its name or vice versa. (Is eponymous the apt description of this? I still get tripped up by that word.) And I have to say that they were pretty decent, fairly light and pretty darn buttery. I wouldn't say they were exciting enough to make me want to visit this place, but if you're in town, you could do a lot worse.


French Toast Combo - My Mom wasn't a fan, who compared it to French toast she used to have in Hong Kong, where they deep fried the suckers (oof, gotta try those sometime), but I thought these were pretty tasty. They were crispy on outside and slightly gooey on inside, reminding me of a grilled cheese sandwich texture-wise and cinnamon-y fried dough in taste. The bacon (unpictured) was overly salty. Blegh.


Little Jim's Hash Browns - Finally, the hash browns were like a good home cook would have done. It wasn't particularly innovative and tongue-catching, but not overly oily or dry. Honest would be a good description.


I don't know. Perhaps there are particular dishes to order here that we just didn't know about. Perhaps if we had just ordered the scrambled eggs, french toast and waffles, I would have given a thumbs up. But as it was, for every above average item, there was an ordinary or below-average item to match, which made for an average (albeit highly variable) brunch experience.


Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe
173 E Franklin St Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3620 (Map)
(919) 929-9192
($Brunch, $North Carolina)

Merlion Food : Chapel Hill

Expectations are a funny thing. After an expectedly absolutely dismal Chinese buffet in Fredericksburg Virginia the night before (Run far away from King's House Buffet), it was surprising to find a waitress who spoke to us in Cantonese Chinese in this Singaporean Chapel Hill restaurant, Merlion.

(Btw, for those who don't know, like me, what a merlion is, it's the half lion, half fish symbol of Singapore. Wiki)

Anyhow, when my parents talked with the waitress, it turned out that the chef of the restaurant was from Hong Kong like my Dad and after a few minutes of conversing, she said the chef would choose the dishes for us. All we needed to do was to tell her how many dishes we wanted.

Sweetness. Here's what we got.

Stuffed You tiao - Like a mayonnaise based potato salad only with strips of carrots, red peppers, red onions, mango and pieces of you tiao (油条, Chinese donut) stuffed with a shrimp paste (with a texture like fish balls). A really quite interesting use of old you tiao.


Shrimp stir-fry - shrimp with celery, mushrooms, carrots, onions. The shrimp perhaps was not the freshest, but given that Chapel Hill isn't exactly near the ocean, what really matters was how it was cooked and that was nicely done.


Sea bass - Sizzling pieces of sea bass, peapods, red peppers, broccoli. Again the sea bass was not necessarily fresher than normal, but the cooking technique was pretty darn good, with a very nice tenderness in the center of the fish pieces.


Sweet & sour pork - Better than standard sweet & sour sauce. The main reason for this was the fresh pineapple used, lending a more natural sweetness than the usual canned pineapple crap. That and some of the pork flavor actually came through (as opposed to be its flavor being completely covered up by that of the sauce).


Interpretation of Taro Tapioca (Si Mi Low) - This was really rather intriguing. The tapiocca balls were lumped in a mold. The brown sauce tasted like the sweet taro sauce of si mi lo and a touch of coconut (when asked the waitress said it was some sugar available in Malaysia). The white sauce was some sort of cream, which was quite fresh. All in all, new to us and nicely done.



Again, this meal was pretty eye-opening, particularly as contrasted with our perhaps unfairly low expectations of Asian food for the area.

We briefly talked with the chef afterwards, who has been in the US for over 10 years and in the area for around 7 (erk, those numbers could be wrong. Memory's fading).

Lastly, the other thing to know is that they apparently serve a special Beef Tendon soup noodles (牛腩面） on Saturdays until 3pm, which we unfortunately were not able to try out. Anyways, I'm guessing my brother (and my family when we visit) will probably be trying this place out more often while he lives in the area.


Merlion Food
410 Market St # 320 Chapel Hill, NC 27516-4061 (Map)
(919) 933-1188
www.MerlionFood.com
($Chinese, $North Carolina)

North Carolina Ho / Happy 4th!

My next set of posts, starting next week, will be on some of the restaurants in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area, to where my family helped my brother move.

But in the meantime, enjoy the holiday. For you Philadelphians, it looks like this town is all geared up for a celebration with ice cream festivals at noon Friday, Saturday AND Sunday. Woohoo, three days of ice cream! (Not sure if that's intended for just the kids though.) This is of course in addition to a concert, a parade and the standard fireworks. Here's the official schedule with all the details.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they celebrate independence day here and will post anything interesting that comes up in the meantime. Happy 4th of July!

Rouge Ninety Eight : Philadelphia

It seems strange to me that the Good Dog burger gets much more love than the Rouge burger, because I thought that this burger was the best burger I've had so far in Phili.

Yes it's a whopping $16.

