Urban Gardening 2.0 - Mid-May

This is how our jumbled, tight-for-space garden is looking right about now. Not everything is labeled in the above photo, because the bed really is jumbled. There's a basil hiding between this and that, and a few tomatoes in the back, and even a watermelon over yonder. The watermelon is an insane idea for such a small spot, but we're going vertical with it, or, at least, hope to.

The empty space along the front of the bed used to hold cute, yellow violas that were an impulse buy waaay back when the first flowers were hitting the market, tempting saps like myself. The violas had to go to make room for the veggies.But I'm notoriously cheap (or you could say economical), so the yellow violas got a second life in containers.

Yeah, yellow violas and white geraniums together make my inner designer and outer hort snob retch, but the geraniums were free, and, like I said, I'm cheap! I'll tolerate this combination until something else free comes along. Plants are expensive!

Little baby celery stalks. Aren't they cute?

Bad flowers - mizuna (L) and arugula (R) are bolting. These annual greens are on their way out. Sad face.

Good flowers - tomatillos are in our future. Happy face!


Urban Gardening 2.0 - Late April
Urban Gardeining 2.0 - Late March
Urban Gardening 1.0

Chabaa Thai Bistro

We met a couple of friends on Main Street in Manayunk for dinner at the highly praised BYOB Thai restaurant, Chabaa Thai Bistro. This was my first time on Main Street, Manayunk, and I have now seen firsthand the drunken frat boy stereotypes that are rumored to rule these parts. The rumors are true!

Duck into the tiny, warm Chabaa Thai to forget the world around you, but get a reservation first! The downstairs of Chabaa Thai is tiny. A slightly larger, but still small dining area is upstairs.

Our server was friendly, and even recognized our friends who have dined there maybe four times previously. The white wine we brought along was plunked in a tableside ice bucket, which we only appreciated a week later when we did not get such a luxury at a couple of other BYOB’s.

For a starter, I wanted the shrimp and tofu fresh spring rolls (sans shrimp), but the rolls are pre-made, and cannot be made to order. Boo, hiss!

Instead, I ordered the garden salad with crispy fried tofu, dressed with a light, tangy peanut sauce. This salad is large and should be split. The salad consisted of tomato, cucumber, shredded cabbage, shredded carrot, broccoli, lettuce, and tofu.

I’m still on my quest (it’s slow going) for a Thai restaurant with Pad Thai and Massaman curry made to my liking. Chabaa Thai does not have Massaman curry on the menu, so no matter how good their Pad Thai is, Chabaa Thai can never be my regular Thai place for those times when I waver between my two favorite Thai dishes.

A large pile of noodles hides behind the veggies.

How is their Pad Thai? It’s a damn shame they don’t have Massaman curry, because their Pad Thai is my favorite so far.

I ordered the garden Pad Thai, beautifully presented with a wedge of lime, mango, lettuce, scallions, shredded carrots, purple cabbage, and red pepper to the side of a generous pile of perfectly sweet and tangy noodles.

If I had known that the vegetarian Pad Thai came with so many veggies, I would have skipped the salad starter. I also should not have eaten the entire dish, but it was just too good to stop at pleasantly full!

Our friends also ordered the garden Pad Thai and the crab Pad Thai. I think Chabaa Thai knows their Pad Thai is good, because they have many to order – chicken, beef, shrimp, seafood, salmon, scallop, king prawn, crispy duck, vegetarian, and one particularly interesting Pad Thai wrapped in an egg crepe.

The boy ordered the Penang curry with fried tofu, onions, and peas. While not Massaman, Penang curry might be my next favorite Thai coconut curry, and Chabaa Thai’s Penang curry is medium bodied (I hate thin sauces), and comes with a nice heat.

Not sure how often I’ll be in Manayunk, but if you find yourself on Main Street, Chabaa Thai is not to be missed!

Chabaa Thai Bistro
4371 Main St., Philadelphia, PA, 19127
215-483-1979
Mon., 5-9 p.m; Tues, 5-9:30 p.m.; Fri. 5-10 p.m.
Sat. 1-10 p.m.; Sun. 1-9 p.m.
BYOB

Thanks, But No Thanks

Whoa! There are two vegetarian dinners this Tuesday, May 13 in Philly. It’s like a dream come true…except I’m not going to either one because, well, I’m a snot.

First, there’s the vegetarian beer dinner at Jose Pistolas, but I hate beer with a capital H! Swallowing beer evokes the same gag reflex as breathing deeply whilst standing inside a festival port-a-potty. Thanks for thinking of us veg-heads, but next time make it a tequila dinner!

