Garden Growing

Tomatoes can't grow fast enough!

Over on Philly Market Cafe, Gaetano is reporting that tomatoes have finally arrived at Headhouse Row on Sundays. Not soon enough.


Here's some shots of our little green guys.

A Sweet 100 variety.


Another Sweet 100 cluster just starting to ripe.


Here's a shot of our butterbeans, climbing up some home-strung trellis.


More promising results...little bean pods.

English Pea Fettucine & Cheese Stuffed Blossom w/ Zucchini Cakes

Fun with market finds...Fresh English Peas, Prosciutto & Fettuccine.


Here we've got more cheese-stuffed zucchini blossoms..these are wrapped with little Prosciutto bow-ties.



Elizabeth shredded some yellow squash, mixed with an egg-flour batter and fried up some fritters to accompany the blossoms.



Final shot of the Pea & Prosciutto pasta.

South St Phad Thai

Unlike other cuisines, Pan-Asian is one that always ends up towards the bottom of our "Let's go grab a bite somewhere...where do you want to go?" list. We've been slowly visiting all the non-scary Asian places within walking distance of our house and one-by-one are working our way towards finding our favorite place.

Next up on the list was Pad Thai. I'd heard a few so-so reviews of this place and I suspected we wouldn't find anything beyond extraordinary...but it was a sunny Sunday afternoon just off South St, so the setting made up for the underwhelming offerings from Pad Thai



NO, that's not a massive fortune cookie on our table...it's just a napkin. The perfect weather and excellent service really made for an enjoyable time.



The steamed jade dumplings were decent...again, I know that there's probably a steamed dumpling just as good and a little cheaper lurking only a dozen blocks south of here around Washington Ave, but we were having a good time on the outside table so I wasn't too bothered by that fact.



The spring rolls were on the edge of being overdone, but they had plenty of crunch and perfectly flavorful & steamy innards. The side-sauce was leaning to the sweet-side (I like a little more citrus in my sauces), but the fresh salad accompanying the rolls helped take the sugary-sting off the accompanying sauce.

OK, here's the major complaint from every review I read about this place...if you're going to name your place Pad Thai, then the dish should be pretty damn good. The pad thai was a little sweet, like the aforementioned sauce, and the noodles were too tacky...they tended to clump up into a tangle and bring too much sauciness in each bite. Again, this isn't bad pad thai..it's just not noteworthy.

Service was top-notch, personable and prompt, but the food was pretty much in-line with your regular South St. expectations.

Check this one off the list and time to move on to clearing the next block...I saw Mustard Greens was next.

Varga Bar II

A summer evening outside at our latest local hangout, Varga Bar on 10th & Spruce. Here's a shot of the Czech Pils being served on draft...no better picture for an after-work summer evening relaxing.

This is NOT a summer dish, but was one of the few appetizers we hadn't tried yet...Truffled Mac & Cheese. Served in a little cast iron skillet, the truffled mac was creamy enough and not a fused together casserole like some others around town. Although the truffle-bits were more caviar, the cheese was beyond the normal white-cheddar. I had to refer back to the menu for the details (gruyere, fontina, marscapone) but the overall impression was a truffle-worth mix of white cheeses.

At the exact opposite end of the oozy, warm comfort food is the pot o'pickles...at $4, it's the cheapest dish but don't let that mislead you...this pot of home-pickled veggies is a rich mix of crisp & tart veggies. Waxbeans, normally bland and fleshy, soak up the pickling liquid and crunch like a Vlassic. The snowpea pods are another interesting pickled veg. I picked out all the little leek hearts and enjoyed them with a crystal clear, cool Pilsner. No pickled radishes like a German place, but the variety made for some great bar-food that was evocative of Bavarian beer-fare.

Fig Upsidedown Cakes

We spotted a humongous pint of Mission Figs down in the Italian Market this weekend and decided to spread them out across out menu one Saturday.

Blue-cheese stuffed, prosciutto wrapped and broiled, they made great appetizers. But the real must-make recipe was the mini Fig Up-side Down Cakes... link to the recipe.


