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...

Big Lou's Butcher Shop

Big Lou's Butcher Shop is one of new restaurants that opened up in the new year; the restaurant is located in a couple of blocks from Chinatown, and is from the owners of the nearby Two Chefs and a Table. While the food is similar to Meat & Bread, in terms of being a sandwich joint, the place is unique because it is primarily a butcher shop first and foremost.

The space and design of the restaurant and shop has a charmingly old-fashioned, yet graphically modern feel. The meat display is wonderfully attractive, with meat laid out in a most pleasing way. The meat itself is locally sourced.

There is also a selection of pickles (asparagus, bean), and various spice rubs.

While the store is quite spacious, the eat-in dining area is quite minimal, consisting of just a bar facing the wall and some (quite uncomfortable) stools. The butcher art is quite a nice touch.

Here's the porchetta sandwich ($9), with a Boylan Black Cherry soda, which Brigid ordered. The sandwiches came attractively wrapped in custom printed paper and white string. The pork itself was very flavourful - juicy and well-seasoned. While the sandwiches had bits of crackling, the pieces that were included where quite hard, nearly teeth-breakingly so. In comparison with the porchetta sandwich at Meat & Bread, Big Lou's version is not as good, due to many tiny reasons; however, it is still a pretty good sandwich.

Amanda got the Bulgogi chicken ($9), which didn't look like what you would find in a Korean restaurant. However, Amanda reported that this was pretty tasty, although she wasn't fond of the grilled long stalks of green onion that was in the sandwich, which were stringy and hard to bite off. To be honest, I'm not sure about the 'Bulgogi' and the 'Bahn Mi' on the menu - it seems a little out of place, especially considering there are a few really amazing & cheap bahn mi places just a few blocks away.

I had Big Lou's Chicago Style sausage sandwich ($7.50), with house made sausage, pickles, mayo, pickled peppers and mustard. This had some problems. While the sausage itself was tasty, with hints of fennel, the outside didn't have that crunch and pop that a well seared sausage has - it was instead really chewy. There was also way too much mayo and pickled peppers. These elements, along with the mustard and pickles, made the sandwich taste really unbalanced.

While the location is a little out of the way, Big Lou's is certainly worth a visit. The store's commitment to local food and product is certainly admirable, and hopefully there will be a few tweaks here and there to make the space more inviting and the food a little more refined.

Shaktea

I love teas. It's one of my favourite drinks, and I love especially the sheer variety of teas - you can try tons of teas and still be astounded at a new flavour that you didn't even know existed. Somehow, there doesn't seem to be many tea places on the East Side of Vancouver, so when Shaktea opened up a few years ago, it was pretty unique. Now, we've visited here a few times - most of the time to get some loose tea; but we hadn't gone there for tea service in a long while.

The interior of Shaktea is filled with warm colours and had a cozy feeling. Aside from a few choice seats near the window, there is not much seating at all. However, the display of jars of tea is pretty neat.

They also always have three pots of tea to sample: usually an herbal one, a rooibus  or honeybush one, and a black tea, all sitting in three glass teapots.

It was moderately busy when we arrived, and we managed to snag one of the last couple of free tables. We were given the menu right away, but it took almost 15 minutes to actually place our order. Even though other people all around us were placing orders, the servers seemed to forget about us. In the end, we actually had to flag someone and ask her if we could order.

From the time we were there, service seemed to be a problem; people would sit there without menus, without having orders taken, and given 'reserved' tables with a warning that they couldn't stay very long. The service wasn't too joyful.

I got the matcha latte, which arrived in a unique ceramic bowl (around $4). This was delicious - creamy and with a nice green tea flavour. One of the nice things about this place is that they always give you a few mini gingersnaps with your tea. It's a really great touch.

Shane had the Earl Grey latte ($4.25), which arrived in a small tea pot. The tea was unsweetened and had a very aromatic and wonderful Earl Gray flavour. The amount of creaminess was perfect. The teas did take a very long time to arrive though.

We also ordered a chocolate pistachio cookie ($1.95). Unfortunately this was very dry and lacked a distinct pistachio flavour.

The teas at Shaktea are great. And if you can find a time when they're not busy, so much the better. However, they do need to improve on the customer service aspect if they want to garner customer support.

Vera's Burger Shack - Main St

I always have mixed feelings returning to the Main Street area. One reason is that when I lived there about five years ago, it was not so trendy and hipster-y as it is now. It's become a little too popular these days. But I also have pangs of jealousy because there is so much cool new stuff that wasn't there before, like the new community centre and library, and all sorts of up-and-coming restaurants.  Vera's Burger Shack is one of those places that wasn't there when we were around. So when we were in the neighbourhood and after unsuccessful attempts to visit Benkei Ramen on 5th (closed) and Lucy's Eastside Diner (too busy), we ended up at Vera's for lunch.

Now we had gone to another Vera's years ago but never actually been back for a while.

The restaurant occupies a place that used to be a cafe, as I recall (Pedro's Coffee?), and the interior feels a little like a worn old shoe. Not that the place isn't clean or anything (well, there were crumbs at our table...), but it had the feeling of being used too many times. However, the seats were comfortable enough.

The menu is pretty extensive, ranging from basic burgers, to specialty burgers, to hot dogs and sandwiches. The choice is pretty dizzying at first. Of course, the price of the burgers is just for the burger itself; the sides are not included.

