Shortly after we arrived on a Tuesday afternoon, we went to the Ferry Building. Holly had been there before, but I had not. It’s an indoor market similar to our local Reading Terminal Market, only more posh. We wanted to sit out by the water for a late lunch and ended up at Hog Island Oyster Co. We shared a bowl of San Francisco Clam Chowder and a great salad with Little Gem lettuce, strawberries, fuji apples and hazelnuts. It was a lovely afternoon of enjoying lunch and some wine while sitting by the bay.

Clam Chowder at Hog Island

Little Gem Salad at Hog Island

However, as the afternoon progressed, it started to get chilly, so we migrated inside the Ferry Building and luxuriated over wine flights at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant. While we were there, Holly picked up a bottle of No. 209 Gin, one of her favorites from her west coast life.

Wine Flights at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant

We hadn’t done much planning as far as meals went, so we went back to our hotel room to research a place for dinner. We didn’t feel like wandering far and found Colibrí Mexican Cuisine. One of our goals while in California was to get our fill of Mexican food, so we were easily convinced to give it a try. They have an incredible Tequila selection and make some inventive drinks with them. Unfortunately, they don’t list their drink menu on their web site, so I can’t get my facts straight, but their cocktails are excellent.

We began our meal by sharing the fish tacos. I had the prawns with a tamarind mole sauce with a corn cake, and Holly had pan seared duck breast in a delicious green mole sauce made with pumpkin seeds, tomatillos, nuts and spices.

Fish Tacos at Colibri

Alas, Colibrí is a rather dark restaurant, so we don’t have much in the way of pictures.

On Wednesday, we went to breakfast at Sears Fine Food. Holly had the famous 18 Swedish pancakes which come with lingonberries. Another goal was to have as much seafood as possible, so I had the seafood omelet that was stuffed with crab and shrimp.

18 Swedish Pancakes at Sears Fine Foods

Holly then had to go to her conference, so I spent the morning in Golden Gate Park, primarily to go to the deYoung Museum but I also went to the Japanese Tea Garden. I found myself getting rather frustrated in the tea garden because it was overrun with barely supervised school children. It was certainly harshing my Zen. I decided to head back to the hotel to find a place for lunch. I actually wound up getting back around 2 and a lot of nearby places were closed between lunch and dinner, so I wound up back at Colibrí. We had dinner plans, so I just had the Pozole Verde. Colibrí also serves complimentary torillas with 3 different kinds of salsas, so it made for a nice lunch. I may have had a Tequila cocktail or two. I went back to the hotel room to wait for Holly to get done with her conference. By the time she was done, we still had a couple of hours before dinner and she was curious about the drinks I had at Colibrí, so we went back yet again. It was a nice reminder that we really enjoy good Tequila and that we need to get to Xochitl and Distrito more often!

After our afternoon cocktails, we met up with an old friend of Holly’s who took us out of the downtown area and to B Star Bar in Inner Richmond. B Star is a small and excellent Burmese restaurant. We shared several dishes, most notably the Tea Leaf Salad, the Samusa Soup, the Pumpkin Pork Stew and the Ox Tail with shiitake mushrooms and gai lan over mashed potatoes.

Thursday, we went to breakfast at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe. Holly had the Black Bean Cakes with eggs, grilled cheddar corn bread and home fries. I had the Lamb Merguez Sausage, Roasted Garlic, Tomato, Spinach and Goat Cheese Omelet. I also swapped out my toast for the grilled cheddar corn bread. Everything was delicious and the coffee was notably good.

Black Bean Cakes and Eggs at Dottie’s

Lamb Merguez Sausage Omelet at Dottie’s

For lunch, I had plans to meet an old friend, and conveniently, our lunch plans coincided with Holly’s lunch break at the conference. We met at Johnny Foley’s which is a fairly standard Irish Pub. It was good but nothing exceptional and nothing we can’t get at home.

We ended our trip on a high note at Pesce in the Russian Hill neighborhood. It serves food in a Venetian cicchetti style similar to our local C19 but with a greater emphasis on seafood. Holly and I really enjoy places that focus on small plates because we like to try a lot of things. We loved everything at Pesce, especially the Melanzane (Grilled eggplant, taleggio chesse, tomato-basil vinaigrette), the Cioppino, the Grilled Asparagus, and the Biscotti with Vin Santo for dessert. We’re still trying to figure out why we never see Biscotti and Vin Santo on the east coast. It’s not like there aren’t a million Italian restaurants in Philadelphia.

