philly

French Dip

The French Dip. It's a sandwich that always freaked me out for some reason. Basically roast beef with cheese and fried onions with a side of dipping sauce. But I refused to have one, for some unknown reason, until a couple weeks ago. I had another one last night at Nodding Head and holy shit was it good. The bread was creamy/buttery and the provalone very sharp and the semi thickly sliced roast beef soft. The juice was delicious. And of course the fries with their bourbon mayonaise sauce is stupendous. But not to be confused with plain mayo. Fries with plain mayo is just disgusting. And that's that.

A couple pints of the Nodding Head Grog always does the trick for me too. So good.

This French Dip may be my new favorite over at Nodding Head taking the place of the ribs.

Rosemary Olive Oil - Metropolitan Bakery

On my way home from work, I stopped by Metropolitan Bakery to pick up a loaf of bread. From their site:

This fragrant and light boule has a delicate crust and is flavored with fresh rosemary and extra virgin olive oil. We suggest this bread to our customers who are ready to break out of their normal white or whole wheat bread staples and try something new but not too daring.

I cut myself two pieces and scarfed the end piece.

The crust is, as described, very delicate. It has a fine layer of powder, a light brown. It crumbles quite easily while cutting through it. Eating the end piece, I thought that the rosemary was quite pungent, a little too much for my taste. I popped in the two slices into the toaster and readied the butter. Once done, the lightly toasted [I hate it when it browns or worse chars] pieces gave off a lighter aroma. Not as strong as the untoasted piece I already ate.

I smeared on a sliver of butter and ate them up. Really good. It very much is a good way to break out of the normal white or whole wheat staples as the site describes. I was hoping for it to be a little heavier on the olive oil, oh well, it's still quite yummy.

Guy Bard St. Patrick's Day Dance

The last stop of the day out in Lancaster was the Guy Bard St. Patrick's Day Dance over in Ephrata, just outside of the city of Lancaster. It's a yearly gathering of the local Dems at the Reinholds VFW. Chuck Pennacchio was tired [he'd been up since around 5.30a or so], but he wasn't ready to call it a day just yet.

We walked into the main bar area with a pool table [or two?] and saw some faces from earlier on in the day, Chuck dove right in. To the left was the party room where about thirty or so local Dems came out for food drinks and a little dancing. Also in attendence were three other candidates for public office in PA. Pictured above from left to right are Lois Herr who is running for Congress in PA-16, Lee Heffner who is running for State Rep in PA-37, Chuck, and Ginny Dillio who is running for State Rep in PA-99.

Chuck took to the mic to introduce himself and encourage the rest of the attendees to come up and speak with him [it was all he was allowed to say] and then made his way around the entire ring of tables. The still trucking volunteers were out at the party too after a long and hard day. One last round of passing out literature to all the tables and it was time to relax for the night. After Chuck made his way through all the tables, I asked him for one more photo with the volunteers and he, of course, obliged.

Here's Chuck with the last of the volunteer crew for the day. It was about 10.30p when I snapped this shot and he managed that bright smile on his face only because of the energy the great volunteer crew had throughout the day. It was a pleasure being out there with Chuck and the gang.

And here's a flickr set of some more shots throughout the day, some of which were plucked to be feature with the preceding posts.

Bell's Cherry Stout

I'm drinking one of these right now, a Bell's Cherry Stout. From the bottle:

Brewed from barley, malt and cherry juice... A mysterious dance of tart Michican cherries with the dark, roasted malts of a big and bold stout.

The single most unique tasting beer I've ever had. Not necessarily a good thing.

As I was about to take my first sip, I took in a breath. And a whirl of cherries is what I got. It really does have a cherry like smell and taste. The beer itself is tart. Not bitter though, well, not to me at least. It's a very deep color. Like a really dark brown with a hint of dark cherry purplish-red. The taste of cherries lingers a bit. There's that stout taste that comes out too at the end.

I think this one is a little out there for my likes. Don't think I'll be picking up a six of these at Foodery anytime soon.

And Mark, I know how you love this glass, so here's a Pac-Man thumbs up for you!

Digital Cities Freelancing

I handed in my photos for the first twenty or so shoots for Philadelphia AOL City Guide earlier this month and I see now that about half of them are up. They're all tiny because the site caters to the AOL dial-up crowd I guess. Blech. But they're up nevertheless: NYPD Pizza, Le Bec Fin, Bonté, Philly Falafel, Jolly's American Grill, Pad Thai Shack, Out of the Blue, Hot Tamales, Marbar, Natalie's Lounge, The Grill at the Ritz Carlton, Drinker's Pub.