Figs get doused in sugar, then go into a pan with butter.

A batter is mixed up with egg, flour, milk, and cinnamon, among other things.



The result is a fluffy batter that gets poured over the hot pans, coating the sizzling & sweet pile of sugared & buttered figs.




20 minutes later in a 400 degree oven, you've got a figgy-cinnamon muffin.

Flipping it over, you can see the butter-cooked sugared figs creating a sweet crust around the rim of a pillowy-soft cinnamon spiked muffin pastry.

Some people serve this with a gelato or ice-cream...it didn't last long enough to let the ice-cream come up to temp. Elizabeth used our mini tapas pans to create individual fig-cakes...you might be able to get away with this in ramekins as well...the mini-cakes would make a great end to a dinner party.

Coy Latin Offerings Peeking Out at Coquette

Adam Erace's review of the bistro Coquette left me a bit puzzled about what I could expect to find on the bar menu at this traditionally French establishment.

We had been deliberately avoiding the place after I heard rumors about the inconsistencies in the food coming out of the kitchen since they had acquired a new chef...the French-Thai fusion was a manageable combination that apparently wasn't producing any meaningful results.

However, when I saw this story about the new new chef and the addition of some latin-focused cuisine, I figured that it couldn't hurt to try out some small bites and test the waters.



On a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon we grabbed a table outside and ordered up a few dishes outside the French spectrum.

Elizabeth ordered the Gazpacho with Shrimp; this huge bowl, at $4, was a perfect savory selection to cool down with.

The chilled tomato broth was slightly spiced and the chilled, chopped shrimp helped give a refreshing sea-breeze character to the soup. The crispy fried strips of tortilla and diced pineapple bits helped to give a crunchy & crisp character to the soup that complimented the latin spices hanging around the edges of the gazpacho's flavor profile.



The Mexican Albondigas were the fire to the Shrimp Gazpacho's ice...at $2.50, these were great snacks, packed with heat and very filling. The sauce contained a noticeable amount of adobo pepper...giving these meatballs a one-two punch of smoky heat. The meat itself was mixed with rice and some diced veg & herbs. If it hadn't been for the fact that I was drinking a French lager I would've thought we were eating at a latin tapas bar.



OK, this is what hooked me...the PW article had a photo highlight of the roasted, spiced corn. Served with a spicy mayonnaise, cheese and lemon, the corn was a perfect summer snack. It wasn't as 'grilled' as the PW picture suggested, but my spice-stained fingers were proof enough that the new latin approach to Coquette's bar snacks is a welcome addition to the happy hour offerings around South St.

Zucchini Blossom & Squash Gratin w/ Grilled Leg of Lamb & Tomato Vinegar Slaw

Our four little zucchini plants have thrown down the gauntlet and are pumping out blossoms at a record rate, leaving us scrambling for unique ways to cook them up. These things are the rabbits of the culinary niche-gardening world...Elizabeth gathered up 4 more this morning to go along with the 8 already in our fridge from this weekend...total count is 31 blossoms in the last 3 1/2 weeks.

Elizabeth adapted one of her signature recipes (Squash Mini Casseroles - follow the link) to incorporate the blossoms.

She chopped the older blossoms up into quarters and sauteed them along with the yellow squash, them blended the veg saute into a mix of panko bread cumbs, greek yogurt & a smidgen of goat cheese.

She had the idea to crispy fry some blossoms and place them atop a finished & browned gratin.

We dusted the blossom in some seasoned rice flour then dipped them into a 375 degree canola oil bath.

I had to hold the blossom lightly to shape the blossom & keep the leaves from spreading open in the fryer, but the end result yielded beautifully crispy blossoms for garnishing the mini squash casserole with.

To accompany the squash we purchased 2 lbs. of butterflied leg of lamb from Whole Foods; it was on sale at 6.99 per lb., which made for a perfect grilled accompaniment to the casseroles...plus, there would be plenty of leftovers.