Grilled Asparagus at Pesce

Melazane at Pesce

Biscotti and Vin Santo at Pesce

Although short, the trip was a success despite the fact that we didn’t plan anything. Our next big trip will be Chicago at the end of June and we’ve both been there a few times and know we’ll have a great time. Until then, all Philly all the time.

We had some pretty incredible cheese plates at Talula’s Garden recently, and we thought we’d share the pictures with you.

Gusto! A Slow Food Study in Rare Italian Cheese

Talula’s Garden offers six different cheese plates that change with the seasons, and this time we decided to try “Gusto! A Slow Food Study in Rare Italian Cheese.” This plate was amazing and quite the treat. On the day we were there (it has changed slightly since then), it included:

Handmade Spring Ricotta (Cow, PA)
Langa La Tur (Cow/Goat, Piedmont)
Testun al Barolo (Cow/Goat, Piedmont)
Rochetta (Cow/Goat/Sheep, Piedmont)
Parmigiano-Reggiano Stravecchio (Cow, Parma)
Dolcelatte Gorgonzola (Cow, Lombardy)

We loved all of these, but here are some notes on our favorites:

Handmade Spring Ricotta (Cow, PA) – this housemade cheese was a light, fluffy, dream. Soft on the tongue, with just a hint of truffle, but not so much truffle as to overpower or overwhelm. I could eat this all day.

Langa La Tur (Cow/Goat, Piedmont) – OK, this cheese and I go way back. I hadn’t had it in a few years, so it was wonderful to taste it again. In the past, I’d called this “the ice cream of cheese.” Upon tasting it again, I don’t think I would use that descriptor, but it was still wonderfully creamy and decadent. It’s expensive and somewhat hard to find on its own, so it was nice to just have a little taste without the commitment of buying a whole round.

Testun al Barolo (Cow/Goat, Piedmont) – this one features a rind made from Nebbiolo grape must – need one say more?

In addition to the above, our bartender also prepared us a plate of three of his favorites, which included Délice de Bourgogne, an aged gouda, and a soft cheese made with dill that I didn’t catch the name of. All of these were wonderful as well, especially the buttery Délice de Bourgogne.

Although a little pricy, I highly recommend the cheese experience at Talula’s Garden. We would rarely have the opportunity to try, let alone buy, many of these cheeses, so it was certainly worth it in our opinion.

Holly and I will be in San Francisco the rest of this week. She needs to be there for a conference and I’m tagging along for a bit of a vacation. We haven’t really planned much as far as restaurants to try, but I’m sure we’ll make some great discoveries. We’ve gotten a lot of recommendations from friends, which we really appreciate.

We’ve both been to San Francisco before. My trip was seven years ago and I recall not being particularly impressed. However, San Francisco was the last stop at the end of a longer trip and I think that by the time I got there, I was worn out and eager to get home. I’m looking forward to giving it a fresh look.

San Francisco!

I would like to keep up with blogging our food adventures, but I know that will be difficult since I’m sure we’ll both be plenty busy. If nothing else, we’ll do a wrap-up post when we get home. Even if we don’t write posts, we will probably be keeping up with our SuperPlus twitter and/or Facebook page.

Since we’ve been enjoying so much fresh seafood lately, we thought we’d take a post to highlight one of our favorite purveyors. Shore Catch, from Barnegat, NJ, is a regular at the Rittenhouse Farmers’ Market, and brings us a variety of fresh seafood from the Jersey Shore.

One of our favorite things to get from Shore Catch is their clams. Tom has a basic recipe for clams, which we vary a little bit each time depending on what we have available.

We also enjoy their scallops, which Tom has been known to sear up either for brunch or for dinner.

Shore Catch often has really nice cod, which we’ve used to make prosciutto-wrapped cod, or just simply baked with lemon and garlic.

When available, the mahi mahi we’ve gotten from Shore Catch has been incredible. Lately we’ve been making this with a piccata preparation and serving it over pasta.

We’ve also tried their flounder, which has been lovely, also prepared piccata-style and topped with fresh tomatoes and basil.

Shore Catch has plenty of other seafood choices, depending on the season, including oysters, squid, tuna, swordfish, and monkfish, but these have been our favorites so far. We’re thankful to have fresh, local fish so readily available!

A few weekends ago, we went to the market hoping to get some bacon from them only to find out that it would be another week or so until they will have any. All was not lost, however. Among other things, they had a small package of bacon presse. I actually wasn’t entirely sure what bacon presse  is, but, well, it has something to do with bacon, so it had to be good. It’s more conventionally referred to as pressed pork. I looked it up later and found a good explanation of the process from Gordon Ramsey, PorcSalt describes there’s as “a small pressed slab of slow cooked heritage bacon, with sharp wine, thyme, garlic, and jus.”

