Now that there's a new Batman movie out and all, how about we go retro with a look back at McDonalds' Batman Happy Meals from 1992?

McDonalds' Batman Happy Meals [YouTube]

If it's Monday, it's video time. In the clip above, new PHI food blog Phoodie.info goes backstage at Metropolitan Bakery.

Baking at Metropolitan Bakery [Phoodie.info]
Metropolitan Bakery [Official Site]

The good folks at streettalkin.com just caught Good Dog giving their mac & cheese recipe on video. Check it out.

Good Dog [MenuPages]
Good Dog [Official Site]

This sausage sandwich, in our opinion, looks amazing. It's from Pepperoncini in the Conshohocken office park corridor of doom. We found the sandwich over at Foodzings, who waxed rhapsodic about it:

The place is totally cute. And there's a nice little bar inside too. They have a simple lunch menu, with sandwiches, pasta, and pizza. R got the italian sausage sandwich with broccoli raab. Do you see how big this is? And the bread... the glorious bread! It's crusty and cripy and chewy with the perfect amount of sesame seeds. I'm in love with this bread. It's from the Conshohocken Bakery. I'm totally going there to pick up some of this awesome bread.

And whaddaya know, we have the menu for the Conshohocken Italian Bakery too.

Pepperoncini [MenuPages]

Pepperoncini [Foodzings]

In honor of National Waiters and Waitresses Day, we present "Waiters Who are Nauseated by Food," a skit from the Dana Carvey Show featuring Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell way back in the mid-1990s. On this day in which we honor those who bring us our food in restaurants, let's all thank God that they don't act like this pair.

Waiters who are Nauseated by Food [YouTube]

The pride and joy of Northern Liberties, the new Silk City Diner, was recently featured on an episode of Diners, Dine Ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri. Check it out.

Diners, Drive Ins & Dives: Silk City [YouTube]
Silk City Diner [MenuPages]
Silk City Diner [Official Site]

Eric Ripert, the legendary new-to-Philly chef behind NYC's Le Bernadin and the Ritz-Carlton's brand new 10 Arts, knows how to get around the media.

In the above clip from the PSFK marketing/trendspotting convention in NYC, Ripert discusses how he gets inspiration for both his food and business. It's well worth watching.

10 Arts [Official Site]
Eric Ripert on Finding Inspiration [YouTube]

Yesterday, we're proud to say that Stephen Colbert discovered the cheesesteak. Watch, kids, as we silently curse how Philadelphia has become known for one.damn.sandwich.

Comedy Show On (No Way! Cheesesteaks) [Philadelphia Will Do]

Philly food critics (though, alas, not us) made it onto the Food Network last night. Bobby Flay headed over to Collingswood's Pop Shop for a fun little grilled cheese throwdown.

Serving as judges were Art Etchells of Foobooz and Drew Lazor of CityPaper.

Check it out.

Throwdown With Bobby Flay: Grilled Cheese at Collingswood's The Pop Shop [YouTube]

There's some weird stuff going on in restaurant kitchens these days. In the video (which should be edited down to, say, three minutes, but is still interesting — just ignore the annoying blond woman), chef Stuart Sage of Tang in Dubai demonstrates how he uses liquid nitrogen like a deep fryer to cook food — in this case, a tomato espuma — at ridiculously cold temperatures.

What freaked us out was how he scooped the espuma out of the bowl full of liquid nitrogen and immediately presented it to the woman. We'd be terrified to eat it, for fear that our tongue would immediately freeze and break into 100 pieces, and then how would we taste food. (Shudder.) Of course, the nitrogen had likely evaporated at that point, and besides, we breathe it in and out every day, right? Still. Just a teensy bit scary.

Restaurants - Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen in the Real World [YouTube]

It's amazing what you can find on YouTube. For instance, a commercial for everyone's favorite Starr-owned martini and tapas jawn, The Continental.

Continental [MenuPages]
Continental [Official Site]

We are so happy that baseball is back. We managed to get tickets to Opening Day at Dolphin Stadium; the Marlins lost to the Mets (boo!), but it was still a great time.

To celebrate, we thought we'd present a photo essay of ballpark food from each of our cities. We've actually visited and eaten in each of the parks listed, except for the two in the Bay Area. We'll start with our favorite: Philadelphia.

