The new underground food court beneath the Comcast Center offers the best from a host of local vendors, including Di Bruno Bros., Termini Brothers (oh canoli!) and a dumpling stand from Susanna Foo. - Caroline Berson goes camping, determined to avoid hot dogs and beans from the can. She makes bruschetta, nachos and muffins baked in orange peel cups over an open fire, with mixed (but entertaining) results.
- In today's Market Basket, you'll find push-button roasted garlic, knife sharpeners and wood chips to make your grilling extra smokey.
- Explore the wonders of a mortar and pestle. It may be more work than a food processor, but it makes garlic sweeter and herbs more pungent.
- Philip Mancuso still makes ricotta in South Philadelphia the old-world way, with lots of fresh milk that leaves the cheese creamy and smooth.
Posts with tag Philadelphia inquirer
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Food courts, camping cuisine and a mortar and pestle
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Wedding registries, cheesecake and pretty salads
When registering for those kitchen supplies before getting married, make sure that you aren't picking out things that are just going to sit in the box or in storage. - When it comes to cheesecake, as long as you go for the creamiest cheese you can find, you can use any number of cheeses.
- You'll find barbecue potato chips, a flag platter and a salad server in the shape of a potted plant in the Market Basket.
- Paying attention to the eye appeal of a salad will increase the likelihood that it will get devoured.
- Quesadillas, from the basic to the gourmet.
- The Rush Hour Gourmet says that quick and flexible stir fry makes quick work of dinner.
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Growing your own, restaurant closures and culinary kids
As fuel prices head into the stratosphere and food costs multiple, many people are heading off the grid and growing their own food. Jeff Gammage talks to some Philly locals who are growing their own. - One recent morning, Philadelphia institution The Sansom Street Oyster House had a sign announcing its closure. Rick Nichols explores what happened and whether it may reopen.
- The Market Basket has Snacks That Taste Good and novelty whisks in it today.
- When it comes to creating food lovers, conventional wisdom teaches us that it is best to start when they're young. Local cooking classes for kids aim to do just that.
- Speaking of kids, a new study reports that it's important to ask your kids what fruits and vegetables they like when you're going grocery shopping. Seems pretty obvious to me.
- The Rush Hour Gourmet whips up Poached Salmon with a Lemon Dill Sauce.
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Gourmet markets, kitchen cameras and grilling cookbooks
Rick Nichols takes a trip out to Maia, a new, huge gourmet market in Villanova, PA and finds it to be delicious, amazing and more than a little overwhelming. - The Fountains at the Four Seasons hotel has installed closed circuit cameras in the kitchen and large screen televisions in some dining rooms, to give diners a chance to watch their meal being prepared.
- In the Market Basket, panko bread crumbs go upscale, stone-crushed walnut oil is a good choice for summer salads and Bobby Flay's bbq sauce pot can be a helpful gadget.
- A useful round-up of some of the summer's grilling cookbooks, as well as several excerpted recipes.
- Soft-shell crab perfection can be found at Sagami in Collingswood, NJ (ed. note - having eaten sushi there several times, I can only image how amazing they must be).
- The Rush Hour Gourmet offers up Tortellini With Greens, White Beans and Pine Nuts as her recommendation for a quick and delicious dinner.
The Philadelphia Inquirer in 60 seconds: Strawberries, cheese and no-bake peanut butter pie
- It's strawberry season in the Philadelphia region and buckets of the gem-like fruit are showing up all across the area's Farmers Markets. Growers are also expecting it to be a strong U-Pick season.
- Karen Heller reviews the new memoir by Patricia Wells and her husband and finds that it makes France seem dull and unappealing.
- Local restaurateur and food radio show host Jim Coleman offers an easy recipe for a no-bake peanut butter pie in response to a question sent in by a reader.
- New Jersey strawberry farmer Joe Jacobs' is often lauded for his extra-sweet and juicy berries. His secrets? Salt-hay mulch and black plastic sheeting.
- Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant critic Craig LaBan declares that the cheese of the month is the Provolone Rustico available at the Fair Food Farmstand at Reading Terminal Market.
- In the Rush Hour Gourmet, the Pork Vindaloo makes for a quick and easy dinner.
