It's Friday afternoon! If you're like me (and deep down, as much as you'd deny it publicly, you are), then dreams of weekend culinary delights have been dancing around your head ever since that unusually sour pad thai you had for lunch settled down and you regained control over your stomach. You know what it was? Mediocre tofu. You should stop ordering from that place.

Anyway, the weekend. One option is to go to a recently opened restaurant.

Plusses: 1) You scoop all your friends, who are endlessly impressed with your stories of champagne-soaked soft openings and such. 2) More likely to be BYO! 3) Smiley, befuddled service

Minuses: 1) Smiley befuddled service 2) BYO's not so rare anyway 3) Your friends are not nearly as impressed as you'd like to think 4) You're a guinea pig for the kitchen (which means if it's a Peruvian place, watch out 'cos you might be on the menu!)

Let's ignore the minuses - this weekend's star attraction is Aigre Deux Restaurant and Bakery (well, the Bakery's not going to be open for a few weeks, but hey). It's a French-influenced New American, a style that husband-and-wife team of Mohammad Islam and Malika Ameen have perfected in top kitchens aroung the country. It's right by the Merch Mart, which is important because...oh, I know! There's a thing to do at the Mart on Sunday after the jump...

Are you on top of Chicago Winter Delights? Neither am I, but hear this: one of the delights is dining, and on Sunday there's an intriguing, if contrived, mash-up of film and food at The Chopping Block (No.107). They'll be screening four food movies, and chefs will be cooking their interpretations of the on-screen delights, for your delight. It runs $50 per person per film, but, what the hell, you've earned it. Phone them (312-644-6360) for the movie schedule, which is still under construction. This will prep you, though.

Finally, for a more mainstream option. While you could watch the Bears-Saints game at 2pm on Sunday alone in a dark room, but wouldn't you rather spend $25 for AYCE wings, brats, and chili at The Spot in Uptown? No? What if I told you that the package included AYCD BEER. It's another $25 if you want to re-up for the Colts-Patriots game at 5pm, but you'll probably be full and drunk by then.

Harry's Occult Shop on South Street is a Philadelphia institution. The store, which dates back to 1917, is a landmark on the rapidly changing strip of South Street directly east of the Lombart-South subway station. Harry's was recently the subject of a profile in the Philadelphia Inquirer that goes a long way towards putting what's one arguably one of the city's quirkiest stores into context. African-American migrants to Philadelphia in the early twentieth century brought with them a rich folk magic tradition that integrated elements of African, Native American and Celtic practices. Philadelphia between the 1910s and 1930s was full of stores like Harry's that sold magic potions and powders. These days, Harry's is one of the only shops of its type left—almost like a botanica, but not quite. At Harry's, the occult takes a Philadelphian twist:

What becomes clear, through the herbal fog, is that the unusual is commonplace at Harry's Occult Shop, a onetime pharmacy in the 1200 block of South Street that specializes in remedies of a more mystical nature.

This being the time of year when New Year's ambitions, Valentine's Day dreams, and credit-card shock converge, Harry's is busy dispensing Fire of Love oil and Fast-Luck powder.

This being Philadelphia, the store offers a prominently displayed group of products dubbed "court case ritual," popular with lawyers in must-win trials and mothers whose sons are in trouble with the law.

[Photo: Zesmerelda / Flickr]

For Hexed Or Vexed, A Store Casts Its Spell [Philly Inquirer]
Harry's Occult Shop [Official Site]
Hoodoo [Wikipedia]
Gennaro's [MenuPages]
Ms. Tootsie's Soul Food Cafe [MenuPages]
Jamaican Jerk Hut [MenuPages]
Tritone [MenuPages]

A Philadelphia chef might just make the best macaroni and cheese in America. Delilah Winder, operator of Delilah's Southern Cuisine in the Reading Terminal Market, just filmed a spot for the Food Network where she battled Bobby Flay to see who makes America's best mac and cheese. Winder is a longtime Philly favorite whose high-end take on traditional soul food has been championed by Oprah Winfrey. As a matter of fact, Winfrey calls Winder "the queen of soul food". Although Flay won, Delilah's makes a mean macaroni and cheese:

Flay and Winder set up at the Market's center court to tape the challenge for his show Throwdown With Bobby Flay. Judges Patrice Rames of Patou restaurant and Kevin Washington of Ron's Ribs tasted both, blind. Flay's included browned pancetta, two kinds of cheddar, fontina, and asiago, while Winder's is a veritable brick o' cheese: two kinds of cheddar, mozzarella, asiago, Monterey jack, muenster, and Velveeta.

