At the center of the ballroom were the auction items. People walked around and bid on the items all night. You can see the famous Michael Jordon 3:51 Slam Dunk Championship poster, signed, at bottom. A beautiful array of paper lanterns were strung around the auction island.

Here's one of the lion dancers totally exhausted after his part of the performance.

One of the two giant, prized lion heads present that evening.

Here's an event-goer interested in one of the auction items.

Here's my friend Al who was working the event for Upcoming Events. We got a chance to talk shop and catch up for a bit during the course of the night which is always nice.

Here's a shot of Gekkeian Sake which was absolutely delicious. I'm not the biggest sake fan, but this stuff was really smooth, no bite. I meant to take more photos that evening, but there were so many tables to load up with food that I just didn't get a chance to put things down and snap shots of each offering.

And a stop at the Loews Hotel isn't complete without a stop off up at the observation deck. One of the best views of the city and it's right in the middle of the city! More photos can be seen at the NAAAP site.

More than 30 restaurants and breweries will be present offering samples of their wares. Included in the impressive list is Yangming, which has won just about every accolade there is from Gourmet Magazine to USA Today to Philadelphia Magazine. The event is at the Millennium Ballroom at the Loews Hotel at 12th St & Market St on Friday night from 6.30p to 10p. The cost of the event is $85, but they've given us a promo code to pass along the member price of $75. Enter "phillylove" on the checkout page in the "promo code" field. So for the 36 different food and beverage stops you'll be making, that will come to just over $2 a plate – if you have just one plate – from each station. That's a pretty good deal. And the proceeds go to a scholarship program and who's against furthering the education of our future generations?

They've graciously given us some comps and considering it's Picky's birthday weekend, we hope to have a fantastic time there. Along with Yangming, we're looking forward to some other big names including Susanna Foo and Palace at the Ben and one of Picky's favorite Chinese spots, Sang Kee.

The first stop was at Fair Food Farmstand, Picky's day job. Fair Food's new General Manager, Kristin Mulvenna (left), took the group through a quick history of Fair Food (it started off as a single folding table in the back of Reading Terminal about eight years ago) and the plates of goodies she had in front of her. We had sliced super crispy heirloom York apples from Beechwood Orchards with some spring wildflower honey from Two Gander Farms, Sylvia's granola topped with Pequea Valley maple yogurt and a hunk of challah from Four Worlds Bakery out in West Philly.

Here's a look at the year-old newish space for Fair Food which is about 3x the size of the old space in the back of the Terminal. Lots of seasonal everything available 7 days a week as long as the Terminal is open. If you're looking to buy a great, locally and naturally-raised bird for Thanksgiving, Fair Food is your spot and you can order one here. If you want one of the prized heritage red bourbon turkeys, Monday the 15th [today!] is your last day to reserve one.

Here's Eric talking in front of Salumeria, one of two dedicated cheese shops in the terminal. Salumeria prepared a selection of local cheeses for us to enjoy.

We had (clockwise from the left): a very peppery Peppercorn Jack and sharply salty Misty Lovely (a ricotta salata), two goat cheeses from Misty Creek Dairy in Leola, PA. They gave us a feel of the range of goat cheese available in the area. Cherry Grove Farm's cousin-to-cheddar Herdsman was up next to cool off our palates. (Picky is a huge fan of Herdsman cheddar — see this post from earlier this year.) To finish, we had hunks of God's Country Creamery's Country Blue, a mild-mannered blue.

We headed out of the Terminal, down 12th Street, to Tweed Restaurant. There's Mme. Fromage toting a big bag of DiBruno Bros. goodies.

Our little heard of local munchers filing into Tweed.

Chef David Cunningham came out from behind the kitchen doors to walk us through the tasting plate and give us a little history on Tweed. Chef Cunningham regularly visits farms in the area — he's stood by the rivers where his trout comes from and seen his hogs up close and personal. As he told us, for him, "local food is not a fad." It's a way of life. Above, Chef Cunnignham takes a glance at the plate in front of Art from Foobooz.

Up front is the pork tenderloin with sauteed onion and apple. To the right, trout served atop a delectable sauce of brown butter, honey, capers and chopped walnuts. To the left, a beet salad with frisee, walnuts, French breakfast radishes and a hunk of chèvre.