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Mayonnaise, morel mushrooms and a Good Burger
- In addition to marking the unofficial start to summer, Memorial Day also kicks off the beginning of mayonnaise season. This interesting article details the history of mayo, singing the praises of this frequently used, but often under-appreciated supporting player.
- New York chain Good Burger comes to Philadelphia, touting natural beef, hand-leafed lettuce and cooked-to-order patties. I actually ate there last night and must admit, it was a pretty fine burger.
- The Villanova Cheese Shop's cream cheese spread business, Bett's Blends, (now in a variety of large grocery stores around the area) continues to grow and thrive.
- It's morel mushroom season and rewards abound for people who are willing to invest the time and energy it takes to forage for their own.
- In these times of rising food costs, it's important to use what you do buy. Pat Salani, the self-anointed Leftover Queen, offers her tips for making her food purchases stretch.
- Looking for a quick, easy dinner? Look no further than this simple Bacon and Poached Egg Salad.
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Compassionate carnivores, Farmers' Markets and the perfect pantry
- Beth D'Addono writes about becoming a compassionate carnivore (one who makes sure to only buy and consume meat from producers who raise their animals in a humane manner). Challenges include the fact that she isn't able to buy meat at regular supermarkets, limited availability and higher prices.
- Farmers' Market season kicked off early in the Philly region this year, and while prices are higher than they were last year, there are still good deals to be had.
- A listing of all area markets (my favorite is still Headhouse Square!).
- What should be in your pantry? What to do with those specialty ingredients you buy for a single recipe? Linda Walshin tries to answer those questions on her blog The Perfect Pantry.
- The Rush Hour Gourmet offers a stir fry recipe to help you use and enjoy all those fresh, spring veggies.
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Artisanal pizza, vinaigrettes and lost recipes
- Osteria pizza chef Jeff Michaud recently taught a workshop at Foster's Homeware on how he makes his smoky, thin pizzas (that start at $15 and go up from there). Inquirer food columnist Rick Nichols attended the class and thinks the best way to learn Michaud's secrets is through osmosis.
- We all know that salads are best tossed with a simple vinaigrette. However, we don't always think of applying those oil and vinegar emulsions to other foods. Philly chef Erin O'Shea has come up with a series of simple vinaigrettes to pull together other dishes.
- Food writer and historian Laura Schenone, author of A Thousand Years of a Hot Stove and The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken, has launched Jellypress, a website devoted to lost recipes.
- The Rush Hour Gourmet changes up the traditional Bearnaise sauce to make it lighter. The new one still uses onions and tarragon to capture the familiar flavors, but without the fat.
Sharing family meals with your neighbors
One of the things I've always wished for was to live someplace (be it apartment building or neighborhood) where I really knew my neighbors. I'd love to have people in close proximity with whom I could have dinner, or drop by with a baking project gone right. Unfortunately, I've yet to find that. Craig LaBan, the restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer lives on a close, friendly block (just like the one I would like to find for myself). In yesterday's food section, he writes about how his family has teamed up with two other families on the street to take turns cooking dinner once a week. It started because they all had kids on the same swim team and would arrive home on Monday nights exhausted and with nothing on the stove. They determined that each week, one family would make enough for all three, so that the parents would get a break from cooking two out of every three weeks.
The project has had benefits beyond simply providing dinner. It has exposed their kids to a variety of foods that are not typically found in their home kitchens and has brought the families even closer together. While they don't eat the meal together (I imagine no one has room for three families to sit down to dinner together), they all acknowledge that they shared meal experience has made them less like neighbors and more like family.
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Neighborhood cafes, calorie listings and pre-baked pizza crusts
- Philly girl turned actress returns to her neighborhood after years away, where she and her husband created just the cafe the neighborhood needed.
- Should cities require that fast food chains post their calorie information alongside the items on the menu?
- The Market Basket's got Bliss Chocolates, Eco-sponges and towels and an OXO corer that doesn't leave anything behind.
- Whether you cook only parts, or the whole darn thing, it's hard to argue that chicken is delicious.
- The Rush Hour Gourmet advises hurried meal makers to grab a pre-baked pizza crust and fill it with tomatoes, garlic, mozzarella and sliced almonds for a healthy and filling meatless meal.
