The community of food bloggers around Philly just keeps growing and getting better. There's enough of us around these days that we've decided to have a meetup/potluck (how could we get together and not share some food?) on Friday, November 2nd. If you consider yourself to be a food blogger/vlogger/podcaster/writer and you live in the area, we happily invite you to join us.
If you want to attend, please give Taylor a shout at taylorhigh24 (at) hotmail (dot) com.
KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid: words to live by. And there's nothing simpler than a loaf of bread and some fresh cheese. But you can step it up a bit and go get yourself some really good bread and some fantastic mozzarella (and that's pronounced mutz-a-rell).
I love the bread from Sarcone's down on 9th and Fitzwater Sts. You can get it around town in various places, but I know you can get it at Sue's Produce (115 S. 18th St just north of Sansom St) fresh and daily. You'll probably hear it called Sar-cone's or Sar-cone-a's depending on who you ask, but just about everyone will tell you to go do yourself a favor and get yourself some. A loaf of Italian will set you back $1.30. I prefer the unseeded.
But what kind of cheese to put on top of that luscious, soft, crunchy bread? I love me some mozzarella from Claudio's in the Italian Market at 924-26 South 9th St. One side of the store is their state of the art mozzarella factory churning out loads of bursting-with-flavor balls of mozzarella. The other half of the store is a specialty foods store with cheese, olives, cured meats, pasta, olive oil and all the other goodies you'd expect to find in a specialty foods store in the Italian Market. Like the Sarcone's mentioned above, you can also get Claudio's at Sue's (it's like they know exactly what I want and make it centrally available!). At Sue's you can get 1/2 pound balls of mozzarella for about $3.50 and a pint package of little balls for $2. A pound of the smoked mozzarella (pictured above on the Sarcone's) will set you back $6.99/lbs. and it's worth every penny.
Slice off a few inches of Italian bread and split it, but not all the way through. Take a sharp knife (not serrated) and slice off some chunks of mozzarella. Not too much though, you want a decent balance between the bread and cheese. A spritz of olive oil on the bread could add a splash of taste, but I prefer mine dry. Fold over the top half of the bread and smoosh it down a bit. Now, enjoy your masterpiece in old world simplicity. A loaf and a 1lbs. ball of mozzarella is probably plenty for a picnic with some friends and with this insane weather, you can enjoy your picnic in some of the 9,000 acres of green space that is Fairmount Park through Thanksgiving.
The bread will stay fresh for a few days so you don't have to wolf it down in one sitting (but I'm not advising you not to eat it all). Enjoy it for lunch. Have it on the side for dinner. Heat it up and butter it in the morning. The mozzarella you can save for a few days too, but be sure to sniff it after a couple of days – nothing worse than spoiled milk products.
We received an email from the people at Peet's Coffee & Tea in August about Peet's coming to the Philly area for a series of cuppings (that's fan-cay talk for tasting). The carrot at the end of their proverbial stick? They were bringing along a sampling of the most expensive coffee in the world, Panama Esmeralda Geisha:
Grown on just one small block, at the highest altitude of Hacienda La Esmeralda in the Boquete region of Panama, Panama Esmeralda Geisha is an heirloom variety – known as "Geisha", after its probable origin in the Ethiopian region of Gesha. Characterized by an unforgettable jasmine-like fragrance and pristine citrus clarity, this coffee has been judged best coffee in Panama and has garnered ten first place awards in the last four years. Only 215 sacks of this rare coffee were produced in 2007, and on May 29, 2007, just tens sacks of Panama Esmeralda Geisha were sold for the highest price ever paid at an international coffee auction – an astounding $130 per pound wholesale.
Messy very much wanted in and Picky, not being a coffee drinker, was intrigued by the lure of this expensive coffee. Oh yeah, they were also holding the cupping at the Four Seasons with desserts paired to the coffee offerings. Messy (pictured above taking a sniff of the roasted Geisha in the Four Season's Courtyard) is a coffee addict, and until this event, an uneducated one. She has gone through many rotations in her coffee preferences, from Dunkin' Donuts light and sweet to soy creamer in whatever is on sale at the grocery store to her most recent preference: the darkest and cheapest version of fair trade coffee at Whole Foods with a little half and half. But, in general, Messy likes her coffee like she likes her wine: cheap but powerful. So it was quite an eye-opener to taste gourmet versions of her drug of choice. The coffees we tried were so good and so smooth that they didn't need to be dressed up with cream or sugar — even Picky was able to drink them black without experiencing any strange or bitter aftertastes.
In addition to the Geisha, we tasted (from near to far) the Columbia and Major Dickinson's Blend®. The green beans in the photo above are unroasted Geisha with the roasted ones behind them. All of the coffee was prepared in Bodum French Presses, the smaller carafe was reserved for the pricey Geisha.
Our host from Peet's was the delightful Erica Hess, a Peet's Coffee & Tea's Coffee Educator, and an 11-year veteran of the company. She told us about the history of the company (Peet's gave birth to Starbucks and the coffee explosion in the rest of the country). She also told us a little anecdote about her first encounter with Mr. Peet while working at a shop in Berkeley. Mr. Peet walked around the counter and started to fiddle with the coffee. She thought, "Hey, this is Berkeley!" and let it go. Until she realized that it was Mr. Peet himself. He checked in on his stores regularly. Above is a shot of Erica showing us what the coffee cherries look like – they really look like cherries!
