Just a quickie post on a veggie I've never seen before: baby fennel. It's just what it sounds like. I'm not a fennel fan (nor anything fennel/anise/licorice flavored) so I won't be having any of it, but well, it's available at Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market. The crazy Saturday rush crowd may have already swooped in and grabbed all that we got in during the week (3 lbs), but we might get some more on Tuesday.
They're not even 1.5" wide at the base. The stalks are a solid 18" long with those familiar Apiaceae family leaves (think dill, carrots and parsnip).
Last Monday I attended this really awesome event at Reading Terminal Market put on by my employer Fair Food. It was the gathering of dozens of local farmers, dairies, bakeries and value-added producers showing off their wares to hundreds of buyers in the Philly area. It's called Local Grower Local Buyer and this was the 7th wonderful gathering. Bob over at Robert's Market Report got his writeup up promptly. Well, better late than never. Above is Sue Miller of Birch Run Hills Farm which makes some of my favorite cheeses in the land. Her recently reformulated foil-wrapped Birch Run Blue is my current favorite cheese out there. We actually just melted some for an overly decadent sauce for dinner last night. She had samples of her Blue, Alpine and some new fromage blanc samples – one with tarragon, one with honey and salt; the honey and salt was sublime and it's currently unavailable.
Local chocolatier John&Kiras piled up their colorful square boxes filled with little treats for all to peer into.
Market Cafe's canele are among the best single or two-bite items in the entire city. What is a canele? It's this delicious pastry with a just-slightly crispy exterior with a decadent, custardy soft interior. I've had a couple of Market Cafe's canele and they're worth every penny. Check out Gaetano's post on the LGLB event.
Wanna know who also loves the Market Cafe canele? Jose Garces. That's him in the blurry shot above about to shake hands with the garlic man Tom Coulton of Coulton Organics. But more on the Iron Chef in a bit.
Daisy Flour built a mini walled fort showing off their many many varieties of flour. I have some serious baking friends and many of them swear by this stuff. It's expensive, but the lightness of their pastry dough and the high gluten content of their bread flour are the real deal.
Here are the samples at the Birch Run Hills stand. I wanted to eat one sample and just keep going down the line of mini spoons, but I had to keep clicking away.
Mark Skinner is one of my favorite farmers in the area. His 16 varieties of heritage chickens produce the coolest rainbow dozens of eggs you'll ever see. Brown, white, cream, maroonish-pink, speckled, blue-green. They're sooo cool. I always love chatting with him at markets and when he delivers to the farmstand. He was doing double (or was it triple) duty sampling some other stuff including the Apple Tree Goat Farm chevre he's cutting up with that mini cleaver above.
And here's Coulton. He's a character. He's got lots of cool hats, most with feathers in them. Come summer, he'll be bringing dozens of varieties of garlic to market along with his other heirloom varietals of everything under the sun. Here, he's jabbing at the air while holding a Jerusalem artichoke which surround his land – once you plant those, you'll never have to do so again, they're crazy growers.
Keeping in line with local characters with great products, Ryan, the elder brother of the duo behind the best ice cream in the city, Franklin Fountain, was there. They're always coming up with cool new things every year in their Old City shoppe. I hope he went home inspired.
With all this delicious food all around, there had to be something to drink, right? Philadelphia Brewing Company came through with samples of their full lineup of brews.
So let's get back to the newly minted Iron Chef Garces. We knew his head buyer, Adam DeLosso, was gonna be there, but Garces himself showing up was extra cool. Garces is committed to bringing the farm to table in his yet to be named spot, under construction eatery at the Cira Centre. He took a full tour of every single vendor there and stayed well over an hour. Above, he's sampling and taking a look at Shellbark Hollow Farm's chevre (which is delicious!). The sharp chevre is the famous "Obama cheese" people have been requesting all over town since not-yet-President Obama picked up a helping at DiBruno Bros during a campaign stop.
Trickling Springs Creamery brought out all kinds of [pasteurized] milk to the event. I've had their buttermilk, whole and chocolate varieties and they're all incredibly rich. Most likely thicker than any kind of pasteurized milk you've had before. Closer to raw milk than store bought ultra-pasteurized milk. If you're scared of raw milk (there's no reason to be scared!), but want a creamier product, search out TSC milk at Whole Foods and Fresh Grocer in Philly. Fair Food might carry some of their stuff down the line.
Here's Ryan trying out some of the colorful, filled chocolate from John&Kira's.
Nicole from Quince and Garces listening attentively.
