Farm to Table at its Finest...

Farmicia

15 South 3^rd Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

www.farmiciarestaurant.com/ 

My girlfriend’s parents had come into town for the weekend for her birthday a few months ago, so we went out to dinner to a place that we had been looking forward to trying for some time. We went to Farmicia in Olde City, a farm to table restaurant with a focus on fresh ingredients and tasty, yet simple food. I thought that our meal was great, but my girlfriend wasn’t impressed. I personally know how difficult it can be to make simple things to perfection in the kitchen, so I appreciated the concept behind the restaurant and our meal. I think she might have been expecting a bit more, but I think they hit their mantra right on. 

We started out with an appetizer of crispy Vietnamese calamari that was served with a sweet and hot tomato dipping sauce. The product lived up to the description as the squid was really crispy. It was tender inside the crunchy crust, and it was accented by the delicious sweet and hot dipping sauce. 

My main course was a tuna steak, grilled to medium rare perfection with lemon and olive oil, green beans and red potatoes covered in tarragon-caper aioli. My tuna was cooked perfectly, and it was seasoned just right. The ingredients were simple: olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, but they were just what were needed to enhance the flavor of the tuna. The potatoes were nicely roasted, and the green beans were crunchy and delicious. My only complaint about the dish was the tarragon-caper aioli. The flavor was very good, but it was a bit too thick in my opinion. It was less of a dipping sauce as it should have been and it had more of a texture like a compound butter. I didn’t really like the texture that it provided.  

For dessert, my girlfriend and I shared a brownie sundae topped with house made vanilla ice cream and house made whipped cream. The entire thing was absolutely delicious. There is nothing like homemade ice cream. It was so creamy and delicious that we ate up every bit in mere minutes.

I would love to get down to Farmacia for brunch one day. I have heard that it is absolutely phenomenal for brunch. However, I definitely think it is worth visiting for lunch or dinner as well. The food was perfectly executed, and the flavors were all quite delicious. Get out there and try it as soon as you can. Cheers!

BBQ Heaven in a Firehouse...

Jack’s Firehouse

2130 Fairmount Avenue

Philadelphia, PA 19130

jacksfirehouse.com/ 

There are very few places that I can think of in the area to get some really good barbeque. One of the best, if not the best that I have been to is Jack’s Firehouse in Philadelphia. The restaurant is in a place that you would never expect to find great barbeque; on a street across the street from an old penitentiary in a building that used to be a firehouse. My girlfriend, her parents and I went there on a Friday before going to walk around and tour Eastern State Penitentiary. I had been there once before, but it was everyone else’s first visit to Jack’s. When you walk in the door, everything is still set up so that you can tell the building used to be an old firehouse and I love that. You can smell the barbeque from the second you walk in the door. We sat down and ordered, for me a cheesesteak with fries, and we waited for our food to come out for lunch.

While we waited for our food to come out, cornbread was brought out for the table. It was served with a blackberry jam that was absolutely outstanding. Tart, sweet, and delicious, I think you could have put it on a flip flop and it would have tasted good. The cornbread was wonderful as well, the type of thing that you only really get done so well in barbeque joints and in the South. 

I also had the opportunity to taste my girlfriend’s father’s pumpkin soup and boy, I am glad that I did. It was magnificent! It was supremely creamy and full of pumpkin spices in a way that made it feel like I was eating pumpkin pie that had been liquefied into soup form. 

My cheesesteak came out next and I was incredibly happy with my choice. It was hard for me not to pick something barbeque related, but my girlfriend ordered the brisket sandwich, so since I knew I could taste that too, I wound up ordering the cheesesteak. The roll was soft, a bit softer than I usually like on a cheesesteak, but it was incredible light and delicious. The meat was chunked up nicely, and was mixed together with the perfect amount of cheese. A quick addition of ketchup rounded out this masterpiece perfectly. The fries were pretty good as well, but I wish they had been a bit crispier.

Jack’s Firehouse is a really different place than most places you can find in the city. It’s fine dining, but for manageable prices and without the stuck-up nature that some fancier places provide. The food is fantastic and if you like good barbeque you have to check it out! Cheers!

Chinese Fireball...

