One of the best things about living here in Kent County is the ease with which we can get away from all this bucolic beauty that surrounds us. It is very easy to simply drive 90 minutes north or west to find yourself in another world entirely, which can be very relaxing after a week of steady employment. Philadelphia was our destination this past Sunday, and during our 24 hour visit we managed to do some major consuming of food and drink.
We left the drizzly Eastern Shore after breakfast at home Sunday morning. Our major reason for heading to the City of Brotherly Love was dinner at a relatively new BYOB that has been getting some good press, doing things their way with 36 seats. Just months after opening, the NYT was on their scent, and this past spring Bibou was a nominee for a James Beard Best New Restaurant award. We decided a month or so ago that we'd go the first Sunday we could get a reservation. Dinner at 8PM left plenty of time for some pre-dining, a plan we are always happy to arrange.
By the time we got checked in and car parked, we were ravenous. We decided a small snack at Stephen Starr's new Mexican outpost, El Rey, which was a relatively quick hike down Chestnut, would be a great start to the food tour and still wouldn't interfere with our appetite for our late Sunday dinner. Well, it wouldn't have if we'd kept the ordering to a minimum... Four small plates later, we were going to have to do a lot of walking to be up to speed in 6 hours! El Rey is housed in the former home of the Midtown Diner, which I take was no great loss to the neighborhood, and it still has that diner look, with booths and a long counter. We really enjoyed the queso fundido with chorizo and poblanos, piled onto fresh, soft flour tortillas. From there we tried the short rib enchiladas, carnitas tacos and something under the Planchos category - enfrijoladas, which included black beans, corn and avocado. Best was the carnitas, with crispy yet chewy pieces of savory pork on top of little corn tortillas. It was the kind of Mexican food you are always hoping you will get but never do. A return visit is in order.
As we left, we realized it would be a bit of a stretch to be hungry again in six hours, so we walked over to Di Bruno Market to ogle some meat and cheese. Of course we had to taste some. When we left we were carrying a packet of casatica cheese, which is a very creamy buffalo milk cheese from Italy, a goat's milk cheese called monte enebro, and a half pound of La Quercia Prosciutto Americano, direct from Iowa. The generous taste of the prosciutto was definitely going to interfere with my appetite, but it was worth it. We cruised the pastry and bread cases, and eventually opted for coffee on the sidewalk and some serious people watching. Fashion in Philly is pretty much a mixed bag, and we saw a bit of everything cruising down Chestnut on Sunday afternoon.
After a brief hiatus back in the hotel room, we returned to the streets for a libation or two before dinner. First stop - Tweed, just a few blocks away. We hadn't heard of it before, but alerted to it while walking by, and when the waiter came out with the evening's Restaurant Week selections, Kevin was intriqued by the "cheesesteak croquettes". Knowing it would knock another edge from our appetite for dinner, we had to try them anyway. Plus a cocktail made from gin, Luxardo, and Creme Yvette. Luxardo is a maraschino cherry brandy, while the Creme Yvette is a violet infused fruit liqueur. The cocktail, called the Aviation, is apparently a classic from a hundred years ago, being revived with the return of Creme Yvette to the marketplace. Not bad, but a little sweet for this vodka-on-the-rocks drinker. Kevin's drink, a take on the classic gin and tonic, was better, and very refreshing. The croquettes? Not bad either, although of course Kevin would give them a little tweaking, including using a more flavorful cheese and putting a better tomato sauce beneath.
Next, onto Supper for one more peek at the Philly dining scene, a spot recommended by our bartender at Tweed. Once again the cocktail selections were a big part of the drink menu, with the usual witty names and esoteric ingredients. I had the "Supper Club", with Hendricks gin and St. Germain, while Kevin had a "Mother's Ruin", featuring gin mixed with the juice of grapefruit and cucumber. This time my drink was the better; the cucumber in Kevin's added a mostly unpleasant bitter element, perhaps not as balanced as the creator would have envisioned. We watched the open kitchen from our bar stools, with the Chef-owner doing the expediting. It is Restaurant Week in Philadelphia, when many restaurants offer a prix-fixe menu at a lower price in an effort to attract potential new customers. This menu was the only option available at Supper - a four course meal for $35. Many places offer scaled down versions of the regular menu, but most offer more than just the limited prix-fixe of RW.