Back in January when we were in Seattle, we had an excellent brunch at Local 360. Holly had fried chicken and waffles and I had pork belly, beans and eggs.

Pork Belly, Baked Beans and Eggs at Local 360

We decided to try the latter with our pressed pork. We also decided to bake our beans ourselves. I searched for a recipe but wanted something that needed a relatively short time to cook and I found a promising one from the Food Network.

Their recipe calls for:

1 large onion, diced
2 (16-ounce) cans pork and beans
3 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup light brown sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 pound bacon strips, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Of course, I made some adjustments. I used a can of mixed beans, part of a large red onion, and our own homemade mustard. I cut way back on the sweet elements and used about an 1/8 of a cup of brown sugar and maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons of maple syrup. Of course, since we were having this with pork belly, I left out the pork.

This recipe calls for mixing everything together and the putting it in the oven at 350 for 45-60 minutes, which was much more acceptable than some of the ones I found that take hours.

Once the beans were done, Holly quickly pan fried the pork and I made some sunnyside up eggs.

Pressed Pork, Homemade Baked Bean and Eggs

One of the many things we love about going to the farmers’ market is that we don’t always know what we’ll come home with. Often something will catch our eye and we’ll bring it home not knowing what we’ll do with it, and, as in this case, we wind up making something delicious!

Tom found this recipe for za’atar-spiced beet dip with goat cheese and hazelnuts on Pinterest about 3 months ago, but we only recently acquired za’atar (from The Head Nut in Reading Terminal Market). We like it so much we’ve made it several times now, and we can see making it anytime beets are in season. It’s especially nice made in advance and chilled for an afternoon snack.

The recipe calls for 6 beets, which is a bit much for the two of us, so we’ve just used 2 beets and cut the rest of ingredients by one third. Except for the garlic, of course, which we left the same. We used beets from Rineer Farm (via Rittenhouse Farmers’ Market), Pequea Valley Farms local yogurt, Green Aisle local maple syrup, and Shellbark Sharp goat cheese from Di Bruno Bros. I mixed all the ingredients together using a stick immersion blender. The result is a delicious beet-y, garlic-y dip, topped with goat cheese, hazelnuts, and scallions, not unlike a good pesto or hummus, that goes wonderfully with a nice hunk of bread (we used a seeded Sarcone’s roll) or crackers. I had initially thought about substituting some other herbs for the za’atar, but now that we have the za’atar, I’m really glad that we didn’t, as it has a pretty unique flavor. In fact, we’ve found other good uses for the za’atar, such as using it to coat baked chicken legs.

I love the combination of beets and goat cheese anytime (especially paired with a crisp sauvignon blanc), but I have to say this is a nice change from the usual routine I have of simply roasting the beets and serving them sliced with goat cheese. The garlic and za’atar give it a little something extra, plus it’s a lovely presentation, and it makes for great leftovers as well. Enjoy!

For the past few years, I’ve been using this recipe with fish rather than chicken more often than not. We have an excellent source of fresh fish, thanks to Shore Catch at the Rittenhouse Farmers’ Market. I’ve used this recipe with tilapia (when I was on the west coast) and more recently with flounder, but so far my favorite is with mahi mahi.

I basically prepare the fish the same way one would prepare the chicken per the original recipe; flour, brown on both sides until the fish is cooked through, then add lemon juice and white wine at the end to create the sauce. Neither Tom nor I are a fan of capers; I know it’s probably not a true piccata without them, and I do appreciate what capers contribute to the sauce, but we’ve been leaving them out and still enjoying the result.

While I’m on fish duty, Tom prepares a lovely mix of fettuccine, garlic, and kale, to be the bed for our fish. The lemon from the piccata sauce goes especially well with the kale, and it’s a lovely way to add some greens to the meal.

We were especially lucky when we bought this fish, as the gentleman from Shore Catch informed us that this mahi mahi was the best of the previous day’s catch, and in fact that the whole catch had been the best of this winter. It’s wonderful to have a close enough connection to where your food comes from that you get to hear stories like this! And we must concur, the fish was amazing; I think it’s the best fish I’d had in recent memory, whether at home or at a restaurant.

CSA Example

We have a policy for this blog of not writing posts about anything we don’t have firsthand experience with. We suspected that as we gained some popularity, we might be contacted by businesses wanting us to post about them, but we want to keep our posts about things we authentically endorse.

