Restaurant Review: Paesano's Philly Style (Italian Market)

So I know I said that I was going to try and eat healthier now that exams are over.  Honestly, that's not really happened.  I have been eating a lot of cheese.  I have been catching up with friends at restaurants.  And I don't regret cheese or friends.  One excursion was lunch at Paesano's, which I had never heard of, but it's always been there for the past few years, across the street from Sabrina's on Christian.  It's a sandwich shop that serves what I now consider the best. sandwich. I. have. ever. tasted. Ever.  Even compared to a dressed shrimp or oyster po'boy.  

First Impressions:

Easy, breezy, beautifully placed on the corner of 9th and Christian, this place is simple to figure out.  A big chalkboard has the sandwich menu, there are menus at every table, and the cute server greets you pretty quickly.  We sat by the window, and almost all the seats are window seats here.  It's nice.  I like the chalkboards on the walls - we sat under two pigs having a duel!  I bet they were fighting over my sandwich.

The Food:

Everything's under 10 bucks, I think.  So here is another budget friendly place where you can have delicious food and not have to wash dishes afterward.  Just when I start thinking I might try being vegetarian, a menu sucks me into carnivore mode.  This menu had me at lamb, combined with sun-dried cherry something or other (it's called mustardo, but it doesn't taste at all like mustard - even BETTER!). Besides, the cherry stuff made me feel like this sandwich was a little healthier because antioxidants are in cherries.  And for those of you who'd like sandwiches, if it weren't for all that bread, the Gustaio (the official name for the lambwich) comes in a wrap-but-better-than-a-wrap, like lamb shawarma.  But this was way way better.  Even though I think my sandwich was the tops, Bon Appetit Magazine selected the Arista (pulled pork with broccoli rabe sandwich) as the third best dish in America under 10 dollars.  I don't know much about the Arista, but that Gustaio is really amazing.  There's even cheese on it - gorgonzola!  We also ordered a side of potatoes, which were tasty, but of course unnecessary.  I just have trouble avoiding rosemaried potatoes and onions. 

The Service:

Super friendly, super cute (cuteness does not factor into the service rating), lots of free refills on the lemonade and black cherry seltzer. And our sandwiches arrived super fast.

Food     mmmmm

Service     mmmmm

Decor     mmmm

Je ne sais quoi     mmmmm

Overall     mmmmm

http://modomiorestaurant.com/paesanos_italian_market_location

901 Christian Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147

p.s. please forgive late-night typos!

About the ratings:

mmmmm        would eat there again tomorrow

mmmm           looking forward to eating there again

mmm              not in a hurry to eat there again

mm                 likely not going to eat there again

m                    would try my best never to eat there again. ever.

I reserve the right to grade on a curve for the overall score, despite the average.

Restaurant Review: El Rey

I have had been trying to stay away from Stephen Starr restaurants.  You definitely tend to pay for the quirky ambiance, but over the past three weeks I have been to three: (1) El Vez for a margarita for a friend's birthday; (2) The Continental Mid-town to welcome that same friend back from Israel; and (3) most recently to El Rey, Starr's newest addition to his restaurant army, to visit with a dear, dear friend.

First Impressions:

Weeiiiiirrrd.  Either they are using everything from the old diner I think this used to be (the Mid-Town or Mid-City Diner II? - nope - it's been confirmed by grubstreet as having been the Mid-Town IV), or they bought new old-looking/cheap stuff and decorated with that.  We couldn't figure it out.  I think we finally settled on the latter.  We are talking wood paneling, chunky rock/stone walls, those rounded Christmas tree lights (not the cute little ones, the slightly tacky-but-I-still-love-them ones from the 70s/80s).  As entrance (or parting) favors, I halfway expected them to hand out any of the following: (1) bowling shoes; (2) stuffed armadillo dolls; (3) velvet elvis bobbleheads; or (4) my own summery lumberjack button-up shirt so I could match the servers.  It's like being transported to a 70s diner in the middle of the desert in El Paso, or just outside of it a few hundred miles, except the food is very, very good.

