Burgers Iron Chef Style...

Bobby Flay’s Burger Palace

2000 Route 38

Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

http://www.bobbysburgerpalace.com/restaurant.php?id=9 

This past year I did most of my holiday shopping online. I do however love to go to the mall during Christmas time if only just once, because it really makes me feel like its Christmas time. This past year it took me a while to find a parking spot at the Cherry Hill mall, but once I got a spot I walked on over to Bobby Flay’s Burger Palace which had recently opened. I had been to the one in Philly before, but that was previous to me beginning my blogging experience. 

This particular visit was longer than I had hoped. Sorry Bobby, you know you are my boy, but the people that you have running this place need a little help. I don’t know much about the restaurant business, but when the order machine in the back stops printing tickets, they should be printing them out up front and handing them into the back instead of making people wait in line for over a half an hour and not taking any orders at all. That is the drawback of technology; when it fails people forget how things were done before the technology existed. That being said, I eventually got to order my meal, a Miami burger… “crunchified” (you can put potato chips on top of any sandwich), beer battered onion rings, and a coffee milk shake, and grabbed a seat at the nearby counter.

The milkshake was the first out, and I was quite impressed with it. It was wonderfully creamy, and the coffee flavor was right on the tip of my tongue with each and every bite. It also looked like there was either coffee bean bits or small chocolate chips inside of the milkshake that added a bit of texture to it. 

After sucking down almost all of the milkshake, the rest of my meal came out and it was bangin’! The Miami burger is basically a Cuban sandwich with a burger patty in the middle. The burger was topped with ham and Swiss cheese, as well as pickles and horseradish mustard. The bun was a sesame seed bun, and the entire sandwich was put into the panini press to give it that real Cuban sandwich feel. It was unbelievably juicy, and each and every bite had so much flavor. You could taste each of the elements on its own in each bite, but they all melded together to leave me wanting more and more. This was definitely one of the better burgers I have had, especially for the price that I paid for it.

The onion rings were crispy fried deliciousness. The order came with 4 huge onion rings, all super duper crispy. There are 5 sauces, all probably made in house, in squirt bottles in front of every eating area. I mixed the ketchup and the jalapeno sauce together to make a sweet and spicy dipping sauce for my onion rings. I couldn’t get enough, and I was pretty disappointed when I ran out of them.

Bobby Flay’s Burger Palace is a pretty cool place to visit. It’s a great place to grab a burger that is worth the money you pay for it, and they offer all kinds of different things. You can “crunchify” any burger, turn any burger into a turkey or chicken burger, and the menu offers a great variety of items. Definitely get out there and try it and let me know what you think. Don’t forget to “crunchify” it! Cheers!

Italian Lunch Special...

Guimarello’s

329 Haddon Avenue

Westmont, NJ 08108

www.giumarellos.com/ 

A place I have had my eye on for some time now is Guimarello’s in Westmont, New Jersey. My cousin lived right down the road on Haddon Avenue in Collingswood, and he had been talking about Guimarello’s for years. I was excited when my mentor approached me at work and asked if I wanted to accompany him and another set of mentor and mentees there for a mentor lunch a few months ago. I jumped at the chance, and we set out for a nice lunch.

When we walked in it was pretty empty, so we were seated right away. We were brought out a basket of pizza bread to start and I was quite pleased because I was ravenous. I enjoyed a few slices of the crispy pizza bread while we waited to put in our order. I decided on their lunch special that they offered of a cup of soup or salad and a bowl of gnocchi Bolognese. I love good gnocchi, so I was really excited to try Guimarello’s so that I could see how it stacked up.

The waitress informed me that they make their gnocchi with ricotta cheese instead of potato, which she claimed made them fluffier and lighter. I was under the impression that gnocchi made with ricotta instead of potato was called gnudi instead of gnocchi, but I am no Italian or pasta expert, so I cant really say for sure. They were a bit bigger than most other gnocchi I have encountered as well. After doing a little research on the matter, I came to realize I was right. Gnocchi is something made from potato and flour. While sometimes you can find them made with ricotta, but this is very untraditional. Gnudi are usually made with ricotta and very little flour. If anyone knows anything else about the subject feel free to let me know because I’d love to know as much as I can about it. Anyways, back to the meal.

The escarole soup was pretty on point. The escarole gave the soup a nice depth of flavor, and the broth was delicious. There was also some kind of sausage in the bottom of the soup. It was super tender and it soaked up all of the flavor of the delicious broth. 

