Seattle: Beecher's Handmade Cheese

The last place to tick off our Pike Place Market to-do list was Beecher's Handmade Cheese (although, we wandered the entire market, stopping at many more places) to sample their handmade cheeses, and what they claim is the "world's best" mac and cheese.We stepped right up to the counter and handed over our $5.50 for a small cup of hot mac and cheese made with a blend of their one-year aged Flagship cheese, Just Jack, penne pasta, and spices. Mild, well balanced, and rich, is how I'd describe Beecher's "world famous" mac and cheese. I'd also say it's more of a cheese sauce covered penne than what I consider a traditional, firmer, baked mac and cheese. Not "world's best," but definitely good (and overpriced). I was not too sorry to fall victim of hype and play tourist.
Grilled cheese sandwiches and soups are also available from their small prepared foods menu. Better than the mac and cheese, is the display of Beecher's handmade crackers and cheeses (including fresh curds!), which they will let you sample.But even better than overpriced mac and cheese, and free samples of cheese are the the milk can seats lining the glass wall dividing the retail room from their cheese production room. Sit down and watch the machines and employees stir the huge vats of milk which turn into curds. Fun for kids and adults! The cheese production can also be glimpsed from the window outside the building, meaning hordes or tourists not only crowd the interior of Beecher's, but also the sidewalk. Just play the part.

Beecher's Handmade Cheese
1600 Pike Place, Seattle, Washington 98101
206-956-1964

Varga Bar: Truffled Mac and Cheese

Whoa! This is weird. I actually like pinup girl themed Varga Bar's restaurant-style creamy mac and cheese. And it even has fancy add-ins.Overused and overbearing are how I describe black truffles in the dining scene, yet, somehow, Varga Bar managed to walk the line between whisper and punch-you-in-the-face with their truffled mac and cheese, a baked casserole with black truffle, Guyere, Fontina, and Marscapone (no bacon for me!). As always, I'd prefer a mix of sharper cheeses, but I did truly enjoyed Varga Bar's mac and cheese.

Full disclosure: the four or so Miss Marches (Sailor Jerry rum and Victory root beer) I imbibed may have contributed to the casserole crush.

Varga Bar
941 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-627-5200

Devil's Alley

I never considered stepping foot into Devil's Alley until Burger Club Philly held a meeting there. Don't know why, but it just looked like a college douche bar. I still can't tell you who frequents Devil's Alley, as I haven't been back since Burger Club and we were sequestered in the back part of the upstairs, but I will say that the two-story restaurant and bar in Center City didn't seem nearly as douchey as my imagination made it out to be. The downstairs dining area looked kinda classy, actually.

Before Burger Club, I sidled up to the upstairs bar alongside a handful of downtown suits for a happy hour sangria that was sweet with a low class maraschino cherry as the fruit and not nearly as alcoholic as I'd like.

I switched things up and went with one of their many interesting sounding specialty cocktails. Above is the Zypher with Hendricks gin, muddled cucumber and jalapeno. The drink had just enough spice to be interesting, but I played bartender by dumping two sugar packets in the drink to take the bitter edge off. Better!
A side of grilled sweet potatoes are just that. Piping hot would have been nice, instead lukewarm going on cold.
Everyone knows that I'm not the kindest to restaurant-style mac and cheese, especially with weird toppings like the sweet tomato jam (tastes like really sweet ketchup) that Devil's Alley uses to top their mac and cheese, but I somehow didn't mind the small portion of bland and creamy noodles. Order the large portion, and I might complain a little louder about wanting sharper, more pungent cheese and no weird toppings.
Devil's Alley makes their own veggie patty with a blend of grilled vegetables held together with Goldfish Cracker crumbs. Spicy with lots of flavor, the not overly-mushy nor too-thick patty with crispy edges is definitely on par with, if not better than most in-house made veggie burger patties. What won me was the sweet and savory red onion marmalade — more like a confit — on top of the burger. Big flavor! The lettuce leaf and pale tomato (it was February, so they get a pass on the tomato) were skipped. The bun was mysteriously crunchy at the edges, like it was left to toast a little too long, although other diners did not have such bun issues.

