Cheese.

We spent this past weekend on Long Beach Island. We also ate some delicious cheese.

My favorite was the square cut one pictured above. An aged sheep milk Manchego Reserve with black truffles and anchovy. It was unreal.

The cheese in the center is a goat cheese that was aged in grape leaves. It was super creamy and smelled like death. It tasted great though.

The cheese in the bowl was a super soft and creamy cow's milk Camembert d'Isigny. It was really strong. This was my least favorite but others loved it.

The other cheese is your standard Brie which is always delicious.

I picked up all the cheese at Downtown Cheese in Reading Terminal Market.

Legumes.

So I was at the Phillies game last night and I got to thinking...

Is there a better ball park food than peanuts? I really don't think so.

The following are my top 5 reasons why peanuts are better than any other ball park food:

1 - Cheap.
2 - Fun to eat.
3 - If you drop one you can still eat it (as long as you didn't open the shell yet)
4 - More bang for your buck...it takes a solid 45-60 minutes to eat a bag properly...compare that to the 30 seconds it takes for me to eat a hot dog.
5 - Healthy.

If you disagree I would love to hear why. But just keep in mind you are wrong.

IPA <3

Man I love a nice India Pale Ale.

This weekend was no exception.

1 - Boulder Mojo IPA - Very hoppy. Strong notes of citrus. 9/10 frosty mugs.

2 - Dogfish Head 90 Minute - Pours very dark for an IPA. Almondy, creamy taste. Delicious. REALLY high ABV (9%) 10/10 frosty mugs.

Bishops Collar.

Saturday night a group of us went to the Bishops Collar in Fairmount for Madams birthday dinner.

Most places in Fairmount are tiny little hole in the wall type places that try to cram as many people into the smallest space possible, charge outrageous prices for mediocre food, and offer a crappy beer selection. This is not the case at the Bishops Collar. The place has ample seating and has seating for outdoor dining as well. The food was more than reasonably priced (not one item on the menu is more than $10) and the portions are generous.

We had a group of 8 and we didn't make reservations so I was a little nervous about not being seated right away. But as soon as we arrived we were ushered to our table and ordered our drink. Madams and I both got Yards I.P.A. (8/10 frosty mugs) Martha got a Blue Moon. Her drink came with a lemon slice as opposed to the typical orange slice which I thought was a bit odd.

I ordered the flank steam and provolone sandwich with fresh cut french fries. It was nice and sloppy with a ton of caramelized onions and at least 3 slices of provolone. The steak was tender and perfectly cooked. 8/10 growling stomachs. Martha got the turkey burger with brie cheese and roasted red peppers. I only had a bite of her sandwich but I liked what I tasted.

All in all I had a really good time here...largely in part to the great crowd of people I was with. So if you are in the Fairmount area (right down the street from Eastern State Penitentiary) Swing by the Bishops Collar for a cheap meal.

Broiled fresh caught flounder.

As I mentioned earlier I went fishing on Sunday morning. Later that night I got to reap the benefits.

Broiled Flounder with Lemon:

Ingredients:

- 4 fresh flounder fillets
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- sea salt
- ground black pepper
- the juice of 2 small lemons
- 1 sliced lemon
- rosemary or thyme (if you want)

Preparation:

- preheat oven to 375 F.
- pour half of the olive oil into the bottom of an ovensafe pan
- lay the fillets evenly into the pan
- pour the lemon juice evenly over the fillets
- do the same with the olive oil
- add salt and pepper to taste
- place lemon slices on the fish
- cover with aluminum foil and bake for 12-15 minutes

Overall I would give this 8/10 growling stomachs. That's a generous 8 only because I busted my ass catching the bastards and I was out on the water by 7:30 A.M.

Stone I.P.A. and Victory Golden Monkey.