- Beau Monde, Philly's Breton-style creperie, is celebrating their 10th anniversary and their offerings are as tasty as ever.
- If you're a local and you're still looking for a place to fill the gaping void left by the closing of the beloved Lakeside Chinese Deli, Inky restaurant critic Craig LaBan recommends that you check out Dim Sum Garden.
The Philadelphia Inquirer in 60 seconds: Passover desserts, chicken salad and keeping kosher
- Since flour, yeast and baking powder are all outlawed during Passover, making palatable desserts can be something of a challenge. Check out these three recipes from cookbook author Aliza Green that will make the end of your Seder as tasty as the beginning.
- Philadelphia City Council is considering legislation that would require that all fast food outlets post the calorie information for their food right on the menu.
- Chicken salad started as a way to use up leftovers from the Sunday roaster and became something that represented elegance and continental style. Many argue about the best way to make it, but in the end it comes down to your personal choice.
- The challenges of making your kitchen and home kosher for the 10-day Passover holiday.
- A tasty, quick and kosher recipe from Suzie Fishbein's Passover by Design cookbook.
- Chinatown's favorite Vietnam Restaurant expands into West Philadelphia with Vietnam Cafe.
The Philly Inquirer in 60 seconds: Urban wineries, dollar hots dogs and campaign food
- Just south of Philadelphia, tucked away between I-95 and the Delaware River, you'll find Penns Woods winery. Run by Gino Razzi, a wine importer and maker of wines in Italy, he's changing the way people think about wines made in Pennsylvania.
- Dollar hot dog night at Citizens Bank Park last week meant gummy buns and half-heated dogs, while other less-busy stands served up more palatable fare.
- Campaign food has hit Philadelphia with a vengeance. Di Bruno Bros. are serving up sandwiches named after the two Democratic candidates. There are also local cookies and cocktails dedicated to Clinton and Obama, so that you can declare your allegiance with your victuals.
- Winter foods join with fresh, young spring greens to create a fresh meals for the changing season.
- The Rush Hour Gourmet offers up a weeknight company dinner of herb-crusted lamb steaks on a bed of creamy spinach.
- Scientists are discovering that chia seeds (Chi-Chi-Chia Pet!) are something of a super food. A quarter cup serving has more calcium than 3 cups of milk.
The Philadelphia Inquirer in 60 seconds: Easter, tuna and fancy chocolate
Tweak your Easter meal into a meaningful celebration of spring, rebirth and renewal with these recipes for Parsi Deviled Eggs, Fall-Apart Lamb Shanks With Almond-Chocolate Picada, Chopped Greens, Carrot and Dill Salad with Yogurt Dressing, Smashed Greek Potatoes and Chocolate Malted Pudding With Marshmallows and Coconut.- The food section editors take on a canned tuna taste test, in order to determine what is the best flavor bang for your buck.
- Columnist Rick Nichols offers a particularly lovely column about finding a replace for the beloved wooden bowl he broke during a kitchen remodel.
- The Rush Hour Gourmet throws together a Moroccan Vegetable Ragout in a hurry.
- Local restaurants struggle with rising food costs, the Market Basket is full of sweets and spring-y products and Table Talk is chock full of local restaurant gossip.
The marriage of sweet-potato and lemongrass
I often clip recipes out of the newspaper, but frequently they just get heaped onto the big pile that represents my To-Do list and forgotten. However, a couple of days ago I found myself standing in my kitchen, looking a three-pound bag of sweet potatoes and lemongrass that I had bought on a whim and realized that I had clipped the perfect recipe for those items not two weeks before.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently ran an article about Ellen Yin, the owner of Fork, a restaurant that helped revitalize the Old City neighborhood of Philly. She's publishing a cookbook/memoir in honor of the restaurant's 10th anniversary. They ran several of her recipes along side the article, including one for Sweet-Potato Lemongrass Soup, perfect for my random ingredients. It turned out a really silky soup (although I think I would reduce the amount of water just slightly, as I like my pureed veggie soups a little thicker) that starts out tasty and gets better over time. It's a terrific recipe for fall, when you want something warm and soft, colored with the hues of fall (the recipe is after the jump).
Continue reading The marriage of sweet-potato and lemongrass
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