The final stop on our journey was Capogiro on 13th Street for a blind taste test of six offerings.

Here's a closeup of each flavor. Given the time of year, you can probably guess the first flavor by sight alone, but the rest were tougher. At least one person from our group guessed correctly on each flavor. (Sadly, Messy guessed wrong pretty much every time.) Since Capigiro's offerings change daily, we're not too concerned with giving away what we had, but we'll leave it up to you to find out. Select the redacted text to see the answers. From the top: pumpkin, sesame (Picky's favorite), fig, pineapple mint, pear, apple. These treats were a great way to polish off the afternoon!

A City Food Tour is a terrific way to get a nice feel of the different food options available in town, interact with local foodies, and learn a little history. Their five permanent tours are available year round. Reservations are required, but you can call as late as one hour before tour time to reserve a spot. Tours are limited to 15 each, but you can book a private tour of up to 150. This Philly Homegrown Tour will be offered on 3 Saturdays between now and Christmas, so place your reservations before they're all sold out.

We haven't written about it much here, but a few months ago, Messy was diagnosed with a plethora of food allergies — and it's made eating out (and eating in general) more difficult. The City Food Tours folks were so incredibly accommodating, making sure that Messy never accidentally ingested any potential allergens. In fact, they were so on the ball, they actually had to remind Messy of her allergy when she forgot and tried to indulge in one delicious-looking treat that happened to contain egg. So, if you have food allergies or other dietary restrictions, don't let it stop you from going on a City Food Tour. They are more than happy to take care of you without making it a big deal.

Here's a video from Philly Homegrown about the local food scene

There's ample seating, maybe for 75 or more, and we've never seen the place completely full while walking by. That might be a result of Minar Palace's customers used to delivery or takeout orders.

Messy's Shahi Paneer, from the menu:

homemade cheese cubes cooked w/bell peppers in a tomato based sauce

This dish was absolutely delicious and is now Messy's Minar Palace stand-by (along with the yummy samosas covered in chickpea and yogurt sauce — an appetizer big enough to share with a few friends). However, Messy grabbed a taste of a friends Malai Kofta (Messy's all time favorite Indian dish) and found that it couldn't hold a candle to Tiffin's.

Messy's sister's meal Saag Alu, from the menu:

Creamed spinach cooked with potatoes

Picky's Chicken Vindaloo, from the menu:

Boneless chicken cooked with morsels of potatoes in a highly spiced sauce

Picky's bouts with the vindaloo since the reopening have been varied. In the restaurant, it's been mediocre. Takeout, on the other hand, has been better. It might be his distaste for the unfinished vibe of the restaurant (hello, styrofoam and plasticware?).

The general feel of the sit-down experience, unfortunately, takes away from the meal a great deal. During the day, there is no table service — you order at the counter and bring a tray back to your table, cafeteria style. At night, there is table service but not much else is changed. Opting for the call ahead takeout (or delivery if you don't want to preemptively work off some calories) will allow you to eat on some real plates with real utensils and drink out of real cups. We also felt like our serving sizes were bigger with the takeout. You can think back to their hole-in-the-wall digs at 16th and Sansom Streets from a few years back when others would scoff at ordering from such a dive (and we'd smirk back).

Messy ***1/2
Picky ** 1/2

The final word: Good solid takeout, but where are the good solid plates and forks?

Minar Palace
1304 Walnut St
215.546.9443
Mon – Fri: 11.30am – 9pm
Sat: 11.30am – 7pm
Menu .pdf | flash

If you'd like, you can still make the trek up to 710 W. Girard Ave and buy the same spices from the source, but as of March 2009, Foster's is the exclusive retailer for Tiffin's goods outside of their orange walls. We love Foster's — Messy won a wafflemaker from them in a random drawing and we love that they feature our buddies at Fork You so frequently. However, we highly recommend getting some full meals from Tiffin itself — the malai kofta, in particular, is a must-try. Messy has never had any as good anywhere else in the world!

