San Diego, CA - Soltan Banoo; My friend suggested Persian this evening and I was so excited since I don't think I have ever tried it before. I, like many, commit the flaw of making assumptions, which in this case, I admit I did. I envisioned the standard middle eastern fare: falafel, kabobs, hummus, on and on. What I ordered, really was so much better.

It took me a little bit of time to decide because they have a large menu. I finally settled on Albaloo Polo Tofu; includes basmati rice with saffron and cinnamon, sour cherries, pistachios, with a curry yogurt sauce, shirazi salad. This dish is packed with flavor. The saffron and cinnamon come through in the rice with this nice delicate flavor. The cherries are far from dried, they are plump and re-hydrated to give you that sweetness in balance. The biggest star here is the curry yogurt. That packs a punch, not in heat, but in flavor. It is full bodied in curry, but yet somehow they made it to where I would bet even the non-curry lovers would love it. The curry flavor is there without a doubt, but it's toned down. I highly recommend not pouring it onto the dish, you would lose the flavors of each component. The yogurt will over power it. It's best to dip your fork in, then take some food with it. This way, you get the saffron and cinnamon, sweet cherries, then this subtle deep intense curry yogurt flavor. Wow, it's a winner.

The restaurant is in a nice cute neighborhood, where we sat on their patio to enjoy the warm evening.

 

 

 

San Diego, CA - Rama; We started with Fresh Spring Roll with Tofu. The vegetables inside were nice and fresh, but it was a stand fresh spring roll, nothing fancy, no surprises.

The Papaya Salad is always nice to try since its not a ubiquitous item on menus. It had green beans, cherry tomatoes, roasted peanuts, Thai chili and garlic. What's nice about papaya salads is that people automatically expect it to be sweet because it's a salad primarily made of a fruit. However, it's nice to surprise people and especially when you see their, they get this look of, wait a minute, I wasn't expecting that at all.

The Pad Thai Tofu was a typical pad thai, it has their own flavor spectrum for their peanut sauce, but nothing out of the extreme ordinary. The key here is if you like the standard flavor of pad thai, then it's a good dish for you. It will have all the familiar flavors. It had rice noodles with egg, bean sprouts, tofu, onions, lime and peanuts.

Lastly, I tried the Kanaa Moo Krob, crispy pork belly, kai lan, and garlic. The pork belly is what attracted me. You say, pork belly, I say let's get it. Pork belly, let's get it. However, I wish I hadn't. It was over cooked and too chewy. It had so much potential. The sauce was good, but I don't just want to drink a dish, I want to enjoy the substance of it, which I couldn't. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad to where I would send it back or throw it away, it just wasn't a four or five star dish.

 

 

San Diego, CA - Indigo Grill; Can I go every night here? Maybe I can fly in once a month to just come here and eat. Upon a friend's recommendation who lives in SD, and knows what kind of foodie I am, I have to try this place out. I'm so glad she told me about this place and that I tried it. Problem is now, I'll keep drooling about it when I look at the pictures again.

Our server was really nice and helped to explain the menu well to our whole group of newbies to the place. The one thing that he mentioned was, "Be advised, portions are big, I'm not joking." We all laughed and but knew what he meant when we received just our soups! My soup wasn't a cup, or a bowl, it was a bucket! Serious, my "cup" of soup, could have been my dinner, but like a champ, I'm going to finish it and get ready for my dinner fit for a giant.

The Tortilla Soup has corn salsa, creme fraiche & tortilla strips. The soup has a strong and bold corn salsa flavor. That bold flavor hits you, but the heat really hit as well. It was spicy, which I wasn't expecting. The creme fraiche did attempt to put out the fires a bit, which it did mildly. I mentioned to the server its heat intensity, so he mentioned after our comment, he went in the back and tried it and thought it was a spicier version than they usually make. Someone had a nice heavy hand tonight.

My wife tried the Good Things Growing that had just about everything except the kitchen sink on the plate: indian corn pudding, baked whole butternut squash with bourbon-pecan butter, caramelized plantain, prickly pear salad, honey roasted garlic, flatbread, and pipian tofu with mole negro. It's a whole lot of food and flavors going on. I only tried a few pieces, but not of everything. She, a vegetarian, loved the dish and how she left really full. She normally leaves a place feeling comfortable because it's not hardy enough. This was not the case. She was a happy camper after this spread.