After sucking down the whole cup of soup in mere minutes, it was time for the “gnocchi”. It was very tasty, right up there with some of the better gnocchi I have had. It was not the best, or the lightest I have ever had, but it was certainly well done. They were airy and fluffy, and they paired well with the meatiness of the Bolognese sauce. You definitely got the taste of the ricotta in each and every bite. One of the reasons I love gnocchi is because of the wide arrays in which it can be served and it tastes different in each time.

I would definitely go back to Guimarello’s. It is one of the better places to eat in the Collingswood/Westmont area, and it is pretty affordable. You should definitely go out and try it and let me know what you think! Cheers!

A Little Bit of Phily in New Jersey...

Phily Diner

31 South Black Horse Pike

Runnemede, NJ 08078

philydiner.com/ 

One of my buddies used to live pretty close to me, but he recently got married and moved a bit further away. In the mean time, we have been looking for places that are in the middle so we can meet up once in a while to have some beers and some laughs at. One of those places that we recently tried was called the Phily Diner. I know the spelling looks wrong, but trust me, that is how it’s spelled. We pulled up and I couldn’t really believe that I had never noticed this place or been to it before. It sticks out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood that it is in. The lights are bright, the bar is packed, and you can’t find a space to park. 

We sat down at a table and ordered some Sam Adam’s Winter Lagers since they were on special for only 2 dollars. That is the cheapest I have ever seen Sam Adams. On Tuesdays, they also have a half price appetizer special. We couldn’t resist of course, so we ordered the fried mac & cheese, honey bbq wings, and chicken nachos.

I love going to a bar and eating bar food while I have some good beer. It is one of my favorite things to do. The fried mac and cheese was pretty tasty. The cheesiness was unreal, and the crust created by the deep-frying was super crunchy. The wings were pretty good, but definitely not the best I have ever had. They were crispy, and clearly deep fried, but the sauce wasn’t really that great. I’m not turned on by wings that are sweet, I would much rather have them be spicy or salty. Lastly, the chicken nachos were on point. The chicken was really good, the sliced jalapenos added the perfect amount of spice, and the chips were crunchy as could be.

I think we may have found one of our new favorite places to hang out together. The Phily Diner is pretty cool, and they offer amazing specials for great prices. The food was really tasty, and I can’t wait to go back for some more sometime soon. Try it and let me know what you think. Cheers!

Out of Bounds Donuts...

Federal Donuts

1219 South 2^nd Street

Philadelphia, PA 19126

www.federaldonuts.com/ 

My girlfriend and I do not usually get up as early as we did on Saturday a few months ago, but we had both been dying to try Michael Solomonov’s new venture called Federal Donuts since it opened. It is a small donut shop that also serves fried chicken. It is a really interesting concept, and to have one of the best fine dining chefs in the city open up a casual spot like this was a pretty cool idea. Granted it’s not his first casual dining establishment. He also opened Percy Street BBQ, which I am also dying to try. We decided to cab it down to Federal Donuts because we didn’t really know where it was, and then walk back to her apartment on 16^th Street because it was a really nice morning.

When we got there we didn’t have to wait long to try our donuts. They had some samples cut up when we got there, so I got to taste their lemon poppy seed donut which was absolutely fantastic. Lemon and poppy seed is a pretty awesome combination, but I never thought it would work in a sweet manner with icing. I will definitely order that one when I go back. Federal donuts serve both hot and cold donuts, so my girlfriend and I picked out 3 donuts and then split them all so we could get a good taste for the place. We ordered the appollonia donut, which was served hot, the chocolate-spicy peanut donut, and the nutella, tehina, and pomegranate donut. 

We tried the appollonia donut first and it was pretty scrumptious. I had to look up what is in the appollonia spice because I couldn’t figure it out. From what I found it looks like it’s a mix of cocoa, orange blossom, and a hint of pepper. It was a pretty delicious donut, and I bet it’s ridiculously good when dipped into milk or coffee. The next donut up was the chocolate-spicy peanut donut. It was my least favorite of the bunch, but it was still a really good donut. You got a little hint of spice with each bite, and the crunch of the peanuts on top was a nice change of texture. 

The last donut was the best in my opinion. It sounded a little strange, but the taste was phenomenal. The donut was stuffed inside with the nutella, and then the glaze on top was the pomegranate with sesame seeds in it as well. The tehina must have been a part of the batter because I didn’t really notice its flavor too much. The pomegranate glaze on top was simply insane. It was so sweet and a little bit tangy. I loved each and every bite of it.

