In the spirit of Tony Bourdain, food as adventure. Try everything twice in case it was made wrong the first time. Eat without fear or prejudice.
We met up at The Belgian Cafe in Philly for brunch one weekend. Redneckhunter got the Croque Madame gruyere, Lancaster ham and sunny side up eggs.
A great new restaurant opened up only a few blocks from where I live in Baltimore, The BlueGrass Tavern. The food is New American with a good emphasis on local foods. I went once on my own late one evening, and another time with Kwan and Bigfatlar. Both times were good.
Both visits, I did have the Bacon Jam with Crostini. When I saw it on the menu, I thought of Top Chef. The flavor was nice- sweet, smokey, and bacon-y.
The second was called the Grand Southern Platter and had rabbit pate, duck speck, Benton's ham, and a deviled egg. All the plates had a nice spicy mustard and pickled okra and radishes.
My favorite item was the foie gras preparation one night (top pic). It was seared foie gras set between two pancakes with an egg and bacon and covered with maple syrup. The waitress said the chef wanted to call it their version of a foie gras McGriddle.
Because it's asparagus season now in the Mid Atlantic, I ordered the asparagus salad. They were blanched and served with mushrooms and a poached egg. The asparagus was so nice and sweet.
Bluegrass' dessert menu was also really good. Our table favorite was the banana creme pie.
My only experience eating in Collingswood up until now was a really awful Taco Bell before a Billy Bragg concert. So I was pleasantly surprised to read about The Pop Shop -- which had been featured in a grilled cheese match on Bobby Flay's Throwdown.
It's a super cute place right on the main street in downtown Collingswood - a retro soda shop all done up in bubble gum colors and black and white checks. On a Sunday at noon, the place was packed with families with young kids.
The Pop Shop
I'm determined that this summer I will make it up to the Brooklyn Flea as often as I can. While I do always like a good flea market, we've got bigger and better ones here in New Jersey. No, the reason to frequent the Flea is the food.
We started off sharing a Lobster Roll from the Red Hook Lobster Pound - to die for! We got the traditional Maine lobster roll with cold lobster salad on toasted bun, but they also make them with hot lobster, which I guess is Connecticut style... Next off was a pupusa from the Red Hook Ball Field vendor -- we were disappointed here -- first off they accidentally gave us chicken instead of beef, and it was on the cold side (though granted it was an unseasonable cold day). The best part of the pupusa was definitely the slaw.
We moved on to the next Red Hook stall for pork tacos. I loved the spiciness of these, excellent limey guacamole too -- though I think there could have been a tad less sauce - would have made them easier to eat.
Brooklyn Flea
Redneckhunter and I had some time to kill in the city before meeting friends one evening, so we stopped into The Spotted Pig.
We also got (of course) Redneckhunter's beloved chicken liver toast, Sheep’s Ricotta Gnudi with Brown Butter & Sage, and Codfish fritters.
I ordered 2 hot dogs: the Carolina Slaw Dog, a 1/4 kosher hot dog with chili, & cole slaw, and the Bmore Dog, a similar hot dog served with grilled bologna & mustard. Both were hearty and delicious.
Redneckhunter and 1000yregg had gone to Jack's Bistro without me during one Baltimore Restaurant Week. But Redneckhunter, knowing that I would like the retro feel of the place, and craving foie gras poutine, wanted to go back.
This time around, we ordered everything off the small plates sections of the menu. We got The "Bacon + Egg"- and egg slow-poached at 147 degrees, fried pork belly, mushrooms with pig jus (above). Redneckhunter's perennial choice of chicken liver mousse topped with cognac and clarified butter and pickled onions (left).
We also got the Mac + Cheese + Chocolate -- an interesting mix though I got a little tired of the sweetness of the chocolate shavings. The cheese was nice and creamy though.
We also got a side order of the jalapeno bacon and gouda grits. And of course what Redneckhunter had been craving - the foie gras poutine.
Jack's Bistro
1000yregg and I needed a snack before a late dinner reservation, so we stopped at Baohaus with petiteseour - a cute snack bar with a small menu of Taiwanese street food - primarily stuffed steamed buns known as bao. There's something great a place that only does a few things, but does them well.
We got one of each variety of bao: the Haus Bao (Niman Ranch Skirtsteak), the Chairman Bao (Niman Ranch Pork Belly), and the Uncle Jesse (Pan fried tofu coated in sweet potato starch) -- all were served with crushed peanut, cilantro, Haus Relish, and Taiwanese red sugar.
Petiteseour and I are huge fans of Pinchet Ong. His Spot Dessert Bar is one of our favorites, and we liked the fact that he himself was there behind the counter making desserts.
My friend, Mike, and I went on a mini food safari for lunch at the Eden Center, a giant Vietnamese shopping center located at the Seven Corners in Falls Church, VA.
Our second stop was a restaurant called Tay Do which had at one end a stage set up for a band to play.
Here, I ordered a drink called Nuoc mia, made of sugarcane juice. It was not too sweet as I imagined, and it had a nice hint of lime flavor to it.
For our entree, we ordered the Bún Cha Hanoi, which consisted of vermicelli rice noodles that came with a bowl of grilled pork, pork meatballs, & shrimp and a large pile of veggies including bean sprouts, pickled cabbage & carrots, basil, and cilantro.
To put the dish together, you place the noodles and veggies in a bowl, and then pour the meat items along with the sauce on top. Certainly adding extra fish sauce is good as well.
Our third stop was Bánh Cuốn Saigon. Mike tried the pennywort drink which had a flavor reminiscent of wheat grass, but at least it was sweetened.
After lunch, I went to Saigon Mart, a grocery in Eden Center and picked up a few tins of Frentel for Fougoo. It's a French butter that was popular in Vietnam thanks to colonial occupation. It comes in tins and is mainly used as a spread.
While we here at TIGBG feel that our favorite gelato is from The Bent Spoon in Princeton, NJ, we also really like going to Capogiro Gelato in Philadelphia, PA. I think Fougoo wishes they had sorbet sometimes, but I'm pretty happy with any gelato. Last time I went, I had butterscotch and dark chocolate.
We went for a great supper at Garces Trading Company, a small bistro, wine store, butcher, cheese shop, and bakery from Chef Jose Garces.
We started with a few selections of items from the cheese menu. The housemade mozzarella was spectacularly. It was served drizzled in olive oil and covered with sea salt and pepper.
We had to order a few items off the charcuterie menu as well.
We tried two salads. The first was Insalata Semplice, baby greens, pomegranate, pistachio dusted
I preferred the Endive Salad with sevilla orange, bucherondin (a goat's milk cheese), golden raisins, and Anjou pears.
We then ordered a few hot plates. First was the Margherita Pizza. The crust was really nice and crisp.
We also got a pasta order, the Parpadelle with Lamb Ragu.
For dessert, we shared a lemon meringue tarte and my favorite, the spring verrine, a buttermilk panna cotta with grapefruit curd, topped with pistachio-hazelnut crunch.