Finally we arrived at our destination - Bibou BYOB. Bibou does not participate in Restaurant Week, probably because they don't have to! We brought a bottle of Ridge Syrah with us, which we figured would go well with the foie gras and pork we hoped we would be eating. Bibou offers only a four course Prix-fixe menu on Sundays, priced at $45. Since they are closed on Monday and Tuesday, we figured (and rightly, it turned out) that this was a way to end the week selling out of the things that didn't sell out during the rest of the week. The Ridge turned out to be the perfect wine, pairing very well with the foie gras (my first course), the pied du porc (Kevin's main) and the squab (my entree), and finally the supplemental cheese course.
Bibou is a very quirky place - less than 40 seats, no liquor license, and cash only, just a block or two from the Italian Market in South Philadelphia. We were lucky in being seated at a four top against the far wall, where from Kevin's vantage point the kitchen was in full view. The dining room was crowded and buzzing. The food was great, especially the sauces and the foie gras. The pig's foot that Kevin had was very good, crispy and gamy from the foie gras, but it sat on a rather generous portion of lentils that became a little one dimensional after a while. My pigeon was wonderful, accompanied by a chunk of guinea hen sausage. We agreed that these people had served us some very good cooking, using top notch ingredients and treating them with skill and respect.
When the Chef came to our table to say hello, we of course mentioned that we were restaurant owners from Maryland. It was the beginning of a great conversation with Chef Pierre and his wife/partner Charlotte. We must have lingered for another half hour, talking business, going into the tiny tiny kitchen and down the dark stairs to the basement office/dish/prep/laundry/storage area. They own the building, and rent the upstairs apartment to a waiter! They have been open only about 15 months, but were certainly taking the Philly dining scene by storm. While we were there, Charlotte was spending much of her time on the floor talking with the table next to us. Turns out they were members of a local Chaine des Rotisseurs, an "international gastronomic society" known for it's lavish dining habits. They were discussing an event they wanted to hold at Bibou...
We finally left the Calmels' to their own dinner, and wound our way back up 9th to our hotel. Tomorrow would be another day.
PART 2
The Hotel offers a continental breakfast in their "Great Room", of which we primarily visited for some morning tea. It was with disappointment that we pumped the hot water over our teabag, only to have the smell of weak coffee arise from our mug - the airpot had been used previously for coffee and not been well rinsed to supply the hot water for tea! Luckily the attendant noticed our dismay and quickly made things right; we were able to get some caffeine in before venturing back out onto the streets of Philadelphia.
Two things on our agenda this morning - The Reading Terminal Market for some Famous Fourth Street Cookies, and lunch. The market and the cookies was easy - although saying no to all of the other offerings surrounding us was not. We managed to limit our intake to some fresh grapefruit juice and just feasted with our eyes on the variety of sausages and sandwiches, cheeses and pastries, turkey wings and porterhouse steaks. The RTM is not as big or varied as Baltimore's Lexington Market, but it is not half bad - very clean, plenty of vendors of both raw product and prepared meals. Great coffee at Old City Coffee, produce, milk and honey from Fair Food Farmstead, cheeses from Downtown Cheese, famous pork sandwiches from DiNics. There are about 30 restaurant stalls represented, with just about as many varieties of ethnicity. Spending a few hours there is pretty easy doings.
Our destination for lunch was about 13 blocks from the Market, and we wanted to retrieve the car within the time frame of our parking voucher from the Hotel, so we hot footed it down Chestnut to get to Han Dynasty at opening time. Frequently mentioned as one of Philadelphia's best for Chinese, we arrived right at 11:30, going into the entry at the same time as the lone waiter, who told us that the Chef had not arrived yet. When asked how soon he would be there, he said "Two minutes", so we waited at our table, looking over the (stained) menus. Sure enough, a few minutes later, three gentleman of Eastern appearance came through the door and ambled down the stairs, returning shortly dressed in their cook's whites.
