Monthly Archives: August 2010

Philly Food Fest

Hubs and I were in Philly this weekend for our anniversary – we decided to turn it into a food fest weekend – scouring the fine cities culinary offerings. This is a list of my favorites.

1. Gadzooks Ice Cream, Bassetts Ice Cream, Reading Terminal Market

Chocolate, peanut butter brownies, caramel. Pure chocolate peanut butter chunkiness. Rich, decadent, delicious and chocolatey.

If this ice cream was available in NY, I would weigh 175lbs. They ship, if you are interested in a 6 pint minimum

http://www.bassettsicecream.com

2. Grilled Prime Natural Rib Eye, Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse

This was by far the best rib eye I think I have ever had. The first bite, literally melted in my mouth. A little pricey, 42 – but worth it. Its marbled, fatty meat heaven. Also, notable – the Mac & Cheese with truffle oil – yum.

3. Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie, The Famous 4th Street Cookie Company

If you’re going to pick up cookies from this famous cookie store in the Reading Terminal Market, go later in the day – the store starts selling cookies for $1 each towards close. I tried the Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookie, and I will say this was truly inspiring. Great chocolate to macadamia nut ratios, not too soft, and not at all hard. Just a perfect large thick cookie – and whats more – they ship!

http://www.famouscookies.com

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Coco Pop – All Natural Multigrain Snack

CocoPop, not coco pops – the australian cereal that no longer exists. How to explain, they are flat circular wafer like snacks, 16 calories, made in this strange contraption below – from Wheat, rice, corn and sea salt. No oil, no nothing.. Tastes like a mix between a rice cake and an ice cream cone, by themselves, just a nice plain snack, but throw some peanut butter on top – and you have a very beautiful thing.  They are lightly toasted and deliciously simple. Available at Wegmans.

This is the Coco Pop Machine. The pops fly out fast, its actually a bit frightening.

Joy of Cooking

Everyone who will ever make any attempt to cook anything, should own The Joy of Cooking. I guess you really wont fully understand until you have made a few recipes from this book. But I will try to explain, in my own words, why this book is so awesome.

The style of writing is simple, recipes are not these complex page long paragraphs (Not like Martha, whose recipes can be so long and intimidating, sorry Martha – I love you). I find myself getting lost in long recipes, with my hands covered in flour and oil, trying to figure out what the next step is.

The book is like a reference guide. It gives you tips, and the recipes are broken down into basics – for example, I made a Chicken Tetrazzini (awesome), and the recipe (which is the length of my index finger, simple) calls for Sauteed Mushrooms, which is a basic, and you turn to another page to learn how to do that.. Now, sounds complex.. But next time a recipe calls for Sauteed Mushrooms, I know that basic.

This book teaches you to cook, doesn’t just blindly pull you through steps that you’ll never be able to recreate without the crutch of the recipe. Its different, and I feel – the best Cookbook that anyone will ever make. Period.