a new icon

it's deeply enjoyable to me that because The Cheesesteak is one of philadelphia's edible icons (enough to warrant a televised showdown), the vegetarian/vegan cheesesteak has become another kind of icon for this town. an impressive number of bars, cafes and eateries boast their own version of this copycat sandwich. truly, these seitan beasts are everywhere.

do you know that i've never had a real philly cheesesteak? i have followed a meatless diet for so long, that a pat's, geno's, tony lukes' or whatever else has never touched my lips. this is a fact i'm pretty proud of. however, i have sampled dozens of vegetarian versions. like most popularized food items, some are great, some are bad. most are just okay.

this being said, i feel confident in claiming that blackbird pizza's is some next level shit. ryan and i met for lunch on friday and tucked into these beauties, pausing only to exclaim our delight between massive bites.


the seitan was very thinly sliced, perfectly peppery, and piping hot. there was no skimping on the onions and mushrooms, and vegan cheese was melted (YES - MELTED!) evenly over everything. the roll was crusty and sturdy - a detail so often overlooked in mainstream sandwich construction. i usually like to save half my sandwiches for round 2, but this one was too good and i showed no restraint.

now at $8 and change (and, don't forget to tip the nice vegans!), this sammie ain't exactly cheap - but who can put a price on joy?

love,
emily

garces - 2 for 2

you may remember our first GLOWING review of chef jose garces' mexican themed restaurant distrito from last summer. we talk about this dining experience a lot in our normal, non-internet lives as the perfect situation one could hope for when requesting special dishes due to dietary restrictions (whether they be voluntary or involuntary, mind you!). my second go round with garces was at the new garces trading co. on 11th and locust and, let's just say the dietary restrictions are a little more lax this go round.

i was acquainted with only the shell of the soon to be bistro, as i attended an open call for new employees back in january. offered a job on the spot, i ended up turning it down as brighter prospects were on the horizon. i promised chef greg (sweetest little chef dude i ever met!) i'd come back and see him when they opened. and let me say, i'm glad i did.

take the "tour" on the website, and you'll see the welcoming open room, lined with a cheese and charcuterie counter, coffee and housemade cookies and pastries, a PLCB wine store (where you purchase a bottle and then BYO to the restaurant) and a lovely little flower shop in the foyer. as well as bottle your own olive oil station and an assortment of housemade jams, jellies and sauces.

we nabbed a table during a busy lunchtime rush but were still graced with good service. a friend of ours working the line sent us a few treats which ended up sending us into the realm of LOTS OF FOOD. however, we happily ate everything knowing that a sunny walk home would calm our bellies. the meal:

the "chef's mix" of olives

baby artichokes with preserved lemon, olive oil and date walnut cake

Kunik - a soft ripened triple cream cow and goat's milk cheese
from Nettle Meadow Farm in New York, with white sangria honey
ordered as an app, eaten for first dessert.
yes, that's right, i said FIRST dessert.

eggplant antipasti with roasted red peppers, cherry tomatoes confit
aged balsamic and microgreens
my dining partner had a pretty insane duck salad
opposite me for this course that i neglected to photograph
it was pretty beautifully presented, i must say

funghi pizza with maitakes, royal trumpets, taleggio and black truffles;
this is one of my favorite pizzas i've had in the city since eating cheese.

i have no idea how we ate all this food, although i suppose i requested a small box for the last piece of pizza. after a meal that took over an hour, we relaxed and ordered coffee. i strolled up to check out the coffee bar when i discovered ::gasp:: cute little pastries! so tiny, so delicate, only two or three bites each, how could i say no? a small tart goes superbly hand in hand (fork in mouth?) with a cup of good coffee.

the marjolaine - almond daquoise, chocolate ganache, coffee buttercream

and so we ventured back into the sunshine. wallet a bit lighter, bellies a bit more distended. one hell of a lunch behind us, and no foreseeable need to eat again for the next 24 to 48 hours...

