Eating Philly - Part 3 - Morimoto!

We splurged on a meal in Philly at Morimoto, of Iron Chef fame. Both of us dressed up, and talked ourselves into the $80 tasting menu.

The restaurant was one of the most beautiful restaurants we'd been in; the walls were covered with an pearl-like iridescence, with modern white tables and lit from within with coloured lights.

Morimoto has their own beer, brewed by Rogue. The is the flight, which included, soba ale, and hazelnut ale.

A very delicious guava cocktail.

First course: tuna tartare, in a moat of soy-based sauce/broth. The sauce was pretty salty, but went well with the fish. I didn't particularly love the ultra smooth texture of the fish though; it reminded me too much of baby food.

Fish carpaccio. Delicious.

Sashimi salad. Wonderful

'Sangria' cleanser. To be honest, this didn't taste like sangria.

Morimoto hazelnut ale.

Seared salmon with an anchovy broth. Not my favorite, because the sauce smelled a little too strong. It was crying for a little bit of acid to balance out the plate.

Amazing Peking duck inspired dish: duck, green onion crepe, kimchi sauce. The highlight of the meal.

Sushi

Cheesecake with blueberries. The cheesecake was very light, with a slight gelatinous texture.

We were really full when the meal ended. The whole meal lasted for about 2 and a half hours, and service was very professional. A great experience.

Eating Philly - Part 2

A croissant from Metropolitan Bakery . This looked really good, but it wasn't heavenly, as I had expected. it was less flaky than it looked, and was a bit chewy.

Another roast pork sandwich from Dinic's, this time without cheese and with roasted peppers. Delicious - perhaps even a better combination.

Being in Philly, we had to try a true cheesesteak sandwich. Of course, the top contenders people mention are Pat's or Geno's, but Jim's Steaks is always mentioned among the best as well, so we decided to pay Jim's a visit. To be honest, I had a bit of anxiety about ordering these sandwiches, because I hear that you had to do this a specific way, like 'whiz wit' if you want one with cheese whiz and onions, but when we were in the line, that worry eased somewhat, because people were not following that rule.  Even though we arrived at around 3pm, we still had to wait for about 15 minutes or so in line. We both got one with provolone and onion, with a side of hot peppers.

The verdict? Those cheesesteaks were damn good - the meat was tender, onions gave it nice flavour, and the cheese gave it a creamy saltiness. The bun was soft and soaked up the meat juices. The only imperfection was that the meat could have used a bit more seasoning, but it was a great experience overall, and worth the wait.

For a couple of days we could not figure out the beer situation in Philly. They had liquor stores which sold wine and spirits, but no beer. But we found this beer/specialty food store called The Foodery which had an AMAZING selection of beer, along with a store cat. We got blueberry beer, peach beer, and a cider, among others.

We return to the Reading Market again with take out from the Down Home Diner. I kind of love eating in hotel rooms. I got the fried chicken dinner, with 3 generous pieces of fried chicken, collard greens, and mash potatoes. This was okay - the chicken was moist, but lacked seasoning, and even though I was most exited about trying southern style collard greens for the first time, I didn't actually like it. The greens had a strange, sweet taste. I'm not a big fan of sweet and savory, so I couldn't eat it.

Shane got the meatloaf with mash and boiled vegetables. The meat loaf was a lot better seasoned, and tasted really good with the potatoes. I had a bit of food envy.

Eating Philly - Part 1

Shane and I recently visited Philly and New York for a little over a week. We had some great eats! Here is day one:

 One of the best places to eat is Reading Terminal Market, an indoor market full of food stalls. There is quite a popular Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish) food section, which is only open for business from Wednesday to Saturday. I tried a pretzel roll stuffed with sausage and a real Philly pretzel from Miller's Twist.  These are handmade soft pretzels, which were buttery, salty, and pretty delicious.

One of the more popular eateries at the market is Dinic's Roast Pork. On the days that we went, there were huge lineups of about 50 people.

This is the roast pork sandwich with provolone and broccoli rabe.

 The pork, while a little mild in flavour, was tender and dripping with juices. The components all worked with each other and made for a big yummy mouthful.

We bought a few cookies from the 4th Street Cookie Company to try.

The cookies were quite large. They were rich, slightly chewy on the inside, and quite sweet. Very good cookies, though not as good as the Cookies of Course cookies in Vancouver (am I biased?).

We went for dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy, an Italian American place near our hotel. The place was full of families and had a nice, though slightly formal, feel.

Shane ordered the lasagna, which was quite gooey and delicious.

I ordered Linguine di Mare, a seafood pasta. This was just okay - though there were lots of prawns, mussels, and clams, and a few pulverized bits of lobster, the sauce/broth was a bit bland. It was a disappointment.

Quite a day of eating, no?

Stay tuned for part two...