The Jalapeno Cilantro Papardelle arrived, which had prawns, roasted pineapple, red bells, chile butter and rajas. It's easier to start with what I did not like since it was a minor factor. The puree design on the plate was beautiful and artistic, but it should not be on the plate if it does not serve as an enhancement to the flavor of the dish. The same thought for the garnish as well. Trying the puree alone, had almost zero flavor. Adding it to a bite of pasta or prawns, added nothing as well. Too bad, it could have been that extra component that elevates the dish. As for the pasta, prawns, pineapple, and plantain, yum yum yum. It was a nice marriage of comfort, heat, and sweetness, that I wish it was a magical bowl where it refilled itself.

San Diego, CA - Bolillo Tortas; There was an episode of Bizarre Foods where Andrew Zimmern tried a torta ahogada from a place south of downtown. This is not the place, but it inspired me to try an ahogada.

I started with the Corn on the Cob and Stuffed Jalapeno Bacon Wrap. The grilled corn on the cob with cheese is one of those street foods found in Mexico and other surrounding countries. If you we're to try this first, you probably wouldn't order it at any other place. It just wasn't good. It was cold and tasted old. It could tell that it had been cooked earlier and sat there. You didn't get any of the grilled flavor, none of that beautiful char that the grill adds. Its probably because it was boiled and not grilled. The jalapeño though was better. It was nicely paired with its saltiness to the stuffed creaminess and not spicy. It also was barely warm and could have been hotter.

Now what I came for was the Torta Ahogada: sourdough bolillo, carnitas, chile de Arnold sauce. The sauce is nicely prepared, nonspicy tomato base sauce. You can see in the picture the oil starting to bead on the surface. That makes it a little less attractive. The bread is hard but not stale and it demonstrates how it holds up against the sauce. The beef is tender, nicely shredded, just not enough on the sandwich.

Birmingham, MI - Phoenicia; Middle Eastern food is a staple in Detroit. It's almost in every neighborhood and if it's certainly not in yours, it will be in an adjacent community ready to serve you hummus, baba ghanoush, fresh pita, falafel, shawarma, and so many items particular to that cuisine. Detroit area supposedly has the highest middle eastern population outside of the middle east, so naturally the area is going to have a plethora of choices and regional cuisine differences. Having the opportunity to travel to middle east multiple times, I have not only appreciated what's authentic, but what varies from fine dining to street vendor food.

That said, there is a level of comfort and familiarity when trying to places, Phoenicia deviates from that expectation. We started with the Artichoke Hearts appetizer. I was expecting grilled or sautéed artichoke hearts, but received a dish completely difference than we all expected. It was mixed into a sauce with carrots and lots, I mean lots of lemon juice. We are a group that usually finished everything and we all decided to let this one be, unfinished. Along with this appetizer, we tried some of their baba ghanoush. Some places have theirs more bitter, some smooth and creamy, but here, it's smokey. It didn't appeal for any of us.

It was served with pita bread, store bought pita bread. Are you kidding me? This was straight out of the plastic bag packages that you can find in the specialty markets. It WAS NOT the freshly baked bread that some restaurants have with the stone oven near the patrons and watch the bread rise while you while for the steaming hot pita.

Where I give them credit is having an item on the menu not commonly found, sweet breads. This is my second try at it and our server told me to was specifically lamb sweet bread. It was extremely tender and delicious. They do know how to prepare it well. It was probably so tender from the amount of butter and oil in the dish. It was swimming around on the plate looking for a diving board. It's also cooked with wonderful slices of garlic. It's no joke garlic too. It's not one clove thinly sliced, but probably six cloves all thinly slices and spread evenly to extract the flavor well and to have one in almost every bite. It was certainly a highlight when comparing it to the other dishes we sampled.