Han Dynasty

108 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

handynasty.net/ 

My cousin emailed me a few weeks ago saying he had made a reservation at Han Dynasty in Olde City for a Saturday night and he invited my girlfriend and I to go with him and his wife. We of course decided to go, (how could I turn down going out to eat?). It was a place that both my cousin and I had been looking to try ever since it was mentioned in Philly magazine’s 50 best places to eat right now issue. I love spicy food, and Han Dynasty is known for authentic Chinese, with a spicier flare than usual.

If you didn’t know the restaurant was where it is, you would probably just walk right past it. It is close to the water down in an area of Olde City that houses many other ethnic restaurants. The restaurant is small and seems a little disorganized, but once you sit down everything becomes worth it. We ordered the dan dan noodles, the signature dish of the restaurant, dumplings in chili oil, hot sauce style beef, and garlic style chicken. Dishes are served family style, so we shared everything between us.

While we waited for our food, they brought us out some tea for the table. They also charged a corking fee for our wine, so heads up if you go there and bring your own. They also charge you per beer to open them. When the dan dan noodles finally came out I was in a state of pure bliss. The dan dan noodles were ridiculously delicious. I wish I could eat them every day for the rest of my life, and I am not kidding. I almost asked for another bowl they were so good. They had a slight peanut sauce taste to them, as well as some spiciness. I seriously cannot say enough how fantastic they were.

The dumplings I thought were pretty good, I just thought they didn’t have enough filling inside of them. The dipping sauce they were served with was delicious though. It was a mixture of sesame and chili oils that added tons of flavor to the dumplings.

I really enjoyed our main courses as well. I particularly enjoyed the hot sauce style beef, because it was “make your nose run and make you sweat hot”. I love spicy anything, so I really enjoyed the beef and mixing it in with the rice we were served. The garlic chicken was really tasty as well. I wasn’t as impressed with it, but it was a very good version of garlic chicken. The one interesting thing about it was the crispy rice it was served with. It was honestly like eating raw ramen noodles with the chicken, but the texture contrast mixed in with the garlic sauce was a really fantastic combination.

If you like Chinese or spicy food, or both, you should definitely go to Han Dynasty. I can’t wait to go back. I am dying to go back is more like it, because I want to live in a bowl of dan dan noodles for the rest of my life. But seriously, they are awesome, so go try them and let me know what you think! Cheers!

The Final Stop on the Tour...Twice

Broadway Diner

6501 Eastern Avenue

Baltimore, MD 21224

www.broadwaydiner1.com/ 

The final stop on our Baltimore Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives tour was a little place called the Broadway Diner. It wasn’t supposed to be the last stop on our tour, but the place we had planned to go for lunch apparently isn’t open on Sundays so we wound up eating lunch at Broadway Diner as well. It was the first time in my life that I had eaten two meals in the same day at the same restaurant. It was really weird, but the food was so good, I really didn’t mind. We were pretty hungover when we went for breakfast with my two friends and my girlfriend, so we ordered a bunch of food and went to town on it.

I ordered corned beef hash, with two eggs overeasy, rye toast and hashbrowns. I was a bit disappointed by the corned beef hash. It looked and tasted like it was from a can, but I cant really know if that is for sure. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was alright. The eggs were great, but the toast and the homefries were the real stars of the show. The bread was clearly baked in house, and it was really tasty. The slices were gigantic, so I really only ate one, but it was some of the best rye bread I have ever eaten. The homefries were really amazing too. They were buttery and super crunchy on the outside, exactly the way that I like them. 

I also got the opportunity to try my friends’ pulled pork and deep fried mac and cheese. It sounded so delicious that I couldn’t pass up trying it. The pulled pork was fantastic. It was saucy, and cooked to tender perfection. The deep fried mac and cheese was something like I had never tasted before. I wasn’t expecting it to be nearly as good as it was. The mac and cheese didn’t dry out at all, and the breading was super duper crunchy on the outside. I wish I had ordered it for myself!

As I mentioned before, my girlfriend and I wound up going back to the Broadway Diner for lunch. This time around, as we were sitting there feeling awkward and hoping our waitress from the morning wouldn’t recognize us, I ordered the pastrami Rueben sandwich with fries for lunch.

