El Zarape Taqueria

I've recently been getting sudden cravings for  Mexican food. Not that Tex Mex stuff they serve at Taco Bell and Qdoba but the real authentic stuff that real authentic Mexicans eat. I don't really know when it started but I've been finding myself eating tacos at least twice a month. 

Most recently I stumbled across El Zarape located in the Passyunk Square area. This place is located directly across the street from that hipster haven Cantina Los Caballitos and is not as sleek or eye catching but I have to say that to food is good. They serve you fresh chips and salsa not unlike what you get from La Veracruz but in addition to the red and green salsa you get a side of refried black beans. The beans are GOOD.

 red & green salsa with chips and refried beans

I ordered the Taco's Al Pastor (my all time favorite) and my lunch companion went with the zucchini blossom quesadilla. My tacos were awesome. It had just the right amount of onion and pineapple mixed in with the juicy pieces of pork. The quesadilla was OK. It was made with flour tortillas which I'm not a huge fan. They weren't terrible...just nothing special. 

   

tacos al pastor

 

 zucchini blossom quesadilla

Dmitri's - Fitler Square

glass of the house white

When I think of BYOB's, Dmitri's is always on the top of that list. The location in Queen Village has been popular for years and has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember. I've eaten many meals at the bar, squeezed in shoulder to shoulder with my dinner companion and other patrons. This cramped, loud little restaurant makes no apologies for these inconveniences. You either love it or hate it and I happen to be someone who loves it. They serve seafood that is fresh and simply prepared. No foams, no gelee, no freeze dried anything is served here. Just honest to goodness fresh fish, shellfish and a few Greek inspired salads and dips. So given my partiality to this tiny little gem of a restaurant, is it any wonder that I never remember that there exist a sister restaurant in Filter Square?

appetizer sampler

 

sauteed mussels

I finally ate at Dmitris 2  one Friday night and boy was I surprised. This one is not a BYOB like the in Queen VIllage but the menu is more or less the same. They offer a few different items such as the appetizer sampler dish which included a cucumber salad, the beets, and variety of the dips and along with wedges of the grilled pita. I love eating the pita dipped in the olive oil with just a splash of the Tabasco. There's just something about that combination that just makes my tastebuds sing. It is a great starter and more than enough for 2 people. We ordered that along with the sauteed mussels (my favorite) and then one platter, which was the tilapia special (broiled tilapia filets in white wine) and since this was not a BYOB we each ordered a glass of the house white. It was the perfect dinner. The atmosphere was lively, but not as cramped as the Queen Village location and the food well executed. I was pleasantly surprised by how much i enjoyed myself. If you find yourself wandering about Filter Square/Rittenhouse Square looking for a non-pretentious and affordable dinner spot you should check out Dmitri's on the corner of 23rd and Pine.

Soho Cafe

There are two things that I love in life right now. Yakitori Boy and BonChon chicken. And these things came together unexpectedly last Wednesday - the day before Thanksgiving - the biggest party night of the year!

A large order of wings

We started the night out at Bonchon for dinner and Cafe Soho did not disappoint. This little restaurant located near the corner of 5th and Cheltenham Ave started serving korean fried chicken a little over a year ago. If you've never had this type of fried chicken, I would highly recommend it. They're like buffalo wings but crispier and and flavor is more rounded. I like both the spicy version (the heat in these wings are masochistically hot) and I like the soy garlic. Eating this fried chicken goodness requires strategy that I'll share with you. In order to keep the heat from the spicy wings from getting to you, you have to alternate between the spicy and soy garlic and drink the beer. Also try to keep the contact with your lips at a minimum otherwise the heat from the spicy sauce will make your lips burn and go numb. I know it sounds terrible and quite torturous but believe me it's well worth it. These wings are addictively good.

Deep Fried Turkey Goodness

Like every other food obsessed American, I often prepare for Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, by watching the Food Network and most importantly their Thanksgiving Specials. For the last few years I've been toying with the idea of a deep fried turkey. I mean who doesn't like fried food? In the past, turkey has always taken a backseat to the sides served at dinner. We made a turkey because it was expected not necessarily because of the way it taste. Over the years, my mother and I have tried every "trick" in the book to try to make this large heavy breasted bird succulent and juicy. We've brined, injected, massaged, basted, tented and in the end just prayed that the white meat would be juicy and the dark meat cooked. Eventually after years of tweaking our technique, we found that brining and rubbing butter on the bird was the best we could do to prevent it from going dry in the oven.

This year, out of the blue, two weeks before Thanksgiving, my mother informs me that she wants to deep fry the turkey. I was delighted and honestly a little scared. I saw the deep fried turkey special by Alton Brown and watched as they lit a fryer contraption on fire when they plunged the bird into the fat. As soon as the words, "Deep Fried Turkey" came out of my mother's mouth I kept seeing images from that turkey inferno in my head.

Despite my fear, we went ahead and purchased the fryer from Lowes Hardware and hoped for the best. As you can see from the picture it turned out well. We brined the turkey overnight as usual and instead of roasting it for hours it only took about 50 minutes in the fat and out came a golden crispy juicy bird. It was by far the tastiest and juiciest turkey we've ever made. Deep Fried Turkey is awesome! Happy Thanksgiving!

