Battlefood #2: Chicken Patty-whack

Sitting at home tonight, Napoleon started becoming bored. Napoleon's constant nagging was getting annoying, and I was on the verge of physical aggression. Luckily for you guys, cooler heads prevailed, and we decided to take out our frustrations in the form of a Battlefood! In this version, we decided to mimic Chopped, and selected the following ingredients for our "secret" basket: chicken patties, corn, cheddar cheese, harissa (!), and falafel.

The Ingredients

Yes, they are store bought and pre-prepared items, but let's face it, on our student budgets, we're not going to be able to use rare ingredients like panda eggs. Mmmmm, panda eggs.

General Tso's Dish

I felt using the chicken patty limited me somewhat to sandwich preparations. As disappointed as I was about this, I didn't want to re-invent the wheel, so I tried to do something special with the other ingredients.

The first thing I did was get to work on the corn and harissa. These seemed to go well together, as harissa has an inherent sweetness from its roasted tomato base that I could pair with the corn. I put some corn and harissa in a pan and warmed them together. I was just looking for a little toasted flavor. Once they were warmed through, I buzzed them together in a blender with some milk to create a thick corn sauce. At this point I tasted it, and it still didn't have that grilled flavor I was going for, so I threw the sauce back on the pan for about a minute and then zapped it with a little lime juice to freshen it up. It looked a little like vomit, but it probably wound up being the star of the competition because of its hot, sweet, spicy, and grilled flavors. Napoleon didn't stand a chance.

I then pan fried the patty with some taco seasoning and cheddar cheese to give it some extra flavor. I also warmed up the falafel balls in oil and then smushed them into crunchies. After toasting some bread, I put the sauce on the chicken, and then topped everything with the crunchies. Booyakasha!

Chicken And Falafel Sandwich

With Roasted Corn and Harissa Puree

Napoleon's Dish

General Tso thinks he's so cool with his vomit sandwich. Well, I decided to up the ante with a little creativity. Instead of using the patty as given, I WHACKED it in half. But instead of cutting it down the center, I actually cut it parallel to the table; so now, instead having one patty, I had two.

I took the corn and falafel and stir fried them together. This was going to be the filling in between the two patties. I also mixed the harissa with some feta cheese I found lying around (in the fridge, not on the ground). After cooking the patties through in a frying pan, I topped one patty with corn/falafel and feta/harissa combinations, and topped the whole thing with the other patty.

I still didn't know what to do with the cheddar cheese. I waited for inspiration, and it struck me like a bolt from Mt. Olympus. I decided to make a circular arrangement of cheese on the frying pan and deep fry it in a pool of oil. How could this not be tasty? This would my coup de grace, my piece de resistance, my [insert overused French phrase here]. After a couple of failed attempts, my confidence was starting to wane. How would I ever beat General Tso's terrible upchuck club? I decided to try one more time, and eureka, I got it. I topped my whimsical delight with the deep-fried cheese cracker, and off to victory I rode!

Stuffed Chicken Patty With Cheese Cracker

Cantina Dos Segundos

In our quest to eat as much Mexican food as possible, we've come across some amazing food. Las Bugumbilias has obviously set the standard for Mexican cuisine as far as we're concerned, but that doesn't mean there aren't worthy competitors to the throne. One of these competitors, Cantina Dos Segundos, was recommended to us a by a close friend, and we've been back several times because it's been that good.

Located in Northern Liberties, the restaurant's atmosphere reflects its youthful surroundings. You feel instantly relaxed as you enter, and the relatively small area on which the restaurant is built is masked by the wall-to-wall windows at the entrance. It's definitely a place to enjoy with friends and family.

As I said before, we've been to this restaurant many times. Unfortunately, because we were so ravenous in our eating, we forgot to take pictures. We did manage to hold off on one particular dish long enough to take a picture, and it turned out to be so good that we decided that it deserved its blog.

Chocolate Banana Empanadas

Now these concoctions aren't necessarily the most complex dessert items in the world, but sometimes simple, good ingredients produce the best results. And Cantina clearly paid attention to the details on this one. They could have just relied on the obviously flavorful combination of warm bananas and chocolate, but they went the extra step to make sure it was perfect. For example, the pastry shell stayed crispy despite the pools of chocolate inside, and the bananas that were used were slightly unripe, allowing the warmed fruit to maintain texture while giving the chocolate the responsibility of providing the sweetness. Finally, the mint leaves scattered around the dish pulled double duty as edible garnish and the perfect palate cleanser before subsequent bites.

As for the rest of the dishes, they are authentic, creative, and humongous. The margaritas are flavorful, varied, and strong. We'll have more pictures when we return to this lively and friendly restaurant, but for now we'll give a preliminary rating based on our vast experience.

Rating: 3.9/5.o canteen seconds (say what google translator?)

Plaza Garibaldi

Today we're reviewing Plaza Garibaldi, a BYO restaurant in the Italian Market that came highly recommended from a Californian coworker. Despite the location and paradoxical name, this quaint restaurant is supposed to serve up authentic Mexican cuisine. Its categorized as a taqueria, but the extensive menu, clean floors, and charming atmosphere make it a full-fledged Mexican restaurant in our books.