Tiffin
710 W Girard Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(215) 922-1297
(215) 922-1567
Hours: Mon – Fri: 11:30am – 10pm, Sat – Sun: Noon – 10 pm

Foster's Urban Homeware
399 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 925-0950
(800) 734-8511
Hours: Mon -Sat: 10am – 8pm, Sun: Noon – 6pm

Our friendly host immediately seated us in an almost empty dining room where we were greeted by some freakishly long silverware. Pesce's dining room decor is all over the place: large stone slab fragment frescoes, mixed texture seating, wooden slat screens and opaque blue water glasses which servers couldn't possibly be able to see through and tell whether or not a diner needs a refill. Our server passed our table over at least eight times through the course of our dinner leaving Picky quite annoyed (he drinks a lot of water).

Pesce is on the higher end of mid-range restaurants with entrees topping out just under $29, with some market price items and daily specials sure to push the ceiling up a bit more. Picky was intrigued at the "market price" listing of lamb chops – he'd never seen that before.

Messy's large mozzarella and tomato stack ($10) was a nice and generous portion. From the menu:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Fresh Basil Drizzle & Balsamic Reduction

It was generous, and the pesto dressing was tasty, but the tomatoes and mozzarella just weren't that great. Granted, tomatoes are not in season, and that could account for some of their mealiness, but you can great mouth-watering mozzarella at Claudio's year-round, so there is really no excuse for the overall blandness of this appetizer.

Picky's sausage and broccoli rabe ($18) plate was a nice enough portion served in a gracefully bending rectangular dish. From the menu:

Sweet Sausage & Broccoli Rabe Sautéed in Olive Oil & Garlic tossed with Cavatelli Pasta

The dish was dusted with Parmesan with no extra in sight. Unfortunately, the flavor didn't match the size of the dish. The sausage tasted more like simple breakfast links and the whole dish was underwhelming and dry. The dryness of the dish was only compounded by the servers repeatedly walking past our table without refilling our water glasses. Picky didn't bother asking for extra Parm.

While there were a good amount of non-fish options for Picky to choose from, there were no vegetarian options listed further than the salad section of the menu. Yes, we realize we went to a restaurant specializing in fish dishes, but we've gone to similar eateries and come away with wonderful experiences; see, for example: Kisso and Morimoto.

We finished off our meal with a splurge of two desserts to share. On the left is a chocolate lava cake and at right, a tiramisu. If these two items are on a dessert list, it's a safe bet to say we're going to get them. These were pretty yummy — nothing to write home about, but not disappointing, either.

We're obviously not Joe Pesce's target demographic. But we gave the eatery a shot and they didn't seem to want our palate there. Such is life.

Messy *1/2
Picky * 1/2

The final word: You'll probably want to order the fish.

Joe Pesce Restaurant
1113 Walnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 829-4400
Mon – Thur 4pm-10pm
Fri Sat: 4pm-11pm
Sun: 3pm-9pm

Thank you Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen.

Unfortunately, it was $2.50. I'd rather take the Chinatown bus up to NYC, see some friends, walk around my old stomping grounds and bring back a baker's dozen than pay $2.50 for a single bagel with cream cheese. Good bagels are the single thing I miss most about NY.

What, for me, makes a good bagel. Step one: it can't be a piece of bread with a hole in the middle. That knocks out 95% of the "bagels" in town in the running. Step two: it's gotta have a slightly crunchy/crusty exterior for the bite into the bagel; none of that soft/mushy stuff. Step three: it's gotta be nice and chewy inside; no dryness, no soft breadyness. Step four: it doesn't need to be covered in other stuff to make it taste good – plain, lightly toasted (or fresh out of the oven), with a nice schmear of cream cheese.

Does anybody out there have a suggestion for a good bagel in town? I tried many, many, many places in the first 1.5 years here to no avail and then I gave up and stopped trying. I recently tried Herschel's East Side Deli in Reading Terminal Market. I highly advise against ordering a bagel there. Before trying a bagel at Herschel's on the suggestion from a co-worker a couple months ago, I can't remember the last time I paid for a bagel in Philly because it's been so long since I gave one a chance.

[Note: Oddly, I was meeting 9 photogs for brunch at the deli and I didn't bother to take a photo of the whole brunch. Too busy talking and eating.]

Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen
700 S. Fourth St.
(215) 922.3274
Mon – Sat: 7:30am – 6pm
Sun: 7:30am – 4pm

Keep your fingers crossed everybody. This place seems to have had more delays than your average opening. But until then, take a look at the new décor which Klein alluded to in his earlier post on Minar. We've got high hopes for this place and lots of friends just itching for an outing once it's ready. Their menu is finalized and available for download here [377KB] as a .pdf or you can click here for a zooming Flash-enabled version Picky just whipped up.

