Last night was another fun event during Philly Beer Week 2011 at Percy St BBQ: The Bull Strikes Back—mechanical bull riding night! I got to meet Victory Brewing's own Bill Covaleski last night and I didn't expect to see him at Percy St last night, let alone up on the bull. But I heard his name called out and I sure as hell grabbed by camera out of my bag. Unfortunately, he didn't last long. But almost nobody did. Above is a lovely six-shot, one second glimpse of his glory on the bull. You can just make out his foot in the final frame.
There was one person who truly conquered the bull. The girl above rode the bull for something like 22 seconds.
I was talking to Foobooz's Art Etchells about mechanical bull riding and the one time he did it in Arizona while out for a Birds v Cards game years ago. He said he was on it and got bucked hard just shot of 8 seconds. His pain did get him and his friends drinks. His lady, the First Lady of Yelp, came through with some headbands and he channeled some inner Hulkamania and got up on the beast.
He grabbed the Hammer of Glory before facing his doom.
He charged onto the bull like a pro.
And got tossed like a champ. "You shoudda seen me in Arizona" he later said.
We got to the Headshouse Square Farmers' Market very late last week, but Picky brought along a big camera to take some portraits of some of the farmers. He's borrowing Kathleen Connally's (the incredible woman behind the fantastic photoblog A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania) Hasselblad 503CW for a little while. Kathleen's one of the best photogs around and he's immensely thankful for her generosity (and busy schedule preventing her from using this beauty!). Above is a shot of Tom Culton of Culton Organics who grows a bevy of heirloom produce. He called Picky over to his truck and said, "You wanna see a chicken?" Here, he's holding (we think) a Sussex hen he picked up while in town. Gorgeously brown and gold.
Here's Gil of Market Day Canelé striking a pose as he was packing up for the day. His fanciful pastries are the best in Philly.
Here's Ben Wenk of Three Springs Fruit Farm. Over the years we've become friends with Ben and we love to talk shop when there's a lull at market.
When his cider rolls out in the fall, you'd have to be certified insane to not pick up at least a half gallon a week (we go through a full gallon in about four days). He's got some fun new things up his sleeves for the coming season too. Stay tuned!
Here's Dave Garretson of Beechwood Orchards. Last week was his first market of the season and we could tell he was just itching to get back to the grind. He had flat after flat of sweet and slightly tart strawberries for sale. Dave's apples make you sad you ever bothered to buy some waxed junk with a sticker on it.
Here's Karl who is deeply tied into all things food-related in Philly. He's been working with Dave for several seasons now.
Here's a market worker's bike loaded up with her haul for the day. She was off packing up the last of the stuff that needed to be hauled onto the truck so Picky snapped off a frame.
Picky hasn't shot with a Hasselblad in a little while so this roll of ancient Ektachrome 50 (expired July 1990) wasn't the best set of frames he's shot, but slowly, he's getting the hang of it again. It's like riding a bicycle. A very awesome, supercharged bicycle.
Photos from the 2011 Headhouse Farmers Market Season
Week by week, the spring wraps her fingers around what's new good and plucks them for market. Oh wait— those fingers actually belong to the bevy of hardworking farmers from the region. Somehow, through all this rain we've had over the last month, these awesome farmers have managed to bring salad greens, radishes, turnips, herbs and more to market. Above is a shot of the cool contraption Weaver's Way Farm has to sell their herbs ($2 bunch). We saw thyme, a couple varieties of mint, oregano, chives, and chive blossoms (make vinegar!) for sale.
Red beauty radishes are hard to resist. If it weren't for the bunch of radishes we had at home, we would've picked some up from Blooming Glen Farm.
Here are some sweet globes of hakurei turnips. Behind them, you can spy some pints of strawberries. We couldn't resist and picked up a juicy pint ($3.50) which were picked that morning.
Over at Three Springs Fruit Farm, our friend Ben Wenk still had some great tasting, crisp Fuji apples. He's gotta have quite the operation at his place to keep them so incredibly fresh. We wonder if he has one of those cool refrigerated, vacuum rooms with no air, just nitrogen, to keep the apples fresh. We'll have to ask him next week.
We didn't need any more radishes, but when Picky sees Easter egg radishes, he just can't resist. Just look at them, could you say no? We picked up a bunch ($3) from Weavers Way along with a bunch of baby tatsoi (think sweeter bok choi).
We're looking forward to what the market will bring next week. Too bad a whole lot more rain is in the forecast between now and then.
