I took a last minute trip to Philly to celebrate Turkey Day, and to see family and friends before I start my new adventure with Basiliko (I think I'll be lucky to see the light of day in the coming months). Here are some of my favorite moments:
Best Brews: Philly is definately a beer-drinkin kind of town...
- Carl's homebrew: my friend Carl has been homebrewing for about 6 or 7 years now - this year's Oatmeal Stout was by far his best!
- Triumph Brewery: their Coffee & Cream Stout is almost better than dessert
- Dogfish Head Brewery: dare I borrow from Miller Hi-Life and call Dogfish's Chateau Jiahu the "Champagne of Beers"... its sooo fabulous....
Best Meal: yes, Thanksgiving is always great, and I ate at a few good spots in Philly...but the best was the Grilled Cheese with tomato and bacon from the Keswick Diner in Glenside. Its a classic. It was perfect.
- runners-up: all the asian/indian/mexican food I managed to stuff into my face - I will be bringing Chinese food on the plane back to Italy.
Doggy Style: the funniest things I saw this trip all had to do with dogs: a hot dog stand called "Who's Ya Dawggy?"; a dread-locked, rastafarian dog - you could practically hear the Bob Marley; and the Pekinese from the Philadelphia Dog Show - you had to see it - too cute!
Favorite Pastime: doing laundry - god bless driers - I think I did laundry almost everyday, just because I could....
Couch Potato: I forgot how good TV in english could be! I watched marathons of Project Runway, and Top Chef. My favorite bonehead Top Chef moments...
- the "executive chef" of Oceanaire not knowing how to cook trout in front of Eric Ripert - priceless
- "mohawk guy" saying that, in his opinion, one should put a 10-12 hour braise on venison shanks - dude, you'd be lucky if you were left with dust after 10-12 hours.
- Casey putting some form of fish roe on practically every single dish to make it "fancy"
- Rocco DiSpirito lamely trying to say that he helped prepare the dish by Hung, which Todd English dubbed 3-star Michelin - keep grabbing at straws, Rocco...
Most Ridiculous:
- getting the bill at Coquette in Philly - $120 - I don't know who they think they are, but that is ridiculous - good, but nothing special French Bistro food (I think there are almost as many "french bistros" in Philly, as there are Starbucks.) Oh, and I was served raw potatoes twice.
- I paid $2.68 for an espresso
- CNN showing a split screen of breaking news: on the left were wild fires in California - there was no sound for this. However, on the right, was footage of shoppers at the malls - obviously more important than forest fires burning down people's homes, is hearing about the freaks who line up at the mall at 4am, and the "hottest" "must-have" useless gadget. Only in America...