I cannot wait to go back to Federal Donuts to try both more of the donuts and the fried chicken. I am sure they are all fantastic, so I cannot wait to go back. You should go too and let me know what you think! They are opening a second location near Rittenhouse Square very soon! Cheers!

Garden Fresh Grub...

Talula’s Garden

210 Washington Square West

Philadelphia, PA 19106

talulasgarden.com/ 

One of the most phenomenal restaurant experiences I have had in some time happened just a few months ago. My girlfriend and I had been dying to try Aimee Oxley and Stephen Starr’s Talula’s Garden since it opened earlier last year. Reviews had been rave, and I was excited to try it, even though sometimes I get weary of places with such rave reviews because I think that they aren’t going to live up to the hype. That was not the case with Talula’s Garden. My girlfriend and I went with her friend and her boyfriend, and we waited at the bar while we waited for our reservation. We wound up being seated about 40 minutes after we had a reservation for, but the restaurant gave us a complementary  cheese plate to make up for it. Though it was a bit smaller than their normal cheese plates, I was still very impressed that they did that. 

Our cheese plate came with a goat’s milk gouda, a sheep’s milk cheese with cracked black pepper, and a really tasty cheddar.All three of them were really delicious and a wonderful way to start our meal.

Our waitress was pretty good, but it was pretty clear that she had not actually eaten any of the food she was recommending to us. Luckily for us it worked out because everything was delicious, but I still would rather her have told me she had heard these things were good even though she had not tried them herself. We ordered two appetizers to share between the four of us; the golden potato gnocchi with buffalo milk tallagio, and charred brussel sprouts, and the crispy sweet breads, pickled peppers, mustard and sweet onion sauce.

My one complaint about the dishes would be that they were a bit small, and our waitress didn’t warn us about that. However, the taste and flavors that we encountered in both of them were unbelievable. The gnocchi were pan sautéed, but they weren’t as pillowy and light as Italian gnocchi usually are, but they were super tender and tasty nonetheless. They paired really well with the charred brussel sprouts which I had never had before. They were surprisingly strong in flavor, but that flavor was actually mirrored nicely by the buffalo milk tallagio. It was a creamy reduced cheese sauce that had tons of flavor. The sweet breads were in another world. I didn’t know if I was going to like them because they are organs, but they were actually really tasty. They were super crunchy grabbing a bite full of pickled peppers and smearing it with mustard really made the entire bite mesmerizing.

I had ordered the roasted leg of lamb with honey braised squash, braised kale, and a Nicosia olive vinaigrette for my main course, but I had the pleasure of tasting a bit of everyones and I have to say that the main courses were much better sized, and the flavors were incredible in each. The scallops were perfectly seared, the beef tenderloin was melt in my mouth tender, and the duck breast was tender, juicy, and magnificent. My lamb leg was absolutely fantastic. The lamb was perfectly medium rare and the seasoning was right on. The accompaniments were really a star too. The squash was fresh and light, yet sweet from the honey. I think I like the braised kale a bit better though. It was really tender and had a pleasant greens flavor without being too bitter. We had also ordered a bowl of the buttermilk smashed potatoes with chive. They were wonderfully rich, but they still had a nice freshness and lightness to the them because of the chives. 

We were all pretty full, but we decided to order the cookie plate and share it between the four of us. The cookie plate came with a carrot cake cookie, a chocolate caramel salt bars, an almond boterkoek, and a chocolate nut candy cake cookie. All four were wonderful! The carrot cake cookie was really interesting, even though I thought it tasted a bit more like an oatmeal cookie than carrot cake. I really liked the chocolate nut candy cake cookie because it reminded me of a candy cake from tastycake. The best one in my opinion was the chocolate caramel salt bars because they were so ridiculously rich. Because we all shared them it wasn’t too much, but each bite was sweet and rich beyond my wildest dreams. 

I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to Talula’s Garden for a second. Even though the meal was pretty much free because we had a gift card, I think that the amount I would have paid would be well worth it in the future. The food was phenomenal, period. Simple yet fresh ingredients wins every time over even the wildest and crazy culinary ideas out there. Go out and try Talula’s Garden as soon as you can and thank me later! Cheers!

Chinese Breakfast...

Ocean Harbor

1023 Race Street

Philadelphia, PA 19104

This particular review is going to be a bit difficult to write because I am still not really sure what I ate, but boy was it good. My girlfriend had been talking about going out for Chinese breakfast or Dim sum for some time. She met someone at her job when she started working that told her about a place in Chinatown in Philadelphia called Ocean Harbor. We walked down on a Saturday morning and got a table for two. I did not really know what Dim Sum was, so I just went along with everything that she told me, allowed her to order, and kept my mind open to everything.