In eating my way through more than a few veggie burgers in Philly, I'm finding that locking down a good veggie burger, much less one that trumps all, is difficult. Unlike meat burgers, there are a wide range of ingredients used in veggie patties, varying textures, and flavors that cover the entire spice rack. Ultimately, veggie burgers are highly subjective. I subjectively liked Devil Alley's burger. Who'd a thunk it?

Devil's Alley
1907 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-751-0707
Mon-Fri: 11am-close
Sat & Sun: 4pm-close
Sat & Sun Brunch: 10am-3pm

Percy Street Barbecue

I'm not from Texas, and I've never eaten Texas barbecue, but that don't matter, 'cause I'm not here for the barbecue at Percy Street. I'm here for the sides!

I have eaten sides at a few real Texas barbecue joints, but it was so long ago that it might as well have never happened. So, this will not be a "this ain't how they do it in Texas" review of chef Michael Solomonov and Erin O'Shea's recreation and interpretation of Texas barbecue.

A bar slinging whiskey cocktails will greet you at the door, and then Percy Street opens up to a rustic, large open space with long wood tables for larger parties, and brown easy-to-wipe pleather-topped two tops. Two large menu blackboards are hung on rolling doors, and ample light shines through the wall of front windows in the daytime.

A roll of paper towels are brought to the table so you can help yourself to all the napkins you want. Fill up your glass from a large jar of water brought to the table, as well.
Percy Street gives a nod to vegetarians and vegans with a vegan chili on the menu, but unfortunately not all of their veggie sides, which come in cup or bowl size, are vegetarian.

Vegetarian: vegan chili, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, chopped salad, and green bean salad.
Not vegetarian: root beer chili, pinto beans, German potato salad, collard greens, and black eyed pea salad.

We got everything that was fit to eat, except for the green bean salad, which is only available at dinner. Also, note that collards are also only available at dinner. Not sure why they don't offer the entire menu all day, since the menu is pretty short, but they don't.
Mac and cheese is the lone side that does not come in both cup and bowl size, so if you want some mac and cheese you're just gonna have to pony up for the larger bowl size. The hot croc of crumb-topped, cheesy, greasy mac and cheese is good, and will make most happy, but nothing makes this restaurant-style mac and cheese stand out from all the others around town. Props for using macaroni noodles, though.
The mayo-based cabbage and carrot coleslaw gets better as you eat it down; the bottom of the cup marinates longer in the dressing and is more flavorful than the top. A little umpf from maybe a tad more acid or sugar might brighten up the whole thing from top to bottom, but not a disagreeable coleslaw at all.
A soupy stew of black beans, seitan, carrots, and tomatoes is spiced with chili powder, and besides being slightly salty, is a fine chili, but no better than most chilis I've sampled at friend's house parties. I never even considered ordering the chopped salad, but my partner did, and this dish turned out to be my favorite despite being topped with two of the worst deviled eggs I've had in recent memory — filling was strangely silky, like pure mayonnaise without the grainy texture and body the cooked egg yolk provides that's normally added back in, and way too salty. But underneath those deviled eggs is a melange of black beans, lettuce, shredded carrots, red onions, avocado, and scallions smothered in a creamy buttermilk dressing spiked faintly with dill. If you like macaroni salad (hi!), you'll love Percy Street's chopped salad.
And, you know the real reason I was at Percy Street was to try the banana pudding, don't ya? So good, yet so disappointing. The vanilla pudding is gourmet, luscious and brimming with vanilla bean flecks, but at the bottom of the cup there is only one soft wafer (maybe two?), and only one or two banana slices. It's like making Tiramisu with only one Lady Finger. Such a tease. Props, though, for adding the two Nilla wafers to the top before serving, so they're still crunchy. Even with the pudding component being so great, I don't think I'd order the banana pudding again.

When it was all said and done I enjoyed the food and atmosphere of Percy Street, but felt I was eating at just another sleek Philly restaurant. There's something missing from the experience and food that doesn't resonate barbecue house. Missing homespun, from-the-heart character, maybe? The food's fine, but it ain't got no soul.

Percy Street Barbecue
900 South St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-625-8510
Lunch: Sat and Sun, 11:30am-2:30pm
Dinner: Sun-Thurs, 5-10pm; Fri-Sat, 5-11pm, bar til 2am

Cracker Barrel

This is quite possibly the worst restaurant dinner in my recent and distant memories. There is one high point, though.