Delilah Winder [Official Site]
A Macaroni & Cheese Smackdown [Philly Inquirer]
Delilah's Southern Cuisine [MenuPages]

Granted, it's gotten cold here in Chicago in the last few days, but so what. The only place in the country where temperature actually matters is the various valleys of California that grow all of our precious produce. Why? Because it was all just destroyed in a massive, California-wide freeze that's hit avocado and citrus growers especially hard (this explains why everyone was so chilly at the Globes, right?).

Let's borrow some numbers from the Trib and do some math, shall we? The current orange crop is worth $1.1 billion, and up to 70% of it may have been ruined. The avocado crop is valued at $350 million, and only 5% was picked, so 95% is at risk. Now I don't have a head for figures, but that's something like $1.1025 billion of loss, and that's only two fruits! (Some of you are finally waking up to the fact that the avocado is a fruit. Better late than never...)

Who gets screwed in this equation, after the jump...

1) The family farmers (there's insurance and subsidies and what not, but still)
2) The pickers (there are tens of thousands of them and they don't have insurance or subsidies, obviously)
3) You! Because just wait until you try to buy produce in April and everything's twice as much. Imagine the implications at Whole Foods, where making this salad will cost $20 a serving.

Don't worry. This round was caused by El Nino and not global warming per se, but things aren't going to get less volatile. Oh well. We can always get our produce from somewhere...

Over at the International Herald Tribune, there is an interesting piece on veganism in Japan. It appears a number of high-end vegan cafes have opened in Tokyo in recent months. Although Japan is the home of the modern-day macrobiotic diet, Japanese restaurants have traditionally relied on menus that make good use of seafood and poultry. Rather, Tokyo's new vegan cafes are striving to prepare animal-friendly western fare. Cafe 8 in the Nakameguro district specializes in vegan desserts like mango pudding, baked apple pie and gateau au chocolate. The Brown Rice Cafe in Aoyama makes remarkably beef-like millet hamburgers and the Pure Cafe's big draw are vegan pancakes (made of rice milk, maple syrup and whole-wheat flour) topped with tofu cream. The article also notes the drastic changes that have taken place in the Japanese diet since 1853:

If anyone can appreciate the true value of rice and veggie nourishment, it's the Japanese. Until the 19th century the average Japanese had never eaten beef or butter and it was only with the American Occupation after World War II that white bread was introduced into the daily diet.

First, there was Charlie Trotter's. Then, there was Trotter's To Go. Now, in his continuing drive northwestward to freedom, Chuck has finally made it to O'Hare and the great skies beyond. Trotter is teaming up with United Airlines (another Chicago entity with wanderlust) to create a culinary reprieve for first and business class passengers flying between the east and west coasts, and from New York to Europe (only eastbound; perhaps customers returning from the great dining establishments of Europe are too finicky to please).

Wait, what's that? Nothing out of ORD? Come on Mr. Trotter, you used to be Chicago's biggest booster, and now you're snubbing us? Was it those mean things we said during the foie gras banning process? No matter. Only the wealthy elite will have the opportunity to sample the mid-air masterpieces, while any earthbound Chicagoan can pop into To Go for chocolate pudding. Nevertheless, I'll post the menu when it becomes available.

By the way, the smart-ass reader would correctly point out that CT's northwestward trajectory has long since been compromised by Trotter's To Go Express in the Loop (at a gym, no less!), and the next Trotter project in Chicagoland's at the under-construction Elysian Condo-tel in Streeterville. But if I were being serious, we'd all be trudging off to Charlie Trotter's Rockford.