That said, I was recently contacted by someone from a new CSA who asked us to help get the word out. Realizing that helping a CSA is different than shilling for a business, we wanted to find a way to help while keeping within the spirit of what we’re trying to accomplish with this blog.

Because we are big supporters of buying fresh and local, we decided to give a shout out to the CSAs that are based within Philadelphia’s city limits:

• Urban Tree Connection & Neighborhood Foods: Wyalusing & N 53rd Streets
• Greensgrow Farms: 2501 E. Cumberland Street
• And the new one: Neighborhood Foods in West Philadelphia
  

If there are others that I missed, please let me know.

Farm to Philly has a bigger list that includes CSAs both inside and outside city limits. Also check out Slow Food Philadelphia’s Snail of Approval that recognizes local businesses for the quality, authenticity and sustainability of their food supply.

Farmers Market Take

Check out your options for getting local food because buying local has many benefits.

There are a few key things to getting this recipe right. One, you need access to thinly sliced beef, preferably ribeye. Luckily, in Philadelphia, thanks to cheesesteak culture, this isn’t actually that hard to find. We got ours at the Fitler Square farmers’ market via Jennings Farm, which has all grass-fed beef.

Another key to this recipe is the technique of marinating the meat known as “silking” or “velveting.” It is a great way to get tender meat when you stir fry, and works well for chicken, beef, and pork. This normally involves cornstarch, but lately we’ve been substituting powdered cashew nuts for cornstarch, which is a technique we borrowed from Indian curry recipes. It’s not as silky as cornstarch and certainly adds a nutty flavor, but we like it.

While I have been making a cornstarch substitute, one thing I don’t like to substitute is the Shaoxing rice wine. The recipe says you can use sherry (real sherry, not cooking sherry and not sherry vinegar), but I prefer the flavor from the rice wine. I was able to get it for about $2.00 at a local Asian market.

Along with the beef from Jennings Farm, we also had some lovely broccoli from Highland Orchards, also via the Fitler Square farmers’ market.

Broccoli Beef Recipe:

1 lb. thinly sliced beef
2 tbsp. cornstarch (I substitute powdered cashew nuts)
2 tbsp. sherry or Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing)
1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb. broccoli, cut into flowers, stalks peeled and sliced
1 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
2 tsp. sugar
1 to 2 tbsp. water

1. Marinate the beef in cornstarch (or substitute powdered cashews), wine, and soy sauce for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

2. Heat your wok and add 2 tbsp. cooking oil. Stir fry the garlic briefly (you can also add minced ginger at this step; the recipe doesn’t call for it specifically, but it’s such a staple of Chinese stir fry that I often add it anyway out of habit), then add the broccoli. Stir fry approx. 2 minutes while adding splashes of water if desired to produce steam. Sprinkle with salt, mix, and remove to bowl.

3. Heat another 2 tbsp. cooking oil and stir fry the meat mixture until the color of the meat turns brown (if especially juicy, you may want to drain the meat before adding the sauce). Mix in the oyster sauce, sugar, and the cooked broccoli and mix well. Add 1 to 2 tbsp. water if the sauce is too thick.

(Adapted from original recipe by Chau Liaw, Best of Basic Chinese, The House of Rice Store)

This same basic recipe works with other kinds of meat, too; one time we made it with bison meat, which was wonderful. Normally I would serve this with rice, but I thought Tom’s pappardelle suggestion worked wonderfully.

I’m looking forward to the next time Jennings Farm comes back to the Fitler Square farmers’ market so we can get some more beef and have this again!

This Cacio e Pepe recipe is possibly the best combination of simple, quick, and delicious that we’ve come upon in recent memory. Pretty much just 3 ingredients; how can it be so good??? Butter, crushed black pepper, and cheese, with pasta. Boom. This might even replace our laziest comfort meal (canned San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, pasta). It’s the ultimate in our home cooking mantra, “simple goodness.”

What makes this even better is good quality ingredients from local sources. We got the fettuccine noodles and parmesan cheese from Di Bruno Bros and the pecorino cheese from Garces Trading Company. Whole mixed peppercorns came from The Spice Corner in the Italian Market, and our fresh butter usually comes from Pumpkin Market.

This has turned into something that is especially perfect for nights when we have to work late and have little energy for cooking. It’s easy enough to put together when we’re tired, as the only prep required is to grind the pepper and grate the cheese, and the whole thing only takes about 15 minutes at most, depending on the cooking time of the pasta. Having such an easy recipe on hand also keeps us from doing something less healthy, like eating out or heating up prepared foods. Unfortunately it’s so good, there are never any leftovers!