A set of photos from this season's Headhouse Square Farmers Market
Whoops, we forgot to post some photos from Week 2 of Headhouse Farmers Market so they're included in this week's recap of Week 3! Last week our friends at Root Mass Farm had a similar stock as the week before: not much. Such is life when the rains clog up their clay-heavy fields. They did have these super cute, super thin and tiny stalks of asparagus there. They were much thinner than a pencil and super tender. Instead of selling it, Landon and Lindsey offered them to us and some friends.
Here's Gil from Philly Market Day talking up his delicious canelé. They're so incredibly awesome. Well worth the $5 for 2 large ones or a sleeve of minis.
Dad and daughter taking a break by the food carts.
We finally sampled the goods from Los Taquitos de Puebla. Messy had the squash blossom quesedilla ($6) and Picky had the tacos al pastor ($7). We sat down in the sun with Landon and Lindsey for a nice little picnic post market. And in case you were wondering about the difference between al pastor and carnitas (as Picky and Lindsey were), here it is: al pastor is marinated and cooked on a vertical rotisserie; carnitas is pulled pork shoulder which is then roasted in a shallow pan for crispiness.
Week 3 brought in another produce vendor into the mix: Blooming Glen Farm. They brought with them a mountain of radishes along with other early spring goodies. The soggy, drippy weather didn't keep away the crowds— it actually seemed a little busier than the previous two weeks. Picky was riding solo as Messy was out of town for the weekend.
Weavers Way Farm was stocked with bagged salad greens and herbs.
Picky stopped to talk with Sue from Birch Run Hills Farm about the DiBruno Brothers fermentation dinner which Madame Fromage attended and wrote about. Sue had a great time and recounted the awesome bites she had through the night. She also said that wheels of the new Tired Hands Brewery washed Tired Cat will be available around Beer Week time. Picky loved her Brawling Cat she had last year using Yards Brewery's fantastic malty session brew Brawler.
AT Buzby Farm had more plants for sale, tomato plants in the foreground. But what's that behind?
A long line of quarted strawberries! They're not quite at their peak sweetness yet so Picky held off from getting a quart ($6).
Our friends at Root Mass Farm had a lot more to offer this week. Loads of green garlic and loads of herbs. Their lemon balm makes for some awesome iced tea!
Picky didn't grab post-market eats at Headhouse this time around as he was headed to a birthday lunch afterward in Chinatown, but Honest Toms made their Headhouse market debut at this week.
Picky even took home (that's our new tiny open kitchen in the background) a prize from the market by correctly describing what was going on in this photo via the Root Mass Farm blog. A nice bunch of green garlic.
Photos from the 2011 Headhouse Farmers Market season in this flickr set.
High up on our list of things that make us very happy: Opening Day of the Headhouse Farmers' Market! It was this Sunday, May 1st, and we had been looking forward to it for many months. While there are other markets around town which are open year round (Clark Park, Rittenhouse, Fitler Square), this one is the biggest of them all. We've been going to the market since its inception and Picky even participated as a vendor when he was working at PhillyCarShare many moons ago.
Here's a tour of some of the many awesome vendors at the market. We didn't even buy anything to take home—there wasn't much to buy anyway. It was more of a social visit to see our many farmers' market friends.
Here's the Happy Cat Organics stand with many varieties of heirloom seeds for sale along with some seedlings.
One of our favorite dairies, Birch Run Hills was there with a few offerings of Blue (which ranges in taste from Gorgonzola Dolce to Stilton), their Experimental cheese, beef sticks and spreads. That's Sue Miller in the black shirt. Picky had a spicy beef stick [$1] which was delicious and kept him going until lunch.
Patches of Star Goat Farm had yogurt, milk and chèvre, but Messy helped herself to a cup of Bing cherry goat milk ice cream [$3.75]. It's not nearly as creamy as cow's milk ice cream, but definitely no goaty tang to it. A refreshing treat on a nice spring day for sure.
Paradocx Vineyeard was there with their pails of vino (yep, pails!) along with traditional bottles for those who don't think they'll be consuming 3.5L at a time, heh. We haven't had any of their wine yet, but it's just a matter of time…
Buzby Farms from New Jersey had hanging baskets of strawberry plants. Oh strawberries, it's almost time for you!
Mushrooms and greens piled up.
This pooch was standing guard at Three Springs Fruit Farm. We spoke with our friend Ben Wenk for a good while and he let us know a few offerings to come in the next two months. All we'll say at this point is that they're drinkable. Very exciting! He also let us know what the difference is between apple juice and apple cider: it has to do with the bottling. Apple juice is bottled at 280°F and is shelf stable whereas cider is not. Good to know! They had some lovely asparagus for sale, but we had about 1.5lbs in our fridge already from Fair Food Farmstand!