As always, one of the markers of a good Mexican restaurant is the quality of the initial (free) chips and salsa. The chips were awesome; they were crunchy, seasoned, fresh, and had a hint of smokey, almost grilled flavor. The salsas, though watery, grew on me as the meal progressed. I couldn't decide which one I liked better, the salsa verde or chipotle-based salsa. General Tso's note: we had to add a bit of salt to the verde for the flavor to come out.

Chips and Salsa

For entrees, I had the enchipocladas, which is just a combination of chipotle and enchiladas. Oh, those clever Mexicans. These enchiladas were bathed in a fantastic spicy chipotle sauce, which got hotter as I ate more. The beauty of the sauce lay in the subtle sweetness, however. General Tso's note: Although Napoleon doesn't think so, I thought the chicken was dry and overcooked.

Enchipocladas: Best. Name. Ever.

General Tso got the Bistek Xocimilco, another awesome name, although we have no idea what it means. Although there were a ton of components, including guacomole, rice, beans, and salsa fresca, the portion of rib-eye was generous. It was topped with mushrooms and melted cheese, but unfortunately we never found out what kind of cheese it was. The rib-eye was slightly overdone at the periphery, but the cut was so thin that this was bound to happen. The cheese and mushrooms didn't really add too much to the dish. The steak really could've stood alone and been fantastic.

Bistek Xocimilco

To top the meal off, we had tiramisu. The only options were flan and tiramisu, so we had to pick the latter. Yeah, we know it's not Mexican, but it was pretty good, although the lady fingers were a little grainy.

Plaza Garibaldi is a good restaurant, especially for the value, but unfortunately it's overshadowed by all the surrounding taquerias in the vicinity. I'll definitely be making a return visit because I want to sample some of the unique dishes they have in their menu.

General Tso's note: Overall, the meal was great, and the value made it even better. We took home plenty of leftovers, which will last us the next couple of days. The flavor-to-value ratio was off the charts, but alone, the flavor was just above average. Also, I will say that the service was somewhat disappointing. We usually don't comment on service, but this meal's was notable. Despite the restaurant being completely empty, we had to wait a long time in between visits from our waitress. When she came, she had very little knowledge of the menu. I usually ask our servers what they prefer from the menu, but our waitress did not seem to know much at all about the restaurant's offerings.

Rating: 3.0/5.0 enchipocladas (I love that word)

Rum Bar

Having little experience with Caribbean food, Napoleon and I decided to sample the wares of Rum Bar, a relatively new Caribbean/American fusion bar and restaurant. I am skeptical of places that attempt to be two things at once, because the food tends to be expensive and sub-par. For most people, aside from billionaires with no sense of taste, this is not a good combination. I was sure that another Caribbean restaurant that we had gone to before, Reef, would beat the pants (and most other articles of clothing) off of Rum Bar. I was wrong.

The food itself was very flavorful. Yes, it was on the expensive side, but armed with a restaurant.com coupon we slashed prices like a used car salesman. Unfortunately, we aren't rich enough to afford any of the exotic rums from the extensive menu that rivals Monk's pamphlet of beer. Maybe once this blog becomes an overnight sensation, and we sell it to Food Network who will turn this into an Iron Chef blog site, we'll be able to afford the rum. Are you listening Food Network?! Please fund our alcoholism!

We each had an entree. In a rookie mistake, Napoleon ordered a salad, which actually wound up tasting pretty good. I'll post the picture, but it won't factor into the rating, because it's a freakin' salad.

A Freakin' Salad

As for me, I had some great catfish with remoulade and rice and beans. I want to go on a tangent for a second before I talk about the dish. The Europeans got it right. They eat mayonnaise with their French fries, not ketchup. This is genius. Is there anything better than mayonnaise? The answer is a no. That's why remoulade, aioli, etc., are delicious. It's the mayonnaise. You could combine shards of metal with mayonnaise, and it would be delicious. Okay, now back to the show.

The catfish was very crunchy, with no hint of greasiness. The crust itself was not as flavorful as I would have liked it, which means they probably didn't really season the flour, but the texture was great. The lack of flavor in the fish was masked by the spicy and wonderful remoulade. The rice and beans were no run-of-the-mill side dish either, as they had a sort of spiciness one would expect from Caribbean cuisine. The dish was also served with chili cornbread and calypso squash au gratin, which made a seemingly small amount of catfish turn into a full and satisfying meal.

Fried Catfish and Company

And for dessert, we couldn't resist ordering the banana bread pudding, which was recommended to us by the waitress over the chocolate chip rum cake and the spiced rum cake. Why would she recommend a bread pudding over two rum cakes when the name of the place is Rum Bar is beyond me. That doesn't really speak well for the restaurant, but we'll let it slide since we didn't actually eat the two rum cakes. Plus, the bread pudding was served with remoulade. Just kidding.

Banana Bread Pudding

Rating: 3.3/5 shots of rum