Roundup of Philly Eats

#1 Green Eggs Cafe

The "new" Sabrina's. Enormous portions, decadent dishes and serving up brunch 7 days a week. We went on a Monday at 2:30pm so managed to avoid the 2 hour lines. Still need to go back to try the famous red velvet pancakes.

The Kitchen Sink: Potatoes, Sausage, Biscuit, Swiss Cheese, Hollandaise Sauce
French Toast Tiramisu: Brioche Bread, Espresso Mascarpone, Mocha Maple Syrup, Lady Fingers, Chantilly Cream

#2 Chifa

Jose Garces' Peruvian & Latin inspired restaurant. Heard mixed reviews about this place but the food is quite good; especially the happy hour which has $3 dim sum specials.

+ Duck Confit Tacos
+ Pork Belly Buns
+ Curry over Rice
+ Short Ribs
+ Fried Wontons

#3 Monk's Cafe

Belgian beer cafe with limited seating but great beer selection. Don't know how I feel about the ridiculous wait for the bucket of $10 mussels although they are tasty.

+ Bucket of Mussles
+ Belgian Fries
+ Duck Sandwich

#4 Zahav

Our new favorite restaurant in Philadelphia! This place is always super packed but even outside of Restaurant Week, they have a five-course $39 tasting menu which is an amazing deal. The Israeli inspired dishes are full of flavor and so delicious. The owner, Mike Solomonov, also owns my other new favorite place in Philadelphia: Federal Donuts.

+ Salmon over Cous Cous
+ Lamb Meat Balls
+ Salatim (daily selection of salads)
+ Pumpkin Cake with Custard
+ Apple Tart & Ice Cream

#5 Prix Fixe Brunch @ Tinto

Tinto is actually my favorite restaurant by Jose Garces although I've never done a proper blog post on it. They also offer a 3 course + side brunch on weekends for only $35. This was from a while ago and they've changed their menu significantly so I don't remember everything we had but it was one luxurious brunch.

+ Not sure what this was...
+ Asparagus with Hollandaise
+ Duck Salad with Poached Egg
+ Some sort of Egg Sandwich
+ Grapefruit Brulee with Foam
+ Fritter, Ice Cream, Caramel

Venice

The magic of St. Mark's Square - it actually looks better in winter than spring. 

Next up on the Tour de Italia is Venice. I think I was little too busy taking pictures of the gorgeous canals and St. Marks's Square that I may have neglected on photographing most of my meals. No worries, I did managed to capture one of the best meals we had in Italy.

The pasta feast continues... Dinner at little mom & pop shop near our hotel on one of the first nights. I can't remember what was in the ravioli filling but I did remember loving the dish for its big portions and generous servings of meat. The sauce scooped up with a piece of bread could have been a meal in itself.

Fettuccine with asparagus, olives and shrimp
Ravioli with meat sauce

Dinner at Osteria Alle Testiere

This little 10 table gem has been a Michelin forerunner for the past 5 years, but according to our lovely server, the restaurant will probably never get awarded a Michelin star because it doesn't serve the "right" kind of food...whatever that means.

While Venice is known for having an abundant supply of fresh seafood,  90% of the restaurants are tourist traps and I was terrified of ordering shady seafood. Of course, at Alle Testiere, I happily ordered away.

Ravioli with Citrus Fruit, Ricotta, and Scallops
Turbot (?) with Capers, Olives, and Tomatoes

I absolutely loved the ravioli dish since it was so different from what we had been eating and anything I have seen before (V was not a fan). The punch from all of the herbs and seasonings was fantastic and everything tasted incredibly fresh.

House White Wine
Mini Gnocchi with Squid and Cinnamon
Panna Cota with blueberries 

Who knew you could pair squid with cinnamon? We were both dubious but the flavor combination definitely worked and the gnocchetti (mini gnocchis) was a pleasant change from the usual denseness of regular sized potato dumplings. The dessert was a nice and light panna cota with a blueberry fruit sauce. Who knew but it is now one of V's favorite desserts. I personally prefer the rich dark chocolate cake. Oh well, to each her own.

Jose Garces Trading Co. 5 down, 2 to go

Back in the day, my first few posts on this blog often compared the restaurants of Steven Starr and Jose Garces'. 2 years and a few restaurants later, I still stand by initial assessment that Garces' restaurants are easily superior. The food's consistently better and more innovative so before graduation, V and I are trying to hit up every single one of the Iron Chef's restaurants. What is sad is that I actually don't have any legit blog posts on most of his restaurants because I always use V's phone and then I never get the pictures :/ Maybe I'll have to make myself also do a blog post one each of his restaurants to make the experience complete.

Cheese Platter (Goat Manchego) with Truffle Honey
Salami with Mustard
House Bread & Olive Oil

I've been to Jose Garces Trading Co. 2 previous times (you can see the post here), but never for their restaurant week. Although not spectacular, the dining experience was still quite enjoyable. Plus no restaurant in the city can beat having a wine cellar that cells $10 bottles of wine in the actual restaurant. A few things that Garces Trading is very well known for: cheese, cured meat and the flatbreads. There's a deli by the front of the shop that sells all sorts of goodies including local cheeses, vinegar, olive oils and meats. Plus, you get the awesome truffle lavender honey (first made famous in his other restaurant Amada) when you order the cheese plate and I'm pretty sure this honey has its own cult following.