And yes, there were many PA Dutch vendors there. Here are two of them talking to Coulton. See that feather in his cap? I told you this guy has lots of feather'd caps.
Here's Garces talking to Chris of Common Market Philadelphia, a wholesale consolidator, marketer and distributor of food produced in the Philadelphia region. While Garces has made it clear he wants to pursue local sourcing, the pure volume of his eateries poses logistical problems. People from various local foods organizations are brainstorming to remedy that situation.
Ever wonder how eggs are graded? Coulton brought along an old school egg grader and a big fat goose egg.
And for a parting shot, here's a closeup shot of the brick of Shellbark sharp chevre Pete created. This pesto-tomato-chevre brick is as delicious as it is gorgeous. It's almost a shame to break the brick for serving, but then again, it would be a waste to have it for art's sake so it was eagerly eaten by all those who passed by.
I missed last year's event, but I'd be stupid to miss it next year. I've never heard of an event like this before and I'm not sure an event like this, at this scale, is done in other cities. I'd love to hear about it happening in NYC, DC, Chicago, Boston, LA, SF, Seattle, Portland and elsewhere, but I have no idea. Anybody know? If not, it should be done. If there are people in areas outside of the Philly area who want to do this, get on it. Gather up everyone on a night restaurants aren't too busy in your area, in Philly it's Monday when many eateries are closed, in a nice big space like Philly's RTM (another thing I haven't seen elsewhere is a RTM-esque spot) and have at it. Stand back and marvel as local buyers meet local producers. Good things will happen, I gua-ran-tee it.
A slideshow of the images above and more up on flickr. Click on the slideshow below to see them full screen.
We first tried Miran Korean Restaurant back in 2005 and enjoyed our meal there. But for some reason, Picky convinced himself that his review was incorrect and he didn't actually like his meal, causing him to avoid it ever since. Messy corrected him a couple weeks ago while we were jonesing for some Korean food and he happily obliged a trip back. He was happily reminded of the deliciousness that is Miran. After sitting down in a mostly empty space (we got there for a late lunch), we were greeted by a bevvy of traditional Korean panchan, complimentary appetizers. Front and center are merruchi, dried anchovies in a sweet and spicy sauce. Oh how Picky loves him some merruchi and it was all for him!
For his entree, Picky opted for his standby at Korean restaurants: dol sot bibimbap, the hot stone bowl of mixed rice topped with a fried egg. The bowl is crazy hot and you mix in the hot pepper paste – he asked for a second plate of it – and the rice gets nice and crispy and the veggies cook down a bit while in contact with the scalding hot stone bowl. This is a shot of the dish before the paste is added.
Messy really wanted the jajang myung, buckwheat noodles in brown sauce with freshly chopped veggies, but they were all out, so she opted for the tofu chige, soft tofu soup in spicy broth. It ended up being a little too spicy for Messy's still-adapting-to-Picky's-heat-tolerance-after-seven-years palate. She added in the bowl of rice to bring down the heat to a more approachable level. Although she found it a little too tofu-heavy, the dish did well to warm her up for the rest of the afternoon of errands about Center City.
Here's a shot of Picky's halfway mixed bibimbap after adding in the hot pepper paste. He gobbled this up quickly and had plenty of room to have about a quarter of Messy's soup.
A shot of the empty restaurant as we were about to leave. By that time, it was when they were getting ready to change over to the early dinner crowd. Usually, there are much more people in there.
Messy ***1/2
Picky ***1/2
The final, final word: Authentic, spicy Korean food at a nice price.
2034 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 569-1200
Mon – Sun 11am – 9pm
The good people at Chase Sapphire were kind enough to extend us two VIP passes to this event. We, of course, said yes, got out of our requisite blogger PJs and headed off to the Loews Hotel for the big bash. Above is a shot of the new Italian restaurant up in Northern Liberties, Apollinare [1001 N. 2nd St]. Chef Andrea Scatacci won for Best Dessert that night and we can verify that they were delicious and fun to watch being prepared. He's mixing up fresh ice cream with liquid Nitrogen for a quick freeze sans ice cream maker.
We made it over to the Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse table (where we're getting married!) for another dessert. The event had 40 restaurants and a ton of them had desserts, making it especially friendly for vegetarian Messy — there weren't any meat pie desserts that we saw.
