This Maryland "Crab Cake" caught our eye this morning, while scrolling through Google Reader. At first glance, it was based on nothing more than the bright colors and lovable little crabs, but then we realized it was a cake, and then we noticed that they were resting on a copy of the Inquirer.

Eager to find out more about this magical looking cake, we clicked through and found out that it was made by Zoe Lukas at Whipped Bakeshop... which just so happens to be a Philadelphia establishment. If you haven't been to Whipped, or don't know anything about it, the Flickr photostream is worth looking through. There are all sort of whimsical/fun/beautiful cookies and baked goods, and it's hard not to love a bakery that makes s'more cupcakes.

Feast Your Eyes - Maryland "Crab Cake" [Slashfood]

[Photo: Maryland "Crab Cake" via WhippedBakeshop/Flickr]

In our travels around Philadelphia, we've stumbled on some intriguing ethnic restaurants. Indonesian, Malaysian and Cambodian in South Philly. Jamaican, Trinidadian and Dominican in North Philly. Senegalese, Eritrean and Hmong in West Philly. Georgian, Serbian and Peruvian in Northeast Philly. But a lot of the time, we never got to include menus from these places on MenuPages because they were steamtable restaurants with no paper menus... just a daily set of dishes dependent on the cook (who was usually the owner)'s whim.

South Philly's Hardena was one of those. This Indonesian restaurant, located in a not-so-pretty stretch of South Philly, just got a visit from Finding Philly:

Everybody talks about the satay, and with good reason. You get four skewers and a whole lot of a perfect peanut sauce. It’s not too sweet and it’s just thick enough to lay a nice smooth and crunchy covering over the skewer. Don’t forget that dark sauce with the jalapenos though. If you like spice like me you’ll want to spoon some of that on top as well. In the last section of the styrofoam plate is a selection of pickled veggies. A little of this after every piece of chicken makes for a very complex array of sweet, hot and tangy that just tickles the tastebuds.

Our next two plates were the mix-plates. Rijstaffel, I believe they’re called. I had beef rendang, some of the homemade tempeh, jackfruit and collard greens. The tempeh was interesting but a bit too bland for me. The jackfruit looks like meat or a fake meat, but tastes like a sweet and half-tart mix between the textures of pineapple and pudding. Fun! The beef rendang has a moderate kick to it and just falls apart in your mouth. The collard greens are right out of the Louisiana and taste like they’ve been cooked in some bacon fat! Worth going for them alone.

Hardena [Finding Philly]

[Image via Finding Philly]

ver in West Philly, popular neighborhood Italian spot Abbraccio view themselves as much as a community gathering center as a restaurant. Owing to that, they just tipped us off that they're holding political discussions, book signings and art exhibitions this month:

Sunday, Nov. 11 at 7pm, Health Care Reform discussion. “Neighborhood Networks” presents a discussion and debate by experts on two types of health care reform proposals, including one proposed by Governor Rendell. FREE!

Mon, Nov. 12 6pmDinner/7:30pm Talk by Michael Garrett, author of “Cemetery Promises.”

Cemetery Promises arose from the pent-up anger and frustration of an inner-city teacher who has had enough. Many of our young people are hurting, confused, lonely, searching and looking for someone to step in and make a difference.

Michael will talk about his book and sign copies. Dinner at 6pm, talk at 7:30. Cost is $20 for dinner-talk, and $7 for Dessert-coffee-talk at 7:15.

Fri, Nov. 16 5-7pm Gallery Opening: Images of Halloween: Thanks to Cynthia Preston and Liz Campion. For many years our local neighborhood has been a magnet for “trick or treaters” and no event has been larger than the annual haunted house tour with literally thousands of visitors. This event was originally run by Cyndy Preston at the Squirrel Hill Falls Park; now it’s held at Liz Campion’s house and yard. Liz and Cyndy will share some of their favorite photographs taken from the Haunted House tour. Light refreshments, FREE! The show will remain up for at least a month, and the sale of any photos will help support future events.

