Food and restaurants with Craig LaBan
The Inquirer's Craig LaBan discusses the Philadelphia food and restaurant scene.
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Good afternoon my hungry friends, and welcome back to the
Philly food chat! What’s been shaking your tables since we last spoke?It’s been a couple weeks since our last chat, largely because
of last week’s Brew-vitational – the competition for local beers I host with a
panel of experts at the Inquirer each year. This year, our sixth edition, was
our biggest by far – over 60 beers from 33 breweries – and I’m excited to share
the results with you a week from Thursday in our big Brewvi/Philly Beer Week preview
section. -
In the meanwhile, I’ve been doing some eating. Some of
it has been fantastic (see my three-bell rave on the fine farm-to-table revamp of the Mainland
Inn in Harleysville). And some of it has really not been great at all (see my Sunday
take on Chinatown’s new Bonchon, the Korean fried chicken franchise that earned
a rare “no bell” rating – the No Bell prize for epic badness you don’t want to
win.) -
I’m happy to dive deeper into those reviews, and also
the history of occasional No Bell winners, which Michael Klein detailed in this
comprehensive survey of the 17 that have landed with a clunk! over the past 17 years. I’m sure many of these have made improvements since their initial reviews, which, as always, are just comprehensive snapshots in time. Some were even upped by year-end revisits. Others
unfortunately are still waiting for their second chance, which I hope to make
happen… some day. I have a hard enough time finding the calendar space and
money to get back to the places I actually liked, let alone the ones that failed so miserably. So the lesson is…? Don’t let the opportunity to make those good first impressions go to waste. -
In other news, we were all extremely concerned to
learn that chef Eli Kulp of Fork, High St. on Market and a.Kitchen was
seriously injured in last Tuesday’s horrific Amtrak accident. After a long
stretch of radio silence from the Fork family, Eli’s wife issued some hopeful
updates from his Twitter feed this weekend, which Michael Klein summed-up in
this Insider post. There are still very few details on the nature of Eli’s
injuries (though surgery is mentioned). But since I assume his hospital is live
streaming this chat to his room, I’m sure I speak on behalf of the whole
Tuesday Philly Food Chat Crew when I say: Get better soon, Eli!! -
On a cheerier note, I previewed a few of the new
restaurant openings and changes coming to the Jersey Shore and Delaware Beaches
this summer. Many are still in-the-works and off the radar. But here are a
bunch you can already start looking forward to. -
Spring time is also the season for fun, affordable
drinking. Here are two Drink columns that feature three rosés under $15 and the
first sub-$15 pinot noir from Oregon that I’ve really enjoyed, Underwood, which
apparently later this summer is also going to be released in a can (their pinot
gris is apparently very popular in the chill-friendly can format.) -
As if all that wasn’t enough… today marks the return
of our weekly Crumb Tracker Quiz. Be the first to name in order the places
where I ate all three of these dishes, and win a prize: “Hot”
hummus with walnuts, 2) an Eggroll made with
real egg, 3) my favorite Rachel (basically a Reuben, but with cole slaw)…
ready, set… start crumbing! -
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Yes, this is definitely a new thing coming our way - particularly good for picnics and wines that are really meant to be drunk young. The cans are lined, just like modern beer cans, so there's no tinny aftertaste... I'm told by the Underwood folks at the Union Wine Co. in Portland that cans have been exponentially more popular with women than men. And also, it's a knock-out for chilled white wines, given the can's natural chill-ability... I can imagine dragging that behind my canoe.
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I never formally reviewed Cafe Soho, but wrote about it several years ago when Rick Nichols and I tag-teamed for a big package on the Korean restaurant scene in N. Philly around 5th and Cheltenham Avenues. (Right around the time I reviewed Every Day Good House...) Cafe Soho was definitely the KFC pioneer in Philly. And according to Michael Solomonov, the FedNuts founder who still goes to Cafe Soho from time to time - it's still good.
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Thanks Mike H! It was a lot of fun, and I had some serious beer people on that panel (besides me and Rick!) to help weigh in. I think some people are going to be very surprised by some of our winners. I know the judges were... but that's the beauty of a truly blind competition. It's all about what's in the cup.
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I've heard nothing but good things so far about Helm in lower Kensington, Debby, but it's still a bit too soon for a visit from me. Noord chef Joncarl Lachman, who was a guest on this chat a couple weeks ago, said it was his favorite new BYO in the city. And that's a great recommendation. Cant' wait to taste it for myself........ same for the new Tired Hands. That place is a big step-up for one of the region's most talented brewers. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all came together (with food) in a big new space.
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Great guess Mike H - and you are correct! I got a chance to visit the new Nom Wah Tea Parlor recently, and this "original" eggroll is one of their best standards. This is the new branch of the NYC classic, where it dates to 1920 and is considered the original dim sum parlor in Manhattan. The arrival of a branch in Philly was presumably going to be an upgrade over some of the Cantonese rolling-cart offerings here that are satisfactory but nothing more (after recent visits, that opinion hasn't changed, and I can say I still far prefer Ocean City on 9th St. over Ocean Harbor on Race St.)
I have to say I wasn't overly impressed with Nom Wah's dim sum as a whole, either.... the soup dumplings (which are Shanghainese anyway, not Cantonese) weren't very good. Leave those to Dim Sum Garden and Sakura-Mandarin. Our pan-fried noodles were chewy when they should have been crispy. But.... I did really like some of Nom Wah's signatures, including this eggroll, whose skin reminded me of the Buddha Roll at Lee How Fook (which is actually bean curd skin.) But in fact, this is a very thin crepe of egg that gets wrapped around chicken veggies, dusted in flour and crisply fried. I also like the grated turnip cake with seafood. And, as you'll see in this Thursday's Good Taste - the shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings are special. Very few other things were a revelation, though, and Nom Wah will have its work cut out for itself trying to draw customers to its out of the way location on 13th St., in a former hardware store north of the Convention Center and well away from the hubbub of Chinatown's central grid. There's potential here, especially if a good bar is installed downstairs. But it's not quite there yet. -
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Like any sandwich - a good Reuben is equal parts architecture and elements. All of the ingredients need to be perfect, but it has to be built well, too.... Look at my picture, for example... there is WAY TOO MUCH corned beef.. but look how beautifully it's layered.. Even remove a bottom half-inch of the corned beef for digestibility (as I did) - and those layers remain perfect. It's not just a shredded mish-mash of meat. Layer of slaw/kraut is just right, perfect melty lid of cheese, not too much Russian dressing (but not too little either) and a good, buttery crisp on the bread. So when your teeth move in, they hit all the right textures as they snaps through the whole... crunchy toast, oozy bread, creamy slaw (or tart juicy kraut) and then the intoxicating pink steam of meltingly soft, aromatic corned beef.
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Thanks for this tip, Roland. Sam is a very good chef worth driving for. And Jenkintown seems to be cultivating a cluster of interesting options... I believe they're all connected. Hearing good things about Flora, too, the new vegan spot featuring the former chef from Charlie was a sinner.
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