he brings you CHEEZ!

So, if you are a big food follower (read: food twitter nerd), you may have heard about the GRILLED CHEESE guy, "Ronnie" in NYC. He has been featured all over the NY food blogosphere for delivering his hot, delicious grilled cheese concoctions to various street corners all over the city.

Well, Philly - we have our very own "Ronnie" (is it sad that Ronnie always makes me think of the Jersey Shore? I feel I should be ashamed of this association, but alas, I'm not), and  today marks the first day of deliveries.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, here is what "i bring you cheez" is all about.

1. Dude updates his twitter feed with his daily grilled cheese sandwich menu availability. 
2. You tweet, email or text your desired sandwich and quantity to Dude. 
3. Dude tweets, emails or texts you back to confirm.
4. Dude makes fancy pants grilled cheese sandwiches.
5. Dude delivers them to you - as long as you're in Center City, Old City, U-city, Nolibs (yea, so all of Philadelphia, basically).   

On the DL and delivered to your door. Prices apparently change based on the ingredients used. 

For example, today's menu included a) Roasted Plum and Gouda/Fontina blend and b) Chorizo and Oaxacan (Mexican mozzarella) - both $5 a piece. Interesting, no? 

I ate the roasted plum version today. YUM, buttery crispy sourdough (I think) bread with tart plum slices and creamy flavorful gouda and fontina cheeses.... 

I'm not sure if this will be a daily delivery system, but you can always find out by checking Dude's twitter feed, apparently. 

How to order from Dude: 

Twitter: @ibringyoucheez

Email: ibringyoucheez[at]gmail.com

Gotta have that chorizo and oaxacan next time. God I love me some chorizo... hear it was delicioussssssss.

BTW, the fact that we have our own GRILLED CHEESE guy totally supports the fact that Philly is a LEGIT food town. But we all know that already, right?  

hidden GEM of a brunch place

Our brunch adventures continue! Last Saturday, we made our way over to Cafe Estelle. We had been talking about trying Cafe Estelle for some time, so we jumped at the chance to finally visit. This restaurant is tucked away on the ground floor of an apartment complex on 4th street (between Callowhill and Spring Gardne) and somewhat hidden from streetview, so I feel compelled to really talk this one up, because it's soooooooo worth the trip.

:: Cafe Estelle ::
address: 444 N. 4th St. Philly
what we ate: croque madame, french onion soup, breakfast pizza
First, I love the restaurant's way of promoting a "healthy and sustainable way of living" in a simple and non-preachy way. All of their take out and paper products are made from sustainable, recycled and compostable material, and they use local and organic products as much as possible including their organic brown eggs, naturally raised free range meats, hormone and antibiotic-free dairy.

I also really liked the little details here - airy open spaces, simple fresh flower arrangements at each table, mismatched ceramic coffee mugs just like the ones you have at home!

AND, you even have several options of different kinds of coffee at Cafe Estelle - all are fair trade, organic and locally roasted.

All these little things add to a great brunch experience, but ultimately it's of course about the food.

Croque Madame: egg dipped brioche + smoked ham + gruyere + fried egg + potatoes 
This is, without exaggeration, my favorite brunch dish I have had in a long time. The egg dipped brioche, which is baked on-site, was the perfect moist, soft, but with crisp toasted edges consistency. The smoked ham had just the right mix of salty and savory meatiness and the gruyere was a perfect melted layer holding everything together.

Add to that, the fried egg, cooked over medium, and you've got gooey yolk coating everything with the soft egg and you've added even more flavors and textures.

NOTE: the croque madame comes with mixed greens, but being the brunch fatty that I am, I had to request potatoes. And I would definitely do it again, even though the potatoes themselves weren't particularly special (other than the fact that they are crisp potatoes and that is always good, obviously). Cafe Estelle's potatoes are cubed to a pretty good size and have very crunchy edges, but there weren't any other dimensions of flavors.

Breakfast Pizza: provolone + homefries + housemade pancetta + fried eggs
We don't really see many breakfast pizzas on menus, so we were super excited about the inventiveness of the breakfast pizza and gave props to Cafe Estelle for having it on the menu.

The good things about this included the portion size, the perfectly cooked egg, and the fact that the pancetta used is another example of meat that is prepared in house.

Look how pretty it looks with the egg broken over the pizza!