Bennett Compost was on hand selling five gallon buckets [$10] of their compost. We're actually residential customers of Bennett. Tim's a great guy and we've hung out with him a few times over the last year. We're super happy to be using his service to help divert a ton of trash from landfills. Between single-stream recycling and composting, we've reduced our trash tremendously. We have a 32-gallon trash can which we fill up every six weeks or so. In contrast, we fill up our giant blue recycling bin weekly and we send off a few gallons of kitchen scraps each week to become compost. As a Bennett customer, we were eligible for 10 gallons of compost for free. We gladly took it and gave it to our friend Taylor who is an avid gardener. Unfortunately, we don't have any green space to work with in our new digs.
Our friends Landon and Lindsey recently started a farm in Oley Valley called support them shortly. They're putting together a City Picnic and a CSA-like Garden Stake where you can pre-pay and get a percentage bonus on your account for the entire season. We also hope to make it up to the farm for a visit/tour soon! (This goes for all of our farmer friends: we'd love to come and visit you this season! We had a great time touring farms last summer and want to make a point to visit most of the places where our food is grown!)
After a few hours of socializing, we needed some lunch. Enter Renaissance Sausage and their awesome truck. Their truck makes a few apperances around town during the market season. Their sausages are available at retail locations as well.
Messy went for the vegan sausage with fried onions and cilantro with Asian slaw on the side. Delicious!
Picky went for the keilbasa with house made 'kraut and spicy dijon and Siracha on top. Fantastic! Unfortunately, the keilbasa is not available for retail sale yet, although many other varieties are.
We had such a great time as usual. We caught up with vendors, welcomed a new one and saw a bunch of friends also enjoying the lovely weather and opening day at Headhouse. Until next week! 10a – 2p on 2nd St under the shambles between Pine St and Lombard St.
Philly Weekly put out a Must Eats issue at the end of the summer profiling 50 of Philly's finest edible things. I gave it a read and was checking off the tasty things I had already tried and mentally oogling all the things listed I had yet to feast on. The masterminds behind the list: food reviewer (now boutique East Passyunk Ave grocery store owner) Adam Erace, Tim McGinnis and Brian McManus decided to put together a menu recreating some of those dishes and Must Eats: The McEvent was born. Tim invited me to come along and I graciously accepted and brought my friend Landon along for the ride as the menu was quite meat-heavy and non-Messy friendly (her loss!)
I hailed a cab from work at RTM in the pouring rain in late October to head to Bluecoat gin (by Philadelphia Distilling) sling: lemon, thyme infused simple syrup, sparkling mineral water and a big lemon slice; their take on a gin fizz. These were good. It had a nice tang to it with sugary sweetness. Landon and I had 3 or so of these by the end of the [long] night – they were so easy to drink.
But the gin fizzes weren't the only alcohol on tap for the night. We had a keg of YardsBrawler on tap with Yards brewer Tim Roberts pouring away. Tim was seated to my left with his lovely wife across from him. Every time our Bell Mason pint jars were about half empty, Tim would top them off and refill the pitcher. Our other tablemates Drew Lazor from City Paper and Foobooz himself, Art Etchells, were putting away pints as quickly as Tim could refill them. I think I had about 6 pints to go with my 3 gin fizzes. I was tanked when I got home even with all the food we downed.
There were some pickled cucumbers (full sours, bread & butter) tomatoes and beets on the tables for everyone to nosh on before the courses started pouring out. Landon previously did not like pickled beets or bread and butter pickles. After trying these he changed his mind about the beets but not the bread and butters. I'm picky about my pickles (duh) and the full sours were good and pickled tomatoes are something I've recently been introduced to and definitely like. Above, the chefs for the evening. From left to right: Chef Tim McGinnis, Chef Brian McManus and Chef Brad Jennings aka, the Baldy Fella (Tim told me to call you that!).
The first course was Suzuki Peruvian ceviche (black sea bass, citrus, tamari romesco sauce, rice cracker) served in one of those pho spoons. I took mine down in eager 2 bites, first with the cracker and then without. Ceviche is one of those things I'm now branching out into eating; I've recently vowed to eat more adventurously. Landon was a fan of the rich and oily spoonful.
Next up were Tempura green beans (blackening spice, cajun remoulade). Our table of 8 got 2 baskets and we ripped through them like drunks at a bar. They were good, but they had us wanting the versions at Grace Tavern or Prohibition Taproom. Landon suggested that if the spices were incorporated into the batter and not added afterwards, it might have changed his opinion. It should be noted that Landon is a frying maestro. He and his housemates hold an annual Fry Fest – I went this year, it was awesome.