we got the beets

my last night in chicago was spent like every other night whilst there, a whirlwind of eating, drinking and friends. we started out the evening walking a dog and enjoying some hot toddies. did you know that half a honey stick is the perfect amount of honey for a mug of hot toddy? finding ourselves lacking two essential ingredients - lemon and honey - we hit up a local produce stand/co-op for the goods. a jar of honey cost a whopping $4.29 but i knew i only needed a smidge. as i checked out i noticed a little jar of honey sticks - 25 cents each! i quickly put the overpriced honey jar back and spent a measley 50 cents on two sticks. the perfect amount of honey for four hot toddies (two double toddies each, that is). just a friendly heads up for your winter drinking pleasure!

once warm and toasty, we headed over to lula cafe in logan square. this place is basically the perfect restaurant, in my book. warm and cozy, but not TOO small, dark and ambient but with enough light for some decent picture taking, a price point that makes you feel slightly fancy without breaking the bank and a menu offering an amazing array of diverse options. and a seasonal menu at that, not to mention a charming wait staff and lovely decor. we started things off with a round of sangria and shortly thereafter we were surprised with a complementary amuse-bouche. i've never been to a place that served amuse-bouche and it was so tiny and special, how i like most everything.

you can thank the sangria for all my shoddy pictures
amuse-bouche of pomegranate salad

we then inquired with our waitress about the mushroom rilette. we were informed that a rillette is usually a dish similar to a pate with a layer of fat on top to seal in flavor......(eww). however, lula's rillette was made with four different mushrooms and a layer of house-cultured butter on top. ok, the butter was a bit much, but this was obviously way more my speed than cubed salted fatted pork. the rillette was served with a whole grain mustard, caperberries, a mixed green salad and toast. we TORE THIS UP so fast we had to ask for more toast. the mushroom rillette was coarsely chopped and full of mushroomy goodness. one of my favorites of the night.

my vegetarian dining companion and i decided to go halfsies on two very different dishes. i ordered (with strong support from the rest of the table) the beet bruschetta featuring olive oil marinated beets with goat cheese atop a toasty baguette and an arugula and red onion salad drizzled with roasted garlic vinaigrette. served with a side of crispy roasted fingerling potatoes. although this seemed like more of an appetizer, it was pretty huge and really filling. so simple. so delicious. my co-diner ordered the pasta yiayia which was bucatini (crazy pasta kind of shaped like a drinking straw with a hollow middle) with moroccan cinnamon, garlic, feta and brown butter. whoever thought of mixing cinnamon, feta and pasta can now take my hand in marriage.

finally, stuffed as we were, we somehow, some way, made room for dessert. when i was strictly vegan, dessert was something in which i didn't often partake. and usually i was way too stuffed anyway, so it didn't even matter. but being a bit more lax with my restrictions these days has opened up a whole new possibility for CRAZY FULLNESS. so i've been keeping myself in check in the dessert realm. this night, however, was an exception, especially after seeing the dessert menu. between the four of us we split two things: a brandied conserve crepe with toasted walnut ice cream, creme fraiche ice cream and clotted cream AND a rosemary creme caramel (think firmer than flan consistency) with pear and peppercorn brittle. dudes, this stuff was amazing. unabashedly freaking insanely good. no regrets. the crepe was maybe one of the best desserts i've had in my entire life. plus we had digestifs which is just adorable.



so there you have it. this trip to chicago was so successful in so many ways. good friends, good laughs, food, drink, coffee, animals, 'getting away from it all' and even some cultural activities thrown in for good measure! we're not just killing those brain cells, we're enhancing them first before they go. oh, and feeding them, REALLY well.

xoxo
lauren

back in the blog-ssr

forgive me dear blog readers, it's been nearly two months since my last post. i had a job and a social life and i was kind of owning philadelphia, and in my whirlwind painting some areas of this damn town red, i forgot my camera and neglected to snap pictures and ate out a lot and just kind of dropped the ball in general. but....I'M BACK! and i'm going to do my best to stay on top of this here food journal. i hope you too will stay on top of reading it, because i have a lot to say.