About a week or two ago I got a six pack of Stone IPA. It was great. Had a thick head for an IPA and a strong lacing remained on the glass as I drank it. 9/10 frosty mugs.

m and I picked up a six pack of Victory Golden Monkey to compliment our pizza from Acropolis. Wow. 2 beers and I was wasted. That's what happens with this Belgian Trippel style ale with a 9.5% ABV. Regardless of the high alcohol content the beer is really clean and too easy to drink. I could see people getting into trouble after too many of these. 10/10 frosty mugs.

Harpoon summer variety case.

m and I got a case of Harpoon Summer Variety this weekend.


1 Harpoon UFO Hefeweizen - Super smooth. Easy to drink. Light body. Aftertaste has a noticeable bite. 8/10 frosty mugs.

2 Harpoon UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen - One of the best beers I have had in a long time. Great aftertaste. The raspberry didn't overwhelm the taste of the beer but was still noticeable. I have noticed that with a lot of fruit beers the fruit either overwhelms or underwhelms the actual beer itself. 10/10 frosty mugs.

3 Harpoon I.P.A. - My God I love a nice I.P.A. This has a pretty high ABV (5.90%) So needless to say I was feeling pretty nice after a few of these guys. Dark body. Nice carbonation. 9/10 frosty mugs.

4 Harpoon Summer Beer - A Kolsch style summer beer. It was just OK. Very light body. Highly carbonated. Smooth taste. Easy to drink. Typical summer brew. 7/10 frosty mugs

Flank steak pinwheels.

I made these last night for dinner.

I don't want to toot my own horn here but....BEEP BEEP!



Ingredients:

- 1.5 lb. flank steak
- 10 oz. baby spinach
- 7 oz. Gorgonzola cheese
- 7 oz. fresh shredded Parmesan cheese
- 2 cloves of minced garlic


Prep work:

- Butterfly the steak. Make sure you go with the grain. Trim the edges to give you a more "even" steak.
- Marinate the steak for at least 2 hours so the meat becomes tender. I used olive oil and Worcestershire sauce.
- Open he butterflied steak up on a cutting board. Spread the Gorgonzola out over the steak. Chop the spinach and then layer that over the Gorgonzola. Then add the garlic. Top with Parmesan.
- Roll the steak like a maki roll. Keep it tight.
- Pierce the rolled steak with skewers about every inch and a half or so (be sure to soak the skewers beforehand so they don't burn on the grill)
- Slice the steak like a loaf of bread in between the skewers.
- Let the pinwheels sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Grill over medium heat. Make sure you only turn them once or twice because they can fall apart if you play around with them too much.

Looking back I would try to tenderize the steak some more. Flank steak can be tough and even though I marinated this for over 2 hours it was still a little tough. I would also ditch the Parm and maybe try a creamier tangier cheese like a Roquefort.

8/10 growling stomachs.

Tarts and fuel.

As I write this I am in the Regency Cafe in Lansdowne eating a chocolate raspberry tart and drinking a double espresso.

Some chick is trying to sing in the background and is pretty much pounding her keyboard with her fists. The sound is nauseating.

The tart is dry but still OK and the espresso is money. Regency has awesome coffee and all the food is homemade by the guy who runs the place. I highly recommend coming here if you get the chance.

Wawa.

Well since I have started this new job two things have happened...
1) I have almost no time for posting to this blog during the week (0 growling stomachs)
2) I eat at Wawa all the time now....and hence this post.

We will start with the so called "cheesesteak"....
- as some of you know i am something of a cheesesteak guru...a sensei even. So you can imagine my surprise when i recieved something called a cheesesteak...and was thoroughly disgusted by the contents. I started to realize that it was going down hill when i saw the sandwich maker taking the meat out of a crockpot..."are you serous??" i thought. But i swiftly reminded myself i was in a wawa and they don't make bad food. well anyway i took it back to work and started devouring this thing. Thats when it hit me this cheesesteak sucks! It was soggy (when i asked for it to be toasted), the crease was completely ripped apart, the cheese they used sucks, and worst of all was it was roast beef, NOT steak. This was my first "bad" experience ever at wawa (which i fully attribute to this wawa being in new jersey, in PA this would not happen). So with out further adieu..... 1/10 growling stomachs.