Some shots were quite butchered, but whatever. What are you gonna do with a 135px x 90px image?

Drinking Liberally 6p

If it's Tuesday, it's Drinking Liberally

It's that time of the month week again! It'll be nice to wind down the day with a few drinks [$1 off specials] and free Buffalo wings at Tangier [1801 Lombard St] from 6p - 9p.

Apparently Noz claims to have out of state friends. One may show up tonight. Let's see if it's just one of his imaginary friends.

Lunch Stop at Cafe Aroma Borealis

Above is a shot of part of the gang that Chuck Pennacchio and I ventured all over Lancaster City with on Saturday. This shot was taken at Café Aroma Borealis, a great spot to warm up and have a delicious bite to eat or some tea or coffee. I had a TexMex wrap [Southwest tangy chicken wrapped with romaine, homemade salsa and cheddar] which was dee-lish.

We went to the Café after two hours outside Central Market in the swirling wind. It was a welcome change of pace before getting ready for another hour or so out in the cold for the anti-war march at 1p [hence the sign].

But we weren't only there to rest up and have some grub. Chuck had an interivew with the Lancaster Sunday News's Helen Colwell Adams. An excerpt from yesterday's story:

Pennacchio, the Energizer Bunny of state politics, was all over Lancaster County on Saturday, prepping for the Democratic State Committee's endorsement meeting March 24 and 25 in Grantville.

He's hoping to convince Democrats to stage an open primary in the U.S. Senate race, giving him a chance to make the case that a progressive is a better choice to run against Republican Rick Santorum than Bob Casey Jr.

Pennacchio cites Lancaster County as the organization that gave his campaign a major boost when it voted last month not to endorse anyone for Senate.

"Lancaster has really been a wedge," he said, in blocking Casey's march to endorsement.

Since then, Bucks County, his home turf, also has opted for an open primary, as has Centre County.

I believe Gov. Ed "The Hoagiemesiter" Rendell himself said, after winning the Governorship while not having the endorsement of the state Democratic Party, that whenever there is a race within PA with more than one candidate in the race, that the state party should opt for an open primary without state endorsement.

And let this post be a shout out to the many Progressives for Pennacchio out in Lancaster! Thank you Jerry, Crystal, Connie, Judi, Paul, Jim, Patt, Paul, Lucy... So many names, I know I forgot some, but please correct me and add to the list if I didn't remember your name. I met so many supporters it was hard to keep track!

Philly: Veggie Friendly

Who'd a thunk it? Apparently, Philly is the #9 most vegetarian friendly [large] city in the U.S. according to PETA. The city of the cheesesteak's profile here. The Top Ten in order: Portland [OR] Seattle, San Francisco, NYC, Atlanta, DC, Minneapolis, Austin, Philly, Chicago.

So the big BBQ/cookout cities of Atlanta and Austin, the home of the cheesesteak, the steakhouse capitals of NYC and DC and über meat loving Chicago all on this list.

PETA lists Gianna's Grille as the place to go. No surprise as I hear that the PETA Philly office routinely orders up food to go from Gianna's to take to NYC and DC for regional/national meetings. Messy and Picky love us some Gianna's! And now there's Gianna Jr.'s over on 20th & Chestnut too!

Thanks to Phila Metblogs for peeping this one.

Drinking Liberally 6p

If it's Tuesday, it's Drinking Liberally

Staying late at work and headed straight to Tangier [1801 Lombard] for Drinking Liberally 6p - 9p for $1 off drink specials and some free wings.

Maybe we can all discuss Stephen Colbert picking Sen. Bill Frist as the winner of the 2008 Presidential election. Colbert called the election at 11.35p last night. He said that one could jump the gun, but he jumped it first.

He did use the 'DaColbert Code' to predict the top five awards at the Oscars. Amazing. The new Swami!

Morimoto Restaurant

So my sister and brother in law came down to visit me here in Philly several months ago and they went to Morimoto. They were kind enough to give me a big fat gift certificate and Lady and I went out for my birthday in February. And now, we finally put up a review on the food blog.

I think I've mentioned how I want a lobster Caesar salad like the one I had six weeks ago about once a day since. Best meal I can recall ever having up to the dessert. Not that the dessert wasn't good, it just didn't blow me away as the rest of the meal did.

I haven't been able to get a photo I'm really happy with for Morimoto. I always seem to be there when the sun is at an odd angle overlooking Chestnut St. But this one will do for now. It'll probably be replaced at some point. Maybe a long exposure night shot one of these days if I get around to lugging my tripod over there.