Passion, Verbalized

I always find myself searching for the right words when I try to explain how much I love food. I have such an appreciation for the way ingredients mix, juxtapose, balance, taste, feel, ignite in a dish. This entry courtesy of Food Loves Writing explains it all... enjoy.

Long Overdue

The weekend after Valentine's day, I was struck with inspiration to cook. I was in a bit of a rut with school, and cooking for me is always very therapeutic. I was making my Valentine's Day dinner for Grant, and felt very ambitious. I have wanted for the longest time to make my own hand-made pasta, and this was the weekend where I would try it.
Here is the whole spread for the evening:
Cheese Straws

Baked Brie

Bruschetta with baked parmesan toasts

Homemade pasta with a parmesan cream sauce, broccoli, mushrooms, and chicken

Homemade ice cream sandwiches- Sorry for not having any pictures! They were eaten way too fast.
Peach sangria

I was in the kitchen for most of the day, making many, many chocolate cookies for the ice cream sandwiches, and delicately and quickly spreading strawberry ice cream on them so they didn't turn into soupy messes.
Next came the bruschetta, which I decided to make early so the flavors of the tomato, garlic, and basil could meld and develop.
The pasta was relatively easy to prepare, although if you don't have a good stand-up mixer and pasta maker (which I don't), you are going to get a good arm workout in. The pasta tasted delicious, although I could have rolled the dough out thinner (it was a tad thick), but I was exhausted and was ready to continue with the rest of the dinner. I steamed the broccoli, and cooked the mushrooms and chicken separately and added them last. This is a recipe I learned from my best friend, who makes this all the time for an easy dinner. The sauce is really eyeballed, but i would say it's about 2 cups of cream, 1/2 cup of grated parmesan (you can add more if you want a thicker sauce or you feel that the parmesan isn't coming through enough), sauteed garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Adding all of it together at the end makes for a simple and delicious dish.
The baked brie is something I make frequently, although this time I cut smaller rounds out of the larger wheel to make them more bite size for an appetizer. I topped them with honey and pecans before wrapping them in puff pastry.
The cheese straws used the same puff pastry as the baked brie, but they were cut into long strips, sprinkled with shredded cheddar, parmesan, salt and pepper, and then twisted and brushed with butter.
The sangria was very easy too. Put a whole bottle of your favorite white wine in a pitcher, add jarred peach syrup to taste and add a few slices for garnish and for color if it's in a clear container.
The dinner was a lot of fun to make and I would make all of the recipes again. This dinner definitely got my itch to cook out for a while.
Tonight, I am making my infamous chicken corn chowder to help Grant get better. Nothing makes you feel better than a hot bowl of soup. I will definitely take pictures of this meal- it's a go to because it is simple and always a hit, and with this rainy weather, I could use some food that accompanies a night in with a good book perfectly.

Friday-City Tap House

This past Friday, my roommates' band was playing in Philly at the Danger! Danger! Gallery, and they had a little time to kill, so I met one for dinner with her sister, her boyfriend, another friend, and Grant. Grant and I got there early, so we had a drink at the bar. The restaurant was very well-designed. It was very sleek and sexy with a masculine vibe (old, refurbished dark wood, fire places outside on the balcony, and lots of copper elements). I got a Kira beer to start, which is very similar to Blue Moon, but with more prominent flavors. Once we sat down with our party, I ordered their pear cider, which is more like a sparkling wine than a beer. It was wonderfully refreshing, and would be perfect for a hot summer evening. (even though it was very cold in Philadelphia that night)
We ordered appetizers for the table- their calamari and their sweet potato fries. I love sweet potatoes, but their version of sweet potato fries was amazing. They tasted almost like funnel cake when you first bite into them, and then mellow into the earthy sweet potato flavor. Their secret is that they soak the cut sweet potato slices in a vanilla brine before they fry them, so they get that sweet, vanilla flavor. The chipotle ketchup that came with it was just spicy enough to balance the sweetness of the fries.
The calamari did not disappoint-very crispy and not too chewy, which squid can be if done incorrectly. The sauces that came with the calamari were a bit unexpected but accented them very well. The first was a basil pesto mayonnaise and the second was a sweet and spicy sauce. Both were delicious and lightly flavored so they didn't overpower the squid.
For dinner, I got their grouper with risotto and grilled asparagus. I go to the Bahamas fairly frequently with my best friend who has a house down there, so I know what fresh grouper should taste like (we've caught them on almost every fishing trip since I've started going there). The grouper at the City Tap House was delicious. Light, buttery, and perfectly crisped on one side. I ate inhaled all of it. The asparagus was delicious too-not too strong and perfectly crunchy from grilling. The risotto on the other hand, was a little disappointing. It was very bland and had no savory element to it. It was undercooked, and I wouldn't recommend it. However, it was the only disappointing aspect to the entire dinner, so it didn't ruin the meal.
Other than that, I had a great experience at the restaurant-great food, great company made for a wonderful evening. I definitely want to go back again and try their pizza, which is made in a oven that opens to the dining room, so you can see your pizza being made. Their sandwiches and steak frites looked delicious too, and I look forward to going back to the restaurant situated among UPenn's campus.


3925 Walnut St. Philadelphia

p.s.-I'm realizing I took fewer pictures than I thought this past weekend, I promise to do better!

