El Rey - Philadelphia, PA

El Rey
http://elreyrestaurant.com/#/Home
2013 Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia, PA
215-563-3330

Ok, this post is quite late but we figured better late than never, especially when the restaurant is a MUST-GO. So here it is...

For cinco de mayo, we, along with Siddharth's parents, ventured into the busy city of Philadelphia for a Mexican brunch to celebrate the holiday. El Rey is another Steven Starr restaurants (read El Vez and the Midtown Continental for our other reviews of his restaurants) and we must admit, this is probably the best one we've to (high praise!). 

A trip to Philly's Italian Market and Pasta Carbonara

On my latest visit to see Tricia, we decided to drive down into Philadelphia for the day. Our exact destination was the city's famous Italian Market on 9th street. This would be our first time visiting this South Philly market, and we were excited to see what the hype was all about. Unlike Reading Terminal Market, the Italian Market was not surrounded by parking lots and garages, and we were forced to circle the bustling scene until we found a spot on the street to parallel in.

My Valentine's Day Dinner

This is a bit of a belated post, but I thought still worth sharing. To return the homage Tricia paid me for her birthday dinner back in January (see post here), I figured I'd tell everyone about the surprise meal she planned for me the weekend before Valentine's Day when I went down to PA to visit her. For those that haven't followed us closely, it's worth noting that Tricia typically specializes in the sweet treats that we share here on The World Tasters. This foray into cooking a fancy meal for two was one of her first, but I must say that I was impressed. I will state that she didn't do everything you see on her own: I helped by buying her the flowers that served as the backdrop for some of these photos and I took the pictures of her cooking this delicious feast!

Market Street Grill - West Chester, PA

On a recent weekend spent down in Pennsylvania with Trish, we explored the little town of West Chester. About 15 minutes from Tricia's place in Malvern, West Chester is a unique and food-filled locale about 30 miles west of Philly. Lined with boutique-style shops and small upscale eateries, West Chester has the hybrid feel of a college town merged with a ritzy village. While there, Tricia and I sampled the renowned Eclat Chocolates at their storefront location (they are partners with Iron Chef Jose Garces in one of his markets in Philly and their truffles are marketed nationwider through Williams-Sonoma), went olive oil and balsamic vinegar tasting, and shopped at a local Italian Market for fresh prosciutto and taleggio (Carlino's - awesome place/highly recommended!). But the highlight of our visit, as always, was the meal that we had. After being tantalized by all of our food shopping (and shots of pressed oil), we were starving and looking for something hearty. Chatting around, it was recommended that we try out the Market Street Grill for eats. As soon as stepping in, we were struck by the decor - old-style diner with walls lined with pop art prints depicting comic book heroes, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and movie posters. All of the art was by John Stango, a Philly-based artist (Website) (see his work above!). Very cool.

Les Plats Copieux - Ithaca, NY

Happy January everyone! January can be quite an exciting month for most people; singing happily for a new year, relaxing after a holiday week of family dinners, opening gifts and holiday shopping. For me, January is my favorite month because that's when winter starts hitting with snow - and not to mention my birthday. Yes, I'm one of those girls that make a big deal of their birthday. And actually, I don't just make a big deal on my birth DAY, but more like my birth WEEK(driving Siddharth crazy). But, this year, even with my egotistical ways, Siddharth was completely selfless and took me to a fancy French restaurant for my birthday - complete surprise! The restaurant is called "Les Plats Copieux" or hearty dishes, situated in snowy Ithaca. More specifically, the restaurant was in Siddharth's house where he transformed his entire kitchen into a real French cuisine. Everything felt French: the French baguette, the French wine and even the dinnerware. The only thing that wasn't French (and rightfully so) was the nonstop playlist of Blue in Green by Miles Davis in the background. 

I haven't been to many French restaurants, but we all know that there's some sophistication in preparation, presentation and flavors in French cuisine. And this particular meal easily satisfied every one of those characteristics of French food. Now, before going on, I will preface that I am partially biased to the owner of this restaurant, but as you see these pictures yourself, you'll want to try it too. And from the looks of it, it can easily be replicated in your own home too!

New Year's Eve in NYC: Ramen Setagaya and Spot Dessert Bar

For New Year's Eve this year, Tricia and I decided to take a train down to our favorite place, New York City. While, NYC is famous for the Times Square celebration, featuring throngs of tourists, we passed on that and headed down to St. Mark's Place in the East Village. St. Mark's is an interesting little place, somewhat discordantly decorated with basement bars and trendy eateries in between head shops selling, er... non-food products. We tried out two places: Ramen Setagaya and Spot Dessert Bar. We had scoped out both of the places a few weeks in advance, and were confident that they were among the rare restaurants in NYC that didn't require a reservation on NYE. Below, you can find out why we absolutely loved both places!