Then there’s the wine dinner at Horizon’s (scroll down), the vegan fine dining heartthrob of Philly. They’re serving wine from Chadsford Winery, my least favorite Southeastern PA winery. Were they to serve Va La wines , I would have been there two weeks ago camping out for tickets. Plus (this is where I really become a snot), the label on the featured wine has the mug of some long-haired dude (WMMR's Pierre Robert, who's a vegetarian, and probably a nice guy) on a tie-dye background. Men with long hair and tie-dye also evoke the same gag reflex as beer and overflowing port-a-potties.

So, thanks to everyone thinking of me, and sending me the links to these events, but I’m bowing out.

Fakin' It Like A Local

Everyone proudly yammers on about eating locally produced food. Well, here are a couple of local foods expressly for the fake-meat lovin’ vegans in the Pennsylvania area.

When friends told us about Ray’s Seitan, a locally produced seitan that they buy in bulk off the back of a truck in some sort of illicit street deal, I wanted a hook-up. First, they said to go to Essene, my regular Queen Village health food store , to buy a container to see if I like it (also sold at Whole Foods and elsewhere). Pushers!

Yes, I do like it! Can I get five kilos street side, ‘cause $4.49 a tub is pricey compared to the canned Chinese blow I’ve been getting.

If you’re not from Pennsylvania (I’m not), you probably have no idea what scrapple is. Let's just say it’s pig parts and cornmeal, usually sliced and fried up for breakfast. Kinda like liver mush if you’re from the South (eaten it!), or pâté if you’re French (eaten it, too!). Ain’t never had scrapple, don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, but the PA people love it.

Vrapple, a locally made vegan version of scrapple, surprised the hell out of me flavor-wise (this is a good thing). It’s subtly sweet and nicely spiced – like a spicy sausage with a bit of maple syrup mixed in. The texture is a bit grainy from the cornmeal. Is this what scrapple is supposed to taste like?

I would not be mad if all the Philly brunch spots decided to get PA-proud and vegan/veggie vigilant and offered Ray’s Seitan and Vrapple on their menus.

Raw Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Apple

I won Jamie Oliver’s cookbook, Cook with Jamie, from Serious Eats, and it arrived a few weeks ago! (Yes! Won! I can't believe it! This calls for one more exclamation point!)

This cook book, a couple of concert tickets, and a bouquet of Tootsie Pops are the extent of what I’ve won in my life from entering contests and playing bingo. I’m not the luckiest person, so I won’t be buying a lottery ticket anytime soon, and this recent winning guarantees that I won't be winning anything for the next three years – at least!

I think Serious Eats is, hands down, one of the best food sites out there, but I’m a little concerned about the state of their office space (my cookbook was covered in thick dust when I pulled it out of the padded shipping envelope), and wonder if a janitor made it into this year’s budget . No matter the filth, can’t beat free!

I’ve never watched Jamie’s cooking show, but I’ve caught him a few times on The Today Show before heading off to work, and he seems to be a very likable, chill dude that doesn't have a whisk up his ass. Cook with Jamie is a cookbook that covers the basics of cooking, and sticks to simple, fresh dishes. As Jamie states in the introduction, he thinks this cookbook should have been his first.Sliced beets before getting matchsticked.

My first dish from Cook with Jamie is the raw beet salad. Can you believe that I had never eaten a non-pickled beet until six years ago? It turns out I adore cooked beets, and eat them every chance I get. Now, can you believe I’ve never eaten raw beets until I tried this recipe? Turns out, I love raw beets, too.

This raw beet salad is very similar to coleslaw, which is up there at the top of the list of my favorite comfort foods. If you like the tang and crunch of coleslaw, but want to wow the crowd with color, I’d pull this recipe out.

Just like Jamie recommends in his book – substitutions, and a bit of this and a bit of that to suit your taste – I altered the recipe according to what I had on hand and my taste. It still turned out fabulous!

I used goat cheese instead of feta, green apple instead of pear, omitted the sprinkling of pine nuts, and changed the dressing to suit my love of tang and dislike of oil. (If you must know, the original dressing called for 3 ½ tablespoons lemon juice, 10 tablespoons olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste)

Raw Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Apple
Adapted from Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver
Serves 4

4 beets, different colors if possible, washed, peeled, and cut into matchsticks
2 green apples, peeled, cored, and cut into matchsticks
7 ounces goat cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
5 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
small bunch of fresh mint

• In a small bowl, mix lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper to make the dressing
• In a large bowl, pour the dressing over the beet and apple matchsticks.
• Individually plate the salad, and crumble goat cheese on top, and sprinkle with mint leaves.

