When a 10pm dinner can't go wrong....

Oh Stephen Starr, you have redeemed yourself after so many lackadaisical outings to the overly motiffed and plastic-loving Pod. A spontaneous decision on a Thursday night found us in front of the well-established Continental Midtown. Despite the semi-dramatic decor, the food was actually pretty damn good. 

Of course in our haste, we forgot an actual camera but my friend's Iphone did the trick. Here are the dishes we quickly devoured:

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Mushroom flatbread: I'm not sure why I've been having this obsession with mushrooms and cheese lately. I'm hoping my incessant talking of mushrooms and cheese will get you to go and try this amazing combination pronto.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla: look at that decadent ranch sauce!

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Cheesesteak Springrolls:  Want to die early? Here's how.

  Of course we ordered not one but two desserts. sigh. 

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Blondie Bombshell: There's vanilla ice cream hidden under that mount of whipped cream somewhere.

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Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels with Caramel Sauce and Guinness Ice Cream. Yea, I can't believe they called those little balls soft pretzels either but the Guinness ice cream redeemed the dish. One spoonful and I was hooked. 

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5 

...Fried Chicken & Lychee

Probably not the best combination to try together....If you haven't had the chance to try Lychee bubble tea yet, get on it!
After walking 10 blocks from the Chinatown bus stop, this was the perfect thirst quincher on another sweltering summer day. The fried chicken had a really unique blend of spices and was served with thai basil.

Dim Sum at Golden Unicorn (NYC Chinatown). Now that is some real shrimp shumai.

Chocolate Froyo at Forty Carrots (Bloomindales NYC). A well trusted NY foodie told me this was the best place to get Froyo and I think I have to agree. You know its good stuff when you don't even need a single topping.

....and the bread is even warm

Last Friday, my pledge sisters and I journeyed to a semi-commerical joint known as Pietro's in downtown Philadelphia. The restaurant is located by the intersection of 17th and Walnut although there is another establishment on South Street. Despite some blaise reviews found on Yelp, my girlfriend's own enthusiastic reviews was enough to convince me to check out the Italian eatery. 

Look at all that cheese...mmmm...

Deciding to try a little bit of everything, we ordered 3 dishes to share:

• Fettuccine Carbonara - Spinach fetuccine with shiitake mushrooms, Pecorino and pork pancetta.
• Stuffed Mushrooms - With four cheeses, and spinach
• Barese - Wood oven pizza with sausage, hot pesto, tomato, basil, mozzarella

.... just because everything else had an absurd amount of cheese in it didn't mean we ought to neglect on protein hence the pick of sausage (Never mind all of the bread we devoured beforehand!).  To finish off the meal: Tiramisu! you can never go wrong by topping it all off with mascarpone cheese. (I'm starting to see a pattern with this "c" word hmm...)  Sure it's not the fanciest place in Philadelphia but if you're looking for an inexpensive yet satisfying Italian meal, this is the place to go.

 

The best part? The bread is even warm. 

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5