COMING CLEAN
as some of you may remember, i was unemployed for a bit back in october. oh, glorious [f]unemployment. but right around november, i started working at a new job.....in a cheese shop. this new position required me to try every product as part of my training. some vegans may have turned this job down instantly, but as a foodie at heart, and a girl trying to establish herself and move up in the food industry, i sucked it up and accepted the position. and i got to say, cheese is pretty yummy. i'm still in the process of figuring some things out about my diet and my relationship with it. i still cook and eat vegan A LOT and i still love veganism and vegan food and my vegan friends and restaurants. i just eat cheese sometimes. i hope that's ok with you. it's taken me a little while, but it's ok with me.

BACK TO BLOGGING
last weekend i took a much needed trip to NYC to visit some friends that were supremely missed. i visited high line park in chelsea, the chelsea market, the MOMA (my first time visit! check out the tim burton exhibit, it's rad) franny's in brooklyn, the whitney museum of american art, and finally, the vegan gourmet candle cafe, on the upper east side.

one of my favorite images from tim burton exhibit,
romeo and juliet

view from high line park,
photo courtesy of michael

(i cheated and stole this from high line park flickr page)

coff-skey at candle cafe
(whiskey spiked coffee)

speltberry salad with lentils, roasted cauliflower and butt-nut squash
over mixed green with a creamy shallot dressing

cajun seitan sandwich with steamed kale, carmelized onions,
avocado and ancho chili aoili on toasted focaccia

garlic-shallot-potato mash

besties, enjoying their grub

man, new york is freaking fun!! overall, candle cafe was pretty awesome. we have the candle cafe cookbook here at home and i've cooked out of it many a time, and eating at the restaurant was kind of just like that. not to frou-frou or fancy, a bit on the pricier side, but it's nyc so what can you do? one thing that stood out to all of us was the sauces and dressings. each sauce elevated the dish to the next level. kind of a weird observation, but we all agreed.

so, that's all for now. i hope you'll have me back, dear readers.

love,
lauren

resurrection - not a post on seances

ok, so this is going to be another one of those posts where i talk about how great a bar/restaurant was and then the pictures are so incredibly crappy. i hate to say it, but you just kind of have to deal with it. part of what makes this particular restaurant so charming and cozy is its limited seating area and its dim lighting. these characteristics do not a good picture taking environment make. our table was so close to the ladies' next to us that when adjusting my angle, i almost put my elbow right into someone's french fries! whoops. that being said...

resurrection ale house is a tiny special place. it opened a few months ago and is owned by the same people as the much celebrated local 44. location: closer to our new house! resurrection is on catharine and gray's ferry just a few blocks south of south street. as i mentioned (multiple times), it's pretty tiny inside. and when i said cozy, i didn't mean it like the real estate agent trying to sell a one-bedroom to three people. it's actually charmingly small. the waitress said "as you can see, we're a pretty small restaurant. what that means is, we don't have a freezer, all our ingredients are fresh and everything is made to order." hey, i like your attitude!

i ordered a kwak (this website is freaking adorable), which is a belgian beer that comes in it's own branded glass. it looks like this:


my lady date and i decided to try a few things off of the "smaller stuff" side of the menu and ordered taters & 'snips, roasted cauliflower, the homemade pickles, and balsamic roasted radicchio. then i had another beer called maredsous 10 (10 being the abv, whoa!) and then we got this chocolate thing for dessert that kind of happened before we knew it. oops.


the food was all REALLY good, if not somewhat small portions. this place was more expensive than my normal haunts, but what the hey, it was really delicious and fun and after a few of those high abv drinks, the check stings a bit less. what's that? my pictures make it look less than appetizing? well we've been over this about the pictures, and you'll just have to go see for yourself. it's worth it, if for nothing else than the beer!

-lauren

birthday dinner round II - blue sage veg grille

what do you get the foodie who has everything? ok, while she doesn't have the fully stocked kitchen of her dreams, sissy lauren has been gifted numerous cooking items. in fact, she's just been gifted many things from me in general over our 24 year-long course as sisters. so for her recent birthday i found myself at a bit of a loss. an extra special dinner out is always fun, i figured, but where? we've been to horizons enough times to give it a rest, mi lah has recently been super disappointing, and sadly, that kind of covers it for fully vegetarian restaurants in the city. maybe upstairs at govinda's but...eh, i dunno that just never seems appealing to me. so i literally googled "vegetarian restaurants philly," and amongst all the crap that came up from the search, i saw one name i'd never heard of, blue sage vegetarian grille.

