5.15.2010

Sea Isle City Extravaganza

Recently, my madré got a sweet deal from a coworker on a beach house in Sea Isle City located on the Jersey shore. So General, 10 other friends, and I decided to shack up for a weekend in April and try to replicate all the events of "The Jersey Shore" in two days. Seeing this as another opportunity to expand our culinary horizons, we took many pictures of the local cuisine. Here's a review of our trip.

On the first morning of our trip, we woke up in our musty, moist cabin feeling quite generous. Using some pancake batter, frozen strawberries/blueberries, whipped cream, and a waffle iron, we made waffles with fruit topping for the rest of the crew. Apparently these did NOT hit the spot, as an hour later we wound up at a Mexican restaurant named Red Sky Cafe. Sounds dreamy, huh?

Well, despite being expensive, the food was intolerably mediocre. I ordered a chicken relleno, which was wholly forgettable, seeing as how I've forgotten about it...wholly. The General ordered blue-corn encrusted crabcakes, which sounds good, but unfortunately were falling apart at the seams and were un-enhanced by the accompanying spicy sauce. He cried for Maryland that night. The only dish that we wound up liking were a friend's pork carnitas, but going 1-for-10 is not a great batting average.

Chicken Relleno


Blue Corn Encrusted Crabcakes


In order to redeem ourselves, we planned a birthday dinner for a friend at a local seafood restaurant (name unknown...sorry...might be "Carmen's"). This place was actually pretty good. I had some mussels for an appetizer, followed by some pasta with scallops. As for the General, he chowed down on some more linguini with seafood. While it didn't make me play "Under The Sea" on a flute, the dishes were flavorful and satisfying. Even better, it was a BYOB. Too bad we can't remember the name. This is unforgivable. I blame the General, and you should, too.

(BTW, to sex up the night, we went to a bar next door where we ran into the "Real Desperate Housewives of New Jersey!")

Various Seafood Dishes

Overall Trip Rating: 3.5/5 Desperate Housewives (Rating is for food, NOT for the amazing time we had with all our friends...awwww :-*)

5.13.2010

Pura Vida

Pura vida, translated, means "pure life." Apparently this is a commonly used phrase in Costa Rica, meaning "life is good." Well, life is good if you're eating at this restaurant, located in Northern Liberties within walking distance from 2nd and Girard. While I vetoed this restaurant initially (because we've reviewed WAY too many restaurants with a Latin theme), I found it to be on par with some other impressive Mexican restaurants such as Cafe con Chocolat, but a step or two below Cantina dos Segundos and of course, Las Bugumbilias.

Unfortunately, the restaurant did not make a good first impression. We actually had to pay for our chips and salsa, which were of poor quality anyway. Now, you might think I'm a cheapskate, but let's get one thing straight: you should be able to eat as many chips as you want at a Mexican restaurant without being charged. I don't do all this work to get charged for fried mesa patties and spicy tomato broth! My God, you think the Native Americans charged the Pilgrims for theirs mesa? This is just un-American behavior.

Chips and Salsa a la Benedict Arnold

So our friend, who accompanied us to Northern Liberties to check out a "food festival," (about 10 booths and very little food), ordered the steak fajitas. I think the word fajitas is funny, especially if you pronounce the "j." Anyway, he said he liked them, and it looked like it was good. Okay, okay, you caught me. Clearly I don't recall anything about this dish, which may be a good or bad thing. In any case, here's the picture:

Steak Fajitas

Napoleon ordered one of the appetizers, the restaurant's namesake, as her main dish. A classic money-saving move by this notorious cheapskate, said the hypocrite. It turned out to be very creative and also quite tasty. I think I'll let her comment on her own dish, as I couldn't do it justice, as I only had a bite or two and was enraptured by my own dish (details to come; keep your pants and diaper on).