Ole Mexican Grill - Cambridge, MA

Restaurant Info:
11 Springfield Street
Inman Square
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 492-4495
http://www.olerestaurantgroup.com

Looking for Mexican food in the the northeastern United States can be a challenge. Even in NYC and Boston, it's hard to find unanimously loved South of the Border food on sites like Chowhound and Yelp. For us, this is generally tragic, as the spicy, savory goodness of Mexican cuisine ranks among our favorites. So, we decided to give Ole a chance, and we dined there this past weekend with my parents. The food at Ole Mexican Grill was a pleasant surprise, combining authenticity and innovation to make some of the more unusual but delicious Mexican fare that we have had.

Ode to the Philly Pretzel

Chicago deep dish pizza. Memphis barbecue. New York bagels. Famous regional specialties are one of the most important components of the (young) American culinary culture. With Tricia's recent move to the Philadelphia-area, we have recently had the chance to start developing as pretzel connoisseurs by sampling various Philly twists. We have tried quite a few locations (chains, independent storefronts, street vendors), and here a few of our favorites. By no means is this list comprehensive, and if you have suggestions for better pretzels, please send them our way! But for now, this is our ode to the Philly Pretzel!

Mom and Dad's House - Holden, MA

Despite all the places in the world that we have traveled, one thing that is as true for us as it is for many other people, is that the most comforting place to be is with our parents. And of all the restaurants that I have dined at and raved about, home-cooking from your parents often beats it hands-down. With that in mind, I thought that describing a trip home to see my parents in sleepy Holden, Massachusetts (from a food perspective) might be fun. My family (mom, especially!) likes to cook up a storm, and here I present some of the deliciousness she cooked up on my last visit (starting with the peach strudel pie on the left!). 

El Vez - Philadelphia, PA

Restaurant Info:
121 South 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 928-9800

After having a nice brunch at The Continental Midtown, (see our review here) we decided to try out another Starr restaurant, El Vez. El Vez serves upscale Mexican-American food with some LA-flair. A short drive from the Philadelphia Art Museum where we spent our afternoon, we arrived at El Vez for our reservation at 4:30. Some of you might be surprised with our early reservation for dinner, but due to the restaurant's popularity, this was the only time slot we got for same day reservations, especially for a Saturday. But to our surprise, we ended up eating for 1.5 hours because we loved the food so much.

Continental Midtown, Philadelphia, PA

Restaurant Info:
1801 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103-3712
www.continentalmidtown.com

For our second visit to Philadelphia, we decided to tour the many eateries of the city. We wrote down a list of several places to eat that were famous or popular (we did a lot of yelp-ing). Out of 4 interesting places we listed, we only made it to only one of them due to time constraints and being way too full. This place was called The Continental Midtown, situated in the middle of the shopping district and the Franklin Institute, decorated with a large martini olive.

Conshohocken, PA - El Limon (Mexican Food!)

Restaurant Info:
103 Fayette St
Conshohocken, PA 19428
(610) 567-0120

Siddharth and I were in Pennsylvania for a night and found this restaurant on urbanspoon rated quite highly. Situated along a main road in Conshohocken, this tiny restaurant is hidden in between a BYOB restaurant and a Jimmy John's. Although the restaurant seemed small and crowded on the outside, El Limon was capable of seating all of their customers with little wait.


What I liked most about this restaurant was the open kitchen. Siddharth and I had the pleasure of eating at the counter right behind the cooking grill (pictured above to the right) so we could watch the two cooks. The menu selection is a bit limited compared to Garcia's where you can have any combination of dishes you want. They served traditional Mexican restaurant offerings like enchiladas, tacos and burritos (all a la carte, with the tacos and small ones at about $3 each!) with your choice of their mole sauce or tomatillo sauce. Everything was made fresh in house, including their tortillas, absolutely delicious.

I had a steak enchilada with the tomatillo sauce. The steak was tender and perfectly seasoned with the typical Mexican spices. I loved the tomatillo sauce as well. It was a bit tangy and a little bit spicy. It contrasted well with the spices from the beef. And I could taste that the tortilla was freshly made because of its softness and corn flavor. On the side were refried beans which were incredible, a lot better than Garcia's. I think it's because they fry them in lard which adds a whole lot of flavor. Unlike Garcia's, these beans were seasoned and served with a bit of cheese. The Mexican rice was also excellent. It doesn't look like they give you a lot of rice, but that mound of rice ended up being very filling.

