Foodstalkers on Tour: D.C. & Philadelphia

A friend and I took an impromptu, low-budget road trip to visit friends in our nation’s capital and the city of bromance this past weekend. It was a time. And we had some fantastic eats along the way. I will skip the Wendy’s #6 that I had on the drive up. Thought it was delicious and picture-worthy. Keep reading for a diner breakfast, Chinatown dinner, late night pizza and cheesesteaks.

Saturday morning starts with a trip down the street to the 24-hour diner for breakfast.

bob & edith's

Bob & Edith’s Diner [2310 Columbia Pike, Arlington VA]

This place has been serving up diner food since 1969! And I think they still have some 1969 Dallas Cowboys memorabilia on their walls.

Here’s my #1 diner predicament: to eat breakfast food or not to eat breakfast food? Though I enjoy scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, sometimes I’d just rather skip straight to lunch grub. I ordered the Western Omelette. It’s somewhere in between breakfast and lunch. It acknowledges breakfast with the scrambled eggs. But the cheese, peppers, onions, tomatoes and ham (usually with salsa and sour cream) nod to lunch fare. Toss some Tabasco on there for extra heat! This was a delicious start to the day, and got our crew back in the game and ready for a day of sight-seeing! I only wish I could have stuck it out for a chocolate milkshake.

western omelet with homefries

Later that day for dinner, we headed to Chinatown, literally walked through the gate and parked it at one of the first places we came across. With a $7.99 dinner special. The soup and spring rolls were fantastic. I was starving.

wonton soup

Gah I love wonton soup. I enjoy many of the other common soups, but I always go back to my favorite. I think it’s the warm, simple broth and green onions. No fuss, just comforting. Then I shared some spring rolls. Though I easily could have eaten four. Please check out in the background…the pamphlet: “I Hope God Will Save Me: May 21, 2011!” Whatever. But we had an enjoyable time listening  to some crazy people near the Mall talk about the end of days. And we picked up some of their literature.

springrolls

chicken time!

To be honest, I can’t remember the name of my entree. The waitress suggested it. I don’t know why I branched out from my regular house lo mein or moo goo gai pan type orders. But my dish was pretty standard: chicken, lots of veggies (though few water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, which are my faves apart from the baby corn and pea pods), and a spicy sauce. It was filling, though not the best. It’s hard to top Golden China and Red Dragon, my two favorite places.

Next, we departed for Philadelphia, specifically Manayunk where a friend lives. After a night at Mad River, we stopped in for pizza at a late night pizza place—Caputo’s. This was a mighty fine snack before heading home. And it was nuclear hot, right out of the oven. I topped my slice of cheese with parm, oregano and red pepper flakes. To blend in with locals on the Caputo’s sidewalk while you nomnom a slice, I suggest yelling something like “WOOOO! EAGLES!!!!” every once in a while. Otherwise, the diehards may assume that you are not an Eagles fan…at which point…you will be seriously questioned, if not hurt.

za!

One more night down, and with a long drive ahead, we needed sustenance once again. After we checked out downtown Philly, we located Pat’s (King of Steaks—Never make a mis-steak!) and Geno’s in south Philly to grab a sandwich. The two cheesesteak establishments have been competing for years across the street from one another. Here’s a great video that covers the history and philosophies of the two places. Wait for these great quotes all in this one video: What does FLASH taste like?! Your home is orange? You invented the pressure washer?!

While others may have allegiances, we just had appetites. We walked up to Pat’s first and went there. I didn’t feel so bad when a swarm of motorcycles (The Blue Knights) came in hauling ass, and all chose to go to Geno’s. There could have been a BIKER RUMBLE if Pat’s biker gang were to show up.

Pat’s King of Steaks [1237 E Passyunk Ave Philadelphia PA]

pat's and geno's; note the mural on the right (they like murals in this neighborhood!)

the blue knights arrive and choose geno's

One thing that is still unanswered to me concerns the cheese steak cheese. Is it provolone, American, cheese whiz or other? Wikipedia helped me find an answer. They claim that Geno’s sides with provolone or American cheese, whereas Pat’s first introduced the Cheese Whiz, which then became very popular. Had I known this, I would have ordered differently!