The photos above are from August 27th. We have no idea what the final signage will look like, but we're gonna assume they're going to take the old Time Video sign down at some point. [It's open!]

Minar Palace
1304 Walnut St
215.546.9443

There was a huge Dutch festival a couple weeks ago at Reading Terminal Market, where Picky happened to be working at the time. He noticed that Beiler's was set up in the main seating area frying up fresh donuts. Without any cash on him, he didn't get a chance to sample the gigantic fresh donuts. He didn't recall seeing the donuts at the bakery in the past either. After the festival ended, he ventured over to the stand and sure enough, there were donuts (and buns)! Armed with some cash, he plunked down 75¢ for a vanilla creme donut and bit into soft and flaky dough oozing with fresh creme. Sure that Messy would also be a fan, Picky decided that the next tag team visit to Reading Terminal would definitely include a stop off for more treats.

Above is Messy's pick from the rack: a chocolate covered donut. While the donut was certainly fresh, Messy is not a huge donut fan and will probably go for a different treat next time. This didn't hurt Messy's perception of Beiler's — she is a big fan of their bread and has her eye on some of their other simple-but-hearty looking treats.

Picky's second sampling was a strawberry jelly and creme filled donut, a double whammy encased in powdered sugar. Life doesn't get much better than a good donut.With Beiler's being a walk up the aisle from Picky's day job, it would be easy to have too much of a good thing so he's limited himself (so far) to one return for a frosted blueberry donut. The only other blueberry donut he's had was a sad excuse of one from Dunkin' Donuts. In contrast, Beiler's blueberry donut burst with flavor. And the texture of a fresh small batch donut is to die for.

Aside from the donuts, we've also taken a liking to their fresh sandwich loaves. Their white and wheat breads run about $2.50/loaf and come in a bag that seems to be coated with oil or butter on the inside. We're not sure exactly what it is, but it's not hurting the flavor.

While the Dutch Market hours are only Wednesday through Saturday you can benefit from this bakery making everything fresh. Get there Saturday towards closing and you'll find treats marked down to $1.50 because they'll be closed until Wednesday.

Their best offering is the pumpkin creme filled donut. It's seasonal so only around October-November. But that makes them that much more special. Get 'em while they're around!

Messy ***1/2
Picky ***1/2

The final word: Fresh, homemade inexpensive baked goods.

Beiler's Bakery
Wed: 8am – 3pm
Thu – Sat: 8am – 5:30pm
Sun – Tu: Closed
215.351.0735

We got to see e at N. 3rd and got to, briefly, meet Alex of Le Petit Cochon. Alex's take is up here. But with Picky's lost contact, and resulting headache and disorientation, we had to grab our vouchers and go, missing all the breast-inspired treats. Yes, that was vouchers plural. We thought we were going to be sharing a Franklin Fountain dessert, but we got one each!

We knew the portions would be huge. We debated inviting friends to share. But, in the end, we decided to just pig out. Our server asked us how many spoons we wanted for each sundae. "Um. . .just one," replied an embarrassed Messy. The sundae is basically delicious vanilla ice cream with a slathering of strawberries and whipped cream. Huge. Simple. Yummy. Messy wanted a few more wafers, but made do with two. Messy could only eat half, but Picky was there to finish it all off. It should be noted that Picky had the unfair ice cream eating advantage having been raised in a family that owned a Carvel ice cream store growing up (he ate a ton of ice cream between the ages of 5 and 20). Here's the recipe for the Broken Hearts sundae straight from the Franklin Fountain website:

Broken Hearts

{recipe taken from The Dispenser's Formulary, 1910}

"…put a slice of BRICK VANILLA ice cream on a 6-inch plate. Cover the ice cream with fresh, sweetened, and slightly mashed strawberries, and over these put sweetened whipped cream; top off with two whole strawberries and serve with two nabisco wafers. Sells for 20 cents. {F. Varney}

The Brothers Berley have revived a wonderful dish (which sells for a bit more than 20¢ nowadays) and selflessly donated 50% of the proceeds garnered from people ordering that delectable sundae for a good cause. We're sad we missed the festivities surrounding the evening's events, but look forward to reading about them from everyone who made it out.