The slightly less awesome things included a dry and somewhat thin crust, barely noticeable cheese and imperfect potato to crust carb ratio. My biggest disappointment was that I had to think about what could have been. I feel like this pizza would have been VASTLY improved if they had used thinly sliced pieces of potatoes, rather than their cubed homefries. Surprisingly, I think that having smaller pieces of the pancetta may have worked better as well - the long strips made it difficult to eat. IMO, the cheese was too mild for this pizza; a stronger flavor would have helped bring these flavors together. However, it was still an interesting dish to say the least. Ultimately, I'm not sure I'd get this dish again, though. I mean, there were just so many other awesome sounding options available and given how good the croque madame was, I'd want to try the other dishes out first.

French Onion Soup: toasted bread + melted swiss cheese
The soup was tasty enough, but nothing special. Soopah thought the broth was a bit too sweet; I thought it was sufficiently sweet to be considered onion soup.

To conclude, I loved Cafe Estelle. There was something just so FRESH about the decor, their ideas, and the attitude here. Plus, the entire staff was very friendly and helpful.

One more note about the little things - many brunch or breakfast restaurants either charge you extra fees or give you dirty looks when you ask if they have a "to-go" cup for coffee as you're leaving their establishment. It's not really required that they oblige with a "to-go" cup once you're on your way out the door, but I have always appreciated the places that do. Cafe Estelle certainly accommodates this request and does so with great cheer and appreciation. Given how tasty their organic fair-trade coffees are - this is such a huge plus!

Ekta Indian Cuisine - now also at Bryn Mawr!

Ekta has been one of my favorites in Philly for some time based on the following:

• It's arguably the best Indian food I have had. Ever. 
• The quality/taste is consistently lives up to my expectations
• The Fishtown location delivers essentially to all of metro Philadelphia. The delivery radius is actually absurd (Fishtown, Nolibs, Fairmount, Rittenhouse, Center City, Old City, Queen Village), and even though they have pulled back the boundaries a bit, it's still quite impressive.
• Relatively inexpensive.
• The leftovers reheat beautifully - almost the original state. 

Okay okay, I'll stop gushing about this place now. The reason for this post is that one day, we went online to Ekta's website and saw the flashing header had changed to say "NOW ALSO IN BRYN MAWR!" Apparently this has been true since February 2010. 

Bryn Mawr is only about 15 min from where I live, which is certainly closer than 250 E. Girard! I was ecstatic at the possibilities. I thought of all the times I craved just a bite of the amazing curries, sauces and tender meats that Ekta has to offer, but couldn't justify a long drive into the city.... seeing the convenient hours of business for the Bryn Mawr location, I realized I will never have to dismiss a craving for Indian food ever again! 

So, on Sunday, we decided to give Ekta Bryn  Mawr a whirl. Of course, we proceeded with caution. Would the Bryn Mawr location taste as good as Fishtown? Would their Tikka Masala still make us sigh contentedly and love life just a bit more at that moment? Would their Saagwala be so good that it would make us forget that Chicken Tikka Masala was actually our favorite with each new bite?

:: Ekta - Bryn Mawr :: 

address: 1003 Lancaster Ave, Bryn Mawr 

what we ate: samosa chat, chicken tikka masala, chicken saagwala, naan, pistachio ice cream

Sometimes, if I am eating Ekta cuisine with a larger group, I will try other items off of their menu. However, whenever it's just 2-3 people, we generally always order the same thing. Why mess with perfection?! The samosa chat, though, was a new addition for us. 

Samosa Chat: vegetable pastry topped + chick peas + mint + onion + tamarind + yogurt

This was soooooo interesting. I have never had anything like it. First of all, we were surprised that the dish was served COLD. It was layers of fried pastry dough that is used in samosas, flattened to form the first layer. Then around it and on top there were crumbled pieces of fried noodle-type looking things. It looked and tasted very similar to chopped up fried singapore noodles. Then, it was topped with chick peas, onions, mint, sauces, and a few slivers of ginger.

At first, it was weird trying to get used to the fact that this dish was cold, but with each extremely flavorful bite, I was convinced that the medley of flavors wouldn't be as profound if the ingredients had been heated up.  And to be quite honest, I'm not sure what part of this dish should have been heated up. Certainly, the yogurt and tamarind and sauce wouldn't have been? It was almost like a salad. Kind of.  