Scallop with Peanut Sauce

Oyster House

Doc Magrogan's Oyster House recently opened a new spot right on Penn's campus.  I wasn't particularly excited to try it out as I'm always dubious of seafood restaurants that aren't located right next to the ocean and even more dubious of the ones that are chains. After hearing quite a few rather good reviews about the new location, I decided to scout over and give it a try. 

Oyster imperial with crab
Fresh oysters 

This was probably the first time I've ever eaten raw oysters, but now I finally understand what all of the excitement is about. Fresh oysters are delicious. We tried two kinds - one that was very light and creamy and another one which had a little more brine to it and tasted like the ocean. Both were great but we definitely liked the one with less brine. The oyster imperial is served warm with crab and a mixture of cocktail sauce on top. The fresh ones were much much better.

Clam chowder

Big bowl of clam chowder which we both agreed would be absolutely perfect on a cold day. I also really liked how the soup was not the usual white creaminess you find in a Campbell's can.

Hurricane cocktail
Lobster roll with old bay fries

The lobster roll was also fantastic. I think V. proclaimed that this was his favorite sandwich of all time - a bold statement considering he doesn't really like seafood. I appreciated the brioche roll as opposed to the typical hot dog bun you usually get with your lobster. Although the fries aren't sweet potato fries - they were perfectly crispy and we gobbled all of them up. The cocktails we ordered were decent tasting. Nothing amazing but served in big portions which made me happy. 

I definitely plan on coming back for the $1 oysters during happy hour!

Venezia, Roma & Firenzie

Venice Adventures

Best grocery store pizza ever with roasted peppers, mushrooms and sausages
Octopus Salad with lemon dressing
Not shown: squid ink risotto

Venice was just as I had imagined: canals, waterways and narrow, windy streets. The city's reputation is for its seafood although according to our hostel, most of the restaurants have all become tourist traps. We did have dinner at a quaint looking Italian restaurant and I was quite pleased with our selection: octopus salad and squid ink risotto. The octopus was tender and the dressing was fantastic. The risotto (this might have been the first time I've ever ordered risotto!) was creamy and indeed pitch black. We also had a mini picnic along the canals of pizza and biscoti. The pizza picked up from a grocery store/deli had a great topping combination although I might have just been very hungry.

Roman Pizza

Zucchini & Ham
Eggplant, Tomato & Ricotta
Margherita
Mushroom
Tomato & Pesto Bruschetta 

Apparently there is a little pizza rivalry between Rome and Naples. Having tried pizzas from both cities, I'm inclined to say that Naples inches ahead. However, the pizza we did have in Rome was quite delicious. Our location of choice was Dar Poeta located in the Trastevere district of Rome. The crust is thicker than what we had in naples and the cheese was more plentiful but the topping combinations were all quite interesting. My selection of roasted eggplant, salty ricotta cheese and cherry tomatoes tasted amazing after walking around for an entire day.

Nutella & ricotta cheese calzones 

One offering that Dar Poeta is very well-known for are its dessert calzones: stuffed to the brim with nutella, sweet ricotta cheese and covered coco powder and powdered sugar. I could probably have eaten an entire one all by myself. Its a good thing we divided it up. 

Florentine Eats

Paninis, coffee & ice cream 

Two food groups dominated by time in Florence: carbs and carbs. And by carbs I mean bread and bread. Everywhere we went, it was paninis and paninis and prosciutto. Apparently ham is called prosciutto in Italy although its not really ham and not really the salty prosciutto we get in the states. Its more like slices of tender, salty pork with a bit of fat on the edges. Either way, its delicious and every corner meat deli sells it. The other item that is absolutely amazing are the sun-dried tomatoes. I've never had sun-dried tomatoes that were so tasty in my entire life. We rounded that off with what else but more gelato and a few shots of espresso. 

As promised...

Birthday dinner at Continental with the Parli crew! Got to try a new array of edible delights before the start of break. Not much to say except it was absolutely delicious as always. 

Now an oldie but a goodie. The bday girl was very excited to try the cheesesteak springrolls.

They called these raviolis...perhaps to make the menu sound more diverse? Even though they are very obviously dumplings...at least they were delicious. Who knew spinach could taste so good? Got the snapshot of a martini glass for funsies.

Chicken skewers with peanut sauce I think...

French onion soup dumplings. Another request by a different guest. Have to say this was probably my least favorite dish, I guess I'm just not the biggest fan of French food?

Korean BBQ tacos. YUM.

Lobster coconut curry. Although I am not the biggest fan of coconut or lobster (shock! I know), no complaints about this dish =]

Chocolate peanut butter cup. Best comin

Shall try and do some cooking after an ENTIRE day of vegging on the couch. Gotta love break.