The waiter brought us tea, and we ordered one of the dishes we had read about - dumplings in chile oil. Meanwhile, the state of the teapot made us wonder if we should just leave... it was filthy, with spatters of some red sauce all about it's lid and side. How could the waiter not have noticed that? We toyed with leaving, but then just said heck with it, we just won't drink the tea. When the young man returned, we asked about a few things and ordered the "dan dan noodles". Man, they were good - hot and spicy sesame noodles, with some minced pork on top. The dumplings arrived soon after, more chile oil, a little heat, tender dumplings. When the waiter returned, we had decided we wanted one more thing, and when we asked to see the menu again he retorted "Why don't you just let me order something for you?". Then he spoke the magic word - pork belly. Yes. It was delicious - thinly sliced, with hot peppers and scallions in a sauce with more of that chile oil and garlic. Not at all your typical cornstarched Chinese by any stretch. We stuck with level 6 (out of 10) for a heat experience, which was only subtly hot to our taste buds.
Strolling back via Walnut to the parking garage - with a quick stop at Capogiro for a walk-about gelato - we laughed at how we had almost left behind some of the best Chinese cooking we'd ever experienced for want of a clean tea pot.
Philadelphia is a terrific city for food. We can't wait for the next trip.
After a brief hiatus back in the hotel room, we returned to the streets for a libation or two before dinner. First stop - Tweed, just a few blocks away. We hadn't heard of it before, but alerted to it while walking by, and when the waiter came out with the evening's Restaurant Week selections, Kevin was intriqued by the "cheesesteak croquettes". Knowing it would knock another edge from our appetite for dinner, we had to try them anyway. Plus a cocktail made from gin, Luxardo, and Creme Yvette. Luxardo is a maraschino cherry brandy, while the Creme Yvette is a violet infused fruit liqueur. The cocktail, called the Aviation, is apparently a classic from a hundred years ago, being revived with the return of Creme Yvette to the marketplace. Not bad, but a little sweet for this vodka-on-the-rocks drinker. Kevin's drink, a take on the classic gin and tonic, was better, and very refreshing. The croquettes? Not bad either, although of course Kevin would give them a little tweaking, including using a more flavorful cheese and putting a better tomato sauce beneath.
Next, onto Supper for one more peek at the Philly dining scene, a spot recommended by our bartender at Tweed. Once again the cocktail selections were a big part of the drink menu, with the usual witty names and esoteric ingredients. I had the "Supper Club", with Hendricks gin and St. Germain, while Kevin had a "Mother's Ruin", featuring gin mixed with the juice of grapefruit and cucumber. This time my drink was the better; the cucumber in Kevin's added a mostly unpleasant bitter element, perhaps not as balanced as the creator would have envisioned. We watched the open kitchen from our bar stools, with the Chef-owner doing the expediting. It is Restaurant Week in Philadelphia, when many restaurants offer a prix-fixe menu at a lower price in an effort to attract potential new customers. This menu was the only option available at Supper - a four course meal for $35. Many places offer scaled down versions of the regular menu, but most offer more than just the limited prix-fixe of RW.
Finally we arrived at our destination - Bibou BYOB. Bibou does not participate in Restaurant Week, probably because they don't have to! We brought a bottle of Ridge Syrah with us, which we figured would go well with the foie gras and pork we hoped we would be eating. Bibou offers only a four course Prix-fixe menu on Sundays, priced at $45. Since they are closed on Monday and Tuesday, we figured (and rightly, it turned out) that this was a way to end the week selling out of the things that didn't sell out during the rest of the week. The Ridge turned out to be the perfect wine, pairing very well with the foie gras (my first course), the pied du porc (Kevin's main) and the squab (my entree), and finally the supplemental cheese course.
Bibou is a very quirky place - less than 40 seats, no liquor license, and cash only, just a block or two from the Italian Market in South Philadelphia. We were lucky in being seated at a four top against the far wall, where from Kevin's vantage point the kitchen was in full view. The dining room was crowded and buzzing. The food was great, especially the sauces and the foie gras. The pig's foot that Kevin had was very good, crispy and gamy from the foie gras, but it sat on a rather generous portion of lentils that became a little one dimensional after a while. My pigeon was wonderful, accompanied by a chunk of guinea hen sausage. We agreed that these people had served us some very good cooking, using top notch ingredients and treating them with skill and respect.
