PHILLAYYYYY

on a scale from 1-10, 1 being

you are a fatty and a biatch

and 10 being

you are not a biatch but you are still a fatty,

is it really so terrible that i went to philly to watch my people run the marathon but spent the entire time that i wasn't cowbelling and cheering accomplishing a mildly respectable food tour?

is a 5.5 fair?

 

i began at the amazeballness that is reading terminal market, where i:

-feared for my poor teeths enamels and ate a sticky bun that was like soft doughy and delicious on the inside 

and chewy making my mouth work caramel-y sticky-y on the outside. 

-gazed at all of the little jars of jams and butters and hot sauces and mustards! but instead of buying a mustard {i had an intervention with myself about mustard. there are too many in my fridge that i'm neglecting}, i got a little punkin butter!

-ate a warm gooey chocolate chip cookie from the 4th street cookie company

-experienced the delilah's mac and cheese. it was the closest i've ever felt to my arteries clogging, and i don't know if  i'd ever forgive myself for eating it again, so i'm just going to have to mark this moment in history. the taste of the cream seemed to overpower the taste of the cheese, which is why i think it tasted so unique. but, what the hell do i know. it was seriously good. and maybe i should have run the marathon too.

 and then di bruno brothers happened.

and it was the least stressful cheese counter experience i've had in a while.

not that i don't love fairway and zabar's with all of my heart. but the problem is that just about everyone else in manhattan does too. and sometimes that make me verklempt.

i tasted cinnamon cheese. 

cinnamon without sugar is weird, but on creamy smelly cheese it was a whole new sperience! go figure... 

also there was a gigantor block of halvah hangin out for people to taste. 

di bruno brothers is like if zabar's went on a yoga retreat. kind of.

and then i visited a wawa... i had to...it would have been like taking a road trip and not stopping at the cracker barrel.

yay! josh and jen run the marathon!!!

they were so wonderful!! i arrived at the finish line just in time to see josh shatter his personal record. 

and then we went to go cheer on jen along the skoooookil as she finished her first marathon!! it was awesome.

 they got medals and those sweet tin foil capes!

i don't know how people do it. i can barely run a mile*

but i am so so proud of them!!

*maybe this should morph into a fitness blog...

while jen was running, i did what i do best:

play cowbell and eat soft pretzels!

if anyone can give me a history lesson about why philly pretzels look, umm, vertically challenged, i would be really appreciative. 

and then as a celebration, josh and i went to a street stand and got

philly cheesesteaks!

i am no virge to the cheesesteak. but i just had to enjoy one in philly, especially since the best way to get a good cheesesteak in new york is to go to penn station to catch an amtrak to philly, apparently. i hadn't any time to go to the places with all the hype, but my street stand cheesesteak hit the spot as much as cheesesteaks do!

...and with that, training for philly marathon 2014 begins... tomorrow. or the day after.

xoxo

yeh

let's take the choo choo to a little town in the mountains

 

where people wave hello

and there's a main street called main street

and a little stand outside the book store says "free books!"

we'll go to the town market

and they'll pamper us with stone soup, pumpkins, and cinnamon...

if i get cold, it's ok i have my mittens. you have yours too??

the museum on the edge of town

and the little handmade shops

and a few victorian houses 

will take up our afternoon,

then a little cafe on the corner will serve egg creams and mac and cheese.

you'll say something funny. i'll smile.

we'll stroll till dusk, down the river, out on the dock.

and then back to the city we'll go!

so won't you come to beacon with me last weekend?

xoxo

yeh

week 22.5: paco meralgo

update: pictures work!!!!!! yipeee!!!
if you haven't met chris,

i highly recommend it.

he taught me all i know about photo-bombing,

manta-ray fins,

and marshmallow peeps.

he has an extensive background in ramen,

and he plays drums real good.

today i am honored to have him guest-blogging... 

all the way from 

barcelona!

*****************************************************

Ohai! This is not Molly y - e - h pronounced "yay," 

this is instead Chris Thompson, 

guest-liveblogging some tapas in Barcelona, Spain. 

Let's get right down to it:

Paco Meralgo

New York people tend to eat late, 

but I'm realizing we got nothing on Spain - from what I can tell, 

the evening meal starts between 10 and midnight and it's considered impossibly gauche to be seen in a restaurant before 9 pm. 

It seems like most places don't even open until 8, 

even though they all appear to be set up and ready to go all afternoon 

(almost like they are taunting one jet-lagged hungry traveler). 

I killed time as best I could, 

checked out La Ramblas (where many a sad-faced tourist can be found eating soggy paella at 6:15 PM), 

and walked through the massive La Boqueria market to ogle some pork products:

But then it was 8:15, 

and I realized I was just going to have to swallow my pride, 

waltz right in there and eat, or I was gonna fall over. 

After all, it was waaay past lunch time in NY. 

I'm so glad I did! 

They were super nice, and didn't mock me (or the other 2 people there) for 

rocking the blue-hair special. 

Sure enough, after about a half hour it was packed and crazy and I was happy I got a primo seat at the bar, 

in view of so much FRESHNESS:

My epiphany for the entire meal came within the first 3 minutes. Tomato bread, a common accompaniment to Catalan cuisine, is something so simple I couldn't believe I never experienced it before. I must have had 5 or 6 plates of this stuff by the end of the meal, and I'm now obsessed with learning the proper way to make it. 

Apparently the order of operations is key; 

rub the garlic on the bread, 

then on the tomato, 

then salt it, 

add olive oil, 

sprinkle on a mixture of crack and toasted pixie dust. 

omg you guys, look:

I regret not taking a picture of the awesome Gazpacho, served in a wine glass, but then there were SEA SNAILS 

   

and ANCHOVIES

  

Running theme here is 

"either you will give it a bath in olive oil, or we will do it for you." 