Pura Vida

Finally, I ordered a dish whose name I cannot find on menupages.com right now. But let me describe this succulent creation for you. They start with lobster ravioli and then top them with sauteed shrimp. Finally, the whole mess is doused in a tangy, savory, and altogether amazing white wine butter sauce accented with herbs. This dish would have been a perfect ten if not for some oversights, which downgraded the dish to just excellent. First, the shrimp were clearly overcooked. On top of that, the lobster ravioli were just sub par. I can't tell whether they were missing a certain flavor, or if they just didn't go well with the butter sauce, but there was just something off about it, kind of like Napoleon's face! Pwned! Ahem. Finally, and I know I'm being very picky here, but there was just too much sauce. It was nearly a soup! Trust me, I like my butter as much as the next guy, but it overpowered every flavor on the plate.

Shrimp in Butter Sauce

It's hard to judge this restaurant overall. As I said before, it's definitely on par with some other above average restaurants, but there are just little things here and there that keep it from being great. The dishes are creative, but, as was the case with my dish, they just overdid some aspects. You have to pay for terrible chips and salsa. The dishes were just missing that special something. And finally, the service was inattentive at best. Still, the flavor of the dishes won us over, and I would be happy to eat here again.

Rating: 3.5 pure lifes

5.08.2010

Aki

Greetings food enthusiasts and Battlefood addicts! I apologize for the lengthy wait between updates. Unfortunately, despite a six week pseudo-sabbatical from school, Napoleon apparently did not feel the need to publish any reviews. We gave thought to taking her out back Ol' Yeller-style, but apparently there are laws against these sort of things. In any case, I've come back to sate your hunger for the best that Philly has to offer.

Today we're looking at a Japanese restaurant on 12th and Walnut called Aki. One of our dear friends has taken a job there as a hostess, and so we thought we'd make sure the place didn't close down and force our friend into the unemployment queue. Aki had a great happy hour, with half-priced starters, beers, and sushi rolls, so we paid our friend a visit and ate a cheap meal, all while enjoying global warming.

Napoleon had three dishes, including edamame, chicken yakitori, and avocado salad. I had bites of each, and I'll briefly cover them. Ed's mommy is pretty standard. I'm sooooo glad we spent $2 on un-shucked soy beans. Seriously, though, I'll never understand this concept. Anyone who orders edamame is a chump. Sorry, Napoleon. The chicken had a tasty sweet and tangy sauce ("house sauce" AKA soy sauce + honey), but the chicken was horribly over-cooked. I'll repeat my thoughts from the Cava review: chicken skewers will always lead to overcooked chicken. Finally Napoleon struck gold by getting the avocado salad. The sauce was perfect, and the avocado was fresh and creamy. I only wish there was more of it.

Avocado Salad

Chicken Yakitori

I feel like I was very picky in choosing my dishes, yet I also was disappointed to some degree. My starters included duck spring rolls, gyoza, and soft-shell crab tempura. The duck spring rolls are the only dish I would go back to Aki to sample. They were perfectly crispy, the duck was tender, and the accompanying sauce was cleverly (or cheese-ily, depending on how you look at it) based on duck sauce. The gyoza, which means dumpling in Japanese, was a pork dumpling served with soy sauce. This was spot on, but lacked the bite of charred pasta shells I love in my dumplings. It was another good dish, to be fair, but I can get the same flavor from those Costco pot-stickers. Finally, the soft-shell crab tempura was oily and salty, and, in an egregious mistake, paired with soy sauce. Someone back there in Aki royally messed this one up. What were they thinking? "Hmmm, you know what'd be great? Let's make the tempura as salty as possible, and then serve it with a sauce whose flavor is primarly salty!" [licks finger and points it in air] "Championship!"

Duck Spring Rolls

Gyoza

Soft-Shell Crab Tempura

To wrap up: Aki provided cheap eats (during a happy hour) with mediocre flavor. Get the spring duck rolls and the avocado salad. Watch out for Ed's Mommy, chump.

Rating: 3.3/5.0 chumps