i looked over the menu and excitedly sent the link to lauren. she agreed that we should try it out, and we finally got our schedules to click (it is a few weeks past her actual birthday), and made the reservation for this past wednesday. now, blue sage is not in philadelphia proper; it's actually about a 1/2 hour drive, up 95N and then down street road, in a town called southampton. if you weren't specifically looking for it, you could easily miss the restaurant, tucked away in a little shopping center, very suburban. bottle of white wine in hand - it's a BYOB - we ran into the joint (we were a bit later than our rez...driving down those main drags always takes longer than you think), and the place was packed! a good sign on a weeknight. the restaurant is pretty small, and it took us little while to get seated, and our impatience was heightened by our growling bellies.

finally at our seats, we took stock of the interior. overall, pretty non-descript and boring, as you can see from the photo on their website. many of the tables were really close together, but we had a more generously sized personal bubble up against the front wall. not spacious enough to shield the comments of the nerdy, tact-less older couple next to us, who kept quietly commenting, as if we couldn't hear them from 3 feet away, on how we were photographing our food. forget the BYOB, just MYOB. geez.

more importantly, the wine was poured, and we made our menu selections with our cute, non-invasive waitress. the menu was about 1/2 vegetarian and 1/2 vegan, with some interesting options. some of the descriptions were a bit overdone, nearing paragraph length at times, and "simple" is not what i'd call this food. in that cliche gourmond way, everything had tons of ingredients. one interesting thing that we noted was the absence of tofu, or any other "meat substitutes." just tons and tons of vegetable dishes, which is awesome. anyway, soon the food started coming and i stopped analyzing and just started eating. first, a little bonus starter: walnut honey pumpernickel bread with pumpkin seed butter and cranberry jam, a cool twist on pb&j.


the pumpkin seed butter was so wondrously flavorful, definitely something we want to experiment with making at home. next up were two relatively standard, but delicious appetizers. in the end, i think these were the strongest dishes of the whole evening:

green curry summer BBQ rolls: not-fried rice paper roll encases baby spinach, thai barbeque glazed vegetables, smoked red onion, fresh ginger & basil. served with soy syrup, dipping oils, side of jicama slaw

these were unlike any spring rolls i've ever had. the veggies inside were absolutely soaked in BBQ sauce, but not in a bad way. i can't really remember how the green curry factored in, maybe it was just mixed in with the soy glaze drizzled on the plate. either way, these were really satisfying, savory little snacks.

red pepper hummus sampler: smoked red pepper hummus with chive infused olive oil, falafel topped with tomato almond romesco & pistachio topped baba ghanoush. served with toasted rosemary focaccia slivers.

it's hard to go wrong with a middle eastern sampler, and this was no exception. i love, love pistachios, so the baba ghanoush really rocked my face off. the falafel balls were just okay (not green inside, which i've learned is the telltale sign of really fresh falafel), but the almond romesco was rich and spicy. the hummus was average, but the focaccia, stuffed into a cup with huge sprigs of fresh rosemary, was top notch.

as you may have noticed, the portions at blue sage are way generous. suffice to say, we were getting full-ish, but were still psyched for the entrees. i gotta say though...the entrees did not truly meet our expectations. my hypothesis is that there was just too much going on on the plate. exhibit A:

cubano supper: flaky plantain pastries stuffed with sunflower seed-smoked red pepper pesto surround tower of yellow tomatoes & avocado corn salsa. served with chipotle jicama slaw & mango-papaya relish.

this was certainly the stronger of the two entrees. the plantain pastries were hearty and not too greasy. all the stuff piled up in the middle (my attention span is barely long enough to get me through the end of the dish description), was fresh and tasty, and though i despise papaya, the fruity relish was quite a nice palate cooler. now, when i hear "cubano" i think of those awesome ham, cheese and pickle sandwiches, so i have no idea if this dish reflects authentic cuban food. my guess would have to be not really. but still, it was a decent eat.

next up:

east-west bento box: avocado cucumber salad with thai peanut dressing, steamed dumplings with red lentil filling in pea broth, and red coconut curry with exotic mushrooms, edamame, and corn.