Here's the final result of the grilling...char-grilled exterior, pinky medium-rare center.

I scored the meat on both sides, marinated this hunk of lamb in some salt, pepper, garlic & lemon juice for 1/2 hour and then threw it meat side down on a blazing hot grill to char, before flipping it over, fat-side down, and cooking for another 20-30 minutes on indirect heat.

After the center registered 135, I pulled the lamb off the grill, plucked a handful of thyme from the garden and threw it atop the lamb as it was tented in some foil to rest for 10 minutes.

To accompany the lamb, we made a tomato & red onion slaw, spiced with salt, pepper, mint & cumin, drenched in olive oil & red wine vinegar and allowed to steep in the fridge while the lamb cooked on the grill. The minty cool and bracingly tart tomato & onion salad worked well to softened the strong char-grill of the lamb.

Effie's is...Iffy?

With all the attention that Cypriot BYOB Kanella has been getting in Washington Square West, we thought it would only be fair to try out Effie's, an unassuming Greek BYOB just a few blocks away. Effie's has a reputation for courtyard seating and decent standards, like octopus and lamb, so we stopped in on a Wednesday to sample the offerings.

They were a little jammed up and grabbing a courtyard table, which seemed relatvely easy for 8:30PM on a Wednesday, was out of the question. As we waited to be seated in a two-top along Pine Street we amused ourselves watching the cooks tackling orders while grill-smoke pouring out of the tiny open kitchen.



The first course of calamari was perfectly done. This was some of the best calamari we've had in a long time; if you've read some of our other reviews, you know that we use calamari as the baseline for judging how much care and attention a kitchen puts into the food.

At first glance, it should be an easy dish to make...pull it from a prep dish, batter/bread and deep fry, then serve...but so many kitchens really blow this one, through bad pre-made ingredient, poorly mixed or seasoned coating or due to innatentively over cooking the calamari into fried rubber bands...oh let me count the ways that you can ruin thee.

Effie's calamari was a perfect balance of light, crispy coating, just salty & seasoned enough with tender squid rings beneath. Served still warm, this was a sign of good things to come.



The sampler platter was a decent smattering of bulgar stuffed grape leaves, an eggplant dip, soem hummus, cheese and peppers...consistency of the dips were smooth and flavors pronounced...a well-done, if not basic, appetizer. Served with pita points, a decent way to pass the evening over a glass of wine.



Mains brought both great grilling and gritty greens. The lamb rack was perfectly seasoned & grilled, albeit a little on the medium side of medium rare. Resting on a bed of mac & cheese orzo, this was Greek comfort food...except for the sand.

The dish was ruined with the ring of gritty greens that had not been throughly washed...my wife's first bite into them yeilded that 'tween the teeth crunch that kills your appetite...she asked me to try another piece to see if it was a fluke, but after one or two more bites from different bunches of greens the slack-luster prep was apparent. She picked her way around the sides while enjoying the lamb.



I ordered Lamb Lemonato, the lemon potato and lamb dish...basically cubed, grilled lamb & roasted potatos drenched in an lemon-oil sauce. The potatos were hit or miss due to their irregular sizes...some over-cooked & withered, other larger chunks on the edge of doneness, an occasional well-roasted wedge...Seems like short-cut prep strikes again.

The lamb mostly appeared in small scraps and was a little gristly..however, those sizeable chunks that could be found amongst the potatos were decently seasoned and cooked...I found myself digging through the cubes of spud in search of those few remaining lamb chunks that were hiding shadows of my plate created by the al fresco street lighting.

Final verdict? Great place for appetizers. They had actually 86'd two of the apps we wanted to try (tomato tart and the grilled octupus, a favrotie from what I can gather), so we may be back to try those and get some more calamari.

We're staying away from the entrees though...seemed like the poor prep went by unnoticed by the chef making it to the plate. Those sides sabotaged what could've been some great lamb dishes.