Chicken Tikka Masala: boneless chicken breast + creamy onion and tomato sauce

If you haven't tried Indian cuisine before, I always recommend that you start with Tikka Masala - it is definitely the most approachable intro dish. This is probably because Tikka Masala isn't really authentic traditional Indian cuisine, but rather an invention that originated with the Brits by tweaking an existing dish to friendly-fy the taste for Western palates. However it was born, I don't care, I love it. 

The sauce is usually orange in color, which is attributed to its creamy tomato base. I don't want to think about how much butter goes into this dish, but I do know it's enough to make it AH-MAAAAZING. It usually has chunks of roasted chicken throughout the spicy sauce and it's best eaten with rice or with Naan (Indian flatbread). 

I thought the Naan at the Ekta in Bryn Mawr was actually better than the Fishtown location. But, I concede it may be related to the fact that we actually dined in and had the naan fresh, rather than after it had been wrapped in foil for the better part of an hour. :)

[EDIT: Apparently, per Soopah, the "naan was hands down better than the naan in fishtown, takeout OR dine-in."

The Tikka Masala did taste slightly different than what we were used to at the Fishtown shop. I'd say it was a teensy bit less sweet, but it still tasted heavenly and I wouldn't really be able to tell you if one was better than the other - just that they were different. SLIGHTLY. 

Chicken Saagwala: chicken breast cooked with spinach + onion + tomato sauce + chopped ginger  

Saagwala is one of my newer favorite Indian dishes. It's essentially like a cream of spinach dish, with pureed or chopped spinach, excessive amounts of butter and ginger.     

The saagwala tasted the same as what we expected, thankfully. The one minor difference is that I felt like the spinach pieces may have been larger at this location? So - rather than pureed/minced, they were closer to a very fine chop? It doesn't really matter though, it was stellar. 

Pistachio Ice Cream

We don't know this for certain, but we suspect the desserts could be made on-site as well. We finished our meal with the pistachio ice cream, that appeared in this round molded shape. The ice cream tasted as though it had some yogurt in it, and was overall pretty tasty and refreshing.

About the comparison to Tiffin

When discussing options for Indian cuisine in Philly, inevitably there will be a debate about the merits of Ekta over Tiffin. The story is that the head chef at (the more well-known and well-marketed) Tiffin left the restaurant at the height of its popularity to start his own place - Ekta. Amusingly, though the owner of Tiffin has an MBA - which is evident from the masterful way he brands his restaurants - Raju Bhatterai, the chef/owner of Ekta, seems to just be mimicking Tiffin's business strategy. And appears to be succeeding!

Ekta is located a few blocks away on the same street as the original Tiffin location. A suburban outlet of Tiffin opened for business in Wynnewood. Raju opened his suburban version of Ekta a few towns down in Bryn Mawr. Personally, I wish both restaurants great success. 

If we're debating straight up food - the short version is that I prefer the fried samosas and pakoras at Tiffin, but the sauces and main dishes really shine at Ekta. 

Prices, Decor and BYOB!

Just wanted to add a note about this. Across the board, the prices at the Bryn Mawr location definitely were $1-3 more than in the city. I'm sure the disparity in rent for each respective zip code has much to do with it. It's not enough to really balk at, but did want to include that detail.

The interior decor in Bryn Mawr is actually very nice. Whereas the Fishtown location does feel very much like a makeshift dining room attached to a takeout counter, the Bryn Mawr location boasts of all the staples that are required to make a Mainline restaurant successful - cleanly and semi-formally attired waitstaff, friendly and attentive service, comfortable but solid wooden tables/chairs.

An added bonus - it's BYOB! There isn't much more to say about that.

Overall, you can't go wrong at either Ekta location. It's only wrong if you don't try it. There - I've said it. Consider yourselves judged until you do. 

KooZeeDoo or KooZeeDon't

Sadly, very sadly, I would categorize my dining experience at KooZeeDoo as a BUST, not a must.

I need a moment to grieve.

Perhaps all this melodrama isn't necessary for a single disappointing dining experience, but the meal at KooZeeDoo had been something I had been anxiously awaiting for quite some time. Being a restaurant that serves homestyle, authentic Portuguese food, it was an interesting new addition to the Philly restaurant scene.  Craig Laban liked it, our favorite executive chef at Fond liked it, the JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION liked it, but I DID NOT! Neither did Geo (I had been dining with Geo quite a bit in recent days, mostly due to the fact that it was recently his birthday, and as with most birthday celebrations these days, we apparently had to celebrate it all week).