Eulogy Part Two

I am currently on Spring Break and loving every minute of the down time. This is the first Spring Break in a while that I didn't have assignments due in my courses-so I am taking advantage of the downtime.
Finally I am getting back to my computer to talk about Eulogy.
I was very excited about going last Thursday night, and the very small, delightfully cozy bar and restaurant did not disappoint. The beer menu was out of control, and after a long talk with our waitress and scouring the menu to narrow my decision down to a few, I decided on the Lineman'

s Cassis Lambic Beer. It was absolutely delicious. A black currant beer, it was not too sweet or tart, which currants can be. It was a beautiful color when poured in its glass (it looked more like wine than a beer). It was about $9.00 a glass, but it was definitely worth it, and the bottle was larger than most beer bottles.
With my beer, I ordered the "Moules Mariniere," which was mussels with a white wine sauce with peppers, capers, garlic, celery, and shallots. The mussels were delicious and tasted very fresh, and the sauce they were in only complimented the flavor of the mussels. They were served in a steam pot with a generous section of baguette under the lid of the pot. I was wiping the pot clean by the end of the meal to get the last of the sauce with bread. I would definitely get them again, it was a perfect serving size and the food was delicious. We also ordered their french fries for the table, that come with the restaurants own Beneluxx sauce (which tasted like an herb-flavored mayonnaise-so yummy). Those were the first to be finished on the table-the four of us were inhaling them because they were so crispy on the outside, and buttery and soft on the inside.
Definitely try Eulogy if you are in old city- it will not disappoint. The restaurant has a lot of character, and is fairly dark inside (why I don't have pictures of my mussels or the fries-sorry!) which makes it even more intimate. Even if you don't know much about beer (like me) but enjoy all it has to offer in terms of flavor, their staff is very well-educated on beer and their menu, so they will not steer you wrong.

Eulogy

Tomorrow night I am going to Eulogy in Old City for drinks. It was recommended to me by my boss, a Belgian native. She said that their Belgian fare it is as authentic as it gets, and she goes there when she wants a little bit of home. I am very excited to try their brie puff (I am a sucker for anything with brie-it's my absolute favorite cheese) and their moules saffron- mussels with garlic, herbs, and shallots in a white wine butter lobster sauce.
Their beer menu- I don't even know where to begin. Their menu is the most extensive I have seen, and I hope to try something new tomorrow that will not disappoint. I am not a fan of hoppy beer, and I am sure they have a few beers I would like.

Eulogy Belgian Tavern

Romantic View of Philadelphia

After a short train ride from New York to Philadelphia, I went out to another Italian restaurant on Main Street in Manayunk- Bella Trattoria. We got a bottle of white wine, and both had linguini in a blush sauce. It was fairly similar to the dinner in New York. The sauce was excellent, but the pasta was a tad overcooked. Again, the star of the dinner was dessert. We shared a pineapple cake with coconut icing. The cake was perfectly moist and the icing had a layer of vanilla custard under it which made it extra rich. We inhaled it.
Since my boyfriend is in Philadelphia and I am still at school near Harrisburg, we celebrated Valentine's Day over this past weekend. We spent the day all over Philadelphia, from Reading Terminal Market to Rittenhouse Square. There are so many small shops that I plan on visiting again that were adorable. After a chilly day around town, Grant took me to Bistro St. Tropez, right next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Located in the Marketplace Design Center, the fourth floor looked over a gorgeous view of the museum at night.
The food was everything I expected and more. We got salmon tartar as an appetizer. The salmon was sliced larger than other tartars that I've had, which I liked, because it held its own among the capers, mango, and ginger that was mixed with it. We got the hanger steak special with green beans and sauteed mushrooms and scalloped potatoes. The steak was perfectly cooked (I ordered mine medium rare), the green beans and mushrooms were phenomenal. The mushrooms had a delicious smoky flavor that paired perfectly with the sweet balsamic drizzle over them. I was impressed by the scalloped potatoes, since they were perfectly stacked and maintained their shape (mine always fall apart after they're served from the baking dish).
I would go back to Bistro St. Tropez in a heartbeat. The food, view, service was all perfect, and the setting was very romantic for any celebration, especially when you are surprised with flowers at the restaurant by your Valentine.

New York

So I am realizing that the intentions of going out to dinner every weekend on a college students budget is a little difficult. So these posts may be less frequent than I would have liked. Regardless, I had a busy week that was full of new adventures.
A few of my classmates and I went to New York for the College Art Association conference in New York City. Seeing so many professionals in a field I want to work in was inspiring and motivating. I definitely came back with a drive to work even harder in school. We had a lot of downtime in between the panel discussions, so I got to see a fair bit of the city. Dinner on Thursday night was delicious for two reasons- the food was genuinely wonderful, but we also had been walking around in the cold and wind and were desperate just to sit down and eat. We found a little Italian restaurant on 44th street called Gallo Nero. For being so small, this quaint little eatery has a lot of rustic charm, with wonderful, homemade food to go with it.
I had a glass of Rose with my dinner, which was a special of home-made tagliatelle pasta with shrimp in a vodka sauce. The pasta was incredible- perfectly al dente. The sauce and shrimp were well-seasoned.
The desert was my favorite part of the whole meal. A pear tart with coconut ice cream. The pastry dough was light and fluffy, and the custard and pears were just sweet enough. I was pleasantly surprised with how delicious the coconut ice cream was with the pear. It was clearly real coconut, no artificial flavoring. The whole dinner was delicious, and paired with the small space and rustic ambience, I felt like I was in a little cafe in Italy.