This had to be one of the best sandwiches I have ever had. They made the bread fresh in house, and it was really toasted nicely. The pastrami was super tender and full of that pepper flavor that makes it so delicious. The sauerkraut was amazing as well. The only thing missing from the sandwich was the Russian dressing. I don’t know if they just forgot it, or if they intentionally serve it that way, but I think the creaminess and tanginess of the Russian dressing really would have kicked this sandwich up to the next level. The fries were perfect! They had to be double or even triple fried because they were crunchtastic!

The Broadway Diner was really incredible. I would go back there to eat in a heartbeat. Anyone that lives in the Baltimore area that hasn’t been needs to go as soon as possible. Everything is delicious, and there is a vast amount of variety. Get out there, try it, and let me know what you think! Cheers!

Italian Let Down...

Caesar’s Den

223 South High Street

Baltimore, MD 21202

www.caesarsden.com/ 

On the Saturday evening of the weekend my girlfriend and I spent in Baltimore, I decided to take her out to a nicer dinner in Little Italy before we went out with one of my good friends from high school in Fells Point. I decided on Caesar’s Den, but after eating there I really wish I had picked somewhere else.

It’s so hard to go places based on reading reviews alone, because so much of it is subjective and biased, but I thought that I could trust this place and the reviews I read. We started off the evening with a bottle of wine, and continued with a prosciutto, peppers, and mozzarella salad, followed by a Caesar salad, chicken parmesan, black fettuccini with Arugula, and we shared pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

The meal started off alright. The prosciutto and cheese salad was very fresh and vibrant. The olive oil was a nice accent and it enhanced the flavor of the aged meat and creamy cheese. However, after this course everything started to go down hill. The server that we had was horrible, and he was more concerned with tripping and playing footsies with his twin brother who was also a server there than paying attention to his paying customers. 

When our entrees came out, I was fairly satisfied, but how hard is it to make good chicken parm? This chicken parm was good because it was crispy underneath the sauce and the little bit of cheese that was on top of it was melted to perfection. The side pasta it came with was terrible, and the sauce that was served over the pasta tasted pretty terrible.

The black pasta with arugula was very bland. It lacked seasoning, flavor, and texture. It was a pretty bad attempt at what could have been a really good pasta dish. Plus it was lukewarm, so that never makes pasta taste very good in my opinion. 

The pumpkin cheesecake came out after a really long wait from our waiter and after he walked away before finishing his last sentence about the desserts. It was tasty and creamy, but it was pretty small, about a half the size of a regular slice. We then waited a ridiculous amount of time to get our check, as the waiter was being a dork with his brother again and not paying attention to his customers.

I was pretty upset about how bad Caesar’s Den was. It was our anniversary, and the experience was pretty terrible. I wish I had made a better decision about where we ate in Little Italy, but I guess you live and learn. What I can say is that you shouldn’t go to Caesar’s Den if you are in Little Italy. I am sure there are much better Italian places to eat. Cheers!

3rd Stop on the Diner's Tour...

Chap’s Pit Beef

5801 Pulaski Highway #1

Baltimore, MD 21205

chapspitbeef.com/ 

The next stop on our Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives tour of Baltimore was Chap’s Pit Beef. Pit beef is a signature item in Baltimore. I would liken it to a mix between bbq and roast beef. I thought it was really funny, but the place was located in the same parking lot as a gentleman’s club. It’s a little hole in the wall place that you would just drive right by if you didn’t know that it was there. Duff Goldman, the host of the show Ace of Cakes, told Guy Fieri to go there because it was the best place in Baltimore to get a pit beef sandwich. I don’t know if I got the wrong thing or not, but I didn’t think it was all that special when we went.

My girlfriend and I ordered a regular pit beef sandwich to split and an order of fries. I thought the beef sandwich was a little dry and it just reminded me of roast beef. I didn’t think it was anything to rave about, but again I might have ordered the wrong thing. There is a picture of me doing the Guy Fieri signature move below called "The Haunch". Its a maneuver designed to prevent the grease and juices from a messy sandwich from running down you elbows. The fries were really good though. I do not usually like soft fries, but they were incredibly flavorful and I really enjoyed them because they were really peppery and salty. 

I would go back to Chap’s and try something else to see if I could get a better feel for it. The food wasn’t bad; it just didn’t blow me away. It was good enough for me to say for you to give it a shot, so let me know what you think! Cheers!