Abbraccio [MenuPages]
Abbraccio [Official Site]

Taste Daily swung by old-school Center City joint Bliss and gave us a good capsule review:

I love eating out. I hate making reservations. Okay, okay, I just never plan ahead. So where do I eat when I decide I’m hungry at 8:30 on a Saturday night? A forgotten restaurant, those no-longer-new, not-quite-classic places where the food is still solid and the atmosphere is still up-to-date, but the crowds are gone. [...] The vibe here — like it’s what-neighborhood-is-this? Broad Street location — is hard to define. Dress up and enjoy a three-course, big-wine meal (like a baby lettuce, Maytag blue and spicy walnut salad, followed by braised short ribs with Parmesan polenta and housemade sorbet). Or dress down, sit at the bar, and mix and match from their bar menu (cheesesteak empanada or tuna sashimi) with a trendy drink concoction from the cute bartenders.

A cheesesteak empanada does sound good right now.

Bliss [MenuPages]
Bliss [Official Site]
Restaurant You Forgot About: Bliss [Taste Daily/Philly]

Campo's Deli in Old City serves up cheesesteaks and hoagies in a neighborhood where tastes run more towards Thai and tapas. We've never had the opportunity to eat there, but the bloggers behind FoodADelphia did. They found out that there's quite the sandwich there:

His friend Paul, however, went with something worth discussing: The Stockyard. The Stockyard is a hoagie made with chicken, steak, both american and mascarpone cheeses, bacon, pepperoni, and fried onions. We watched them throw all of the meats on the grill, allowing the fats to meld, as they spread the bread with mascarpone. Then, melting the cheese, they put the entire heart attack on the bread. Now, Paul is not a small guy (he's probably around 6'4"), but he only got about halfway through what he called a great hoagie. On the flip side, when he brought his tray back in to have the other half wrapped to go, there was a big puddle of grease on the table.

Chicken, steak, American cheese, mascarpone cheese, bacon, pepperoni ...and onions? Sweet Lord. We know who's keeping the cardiology unit at Thomas Jefferson in business now.

Campo's Deli [MenuPages]
Campo's Deli [Official Site]
Campo's & Overpriced Denim [FoodADelphia]

Everyone's favorite expensive vegan restaurant, Horizons, just got written up in the NYC-based blog SuperVegan:

"Once I got over their new age hippie meets IKEA decor and burnt coffee, I realized that my meal there was really the best meal I've had in a really long time. It indeed was worth dropping $20 (and risking my life) on a Chinatown bus to get down to Philly to try it. The yummy deviled oyster mushroom fritters served over a purée of creamed spinach and English pea bursted with savory, buttery, and earthy flavors. Their grilled seitan was unforgettable - juicy, smoky, and perfectly charred and easily rivals (if not better than) the seitan at Candle 79. And I embarrassingly licked clean the dish that their heavenly saffron crème brûlée was served in."

Horizons in Philadelphia [SuperVegan]
Horizons [MenuPages]
Horizons [Official Site]

Fishtown brunch (and now dinner) spot Ida Mae's Bruncherie just got a shotout from Uwishunu for their homemade potato chips:

What I do need to tell you about is Ida Mae’s potato chips. I know, it’s such a small thing, but it’s important. I am usually disappointed when a restaurant serves a sandwich with chips. It’s like the restaurant is saying, “We like you. But we don’t like you enough to give you fries, which we know full well are more delicious.” And then they throw one of those shiny silver bags of Wise chips on your plate and consider themselves done with you. But Ida Mae’s chips. Holy crap. They’re fresh and homemade and the most amazingly thin potato chips I’ve ever consumed. I think they’re laser cut. And I know this might be sacrilegious to say, but: they’re better than fries. Yes, that’s right: better than fries.

Mmm... Crunchy [Uwishunu]
Ida Mae's Bruncherie [MenuPages]

[Photo via Uwishunu]

Rick Nichols stepped into the Inquirer's restaurant review shoes this week with a look at Coquette. The South Street area bistro is praised for its good, affordable food:

The point is that Coquette may be just what the neighborhood was lacking, with its honest salads (at $7, the Lyonnaise a light meal in itself), juicy boudin blanc (at $9, a nice plate of juicy white sausage served over warm lentils and mustard-braised lettuce), beautifully seasoned (but non-French!) yellow-tomato gazpacho, and mostly-under-$20 entrees - a decent steak frites, flavorful roasted chicken and light monkfish.