Next, and on a much brighter note:
Meatball Sandwiches!!!!!!

these are amazing! i ate 6 of these in 9 days. i loved each one, they hit the spot perfectly.
i give it 9/10 growling stomachs, and recommend on the shorti size (other sizes are just too much to digest properly)

A lot of beer.

This past Saturday we had a little BBQ at my apartment.

Judging by how I felt on Sunday I would say I had a really good time.

Here is some* of the beer I remember drinking.

* - These beers have been consumed in the last week and a half. Not all in one night. I would have died.

1 - Dogfish Head Festina Peche - 10/10 frosty mugs. This beer was amazing. Very refreshing. Crisp and dry with a bit of a bite to it.
2 - Grozet Gooseberry and Wheat Ale - 8/10 frosty mugs. You can definitely smell the berry in the bear. Had a thick head for a wheat beer.
3 - Abita Purple Haze - 7/10 frosty mugs. Decent for a fruit beer. The raspberry was a little too powerful. Masked the flavor of the beer.
4 - Westmalle Trappist Dubbel - 12/10 frosty mugs. Went down (too) easy. I could get used to that. A little expensive though. ($6 a bottle)
5 - Buffalo Bill Orange Blossom Cream Ale - 9/10 frosty mugs. Tastes like orange soda. Smells like orange soda. Those are both good things.
6 - Bell's Oatmeal Stout - 5/10 frosty mugs. Way too smokey. Tasted like I was drinking how a bonfire smells.
7 - Pocono Pale Ale - 8/10 frosty mugs. At $20 a case this is a great beer...considering it comes from the same brewery that brews Lionshead.
8 - Pennbrook Lager - 7/10 frosty mugs. Light for a lager. Smooth and easy to drink.
9 - Kirin Ichiban Special Premium Reserve - 7/10 frosty mugs. Sweet flavor. I would like to try more than one.

There were a few more I had that Jim brought over to the BBQ. I think he was trying to kill me because after I had this one beer that was in a short white bottle with no label I was hammered. I don't know if it was a barleywine or moonshine. All I do know is that it got me very drunk. So drunk that I burned my fingers on my grill.

All in all...an excellent weekend.

Raw fish flesh.

As of right now my favorite food is sushi. I don't care if it's from Morimoto or the Japanese guy in Genuardi's. It's all good.

The Pearl in Lansdowne has great sushi. We have ordered from them consistently for over a year now.

We have a tendency to "over do it" when we order there...partly because the food is so damn good.

Here is what we got last night:

1 Philadelphia Roll
1 Eastern Roll
1 Shrimp Tempura Roll
1 Spicy Tuna Roll
1 Spicy Salmon Roll
1 Tuna Avocado Roll
1 Alaska Roll
4 Salmon Nigiri
2 Surf Clam Nigiri

We ordered Edamame but they were all out :(

I give this meal 9/10 growling stomachs. Not a 10/10 because they ran out of Edamame and we should have ordered more.

The masked man.

Craig LaBan hosts a chat on Philly.com every Tuesday at 2 P.M.

I submitted some questions and they were posted along with other various commentaries.

Here is a transcription of the chat.

I suggest reading it every tuesday because there are always some nice recommendations for places to eat in the city and the topics always vary from fine dining to where you can get the best burger in the city.

Buy LaBan's book here.

Reeb.

Beer = <3

1 - Arrogant Bastard Ale - Strong taste of caramel. Could be a little overwhelming if I had had more than one. 8/10 frosty mugs.

