korean tacos

I am not a fan of soft tacos when they are the generic perfectly circular kind with that slight granular texture. But you could probably fill cardboard with spicy pork and bulgogi and it would be pretty good. These ones are from Bossam Bar on Jewelry Row.

margarita

Somewhere in the Bay area.

soup dumplings at Sakura Mandarin

Sakura Mandarin
1038 Race St
Philadelphia, PA 19107-2306
(215) 873-8338

Scallion pancakes on the left and mango shrimp 

(deliciously deep fried, in  terrible goopy sweet sauce)

Soup dumplings nomnomnom

 shu mai dumplings that are filled with glutinous rice

nyc: Dogmatic

The fancypants hot dogs are reasonably delicious with the potential for messy, but I go to the Dogmatic by Union Square specifically for the ginger soda which is a little spicy tingly and not too sweet. The black specks at the top of the soda? VANILLA.

nyc: Kyochon

Korean fried chicken which is honestly expensive for $1 per wing or drumette, but yummy crispy.

everyone else got salads

mmm deep fried

It turns out that 6 wing bits are enough for me.

pulled pork sandwich at Devil's Alley.

Not my kind of atmosphere (too dim, too loud) but the pulled pork is good and the fries are ok.

Argan: current favourite sandwich place

Argan is a Moroccan restaurant located in one of those cursed restaurant locations where nothing has historically survived because it is down a set of stairs off street level. It is also my current favourite go to place for a not too gigantic sandwich with puffy warm fresh notexactlybread notexactlypita filled with lamb and potatoes. NOM NOM NOM. The only downside is that they don't have any fried potato products.

nyc: outside in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Brooklyn seems slow to get up on the weekend- Philly brunch at say Sabrina's Cafe is mobbed by 10:30 and has an hour long wait by 11. In contrast, the places in Brooklyn were barely opening by 11 and practically no one was out on the streets by then.

Brunch on the patio next to the garden at Lamb and Jaffy. The garden contains some waist high greenery and a bubbly brook type fountain in the corner and is about the same size as the outdoor dining area. We were seated next to a container pot of basil.

My omelette was good, but the baskets of shoestring fries on everyone else's table looked fantastic- the homefries were also deep fried.

Omelette w/ goat cheese, basil, kielbasa (I didn't ask for tomato but there it was)

nyc: Cheryl's in Brooklyn, near the library

Outdoors on the multi level back patio of Cheryl's Global Soul. Although the prix fixe menu isn't really a prix fixe, you can get bloody mary's and mimosas with your brunchy goodness. Food was satisfying and the shady quiet was really nice. Bloody mary was on the too peppery side for me.

More quiche

potatoes

pancakes with whipped cream and berries

Fish sandwich. Next time I will try not to just shoot a bun.

Szechuan

at Han Dynasty in Old City. It turns out that I don't really like the jangling nerves spiciness of Szechuan peppercorns. I only really got this effect from either the wontons or the dan dan noodles that we ordered as appetizers before the latecomers got there. We went with not too spicy for everything else, which worked out well. The owner gave us a shot of pepper oil (that several of us took TEENY trial sips of), which goes down smooth and then has a delayed jangly nerve burning action.

Grilled Taiwanese sausage

Cumin lamb in the foreground and beef something that was not spicy

Three cup chicken (pleasant)

Snackbar

Late night at http://snackbarltd.com/ (their website doesn't work in Chrome). I mostly avoid this place bc it seems like a scene, but the food was actually quite good and I would go back at another off peak hour. Also the bartender/waiter was really lovely. Macaroni and cheese was ok but not compelling, same for a dish of pasta with spring vegetables.

highly recommended: Calamari (really really good deep frying)

Also very good: Scallops on a bed of corn and some kind of grain

New Deck Tavern: awesome cheese fries

Sometimes I just eat the cheese fries for dinner, preferably with some honey mustard sauce.

I think this is the New Deck Burger before assembly.

Palisades Park, NJ: Korean bbq

In contrast to my previous experiences in PA, the Korean barbecue places in NJ and NYC are full service, with wait staff handling all the cooking duties on the grill in front of you.

Deep fried fish, part of the banchan

hello charcoal

pork belly on the grill

nyc: Brooklyn polish

From Greenpoint somewhere where we overordered potato pancakes, pierogi and kielbasa.

Pierogi, kielbasa, golabki, some potatoes, borscht in the background

carrot cake

Fancypants carrot cake from the steakhouse Butcher and Singer, one of the Stephen Starr group restaurants.

celebrating a Cornell wedding to be

Dinner at Mixto was loud but it had a fun, lively atmosphere, helped along by some pitchers of mango and hawaiian mojitos. Also a test run of the Canon S90 camera-- thumbs up.

guacamole

mango avocado salad with tuna

salmon

apple spinach salad with chicken

nyc, Peruvian roast chicken on the UES

Pio Pio is a chain of Peruvian roast chicken places. The chicken was fantastic, but I was not a big fan of the avocado salad, nor the yucca fries. Even though I've rarely met a fried potato that I didn't like, the yucca (yuca?) just isn't the same- a little too fibrous in texture.

breakfast

Chocolate morseled waffle from Bonté Waffle Cafe. I am not the biggest fan of these waffles as they tend to be too doughy/pasty/uncooked textured in the center. I do like the white flecks of pearlized sugar although I think they also give me a big sugar rush then crash, and I usually need a nap an hour or two after eating one.

 I also would like to be able to eat these by just picking them up, but they are a little tacky and stick to paper napkins.

portion control

From the 4th Street Delicatessen outpost on 19th Street.

Warm brisket sandwich

hot dog knish (warm)

slab of chocolate marble cake

strawberry shortcake (fresh whipped cream)

Matyson

Matyson is a byob in Center City West.  I like the food but it can get loud because sound just bounces around in there.

Duck inside sausage on top of polenta.

Short rib with fingerlings.

Poached pear on puff pastry with hazelnut ice cream subbed for some other flavour.

Coconut cream pie, chocolate ganache, macadamia nut crust.

Warm chocolate cake, caramelized bananas, hazelnut ice cream.