#48: That thing of the day goes to Philly

Full disclosure: Last year I visited my sister in LA. She worked overtime to give me my best culinary visit on the west coast to date- a pop up up restaurant with an endless wait we somehow skipped, seafood and champagne on the beach, hangover eggs Mexican style... And then the motive came: she wanted me to do a "That Thing of the Day Goes to LA". She was just using me so I would put LA on the map!.... Oh wait, LA is a city people know about? Seek out? Famous? In truth I would love to write about the food on that trip...but alas too much time has gone by and I can't remember a thing.

Speaking of remembering, no one seems to remember about Philly (and when I say no one... I mean New Yorkers). Only 2 hours away from New York, it never once occurred to me to go. When my boyfriend moved there, suddenly this city I never considered has become one of my favorite destinations for one obvious reason: the food!... Oh did you think I was going to say my boyfriend? (He's great too...but read on. You can see why it's a tough choice).

Someone I was speaking to about Philly referred to it as the 6th borough, which isn't that far off in terms of its proximity to the city. More accurately, I would call it Brooklyn. They take food damn seriously, and I think it relates to being in the shadow of Manhattan (ahem... Brooklyn). Walk into the average bar, nay the seediest dive bar, and you'll still find a menu full of creativity and quality ingredients (Brooklyn). Walking around you realize it's the type of place where people still get bread from their favorite bakery and are leaving their large affordable apartments to eat out way more than their budget allows (ha oh wait. Brooklyn doesn't really have large affordable apartments...They do? You live in one? CALL ME).

To get down to the food: Philly has great sandwiches. There is of course the infamous cheesesteak. So many damn cheesesteak places you could eat them morning, noon, and night and not have to go back to the same place twice. It is also likely many of those cheesesteaks will be gross...how to sift through the many options? An ingenious little study rated cheesesteak places by both their yelp reviews and the percentage of four square check ins that were by locals vs tourists. http://www.phillysteakout.com/


Going naturally for  a spot with a high percentage of local check ins (74%) brought us to Cosmi's Deli. The place looks like your corner bodega (minus the Eagles game playing the background) but the cheesesteak was top notch - I got mine with spicy long peppers, onions, and pepper cheese. The perfect level of spice brought out the caremlized onion and meat flavor. We had a second one with brocolli rabe, the bitter greens cutting the greasy meat perfectly. The bread was the thing: perfectly doughy and fresh, soft enough to soak up the cheese and meat juices but firm enough to hold everything in.

Taking a stroll down to the Italian market you'll hit Paesano's (in addition to a million amazing little fresh pasta, cheese, meat and sausage markets... And one mexican spot selling handmade fresh tortillas). These are the sandwiches I had for breakfast, all as amazing as they sound:


#1: Beef Brisket, Horseradish Mayo, Roasted Tomatoes,
Pepperincino, Sharp Provolone & Fried Egg

#2: Roasted Suckling Pig, Italian Long Hots,
Broccoli Rabe & Sharp Provolone

Once again part of what took it to the next level was the bread (or hoagies as they call them)... always fresh and fabulous. Also there is really a thing with roast pig in this town - spots routinely feature tender melt in your mouth pork. The best I have had out was at John's Roast Pork, where they cook an entire pig and sell the ridiculously flavorful and tender meat (closing time is when they run out).... More surprising was attending a block party, which had the usual buffet of pasta salad, finger foods... and an ENTIRE roast pig. As my boyfriend proclaimed, "They don't fuck around".

If at any point you get sandwiched out, Philly's large Vietnamese population means there are lots of options for pho...the kind of options that make you feel really legit when you walk in (the implication being you are one of very few white people encroaching on Vietnamese families enjoying a meal). Pho Ha is one such place. It can be found in what can only be described as a low end strip mall, but rather than stores it's filled with Vietnamese restaurants. Pho is a delicious soup concoction that of beef broth and noodles, the comes with a side of lemon grass, jalapeños, bean sprouts and mint to add as you go.  The rest depends on the spot. A more Americanized place I tried in New York offered beef, chicken, or mushrooms, while at Pho Ha you can add beef tendon, cartilage, tripe... if it had old shoe as an option I wouldn't be that surprised, and I'd probably eat it anyway because they seem to know what they're doing. When all those parts soak in the liquid, you get a fatty savory broth that is beautifully complemented by the herbs and spice. Eat it hungover with a side of iced vietnamese coffee, and you are in heaven.

So here's my final tip: Abandon whatever healthy-eating new years resolution you may have made, take a $13 Bolt Bus to Philly (where your bike conveniently fits in the luggage storage), and plan to explore the city...really really hungry.