It may come as a complete surprise, but this Southern girl has never before eaten at Cracker Barrel, the ubiquitous (they're every where, not just in the South) Southern-themed country cooking chain.

Why? There was that whole anti-gay policy of theirs in the early 90's (I never forget), and, hey, lookie, I missed this, but it seems they discriminated based on race in the 2000's (don't worry, I'll never be back).

So, why dinner now? Caught driving in that East Coast snow storm of December 2009, we decided to call it quits in Virginia (good thing, because the highway was littered with stranded cars when we woke up) for a hotel and the nearby Cracker Barrel. Lame excuse, but it is what it is.

The plate you see above is their veggie plate incorporating most of the veggies that are meat-free (nothing out of the ordinary there with country cooking). The corn is straight out of the can. The sweet carrots are mechanically whittled "baby" carrots. The macaroni and cheese is Velveeta-esque. The biscuits taste like those from a fast food chain (I do like fast food biscuits for guilty pleasure reasons, but much prefer homemade biscuits). Cornbread was skipped because it's not vegetarian (nothing out of the ordinary here, either — boxed cornbread mixes often contain lard).

Really, I was expecting a little more effort on Cracker Barrel's part. I've had better at cafeterias. Here is the high point: perfectly crisp and non-greasy fried okra. The okra was outstanding. But not outstanding enough to forgive them for their sins (culinary and otherwise) and make a return visit.

Mom's Mac and Cheese

Mac and cheese. It's the name of my blog, and one of my favorite foods. But only if my Mom makes it. Or someone else makes it in the Southern style and it comes close to Mom's. It has been known to happen.

I started this blog off with a recipe post for my Mom's mac and cheese. The only thing is that there are no measurements to the recipe, and that makes fixing any dish a tad difficult if you're not familiar with the end results.

There still are no measurements, but I thought I'd illustrate the recipe in way too many step-by-step pictures, you know, all Pioneer Woman-like. I learned this recipe by watching and now you can, too.

At home for Thanksgiving, I snapped away as my Mom made mac and cheese one evening. Take it away, Mom! To start with, being a cute, little ol' mom increases the odds of this dish coming out bangin'.
Cube some sharp Cheddar cheese into a casserole dish.
Add some flour.
Add some butter or margarine.
Add one or two eggs. She added one to start.
Add salt and pepper.
Add still-warm, cooked noodles and give it a stir. The heat from the noodles and the stirring will melt the butter.
You know, one more egg and a little more cheese will do the trick.
Add milk.
It's more milk than you think. The noodles are almost covered by the milk.
Slap it in a 350 degree oven until it comes out bubbly and slightly browned.
Give evil glares to the person who went in for thirds, not leaving you much to eat the next day.

Talula's Table

Living on the outskirts of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania for two years while attending school for horticulture, I can’t say that Kennett Square and its historic Main Street held many attractions for me. Kennett Square is the sort of place that excites your mother when you mention “quaint town.”

Thanks to the previous owners of Django restaurant in Philadelphia, Aimee Olexy and Bryan Sikora, who closed up shop in Philly to move to the country, there’s now a place in Kennett Square that excites me – and your mother.

Talula’s Table, a gourmet food shop with prepared foods, take away dinners, and catering, sits smack in the middle of historic Kennett Square’s main drag. Talula’s Table prides itself on making fresh foods daily with consideration to the season and local ingredients. They also make a concerted effort to prepare a few vegetarian options.

Recessed shelves and coolers are filled with gourmet goodies perfect for a picnic, or to take home and make a meal. Gourmet crackers, preserves, pickles, teas, chocolate, and other foodie fodder line the shelves. Fresh breads and pastries are made daily, and a wide selection of artisan cheeses is displayed in a case along with sides and entrees just waiting to be taken home and heated for dinner. Sandwiches made daily are stacked in a cooler and ready to grab and go. A coffee bar and bottled drinks will quench your thirst.

While Talula’s Table is set up for grabbing and going, there is a large farmhouse table in the middle of the store that can be booked for occasions, along with a round table tucked in the front corner and a couple of bistro tables on the sidewalk, if you would rather enjoy your eats in situ. That’s exactly what I did.