The shrimp pho cocktail (Vietnamese court bouillon, tiger shrimp, Asian slaw, Thai basil, hoisin, peanut) was something I was really looking forward to as I had never had pho outside of a hole in the wall Vietnamese spot. I had my spot in NYC I used to go to and now I have my spot here in Philly. But a fancified version?! Landon thought the shrimp had a really wonderful flavor from the fennel rich broth that it was cooked in, but the peanut sauce was a little too much overwhelming the shrimp. I thought the sauce was a bit thick especially considering the portion. The noodles had a great heat to them.
Chefs Jennings and McGinnis slaving over a super hot grill top preparing the next course.
The next few dishes were a trio of sliders. The reuben (house-brined brisket, Sriracha 1,000 Island dressing, Gruyere, homemade rye) had me worried as it could've been the one thing I didn't want to eat since I'm not a fan of 1,000 Island dressing. Landon took a lick of the toothpick holding it together and, before taking a bite, thought it was a winner. He assured me I'd like it and the dressing was light. Grilled hard, the strong, flavorful rye held up well. The dressing was light and was barely noticeable as Landon promised – I think everyone had at least 2 (or 3).
Fiorella's sausage being grilled.
Our next slider was a Fiorella's sausage (fennel and fig mostada, taleggio, arugula, Parc baguette). Hunks of fig/fennel mostada and bunches of rocket filled out the slider. Landon liked building these little sandwiches, they had to give us at least a little something to prepare since we were sitting in the kitchen. He wishes that the fennel and fig mostarda lived in my fridge his home. I gotta agree, the fig and fennel mostada was great. I might not dislike fennel so much anymore.
The final slider was my favorite part of the meal lamb shoulder (lamb and veal demi-glace, Parc baguette). Afterwards, Landon said that the simple pairing of the lamb shoulder with tarrgon was unexpected and delicious and I couldn't agree more. These and the Brawlers just kept coming and they were really complimentary. Landon felt like one could perpetually eat these little guys so long as there was a fresh Brawler in hand, but alas that theory did not pan out as he passed out promptly after dinner. Messy can attest to me passing out promptly after arriving home as well – I think I had 3, maybe 4 of these? They'd come around with a little wooden cutting board full of sliders and egg us on to just have one, two, three more.
What's a polpo pizza(octopus, marinara sauce, Claudio's smoked mozzarella) I wondered when I initially read over the menu, and then there it was. I'm not a big fan of octopus but this marked the second time this year I'd had it. Landon would've opted for simply having the chunks of octopus and smoked Claudio's; I would've opted for everything but the octopus. Unless it's cooked just a certain way, I just can't get into it. I'm also not the biggest fan of pizza that's not simply by the slice, but this was good. Claudio's has Messy and Picky's favorite mozzarella in the land.
And for dessert – what? Dessert?! – was Stock's pound cake with pear and mint applesauce and Capogiro's Fior di Latte gelato [Milk gelato. Milk from an Amish family's single herd of hormone free, grass fed in Lancaster County. Crazy good.]. Stock's is a bakery in the NE and, apparently, they have the goods when it comes to pound cake. It was heavy, but not too buttery. Landon thought it was good but after a meal that inspired several references to "just one mint, it's waaaafer thin," pound cake, gelato, seriously. His taste buds and stomach were worn out – too stuffed to appreciate dessert even though he ate all of it. Growing up in a family that owned a Carvel ice cream store, I always have room for ice cream. I downed it, but was also feeling the heft of the entire meal.
We thought that was it, but there was one more treat. Apparently, Market Cafe is also a PKS user and they left a big tray of their caleles for us to enjoy with our meal. I had heard about these for some time. Some of the other diners hadn't heard of them. I've had the ones Metropolitan Bakery makes which are lovely, but these were that much better. Smaller, denser, with more of a crust to them. The creamy center makes you contemplate your life pre-canele for a bit.
I can't thank Tim, Brian and Brad and their crew of significant others and friends who rounded out the crew for having us. Tim mentioned that they're thinking of doing more of these tasting menu events in the future – perhaps even an all veg affair!
I normally don't post something without a photo, but it's no trivial matter. I finally had a good bagel in Philly. My first good bagel in 5.5 years here in Philly. I found it at The Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen. A nicely sized plain bagel, lightly toasted with cream cheese. How hard is that to make? Apparently, very hard. I've had many a bagel in Philly, but this was the first bagel I've actually liked.
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