Here's a hamburger that Homer Simpson could be proud of: In 2006, Krispy Kreme donuts teamed up with minor league team the Gateway Grizzlies to offer the Baseball's Best Burger, a 1000-calorie bacon cheeseburger sandwiched between a bun made out of a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed donut. The presumably sans-ketchup cheeseburger has a predecessor in the Luther Burger, named after the legendary late R&B singer Luther Vandross. Lore has it that Vandross created the treat, which first appeared on menus in the South and California in 2004.. However, this is not even the most unhealthy hamburger on record: The former Mulligan's Bar of suburban Atlanta served a "hamdog": a hot dog wrapped in ground beef that is deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions and served on a long roll topped with a fried egg and a large order of french fries.

Deux Cheminees is a Philadelphia instutition. They also have one of the city's outsized personalities in chef Fritz Blank (pictured). It was just announced that Chef Blank is donating 10,000 cooking books to the University of Pennsylvania. Blank, one of America's most prolific collectors of food literature, is preparing to retire and will give the bulk of his collection to the university's Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The Associated Press reports the treasure trove will include cookbooks from 1768 & 1747 and obscurities like An Illustrated Guide to Shrimp of the World, The All-American Cookie and Cattle Fever Ticks and Methods of Eradication.

Philadelphia magazine food critic April White recently wrote an ambitious state of the nation of Philly's dining scene that is well worth a read for anyone even slightly obsessed with food in the city or environs. White seems (rightly) peeved at what she views as Philadelphia's "delectable rut" and "undemanding diner". However... there's a lot that is going well with Philadelphia's dining scene, too. Eating out in Philadelphia has changed immeasurably in the past 10 years. The fact is that local dining is no longer an affair of one or two big-name restaurants but that we're now a national dining destination. Although Philadelphians love to complain and grumble, there's very little here to be upset about—we're not the underdog for once. After the jump, an extended look at Philadelphia's fork in the road.

Oh, we’re not in danger of going hungry. There are an estimated 4,000 restaurants in Philadelphia, and more opening each week. But we are getting fat around the middle. Instead of growing up, with new concepts and creative kitchens, we’re growing out, expanding with more of the same. Tell me you’re opening a restaurant in Philadelphia, and I’ll tell you what it will be. It’s a BYOB, a husband-and-wife-owned storefront with a sentimental name. He’s in the miniature kitchen; she’s in the dining room with the decor straight out of the Pottery Barn catalog. The food is fresh, local; the farmers who grew the baby bok choy and raised the free-ranged chickens are listed right there at the bottom of the menu. Or it’s a Stephen Starr restaurant, whether or not Philly restaurant mogul Starr owns it.

All very valid points. But the New American BYOB and the all-out eye candy of the Center City destination restaurant are just two trends in Philadelphia food. In the past year, we've seen small restaurants like the offal-obsessed Ansill, the Israeli BYOB Shouk and the daring experimental vegetarian cuisine at Horizons as new arrivals in Center City. Then there's the trend of Center City-influenced restaurants spreading far beyond downtown's borders... To name three, Fishtown's Taste and Johnny Brenda's and South Philadelphia's Cantina Los Caballitos bought high-quality New American, gastropub and Rick Bayless-influenced Mexican to Girard Avenue and southern Passyunk Avenue.

There’s a place in a well-rounded Philadelphia restaurant scene for the BYOB — what city would give up on a Matyson or Pumpkin? — and there’s a place for the Starr-studded restaurant, especially spots with Starr scope and a chef’s attention to food, like booming Amada. But the same factors that gave rise to these archetypes and made the 1990s restaurant renaissance a success are now holding us back. We can’t accomplish “more” without reconsidering precisely what has defined the scene for over a decade: the city’s excitement about Center City; its devotion to fresh and local cuisine; its loyalty to hometown chefs.