Citizens Bank Park

We hate the Phillies (ed note: not us!). But we think their ballpark is great, and we love the fact that we can get a Tony Luke's roast pork Italian sandwich for about the same price as at the restaurant. Whenever we go to a game there, we arrive early to get our sandwich before the game starts, because by the third inning, the place is mobbed.

Continue reading "Ballpark Eats: A Photo Essay" »

This? Is awesome. Thank god somebody over at Required Eating keeps up with Improv Everywhere, because we don't, or at least we haven't been (Welcome to day one), and there's a chance we would have missed this fantastic video. The so-called spontaneous musical takes place in a Los Angeles shopping mall, which is in on the joke and rigged with hidden cameras. The music, according to IE, is piped in through the mall's sound system. Watch and marvel, then click over to IE to get the inside scoop on how they did it.

Food Court Musical [Improv Everywhere]
'Spontaneous' Musical Performed in Mall Food Court [Required Eating]

It might be raining outside, but comedian Jim Gaffigan's "Hot Pockets" routine is an all-weather foodie treat.

Jim Gaffigan and Hot Pockets! [YouTube]

Over in Russia, McDonalds drive-thrus work a bit differently...

Drive Thru [English Russia]

In Philadelphia, Eric Ripert is best known as the boldface name behind upcoming restaurant 10 Arts. Of course, he's also the chef of New York's legendary Le Bernadin. He's also a bit of a television star — check out this clip of him on Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" working the Les Halles line with Anthony.

Click to play

Because we love you, here's an Epicurious tour of actresss Debi Mazar's kitchen.

Debi Mazar [Epicurious]

The good folks at Uwishunu recently interviewed chef Jim Burke of James. We recommend checking it out.

All Up In Their Grills: James [Blip.tv]

We can't explain why, but this YouTube commercial cracks us up inside.

LeBus Manayunk [MenuPages]
LeBus Manayunk [Official Site]

Courtesy of Serious Eats, we just came across this 1980s vintage commercial for an Idaho steakhouse. Just watch it. You can thank us later.

Prime Cut Meat Market Commercial [Serious Eats]

Wanna learn how to make pizza from the corporate chef of one of the biggest pizza chains in the country? Sbarro's Joe Borruso will teach you how in this clip from CN8 shown above.

Pizza on CN8 [YouTube]

They do things differently in Chicago. That's why we're eternally grateful to the MenuPages Chicago Blog for pointing us over to the glory of pot roast nachos at Mike Ditka's Restaurant: Tortilla chips topped with pot roast, sour cream, jalapenos, tomatoes, scallions and cheddar-jack cheese. Among the other artery-clogging meals at the restaurant... A sandwich of chicken-fried sirloin steak topped with cheese and a 24 ounce steak.

Makes us want to watch that old "Da Bears" sketch from Saturday Night Live...

Mike Ditka's Restaurant [MenuPages]
Mike Ditka's Restaurant [Official Site]

[Photo: Chicago Kate/flickr]

For this week's Illadate, we've got a delightful jaunt to West Philly. On the agenda: Bubble House, Pattaya and The Metropolitan Bakery.

Illadates Season Finale: West Philly Win A Date [Uwishunu]

Morimoto's own Masaharu Morimoto has a new cookbook out. To promote it, he recently headed up to Google's New York campus (you know, the Googleplex) to discuss the book, answer cooking questions from Google employees and to give a cooking demonstration.

It's 45 minutes of the Iron Chef chillin' with some of the most upstanding techie foodies we've ever seen. Gotta love it.

Authors @ Google: Masaharu Morimoto [YouTube]
Morimoto [MenuPages]
Morimoto [Official Site]

Busted...

More LOLCat Pizza [Slice]

Advertising site Creativity just did a great interview with the director of those Burger King Whopper Freakout commercials that have been kinda inescapable on television lately.