When the Chef came to our table to say hello, we of course mentioned that we were restaurant owners from Maryland. It was the beginning of a great conversation with Chef Pierre and his wife/partner Charlotte. We must have lingered for another half hour, talking business, going into the tiny tiny kitchen and down the dark stairs to the basement office/dish/prep/laundry/storage area. They own the building, and rent the upstairs apartment to a waiter! They have been open only about 15 months, but were certainly taking the Philly dining scene by storm. While we were there, Charlotte was spending much of her time on the floor talking with the table next to us. Turns out they were members of a local Chaine des Rotisseurs, an "international gastronomic society" known for it's lavish dining habits. They were discussing an event they wanted to hold at Bibou...
We finally left the Calmels' to their own dinner, and wound our way back up 9th to our hotel. Tomorrow would be another day.
PART 2
The Hotel offers a continental breakfast in their "Great Room", of which we primarily visited for some morning tea. It was with disappointment that we pumped the hot water over our teabag, only to have the smell of weak coffee arise from our mug - the airpot had been used previously for coffee and not been well rinsed to supply the hot water for tea! Luckily the attendant noticed our dismay and quickly made things right; we were able to get some caffeine in before venturing back out onto the streets of Philadelphia.
Two things on our agenda this morning - The Reading Terminal Market for some Famous Fourth Street Cookies, and lunch. The market and the cookies was easy - although saying no to all of the other offerings surrounding us was not. We managed to limit our intake to some fresh grapefruit juice and just feasted with our eyes on the variety of sausages and sandwiches, cheeses and pastries, turkey wings and porterhouse steaks. The RTM is not as big or varied as Baltimore's Lexington Market, but it is not half bad - very clean, plenty of vendors of both raw product and prepared meals. Great coffee at Old City Coffee, produce, milk and honey from Fair Food Farmstead, cheeses from Downtown Cheese, famous pork sandwiches from DiNics. There are about 30 restaurant stalls represented, with just about as many varieties of ethnicity. Spending a few hours there is pretty easy doings.
Our destination for lunch was about 13 blocks from the Market, and we wanted to retrieve the car within the time frame of our parking voucher from the Hotel, so we hot footed it down Chestnut to get to Han Dynasty at opening time. Frequently mentioned as one of Philadelphia's best for Chinese, we arrived right at 11:30, going into the entry at the same time as the lone waiter, who told us that the Chef had not arrived yet. When asked how soon he would be there, he said "Two minutes", so we waited at our table, looking over the (stained) menus. Sure enough, a few minutes later, three gentleman of Eastern appearance came through the door and ambled down the stairs, returning shortly dressed in their cook's whites.
The waiter brought us tea, and we ordered one of the dishes we had read about - dumplings in chile oil. Meanwhile, the state of the teapot made us wonder if we should just leave... it was filthy, with spatters of some red sauce all about it's lid and side. How could the waiter not have noticed that? We toyed with leaving, but then just said heck with it, we just won't drink the tea. When the young man returned, we asked about a few things and ordered the "dan dan noodles". Man, they were good - hot and spicy sesame noodles, with some minced pork on top. The dumplings arrived soon after, more chile oil, a little heat, tender dumplings. When the waiter returned, we had decided we wanted one more thing, and when we asked to see the menu again he retorted "Why don't you just let me order something for you?". Then he spoke the magic word - pork belly. Yes. It was delicious - thinly sliced, with hot peppers and scallions in a sauce with more of that chile oil and garlic. Not at all your typical cornstarched Chinese by any stretch. We stuck with level 6 (out of 10) for a heat experience, which was only subtly hot to our taste buds.
Strolling back via Walnut to the parking garage - with a quick stop at Capogiro for a walk-about gelato - we laughed at how we had almost left behind some of the best Chinese cooking we'd ever experienced for want of a clean tea pot.
Philadelphia is a terrific city for food. We can't wait for the next trip.
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