However, Nichols takes a few potshots at readers of eGullet.org who are a "tight cadre of folks eager to show off their knowledge of proper French." What's so wrong with that? If you're going to write your menu in a foreign language, shouldn't it be typo-free? But that's just us.

Also recommended at Coquette: Slow-cooked Portugese pork with clams.

Note to all fussy bloggers: Coquette nicely fills a niche [Inquirer]
Coquette [MenuPages]
Coquette [Official Site]

[Image via Inquirer]

Tony Luke's just got written up in Roadfood:

"The local favorite lunch stop, with one ordering window and a few tables of covered outdoor seating, is situated below the interstate with rumbling of 18 wheelers passing by-- giving it a diesel smell, but a convenient location for area workers to have a hearty sandwich. The ordering process is fast-paced-- have your order ready when you approach the front of the line and be ready to pick it up immediately when your number is called. The small establishment is filling hundreds of orders during peak hours and the counter staff don't want to miss a beat with late-collected orders.

[...]

The highlight of this Philadelphia eatery though was Tony Luke's roasted pork Italian: thinly sliced tender pieces of meat and provolone cheese with one unique addition - broccoli rabe sautéed in garlic. The tender and peppery pork seems to melt with the garlicky greens. The sandwich is held together by a firm piece of French baguette style bread. Quality ingredients and well-balanced spices give this proprietary specialty a winning combination that brings back customers again and again--me included."

We could definitely go for a Roast Pork Italian right now.

Tony Luke's [Roadfood]
Tony Luke's [MenuPages]
Tony Luke's [Official Site]

[Image via Roadfood]

Uwishunu is paying tribute to longtime Center City-meets-Deutschland standard Ludwig's Garten:

"I usually try one of my standby beers like Leffe Blonde, Gaffel Kölsch or Köstritzer, but this time I had the Weihenstephaner Hefe with refreshing lemon slices. The food they have makes me feel like I’m in my Oma’s kitchen (if I had an Oma). I love the Rotkraut (red cabbage), the Spätzle (like thin dumplings) and the Muscheln (mussels). The food is warm and seasoned just right and it always makes me feel cozy—even in the summer.

The beer list is exhaustive (if you like imports) and Ludwig’s always has a number of taps flowing. You can also get a “flight” of beer—a set of different beers for sampling. Don’t forget the sausages too! There are many exciting things on the menu, but the sausages never disappoint. I suggest trying the wurst platter—it’s the best!"

Mmm... heart attack on a plate.

Ludwig's Garten [Uwishunu]
Ludwig's Garten [MenuPages]
Ludwig's Garten [Official Site]

A great piece in today's Daily News focuses on Hardena, a small Indonesian luncheonette in deep South Philly. Although we don't have them on the site (Hardena lacks a formal menu; instead, they opt for a rotating steamtable), they're one of the most interesting immigrant restaurants in Philadelphia. Operated by Ena Widjojo, the former chef for the Indonesian Consulate in New York, the cafe serves a funky mix of Chiense, Indian and Southeast Asian food:

"If you've never tasted Indonesian cuisine but are open to bold Asian flavors and ingredients, you're in for a treat. Indonesia's table is laid with a multitude of influences and migrations, from the earliest Malay people of Southeast Asia, who introduced rice and stir-frying in what would later be called a wok, to Indian merchants and missionaries who preached the gospel of curries and turmeric along with Hinduism and Buddhism. Arab traders brought grilled meats and kabobs; Portuguese and Dutch introduced tomatoes and carrots, and in turn brought heady spices like cardamom, lemongrass and coriander back to Europe. Indonesia, composed of about 13,000 islands arranged like a necklace between the Indian and Pacific oceans in Southeast Asia, offers cuisine as varied as its landscape, which ranges from lush rain forests to emerald-green rice fields and active volcanos."

