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.

Beer Week!

Pics from Philly Beer Week 2011

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

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

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.

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.

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 Yards Brawler 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!

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

For Messy's birthday, we decided to go. By drinking water (not that we're normally guzzling bubbly and martinis) and sharing an appetizer, we were able to keep our bill under $50. We were surprisingly so full we didn't even need dessert to satiate our sweet tooths.

Their freshly baked bread and herby olive oil was so yummy! It's one of the many reasons why this place is packed from open to close every single day – reservations for the upstairs dining area are strongly recommended. We got there just before 9 p.m. on a Thursday and were told the dining room was full until about 9:30p.m., but we got lucky and a table for two opened up and was bussed within a few minutes.

We started off with spicy chipotle seitan and black bean enchiladas, and they were absolutely fabulous. Vegan cheese almost never tastes good, and this was terriffic. Whatever their secret is, it's worth the trip. In fact, this appetizer could make a suitable dinner. Picky ordered the Yucatan chopped spinach salad and Jamaican BBQ seitan for his meal (both appetizers). Messy had the grilled seitan which comes with Horizons famous yukon mash potatoes. (We both really, really like seitan. Our favorite way to eat it is with Horizon's "zesty chipotle" recipe). It was all delicious.

The Yucatan salad was quite creamy with tons of avocado holding the guts of the chopped salad together. The smoked black olives were a lovely touch adding unexpected little bursts of flavor. It's a salad big enough to share and we did – along with everything else. Our server was helpful and accommodating to our request to have our food brought out of traditional order (we ordered appetizers, an entrée and sides) so that we could create our own pace. Picky's Jamaican BBQ seitan was tasty, but not as good as the "zesty chipotle" version in the cookbook. Horizons threw a little curveball and the seitan had a distinctly smoky flavor to it which was different from the cookbook's directive, but very well done and balanced with a spicy scotch bonnet crema. (Prior to this meal, Picky was feeling lukewarm about Horizons. He had previously had the take-out version of the Pacific rim grilled tofu which just didn't cut it flavor wise. It didn't pull the Korean-Japanese meld they were going for. But that was over a year ago and maybe the recipe has been tweaked since.)

Messy had the grilled seitan with Yukon mash, horseradish cream, grilled spinach and red pepper tapenade. The portion was generous and everything was just incredibly tasty and filling. Messy had this meal when we got take-out last year and she'll continue to get it every time we return to Horizons, because it is awesome. (It is so awesome, Messy is breaking her own personal rule of trying everything "interesting" on a given menu before repeating orders.)

We're quite happy that Horizons made their move from the 'burbs a few years ago. Knowing it's close by is comforting. But saving up to dine in makes visits about as frequent as if they were still located outside of Philly. However, saving up some coin to make the trip is well worth it for special occasions — especially if you're a vegetarian.

Messy ****
Picky ***

The final word: Delicious upscale vegan food that is out of our budget. Get the cookbook!

Horizons Philadelphia
611 S. 7th St
215.923.6117
Tue – Thu: 6pm – 10pm
Fri – Sat: 6pm – 11pm

Golden Empress offers a full vegetarian menu as well as a full carnivorous menu. Overwhelmed by all the options, Messy went with the stand-by vegetarian General Tso's chicken. In order to qualify for delivery, Messy added an order of scallion pancakes and the people over at Golden Empress threw in a huge bag of fortune cookies — there were probably about eight in there. Messy managed to turn this order into four meals. Everything was good: the General Tso's were a little dough-y, not very spicy but strangely addictive and the scallion pancakes were just greasy enough to be delicious.

After Messy's first successful encounter with Golden Empress, the two of us decided to try another round of takeout. This time Messy went with the vegetarian sesame chicken, which was tasty and very similar to the vegetarian General Tso's in texture and lack of spiciness. Picky went with the regular General Tso's (his favorite Americanized Chinese dish) and also received nice healthy portion. Since Messy had warned him to order it extra spicy, it came out just right. It was nice and crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, with a good amount of sauce on the plate for extra dipping and mixing in with the rice. (Picky dislikes a scantily sauced dish!) The portion was enough for three solid meals, but Picky overstuffed himself and only managed to stretch it into two.

After these two pleasant experiences, we decided to head to Golden Empress for a sit-down meal. The interior is tiny, and kind of dingy, but the service and the food were delightful. We were treated to crispy noodles and Chinese pickle salad. Messy ordered the vegetarian pineapple duck, which was a very different consistency from the vegetarian chicken dishes. It was layer-y, kind of like a fake meat baklava. It was good, but a little too sweet for Messy. Picky, who sticks with a good thing once he finds it, had the General Tso's once more.

Messy's opinion changed slightly during the a sit-down meal. Actually, the sit down meal was fine, it was the bathroom that was particularly. . . um, unsavory. But if you do stick around for a sit-down meal, you'll be treated to some in-house comedy. From what we gather to be the owner or co-owner of the establishment, we were treated to constant banter with what seemed to be regulars to the Garden.

Aside from the bathroom, we have just one tiny complaint: the take out menu indicates that both duck sauce and hot mustard are 40 cents extra. This actually isn't the first time we've seen this here, and we have to wonder if this a Philadelphia thing. Neither of us has ever had to pay extra for duck sauce in our home states of Connecticut and New York.

Messy ***
Picky *** 1/2

The final word: Get take-out.

Golden Empress Garden
610 South 5th St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 627-7666
M – Th: 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
F – Sa: 11:00 am – Midnight
Su: 11:30 am – 10:30 pm

Messy had the Chef's Special, one of twelve "Vegetarian Delights" on the menu (ranging from $7.95-$12.95). The Chef's Special consisted of Indian cheese, spice rounds with tomatoes, cashews, raisins and spices. It was absolutely delectable, but not entirely cheap from our perspective, at $12.95. One part of our meal was a huge bargain, though — Messy's mango lassi was only $3 and the glass was about a foot tall. Seriously, it was enormous. However, everything we ate had an excellent price-to-value ratio, considering how yummy the food was.

Picky had the Mohan's Lamb Niyamatkhani. It was listed on the menu as "our executive chef's special" and when Picky requested that it be cooked extra spicy, it came out a normal level of spicy — which irked him a bit. The portion was right though and the dish very tasty, it just wasn't spicy enough. Next time, Picky will opt for something with some more inherent kick to it.

This was the only time in our three years or so of Philadelphia dining in which the owner of the restaurant came out and asked us how we liked the food. What a nice touch!

Messy ****
Picky ***

The final word: Really good Indian food, but maybe not spicy enough for some.

Lovash Indian Cusine
236 South Street
Philidelphia, PA 19147
T (215) 925-3881
F (215) 925-3882

Restaurant Buffet Take Out
Mon – Thu: 11 AM to 10 PM 11 AM to 2:30 PM 11 AM to 10 PM
Fri: 11 AM to 10:30 PM 11 AM to 2:30 PM 11 AM to 10:30 PM
Sat: 11 AM to 10:30 PM 11 AM to 3:30 PM 11 AM to 10:30 PM
Sun: 11 AM to 10 PM 11 AM to 3:30 PM 11 AM to 10 PM