La Viola

La Viola
253 S 16th St
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 735-8630
Cash only


On Friday, I stopped by La Viola for dinner wtih two of my friends.  It had been a long work week for all three of us and an impromptu dinner in center city was necessary.

I've frequented La Viola on numerous occassions and realized I'd never written about it so here we go.

It's a small, more intimate restaurant that allows byob.  This fact is not lost upon the young professional crowd and/or the college crowd.  We were fortunate enough to be able to get a table immediately.  Parties that arrived after us were not so lucky and by the time our appetizers were served, there was a line and a crowd waiting outside the door. 

Foodwise, everything was delicious and the price point is very reasonable.  Ambiance and decor leaves a tiny bit to be desired if you're looking for a quiet dining experience.  They definitely fill the restaurants smaller space and the restaurant becomes quite noisy, although you could argue the free flowing bottles of byo wine might have something to do with it as well.  Lastly, this restaurant is cash only which to me is only a minor inconvenience as long as your party is aware. 

Even though we made an impromput stop, I suspect I'll be back next time most likely with a bottle of wine or two to keep up with the rest of the patrons.



La Viola - Calamari

La Viola - Caesar Salad

La Viola - Mussels in White Wine Sauce

La Viola - Penne with Vodka Sauce and Panchetta

La Viola - Lobster Raviolli

La Viola - Gnocchi

Meritage Restaurant and Wine Bar - Philadelphia, PA

Meritage Summer Tasting Menu Dinner

500 S. 20th Street
Philadelphia PA 19146
(20th & Lombard)
http://meritagephiladelphia.com/

Pictures are posted below.  I'll include a write up when I have more time.


Meritage Amuse: Yellow Tomato Gazpacho

Meritage Rose Wine Pairing with Amuse and 1st course



Meritage: Bread and Butter



Meritage 1st Course: Crab and Mango Salad, avacado mousse, potato crisp



Meritage 2nd Course: Grilled Quail, brandied cherries, crispy polenta, red wine reduction



Meritage - Two red wines for 2nd and 3rd course wine pairings

Meritage 3rd Course: Grilled Grass fed Strip Steak, smoked cheddar and corn pudding, summer truffle bordelaise



Dessert wine pairing

Meritage Summer Tasting Menu

Meritage 4th Course: Flourless Chocolate Torte, peanut butter swirl, salted caramel

Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter

Oh Apple,

$29.99 to get an adapter that lets you plug into ethernet. 

For everyone who says what do you need ethernet for there's wifi.  Wifi is not ethernet.  It isn't as fast, stable and consistent.  You'd think that with a new macbook they'd include the dongle. 

At the very least it works but I really dislike having to carry around a VGA and ethernet dongle if I want to do some professional work or presentations with a lan line.  (yes i know i don't represent the typical mac user)

Naps / Sleep Schedule

The Angus Sleep Schedule

I have what some would consider to be a crazy, weird, interesting, different, perplexing, *insert whatever adjective you would like* sleep schedule.  Yet for me, it works.  Well most of the time at least.

I'm generally not a morning person.  I have a tendency to become a late night owl if left to my own devices.  My schedule will slowly shift until I'm up till 3am even if I have to get up at 7am.  I'm not sure if this is just my intrinsic body clock or if my brain is just geared towards evenings.

Don't get me wrong.  I love sleep.  As someone once said, "Sleep is where I'm a viking."  I think she meant that she's a good sleeper.  Anyhoo, I operate on a get up when I have to for obligations and nap when I'm sleepy.   Get up and continue my day until its time for "bed" which consists of anytime after midnight.

With all of this rambling said, lets move onto naps.

I'm pro nap and I think research is starting to support my long held belief that naps are healthy and increase productivity and happiness.  You can google the research as I don't want this post to become too academic just yet.