What White misses here is how Philadelphia's vibrant BYOB scene is one of the reasons Philadelphia dining has become so exciting. During the 1990s and early oughts, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and Philadelphia Licenses & Inspections controlled liquor licenses with an iron fist. Although this will hopefully be changing (as evidenced by the very public flap at the PLCB), the simple fact is that liquor licenses were and are out of the price ranges of most Pennsylvania restaurateurs. Freed by the lack of a need for a liquor license, the overhead for opening a Philadelphia restaurant is remarkably small compared to New York or Washington, DC. An aspiring chef can open a restaurant on prime Center City real estate with heavy foot traffic for the price of a storefront of a block in Brooklyn's Park Slope or Cobble Hill. What this means in everyday terms is that chefs here in Philadelphia at small restaurants have the room to experiment that their brothers and sisters elsewhere lack. Delaware Valley diners should cherish that fact.

Philly’s future is already in its kitchens. It’s in big, chef-driven restaurants like Osteria and Rae, and in little storefront spots with notable wine lists. It’s in the cuisines of lesser-known food neighborhoods, like the burgeoning Mexican, Israeli and Brazilian communities stretching along Roosevelt Boulevard through the Northeast, and in culinary innovations we haven’t even seen yet. The choice lies with us: Will we — the city’s chefs and diners — embrace these new flavors, or will we order the usual, again?

Here, White is right on the money. Some of Philadelphia's most exciting dining is located at immigrant-oriented restaurants on the city's fringes and even beyond. In Northeast Philadelphia and nearby Bucks County, Emperor, Golden Gate and Restaurant XO all combine wedding hall-style Russian cuisine with Las Vegas floor shows best paired with copious bottles of ice-cold vodka. In suburban Philadelphia, Uduppidosa and Mainline Jewel of India offer surprisingly authentic South Indian vegetarian fare (and in Mainline's case, a full roster of Mumbai street foods like chicken 65 & gobi manchurian). Then on Washington Avenue, just a short 10-minute walk from Center City, we have world-class Mexican, Vietnamese, Chinese, South American and, yes, cheesesteaks all on one street. You can't do much better than that.

It's January and the weather is finally returning to a proper, wintery state. Valentine's Day is just over a month away and Philadelphia-area restaurants are beginning to trot out their holiday menus. The first Valentine's Day menu we have come across is from the Gypsy Saloon in West Conshohocken. The Saloon is one of a number of Conshohocken restaurants that have recently been offering higher-brow fare (see Spamps and Blackfish) in an area previously overshadowed by Manayunk and King of Prussia's dining options. It's a prix-fie menu at $45 per person and the Gypsy Saloon will be offering it from February 14th until February 17th. View the menu here. Also, if you know of any other Valentine's specials around the Philly area, please let us know.

As if anyone could possibly need another reason to dine out on Tuesdays, restauranteurs around the city offer a panoply of discount schemes to get you blotto on this, the worst night of the week. Why is it the worst? Monday at least has some weekend afterglow; by the time you get to Wednesday night, you've defeated more than half the week (20% more than half!); and Thursday and Friday needn't even be explained. Tuesday is the day after all your stored-up sleep has worn off, and the next weekend is still inconceivably far away. Drag your addled, defeated ass to one of the following for a fleeting - but enjoyable - recharge:

At Feast, 1/2 off on bottles of wine, or BYO!

Half priced martinis at Kit Kat Lounge, meaning $4.25 a pop.

For those unwilling or unable to commit to a whole bottle, one sixtyblue has half priced wine by the glass.

Half a toast to that!

W. Somerset Maugham once famously said that "the only way to eat well in England is to have breakfast three times a day." The full English breakfast is a work of art. Popularly known as a fry-up, the traditional breakfast usually contains toast, sausages, bacon, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms, baked beans and chips/french fries/fried potatoes. Combine it with some brown sauce and plenty of tea and, well, we have a true meal of champions—even if the English now prefer cereal. However, owing to our Hibernian ways, most fry-ups in Philadelphia are of the Irish variety. Society Hill's Dark Horse Pub features an Irish breakfast on menu around the clock that throws black pudding and white pudding into the mix; at Fado, soda bread replaces the original toast and there's always late-night Irish breakfasts over at Plough & the Stars.