On the side I ordered rice and curry. For those of you who are familiar with Chaldean households, this is a staple on the stove that sits around all day for you to pick at. There are a few Chaldean restaurants that offer this off the menu, just ask and you won't be disappointed. However, theirs has the elements to the dish, tomato base, some spices, potatoes, but it doesn't sing as it does in others places.

Where they lost the third star is for prices. For the quality of the flavor, the prices clearly do not justify it. I can easily find a better tasting place that is less expensive in almost any city in the Detroit area serving almost the same food.

 

 

San Diego, CA - Searsucker; Being a fan of top chef and in San Diego, i have to try Chef Brian Malarkey's Searsucker. Will he deliver my expectations from the show or fall short?

My first visit was for lunch and tried the Apple Pulled Pork: bourbon bbq/apple apple slaw, onion jam, baconnaise on ciabatta. There is a sweet and softness with a slight crunch from the apple slices. The BBQ sauce is and original. Hidden inside is caramelized onion compote that adds a nice element to the sandwich. The pork Is extremely tender and juicy and of course is the highlight of the dish. It stands out and either with or without any of the other elements, it would still be delicious. However, why add the onion shoe strings, which are lost in the flavor of the dish. In fact, if you try any of it by itself, you ill find that the onions do not bring any flavor to your palate.

The sandwich is served with a salad that was fresh, complimented with a thick drizzle of a reduced balsamic dressing that is quite nice. Is barely drizzled on the salad, but there is enough for the whole side. If there was any more of it, it would be too overwhelming. The salad is topped with fresh peppercorn and a dash of sea salt. That sea salt is really a nice touch to it. You get the saltiness along with the acidity from the balsamic together creating a nice dance.

The sandwich is served with a spicy and sour pickle. My reaction to the first bite, "What the...?" What is this? Second bite, "I'm not sure if I like it. I better take another bite to identify the flavors." I finished it and at the end, I still wasn't sure if I did. I asked about it and a server said that they make them in-house with a blend of spices and vinegar. I think I will tell them to hold it next time.

I returned that evening to try their "Cobb" salad that included pancetta, avocado, bleu cheese, and tomato. The salad is a salad and the only ingredient that makes it stand out is the pancetta. The pork belly is salted and cured well, tender, and has that fattiness to add the necessary flavor.

We finished off with the Artichoke Hearts Dip that has artichoke hearts, gruyere, and tomato. It was wonderfully cheesy and had the depth of flavor needed to be a good small plate.

San Diego, CA - Hash House A Go Go; I heard the dishes here are big, wait, maybe people said huge. I think the way they put it was HUGE. I also heard that its a must when you're in San Diego. Expect at least a nice 30-45 minute wait.

I saw the pancakes arriving at near-by tables. I started getting very worried to see that people were right. They were HUGE, basically the size of the table. When my Artichoke and Spinach Hash, I was relieved to see that it wasn't the size of the table, but I still knew I couldn't finish it. Don't you hate when you try someone elses dish at the table, taste yours, then spend the rest of the meal wishing you were the other person? Comparing mine to my wife who had their hot sticky granola with milk & mixed fresh fruit, I would have preferred to eating hers. Not that mine was bad. The dish is made well with the potatoes nicely cooked, fresh eggs, and great artichokes and sun dried tomatoes. My main issue with the dish is that there were too many sun dried tomatoes. It overpowered every other ingredient to where each bite all you found taste was the tomatoes.

I don't think I would order this one again, but I would love to try some other dishes there though.

San Diego, CA - Richard Walker's Pancake House; This was the first place we hit up when we arrived in SD. It wasn't first because we absolutely had to try it, it was conveniently close to the hotel and our walk to work. Even slightly later in the morning, we were surprised and happy to see how busy they were. We didn't have a wait, but almost each table was occupied.

On my first visit, I tried their Banana Crepe that has bananas, sour cream and a touch of Triple Sec gently stuffed into crepes. It is topped with a special apricot sauce and powdered sugar. It would have been nice to see the bananas caramelized instead of just sliced on top. It was a fresh and nicely ripe banana, but it could have been improved. You do taste the Triple Sec, but you can still drive afterwards. The crepe is nice and light, thinly prepared and is a light meal. If you are hungry, add something on the side to eat wih it.