If you're one of the rare ones who hasn't seen the commercial, the YouTube's above. This is the part of the interview that grabbed us:

We had a whole support system there to give people BK rewards afterwards. At the drive-thru people tended to scream harder—I guess they felt they were more anonymous. But when they drove up we apologized profusely—I would do it, or Drew my producer would. We wanted to make sure they understood tit was an experiment and gave them tons of Burger King food. It wasn't meant to be mean spirited; we didn't want to make people look bad. I was impressed that BK went for it. They were really good sports. That's what shocked me the most about working with Crispin—it was amazing how much trust there was from the client.

Behind the Freakout [Creativity]

The always fun Illadates crew just came out with their newest installment: Illadates Fishtown. In the video above, both tthe Canvas Coffee Company and Johnny Brenda's are among the attractions.

Illadates [blip.tv]

(Click to play)

As part of the tryouts for the Wing Bowl (or, in reality, as part of a publicity stunt), a competitive eater named Chris Curcio engaged in the eating of the cheesesteak "Triple Crown" — the consumption of one cheesesteak each from Pat's King of Steaks, Geno's Steaks and Tony Luke's. Yeah, it's absolutely terrifying. But you know you're going to watch it anyway.

The Cheesesteak Triple Crown [Philly.com]

Anthony Bourdain headed to Washington as part of the same press tour that bought him to Philadelphia. While there, he filmed an interview with the libertarian (and Drew Carey-fueled) internet television channel reason.tv.

It's all about the stupidity of foie gras bans — something Philadelphians have been hearing a lot about lately.

Anthony Bourdain: "Better Enjoy Your Foie Gras Now [reason.tv]

This is cool. Ex-Philly chef Joseph Poon has shown up on YouTube.

Chef Joseph Poon [YouTube]

This shot of a breakfast meal of scrapple at the Trolley Car Diner was found courtesy of Phillyist.

Scrapple for Breakfast [Bluesocks78 / Flickr]

Down in Texas, they do things differently. For instance, they like to cook chicken-fried bacon...

Chicken-fried Bacon [YouTube]

Our very own Infusion Coffee & Tea (with locations in South Philly and Mount Airy) just released their first television commercial.

Infusion Cafe Commercial [YouTube]

Artist Sergey Tyukanov made this amazing painting last year — a detailed artwork of an uprising of sausages and hot dogs.

Uprising of Sausages and Hot Dogs [Neatorama]

Hey, does this guy look familiar? Yeah he does. It's Marc Vetri, the chef behind Vetri and Osteria, posing for the Chef's Catalog.

Vetri Heart All-Clad [Blogalicious]

What would the world look like if it were made entirely out of meat? Italian cold cut producer Negroni just launched a new ad campaign portraying a delicious porcine world:

Created by DDB in Milan, the ads show a world made of meat. We’re especially fond of the Tuscan landscape (above, left) with its cypress trees crafted from prosciutto and a picturesque salami road that winds its way up to a hilltop villa. Equally clever, however, is the snow scene (above, right), with mortadella drifts of snow and icy evergreens crafted of pancetta.

Eating Italy [Eternally Cool]

Step 1: Take a comedian in New York.

Step 2: Have him read reviews from our New York site.

Step 3: Have him be all deadpan and stuff.

Step 4: Bask in the private satisfaction as a MenuPages editor that we have unprintable reviews that he's never even seen.

MenuPages [YouTube]

We somehow forgot that Domino's Pizza offers a new cheesesteak pizza. In the video above, a few enterprising types give it the taste test. Mmm... corporate cheesesteak with rubbery cheese.

Domino's Philly Cheesesteak Pizza [YouTube]

If, like us, you're fans of Strongbad Email/Home Star Runner... or just like pizza, than you'll get a kick out of this video.

Virtual Pizza [Home Star Runner]

Aw man. It's the perfect collision of food, politics and current events. Geno's Steaks owner Joey Vento just appeared on Fox News to give his official endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for President.