Recommended dishes include soto betawi (a meat soup with kaffir lime and coconut), fried chicken, satays (beef, chicken or goat) and a collard green-based vegetable soup.

A taste of home [Daily News]

[Photo via Daily News]

Via Chowhound, the best things to order at Center City vegetarian/vegan spot Horizons. The seitan 'wings' are recommended, as is the chilled cucumber-avocado soup (pumped up "with cumin oil toasted pumpkin seeds and mint"), the paella, the vegan cheesesteak and a chocolate mousse with sour cherries.

Horizons (Philly) [Chowhound]
Horizons [MenuPages]
Horizons [Official Site]

We've mentioned Girard Avenue's Modo Mio on this blog before. Philadelphia magazine just visited the restaurant, was thrilled by the Fishtown-meets-NoLibs-meets-NoPhi ambiance ("there’s a mosque on one side, a tattoo parlor on the other, and a pizzeria-red awning out front") and, most importantly, are stoked on the bread:

"That bread, baked daily on the premises, is the base for bruschetta topped with caper-flecked, balsamic-sweetened chicken liver spread or gorgonzola with balsamic syrup or pureed white beans with white anchovies. The seasonal grilled vegetable plate showcased slender young asparagus, fat portabellas and baby artichokes amid the summer squashes and bell peppers on my visits. Whole almonds are an intriguing addition to grilled octopus tossed with baby spinach leaves, minimally dressed with lemon juice and olive oil."

Modo Mio [MenuPages]
A Fishtown Find [Philadelphia]

[Photo via Philadelphia magazine]

Our own hometown cheesesteak monger/anti-immigration crusader Joey Vento of Geno's Steaks was interviewed by the BBC this past weekend. The Beeb spoke to Vento about the failure of the immigration bill and even took a dig at the cheesesteak (and this from the nation that created the deep fried Mars bar):

Its signature - in fact its only dish - is a bun filled with thinly sliced rib-eyed steaks, topped with chopped, fried onion and a choice of three cheeses: American, provolone and an amorphous, glutinous yellow substance called cheese whiz.

I would not recommend the latter. As we were chatting, one of Joey's well-fed regulars popped in and asked for a double helping of whiz. For breakfast.

When he left, Joey confided that the whiz could be speeding him to a heart attack. "But in moderation there's no better stuff," he added quickly, "although I'd recommend the provolone."

P.S.: Confidential to the BBC — Noone in Philly calls South Philadelphia "Little Italy." Really.

Mind your language at Geno's [BBC]
Geno's Steaks [MenuPages]
Geno's Steaks [Official Site]

Uwishunu took a trip to Phoebe's Bar-B-Q. Keywords from the review: "pulled pork," "porcine altar," "heaven on a bun." Phoebe's is one of the two barbecue restaurants on South Street west of Broad. Ron's Ribs is the other.

Ribs with Attitude [Uwishunu]
Phoebe's Bar-B-Q [MenuPages]
Ron's Ribs [MenuPages]

[Photo via Uwishunu]

With all the talk lately about Tinto, let's take a break and sneak a peak at our other recently opened tapas restaurant: Isla Ibiza. Phillyist recently stopped by the NoLibs restaurant for chorizo butter-cooked scallops and live music and also gave a shout out to the bread basket of fresh-baked date bread with homemade almond-date butter.

Isla Ibiza [MenuPages]
Foodsday Tuesday: We're Going to Ibiza [Phillyist]

Craig LaBan has moved on from hamburgers to the world of Korean food. This week, he tried out new Korean lunch hotspot Miran and wrote eloquently about his passion for a good bibimbap:

But let it sizzle. Wait. Smell the rice below starting to roast against the hot sesame oil-slicked bowl before you give it the mixing stir. If you top it off with kimchi-spiced pork and mix it well, every spoonful should warm your body with a tingle of heat mingling with the snap of shredded vegetables and a toasty rice crunch.