2 - Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat - Hell. Yes. I first tried "Leine's" when I was in Iowa a few weeks ago. It was great. So when I saw a six pack of their summer beer in the cooler I couldn't resist. Very similar to Blue Moon but with more of that orange taste to it. 9/10 frosty mugs.

3 - Saranac Black Diamond Bock - Who says you can't drink a winter beer in the summer? Jerks that's who. This is a great beer and very easy to drink for a Bock. 8/10 frosty mugs.

Meat?

I love meat. But sometimes your digestive tract tells you to chill out on the goodness of animal flesh every once in a while. So this weekend we made Portabella mushroom burgers. This was the first time I tried to grill a Portabella and it was a lot easier then I anticipated. The mushroom caps did flake a little bit after being on the grill for a while but all in all it was a success.

7/10 growling stomachs.

Ingredients:

- 2 Portabella mushroom caps (about 5in across)
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 1/2 onion (diced)
- Swiss cheese
- Tomato
- salt and pepper to taste


- Mix all ingredients and let marinate for at least an hour or more.
- Preheat grill.
- Cook evenly on medium heat for about 6 minutes a side.
- Brush with olive oil mixture throughout cooking.
- Put the Swiss on with about 2 minutes left so it melts properly but doesn't get to soft.

Hershels.

I went to Hershels East Side Deli in Reading Terminal Market for lunch today.

I got a chicken salad sandwich on Jewish Rye with mustard, Swiss, lettuce and onions. The chicken salad was spilling out of the sandwich. Huge chunks of chicken and not too much celery. Awesome.

I would give this meal 8/10 growling stomachs. It would have been a 9/10 if they remembered to include my pickle. But they didn't and Madams didn't share his.

Bleu cheese stuffed hamburgers and homemade salsa.

I did work on the grill this 4th of July. Now you can do the same.


1 lb. extra lean ground beef
1/2 large white onion (diced)
3 oz. Bleu cheese
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

- Mix everything except the cheese in a bowl.
- Break up meat into four quarter lb. patties.
- Pile the cheese onto two of the patties.
- Press the remaining patties on top of the cheese covered patties, creating one large patty with the cheese in the center.
- Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Grill to desired doneness (Anything more than rare and you can trade your balls in for a dress.)




5 vine ripened tomatoes (diced)
3/4 of a large white onion (diced)
1 clove of garlic (pressed)
8 oz. FRESH cilantro (diced)
Salt and Pepper to taste

- Mix ingredients and eat.

Beer post.

I've had a lot of good beers over the past few days...another reason to love the 4th of July.


1 - Stone Ruination IPA - My summer love affair with IPA's continues. 9/10 Frosty Mugs. More here.

2 - Victory Golden Monkey - Gets me every time. 10/10 Frosty Mugs.

3 - Magic Hat Hocus Pocus - Least favorite of all Magic Hat varieties. 7/10 Frosty Mugs

4 - Magic Hat #9 - Always good. Love the apricot. 9/10 Frosty Mugs.

5 - Magic Hat Summer Mystery Beer - Easy to drink for a heavy beer. 8/10 Frosty Mugs.

6 - Magic Hat Circus Boy - I <3 wheat beers. 9/10 Frosty Mugs.

flavor ice (aka freeze pops).

I don't think i need to say much about this one. i am pretty sure everyone loves these and if you don't you probably don't have a soul and should see somebody about it...a doctor...a priest perhaps?

easily 10 out of 10 growling stomachs for this....partly due to the seasonal nature of this delight.

ps: yes, i am eating one right now:

Pie.

I won a pie eating contest on Saturday afternoon.

I would give the actual pie itself about 6/10 Growling Stomachs.

I would also like to give myself a 10/10 Awesome Dudes for pwning everyone.

Beer is good.

I to drank beer this weekend. Some of it was crappy Bud Light while out and about in Sea Isle but some of it was tasty and delicious...I'd like to focus on the latter.

On Saturday night we picked up a 12 pack of the Saranac 12 Beers of Summer.