Most of the other customers leaving seemed happy though, so maybe it was just a fluke or that fact that we ordered at the end of a busy shift and were left picking through our entrees looking for the delicatable bits...but Effie's stuck us as Iffy's.

S&H Kebab House for Lunch

It's no secret that the S&H Kebab House, on P'Unk just off South St., has opened to rave reviews for the grilled skewers & all around well-done Turkish food.



It was a gorgeous summer day when we decided to have lunch at S&H...the part of P'Unk isn't heavily traveled, so you can actually enjoy your meal w/o the car exhaust.



Plus, for $8 you get plenty of satisfying food...both a platter and an accompanying salad or appetizer.

We started with the Tabbouleh salad & the Haydari, a dip made with yogurt, garlic, dill and walnut pieces. The Tabbouleh was well seasoned and full of veggies...diced red pepper, scallions, tomato & parsley. The Haydari, slathered over warmed pita slices, was addictive...the yogurt+dill is a familiar flavor, but the walnut pieces gave the spread a pleasing bite.



The main attraction for us was the news that the lamb kebabs were char-grilled...here's a close-up of the Sis Kebap, marinated lamb cubes. Each platter came with grilled pepppers & tomato, two kinds of rice( a spiced short-grain rice and a buttery medium grain) and a slaw of cabbage & carrot.



The lamb Doner combines hearty char-grilled lamb flavor in delicately sliced portions. The balance of marinated meat flavors and accompanying veg made for a great summer lunch.
Although the desserts looked just as summer-ready, we were stuffed.

As we lunched, passers-by commented to one another about S&H, either pointing out that they had eaten there or needed to drop in soon.

Zucchini Flowers are in Bloom

The first crop of zucchini flowers have begun to open up in the garden.

For a recap of how we cooked these last year, check out our post: http://cephood.blogspot.com/2008/08/fiori-di-zucca-fritti-fried-zucchini.html

Although these blooms don't have a little fruit connected to it, you can still fry them up with some cheese stuffing all the same.

Actually, I prefer to deep fry these blooms because they have the stems, which make perfect handles for dipping them in and out of the oil without breaking the stuffed bloom.

Varga Bar Grand Opening

First off, I should warn you, I'm a WWII history fanatic...and the perfect fusion of art, erotica & history is the nose art on the bombers of WWII planes. Varga Bar is a gastro-pub tip of the hat to the 'Greatest Generation'.



Varga is evocative of the retro...here's a snapshot of the coasters...proof enough? Finger bowls of Chex Mix for snacking.



Foodwise, Varga delivers...here's a pic of the crab & cheese fries; freshness of the crab meat was noticeable...sprinkled in parmesan & white cheddar, these fries avoided the gloppy mess you can run into with cheese topping...perfect pub-grub.



'Battleship Row'...the business end of Varga Bar. I read earlier that VB's shtick was 'ALL-AMERICAN' food and beer and the tap list was a decent balance of west-coast/east-coast/local beers.

Look up for Heavenly Bodies

Here's a shot of the ceiling..I felt like I was in the barracks of a WWII bomber crew...all these lovely ladies smiling down on the crush of opening night patrons. Bonus...the mixed drinks are seasonal and tote the title 'Miss May', 'Miss June' & 'Miss July'...I just hope Miss December is a hot toddy.



Speaking of custom libations, Flying Fish brewers were there to open the festivities...here's a shot of my IPA being poured straight from the firkin.




Varga has invested heavily in the retro B&W combo...plus they've got TONS of outside seating, as well as comfy booth seating, as pictured here.



Oh, and for the beer-hounds out there, they do growlers. Tria has company...Varga is two blocks closer to our abode and a little heartier on the food angle...looks like Washington Square West denizens have yet another gastro option to call their 'local'.



Another shot of the IPA & stylized coasters...I saw two hand-pumps as well on the bar, but I was so focused on the firkin that I neglected to find out what was on pump.



Cutesy touch...the tab was served in a mini Silver Bullet can...and yes, if you want a REAL silver bullet or PBR they've got you covered too.