I ordered my cheese steak “wit” (that is, with chopped grilled onions—they don’t do green peppers) and provolone. In the background is the Cheese Whiz version. I tasted both, and found….the Cheese Whiz to be better! Shucks. The provolone just didn’t melt. And it was served up so fast, that it didn’t go under the broiler to get melted and crispy on top. Still I was a happy girl. Steak sandwich! Boom!

pat's cheesesteaks

Family Foodstalking

Momma G recently visited me in Houston, and of course the agenda was packed with foodstalking opportunities. I had heard a lot about Reef ever since I moved here, but never had the chance to check it out. It just so happened that the week before Momma G came to visit, Executive Chef Bryan Caswell was named one of Food & Wine’s Top 10 Rising Chefs. This honor comes on the heels of another heady compliment: #1 Seafood Restaurant in the U.S. according to Bon Appetit. So, reservations were made, four days prior to “Bryan Caswell Day” in Houston.

The dining room of Reef is super chic. Funky, spindly light fixtures, huge wine room with floor to ceiling glass walls, and tables bunched close together for a warehouse-type feel. We were seated at a table right by the front window and got a big kick out of the valet strategically parking the red Ferrari right in front of the restaurant. Jokes were made about my car being parked in Galveston…

On to the food: everything we had was fabulous. Really, really unique flavors that I would have never thought of as going together… went together. Portions I thought were a good size: not too big, not too small. Overall a really great meal!

Biscuits with pepper jelly.

For some reason I expected the pepper jelly to literally be jellied peppers. It actually was sweet but had that nice kick of heat to it. Not something I would usually be a fan of, but I loved this.

Ceviche to start. I can't remember for the life of me what was in it. All I know is, it was tasty and pretty to boot.

Momma G forgot that her foodstalking daughter needed to take a picture before devouring these crab cakes.

However, it shows the inside- which to me is the most important part of a crab cake. Plenty of crab, not too much breading. The “taqueria style” salad underneath was fabulous too.My entree. Crispy Skin Snapper, Sweet and Sour Chard, Tomato Brown Butter. Y’all. That skin was the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Crispy, buttery, delicious. I’m not usually a fish skin fan, but this preparation won me over.

Mom's tripletail (never heard of it before this night- mild white fish) served over corn pudding and a grilled peach. Delicious- love the southern spin with the peach and corn.

We shared dessert: Vietnamese coffee tart with condensed milk ice cream and lime syrup. Like eating coffee with a spoon (if only it were that easy...)

And so ends our meal at Reef. I really loved it from start to finish. Pricey? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.
We ate a lot of meals (maybe too many for Momma G), including recent favorite Tiny Boxwoods and long-time favorite, El Rey. One place we visited is one that hasn’t gotten its due on foodstalkers, but is one of my favorite restaurants in Houston. Dolce Vita is the Bettola of Houston- but better. I have professed my love of pizza here before- I love it for its versatility. Beer, wine, milk (Home Alone, anyone?), it goes with everything and can be adapted for any occasion. Dolce Vita is one of those chameleons. It’s the kind of pizza place where you drink wine, but it still manages to be casual. The setting is a rickety old house and a great, vine wrapped porch right in the heart of Montrose, the artsy area of Houston.

Dolce Vita's most famous dish: Truffled Egg Toast.

Thick slab of toast with an egg cracked in the middle, shaved black truffles over the top, drizzled with truffle oil and topped with a little parm. My first experience with truffles, and a good one at that.

Pasta special: ravioli with chicken and ricotta, peas, and truffle oil. Not as good as the infamous veal gnocchi special, but still very good.

Siciliana Pizza. Tomato, mozzarella, olives, and capers. Olives and capers on a pizza to me, are bliss. The way to do Dolce Vita is to plan to order enough so that everyone is able to eat pizza and everyone is able to eat pasta.

