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…

August, a petite, Italian BYOB at 8th and Wharton in South Philly, is one of the city’s hidden gems. Though I have a handful of friends that frequent the restaurant and, when dining there, it’s apparent many other tables are filled with locals who eat there weekly, it doesn’t receive a deserving fanfare that establishments created by an Iron Chef or tri-state restaurateur would.  It hits the mark on characteristics many great and lasting restaurants have: the ambiance is romantic, it’s small without feeling exclusive, the chef and staff are friendly and warm, and the food is quite memorable.

Beets are too pretty to not like.

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I’m home in time to get lost in a mini-marathon of Extra Virgin, my favorite show on the Cooking Channel. The series chronicles American actress Debi Mazar’s travels and kitchen escapades with her Italian husband, Gabriele Corcos, as they explore areas of Italy and New York. With their two beautiful daughters in tow, the pair make a perfect team in every episode as they find simple, fresh ingredients in local markets and take them back to their kitchen to make a meal together. Read More…

Just a quick ride on the el or a short drive to University City, lies the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. The Penn Museum is home to about 1 -million artifacts covering existence anywhere from Ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire, Native American tribes and everywhere in between. Though the most intriguing items are viewable to the public behind glass cases, Museum researchers and scholars are involved with research projects all over the globe that could, literally, dig up something new for the Penn Museum visitors.

In addition to the intriguing permanent collections, the museum regularly features special exhibits. Until March 28^th, the exclusive, and highly anticipated, Secrets of the Silk Road exhibit is open to the public. Through artifacts, relics, and even well-preserved mummies, the exhibit tells the story of life in the Tarim Basin desert, located in Central Asia. Spanning from Europe to Eastern China, the Silk Road is a network of trade routes connected through this region, responsible for modern trade, cross cultural exchanges and the growth of many items we still use today.

The Penn Museum has designed interactive components for visitors of all ages, further exploring the language and textiles of those who lived in the Tarim Basin region. Additionally, visitors can experience the Silk Road from the perspective of a princess, merchant, entertainer, or horseman of that time period by participating in an activity provided at the beginning of the exhibit; with a paper map in hand, participants discover more about their chosen character by unlocking answers with a decoder throughout the exhibit.

The interactive nature of the exhibit continues with lunch at The Pepper Mill Café, inside the museum. Until June, menus focus on a specific country along the Silk Road, rotating weekly. From China to Vietnam, to India and Greece, the catering staff spent two months researching and developing traditional foods of the region. The exhibit itself shows visitors what the people in the Tarim Basin ate; displays include an ancient, excavated wonton, spring roll and fried dough. Free recipes available inside the exhibit allow visitors to experience the Secrets of the Silk Road at home.  This recipe, for wontons filled with pork, probably tastes a little bit better than its thousands-of-years-old version in the exhibit. Read More…