 

Siddharth ordered sopes: one with chorizo and one with beef. Sopes are made with super-thick, deep-fried corn tortillas. The sopes come served like an open-faced sandwich, as you can see to the right. Neither of us had ever had sopes, and suffice to say we were very impressed. Texture-wise they are soft on the inside and crisp on the outside, almost like a corn-flour based hash brown. The chorizo and beef were both fresh cooked and delicious. The sopes were served with two sauces, a green tomatillo based sauce and a red chipotle sauce. Neither was overly spicy, but both were very flavorful. 

Another great quality of this restaurant was the unbelievable fast service. Even though there were no tables available for us to be immediately seated, the host allowed us to sit at the bar behind the kitchen. Our waitress took our order and immediately gave it to the cooks. We watched them both prepare our two entrees with great speed; one of them was cooking at least 3 pounds of chorizo on the grill while the other prepared the corn tortillas for the sopes and the enchilladas. Probably about 7-8 minutes after we ordered our entrees, our dinner was right in front of us, piping hot! 

The cooks (and waitress) were quite social and checked on us many times while we enjoyed our meal, asking how things were and whether we wanted to try anything else on the menu. Their persistence might be a bit annoying to some patrons, but Siddharth and I appreciate when the waitstaff or the cooks themselves interact with their customers and talking about their food with us, especially when we are trying something new.

Overall, El Limon was maybe surprisingly some of the best Mexican food we've had in the Northeastern US. The restaurant distinguishes itself by making great food in a hurry at dirt cheap prices. If you are ever in the area of Conshohocken, give it a try!

Orlando, Florida

I absolutely love to travel and vacation in warm places when my permanent residency is under a curse of a bitter cold. Living in Ithaca for nearly 6 years and experiencing temperatures between 20 degrees F and 30 degrees for half the year can be deemed miserable. (Ok, that's an exaggeration, but seriously it feels that long when the sun disappears most of the time).

Thus, Siddharth and I decided to vacation some place warm for the spring. Siddharth and I had our first vacation in April 2011 in beautiful Orlando for 5 days, 6 nights in 90 degree weather. After suffering through Ithaca's rollercoaster ride of extreme weather days, this sounded like paradise! It just so happened that Siddharth was attending a conference in Orlando and I opted to join him to be his (unofficial) tour guide. He wasn't as fortunate to enjoy the many Disney theme parks like I did as a child (I've been there 6 times since the age of 2).

Because of the many Disney parks and resorts inhabiting in this city, Orlando became known as a city for families of all ages. If you ever visit this city for the first time, you will be bombarded by families big and small, American and foreign, young and old. But over the decades, Orlando has transformed its city (and its theme parks) so that everyone of all ages and every marital status to enjoy the city.

We both decided to skip most of the Disney theme parks except Epcot and spend our time at Seaworld and Universal Studios. We felt that we would be too overwhelmed with the screaming kids in line for childish rides at Magic Kingdom. Seaworld appealed to us a great deal because of our love of aquariums and cute sea creatures like penguins, sea lions and best of all, dolphins. Universal Studios, on the other hand, sounded more exciting with thrilling rides and The Magical World of Harry Potter.

But besides visiting the many attractions within the parks and resorts, we also enjoyed the many eateries as well. Everyday we would flip through the pages of our coupon book that advertised the many restaurants surrounding the Disney area and decide on what particular cuisine we were in the mood for. Looking back now, I don't think there was a single restaurant or meal we did not like. Here, we want to share with you some of the sites in Orlando we enjoyed in addition to all the meals and restaurants we want to go back.

The Fountain
Todd English's Bluezoo (coming soon)
Emeril Lagasse's Emeril at Universal Studios
Kimonos
Donna Scala's La Luce
Thani Thai

Bongo's (coming soon)

Congee Royal - Asian fusion, not your typical CFM

Congee Royal
3160 Steeles Ave East
Markham, ON L3R 4G9, Canada

"CFM" is a term that my family coined about to describe a particular type of Chinese fast food that we consider comfort food. It's abbreviated for "congee", "fan" (a type of rice noodle) and "mein" (your typical egg noodle). Rice and noodles are an Asian staple and any time you go to a restaurant featuring these staples is WINNING. I have family up in Toronto and we typically have this type of Chinese cuisine at least twice no matter how short of a stay.