Eventually, we stopped by the Chase Sapphire Lounge where we walked by the velvet rope with our badges. No, we didn't do the Wayne's World bit of flashing it all over the place (but maybe we should have?). We checked in at the table to pick up an awesome schwag bag. A signed copy of Susanna Foo's Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese Cuisine, Max Brenner's Chocolate: A Love Story: 65 Chocolate Dessert Recipes from Max Brenner's Private Collection (Brenner was there, but we didn't catch him in time to sign), a mini bottle of Cîroc vodka, a Chase labeled Built wine tote, a coupon book to all 40 participating restaurants, a bag of Melitta Blanc et Noir coffee and a copy of the latest Philly Mag all in a nondescript black tote bag. Yes, we got two bags. Commence hating.
And here's Chef Foo signing books in the lounge. We got one signed to Messy's dad who loves to cook Asian food. While in the lounge, Picky helped himself to a Cîroc cocktail. It was a Cîroc Cobbler. He can't remember exactly what was in it, but Messy noted that it reminded her of the sweet, strong drinks she had in college. Picky can't argue with that assessment.
There was so much to eat and see and we could barely make it to every table just to see what was being offered. In addition to the main room, there was a hallway full of tables and an additional room with more delicious offerings. We had a delicious tiramisu from what we think might have been The Dining Car.
And while we didn't get our picture taken in front of the Philly Mag backdrop to be all up in the society pages, Picky did get Messy to (grudgingly) pose for a frame. Check her out with her exclusive access badge and fan-cay bottle of Perrier!
Thank you again, good people at Chase Sapphire! And now, how about hooking us up with one of those big willie status credit cards?! Kidding, kidding. We're having a grand old time paying off our debt as it is!
My friend Tenaya over at Madame Fromage, your one stop shop for all delicious things cheesy, has been doing these cheese tastings over at Quince Fine Foods that got me curious about the shop itself. I had passed by the shop several times, but it was usually closed as I was around there at odd hours. But I finally got a chance to stop in while running errands one Saturday afternoon last month.
It's a cozy spot on Girard where you can warm up and grab a bite to eat or a treat to take home.
They have hot and cold drinks and small batch items ranging from cured meats to baked goods and cheese. Stop in for lunch to try out one of their sandwiches on whole wheat or baguettes or a salad.
This classy joint even has cubed sugar for your hot beverage of choice.
Everything about this spot screams cute. They have lots of local fare too. Goods from my favorite blogger and baker Foodaphilia and treats from Metropolitan Bakery are what I can remember from my quick stop into Quince.
I left the store with a little bag of dark chocolate covered cherries which I happily munched on while riding the El back to Center City. Quince is definitely worth a browse when you're up in Northern Liberties and one day, I'm gonna make it out for a cheese tasting with Mme Fromage herself as my cheesy guide!
Above is a photo of real, unfossilized, non-dinosaur eggs in 2009 (yeah, I didn't get around to posting until the next round of eggs came in this year). They come from the emu, a huge, flightless bird native to Australia. But these eggs came from a Boody Emu Ranch in Sewell, NJ – about 30 minutes south of Philly. The eggs can be found at Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market. Now, in that photo, there's no true sense of scale to the photo. Sure there's the words 'eat me' inscribed on the shell of the particularly chalkboard-green one like it's some kind of Easter time Valentine heart or something, but there's no 3" piece of yellow chalk next to it. Well, they're about 9" from tip to tip, a foot in circumference and they're heavier than they look roughly 1lbs – 1.6lbs apiece.
Here's a shot of me from last year taken by my friend Thad. You can get a sense of scale from this shot. From a distance, and close up, they look like giant avocados. The color will range from a lighter chalkboard-green to an almost black green. The texture will vary from smooth to deeply pebbled. Apparently, each emu lays a particular looking egg so the farmers can identify which eggs were laid by which bird, pretty cool! These emu eggs are roughly equivalent to 8 – 10 regular chicken eggs, so, you're looking at brunch for 4 with one egg.
But this egg will taste a little different than your average farm fresh egg with their bright orange yolks. Emus have a different diet so they're going to have a different taste and look. The emu egg isn't as rich as the other eggs at the Farmstand from Meadow Run, Natural Meadows (my favorite are the rainbow dozens), Lancaster Farm Fresh… The yolk to white ratio is crazy – the yolks are HUGE! The ratio is closer to 50-50 instead of roughly 1/4 – 1/3 yolk to 3/4 – 2/3 white. The whites of the emu eggs are thicker as they have less water content – this will make for fluffier eggs.
And there you go, an emu egg cracked into one of those large soup mugs with my hand and a quarter for scale. That sucker is GIGANTIC. The yolk is roughly the size of a donut. What in the world does one do with such a large egg? You can make a serious frittata or omelets. Make a custard or some quiche. Bake a cake. Messy is terrified of the gigantic eggs and refuses to go near them.