Two things, I've learned:  waking up groggy from a nap defeats the purpose of a nap so there are only three kinds of naps that work.

a) Short, no rem sleep nap.  Keep it under 30mins and for the most part you won't get into REM sleep which is what causes you to be groggy if you wake up in the middle of rem.  Obviously its different for every person but 30mins is a pretty safe starting point.  Adjust accordingly.

b) 1 rem cycle - approximately 3 hours.  This requires a bit more of a commitment. You have to be OK with giving up 3 hours of your day for a nap but hey if you're a late night owl like me it works.  I usually take this 3 hour nap when i need it from 5pm to 8pm after work.  Then its time to get up make dinner and start my evening.

c) I'm going to take a nap oh crap i just slept for an obscene amount of time and its the next day nap.
This happens occasionally.  Its probably healthy in the long run as it just means that you my friend needed sleep and hey you got it. 


For those of you bold enough to step out of the oh I'm going to get 7 hours of sleep at night and that's it ( well i know some of you subscribe to something from 5 to 9 every day but you know what i mean) I suggest giving naps a try.  You might just find that you're healthier, happier, more productive and efficient.  Happy sleeping!

New Imperial Palace - Flushing, NY

New Imperial Palace
136-13 37th Avenue
Flushing, NY 11354
Tel: (718) 939-3501

I happened to be in NYC again this weekend and a trip to Flushing was in order.  I had lunch at New Imperial Palace in Flushing and it was quite delicious.

Chinese broccoli, pork belly hotpot, fish hotpot, seafood hotpot, dungeness crab with sticky rice, and half a crispy skin chicken were ordered.  It was quite a nice lunch feast.

All three hotpots or casseroles (whatever you prefer to call them were quite tastey).  Fair warning the pork belly was pretty fatty and we ended up not eating the fatty parts.  Chinese broccoli ( jia lan) was cooked in garlic and was pretty standard.  The two standouts were the crispy chicken and the dungeness crab sticky rice.  The chicken skin was very crip and not too salty.  The dungeness crab is one of the dishes that New Imperial Palace is known for and while it was a bit expensive it was quite worth it.  The sticky rice is infused with the crab's savory taste and is a unique dish that isn't commonly found.

Overall, everyone was very please with their meal and I would highly recommend a visit to all.  Their specialty is crab but overall the spin on Cantonese food is a nice refreshing change from the substandard cantonese that has become the staple of Americanized Chinese food in the United States.  Then again, its in Flushing so authenticity/deliciousness is a given at most restaurants in that area.



New Imperial Palace



Jia Lan ( Chinese Brocolli)



Pork Belly Hot Pot with Preserved Mustard Greens

Crispy Fried Chicken



Fish Hotpot with Brocolli



Sticky Rice with Dungeness Crab



Food Spread

Seafood Hotpot

Working on the StickyRice

Square Peg

Square Peg
929 Walnut Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(10th & Walnut Sts) |
215.413.3600
Eat@SquarePegRestaurant.com
http://www.squarepegrestaurant.com/

My second stop of Center City Sips resulting in a visitation to Square Peg.  This place had been mentioned a few times so I finally agreed to go there after our initial stop at Opa.  The main perk of Square Peg is that their sips special continues until 8pm instead of 7pm.  One can't really complain about 3 dollar beers until 8pm especially when the sips special beers are a) Philadelphia Brewing Company's Philly Pale Ale and b) Troegs Sunshine Pilsner.  It was a solid second sips stop.

I had heard good things about the food there so we sampled their sips appetizers.
a) Mahi Mahi Taco
b) Pulled Pork Slider
c) Chicken Enchilada.

The Mahi Mahi was delicious but for 5 dollars the portion size left a little to be desired.  That was the unanimous feeling across the board.

The Pulled Pork Slider was the better deal at 4 dollars.  The pork was strongly seasoned and flavorful.  It hit the spot nicely.

Lastly, there was the chicken enchilada.  A review from one of my possibly slightly inebriated sips companion suggested: ".. It's ok.  It's kinda like a hot pocket.  The guacamole is good though."  With that raving review, I was glad i passed on the most expensive item on the sips appetizer list at six dollars.

If you need a second stop for sips I still would strongly recommend Square Peg as it was not crowded and they have an additional hour of specials.  Seating is adequate and good for a large group.



Mahi Mahi Taco



Pulled Pork Slider

Chicken Enchilada

Opa

Opa
1311 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 545-0170
http://www.opaphiladelphia.com/


This week for Sips we went to Opa.  Asides from the obligatory beer, wine, and cocktails, they offered a few appetizers for their sips special. 