TRIO - boozy dinner

When my sister first asked me if I wanted to join the gang for dinner at TRIO I was very hesitant for the following three reasons. #1 I had just had Thai food earlier that week and didn't know if my tummy was going to be in the mood for more # 2 This place was located no where near my house or her house. It was all the way at 26th and Brown in the Art Museum Area. #3 The weather man predicted rain. A lot of it. That last reason alone is usually enough to keep me indoors huddled on my couch snuggling my dog. However against my better judgement I decided to join the gang for dinner.

Parking was quite difficult, as I had mentioned before, the weather man predicted rain and he was more than correct. The city was blanketed in clouds, fog and rain for 2 days that continued steadily that night. When I reached the Art Museum area, there was a lot of unexpected traffic due to the increased Halloween traffic going on at the Eastern State Penitentiary. I thought to myself "great, this night is turning out shitty already."  However after circling the restaurant a few times, I finally found parking right on 26th street off of Aspen. We trudged into the restaurant located right on the corner of the block with it's faeire lights twinkling in the rain. It actually looked quite warm and inviting and we were happy to make it inside. I had no idea that the place boasted 3 floors of dining rooms and an outdoor deck. The deck clearly was no use to us that night but I could see how inviting it could be on a nice summer night.

I was begginning to see why the gang suggested we have dinner at Trio. We were seated at a long table that comfortably accomodated our large group. We had a party of 9 and a stash of 8 bottles. I should have known that any dinner at a BYOB with this bunch would turn into a boozy dinner. Since it was raining and I was a DD I had only a few glasses of wine.

The menu was interesting. Clearly asian inspired but the entrees were all more fusion-y than authentic thai. I went with the crispy duck which the waitress higly recommended. I found it to be dry and the sauce a bit one dimensional. It wasn't bad in any way. But I like my duck cooked to medium and I knew I had made a mistake in my entree choice when the waitress didn't ask me for a temperature on my duck. However as a saving grace one person in our group suggested we order noodles for the table and we all quickly agreed that it sounded like an excellent notion.

The drunken noodles and the pad thai that we ordered to share was excellent. Full of flavor and not too greasy as stir fried noodles can sometimes be. Overall I can't remember what everyone ordered but I do remember the staff being very attentive but not overbearing. We all ate heartily and drank with gusto. I had a enjoyable experience that had as much to do with the company as it had to do with the food and the restaurant. I can see how this neighborhood joint managed to be full on a rainy cold Saturday night.

You need someone new.

I hear this line all the time from my best friend. Every time I call him or text him or email him a random thought or dream regarding my ex-boyfriend we end the conversation with him telling me that I need to move on and find someone new. That is easier said than done.  

It's not that I am dying to get back together with said ex. It's just that I still think about him endlessly. I don't think it's in an obsessive I'm going to kill your pet bunny type of way. But all sorts of little things in my everyday life triggers memories of our time together and it just leads me to think about him.

Every time I eat a fried egg over rice with soy sauce, it's so yummy that it makes me feel thankful for having met him. It’s the best breakfast when you’re slightly hung over. Every time I see a Lacoste polo shirt, or any mention of the NY Giants or NY Mets it immediately transports me back to hours on the couch with my ex watching sports that meant nothing to me but I watched it all because I loved him.

Mostly, I just wonder how he is and how he had been spending his time. Then I start to wonder if he is single or seeing someone. It all starts to get pretty pathetic, pretty fast. (I never said that I was proud of this behavior.) Typically after I've worked myself up into a frenzy of emotion, I'lI call my best friend hyperventilating. At which point he usually talks me off the ledge and tells me to move on and find someone new. It's a vicious cycle that starts off so innocently. It’s been almost a full year since I officially ended it with the ex. How long does it take to move on?

Stalking - modern like

 Photo of from here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaderli/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

With the advent of new social media networks like Facebook and MySpace cyber stalking is just oh-so-easy. I find myself killing (I can't even count how many) hours by repeatedly pressing the "check status" icon on my blackberry for Facebook and my heart skips a beat when there's a new update from people that I've been "keeping in touch with" ahem..."stalking" via Facebook.

It's just so easy to scroll down your "friends" list and just casually check on people that you know especially with exboyfriends.

I really want to see what my ex has been up to these days. We no longer speak or even really communicate. I think he doesn't want to be on "friendly" terms with me.  My definition of friendly means an occasional email with a short update on what's going on. Nothing serious...no drama. I don't need to know how many women he's talked to or hooked up with but a short cursory email with a little information on his life and family wouldn't hurt. I mean when you're with someone for a number of years and things don't workout is it really necessary to completely cut off all ties of communication?

I have friends that say that this is an absolute must and that you can't stay friends with your exes. I beg to differ. I do believe that distance is necessary in the beginning when the separation is fresh but after almost a year of no communication shouldn't a little email warrant a timely response? It wasn't like there was drama in the breakup....things just didnt work out there was no cheating or anything like that.

So given my obsession with Facebook status checking, I've been really good about not checking on my ex. However today I hit an information over load purely by accident. OK..not quite by accident...but I wasn't really cyber stalking. I was just going through blogger and found his blog. *gasp*

I know. I shouldn't have read it. But that's like putting candy in front of a baby and asking him/her not to try to eat it. I tried to resist but I knew it was a battle that I wasn't going to win. I read it. And it was hard. I think I might be an emotional cutter....i have problems. :(