Delicious.

1 - Pomegranate Wheat - 10/10 Frosty Mugs. Perfect. Not too sweet. Smooth.
2 - Belgian White - 9/10 Frosty Mugs. Crisp. Nice aftertaste.
3 - Hefeweizen - 8/10 Frosty Mugs. Hint of Banana. Had a bite to it.
4 - Golden Pilsener - 10/10 Frosty Mugs. Great pilsener. Clean.
5 - Summer Ale - 7/10 Frosty Mugs. Never got into "Summer" brews.
6 - Kolsch - 9/10 Frosty Mugs. Refreshing with a clean aftertaste.

I highly recommend people try these beers, especially the pomegranate wheat. Saranac does a good job of staying true to the basic flavors of these sometimes complex beers.

My Beer Post.

So, as I mentioned in the last post, I was at the Phillies game last night. While there I decided to treat myself to a beer (something I do rarely at the BallPark). Well my selection was Yard's Pale Ale, from right here in The Greatest City in the World. As you may know, I love beer. And have become very good at tasting the many parts of a beer. Well the Pale Ale was delicious, very hoppy, with a great aroma. I highly recomend it.

Since we don't get Growling stomachs when we drink...

I give this beer 8 out of 10 Frosty Mugs (scoring name might be changed later).

Swine.

Last night I went to the Phillies game. Those of you you who know me know that this equates to uninhibited hotdog devouring. Last night was no different. Upon entry to the stadium I waited for a good 15 minutes before engourging my face on delicious scraps of meat. Anyway, I had 2 Phillies franks from the Kiddie Stand (which are no different in size than the regulars) durring batting practice , and then 2 "real" Phillie Franks during the game.

The First 2 Dogs i gave 2 growling stomachs out 10 (this is due to the burnt shell of meat on the outside combined with the jet of watery ketchup that sogified my bun)

However! the Last 2 dogs I gave 9 out of 10 Growling Stomachs....they were great...the only down side is that frigging wrapper they put them in, its an accident waiting to happen.

Now we're talking.

I usually pack my lunch every day but on Fridays I try to treat myself and order out for lunch.

Today I went to Primo Hoagies.

I ordered a tasty little treat known as the "Italian Diablo."

We all know my distaste for Italians...but damn can they make a mean hoagie.

If you have never been to this Philadelphia staple, you absolutely must. They have a ton of locations so there is definitely one close to you. And on top of their delicious hoagies they only sell Herrs chips. You bet your sweet behind I downs a bag of Kettle Cooked Sour Cream and Onion.

This meal gets 9 out of 10 growling stomachs.

I would have scored it a perfect 10 if it was a foot longer.

Tuna melts = crap.

Martha made tuna melts for dinner last night.

I love tuna fish...something I don't think Jim would eat if his life depended on it.

I don't like tuna melts. Especially burnt tuna melts you eat because your girlfriend made them.

1 out of 10 growling stomachs.

P.S. - If your girlfriend is nice enough to cook dinner for you...don't tell her it "sucks." Just trust me on this.

728's lunch on 6/28/2007

In today's lunch we have:

- Leftover linguine with Classico red bell pepper alfredo sauce.
- Breyers strawberry banana yogurt
- Chocolate pudding
- Spring water

The Classico sauce is my personal favorite out of their alfredo selections. The sun-dried tomato is pretty good too but it's really salty.

Overall I would give this lunch 5 out of 10 growling stomachs.

I am debating taking a walk to Wawa later to acquire a snack. Stay tuned.

Avoid the noid.

I don't just avoid the noid...I avoid everything when I am eating Domino's Pizza. Last night's dinner put me into a coma. I came in from work and that's all I wanted, so I gorged myself. When I awoke from my coma, I was starving from all that dreaming...so guess what today's breakfast was?

if you said Domino's Pizza you were right.

I gave this meal(s) 8 out of 10 growling stomachs.