Miran [Inquirer]
Miran [MenuPages]

[Photo via Michael Bryant/Philadelphia Inquirer]

Doesn't this look good a damn fine meal? This is the on-menu burger at Rouge and both Slashfood and Gastronomy are raving about it:

he entrees were brought out simultaneously, but I reached for the burger first because it looked so inviting. One bite and I was in beefy heaven. The meat patty was moist, flavorful, and measured over an inch thick at it’s widest (which James found a little challenging). The brioche bun was flaky, sweet, and bravely held on tight to the enormous patty. The cheese and caramelized onions were great too, but overshadowed by the almighty beef. The burger was so satisfying that I skipped on the ketchup, lettuce, and tomato. Our only complaint was the limp pickle spear.

The frites served with the Rouge Burger reminded James in appearance (not taste) of Boardwalk Fries. Every frite from top to bottom in the conical holder was crisp and salted nicely. In this case, ketchup was in order.

Rouge [MenuPages]
Burger of the Day: The Rouge Burger [Slashfood]
Rouge [Gastronomy]

Philadelphia magazine recently sampled the food over at Carmine's Creole Cafe in Bryn Mawr and found a restaurant that isn't afraid of high-calorie dishes like bacon gravy, bread pudding and deep-fried jambalaya croquettes:

The crabcake is an eight-ounce jumbo lump whopper held together with garlic mayonnaise, resting on crème fraîche mashed potatoes. Roast duck comes with bacon gravy and fried oysters and andouille-duck jambalaya. Sticky-bun bread pudding sprawls across a dessert plate, ample enough for four. Hasn’t anyone told proprietor John Mims that tiny tastes on tot-sized plates are the reigning restaurant trend? “I don’t do small,” sneers Mims, who moved Carmine’s from Narberth to Bryn Mawr earlier this year.

As noted, Carmine's recently moved (to what is their third location in nine years). Their relocation to Bryn Mawr meant that they were finally able to obtain a license under the PLCB's outdated system: The new bar has an extensive martini list and a full selection of choices from NOLA's best brewery, Abita. Unfortunately, food critic Maria Gallagher cites the proverbial service issues in her review, complaining that "servers can mar the meal" thanks to hovering and inconsistent plate clearing. But, hey, at least the food is spicy.

Hurricanes in Bryn Mawr [Philadelphia]
Carmine's Creole Cafe [MenuPages]
Carmine's Creole Cafe [Official Site]

[Photo via Brett Thomas / Philadelphia magazine]

Fishtown has been through changes over the past ten years, to put it mildly. The neighborhood has rapidly gentrified, with a ton of twenty- and thirty-something hipster types moving into what was previously a working-class Irish-American neighborhood. But it's good to see that there are restaurants out there bridging the gulf. On a recent visit to Frankford Avenue's Ida Mae's Bruncherie, the crowd in the pint-size restaurant was nearly a 50-50 mix of older residents and newer residents. Owners Mary Kate and Feargus McCaughey opened a surprisingly traditional Irish cafe (Feargus is a native of Belfast) with some distinctly American (and urban) touches. Not only are soy butter and tofu scrambles on the menu, but huevos rancheros share space with a full Irish breakfast & a ploughman's lunch—and classics like chipped beef on toast and BLTs. Prices are cheap too—the most expensive item on the brunch menu is a big, bad $8.50 breakfast burrito.

Ida Mae's Bruncherie [MenuPages]
Green Party [MenuPages]

[Photo via Michael T. Regan/Philadelphia Citypaper]

Here's something innovative: the brand-new Tavern 17 near Rittenhouse Square will shortly be offering a full dog menu. The restaurant has dog-friendly outdoors seating and menu items like these:

Hot Diggity Dog: Plain all beef hot dog without the bun. Cut up into bite size pieces

Bow Wow Cluck: Pulled chicken

Hound Dog Heaven: A juicy ground beef patty

Gobble Up: Lean ground turkey patty, for those doggies on a diet

Veggie Pup: Fried Green Tomato

Treat Me: When you want to say I love you

Of course, we've got the full menu too.

