Saturday Night Lights: Texas Barbecue with Spinal Tapas

Book your tickets now, cowboys and gals, for Spinal Tapas' second gastronomic orgy at Philly Kitchen Share. Chefs and Philadelphia Weekly food writers Tim McGinnis and Brian McManus themed their first Spinal Tapas event around the Philadelphia Weekly package Must Eats they coauthored with yours truly. This one, happening January 16th with seatings for 16 at 6pm and 9pm, will take carnivores on a tour McManus's home state, Texas, from eastern (apple-brined hickory smoked pulled pork barbecue) to central (dry-rubbed 12 hour mesquite smoked brisket) and down to the border (barbecued goat tacos). Additionally, expect chili con carne, the national dish, frijoles a la charra (stewed pinto beans with chiles and the burnt tips of the brisket), collard greens with ham hocks, jalapeño corn bread, and fruit kolaches, a cobbler like dessert of central Texas. McGinnis and McManus will keep you hydrated with plenty of spiked sweet tea and the always-classy Miller High Life. Tickets are only $40 per person, and reservations can be made at the Kitchen Share's website.

Craft Beer Shop To East Passyunk

Avenue P’unks rejoice! The beer gods have heard your prayers. In early 2010, former Temple classmates Gena Montebello and Michele Aquino will open the Bottle Shop on 1941 East Passyunk. The 26-year-old self-proclaimed craft beer geeks, Northeast and South Philly natives, respectively, are in the final stages of the liquor license transfer and have already signed the lease for the 1200-square-foot space they plan to trick out with 10 to 15 fridges they’ll fill with beers from as far as Japan and as close at Delaware Avenue. There’ll be beer-friendly snacks, too: gourmet popcorn, spiced nuts, cheeses, panini. Montebello and Aquino are aiming for “late February, early March,” to which we say, hurry.

Photo: riversaredamp

A Noble Departure

Just received word that chef Steve Cameron has resigned from his position of executive chef at Noble American Cookery on Sansom Street. Just last week, a rumor told us this was imminent. Was it the tepid reviews? Or something else? Either way we'll miss his braised short ribs over sweet onion risotto. At least cocktail wizard Christian Gaal is still behind the bar.

Photo: Noble

Cafe Estelle + Stoudt's = Beery, Bacony Bliss

Thursday night at Café Estelle, chef Marshall Green teamed up with Adamstown microbrewery Stoudt’s for a five-course menu we knew we couldn’t miss. For $40 a head, there was a lot of food and a lot of beer, as well as Bourbon provided by bad influences and blogalicious buddies Felicia D’Ambrosio of Meal Ticket and Philly Weekly photographer Mike Persico.



Stoudt’s Munich-style Gold Lager drank well with the first course, a cheddar-bacon-and-Stoudt’s gold soup in which you could really taste the bitter edge of the beer in a wonderful way. Green followed with buttery Bibb lettuce cups cradling succulent chicken confit and toasted hazelnuts. As salads go, it was rich, but Stoudt’s crisp, brilliant Pilsner sliced right through. Their APA came next, floral and slightly sweet with a trace of cleansing bitterness on the finish. The briny Nicoise olives in the butternut squash risotto alongside seared ahi mimicked the hops in the APA, a calm salty surf that swept up the lingering starch after each bite. The next course brought Scarlet Lady in our glasses and well as Scarlet Lady on our plates; Green, sporting his signature backwards maroon Phillies cap, braised pork shanks in the luscious, garnet beer till sublimely tender, then plated them with sour cabbage and the most delicious spaetzle we’ve ever had. Green’s pea-sized German dumplings had real live texture, crunchy and gold on one side from a solid pan-caramelization, soft on the other. If the pork shank was the best course of the night, dessert—a slim slice of silky dark chocolate ganache tart set off by Stoudt’s Fat Dog stout—was the best pairing. We’re not even huge stout drinkers over here, but the notes of smoke and coffee in the beer gave the torte a gravity that, like Stoudt’s and Green, we had no choice but to stand up and applaud.

Ring In 2010 With Truffles... Lots Of Truffles...

Just got word from fish chef/owner Mike Stollenwerk that black and white truffles with be the star in his New Year's Eve menu. And if you, like us, instantly wondered if the menu would include his otherworldly seared skate wing over truffled spaetzel: YES! The menu for the rest of the 9-course feast ($110 per person or $150 with paired wines) follows.

Amuse
Blue Point Oyster
Potato bisque, black truffle

Maine Scallop
Pea leave – white truffle salad, poached egg vinaigrette

Skate Wing
Truffled spaetzle, parmesan broth, melted leeks

Lobster Risotto
Celery leaf, black truffle

Grapefruit Sorbet

Wagyu Ribeye
Truffled celriac, royal trumpet, bordelaise sauce

Cheese Plate

Chocolate Truffle Torte
White truffle ice cream

Photo: fish

Introducing: The Oyster Evangelist

Philadelphia restaurant critic and blogalicious friend and neighbor Joy Manning launched her fly new blog today, the Oyster Evangelist. We approve, as we're down with all thing oyster. The blog features thoughts on food and easy recipes like the one for this improvised lunch based on the Incan supergrain, quinoa. Knowing Manning, who coauthored cookbook Almost Meatless with Tara Mataraza Desmond, we expect to get lots of great meals out of this blog.

Photo: JoyManning

Sweet Surrender in Doylestown

At blogalicious, we are ardent fans of the tasting menu. The element of surprise, the ability to taste several different things, the sense that you’re getting the chef’s best. We dig. So when we got word of this curious tasting menu at Buxco bistro Honey, we had to pass on the info. Chef Joe McAtee, who owns Honey with wife Amy, has billed his special menu “Surrender” because the courses keep coming until you literally surrender. Six, nine, twelve courses, they keep on coming until you throw in the towel, and the price is a flat $65 per person no matter how many you consume. Logistically, we’re not sure how they work dessert it, but with savories like Maryland crab mac ‘n’ cheese with uni veloute, curried cauliflower bisque and coffee-glazed Wagyu short ribs, we’re not really sure we care.

Photo: DoylsetownAlive