Erica described the roasting process in their new, LEED certified plant in Alameda, CA. All of their beans are roasted by hand in small batches and delivered fresh within 24 hours of ordering without warehousing. It's the careful roasting process which results in a distinctly smooth and un-bitter cup. Erica also explained the brewing process in detail. She loaded two tablespoons of Geisha beans into a grinder. She noted that you should a dedicated grinder for your coffee beans and to think twice before using the one at the grocery store. Mixing your spices and coffee beans will lead to some odd couplings of flavors and the grinder at the store can be a crapshoot with all the mixed beans. (At this point, Messy began to cringe thinking of her own coffee making strategy, which usually involves eyeballing, microwaving and rarely cleaning the pot.)
After grinding your beans, then comes the hot water. After boiling, let the water sit for 30 seconds. Erica warned that you don't want to hit the grinds with boiling hot water or else you'll burn them. It's okay to pour boiling hot water on tea though (except for a few varieties).
The secret to not having your French Press explode is to plunge about halfway and let the gases from the beans expand. Don't plunge all the way down until grinds have bloomed for three minutes (we're not going to lie to you — we had to look up the word "bloom"). Then, pour and enjoy ASAP.
From left to right are the Columbia, Major Dickinson's and Geisha. We sipped from each cup. Erica told us to slurp and aerate the coffee to get the full taste. The Columbia is more of an everyday coffee and was Picky's (his first favorite coffee!). The Major Dickinson's has a little more punch to it and was Messy's favorite. The Geisha had an incredibly different taste to it accentuated by tasting the other cups and going back to the Geisha – with each successive sip, the citrusy flavors were more and more apparent.
After one round of coffee by itself, we got to sample a plate of pastries prepared by Executive Pastry Chef Eddie Hales who has been with the Four Seasons since 1983.
First up was the chocolate cake with figs and honey.
Then came the croissant bread pudding with white chocolate shavings. This was Messy's favorite, even though it's probably too sweet to eat in large portions.
The tiramisu was delicious as well. This was Picky's favorite.
Lastly, the almond cake with pear jelly and diced pear on top. This went well with the slightly citrus-y Panama Esmeralda coffee.
We were supposed to be noticing the subtle differences in the flavors of the coffee and the desserts, and we certainly sharpened our (formerly nonexistent) skills in that regard, but honestly, all of the coffees and all of the desserts were delicious. We were given a bag of the Columbia and a two tablespoon scoop to use at home. This prompted us to buy a new grinder (Messy broke the old one in our recent move by knocking it off the top of the fridge.) Messy was also inspired to (finally) clean her $20 coffeepot. Even in the clean pot, freshly ground and properly measured, the coffee didn't taste as good as it did when Erica made it. It did, however, taste a hundred times better than Messy's usual morning cup — and we can thank Peet's for that!
And there's the scene after we were all done. Also on hand, at different times, from Philly were a couple bloggers: Foodadelphia and the video blogging dynamic duo that is Fork You. The Inky sent Rick Nichols and his column is here. We're not aware of spots around town that serve Peet's, but feel free to leave some comments if you do. You can get your Peet's fix at ACME through a new partnership and at Genuardi's. To ensure freshness, Peet's has a team of people making sure the coffee isn't on the shelves for more than 90 days.
There's Messy unpacking our latest kitchen gadget, a Krups waffle maker. We won it during Foster's Urban Homeware's grand opening weekend raffle. They were gave away all kinds of really cool stuff to celebrate the opening of their new store on 4th and Market — how awesome of them! Messy — who has not won anything by chance since age the age of five (when she won a Peanut Butter and Jam LP and a Puffalump in a church raffle) even though she is obsessive about entering contests every chance she gets — was so amazed to see that her ticket had won. But when she looked at it the winning ticket closely, it turned out to be Picky's handwriting. So. . . one of us won, and we're really happy about that. Thanks, Foster's!
As you can see, our new waffle iron is all nice and shiny. No smudges. No stains. No cracks. No batter.
It's all primed and ready to go. There's only one problem – neither of us have a good waffle recipe. What we're looking for is a solid waffle recipe (without bananas, Messy doesn't like bananas) that we can try out for brunch. Vegan recipes are especially welcome as we have several vegan friends.
Philly Flavors has been a Fairmount staple (located across the street from Eastern State Penitentiary) for over five years now, and they've just added a new location in Center City: 343 S. 13th St., just up the block from Dirty Frank's (and a conveniently short walk from M&P HQ!).
Washington Square West is quickly transforming into quite the foodie destination with spots like Naked Chocolate Cafe, Tria II, Vintage Wine Bar, and Mercato among the many new-ish additions.
The new Philly Flavors opened up shop last month at the beginning of fall and missed the summer season, but it's sure to win people over while the weather's still nice. To help drive some timid taste buds into the space, they're having a grand opening with free water ice this Thursday.
As we've said many times before, we are not from Philadelphia, and even though we have loved calling it home the past four years or so, we still don't really understand water ice. However, we're told Philly Flavors has some great varieties. We've tried the ice cream at the new location several times now, and it's been great every time. But the new location doesn't yet have our absolute favorite Philly Flavors treat — the overstuffed ice cream cookie sandwiches. We can't wait till they get those this way!
Philly Flavors II
343 S. 13th St.
267.519.8982
7 days: 2pm – 10pm