Tavern 17 [MenuPages]
Tavern 17 [Official Site]

Longacre's Modern Dairy Bar [Roadfood]

It turns out that Jonathan Schmalzbach, co-owner of the Hamlet Bistro in Mt. Airy, works as a crossword puzzle maker for the New York Times on the side. There's a great 2001 NPR interview (audio) with Schmalzbach and NYT crossword editor Will Shortz we recently came across that discusses the world of creating crossword puzzles.

But what we're interested in is that the Hamlet Bistro is having a crossword puzzle night on Tuesday, May 8th:

Join us on Tuesday, May 8, for Crosswords on the Menu, featuring New York Times crossword constructor Jonathan Schmalzbach (yes, the very same Jonathan Schmalzbach who is the Bistro's proprietor) who will create a Hamlet-themed crossword that can be solved as you dine. At 8 p.m. he will talk about the world of crosswords and will answer any questions you might have about constructing (or all those interesting folks you saw in the movie "Wordplay"!).

Hamlet Bistro [MenuPages]
Hamlet Bistro [Official Site]

Yes, that is the real (and unfortunate) headline that the Associated Press used in their roundup of gourmet vegan restaurants arond the country that includes Philadelphia's own Horizons:

Chef Rich Landau and his wife Kate Jacoby opened Horizons in the Philadelphia suburbs 11 years ago with low-key plans. He expected to be serving coffee and hummus to college kids, and was surprised when his restaurant filled with suits and ties.

Now they've moved downtown, where diners wait an hour for a table on the weekends to sample pan-seared tofu with hearts of palm, poblano cream and agave baked beans, wasabi-glazed tempeh or a maitake and smoked eggplant empanada.

"I wanted to open up the doors to the mainstream public and give them foods they could relate to," Landau said.

New York-based Candle 79 has carved a profitable niche among vegetable-loving foodies with New York Times reviews, a popular cookbook and takeout items sold at Whole Foods Market. Paul McCartney, Alicia Silverstone and Woody Harrelson are all regulars, said owner Bart Potenza. One zealot flew two Candle chefs to Arizona recently just to cater his birthday bash.

Vegan eateries not just for hippies [AP/Yahoo! News]
Horizons [MenuPages]
Horizons [Official Site]

New wine/tapas bar Chick's Cafe on 7th & Kater is doing an impressive job of turning a former old man bar into a destination for some of the most high end dining to open south of South Street in a while—and we're pretty damn okay with a world where you can get truffle liver pate in South Philly. Chick's is the first restaurant in Philadelphia to offer gnudi on a regular basis.

What are gnudi? They're Florentine spinach-and-ricotta dumplings called after the Italian word for "nude" because of their lack of dough—Gridskipper offers the best description of gnudi we've seen yet. Chick's rendition includes prosciutto as well.

Chick's Cafe & Wine Bar [MenuPages]
New York Gnudi Bars And Tapas Joints [Gridskipper]

[Photo via Anti-Mega]

Johnny's Hots on the Fishtown waterfront has a specialty. It's a sandwich of... fishcake and hot dogs. Lari Robling of the Daily News recently stopped by Johnny's Hots to check out the fare:

For lunch, try the Hot Dog and Fish Cake ($4.25) which is oddly quite tasty as long as you have plenty of tartar sauce on it. Skip the Roast Turkey ($4.75), however; plenty of other offerings on the menu are much better.

For the most part, I think the obsession with cheesesteaks is really misplaced. This is a sandwich generally consisting of inferior meat with fake cheese and substandard bread. At Johnny's, I guess I have to eat my words because his Cheesesteak ($5.50) is made from top round specially butchered for him. Instead of chopping the meat to disguise it, here you are served actual slices. Surprisingly, I liked it.

As admirable as Johnny's Cheesesteak can be, I remain a loyal fan of the Roast Pork with Rabe and Provolone ($5.75) sandwich. However, while Johnny's rabe has the requisite garlic overkill and you can order sharp provolone, the pork itself could use a little more South Philly influence. It just didn't have the succulent "pig thing" going on.

Sandwich toppings include Pepper Hash, a vinegary mix of finely chopped cabbage and peppers. Pepper Hash has its roots in Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine and I've also seen it referred to as Philadelphia Relish - probably a better name because it has much more cabbage than pepper.