The Food:

The menu items are really reasonably priced.  And, everything sounds so good, so it's really hard to decide.  This all avocado-inspired combo was calling to me: Guacamole and chips, Nopales (cactus, pumpkin seed, avocado, and tomato), and Cabrito (braised goat with guacomole and some other stuff).  That would have been a little too much avocado, so instead I got chips and salsa (perfect and also perfectly unnecessary - like most orders of chips and salsa), chayote (a fantastic corn salad with corn, pickled onion, AVOCADO, and a lime vinaigrette), and lamb tacos (lamb = delicious almost any way you slice it).  My beverage was a mango margarita.  Marvelous.

The Service:

Except for the hostesses, each member of the waitstaff has an edgy down-on-my-luck-I-understand-the-economy-sucks look about them - dark eye makeup, messy hair, plaid shirts paired with denim, raspy voices.  Our server was really friendly and helpful, albeit a little busy.  It took twenty minutes to bring out the chips and salsa and twenty minutes to take care of the check.  This restaurant is brand spanking new, though, so once the kinks get worked out, the quality of service should improve more than a few notches.

p.s. He's reportedly opening another restaurant at 18th and Sansom, a bistro (to compete with Tria??), and I still kind of want to go to the speakeasy behind El Rey (but the entrance is on Ranstead).  Oh Stephen, I really wanted to hate you!

Food     mmmmm

Service     mmm

Decor     mmm

Je ne sais quoi     mmmm

Overall     mmmm

http://elreyrestaurant.com/

2013 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

About the ratings:

mmmmm        would eat there again tomorrow

mmmm           looking forward to eating there again

mmm              not in a hurry to eat there again

mm                 likely not going to eat there again

m                    would try my best never to eat there again. ever.

I reserve the right to grade on a curve for the overall score, despite the average.

May Fruit Salad

Today I bought a ton of fruit.  At the grocery, pre-made mixed fruit costs $4.50 per container.  Mine was a fraction of that.  I took one apple, one banana, a handful of blackberries, two clementines, and two strawberries.  I cut up the stuff that needed cutting, squeezed the juice from half a lime over them, added a dash or two of nutmeg, a sprinkle of anise, and a splash of mango-orange-pineapple juice, and viola!  Instant fruit salad to take away the dreary day.

Oh I also added a little bit of fresh mozzarella and shaved goat cheese.

For some reason, though, I kind of wish there was chocolate powder sprinkled over the top of my fruit.  I guess next time.  

The Darker Side of Bon Appetreat: Exam Season Eating

Exams have been over for just a week, and I am still recovering from exam season eating.  When exam season hits any reasonable eating regime goes out the window in exchange for eating like a latch key kid left home alone on a Saturday with a cupboard full of treats, snacks, odds, and ends.  This means eat whatever you can find, and when you are not eating, watch copious amounts of television and/or sleep the entire day.

Usual regime = morning cereal and coffee, mid-morning Stonyfield yogurt, lunch from the "s" family: sandwich, soup, salad, or sushi, afternoon Naked Juice Blue Machine or Green Machine, dinner from the "s" family.

When exams come around, I wake up, eat cereal, watch terrible tv online (too embarrassed to say which terrible tv), eat pita chips and hummus, sleep, eat more pita chips and hummus, more tv, more sleep. I spent entire days sleeping, hulu-ing, and pita-chip-and-hummussing my way through days gorgeous and mundane alike.

To make amends (and because all of my pita chips and hummus was gone), I tried Bacchus Market at 23rd and Pine.  Even though I got two thin slices of seared tuna, really delicious - blackened only on the edges, and a Greek salad. . . an iced coffee later I was back to watching missed episodes of 30 Rock.  Nightcap road to recovery = framboise, mango sorbet, and chocolate quadratinis.

Post exam menus might include: A later-to-be-regretted cheeseburger.  An entire box of chocolate donuts with a side of two antacid tablets.  Roasted chicken overstuffed with cornbread-meat stuffing (this is from a student who's a chef savant).  Cinnamon-raisin toast and eggs for breakfast  and leftover Indian for dinner.

Exam season is now well over, and I think I gained 5-7 pounds.  No joke.  The next couple of weeks before  New York will require a reexamination of my eating habits.