Winter in Philadelphia means only one thing: The Wing Bowl. A little crude, a little disgusting and 100% all-American, the February 2nd event has sold out the 20,000+ seat Wachovia Center. For the benefit of non-Philadelphians and those who live under rocks, it's a Buffalo Wing eating contest that has become a tradition over the past fifteen years. Not only are there official Wing Bowl cheerleaders (the wonderful Wingettes), but contestants go by such names as "Hank the Tank", "Curly Von Burly" and "Martin Luther Wing". As for the Wing Bowl's most well-known alumni, El Wingador, he's a hot sauce baron now. As previously mentioned, this year's Wing Bowl is Wing Bowl XV. Expect plenty of wing- and chicken-related special events over the next few weeks from the Bowl's sponsors, WIP & the Philadelphia Daily News.

The Sun-Times brings us word of the tragic and premature demise of Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen noodles, at age 96. Matsugo-no-mizu, as everyone knows, is the Japanese funerary custom of moistening the lips of the deceased that translates to "Water of the last moment. " It is no coincidence that this is also the prescribed method for making instant ramen.

Apparently, Mr. Ando was also a client:

Mr. Ando gave a speech at the company's New Year's ceremony and enjoyed Chicken Ramen for lunch with Nissin employees on Thursday before falling ill, Japan's largest daily, Yomiuri, reported.

Let's not sucker punch Mr. Ando and mock him for dying from his own product; I'm sure all that salt has had a powerful preservative effect over the last hundred years. Meanwhile, if you want some real ramen, a few suggestions after the jump...

In Chicago, Noodles by Takashi Yagihashi in Marshall Fields Macy's is possibly the closest thing to an authentic ramen house in Chicago proper, although definitely give Cocoro a try.

But flavor country seems to be located in Arlington Heights, at kitakata japanese restaurant and Santoka Ramen at the Mitsuwa marketplace. Happy slurping.

No, it's not 1972; instead, Lincoln Park is finally getting some badly needed Vietnamese food. Why didn't Lincoln Park have Vietnamese restaurants until a few months ago? There are nearly a dozen Thai places around the neighborhood, but until Hai Yen branched a pseudopod down from Argyle Street in December, LPers had to burden themselves with transit for their Nem Nuong Cuon and Muc Xao Chua Ngot (say that five times fast). Sources say the food at the Lincoln Park location tastes the same (great) but the menu is abbreviated (meaning you'll still have to go to the source if you want 7 Courses of Beef. And you do. Oh my God.)

But Hai Yen's getting some competition today with the opening of Simply It, the new Tuan Nguyen (of Pasteur) venture on Lincoln. Hai Yen may have had a headstart, but Simply It offers delivery, which Hai Yen is not slated to begin doing until later this year. Really, though, the Lincoln Park market for good Vietnamese is big enough for the both of them.

Today's Trib had a nice piece about the emergence of halal versions of fast food favorites on Devon Ave - specifically, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Brown's (not my favorites; call me when there's a halal Harold's).

These chains, both at least partially franchised by venerable Pakistani restauranteurs (the KFC by the Sabri Nehari people and the Brown's by the Usmania group), are not the only chicken game in town on Devon, or even the only halal fricken (can I say fricken, instead of fried chicken?) on the avenue.

For starters, Halal Fried Chicken at 2739 had been turning out the product for years now. But why so much with the chicken? Fried chicken is a more intuitive choice for colonizing Devon than one might think. Barbecued chicken is one of the most popular dishes in the Pakistani larder, and is featured prominently at the recently rebuilt Khan B.B.Q., and at the hopefully-soon-to-be-rebuilt (and aforementioned) Sabri Nehari.

Hmm, both were destroyed by fires this year? Oooh, crispy! Well anyway, there definitely seems to be room for both types of chicken on Devon. Just wait until Pollo Campero shows up - then we'll have a party.