I love showing off the many benefits and highlights of living in Fishtown, and the extensive list of restaurants within walking distance is always the first thing I boast. When my husband and I take friends out, Loco Pez never fails to impress; their kitchen is speedy, and the food is phenomenal and reasonably priced. With a group of people, though, we face a predicament: do we order our usual number of tacos and risk looking like gluttons?

Joe and I easily eat eight tacos each and leave feeling satisfied, not stuffed. It’s hard to hold back from ordering more, so we’ve learned our lesson and share chips and guacamole, too. In a group setting, we first attempt to read our dinner-mates to see how comfortable we can be – Do we order our usual? Should we play it safe and order four tacos each? What if we’re still hungry? In the end, our appetites usually conquer our doubt and we convince our dinner companions to not be shy and follow suit.

This slow cooker recipe produces a slightly spicy shredded chicken reminiscent of the amazing pollo taco at Loco Pez. A homemade version of one of my favorites, I could stuff my face without thinking twice. Read More…

It makes me chuckle a little bit when a complaint of French cooking and restaurants is small portions with more of a concern for artful plating than feeding hungry people. In actuality, many standard recipes are incredibly rich and filling, from even just the bread basket with homemade butter to the lavish desserts. Classics like crocks of hot French onion soup with oozing caps of browned cheese, rustic one pot meals like coq au vin, and buttery, flaky tarts with baked fruit could all suffice for the largest appetite.

Beef (boeuf to all you Francophiles) Bourguignon is a staple among brasserie style menus and, while it’s recognition is now associated with fine dining, it’s a traditional French peasant dish. Recipes vary, no advanced cooking techniques are required and, overall, it’s near impossible to screw up. I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying this version at Les Halles in New York, the restaurant that helped ignite Anthony Bourdain’s notoriety. Read More…

Hefty.

Food competitions based on geographical area are always entertaining. For starters, we all know Philadelphia is the only place on the planet you can get a real-deal, authentic cheesesteak. Imposters in other cities selling “Philadelphia-style” cheesesteaks are frauds and true Philadelphians know better than to even think of ordering the sandwich outside the area, otherwise you’re up for disappointment. New York claims their bagels are something special and even attempts to participate in the soft pretzel category. Personally, I don’t think that’s even worth arguing; Philly’s perfected soft pretzels, too.

We even have a good shot at the best pizza outside of Italy. Fishtown alone has some of the city’s best spots – from Pizza Brain, to Pizzeria Beddia, to the handful of other small shops the neighborhood has been home to forever –  I would say we are lucky enough to never have trouble finding a place close enough that they’ll deliver a quality pie to your door. Until recently, though, our city was not typically thrown into the mix when it came to the great pizza debate.  Read More…

Did you ever eat something so delicious, you couldn’t erase it from your memory? You explain it to all of your friends, but with each descriptive word you salivate more and more. Anything else you eat in the weeks afterward is just mediocre, and you wish for every bite thereafter to taste like that tasty, memorable deliciousness in your recent past.

This happens to me all too often and, unfortunately, I don’t have the budget to visit my favorite restaurants for the extraordinary dishes I yearn for at my leisure. I do, however, like a challenge and find that it’s just as easy to attempt to replicate the dishes I crave at home. Typically, I identify the flavors and ingredients with attentiveness as I take in each bite. Restaurant menus aid in the process, and usually provide two to three integral ingredients in the item’s description.  Read More…