i had really high hopes for this dish and was rather disappointed. i harbor deep affection for steamed dumplings, and these were so bad, we didn't even bring the leftovers home. the pureed lentil filling had an unappealing texture, just mushy mush in your mouth. ugh. also, the pea "broth" was more of a puree, in a wholly baby food kind of way. not good. the red curry was spiced with a heavy hand, and the coconut flavor was faint, at best. the mushrooms were left in huge caps, not sliced, and hard to eat in any graceful manner with that tiny ceramic spoon. the salad was actually great, but an easy score. i dunno, it's also possible that we were so full by that point that eating was becoming a bit of a chore. we took the bento box leftovers home (sans diaper dumplings), and it's sat untouched in the fridge for the past 3 days. i just don't think we can get excited about it, which is sad, and very unlike us.

so we passed on dessert, paid the check, and headed home, driving past the endless shopping centers and fast food joints. the bill came in somewhere around where horizons might if you kept the booze to a minimum, but the quality of the food simply did not compare. it was fun to adventure outside of the city (dudes, the 'burbs are weeeeeird), and it's awesome that there can be a successful fully vegetarian restaurant operating in a decidedly non-urban locale. but honestly, next time i might opt to save the gas $$, call in a double order of spring rolls to vientiane, spread a blanket under a tree in the park, and pound a bottle of birthday wine with sis lauren.

love,
emily

Distrit-WHOA

pretty recently, emily and i got all gussied up and headed over to jose garces' distrito, in university city. for some reason, i've always had a secret little flame of curiosity for this restaurant. i know of garces' other restaurants, tinto and amada, and neither ever really piqued my interest like distrito did. and let's be honest, i've never actually been to a tapas restaurant before, despite my many discussions of "how great tapas are", and that didn't help keep the curiosity fire at a low burn either.

a friend from work mentioned their 5 course tasting menu for $55 (i was more interested in the 3 courses for $35 myself) and i thought, "hey, that's not as insanely outrageously expensive as i thought it would be!" and then i got some birthday money from my dad, specifically to be used for taking myself and emily out to dinner (does my family know what i like or what?) and then it all just came together. i decided to call distrito to inquire if they wouldn't possibly mind whipping up a little something special for us, instead of just making us ask for 'no queso' and still pay the $10 price tag for a bowl of guac? the hostess/receptionist was waaaaaaay nice and accommodating and after a short while, our reservation was set for tuesday at 8 and a vegan tasting menu would await. we had no idea what we were in for.

(see this menu? we didn't need it, they brought us everything all special-like.)

the first thing i should point out is that the decor of this place is OOC (out of control). gold, bright pink, neon green, yellow, etc. our table top was gold glitter and the menu was white and hot pink. my eyes hurt a little bit, but my tummy was excited and that emotion outweighed all others. our waiter came over to take our order, at which point i mentioned the "call ahead" we had done and he promptly responded "ah yes, the chef has something special prepared for you all". WOOOO! we ordered margaritas (emily, the watermelon, i, the mango) and they were......the best margaritas i ever had. after looking at the menu just for fun, our first course came out.

course #1: traditional guacamole with homemade tortilla chips, smoked salsa roja and salsa verde and a chopped mixed salad with tortilla strips on top. firstly, the salsa verde literally tasted green. i don't know what was in it, but if green is an ingredient with a taste, it was in here. (this is a good thing, people). secondly, we all know how much i love avocados (remember?) and this was THE BEST guacamole i've ever had. hands down. it was so creamy it felt like my tongue was getting a massage. oh and it tasted good, too. the salad had a cumin-lime vinaigrette, cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, walnuts, orange segments and a lot of other things that tasted awesome. first course RULED!

the bowls were real fancy too!