There you have it for the noteworthy LG + Momma G meals. There’s definitely no better group to foodstalk with than family.

Stay tuned for adventures from LG’s new kitchen AND a headfirst dive into vegan territory by Miss Em!

Pretty food

When I logged in to the WordPress site, it said: “Welcome back, LG!” I take this to be a good sign that I am A. still welcome and B. they still remember my name. 

I can’t even begin to document all of the good (and bad- Ziggy’s, I’m looking at you…) food that I’ve eaten over the past two months, so I’ll just share some highlights! Without further ado… 

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria in Sugarland, TX. An off-shoot of the Brooklyn original! Absolutely fabulous. This was a pepperoni pie with fresh basil.

White pizza from Grimaldi's. Equally amazing.

Late night dining at BB’s Cafe in Montrose. The Southern Man: Fried catfish, cheese grits, eggs, bacon, and a biscuit.

Homemade pizza sauce for my Margherita pizza!

The finished product. Crust was a little soggy this time, but still delicious.

Five Guys Grand Opening in Houston. My life is complete.

Homemade pizza try #2. This time with pepperoni, black olives, and mushrooms (my standby). Crust was much better after pre-baking for 5 minutes.

That’s about all I’ve got after cleaning off my memory card. I ate a lot of pizza, now that I think about it. I’m ready to get back in the swing of things!

Playing Catch-up: Mint, Lilly’s, Jibarra & Vita

Time for a round-up on dining out in the Triangle. We’re running the gamut here with foods from around the world!

1. Mint, Chapel Hill, NC (my favorite in this group)

This is an Indian restaurant, located next door to Local 506 on the Carrboro end of Franklin, and within the same block as India Palace (also good, but it’s been a few years since I last went there). The inside is simply elegant–nice bar, dim lighting, not kitschy. We started out the meal with a bottle of wine and complimentary papadum served with two chutneys.

pregame snack

I’m an adventurous eater (though not Andrew Zimmerman style), and I’m always open to trying new foods. So I asked the waiter to pick out his favorite from the menu–I’m not vegetarian, and I enjoy some heat. So I got the Mint Chicken!

the mint chicken

The food was amazing. The chicken was tender and moist on the inside, and lightly charred on the outside for some crunch and smoky oven flavor. And notice the portions are healthy. I had enough leftover for lunch the next day. The dishes at our table came with large bowls of basmati rice, plus we ordered assorted naan. I was reminded recently that there are in fact four types of dining utensils: fork, knife, spoon and BREAD, perfect for sopping up the sweet and spicy red coconut curry sauce. Others at the table ordered the Chicken Vindaloo (a favorite, and spicey) and Saag Paneer. Hold me back, I’m seconds away from driving to Chapel Hill for the lunch buffet.

2. Lilly’s Pizza, Raleigh, NC

Lilly’s is a freakin’ cute pizza joint in my neighborhood that thrives on fun crowds, art and music, outdoor seating and the best in local and natural ingredients. It fills the Pepper’s Pizza void in my heart that I’ve had since moving out of Chapel Hill. I went to Lilly’s recently with a friend before seeing The Wrestler at The Rialto. We split The Aristocrat (topped with extra virgin olive oil, organic garlic, organic mushrooms, sharp white cheddar, mozzarella, roasted tomato slices, roasted yellow onions, organic roasted potatoes & Parmesan). I was a slice into enjoying the pie before I said–hey, where’s the famous Lilly’s tomato sauce? This sauceless pie, unencumbered by heavy tomato sauce, stands out with it’s herby, garlic tang! I was surprised how good the roasted potato was. Arrive here early to snag a table, especially if it’s warm and sunny. Also worthwhile at Lilly’s: the $6 lunch special (2 slices+drink or 1 slice+salad+drink).

the aristocrat

3. Jibarra, Raleigh, NC

We’re heading to Mexico. Fancy Mexico. Jibarra is a contemporary Mexican restaurant in the downtown Depot. This area and restaurant has a lot of promise if it can overcome its slightly off-the-beaten-path location.