Yes, I realize this burger was featured on Alan Richman's 20 Burgers You Must Eat Before You Die, which invites a lot more focused attention to it. I honestly don't give a crap about the list, since well I haven't eaten enough burgers across the country to really assess or repute his choices anyways.

All I know that this was a massive burger and it was flat-out delish. Behold:


The patty is at least an inch and a half thick.

And I had to have an operation to unhinge my jaw so that I could eat this like a snake.

An explanation is probably in order for the picture. I've had this burger twice now: once as take-out (Pictured. This was also when I realized this wasn't really a place for take-out. Heh.) and once again with my gf at the restaurant.

The sheer size of the patty and the fatty goodness of the beef just draws all of your attention to it and holds it throughout your bite. I'm not sure if I've ever had a burger in which I was so enthralled by the beef patty itself that the other parts, bun, cheese, onions just faded away as secondary.

One thing I will note is that because of the sheer size, by the time I got to the end of the burger, it was obviously no longer warm and as delish as the initial bites. It's really an issue with portion size, but this is a little bit recursive, since it's the thickness of the patty, which makes it so rich and delicious in the first place. I don't know what to tell you here. Laban suggests feeding leftovers to your dog. All I can tell you is that the burgers don't reheat so well in the microwave.

Not pictured are the frites which while decent, if the buns, cheese and onions are secondary, they would be a far tertiary concern. They're very thin and crunchy and probably the best comparison in describing them, while crude, would be those thin and crunchy potato sticks convenience snacks.

Anyways, hopefully I'll get around to trying the Good Dog burger again and some of the other places that folk recommend for burgers, such as Royal Tavern, Standard Tap, Aspen, etc. But I make no promises. It seems like my to-try list grows exponentially despite my best efforts.


Rouge Ninety Eight
205 S 18th St, Philadelphia, PA‎ (Map)
(215) 732-6622‎
www.rouge98.com
($Burgers / Hot Dogs, $Philadelphia, $Recommended)

NYTimes The Perfect Burger

The NYTimes has an article on how to make the perfect burger. (They also have an interactive feature that summarizes the article if you're in a rush.)

The NYTimes is not the first publication to try and take on the perfect burger. A quick Google search brings up articles from the Washington Post, LA Times, and Chicago Sun Times, as well as one from Gourmet Magazine, a recipe from Martha Stewart, Chowhound's video with Hubert Keller and even a book, Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes.

And if you go through all those recipes and still are not satisfied, then perhaps this hamburger will be more towards your liking.

($Burgers / Hot Dogs, $Cooking, $News)

Monk's Cafe: Philadelphia

Monk's has been on my to-try lists for quite some time now and I'm happy to have finally tried it out.

I ended up going by myself on a weekday night, past when most places have already closed up shop. Fortunately the kitchen at Monk's is open to 1 am, so I was all good to go.

The bustling atmosphere seemed to be mostly people coming for drinks after work, but my waitress seemed happy to serve this oddball dining party of one.

And I apologize in advance for the dreadful photos, but it was pretty dark in there and I had only managed to bring my cell phone.

Koningshoeven Dubbel - Being a complete novice to the beer world, I asked for the waitress's recommendation for a Belgian Trappist brew and she served me this, Koningshoeven Dubbel. Having never had German or Belgium beer before, this stuff was pretty eye-opening: almost sweet, smelling like a dark chocolate sucker candy, somewhat light and a slight dark fruit thing (currant) going on. I'll leave it to more knowledgeable folk to provide more insight. Oh and bonus, here's someone's better-lit picture of the bottle and glass and just for fun, a thread on someone's lucky break in finding some uber-cheap bottles of this at Big Lots.


Monk Burger - Interesting choice for bun, a very neutral tasting, fairly dense roll (I know they mentioned on the menu, but are these ciabatta rolls?), as opposed to the more buttery and softer brioche buns served at Loie and Good Dog. As Laban and others have pointed out, I also found there was just a little too much bun for the burger, especially the top one.

Beyond the bun, the flavor of the blue cheese seemed to fade into the background, despite it having a decent bite if you ate it by itself.

The shoestring fries were towards the limp side and a touch on the salty side, but served with a quite tartar mayonnaise, with chunks of pickle(?) (Is this an aioli? I get confused). Not sure if it was the tartar skewing my palette, but I swear there was almost a seafood/mussel flavor. (Btw, Hollyeats points at that shoestring fries aren't exactly authentic for Belgium. As I've never been to Belgium, I'm honestly just happy with well-done fries.)

Wow, this is a terrible photo. Google images has some better ones.


All in all, the Monk Burger is not a bad burger by any means with some solid quality ingredients. While I personally like brioche buns better, with the great beer selection at this place, I think I'll probably be switching between Monk's and other burger places based on my mood.


Monk's Cafe
16th & Spruce St. Philadelphia PA (Map)
215-545-7005
www.Monkscafe.com | Yelp
($Burgers / Hot Dogs, $Philadelphia)