On the second visit, apparently I was still had a craving for carbs. I tried their 1/2 Order of Chocolate Pancakes. Chocolate is melted into the pancakes and topped with chocolate morsels, and powdered sugar. This curbed my appetite for both carbs and sugar, probably two days worth. I can't imagine having a full order, when I could barely finish this. The morsels on the top look like they are hard and just dropped on top. Even though they have their original shape, they were so soft. The heat from the cakes made them so nice and soft to where you can easily spread them all over the pancakes as if it were butter. I did have to use a little syrup, otherwise they would have been too dry.

The only weird setup in the restaurant is the location of the bathroom. The door opens and closes directly in the dining area. When you exit the restroom, you are basically announcing, "Hey everyone, do you know what I just did?". It's a bad location for the restroom.

Detroit, MI - Brooklyn Street Local; With only open approximately eight months, their food tastes as though they have been in business for twenty years. You would expect them to still experiment with their dishes and flavors. However, you can taste their "20-year" experience in the three dishes we tried.

I was introduced to the idea of Poutine by my brother who has some extensive travels through Ontario. Returning from a trip there, he insisted that I try Poutine and this truly Canadian dish is one that will stick with him for a long time.

I saw a write up in the Metro Times about Brooklyn Street Local and how they not only have Poutine, but it's prepared traditionally with their Canadian staff's approval. I mentioned to our server, who's Canadian, that this was my inaugural Poutine experience. She did exactly what I had hoped. She immersed me into the background of Poutine and how there are poutineries that specialize In all types of toppings and that it's traditionally eaten as that "late night" after the bar kind of food. I can see why. It's heavy, greasy, and salty. All the things you want after an evening out.

Starting with the traditional Poutine, it contains hand cut fries, beef gravy, and cheese curds. The real highlight of this dish is the delicious beef gravy. However, each component is a highlight and without one of them, the dish doesn't have a chance to being a star. Each element needs each other. The cheese curds will probably surprise you. They have a very mild flavor, but it's their texture that intrigued me. They don't crumble when biting into it, but it actually sounds like a squeegee on your teeth. So weird and fun at the same time.

The BSL Poutine with hand cut fries, beef gravy, cheese curds, caramelized onions, and crispy bacon is one that you would find at poutineries according to our Canadian server. In this dish, you loose the beef flavor in the gravy because of the onions and bacon. It's still there and adds the accenting flavor, it's just not the dominant taste throughout the dish. The onions are will grab you.

I thought I was going to like one over the other and pick a favorite. However, I really loved each one independently. I could easily move back and forth while still appreciating each one.

Lastly, our server said to take the full Canadian journey, we have to try the Peameal Bacon, Canadian bacon cooked with cornmeal sprinkled on top. I envisioned a completely different look, which is always nice to be surprised. The cornmeal was lightly sprinkled on top rather on the edges or completed submerged. The visual had me thrown off and so did the taste. The flavor turned out to be just like having a pork chop. Its the texture of the meat and the cornmeal that really develops the flavor in that direction. The reason it taste like pork chops is that it's not real Canadian bacon. It is actual pork loin fried to order. According to their website, they didn't have a supplier so they created their own.

Detroit, MI - People's Pierogi Collective Food Truck; Hamtramck is a place that every Detroiter knows where you can receive authentic Polish food. Consequently, if you cook Polish food and want it to be authentic and made with love, then it should be made from scratch.

No other food truck vendor is serving pierogi's, giving People's Pierogi a unique advantage. I wish they seized the moment though. They offer three flavors mushroom with a cayenne, potato and cheese, and artichoke and spinach. When we got to the front of the line, we could see that they were grilling each one to give it a nice golden brown color. We had the opportunity to talk with the staff and inquire about their ingredients. I was unhappy to hear that they don't make the pasta. The staff did say that all the fillings are hand-made, in which they spent the previous evening preparing it. So it's half and half, some components hand-made and the rest not so.