my marg sprouted an orchid

First up: a classic Jibarra margarita. Tequila is supposed to be Jibarra’s thing, with over 30 varieties available. You can order a tequila flight with a sampling of three. Pass. I would have liked to see versions of your traditional margarita, similar to Sol Y Luna in Birmingham. I remember getting the savory Sol Y Luna Margarita there with Sauza Conmemorativo tequila, Grand Marnier and homemade spicy sangrita. Mmm not your average Monty’s pitcher.

tacos de carne asada

For dinner I ordered the Tacos de Carne Asada (thin sliced ribeye served with potato, onion and poblano pepper medley, diced onion, cilantro, salsa molcajeteada and flour tortillas), a personal fave. This is my standard order at Mexican restaurants. My overall assessment, honest and true…I like Monty’s more. Ahhhhh. I know. Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe price point, but Monterrey’s is just as good, if not better.

Jibarra does win in atmosphere, quality of drink, salsas, sides, presentation, etc.

4. Vita, Durham, NC

This cute place is operated by the restaurant group responsible for Parizade, George’s Garage, BIN54 and Spice Street. So I expected good Mediterranean flare and a nice dining experience right off the bat. A lot of food was ordered by our table. I think pictures will speak more than words.

antipasto: proscuitto

antipasto: fungi

spinach salad w/ pancetta, red onion, walnuts, goat cheese, balsamic vinaigrette

a special: salmon & risotto

spaghetti w/meatballs

a special: ravioli w/asparagus

spicy chicken pizza

Our entire table was very satisfied with the food, ambiance, service and 1/2 price wine night. I would definitely return here, especially to sit outside on the patio to dine. Ooh! And I nearly forgot one of the best parts. Rustic Italian bread is brought to the table pre-meal, along with your regular olive oil. But they also serve full heads of roasted garlic! Yum. Just pop out a clove, and it makes the perfect topping to a bite of bread. Nice touch.

Kitchen Adventures

I tested out two, new adventurous recipes recently. My motivation was to experiment with new techniques, and to make something I’ve never made before.

The first was Scallops in Parchment, en papillote if you’re fancy. I love this technique, having admired chefs on television demonstrate it, and having been a very young Girl Scout doing the more hardy, aluminum foil version over a camp fire. Cooking in parchment is super easy, not messy, easily versioned and elegantly rustic. A great dinner party idea would be to have everyone BYO fish, while you supply the herbs, veggies, wine/stock and parchment. Guests could assemble the papillote to their liking. When it’s done cooking, place the steamed pack on a plate, rip open and enjoy! Makes for easy clean-up, too.

For my Scallops in Parchment, I trimmed down the recipe for one serving. I added baby bok choy to up the greens content, and to take away some of the emphasis on fennel, which I don’t love. I asked the fish guy at The Freshmarket for a 1/4lb of fresh sea scallops (that came to 2 big guys, but in my price range, too). Here’s the assembly process!

gently toss all ingredients (except scallops)

place mixture on 12x12 parchment, stack scallops on top

first you roll it, then you bake

tear it open!

i added couscous and lemon juice

I did not have white wine on hand, which I would have added to the package, but the veggies and scallops produced enough moisture to steam themselves. The couscous I made on the side because I wasn’t sure how the steam bag would handle cooking it thoroughly. Overall, this meal was a huge success. Like, I said, I’m not a huge fan of fennel. The baby bok choy was delicious, as well as the tomatoes. I love when grape tomatoes get hot, burst and produce that highly acidic, hot juice! That is divine. Now that I’ve tested out this technique, I’m ready to try different ingredients, switching up the recipe with asparagus, zucchini, carrot slivers, peas, salmon, snapper, etc.

