High Street on Market Restaurant Week 2014-01-30

High Street on Market
308 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA
Phone: 215-625-0988
Web: http://highstreetonmarket.com/

High Street on Market is a newish foray into high end cafe restaurant that focuses on produce and vegetables with bold flavors.  The restaurant is an expansion next to the Fork and maintains the quality and pedigree of Fork.  (Disclaimer: I have heard many good things about Fork but have yet to actually dine there.)

My take on Restaurant Week is to try to eat at the newer venues.  I have found Restaurant Week to be disappointing at the more established old guard restaurants.  The dishes that a place is known for is usually not on the restaurant week menu.   This was not the case at High Street.  For the first course, two items could be selected.  This was followed by the second course and a dessert.

For the first courses we selected kale chips, squash hummus, the mushrooms with veggies and farm egg, and rabbit and chestnuts.  I found the kale chips a bit over-seasoned and too salty.  They were my least favorite of a very delicious and enjoyable meal.  The spiciness of the squash hummus made the dish very delectable.  I'm a sucker for a farm egg and paired with a plethora of perfectly cooked mushrooms and fresh vegetables, this dish was a big success.  Lastly I found the rabbit to be properly cooked with the mixture of fruit and roasted veggies balancing everything appropriately.  

For our entrees, we tried the Agnolotti which incorporated pasta with jerk spices, caramelized goat yogurt and eggplant.  The flavors were bold and definitely consisted of bold carribean flavors.  Everything definitely popped in your mouth and was a delightful surprise.   The second dish was
Green Tea Garganelli with Smoked Duck Ragu.  This dish was very balanced with fresh pasta.  The flavors were balanced and the use of duck in a ragu was interesting and enjoyable.  

For the meal we ordered the wine pairing and one of each desserts.  The triffle was on the sweet side and fulfilled the dessert role as an adult pudding.  I personally found the crumb cake to be the more interesting dessert but both were delicious.  

High Street definitely hit the mark and welcomes new diners by showing their normal menu during restaurant week.  They get bonus points for that.  I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who is looking for a quality and interesting meal.  

Kale Chips

Squash Hummus - Spicy Chermoula with black sesame oil & seeded ginger bread

Mushrooms -sunchokes, smoky eggplant, young kale, farm egg

Rabbit & Chestnuts - Roasted cauliflower, fried Brussels, autumn fruit, maple chestnuts

Agnolotti - Eggplant, Jerk spices, caramelized goat yogurt

Green Tea Garganelli - Smoked Duck Ragu

Crumb Cake - Buckwheat, coffee sauce, sour cream, pear

Trifle - brown butter croutons, ricotta, malted milk chocolate, fruit jams

 

California Pizza Kitchen (City Ave, PA)

California Pizza Kitchen
4040 City Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19131
Web: http://www.cpk.com/
Phone: 215-473-7010

Alla Spina 2014-01-24

Alla Spina
1410 Mt Vernon Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Phone: 215-600-0017
Web: http://www.allaspinaphilly.com/

Alla Spina never fails to disappoint.  I have yet to have a meal that I haven't enjoyed at this Vetri establishment.  As a bit of a last minute decision, we reserved a table for 4 on open table while out for Happy Hour. 

Highlights of the meal included: bloody marys, wine, various beers, pig's head appetizer, pork fat fries, two pasta entrees, the maple glazed fried chicken, and the pork shoulder for two.   The pork shoulder may have been the table favorite. 

Bloody Mary and Beer

Raspberry Beer Milkshake

Appetizers

Russian River Damnation

Victory Alla Spina Novello

Someone really enjoys the Russian River Damnation

Pig's Head Appetizer

Pasta with celery cream

Alla Spina's take on gnocchi, large gnocchi with pork

Maple Glazed Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and mozzarella curds

Braised and glazed pork shoulder special

Raspberry and Fiordilatte Soft Serve

Farmers Cabinet 2014-01-24

The Farmers Cabinet
1113 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA
http://www.thefarmerscabinet.com/

Farmers Cabinet is back up and running.  The HH consists of half price drafts (a pretty good deal as they have some decent beers on draft) and 6 dollar sours (whiskey sour, etc)

A few appetizers were tried as well.  They were ok, nothing that amazing. 

El Limon Lunch 2014-01-24

El Limon (Conshohocken, PA)
103 Fayette Street
Conshohocken, PA 19428
Phone: 610-567-0120

El Limon is officially one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in the Philadelphia area.  Located in Conshy, the small restaurant is contently packed for lunch at noon.  For a work day lunch break, El Limon is now the hot spot for corporate employees in the area.

Chicken tortilla soup was the special.  My party also ordered the standard classic burritos and a taco and sopas.  Pictures should do the meal justice. 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Carnitas Nachos with Mole Sauce

Carnitas Burrito with Mole

Chicken Burrito with Tomatila

Chicken Taco with Beef Sopas

Joy Tsin Lau Dim Sum (Chinatown Philadelphia, PA)

Joy Tsin Lau
1026 Race Street
Philadelphia, PA
Phone: 215-592-7227
Web: http://www.joytsinlauchineserestaurant.com/

Sunday lunch consisted of dim sum at Joy Tsin Lau in Philadelphia's Chinatown. 

Joy Tsin Lau offered Cantonese/Hong Kong style push cart dim sum.  The waiters/waitresses push around carts of food that you can pick from.  This makes the experience a bit more fun than ordering from a menu and lets those who aren't familiar with all the dishes to take a look point and inquire. 

We got distracted with converation and catching up over this meal so unfortunately there is only the one photo I remembered to take. 

Advice: expect a bit of a wait as this venue is generally a bit crowded on the weekends for dim sum but the line moves pretty briskly.

Pork Spare Ribs, Bean Curd, Shrimp Dumplings, Shau Mai, Seafood Dumplings

Canon EOS M Gear Review

Photos of the Canon EOS M

This is Canon's first entry into the mirrorless camera market.

Taqueria Feliz (Manayunk, PA) 2014-01-17

Taqueria Feliz (Manayunk, PA) 2014-01-17
4410 Main Street
Manayunk, PA 19127
Phone: (267) 331-5874
Web: http://www.taqueriafeliz.com/

Taqueria Feliz brings similar styling and cuisine as La Calic Feliz and Cantina Feliz in the Manayunk area of Philadelphia. 

We posted up at the bar for a few drinks, followed by an order of the vegetarian nachos with guacamole to start and split an order of the pork carnitas tacos.  The margaritas were strong and well made, both sangrias were quite enjoyable ( I preferred the white sangria a bit more) and there was excellent selection of cocktails and beers.

The restaurant became rather crowded as the evening progressed.  I would recommend either going a little earlier or getting a reservation if possible.

All in all it was a delightful meal with fun casual decor.  The bartenders were definitely quite attentive and I would recommend eating at the bar if that's in your wheelhouse.