Do you have the hots for a sandwich? [Daily News]

[Photo via Philadelphia Daily News]

What interests us is Modo Mio's ambitious approach to Italian regional cuisine. Sicilian specialties (the fried chickpea fritters known as panelle) share menu space with a Northern Italian take with cotechino and Italian-American style mozzarella en carozza. Chef Peter McAndrews, formerly of Porcini and Rembrandt's, seems to be doing a good job. Users on Phillyblog got a kick out of the carpaccio and duck dishes, while on Fishtown.US the big deal is the tasting menus & pasta dishes.

A word of warning though: Modo Mio is cash-only at this time.

Modo Mio [MenuPages]
Modo Mio: new Italian at Hancock & Girard [PhillyBlog]
Modo Mio [Fishtown.US]

[Photo of Girard Avenue trolley via CSX 4758 @ flickr]

A thread on Phillyblog filled us in on some upcoming changes at Zocalo. The University City restaurant is in the process of being purchased by Greg Russell, the owner of Las Tarascas in Sicklerville, NJ and Zocalo's current exec chef. They're going to rebrand themselves as "Las Tarascas in Zocalo" and a new menu will be released shortly. We will be adding the new menu to MenuPages as soon as we can, but in the meantime here's a copy of Las Tarascas' menu.

Zocalo [MenuPages]
Las Tarascas [Official Site]

Tinto [MenuPages]
Tinto [Official Site]
Chef Jose Garces introduces Tinto [YouTube]

Easter Surprise [Edible Complex]
Pirosmani - 9309 Krewstown Rd, Philadelphia, PA 19115 - (215) 698-1177

[Photo: Edible Complex]

It's always good when life imitates the Simpsons. South Philly's Royal Tavern serves a "Good Morning Burger". Now, in the Simpsons, the Good Morning Burger was eighteen ounces of sizzling ground beef soaked in rich creamery butter, topped off with bacon, ham and a fried egg. Royal's take on the Good Morning Burger is quite similar: Fried eggs, bacon, lettuce, tomato, grilled onion and dijon mustard on a brioche bun. Apparently the ham got lost in translation but with this much meaty goodness, who cares? In related news, here is a recipe for a homemade Good Morning Burger (along with many other Simpsons favorites like Nachos Flanders Style) and a scientific analysis of Homer Simpson's eating habits by that pinnacle of journalistic integrity, The Sun.

Royal Tavern [MenuPages]
Royal Tavern [Official Site]

We just found a loving ode at Phillyist to what they consider to be the best ladies' bathroom in Philadelphia. It's at L2 over in Graduate Hospital/G-Ho/whatever you want to call it. Although it is not quite as opulent as the luxurious bathroom pictured, Phillyist's Katie Kuhl still manages to wax rhapsodic about it:

This bathroom, like the entire place, is beautiful. The walls are painted with gorgeous gold tones, and match nicely with the floral tapestries covering chairs to sit on as you wait for your friends (because, no, 99% of the time, girls do not go to the bathroom by themselves). They've got a big mirror over the sinks, so you can actually see what you look like, and should you be unhappy (at least about the state of your hair), they've kindly left out hairspray to fix any evil frizzies that may have popped up to say hello.

Royal Flush: L2 Restaurant and Bar [Phillyist]
L2 [MenuPages]
L2 [Official Site]

Damn, La Lupe is good. The longstanding taqueria was one of the first of the crop to open in Souf Philly (along with Taqueria La Veracruzana and Plaza Garibaldi). La Lupe opened in early 2002 when the restaurant's owners relocated from Queens in the wake of 9/11 and we're glad to have them in the 215. The crew over at Uwishunu thinks so too. In fact, they just wrote an ode to La Lupe's carb-filled veggie burritos. We agree that La Lupe is one of Philly's great cheap dinner options, but we're personally more into the al pastor burrito. Mmm... pork.

[Photo: UWISHUNU]

La Lupe [MenuPages]
Best Veggie Burrito for a Day You Miss Lunch [UWISHUNU]