Sonam

Edit: Sonam has gone out of business.

I participated in 8 Days of Eats, South Street’s version of Restaurant Week, by visiting the unfortunate pharmaceutical-sounding Sonam, a self-proclaimed “global dim sum” restaurant (read eclectic small plates) on the east end of South Street.

Previous participation in such restaurant weeks has proven that vegetarians don’t get that much of a break during what is meant to be a money-saving way to dine at restaurants. This is because vegetarian dishes are usually the cheapest on the menu. The same rang true for our experience at Sonam. We saved $7 between the two of us (one vegetarian and one pescatarian), or the equivalent of one of Sonam’s cheaper small plates. The fact that Sonam is BYOB is what really saved us money!

On to the dishes…

We started with the S’mores, three wheat cracker sandwiches filled with fig reduction and goat cheese marshmallow. These were awesome! The goat cheese marshmallow is really just a nub of goat cheese mimicking a marshmallow. Sweet, but not too sweet. I’m stealing this idea at some point in my hors d’oeuvre-making life.

Naan bread with a bright and tangy roasted red pepper dip (my fav), and an earthy sunflower seed dip (the boys fav). Not the most exciting dish in the bunch, but besides the edamame and the cucumber noodles, which we didn’t order, we were running out of vegetarian and fish dishes on Sonam’s small, but thoughtful menu.

Hamachi nachos with avocado puree, pico oil, and mixed sprouts. The boy felt the fish could have been sliced a little thicker.

Cold soup duo of white gazpacho and crème fraiche in a cucumber cup, and Asian pear and sake soup in a pear cup. Loved these! I wish I had eaten the ginger spiced pear cups before popping the cucumber cups, because the unexpectedly spicy gazpacho ruined my palate for a brief bit.

Baramundi in rice papillote with artichoke puree, orange segments, mint, Myer lemon vinegrette, and a crispy fish chip. The boy loved this dish! The rice papillote is akin to a dumpling, and is an edible play on paper-wrapped fish. The acidic Myer lemon vinegrette made the dish.

I had to order the Mexican mac and cheese with queso blanco, pico de gallo, diced avocado, corn tortilla crust and sour cream. I’m a mac and cheese purist, and this is not really mac and cheese, but noodles coated lightly with a mild cheese sauce and topped with a taco salad crust. A nice Mexican-flavored interpretation of mac and cheese.

These bread pudding waffles topped with vanilla ice cream and strawberries sound ho-hum, but they might have been the best and most filling thing we ate all night! The waffles are made out of bread pudding which is made out of croissants. Enough said!

The crème brulee duos at Sonam are changed out nightly. On this particular night, lemongrass and coconut crème brulees were on the menu. When I mentioned to our server that I’m not a huge fan of coconut, she offered that the kitchen would make the next day’s white chocolate and espresso crème brulee duo. The creme brulees had a grainy texture, one more so than the other, and the white chocolate crème brulee had a bitter caramelized sugar top.

All in all, we enjoyed sampling the menu from Sonam, with about half of our dishes coming out real winners.

I like the fact that Sonam leisurely staggered our plates, and took notice of when we finished each plate. We never had more than two plates on our table at once.

After our one and a half to two-hour dinner, we paid our bill, and lingered about ten minutes to finish the last sips in my wine glass. We were then offered complimentary limoncello by our ever pleasant server, if we would vacate our table and sit in the lounge area so a waiting party could have our table. I found this odd, but, having never worked in a restaurant, I really don't know why this happened. The dinner was long not by our doings, but the kitchen's. The party beside us was there longer than us, and was at the same point in their meal. There were other open tables. Who knows? We took the limoncello!

Sonam’s site says they change their small menu seasonally, but they’d be wise to change it more frequently. We pretty much went through all of the vegetarian and fish plates, and even a party of three or four omnivores could sample Sonam's entire menu in one sitting.

The small plates may leave you hungry, though, if you don’t order at least the number of plates the two of us did. I woke up at 5 a.m the next morning when my stomach tried to eat itself!

Sonam
223 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-922-3092
Sun., Mon., Wed., Thurs., 5-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5-11 p.m.; Tues., closed
BYOB

Srsly!

Could everybody's brother and mother's brother not schedule festivals, sidewalk sales, garage sales, barbecues, concerts, and other fun events in May. I can't get to them all! And I want to. There're like six more months of pleasant weather ahead of us (and, no, it does not get hot here). Spread the fun out, people!

Alright, rant over. I'm getting my party started!