Which is well and good. He didn't publicly embarass himself on Fox News. Just seemed like your typical ornery South Philly grandpa (which is a good thing). However, he came off a bit worse for the wear when The New Republic stopped by Geno's (yes, really):

A born showman, Vento mugged for the cameras all the while. He told a reporter that Mexicans carry disease into the U.S. because they "play and drink out of the same water." [...] In interviews, Vento has maintained that his own ancestors were disadvantaged because no one ever forced them to learn English on arrival from Italy. A veteran big-city pol like Giuliani might well have admired his ability to waltz from white ethnic griping to high-minded public policy reasoning. A little staff work, though, ought to have demonstrated that Vento was more than just another simple restaurateur with his mind helpfully focused on integrating non-English speaking immigrants into the modern U.S. economy. They might, for instance, have simply checked out his arm, which has a tattoo of the confederate flag. Vento says it's an homage to the old cartoon character Johnny Yuma, the rebel. He must have liked that show a lot, because he also had the flag on several of the Harley-Davidsons he keeps across the street from his restaurant.

Countdown to obligatory media outrage in 5...4...3...2...

Rudy's Man In Philly Hearts Confederate Flag [Talking Points Memo]
How Rudy Made an Immigrant-Bashing Cheesesteak Stop [The New Republic]
Joey Vento on Fox News [YouTube]
Geno's Steaks [MenuPages]
Geno's Steaks [Official Site]

That made him decide to look at the menu...

Yeah, that will make you dry heave a little.

Roosters [Official Site]
I think I'll have the burger, thanks [Geek, Interrupted]

Way back in April (and we mean way back), we mentioned how a West Philly native made a documentary on cheesesteaks as a student project at Syracuse University. Well, now it's ready... Introducing Ben Daniels' This Is My Cheesesteak. Watch the trailer above.

This Is My Cheesesteak [YouTube]

Now isn't this Japanese coffee shop cute?

Photo of the Day: Cute Coffee Shop [Serious Eats]

It's Tuesday and things are winding down. So why not watch a video of Mario Batali cooking with Danny DeVito?

Mario Batali makes meatball subs [YouTube]

Doesn't this food look good? These pictures are from Mac & Cheese Review's recent visit to NoLibs tapas spot Bar Ferdinand.

Bar Ferdinand [Mac & Cheese]
Bar Ferdinand [MenuPages]
Bar Ferdinand [Official Site]

The Food Network is offering up a "Food Lover's Guide to Philadelphia" video online. It's a bit old (hell, Toto is featured and they closed years ago!) but several Philly landmarks get the nod, including Villa di Roma, Pat's King of Steaks and the Down Home Diner. There are even recipes. Want to make the Mayfair Diner's pot roast and vegetable gravy? Or Le Bec-Fin's galette de crabe? Or even a simpler-than-it-sounds gianduja chocolate fondant with Devonshire ice cream from the Ritz-Carlton chocolate buffet? Well then... today's your lucky day.

Food Lover's Guide to Philadelphia [Food Network]

If you ever wondered what kind of food they serve over at Graterford, have no fear: Slate TV is reporting from the Prison Food Convention.

Prison Food Convention [Slate TV]

The Corner Deli, Germantown Avenue and Hortter Street in Mount Airy.

Photoist [Gothamist]

[Image courtesy alankin]

The Big Mac is celebrating its 40th anniversary. In honor, why not watch a Big Mac commercial from 1975?

Big Mac Commercial from 1975 [YouTube]
An American Icon Of Obesity Turns 40! But Who Cares? It's a Damn Good Burger! [DiscoverInsanity]

Because you can find anything on the internet... How about a video of cheesesteaks getting made? This is from the Springfield branch of Jim's Steaks.

Jim's Steaks (Springfield) [YouTube]
Jim's Steaks [MenuPages]
Jim's Steaks [Official Site]

Via Marisa McClellan at Slashfood, we found out that Charlie Rose has put up his entire archive of interviews online for free. There are plenty of food/dining related interviews among them. In the clip above, Rose trades quips with food writer Calvin Trillin (Feeding a Yen) and there are interviews with the Zagats, Julia Child, Mario Batali, Ruth Reichl and others.

Charlie Rose talks to the food greats [Slashfood]
Charlie Rose [Official Site]

Belgian cafe chain Le Pain Quotidien is opening a Philadelphia branch in early 2008. Although the food is good, we're fans of the menu holders made out of stale bread. They are pretty damn cool, no?

Le Pain Quotidien [Official Site]
Bread as menu holder [Flickr]

Because it's Friday... Why not have a video tour of the RTM?

Reading Terminal Market [YouTube]