A closeup shot so you can see the texture of the eggs.
A gigantic emu egg can be yours for $10 at Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market. They're going for $30 at Whole Foods in NYC according to Serious Eats NY. Get them before spring settles in (can you remember ground without snow on it?!) as they'll stop laying and that'll be it for emu eggs until next March. If you want one for Easter, don't worry, grab one now. The shells are so thick that they'll last for months on your counter unrefrigerated and a good 6 months in your fridge. What makes eggs go rotten are actually hairline cracks in the shells. Thicker shells mean hairline cracks don't let air into the inside of the egg so no rotting! And if you're feeling especially adventurous, you can blow out the inside of the egg and save the egg for art like these people.
Friends and colleagues have been telling us about this NoLibs spot forever and we finally got our Center City butts up there, thanks to a thank you gift from our dear fried Cheri of Not My Mother's Kitchen. We trekked through a heavy December snowfall to make it up there (and we have some serious snow on the ground now too so it's like this review was written in a timely manner!) and entered what seemed like an oasis in the desert of white fluffy snow. The immediate vibe we got was awesome. Our eyes lit up as he saw the cozy interior — it just felt so homey. Their two-sided menu [.pdf] boasts tons of choices, but we were just there for lunch.
Messy started off with a big mug of delicious hot chocolate which had some subtle undertones that were reminiscent of pumpkin pie spices. It came out with some freshly whipped cream (a real hearty plop, not that watery stuff that dissolves right away!) and a slice of strawberry. Honey's touts itself as a big supporter of the Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign and we found it odd that they had these superfluous slices of out-of-season strawberry (there were more later).
Everything in the place looked cozy and fun. Here, a table to our left which had yet to be cleared.
Picky especially liked the little condiment caddy. Cream, ketchup, salt and pepper, hot sauces including a big bottle of Siracha. Dovetailed ends and several compartments so things didn't slide around too much. Everything fit perfectly.
Messy had a vegetarian chicken fried steak (Honey's has lots and lots of vegetarian choices) which came with a buttermilk biscuit and two sides of Messy's choice. She went with mac n cheese and slaw [$8]. It was all quite tasty and the portion was huge. The chicken fried steak tasted wasn't what Messy was expecting — the best way to describe it is to say it tasted like the insides of a samosa heavily fried in a pancake — but it was good. The only off note was the sauce, which tasted like a bland nutritional yeast concoction. In addition to all of this delicious carbs and cheese, Messy ordered a broccoli casserole appetizer which was fabulous — is there a better way to eat broccoli than smothered in delicious, gooey cheese and topped with French fried onions?
Picky had Bubby's Brisket Sandwich on brioche with Swiss, sauteed spinach, mushroom gravy and a side of horsey mayo [$10]. He had heard good things about it and it's supposed to be one of their stellar dishes. The brioche was thick, toasted and sesame seeded. It seemed like too much thick, dry bread for such dry brisket. Sadly, the brisket was dry. Why is meat ever dry? The horsey mayo didn't make up for the dry brisket, it was also pretty dry, not creamy at all. (The consistency was somewhere around very cold, hard cream cheese.) Picky tried a hunk of brisket by itself — it was under salted, too. Enough to make all of the Jewish mothers and grandmothers in Picky's hometown back in NY would cry. A stronger cheese would probably have helped. The side of hand cut fries [$2] were tasty – on the undercooked side, but nice and salty. If you need more salt, they have nice mini Ball mason jars of salt and pepper at the ready in those lovely dovetailed condiment trays at each table.
For desert, Picky was able to scarf down a blueberry cobbler [$5] a la mode [$2.50] with Bassett's vanilla ice cream. Messy helped, but she was really too full to make a solid dent. Spoonfuls of custard and pear dipping sauces circled the ramekin of cobbler along with more slices of strawberries and a big spearmint garnish. White-centered strawberries in December? We like to wait until the summer for deep red hearted local berries. The cobbler top wasn't rich enough for Picky's tastes, but it was pretty. Given the cakey cobbler top, you definitely want to go for the ice cream on this one.
After all the complaining from Picky — Messy enjoyed every part of her meal — he'd go back. He doesn't say this often, as there are just too many great spots in town to go back to a place that didn't sing the first time, but what can we say? Something about Honey's just felt so right.
Messy ****
Picky **
The final word: The food was a mixed bag, but the cozy, cool vibe invites us back for more.
Honey's Sit-N-Eat
800 North Fourth Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
215.925.1150
M – Sa: 8am – 10pm
Su: 8am – 4.30pm