I went for The Natural Burger ($7.89), which features organic beef. The good thing at Vera's is that you can customize your burger with whatever toppings you want; this time, I went for pickles, tomato, lettuce, hot peppers, and mustard. All in all the burger was good: the bun was soft but toasted, and the meat itself had a good flavour. The patty was juicy, if a little overdone and lacking in seasoning.

Shane got the Power Burger ($8.69), which featured a fried egg, fried onions, and cheese.  This one was pretty good; the egg had an appropriately gooey yolk, and the whole thing was a yummy mess. Of course, with this kind of burger, the patty becomes second fiddle, which may be a good thing in this case.

Both of us shared a side of fries ($3.99 for the combo with drink). This was a disappointment. The fries were dry and had an unappetizing puddle of oil at the bottom of the basket. It just wasn't good, and it may speak to a lack of care in the preparation of the food. I mean the reason that a person would choose Vera's over McDonald's or some other joint is that they care about the quality of the burger, right? I'm not sure if we felt that difference, to be honest with you.

Will we return to Vera's? Maybe.

But would it be our first choice? No.

Romer's Burger Bar

We were in the neighbourhood to catch a movie at the nearby Fifth Avenue, so we decided to pay a visit to Romer's Burger Bar, a relatively new burger joint in Kits. Being in the neighbourhood, we could have easily gone for a more healthy option, but we wanted a really good burger.

The decor is dark, with deep red booths, high tables with bar stools, and lots of mirrors. Cozy nightclub vibe, if you prefer.

Romer's burgers are purportedly gourmet, with natural, free-range local meats. One advantage to the set up of the menu is that the burgers are sold alone, without any sides. This gives the customer the option of choosing their various sides, which range from fries, to onion rings, to veggies and salads.

The bad news is that for a single burger here (priced from $9 - $20), you're more or less paying for the price of a full meal at any other burger joint.  The sides range from $3 - $8, so a whole plate does add up. But if the burger is good, it's worth it, right?

I ordered the 'Wicked Deadly Cheeseburger' ($11) which was topped with five types of cheese, onion, greens, and a Russian tarragon dressing. This was good, except that the only cheese you could taste was the goat cheese. Perhaps this was a proportion problem or the nature of the goat cheese itself, but I couldn't tell you what other cheeses were in that burger. The burger was an okay goat cheese burger, though I wasn't terribly blown away. Yes, the bun was nicely toasted and had a sumptuous softness, but the meat was a little dry, overdone, and really under seasoned.

Being a man, Shane felt it appropriate to order the 'Man's Man Burger' ($11), with bacon, cheddar, onion strings and tomato. This was also okay - the onions added a nice crunchy texture, but the problem again was the overdone meat and the lack of seasoning in the meat. There were no meat juices dripping on to the plate, you know?

Of course we had to try the poutine ($8). This was a terrible disappointment. The fries were crisp enough, but the problem was with two of the three components: gravy and curds. The gravy was quite minimal and bland, more of a drizzle than the more appropriate puddle. The cheese curds were also minimal and lacked that pleasant toothy squeak. The whole dish was weirdly un-hot (not a real word, but appropriate for this occasion).

For dessert, we tried the apple pie ($6), which arrived with a side of mascarpone cream. The pie was another disappointment, a bland, cold disappointment; the crust was thin and more chewy than flaky, and the apple filling was just standard. By far, the best part of the dish was the generous dollop of mascarpone.

By the end of our meal, we sad to have spent so much money on a burger joint. It could have been so good. But we just wanted to turn back time at that point.

Crow & Gate Pub (outside Nanaimo)

Although we have family in Nanaimo, Shane and I rarely eat out in the area. However, we did hear about this English style pub called the Crow & Gate pub that was nearby, so we decided to pay a visit when we were out their with my mom.  The restaurant itself is outside of the Nanaimo area, and is actually located in Cedar. It's definitely located in the middle of nowhere, and the entrance is not very noticeable. The pub itself is impressive; it's almost like you were driving into a Tudor estate, with immaculately green lawns, and distinctive white and dark-beamed buildings.

Surprisingly for a mid-afternoon, the place was packed. The interiors were what you may expect in an old English pub: lots of beams, dark wood, benches, and a real crackling fireplace. Very cozy.

The menu itself was small and written on a chalkboard. Like a lot of pubs, you seat yourself and order at the bar. The food then will be brought to your table. The menu items were reasonable, though not cheap; soups were under $8 and mains were from $10 - $14. I was disappointed to see non-traditional English stuff on their menu, but I suppose this reflects what the people demand.

My mom ordered the Boston clam chowder, which arrived in a large, flat bowl with a couple of slices of bread and butter. This soup was really good - creamy, rich, and with a really nice clam flavour.

Shane ordered the quiche of the day, which arrived with a side of green salad, potato salad, and some bread. The quiche was pretty good - creamy and cheesy, with a tender though somewhat limp crust, it certainly wasn't the best quiche either of us had ever had.

I ordered the bratwurst pub plate, which had two sausages, the same side salad and potato salad, roll, and inexplicably, a long strip of cheese. I wasn't bowled over by the sausages, to be honest. It was a tad salty and plain tasting. I am not a fan of sweet salad dressings, so did not like their house dressing at all. The potato salad was also heavy on the mayo and a tad sweet as well.

I was also bothered a little by the fact that everyone had the exact same plate (side salad, potato salad, roll), despite the difference in the orders. This probably eases the work of the kitchen, but it would be nice if they put in a little more effort.

That being said, we would definitely come back, just because of the setting and environment of the pub. The place has a wonderful feel. Plus, they do sell the most wonderful beer and ciders on tap.