I will caveat this review by saying that the menu at KZD has changed since all of the aforementioned rave reviews. We did not find this out until we sat down since the website still had the old menu. So you can only imagine my sadness (and utter despair, really) when I was informed that the Baked Duck Rice was no longer offered on the menu! Okay, taking another deep breath. For the record, I am including pics of the menu at the end of this post so you can know what KZD actually offers, rather than tempts you with on their website.

:: KooZeeDoo ::
address: 614 North 2nd St, Philly
what we ate: potato and salt cod croquettes, chicken gizzards, octopus rice, pork and clams
This isn't to say that everything at KZD was bad. There were certainly highlights. I  mean, it is after all, a BYOB. Oh, and it's family-style, so the portions are quite large - which I guess can be viewed as a good thing and bad thing depending on how much you like or hate the dish. Okay, that's it, the end.

Fiiiiiiine. There were other highlights.

Pasteis de Bacalhau: potato + salt cod croquettes
For me, this was the best part of the meal. The outer layer of the potato was crispy and flavorful, and the salt cod was a perfectly paired addition to the soft potatoes.

They were served with lemon to squeeze over top, drizzled with a Portuguese olive oil, and with a concentrated tomato relish that really rounded out the flavors.

As you can see from the picture, the texture was very similar to that of a crabcake, but definitely tasted like salty potato mash with chewy fish.

Espetadas de Moelas: skewered chicken gizzards
This was another well-received dish. The chicken gizzards were extremely tender and tasted more like chicken thighs, than gizzards. If you are a gizzard lover, you would definitely enjoy these.

Again, we were given lemons to squeeze over top of this dish. These were grilled and warm and the juice was easily squeezed.

Clearly, the appetizers were good here. Which got us very excited about the entrees to come. As I had mentioned, the baked duck rice had been removed from the menu, but we came across yet another obstacle. One of our first entree choices had been the Entrecosto e Entrerneada, which was the grilled pork spareribs and pork belly dish. Our server informed us that because of the rain, the KZD chefs couldn't cook on the outdoor grill, which would really take away from that particular dish. He suggested that we make a return trip when the weather was nicer in order to really appreciate the dish to the fullest. That sounded like good advice, but of course, now I have no plans to return - HA.

Here are the entrees that we did end up ordering.

Carne de Porco a Alentenjano: pork + clams + crisp potatoes
This entree was a mixed bag. The clams were cooked perfectly and had very nice flavor, as did the potatoes, which truly were remarkably crispy and therefore, enjoyable. On the other hand, the pork itself tasted a bit dry and bland.

Arroz De Polvo: octopus + rice + chourico
Obviously, we ordered this because we thought it would be a good stand-in for the missing Duck rice. FALSE. This was, bar far, the grossest thing I have eaten in some time. It didn't even LOOK appetizing. The rice was PURPLE, for heaven's sake.

Even the octopus pieces themselves weren't very pleasant. The were enormously thick and oddly mushy/chewy. I still don't really understand how that texture was achieved, but just looking at these pictures again actually remind me of the flavor and taste and it is grossing me out. So, I will move on.

To sum it all up, I really wanted KooZeeDoo to be great. Not only because it's another small Philly BYOB, but because Philly still needs more variety of cuisine and the idea of having a Portuguese place in the Northern Liberties was exciting. However, the food itself fell quite short of my expectations. I sincerely hope that my experience was an anomaly and that others find the KZD fare more appealing to their palate, because I definitely don't want to go back.

As promised, the NEW MENU.

oh BROWN BETTY - how do i love thee...

... let me count the ways:

• i love thee freely, as your deluxe rich frosting bursts with flavor
• i love thee purely, as your perfectly moist poundcake melts with each bite
• i love thee with passion put to use to whip that buttercream into its heavenly state
• i love thee gladly for having the savvy to extend 2 locations in our fair city

GO GET CUPCAKES at BROWN BETTY's or BROWN BETTY'S PETITES. you'll love it too! 