The anchovy bath included copious garlic, no complaints here.

Next there were fried things; eggplants, squid with ink-pouches still attached (but not for long), and PADRÓN PEPPERS:

They reminded me of Japanese fried shishito, 

a little hotter but with the same salty crunch and mysterious paper doily.

Finally, steak tartar "montaditos," in a bread tart 

(which is way more genius than it sounds):

I don't pretend to be a connoisseur of steak tartar, 

but I'll be surprised to ever have another one that lives up to this version. 

It was rich and flavorful but not overpowering and I completely forgot the bloodiness of it all. 

On my way out I caught a birds-eye of the masters at work:

I think I ordered 8 courses and three glasses of Rioja and it cost less than a steak in NY. I'm also thankful I was able to get through this meal with not a word of Spanish, but I think they gave me a pass for having that 

"I ADORE EVERYTHING" 

look on my face the whole time. 

I try to make up for my cultural ignorances with boatloads of appreciation, and it seems to have been a winning strategy so far. 

Paco Meralgo is at Muntaner 171, on the corner of Corsega, 

in Barcelona Spain. Don't even think of showing up before 8 PM.

-chris p thompson

**************************************************************************

thank you chris!!!

come back to new york now please so we can go to hagi please!!

xoxo

yeh

week 18: miya's sushi and the caseus cheese truck

last week, i had one day in new haven.

that's 24 hours to experience all of new haven's culinary offerings.

but is it really possible to fully experience a town's best eats in that short of time?

no.

so really,

you've sometimes got to do silly things in order to at least come close.

you've got to eat at odd hours,

jump up and down a lot to work up artificial appetites,

do stomach stretching exercises...

and the number one rule of spending only one day in a new town?

if you meet a grilled cheese truck on the street,

you must make friends with it.

take it to coffee,

give it your business card...

{even if you are on your way to eat sushi}

it was a rough day because a bit of an impromptu early morning smörgåsbord in the yale cafeteria

left me with little room for the lunch at 

miya's sushi

that friend ariel and i had planned.

and then when we happened upon the 

caseus cheese truck

our reaction was more a less a groan and a feeling of obligato stuffing than of excitement...

i guess we have to try it, ariel

yeah, and i guess we have to get bacon on it.

owwww my insides!!!!

that is until we actually tasted the grilled cheese that came out of the truck.

a blend of provolone, 

swiss, 

comte,

 gruyere, 

gouda, 

and sharp cheddar

oozed out of two slices of sourdough,

with the chewiness of some applewood smoked bacon up in hurrr. 

{party in my mouth like wha?}

like, dang.

too often i meet a grilled cheese where there is too much cheese,

or the cheese isn't melty but the bread is burnt,

or the grease from the bread spills down my hand and/or corrupts my arteries,

these ratios that came out of the truck, however, were exceptional.

piping hot,

oozey goodness,

it made me wonder why everything doesn't come out of a cute little truck.

also available was grainy mustard

{double points for mustard, kids}

so we slathered her in the seed,

ate as we walked,

and prelunched it up!

tummy was rightfully confused when we finally made it to

 miya's.

and even more confused when i opened the  menu.

{for a good/hilarious potty/subway read, read their menu}

our appetizer was 

tokyo fro

like an afro?

it's really amusing to picture a 14 year old japanese boy with an afro- so do it.

it's basically shoe string taters fried to a crisp

with a "secret" sauce

which very strongly resembles in-n-out's secret sauce...

it looks like a lot of food,

but it had the lightness of popcorn,

so naturally ariel and i finished the whole thing.

{wondering where on earth i am going to fit this sushi!!!!}

and then,

there it was.

a plate of a delicious looking

smoked salmon roll

with cream cheese and avocado

and pretty orange crispy things around the edge

and a

hot-headed cowgirl roll

avocado, cream cheese, papaya, burdock & hot pepper

rolled in coconut

ari got

kimchi seared escolar

and

spicy albacore

now,

if i may admit something to you,

i am still new at this whole sushi thing.

but with gourmet garage as my one real comparison,

miya's was like hearing lady gaga for the first time during my diet of kenny g. 

my smoked salmon roll was a little {ok a lot} cream cheese heavy,

however being reminiscent of a ye old bagel & lox, i was a fan.

i only had the balls to taste ari's albacore, which was fresh! and rumor has it sustainable! {?}

i'll save the kimchi escolars for next time... 

my fave by far was the cowguurrrrl. 

maybe it's because there was no fish in it?

sorry, this whole meat without feet thing is still stressing me out, but i'm working on it.

coconut+rice really are a match made heaven, if you ask me. they should date more often.

i can see why my whole new haven correspondence/advisory team demanded that i go to miya's.

not only was it very very fresh,

but the combinations of rolls were just outrageous.

the textbook sized menu leaves enough options to have a different roll every day for about a semester

{it's proximity to yale is making me have scholastic lingo, my apologies}

next time i go back, though, i'm getting the

oo la la mitzvah! roll

"winner of the prestigious 2008 l'chayim world sushi award; this award winning roll was developed by rabbis [of the lost tribe of china] as a gift to the israeli national ping pong team in support of their quest for an olympic medal. tempura arctic char, brie cheese, avocado & ch'i energy"

thanks, miya.

i will be back!!

but, first, i've got 34 restaurants to go!!

xoxo

yeh

miya's sushi and the caseus cheese truck are both in new haven, connecticut