So let's talk about the restaurant. It was suggested by my aunt, Aunt Judy, because the initial restaurant we wanted to go to was packed at 6:30pm on a Saturday night. That is how popular these CFM restaurants are for Asians. And when you have a party of 10 for dinner, the chances are you getting a table are not favorable. The restaurant is a couple of years old, placed near an office building, replacing a Town and Country buffet in Toronto. The restaurant itself was decked out in friendly dim-lighting (almost orange) with a flat screen tv playing a movie. All the furniture and wall decorations were very modern. And don't let the wooden booths fool you, they are quite comfortable and allowed short Asians to be able to sit comfortable with feet flat on the ground. The chandelier itself resembled a large wired dust-ball and the tables and lazy susans were out of marble. Despite the modern furniture, this restaurant was filled with people at all ages. Even my 88-year old grandmother enjoyed the ambiance and the lighting.

Ok, but let's move on to the food. Here are the highlights of the many dishes we ordered family-style.

London, UK: our trip in pictures (of food)

London as photographed while we were on the London Eye

London is one of the most famous cities in the world, ranking as the #1 or #2 tourist destinations each year (along with Paris). In May, Tricia and I visited this amazing old city. It was our first international vacation together, and my first trip to Europe. While Tricia is somewhat of a veteran to Europe (she's visited Greece, France, England, and many others that I can't think of/don't know), this was her first trip over the Atlantic with me, meaning that this was her first trip as a foodie!

Let me tell you: London is no Manhattan. You can't just walk to any random block and end up at a restaurant. It takes some planning and the help of a good hotel concierge (in our case at the London Metropole Hilton) to really find the culinary best in London (at least for novice travelers). We managed to really enjoy the food on our trip, and here's some of what we liked most:

Las Vegas - gluttony was maybe our only sin in Sin City!

Tricia and I poolside at the Mandalay Bay where we stayed

In October of 2009, Tricia and I took our first vacation together to Las Vegas. We went over Halloween weekend, when Sin City was perhaps at its most saturated point in terms of debauchery and excess (excess might be a misnomer, because you wouldn't believe what some girls wear out there!). However, Tricia and I refrained from the club scene for the most part in favor of hitting up some of the fine restaurants along the strip. We were treated to some of the most fabulous culinary delights that either of us has ever encountered. The highlights from 3 of the most memorable below:

Boston, MA: Insert "that's what she said" comment anywhere

I was in Boston for business and I was having dinner with my old friend Kevin who I have not seen since freshman year. He now works at Blue Ginger, a coveted restaurant on my list. For dinner, he took me to the Metropolitan Club in Chestnut Hill, MA. This restaurant is your typical dark and intimate restaurant for couples but upscale and professional enough for big bankers to take their clients for drinks. Their cocktail menu was quite interesting with a big emphasis on their martinis and any liqueur you can think of. But I was too hungry to try any alcohol that night.

Once I opened up the menu, I immediately ordered the duck confit spring rolls to share. Those were AMAZING. The duck fat was not heavy at all and occasionally you would have some drip out of the spring roll, a sign of its richness. The wonton wrapping was so crispy and light and loosely wrapped a mixture of vegetables and duck meat. Each spring roll had about 4 chunks of duck meat with crispy skin and a bit of duck sauce in the middle. It was a cross between Peking duck and Mooshu pork (but without the pork, obviously). I had 3 spring rolls which took me a while to eat because of the richness of it. But no worries, I still had my appetite for my entree, the XL Kobe beef hot dog. I confess, I love hot dogs. I love them more than hamburgers, more than pizza, and definitely more than some pastries. Something about savory, juicy meat wrapped in a soft and carby bun that you can eat with one hand. When this dish arrived at my table, I was actually flabbergasted at the length of this hot dog. They were not kidding about being XL! If I had to estimate, it would be more than a foot long (like 3 Ballparks). Our waiter and his fellow waiters watched as I eyed the specimen on my plate to figure out how to eat the damn thing in the most lady-like fashion. I picked up a knife and fork to start, but Kevin forced me to eat it the way Americans should eat it, hold with two hands and mouth wide. And so I did. The casing was crisp and taut and the beef itself was savory, hint of sweetness with a ton of smokey flavor. On the side was the Met's homemade mustard relish which was equally delicious. I typically don't like mustard at all on my hot dog, just plain ketchup will do. But this mustard really kicked any ketchup's ass, even if it was homemade. The mustard was chunky, with a mixture of pickles, onions and something resembling red peppers. The relish was sweet, not too spicy and an excellent addition to my XL hot dog.

You're probably asking whether I finished it or not. I could never let that hot dog go to waste. It took me awhile to chow down, especially with the side of fries, but I trooped it out and enjoyed every single juicy bite. I'm salivating just thinking about the savoriness of the beef.