:: brown betty dessert boutique :: 

address: a) 1000 north 2nd st, b) 269 south 20th st, philly

what we ate: chocolate peanut butter, fruit-filled, betty's buttermilk, strawberry cupcakes

i lovelovelovelovelovelovelovelove brown betty's desserts. i have only had their cupcakes and their cakes, but i suspect that all of their sweet delicious offerings are wonderful and unforgettable. to give you an idea of it's awesomeness, the first thing i ever ate from brown betty's was a chocolate red velvet cupcake, which generally i loathe. i did not choose to try this, but rather, was forced to take a bite of the rich chocolate-y cake and its perfectly sweetened cream cheese frosting, and ....  * HEAVEN * 

okay, i don't want to play these up too much, but honestly, these are the best cupcakes. last week, i tried another round of flavors: 

• hattie don't play variation: chocolate cake + chocolate frosting + peanut butter
• strawberry letter: strawberry poundcake + frosting
• betty's buttermilk: lemon poundcake + lemon buttercream
• sallie's fruit filled pound: vanilla poundcake+ lemon filling

i'll admit that they're not that pretty. but the upside is that part of the reason they're not that pretty is that they are wide and even wider at the top, providing more area for the frosting. my favorite of the bunch was definitely the chocolate peanut butter cupcake. it was the perfect balance of chocolate to creamy peanut butter and the cake was so deliciously moist.  

if you like lemon curd, you'd enjoy the fruit filled cupcake for sure. the frosting was refreshing and the lemon curd at the center of the cake base was sweet and tart and creamy. 

the strawberry letter was just okay. i'd pass on this next time, but then again, i'm not a huge strawberry fan. the poundcake had distinctive but not too overwhelming strawberry flavor, but the frosting was a bit on the bland side. 

anyway, GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO. and don't forget to bring me back some! 

  

i wish i had a bite of PAESANO'S in my pocket all the time

because it's that good. just thinking about this again made my mouth water. if you knew me, you'd know that modo mio is one of my favorite restaurants in philadelphia. unpretentious decor, friendly and knowledgeable wait-staff, consistently amazing food and of course, byob. well, its sister restaurant - located virtually across the street - is a sandwich called paesano's and IT. IS. GOOD.

:: paesano's :: 
address: 152 west girard ave, phila
what we ate: paesano, panelle
paesano's has gotten a lot of good press and in particular, its "daddy wad"which is their italian hoagie, has been lauded as a best of philly treat. the daddy wad is certainly good, but so are the variety of other sandwich creations they have.

HELPFUL TIP: when ordering a sandwich here, make sure you either 1) eat it THERE or 2) aren't traveling very far with it. most of the meaty sandwiches are so meaty and juicy that anyone beyond a 7+ minute travel time would drastically diminish from the full potential tastiness. it can't be helped! it's just toooooo juicy. there is some seating along the counter inside the shop, but i recommend taking it a few blocks over to the nolibs piazza where you can sit at one of the many tables and possibly even catch a phillies/flyers/eagles game playing on the big screen.

paesano: beef brisket + roasted tomato + provolone + horseradish mayo + fried egg
if you had the signature paesano sandwich more than 6 months ago, try it again. the guys at the shop said that they switched the ingredients for the winter months because they wanted something a bit creamier and richer as the colder months came upon us. so whereas previously, the sandwich has pickled red cabbage, it now has a fried egg and roasted tomato. it's SO MUCH BETTER. the brisket just melts in your mouth and all the flavors work together in perfecty meaty harmony.

GO QUICKLY. the guys at paesano's said that they would likely be switching the components back to the pickled red cabbage combination before heading into the summer months.

panelle: sicilian chic pea pancake + roasted tomato + longshots + fennel + godzuki (i didn't know what this was so i had to look it up ->sour cream, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary and hot sauce) + lettuce
this wrap is so good that even the most carnivorous of meat eaters wouldn't miss anything here. i thought it would be very similar to a falafel, and the flavors of the godzuki, tomato and longshots certainly did mimic it, but the chick pea pancake was so different than what i expected. it was ... MUSHY! and i never thought i'd say this about something mushy, but it was super tasty and i wanted so much more. the crisp lettuce added that crunch that you really needed with the soft chick pea pancake, and the longshots and sauce added the right tartness.

it might be possible that the panelle is  my favorite sandwich at paesano's ... which is incredible considering the brisket stroke of genius mentioned above. plus, it's only $4!