One notable fact, all three options were vegetarian. This rarely happens. Usually it's multiple meat options with one vegetarian. Therefore, vegetarians enjoy! The potato and cheese was the least favorite. The flavors of all the ingredients were fairly bland. The mushroom cayenne pierogi was the second best one available. It just didn't have enough heat. With cayenne as part of the main ingredient, you would expect some heat, but it was barely present. Since I have to pick one as my favorite, well I guess the lucky title goes to the artichoke and spinach. It was the one that did have flavor and you could taste the artichoke as well as the spinach. All three were edible, but if I had to order one again, it would only be artichoke and spinach.

The pierogis were served with sauerkraut, which they could have kept. I asked if it were homemade and it is not, which the taste reveals.

It's nice to have some variety at food truck rallies, however I hope to see their flavors improve with complexity and execution.

 

National City, CA -  Blitztorte Kalye Hits; After seeing this restaurant on Bizarre Foods, I knew it would be one of the many places to make sure I pay a visit.

Filipino street food sometimes has puns for names and come on a stick for ease of grab, go, and eat. Blitztorte fits the bill perfectly.

Their walkman, pig ears, was cut in strips or chunks. The are a bit chewy but not too rubbery which you would expect. It appears it was braised for a lengthy period to help soften it up.

The next adventurous plunge is their Adidas or chicken feet. They look just like what you would expect, from the ankle down. I've tried chicken feet twice and although I'm very happy that all parts are used and not wasted, I don't think I'll be trying it a third time. They are very boney and what is there is mainly gelatinous meat.

To one of my absolute favorites, Betamax or pork blood. Nope, its not a bowl of blood. Its so much better. Picture tofu with a deep red color. That's not a bad picture. It had this wonderful slight charred flavor from the grill. It didn't have a strong mineral flavor that sometimes blood sausage has or anything where blood is the main ingredient. I could eat several sticks of these.

The lady talked me into Porkisaw or pig intestine. I tried intestines once before and it was okay, I wasn't eager to try it again. However, she recommended it and when in Rome.... I was very happy that she talked me into this one. It was a tasty treat and redeemed intestines for me. Before, I had it prepared whee it was whole and still rubbery, however, Porkisaw is cut into cross sections and very thin, so when it's grilled, it takes on the grilled flavor more and it becomes very crispy. It was a welcomed surprise and I enjoyed the whole skewer.

Stay or chicken liver, was one of my least favorite skewers. It's in large pieces and extremely dry. It also has a very strong liver and mineraly flavor. I've never been a fan of liver, chopped or whole. I ended up not finishing this one.

You think I would be full yet, huh? Nope, not yet. The adventure kept going. I don't often have the opportunity for gizzards, so now's the time. They were in larger chunks, allowing more of the flavor to develop. Even though it had some of the connective tissue and cartilage, it was still pretty good. Not my favorite, but not my worst.

My absolute favorite was the BBQ pork. It is certainly not the most exotic, but it is one of the more familiar flavors. It had that delicious pork flavor with the grilled accents and the marinate on it, yum yum.

Stay with me, I only have two more and then I'm full. The Fishballs were a complete shock to me, I imagined grounded up meat, rolled into a ball. Instead, it does have a ball shape, but it has the texture more like a marshmallow. Very strange. When you bite into it, you know you're eating fish, but it feels similar to a marshmallow. The flavor actually resembles gefilta fish, if you've every tried that dish.

Finally, I finished with Kwek Kwek, battered quail eggs. They are small, size of marbles, and the texture and flavor were similar to hard boiled eggs. The flavor does have a bit of gaminess to it, but not far off.

All the skewers come with either a  vinegar dressing or a brown sauce. I tried each skewer with each sauce and in every case, I preferred the vinegar dressing or the brown sauce. The vinegar helps to add that base to the dish that compliments the marinate or grilled charred flavor. The brown sauce is more on the sweet side and although it's good, it masks the flavor the meats more.

What an enormous lunch and fun doing it. The cost, $12. Yeah, all of it for just that. Most skewers are either $1 or $2. So, go with an appetite, an open mind, and just a few bucks in your pocket.