course #2: this is where things took a turn for the.....BETTER. because that is when they delivered this baby to our table:

that beautiful vibrant (well, in real life at least) baby is called a "huarache" which is, according to wikipedia "a popular Mexican dish consisting of an oblong, fried masa base, with a variety of toppings. The name "Huarache" is derived from the shape of the masa, similar to the popular sandals of the same name." ok, laymen, it's a grilled flatbread pizza thing but ours had vegetable toppings and no cheese and no meat. what it did have was a cilantro-yucca puree topped with cherry tomatoes, jicama, radish and micro-cilantro. yes, that means tiny little microgreens of cilantro, before they are full grown sprigs. adorable and delicious. this was emily's favorite dish of the night. it was clean and pure with bold fresh flavors that really mingled nicely with the smokey crunchiness of the flatbread. alongside this spotlight stealer was a melon salad with three different kinds of melons, cucumber, yucca, pepitas, and a lime dressing with a dollop of lime sorbetto on top. this was really delicious and fresh, a palate cleanser of sorts but with no real cleansing properties, as it had some crazy awesome taste profiles going on, as well as the juicy ripe melon versus the salty pepita texture battle that won over my taste buds in a second flat. the real beauty of this dish was the uniformity of the diced ingredients. emily and i honestly marveled at the chef's precision in cutting.

look at those cubes, people!

not only was the waiter checking on us at just a perfect amount of "constantly" but it was between course 2 and 3 that the CHEF came out to our table to check on everything and say what's up. i was a bit nervous to be in the presence of such an open minded culinary master but dude was totally chill and it wasn't a big deal at all. he told us he was a vegan in college for four years and was actually pretty psyched to make this meal for us, which ruled because we were kind of nervous he would begrudgingly make us three courses of salad and cucumber soup. nay! he understood veganness all well and good. he told us he was going to buy some special ingredients except that no one reminded him of our reservation until 4pm that day and he had been working on our meal with just the kitchen ingredients ever since! bravo, sir!

before the third course, our waiter came out to inform us that "your night just keeps getting better!" and said that because the cost of ingredients for our meal was so low, we would only be charged $25 per person instead of the normal $35. wha-wha-whaaaat? passing on savings to the customer in the restaurant industry? that's kind of unheard of and em and i giddily and happily cheersed the glasses of our second drinks together. we totally rule!

course #3: this wins the prize for most adorable course which not coincidentally is why it was my favorite dish. one enchilada per person in a teeeeny tiny cast iron skillet, as well as two more tiny cast iron pots - one of corn and the other of black beans.

so tiny, so delicious. the enchilada was topped with some pickled jalapenos, radish and cherry tomatoes and filled with a yucca mash and smoky mushrooms. do you notice how the ingredients seem to repeat a lot? we did, too, but we DIDN'T CARE AT ALL. we knew the chef was working within the confines of his kitchen and we also actually really enjoyed the absence of tofu or seitan which really just let the vegetables shine through as they should: fresh and clean. the waiter told us that normally the corn dish would have mayonnaise and cheese mixed in. ours was straight up corn and onions with some chili powder and tasted like sunshine. the beans were your typical black beans simmered to perfect softness topped with some veggies. i thought of it as the entree but i guess with tapas everything is tiny and there aren't really entrees in the traditional sense. but these were tiny amounts of entree-like foods. i just want to keep talking about how tiny they were, ok? i mean look at that damn pot!

dessert: the waiter told us we'd be receiving a selection of sorbettos for dessert (not as exciting to either of us, because em works at capogiro and eats it all the time, and i go in for free samples all the time) but soon after came back to tell us never mind on the sorbet, the chef has something special prepared. and special it was! grapefruit brulee! a grapefruit cut in half, sprinkled with sugar and then torched till the sugar caramelized. topped with a scoop of coconut sorbet, this was the perfect ending to our meal. mostly because i don't think i could have eaten anything more substantial, but it was also just really amazing and wonderful as a dish in and of itself.

i think it was actually this bright

we then sat back, bellies full, but not too full and marvelled at what had just happened. while we were marvelling, the chef came out AGAIN to make sure everything was ok. yes, it sure fuckin was, sir. we thanked him profusely and then he won our hearts by saying, "thank you for the opportunity."

let's recap: funky over-the-top but fun interior, super not-annoyingly friendly wait staff, open-minded chef who accommodated our request - if we had stopped there and the food was so-so, i still would have given this place props. but then, THEN they had to go and blow us away with the food and THEN they had to give it to us for cheaper than usual. of course they told us to come back (and bring friends!, they said), and of course, we will.