I sampled the goat cheese and beet salad with glazed pecans. The beets were perfectly tangy from a marinade, and I was delighted with the beet's different red hues. Sometimes it’s the little things that impress.

The only vegetarian sandwich option was egg salad on focaccia. I love egg salad, but am very cautious about eating boiled eggs at restaurants. I’m scared about rubberiness and freshness, so almost never eat boiled eggs that I don’t cook myself. I wasn’t afraid of the freshness at Talula’s table, so decided to take the gamble on rubberiness. The eggs were fresh and cooked perfectly. After all the deliberation, the egg salad turned out to be disappointingly bland. A couple of cranks of the pepper mill and some sweet relish mixed in would have livened things up. (All sandwiches come with a free little bag of chips.)

The mac and cheese is the style that can be cut into squares and retain its shape – just the kind I prefer. They heated that baby up, since I was dining in, and, let me say, the mac and cheese was absolutely dreamy and creamy. (I didn’t want to make that rhyme, but… it’s true.) As per my usual complaint about mac and cheese, I wish Talula’s Table’s mac and cheese had a sharper cheese mixture. That aside, I’d put Talula’s Table in a tie with Morning Glory’s mac and cheese as one of the best I've sampled in these parts.

For dessert I chose a banana cream cake solely for the reason that I had bananas on the brain. Those bananas are now on my hips.

Even though Talula's Table is not quick-lunch cheap (all of this food, plus two drinks, were split between one hungry person and one not-so-hungry person, and rang up to just under $30), I wish a gourmet food shop like this had been around when I was living in the area. I do drive through Kennett Square about twice a month for work, so maybe I'll forget to pack my lunch on those days.

Talula's Table, 102 W. State Street, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, 19348
Phone: 610-444-8255
Open daily, 7am-7pm

Delilah's

I’m a woman of my word, so finally got around to sampling Delilah’s Winder’s mac and cheese. If you remember, I posted a while back about the defeat handed down to Delilah by Bobby Flay of Food Network fame.

Delilah has a sit-down restaurant, Bluezette, and booth at Reading Terminal Market, Delilah’s at the Terminal. Reading Terminal Market is essentially a huge food court (over 80 merchants housed under 1.7 acres) in downtown Philly, except you won’t find Subway and Burger King inside – only local vendors. Not feeling like a whole meal, I trekked backwards, barefoot, in the snow to Reading Terminal Market in Philly to hunt down Delilah’s booth, and sample a side of mac and cheese. (Nah, I pulled my snow shoes on, and faced forward.)

Oprah declared Delilah’s mac and cheese the best in the country in 2003, but that woman must be off her rocker. Delilah’s mac and cheese is not bad, but it’s nothing exceptional, and hardly worth the almost $4 it cost for a little cup of this side dish. It looks, feels, and tastes like any mac and cheese you’d get in a Southern diner. It’ll do in a pinch, is a hundred times better than Kraft, and ten times better than something out of a cafeteria, but doesn’t hold a candle to any mac and cheese casserole found at a Southern family reunion.

I can only hope that Delilah’s mac and cheese is taken up a notch at her sit-down restaurant. I also suggest Oprah take a vacation to Mississippi, visit with the family, and eat some good food.

Delilah’s at the Terminal, 1136 Arch St, Philadelphia 19107, (215)574-0929
Mon.-Sat. 11am-5pm; Sun. 9am-4pm

Mac And Cheese Throwdown

Just the other day I made a written note to myself to check out Dilalah Winder’s famous Mac and Cheese (report coming when I get around to that list), and today I read that a mac and cheese bake-off happened in Center City Philadelphia between Food Network’s Bobby Flay and Philly’s Delilah Winder. Oprah has declared Delilah’s dish the best, but the judges for the yet-to-be-aired Throwdown With Bobby Flay say,”Nuh-uh”. I call foul on that tricky Flay-ster for throwing pancetta in the mix. Who can resist bacon?

Mac & Cheese Finder

This site gets a lot of hits for macaroni and cheese recipes. I feel bad for these lost souls clicking on misleading search results, so I did a little legwork. Some of the queries are a little puzzling, but this is what people are looking for.


I'M A STAR
Martha Stewart - Basic one, but her site -duh!- lists many.
Paula Dean - Right here, sweetie.
Star Jones - This one was hard to find.
Rachel Ray - Recipe-o for M&C.
Elvis - Couldn't find; he's dead. You'll have to buy the book.
Betty Crocker - Not a real person, but...

WHAT'S YOUR STYLE?
Southern - See Paula Dean.
Soul - See Southern.
Deep Fried - See your doctor!
Greek - Who knew!
Cold Salad - See here and here.

CHEESE AND DAIRY COUNTER
Gouda - Smoked or Aged?
Havarti - Have at it.
4-Cheese - One, two, three, four.
Feta - See Greek
Cream Cheese - Just cream cheese or with cheese.
Cottage Cheese - Low-fat and not-so-low-fat.
Real Cheese - Put down the box.
Sour Cream - See Paula Dean.

ADDED FLAIR
Cornflakes - Crunchy tops here and here.
Mayonaise - Think pimento cheese and something else.
Coconut Milk - Intriqued? Scroll down.
Sundried Tomatoes - Here.
Rosemary - Here.
Curry - From scratch or altering boxed.
Sugar - Here and here.

I'D LIKE MINE WITHOUT...
Eggs - Stay away from Southern-style.
Grit - Again, put down the box.
Dairy - Here, here, and here.

PAIRINGS
Wine - It's actually on a chart. Scroll down to pasta.

Trader Joe's Frozen Mac 'n Cheese

I spied a new TJ's product the other day – frozen mac ‘n cheese. Ya know I picked it up to give it the ol’ chew and review!

The visible cheese hunks in the picture on the box look enticing, and the ingredient list is simple: macaroni, milk, Cheddar cheese, Havarti cheese, Gouda cheese, Swiss cheese, flour, butter, rice starch, salt, and spices.

The recommended 25-minute bake time at 375º won’t cut it. At 20 minutes, I poked my head in and the dish looked almost identical to it’s frozen state – pale pasta and cheese not thoroughly melted. So, I cranked the oven up to 500º for the last 5 minutes. This made the cheese bubble and the pasta crispy around the edges. 1 or 2 additional minutes on broil to brown the top, and you’ve got something that looks homemade.

How did it taste? Pretty damn good! It has real cheese that you can see, and the four-cheese blend was strong enough to bring zing to the pasta. Portions are right on – two good-sized portions per box. I, of course, ate both! If I were jonesin’ for mac and cheese, I’d definitely buy this for a quick fix.

I'm Not In Kansas Any More

While at the bluegrass festival I tried two things I’ve never had before. Fried pickles and Indian Tacos. (Sorry, no pictures of either.With my vodka i.v. in place and thousands of people surrounding me, I didn’t think it wise to break out the camera. I have a tendency to drunkenly misplace my camera.)

Fried pickles are reportedly a Southern tradition famously enjoyed by Elvis. I’ve never had them or even seen them in the most hole-in-the-wall soul food joint in the South. I’m sure fried pickles are out there, but don’t think that people eat these things regularly. Why? It ain’t fried chicken, people! It’s just a pickle with fried batter - essentially a hot pickle that makes your hands greasy. Recommended if you’re fond of pickles and you salivate for greasy bar appetizers.

Indian tacos are fry bread smothered in beans, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and other traditional taco fillings. Fry bread is a Native American, fried, unleavened bread made from wheat. Not bad for festival grub.

I also stopped at Sonic for a lemon slush and tatter tots. This is the first time I’ve actually eaten anything at Sonic, but I used to suck on lemon slushes in the 100-degree summers in SC. My summers here have been void of lemon slushes. There aren’t five Sonics in every town around here like in other parts of the US. The closest one to me is 50 miles away.

The piece de resistance… two versions of mac and cheese made by my boyfriend’s mother! (Hi Evy.) One was made Southern-style and topped with onions and crumbs. The other was made with a cheese sauce and topped with horseradish and crumbs. Unfortunately, she has set the precedent and I no longer will accept invitations to dinner unless I get two pans of mac and cheese. Don’t worry if you can’t cook. I’ll begrudgingly accept a box of chocolates, too.