 

Philadelphia, PA - Green Eggs Cafe; Who has red velvet pancakes? Not too many places, which is when the opportunity presents itself, you can't pass it up. I asked the server they taste more like pancakes or more like wedding cake. She said pancakes and warned me that they a very large. What she should have said was its extremely huge and it is for three people.

The Red Velvet buttermilk pancakes are made with chocolate morsels layered with strawberry mascarpone and topped with fresh strawberries, maple syrup and chantilly cream. Ready for your dessert breakfast? This breakfast is truly for three people. It's hard to tell from the picture, but look at the size of the strawberry compared to the pancake. Use that as a reference. I only ate the corner and was stuffed. I don't think it taste much like pancakes and is more like a cake because of how thick they are. The mascarpone is deliciously sweet in the middle. The chocolate morsels were a delightful surprised inside. It gave it a little more sugar, that it probably didn't need, and added the extra texture.

Since I was in carb overload, I ordered a side dish of Pork Chorizo. I needed the additional protein. It was nicely cooked, not dried out, and had a small amount of heat.

FYI...I ended up taking home around 80% of the pancakes :)

Philadelphia, PA - Amuse; Rather having lunch from the conference buffet, I thought I would abandon that ship and sail off on Amuse. This single experience at Amuse made me want to go back and try everything.

After placing my order, the server starts me off with their Chef's Welcome Palate Cleanser, sliced radish with supposedly salted butter. They could have saved this and would have received a five-star rating on the sandwich. This was a disappointment. I don't believe it offered any kind of cleanser. Presentation was nice, but it was just a raw radish slice with unsalted butter. Yikes.

The Pulled Pork Sandwich gets five star, no questions asked. The pork is deliciously marinated and extremely tender, served on a brioche bun. It doesn't have any of those fried onion strips that other places use to add texture. They use house made giardinera vegetables that are in a vinegar marinade.  These vegetables alone make the pork and the whole sandwich sing. You'll take a bite and you'll get the perfect marriage of vinegar crunch from the vegetables to the bbq tender pork. Seriously, I wish this sandwich could come in a foot long version, I would eat the whole thing.

The sandwich is served with Pommes Frites. Although presented attractively and spiced adequately, they were a bit soggy. Either they sat in the back, it wasn't cooked to order, or under cooked, they didn't have a nice crunchy outside. Too bad, after the sandwich, I had extremely high hopes for everything else.

Philadelphia, PA - Numa; Trying to find a place open late to even server carry out was tough in the city during the week.  I was surprised to see how many restaurants closed by 9pm during the week. Numa was still open, just barely, so I tried a quick carry out.

I tried their Spicy Tuna Roll and Salmon Sashimi. I was happy to see the freshness of the fish and rice even that late at night. There wasn't anything super special about either one, but that said, neither were bad, poorly made, or not taste fresh. Therefore, it's worthy of additional visits and eating

 

 

 

Philadelphia, PA - Vedge; I have seen people questioning to try a vegetarian restaurant by wondering if the food is going to taste good and if it would fill you up. If you're going to try venture out of your comfort zone for the first time, this is the place to try. It has the presentation and flavors that you will be used to and you won't even miss the meat.

The bread prior to the meal was nice and fresh. The seasoning in the oil was earthy and fresh. It was a delightful change from the salty dipping oil at other places.

The server recommended the brussels sprouts, saying at it is one of their more popular dishes and phenomenal ones. I couldn't agree more and see why it's so popular. It is truly delicious. The sprouts are cut thing, surprisingly. I thought they were going to be whole or cut in half, but not each piece thin slice. It's topped with a smoked mustard sauce that has a strong flavor that cuts through the typical sprouts flavor and sometime bitterness of it. I licked the plate clean.

Here's an example of how creative they are with their food, while delivering excellent and familiar flavor. The salted roasted beets, avocado, smoked tofu, rye, capers, creamy cucumber dish is one that should be a must to try if you haven't already. It's a play on bagels, lox, and cream cheese (BLC). Coming from a person who has had many many BLC's, this was a playful, creative, and tasty attempt for a vegetarian restaurant. When you take a whole bite, it has the familiar flavors of the BLC, heartiness from the bagel, saltiness from the capers and fish, and sliminess from the fish. The rye replaces your bagel, the smoked tofu convinces you of the smokiness from the fish, avocado and beets, have the sliminess for the fish, capers were perfect for the saltiness, and creamy cucumber for the cream cheese. What's really interesting is that if you deconstruct the dish and eat the pieces individually, it will not remind you of the BLC and you will think it is a completely different dish. I left nothing of this dish either.