Mussels, Veal Meatballs, and Greek Fries were offered.  The Mussels were a little chewy and didn't seem as fresh as other places that offer them.  It may have been due to the fact that they were a sips item but I was rather dissapointing.

The Veal Meatballs were decent although the sauce was more impressive than the actual meatballs which did have some seasoning and spice.

Lastly we sampled the greek themed french fries.  They were covered in a cheese sauce with peppers and felt more like cheese fries with a minimal greek spin but they were probably the best value dish of the sips appetizers.

Ambiance-wise Opa has a nice layout and had it been less warm we might have explored the outside beer garden like area.  This is one place that I will probably go back to when it's not sips to actually sample their food for a do over.

Mussels

Veal Meatballs

Greek Fries

Masak (East Village, NYC)

Masak
432 E 13th St
(between 1st Ave & Avenue A)
New York, NY 10009
Phone: (212) 260-6740
http://masaknyc.com/

For a late Sunday lunch we all went to Masak in the East Village for lunch.  It was a very unplanned spur of the moment affair that resulted in being one of the more memorable meals that I've had in a long while.

My friends can be somewhat hard to coordinate as everyone is scattered across NYC and timing a meal can be difficult.  We agreed to meet at approximately 2:15pm at the restaurant.  Having lived in the East Village for a bit previously, I was excited to come back to my old neighborhood and check out the ever evolving food scene.

Along with two of my friends, we were the first to arrive at the restaurant.  To hold ourselves over we ordered tea and coffee while we waited.  There was a refreshing hibiscis herbal iced tea that was quite delicious and refreshing.  Also ordered was an iced coffee that hit the spot.

As it was Sunday lunch, both a bloody mary and virgin bloody mary were ordered.  There was definitely a hit of spiciness that should come with a proper bloody mary.  It did not dissapoint.

As our party slowly trickled in appetizers were ordered.  Deviled eggs with candied bacon; Kaya Toast with butter and coconut custard; Fried Egg, Bacon and Manto; and the Chili Crab Dip with Mantou were ordered.  The deviled egg was unique with the candied bacon but was quite salty.  The Mantou with egg was well done but I was a little disspointed that they ran out of quail eggs so we settled for chicken eggs with bacon instead.  The Kaya Toast exceled with the coconut custard.  It won many fans, but the star of the appetizers was the Chili Crab Dip.  The combination of spicy chili, seasonings, oil and crab rounded out by the cripsy fried mantou was very special and unique.  The table devoured the appetizers and we set our eyes on entress.

I love that my friends are foodies.  We're all close, good friends so no one really thinks twice about sharing their dishes or at least letting others sample the item they ordered.  This makes trying out restaurants quite fun with a large party.  We were a party of 6 and we each ordered and entree and then added the french toast as our seventh dish for good measure.

All in all we sampled the:
1) French Toast with coconut custard and bananas,
2) Oxtail noodle soup
3) Chicken hearts with a fried egg and vegtables
4) The Rendang burger which won NY TimeOut's Burger of 2012.
5) The Pulled Pork Sandwich
6) The Dutch Baby - with bacon and eggs and vegtables
7) Spicy Rock Shrimp, grits and fried egg.

Everything was very delicious.

As we ate and talked the waitress came over and asked if we had been here before as the chef claimed to have recognized me.  Even thought this was an impossiblity as it was my first visit to the restaurant we ended up conversing with waitress who revealed that she helped to cook a good portion of the menu at the restaurant.  As our party talked with her and watched the chef, the meal became an impromptu psuedo chefs table.  The atmosphere in the restaurant was warm and welcoming as it was apparent that there was a love of food in the room.

Even though we were stuffed, it was recommended that we try some desserts.  We ordered two desserts and a third was comped by the restuarant which was a nice gesture.

All in all, I was quite pleased with my meal and am quite keen on returning at some point to try the dinner meu which the staff claims is even better than the brunch menu that we sampled.  I may just have to take them up on the offer for dinner at some point in the future.