My second recipe test-drive: Homemade Pizza. This is mostly a no-brainer, so the dough was the emphasis. Major roadblock, I’ve never bought yeast, and wasn’t going to make a trip to the store just for that. So I’d have to go the no-yeast dough route. Yeah, sort of a cop-out. But my next pizza adventure will most certainly involve proper, yeast pizza dough. And maybe even whole wheat flour next time. Here’s how the assembly went.

flour, milk, olive oil, baking powder, salt

after kneading

nope, don't own a rolling pin.

all rolled out, with olive oil on top

now for the fun part: choosing the toppings

The toppings include (building from bottom to top), pesto, mozzarella, grape tomatoes, capers, sun dried tomatoes & bacon (leftover from this BLT dip), Parmesan and parsley.

before baking

golden brown. dinner time!

This pizza was ah-mazing. Granted, I normally don’t have these kinds of ingredients around, but it truly made all the difference. So much great flavor. I will definitely make this again because it was so easy and beat the hell out of delivery. And DiGiorno. One mistake I made was not spraying the baking sheet. I lost some of the crust trying to get it off the pan. Or, use a Silpat, which I also do not own.

spinach salad with grape and sun dried tomatoes, capers, marinated mushrooms and artichoke hearts

Here’s my lunch the next day, using some of the antipasto ingredients that made their way onto my pizza. Note the container by Oggi (set of three nested containers at TJMaxx for less than $10). They have great design sense with functionality (date slider on the side to mark when you made the contents). Love it.

Finally, I made some of my favorite salad dressing. Before I was limited to fresh ginger dressing when dining out at sushi bars. Now I can make my own, and avoid shelling out cash for the fancy bottled versions. Here’s the recipe for Carrot Ginger Dressing. I highly recommend it.

combine in blender or food processor

More kitchen adventures to come. I loved trying out these newbies.

Foodstalkin’ with my feet ten feet off of Beale

Last weekend, I headed to Memphis with my college friends to celebrate Taylor’s last hurrah as a single lady. While the main focus of this trip was not eating (although what trip of mine isn’t focused on food?), I managed to sneak in several really good meals. Here are some of my favorites:

Thursday night we celebrated Caroline and Kate’s birthdays with a yummy homemade meal of grilled chicken thighs served over sauteed spinach and cheese grits. It was so delicious- in fact, I’m thinking about attempting to recreate it this weekend. We finished the meal with the cutest cake ever. I’m so mad I didn’t get a picture of the whole cake, because it was freakin’ adorable. It was the Cindy Lou Who cake from Muddy’s Bake Shop. I googled the bakery name last night to find the website, and ended up spending way too much time reading through the owner’s blog. It reminded me how much I would love to do something like open a bakery! Maybe one day…

Cindy Lou Who

Friday night we capped off KB’s art show with drinks and bar food at Bardog Tavern. Most of the table had some form of the grilled cheese. I got mine with tomato bisque. There really is nothing better than a grilled cheese, in my opinion. It was especially good on this super chilly night. The tomato bisque was thicker than most, which I liked. It was served in a mug with big croutons to sop up that sweet nectar.

Mmm mmm good

Saturday night was the main event. With hot pink wigs on our heads, we headed over to Spindini’s. We got some pretty hilarious looks as we walked into the restaurant. We started off with the Tuscan Butter- which tasted just like an appetizer served at the now defunct River Market and Deli- and also the fried calamari. The Tuscan Butter consisted of marscapone, goat cheese, and marinara, and is served with toast rounds. I remember that the River Market and Deli appetizer was a spread of marinara and montrachet cheese. They taste so similar to each other.

Doesn't look too appetizing, but looks are deceiving

For the main course, the group split four different pizzas (and it was totally overkill- we had way too much food due to my eyes being much bigger than my stomach). Our pizzas, in order of my preference:

1. Lobster Pizza

2. Margherita Pizza (didn’t get a picture of this one, but I’m sure you get the idea)

3. White Pizza

4. Pesto Pizza

The lobster was so good. I loved the bacon and aioli on top. It was definitely unique, but not nearly as heavy as it sounds.

The margherita was pretty standard- how can you go wrong with the classic?

Loved the arugula on the white pizza.

The pesto was a little much. There were too many red onions hanging out.