Now it was time to try the Sweet Potato Pate served with mustard seed, jerk cashews with brown bread. Their playful attempt to mislead you into eating a vegetarian dish, while convincing you it's a typical meat pate. Well, they almost pull it off, which really means they pretty much did it well. The pate has the texture and consistency of any other pate. Between the sweet potato and mustard seed, you'll convince your self that it was meat and never look back. It's slightly on the smaller portion size, but this way, you're not overwhelmed with the flavor, it'll be gone before you know it.

Now for dessert. The Chocolate Pot De Creme. It's served on a nice cold stone plate to keep your dessert from melting. It was deliciously rich, but not overwhelming since I cleared this plate as well. The biscotti's where nice, just a little too hard for my preference, but still done well and flavors were very nice.

This is truly an exceptional restaurant with very talented chefs.  It's worth trying, one, two, maybe three, or four times.

Philadelphia, PA - Cafe L'Aube; On hopes of finding the little unique cafe that makes their own delicious almond croissants, I can't go wrong with a French name as Cafe L'Aube.  I arrived as their first customer that morning and ordered their Almond Croissant and Le Midi.

Since I arrived before they opened, I had the opportunity to look into their pastry case.  Their croissant was inside, waiting for the next customer.  Question: how long was it waiting though? I'm not sure when it was made, but it definitely wasn't made that morning or the night before. It had been sitting there for a little while, maybe a day or so. It didn't look fresh or taste fresh. It didn't have that buttery, flaky, crispy topping. It just had the soft outer shell to match the soft inside. Even more disappointing was that it didn't have any almond paste inside. Their version of an almond croissant, was toasted almonds on top.  This could have easily been the croissant in 7-Eleven on your way to work.

The Le midi, which is a crepe prepared with pears, maple syrup, and blueberry spread, was nice and sweet and crepe cooked well. It just too small. With any crepe, I'm expected one that can fill the length of a plate. This made it to a disappointing three quarters across. Even with it folded on top of itself several times, it was still barely an eighth inch tall. The flavor was good though and I would be willing to try one of their savory ones if I had the opportunity.

FYI...I wanted to get one of the waffles from the pictures, but they stopped making waffles. :(

 

 

Philadelphia, PA - Metropolitan Bakery; A true test for a bakery I'm looking for is their Almond Croissant. If its only almonds on top, you can forget about it. If they make it with the almond paste inside, it's one you want to eat nice and slowly to enjoy every bite. Their croissant passes the test. It has nicely toasted almonds on top, but inside has nicely balanced almond paste in almost every bite. It's one you may find yourself going out of your way to pick up.

If I hadn't had enough carbs yet, I tried their Millet Muffin. I never heard of millet before here, so why not try it. It was slightly on the dry side, not extremely dry though. The millet was interesting? It gave a similar texture as nuts to the muffin. However, it didn't have any flavor like nuts typically added to muffins. I would get it again if it were available. It had enough interesting flavor and texture.

To add a bit of protein to all these carbs, I moved onto their Yogurt Parfait. It was a delicious vanilla yogurt with berries on the bottom and topped with their homemade granola. The granola is spiced well and not too sweet. It hit the spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Philadelphia, PA - Morimoto; When I learned of Chef Morimoto's restaurant and they offer chef tasting, it was on my to try list. They offer three different tasting menus depending upon how much you want to spend. The difference is the type of seafood and meat. More uncommon and exotic choices are on the expensive choices.

Each dish had unique qualities, whether it be the complexity of the sauces or tiny additions to elevate the texture. Nine times out of time, it will be delicious and have flavors you probably haven't had before. My only complaint would be the cost. I think it was over priced for what I received.

I left enjoying the meal, but disappointed with the price and how fulfilled I was with the quantity of food.