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

Candied Walnut Biscotti w/ Dark Chocolate

With a cup of strong black coffee. 

NYC in February

Back to NYC for Valentine's Weekend. Discovered some amazing new eats and returned to some old favorites.

Xiao Long Bao from Joe's Shanghai.

$5 for an entire basket of plump and delicious XLB? Yes Please. Each dumpling is big and juicy and filled with meat. Yums. Ignore the rest of the menu. Sesame chicken and lo mein? Might as well just go to Panda Express.

Chicken & Rice from the Halal Guys

Ah finally I have eaten the "official" chicken & rice from "The Halal Guys". That spicy sauce sure packs a punch. I have finally met my match which was a feat even Han Dynasty failed to accomplish.

Our selection: panna cota & french toast

Last week, we were watching Hitch and suddenly, a restaurant name flashed across the screen: Rice to Riches. Considering the movie is almost 10 years old, I was rather skeptical that the place still existed. But I was so fortunately wrong. The place was packed when we finally trekked our way over to Prince Street. The entire restaurant is devoted to rice pudding and it is delicious. I don't think I've ever eaten rice pudding before, but I am officially in love. Guess what's coming up next on my cooking list?  

Meals at Coquinarius

The text above says it all.

One food group that I have not been giving Florence enough credit for are its desserts. Apple cakes and cheesecakes galore. I'm generally not a big cheesecake fan, but Italian cheesecakes are on a whole other level. I'm not sure what cheese they use (probably ricotta?), but its definitely not Philadelphia Cream Cheese (no offense Philly). The unassuming cheesecake above was hands down, the best cheesecake I've ever had and totally worth the 5 euros we paid for it.

Coquinarious is another well-known Florence establishment. Less homey and rustic than some of the other popular spots for the locales, Coquinarious still served up traditional dishes in a beautiful open, high ceiling dining room. The portions were also quite generous. Having stepped in for lunch one day, we also decided to return for our final dinner.

The meat dishes (we finally branched away from pasta!) we ordered were hearty and filling, and as was to be expected a little on the heavy side. Kind of reminded me of all of the duck and red cabbage we ate in Prague. Now, what we really went crazy over was the green cauliflower they served up with the rabbit. It was amazing and I have no idea what it was exactly...going to need to do some digging on this one.

Lemon Drop

I've always wanted to take bartending classes; yet, never found the right time to do it. Now that I have quite a bit of free time on my hand, I decided it was time to start experimenting with cocktails. What with all of the speakeasys popping up in Philly, I had enough inspiration to push me in the right direction.

Bar Set, here
The Ultimate Bar Book, here
Cointreau liquor, description here

First step was to get a really legit bar set (which I happened to acquire for V's birthday) and an equally legit bar book (all courtesy of amazon).

Next step was to start stocking up the bar with some respectable liquor (who knew liqueurs would put such a dent in your wallet). Fortunately, we managed to follow (some rather straightforward) instructions and voila. Who needs a speakeasy when you can whip up cocktails right at home?

The (Straightforward) Instructions: