Philly Food Blogger Meet-up

Philly Food Blogger Meet-up and Potluck
Friday January 11
Near Jefferson Square Park

We're doing it again!

If you blog, vlog, podcast, or whatever about food in or around the Philly area, are not already a member (you already have an invite if you are), and would like to join up and meet some of your fellow bloggers, please send your name, blog url, and email contact to mac.and.cheese.review (at) gmail (dot) com.

An invite with details will follow. (Please pardon any slow responses, as I'll be out of town starting...now!)

If other bloggers would like to post this announcement on their blogs to cast a wider net, it would be appreciated.

Riverfront Market

Wilmington has its own version of Reading Terminal Market, only it’s called Riverfront Market, and it’s miniscule in comparison.

With only twelve vendors along the two aisles in this restored historic warehouse on the Christina River and Riverfront Park, you’d be mighty disappointed if you were expecting an eating destination as large and varied as the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.

But if the crowds at Reading Terminal Market make you avoid that market like the plaque (like I do), you’ll find the Riverfront Market in Wilmington charming.

There’s this riverfront revitalization project going on in Wilmington (like every city in the U.S.), where they put in walkways and landscaping along the riverfront and called it the Tubman-Garret Riverfront Park. At one end of this park you have a small outlet mall (don’t bother), and really cool cranes on the waterfront from WWII when they used to build ships. On the other end (almost the end) you have the Riverfront Market. In between are businesses and a few restaurants that have tied their landscaping in to the park.

About four years ago, before I even lived in Wilmington, I got intimate with the park when I, along with two other women at the landscape company I briefly worked for, spent a week hand weeding the entire park. I pull weeds all the time – and love it – but this was one of the least enjoyable things I’ve ever done.

I particularly did not enjoy having strangers repeatedly ask me if I was hot in my Carhartt coveralls (I’m never hot. Mind your own fucking business), being sexually harassed my bums (Dude, I’m dirty and in coveralls! Raise your standards.), and being leered at by people leisurely enjoying their late afternoon cocktails from patio tables (I was jealous).

This week of weeding four years ago acquainted me with the Riverfront Market. We stopped in a couple of times for hot chocolate. Once, I even forwent my bagged lunch and grabbed some sushi from the sushi stall and a cookie from the Amish bakery and deli. I haven’t eaten there since.

The week before Christmas, I stopped by the Riverfront Market on three separate days to see what a vegetarian could scrounge up. Here’s what went down:

Day 1

I circled the entire place (quick trip) to see what I could eat:

Market City Cafe – slice of pizza
Eeffoc's – coffee
Jeenwong Thai Cuisine– eggplant and tofu stir-fry, veggie fried rice, veggie lo-mein
Olde World Cheese Steak Factory– veggie cheesesteak
Lapp's Kitchen – salad
Tokyo Sushi – veggie sushi, edamame, seaweed salad
Jona Miller’s Butcher and Bake Shop – pastries, Garden Griller panini
Riverfront Produce – fresh and dried fruits, nuts, candy, bottles of fresh squeezed juice
P&S Ravioli Company – eggplant parmesan sandwich, veggie rabe sandwich, ravioli in containers from the deli case that they’d heat up.

If it were up to me, I’d eat the sushi, but I’ve already had the sushi. My blogger-self tells me to try something else. I’m not eating fruit, nuts, or pastries for lunch. I’m not eating a lame salad, or an even lamer slice of pizza.

I go for the small Veggie Rabe sandwich ($3.95) at P&S Ravioli Company. The Veggie Rabe has breaded and fried eggplant, broccoli rabe, roasted peppers, and provolone. It’s a sandwich. Very Italian. If I were to order it again, I’d ask for some tomato sauce. (I don’t know why people make sandwiches without any sauce or spread. Inconceivable!)

Day 2

I’m curious about Jeenwong Thai Cuisine. They have a small steam table with serving trays filled with the day’s offerings behind a glass pane separating your filthy face from the food. It’s mostly meat.

I ask the jovial guy behind the counter what’s vegetarian. They have an eggplant and tofu stir-fry, veggie fried rice, and veggie lo-mein. You can get some meal deal, but there aren’t enough veggie options to make a meal deal I’d be interested in, plus I don’t really need that much food.

I opt for the eggplant and tofu stir-fry, and ask for the smallest container. He asks me if I want just the stir-fry in the container, or some rice, too? I’ll take rice, too. Steamed or stir-fried? Steamed. He rings me up for $2.75!

The stir-fry contains firm fried tofu, eggplant, cauliflower, red peppers, and onions atop short grained white rice. The stir fry is very mild. If it weren’t for the lemongrass, I’d say this was a stir-fry at a Chinese restaurant. I do appreciate the rounded, short grain white rice at the bottom.

There were other dishes, like the curries, I would have rather tried, but they were not vegetarian. I do like the friendly guy behind the counter, the price, and the authentic rice.

Day 3

Am I really going back? My masochistic, semi-obsession with veggie cheesesteaks is telling me to go back and try the veggie cheesesteak at Olde City Cheesesteak Factory. Uhg, ok.

First, I peak to see what’s offered at the Thai place, since the first two days I went they had the same eggplant and tofu stir-fry. The steam table is completely different from the days before, but I don’t see any veggie option other than the fried rice and lo-mein. Bummer.

At Olde City Cheese Steak Factory, the girls at the counter are very nice. I ask what’s on the veggie cheesesteak ($6.75). Onions and peppers done up Cajun-style with cheese. If you want to add mushrooms or anything else, you can for a charge. I’ll just do it up normal with Provolone. Do you want ketchup on that? Uhhhh... How about on the side? OK.

Everyone who ordered before and after me has already gotten their sandwich. I’m thinking that veggie cheesesteak stuff (I’m assuming there’s some soy or seitan involved) must be frozen, or something. Really, it’s not that long of a wait.

What I have to wait on is a table. Tables with tops depicting historic photos of life and industry in Wilmington are clustered at the ends of the market and off the side towards the center. These tables are all full. There’s also a sweet upstairs level with seating (only plain tables here), and an open center that overlooks the lower level of the market. This is where I like to sit, and these tables are full, too.

I wait at the bottom of the stairs and P&S’s deli case to keep an eye out for people leaving from the upstairs. I notice that water is dripping from the upper shelf in P&S’s deli case onto the unwrapped plate of chicken cutlets on the bottom of the case. Gross. I know lots of unappetizing things happen in kitchens that I can’t see, and eating it makes me stronger, if not sick, but I do not like to see this.

A ten minute wait, and I’ve got a seat upstairs. I open my sandwich, and it’s grilled onions, peppers, and melted cheese. No fake meat. So much for assuming. I pick up my onion and pepper sandwich to find the bottom of the roll disgustingly soggy. It could not have been wetter if I had thrown it in the river outside.

And what’s this Cajun-style the counter person was talking about? I assumed Cajun spices, but there were no spices. I don’t think anyone from Louisiana or Philly would claim this sandwich.

I’m perusing Spark (Wilmington’s free weekly that insists on putting scary photos of local “models” on every issue cover), and there’s a piece about Riverfront Market in the dining section. How timely. They say the Garden Griller panini ($6.50) at Jona Miller’s Deli pleased the vegetarian in their crowd. Did I miss the Holy Grail?

I went downstairs for sandwich #2! One asparagus, avocado, roasted pepper, grilled onions, and pesto on grilled sourdough, please. They also throw in a pickle and a bag of Kettle Chips. I don’t eat chips often, so hate the free bag of chips deal at delis. I would have loved a cookie, though.

The bread is crisp. The pesto and avocado combo is a little odd, but tasty. The asparagus spears are awkward when you think you’ve bitten through a spear, but the whole thing pulls out of the sandwich and hangs from your mouth like a limp cigarette.

This is my favorite sandwich out of the bunch, but I don’t think I’d go out of my way to eat a Garden Griller. The asparagus also makes for technical difficulties when eating the sandwich.

Well, that was my week at the Riverfront Market. My initial instincts of eating sushi four years ago were probably right. The market is a beautiful building on a riverfront park. And the park, I must say, is a nice place to eat lunch outside when the weather is nice.

But, you wanna know why you really stop in the Riverfront Market to grab a quick bite to eat?

You’ll need some fast food after you’ve squandered your entire lunch hour at the best Salvation Army that’s directly over the bridge from the market.

This place is HUGE, well organized, and always has what I need. I’ve found ski bibs that fit me; a pretty blue rain coat (a real one) for work; a red wool pea coat; a punch bowl for a party that I’ll never use again, but that’s ok, it was cheap; don’t know how many skirts; pretty plates… oh it just goes on. They even have couches that I'd sit on.

This is one place Wilmington does have over Philly.

Riverfront Market, 3 S. Orange St., Wilmington, DE, 19801
Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sat., 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sun., closed
Some vendors open at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast

Food Not-Gifts

I'm back. I hope everyone's holidays were just as lovely as mine. Here are my favorite food related holiday gifts that weren't actually gifts under the tree (too many of those to list):

• My Dad thought I should start a vintage food tin collection to dust, since my childhood chore was dusting his extensive collections (I despise dusting). He started me off with a Log Cabin tin from the 50's (?) with syrup still in the can, an imitation black pepper tin from WWII or earlier (?) with imitation pepper still in the tin, and a mustard tin that was empty.

• I gifted myself with a supply of Duke's mayonnaise for 2008.

• My sister surprised me with a Piggly Wiggly canvas shopping bag after a run to the store. I returned later to get my new work uniform – a Piggly Wiggly sweatshirt.

• Our waitress at the Waffle House in N.C. we stopped in for lunch on the way home gave us a handwritten Christmas card with our bill. I can't imagine hand writing cards for every customer – the hand cramps!

• Not pictured, but I got Pilsbury cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

Santa's Diet Plan

I’m going home for Christmas, so won’t be around for a while. I leave you with one of my guilty pleasures, and Christmas memories.

About twice a year I break down and buy a roll of Pilsbury cinnamon rolls from the refrigerated case in the grocery store. I love these things. Probably more than your homemade cinnamon rolls or the corner bakery’s cinnamon rolls – which are vastly superior, but I don’t care.

I delight in pressing the edges of the cardboard seams after ripping the paper off the tube, and popping the package open with a bang. I like actions with amusing and rewarding results. Similarly, I enjoy popping champagne open. (Ooh, gotta try the two together!)

I inherited a vicious sweet tooth from my mother and my granddad, so when the rolls are baked, you better believe that every ounce of the icing gets slathered on the hot rolls. I then eat the entire pan. Maaaybe one or two gets saved for later. (Do you think the reduced fat variety I buy helps?)

So, where’s the Christmas connection?

On Chrismas morning, after all of us kids plundered the toys Santa left for us, my mom, too tired from staying up and putting all the toys together to make an extravagant breakfast, would pull Pilsbury cinnamon rolls from the oven and serve them with hot chocolate. I think I looked forward to the cinnamon rolls just as much as I did the presents.

The Pilsbury cinnamon rolls only played a part in the Christmases when we were little. I guess after we figured out the truth about Santa (I was the last in the know), Santa didn’t have to work so hard, so could make a real breakfast.

What that real breakfast was, I don't know. I have no recollection of any other Christmas breakfast. (I also have no recollection of any Christmas, period, during high school. I'm not sure I was alive during high school.)

At any rate, I kinda wish we still ate Pilsbury cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast.

K.C.'s Pastries

My eating schedule doesn’t sync with anyone’s. I like to eat lunch between 10:30 a.m and 11:30 a.m.; dinner between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.. And if I don’t snack every two hours on the hour, I get cranky. (Really. I don’t lie.) A dinner date at 8 p.m with normal people? Gotsta have a snack to survive.

Seriously cheap snacks – buns, cakes, and bubble tea – are what K.C.’s pastries in Chinatown is good for. Grab a bun, a Chinese pastry filled with sweet or savory fillings, and you’re (I’m) good to go ‘til dinner on normal people’s schedule.

Steer clear of the meat-filled buns (if vegetarian), and most of what’s left are sweet-filled buns, but the cheese and corn bun can take care of your savory cravings. Canned corn and cheese atop a sweet bread roll may sound like something from a college dorm kitchen, but it tastes just as good as you remember your ramen culinary creations – damn good!

For whatever reason, we were more scared of the peanut butter bun than the corn and cheese bun, but that peanut butter bun was out of this world. I think we feared a glob of gooey peanut butter in the center (that was my fear, at least), but, instead, the pastry had layers of dough and layers of just enough peanut butter to satisfy. No goo bomb inside!

Thanks K.C.! I made it to dinner (at 8:30 p.m.), and was most pleasant to be around.

K.C.'s Pastries, two locations:
109 N. 10th St., Philadelphia, PA, 19107
145 N. 11th St., Philadelphia, PA, 19107
215-238-8808

Wild Chives & Rosemary

Update: no longer open.

I have passed Wild Chives and Rosemary, a corner lunch and breakfast spot in the mostly residential 40 Acres neighborhood of Wilmington, twice a week for the past two years. The sidewalk marquee advertising the daily specials of quiche and beef stroganoff make me yearn for the indulgence of actually taking the time out of the day to enjoy lunch. For two years, I have threatened to stop in and eat at WC&R.

I finally did it! But I’m afraid my two years of imagining what this corner eatery held only led to disappointment.

The corner store front, with plants in the windows, not to mention promises of quiche from a place with an herbal moniker, had me imaging a frilly, girly atmosphere inside. So, I was shocked to see a cluttered counter with a small open grill and prep area when I walked in the door.

The stark white walls sparsely decorated with photos of local landmarks high above anyone’s eye level didn’t convey any loving coziness. And the tables (except one picnic table taking up valuable floor space) were those cheap, fake wood veneer-topped tables with plastic edges you find in office break rooms. My inner amateur designer was screaming for the pictures to be lowered, a coat of colorful paint, and an eclectic assortment of antique tables to give the restaurant a cozy ambiance to reflect their name and location.

To top off the white wall and cheap table feeling of not caring, beverages were served in plastic Solo cups. Really!? The waste. The cheap image. This disturbed me to no end.

I read somewhere that WC&R’s salads were good, so decided to give one of the twelve salads on the menu a go. With so many salads to choose from such as the inventive curried chicken, salmon with avocado, tangerine and turkey, and classics like Caesar, nicoise, anti pasta, and chef salad, I got a little confused after reading all of the descriptions in an attempt to narrow my selection down.

I ended up ordering the wrong salad. I ordered the mild mediterannean salad with oven baked herb tomatoes, leeks, feta cheese, black olives, cucumber, and croutons with house-made herb vinaigrette thinking that there were chic peas on the salad. The whole time I kept wondering where the chick peas were. The chick peas were on the nicoise salad. Doh!

This is not a salad at a fine dining establishment, but a salad you eat as an excuse to escape from the office. The salad was large enough to be the proper lunch staple large salad. With twelve salads to choose from, including the option to make your own salad from a list of ingredients, I’m sure you can find a favorite.

After years of dreaming of quiche, I had to try a piece. I ordered a piece of spinach quiche to go for dinner. While I was at it, I took the servers dessert suggestion and ordered apple crisp for dinner, as well.

I enjoyed the spinach quiche with hints of sweet nutmeg that evening. Good, but again I think my fantasies of dainty dining unfairly built up my expectations for something grander.

The apple crisp was good in that homey, buttery, cinnamony, apple way, but there was no crisp to it at all. (I checked this upon immediately walking home. It did not sit for hours.) This was apple pie filling in a cup.

The soup, salad, and sandwich offerings, including the quiche specials, are classic lunch fare – nothing out or the ordinary. WC&R is just a reliable lunch spot, and an excuse to not stay in the office. WC&R is, food-wise, exactly the kind of place I would meet my mother for lunch once a month when she was not retired.

Well, Wild Chives and Rosemary has been marked off my list. I don’t know if I’ll ever do it again. If they ever put some love into the interior and 86 the Solo cups, let me know.

Wild Chives & Rosemary, 1836 Lovering Ave, Wilmington, DE, 19806
302-655-1190
Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat., 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun., closed

Pepper Spice Cookies

Like all the bookmarked recipes sitting in my computer that I’ll get around to trying sometime in 2010 or later, this recipe for spiced cookies ripped from an issue of Better Homes and Gardens sat on my living room chair for a year, then was filed away in a binder for another year. It’s properly aged and ready to be enjoyed.

If you like ginger snaps, but want more kick, this cookie is for you. These cookies have a pleasant heat thanks to black pepper and cayenne pepper. And there’s chocolate!

So good, I took these as my date to a party!

Pepper Spice Cookies
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
Makes about 50 cookies

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
medium grind black pepper
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon shortening

• Mix sugar, baking powder, black pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and cayenne in a bowl.
• Cream butter into sugar and spice mixture.
• Beat egg and milk. Add to creamed butter and sugar mixture.
• Beat in as much flour as you can, then add the remaining flour. Knead dough if necessary.
• Shape dough into a ball. Divide in half. Roll each half into a 6 ½ in roll. Wrap with plastic wrap, and chill 4-24 hours.
• Slice rolls into ¼ inch rounds. Place on an ungreased baking sheet, and sprinkle tops of cookies with medium grind pepper.
• Bake for 8 minutes at 375°, or until done.
• Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Incorporate shortening.
• Dip cooled cookies in melted chocolate. Place on waxed paper.
• Transfer to the refrigerator until chocolate has hardened.