There were a couple of meals that I didn’t get to take a picture of, but that were good nonetheless. When we all arrived on Thursday, we grabbed lunch at Huey’s. They have good burgers and a fun atmosphere.

This was the first time I’ve been to Memphis without getting BBQ. Nuts! For the record, I prefer Rendezvous (I think I have only had Corky’s and Rendezvous though). Let the debate begin…

A month’s worth of eating

Once again, we have been bad blog parents. Please forgive. Here are some of my foodie adventures over the month of December…

You’re probably wondering, “what kind of reindeer are those?” Nice try, but haven’t you heard of the Christmas dachshund? No? How are they not festive for all occasions?! Here is batch #1 of the wiener cookies right out of the oven. For the dough, I used a recipe for Cinnamon Sugar cookies instead of just your average sugar. It added a nice kick to an otherwise boring cookie, in my opinion. I whipped up an icing “paste” out of powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla so the sprinkles would adhere to the cookies. I gave up on wiener dogs before long because they all looked like they had tumors. 

This is art.

I only took pictures of one foodstalking adventure while I was in Birmingham! On Friday night, we went to Davenport’s, aka my favorite place ever (I am truly convinced this is some of the best pizza to be found, anywhere). I didn’t have my camera with me at the time, but I definitely remembered to snap a picture of the leftovers. 

Good things come in this bag.

This is what we had leftover. Allie and Zack’s cheese, and my favorite combo of pepperoni, mushrooms, and black olives. This picture totally doesn’t do it justice, but the crust on this pizza is amazing. It tastes like a saltine cracker, and is cut into these dangerously small, oh-I’ll-just-have-one-more pieces. My dad has decided that it is best appreciated with minimal toppings. I concur. Too many and the thin crust gets weighed down and dare I say: soggy. Davenport’s receives criticism for using canned mushrooms instead of fresh. I am okay with this practice, as I think that fresh mushrooms can dry out on top of a pizza. By using canned, the ‘shrooms come off as more of a meat than a fungus. 

Some other favorite B’ham spots that I hit up while in town: Urban Standard (o.m.g. their grilled cheese with balasmic jam), Taziki’s, and Rojo. There are many more places I would have loved to go, but alas I’ll have to wait until next time. 

I have to include this next mention. My little foodstalking pup got some pretty cool treats in her stocking this year:

These are dog treats! The “wasabi” is edible! 

 

Pizza in the morning/Pizza in the evening/Pizza at supper time

If you’ve read the “About us” page (do it NOW), you already know of my undying love for pizza. I really do believe it is the perfect food. There are so many ways to do pizza, whether it be Bettola/Dolce Vita syle with arugula and buffalo mozzarella, or Papa Johns style (Hawaiian happens to be my current favorite). I don’t even discriminate against Totino’s party pizza style (that crust is GOOD). I personally believe that there is a pizza to fit every craving- sometimes I want good old fashioned red sauce with pepperoni, and then at totally different times I want pesto, or some fancy white pizza concoction. And that is exactly what I went with the other night.

In order to use up some leftover shiitakes, I whipped up a Caramelized Onion and Shiitake Mushroom pizza (loosely based on a Bon Appetit recipe). I didn’t write down quantities, but it’s more of a guessing game depending on how big your pizza is. I started by caramelizing the onions (can anyone teach me to do that without burning some of the pieces?). Once they were good and brown, I turned the heat down and sauteed some minced garlic. I added a little bit of dried rosemary at the end. I spread ricotta cheese on my pizza crust, topped with the onion mixture, added the shiitakes, and grated some fontina cheese over the top. You will notice that I haven’t mentioned my crust yet. I will admit that I cheated a little bit. I bought a pre-baked crust from Central Market. It was definitely easy, but maybe a little bit too dough-y for my taste. I like my pizza thin crusted for the most part.

The before shot

The finished product was pretty dang good, if I do say so myself. I paired it with a green salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette, and it turned out to be such a quick and easy dinner. This won’t be the last of my pizza making endeavors… Next time I may even attempt my own crust.

Dinner, featured on the place mat Rosie chewed.