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!

Lavender Shortbread cookies

It's tea time, and we know the perfect cookie you can have for such occasion. We love all teas, especially English black teas (well they are really teas from India, but the idea of tea time and milk with tea came from the British). Siddharth loves shortbread cookies and we found dried lavender petals at an Asian food store so we figured it would make a great cookie combination. These cookies are great alone, but better when dipped in tea. Lavender might be hard to find, but you can use other floral aromas or citrus zest. Here's the recipe (adapted from London Foodie in New York):

Happy Fall Apple Turnovers!

Happy fall everyone! Autumn is in the air, and this year, it's a great season to apple pick. I just recently inherited more than 5lbs of Macintosh apples. Now, let me preface this: I can eat 1-2 apples a day, but 5lbs of apples is a lot. So here's a recipe for apple turnovers, a perfect baked goody to be enjoyed as a snack or an on-the-go breakfast during the week. This recipe is really easy because it utilizes puff pastry dough that gives the apple turnover flakey crust while pocketing the apples in its caramel sauce. You can skip the hard part by buying frozen puff pastry dough. I used Pepperidge Farm's pastry dough that I thawed out for 10 minutes on the counter. 

The recipe follows: 

CT Bento - Ithaca, NY Revisited!

Greetings fellow Ithacans (and those who follow our Ithaca restaurant reviews)!

Awhile back, we wrote a review on the sushi and bubble tea cafe on RT 13 that had just opened (read it here!) To our delight, our review was recently featured in CT Bento Cafe's website. Among our review, CT Bento Cafe had also featured other reviewers who commented on their great sushi rolls and rice bowls. We suggest you to check it out! Here is our updated review on CT Bento

White Lasagna with Spinach, Sausage, and Mushrooms

Lasagna is that fabulous type of dish that can provide multiple meals by virtue of storing well and being easy to make in large quantities. It's the kind of food that anyone can make at gourmet quality as well. Conveniently, it allows you to put all the elements of a balanced meal (vegetables, meat, carbs) into one preparation. And one recent weekend, when I was alone and in the mood for some simple yet hearty sustenance, I elected to make a less-conventional white lasagna with a bechamel-based sauce, and to incorporate hot Italian sausage, fresh spinach, and mushrooms. It came out really well, and it fed me for an entire weekend!

"Mocha" Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is a nice meat to work with because it cooks relatively quickly (due to its low fat content, it doesn't need a long braise or roast), and if treated properly it is moist and delicious. It is also amenable to a variety of marinades and sauces. I decided to try and be fairly creative with my most recent preparation. Although unexpected by many, cocoa is known to compliment pork very well. I decided to make a cocoa-based dry rub for this recipe. For the "mocha" aspect, I paired the cocoa-rubbed pork with an espresso-based glaze. This was a fun recipe that ended up turning out really well. Give it a try!

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!). 

Siddharth's Triple Mac and Cheese

Who doesn't like Mac & Cheese? It's one of the finest American comfort foods. And yet, many people don't know how to make a good mac & cheese from scratch. The presence of TV dinner-style mac & cheese or velveeta and shells is proof that many people are missing out on delicious homemade goodness.The best part about making mac & cheese at home from scratch is that you can make it as decadent as you like, and it's really simple! In my recipe here, I used 3 cheeses: extra sharp cheddar, colby jack, and smoked gouda. I also used pancetta, which can easily (and deliciously) be substituted by bacon (or omitted altogether).

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.

Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza

Making deep-dish pizza at home turns out to be a lot of fun. It comes out delicious (especially if you follow some of the tips here!), and there's nothing like the sense of accomplishment that comes with making something that sounds complicated on your own. I took my recipe for the crust from the posters over at http://www.pizzamaking.com/ with slight modifications (the specific poster that I borrowed from is Buzz). I used a cast-iron pan to create this pizza, and I think that worked out especially well in giving a crispiness to the crust. Give it a try!