The place was completely packed. We also noticed once we were seated that we were the only people there without someone Chinese or who wasn’t themselves Chinese. I love knowing the authenticity of a place simply by looking around and seeing that you are the oddity in the picture. For those of you that do not know what Dim sum is, I will explain as best I can. Dim sum is small portioned dishes, usually in steamer baskets…sort of like Chinese tapas. The servers walk around with carts full of food and stop at each table. They then allow you to choose whatever you want off of the cart and the amount that you want of each. They charge you by what you order and what quantity of it you get. I took pictures so you can see, but I do not know what anything is called because the menu and bill was in Chinese, without any English descriptions.

The first thing that we had was a crispy dumpling stuffed with bok choy and pork. It was probably the favorite thing of mine that we ate all day. It was nice and salty on the inside, and crispy on the outside. The greens really had a ton of flavor.

The next thing we ate was steamed shrimp dumplings served in a bed of soy sauce. They were really delicious as well. The dumplings were nice and soft, and the shrimp were tender and flavorful.

Next up was a sesame seed pastry stuffed with taro root and something else, possibly tamarind? It had a very strong flavor, and I wasn’t super keen on it. The pastry was great, but the filling became overwhelming in taste after just a few bites and I had to stop eating it. My girlfriend on the other hand thought these were amazing.

We had another fried ball of something after that. The inside was gelatinous, and had a small bit of something similar to the previous pastry. The texture was a little difficult for me to get through, but it was so interesting that I wound up eating the whole thing. It was like a mixture between taffy and marshmallow. It was really odd, but pretty cool at the same time.

Last we had these pork dumplings with a thick exterior that was much thicker than a traditional dumpling that I have had. The pork filling was very good. It had a stir fried flavor to it, and the dough of the dumpling was sweet and delicious with every bite. These were my girlfriend’s favorite, but I have to say I was still partial to the first dumpling we had because of the crispy texture and wonderful greens stuffed inside of it.

If you have never been to Dim sum before and you like eating, I would recommend you go try it. It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had in my life, and I cannot wait to go back. There had to be hundreds of things we didn’t try, and I cannot wait to try them. My girlfriend’s coworker suggests the chicken feet… so there could be an adventurous post in the future. You should go now! Cheers!

Holiday Scratch Cooking...

Making Cranberry Sauce from Scratch

As you can tell from the title, I am still way behind on my posting. I hope you all stay patient with me as I continue to catch up. Cheers!

I absolutely love Thanksgiving. It is probably my favorite holiday of the year because the only thing that matters on that day is food, friends, and family. I usually go to my mom’s house the day before for one turkey dinner, and then my whole family comes to my aunt and uncle’s house on Thursday for our Thanksgiving meal. This year I was going to make a dessert with my girlfriend, but my aunt said that we had too many desserts. I had always wanted to make my own cranberry sauce because I think the stuff that comes out of the can is complete crap, and that is all that we have ever had at my house. I found a recipe from Bobby Flay that I liked, and I doctored it up a bit to make it my own, and away we went.

I had gotten the idea of a bourbon cranberry sauce from watching Iron Chefs Michael Symon and Bobby Flay beat Iron Chefs Masaharu Morimoto and Cat Cora in the replay of last year’s Thanksgiving battle on the Food Network. I love bourbon, so I decided to try it, and it worked out amazingly! Everyone that tried it loved it, and I will definitely be making it in a much bigger batch next year, so we can get rid of the canned garbage and just use the homemade stuff!

This recipe is super simple. I have pasted it at the bottom of this post with my special additions included. It does not require much mess or fuss, so feel free to try it and let me know what you think. Cheers!

Total Time: 25 min

Prep: 10 min

Cook:15 min

Makes about 12 servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 1 large shallot, finely diced
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• ¼ cup bourbon (or to taste)
• Juice of two oranges
• Zest of 1 orange
• ¼ tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1 pound fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions

Heat the canola oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the ginger and shallots and cook, stirring, until soft and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in the brown sugar, honey, orange juice, orange zest, bourbon, cinnamon, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and salt. Cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves and mixture is nice and bubbly.

Add half the cranberries and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries pop and the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining cranberries and cook another 5 minutes or so. Depending if you want your cranberry sauce broken down more, you can crush the cranberries with your spoon, or you can leave them whole. They are soft regardless so it really doesn’t make much difference.