Good Nom Adventures

The first I  visited Philadelphia was during my freshman year of college when I went for a conference at the University of Pennsylvania. I remember the cobblestone streets and visiting the historical landmarks. It was also the first time I had flown on a plane and I got a certificate and little wings to commemorate the experience. After leaving Philadelphia, I remember making the decision to not try a Philly cheesesteak. I was far from anything resembling a foodie so I didn’t think it was worth standing in line to get one. Fast forward to over 10 years later and I knew that my second trip to Philadelphia would definitely include a Philly cheesesteak. So my research began…where should I go?

I decided on Dalessandro’s, which is located in a residential area of Philadelphia. I was solo on this food adventure and wasn’t too keen about being out and about in downtown Philly. It was good thing I had cash on me as they do not accept any credit cards. There is an ATM machine in the store just in case. I ordered my sandwich with onions and bell peppers. Since it was a small restaurant where most orders are to go I took my back to my hotel.

The first thing that surprised me was the size of the sandwich. I knew that I wouldn’t be finishing it because it was literally the size of my forearm. It smelled absolutely divine and I was looking forward to finally having an authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwich. I took a big bite and got my second surprise…there was no cheese. Apparently I failed at ordering cheese on my Philly cheesesteak sandwich. I thought that was a given, but apparently I did not ask for it so I did not get it. It was still good with the onions and mushrooms, however, I know it would have been even better with the actual cheese.

It was bound to happen at some point, having sushi in Cleveland. I mean so far I’ve had everything from Thai to Indian to good old American flare. The one place I hadn’t tried yet was sushi. I was in town with a bunch of other folks from out of town and they come here every time. One of them actually comes so often that the servers knew her by name. If that doesn’t read customer service, I don’t know what does. I tried to order rolls that didn’t have any spicy sauces on them. I’m not a huge fan of spicy anything but with a large group we were able to order a bunch of different rolls to try.

I had the Anniversary roll made with crab salad, tempura shrimp, eel, avocado, and fish roe. My favorite combination for any sushi includes crab, temperate shrimp and eel so this was right up my alley. It did come with a spicy mayo so I asked for that to be left off. The sushi tasted fresh and had a good balance of flavors. The tempura shrimp was crispy. One of the things I hate most when ordering tempura shrimp is getting a dish that is cold and soggy. I can’t remember other pieces of sushi I had since we ordered family style but everything was very tasty. I may have to venture to more sushi places in Cleveland.

Since every flight I have makes a pit stop in Dallas, I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve passed by Ling & Louie’s disappointed because I didn’t have along enough layover to try it out. This time was different and I was more than excited to finally try it out. This is probably one of the first, if not my first, visit to an actual sit-down restaurant in the airport.

I started with the lemonade Arnold Palmer, which I apparently have the most difficult time pronouncing. It was a nice balance of sweet and tangy, although the sugar rush was a bit much for me to handle.

I ordered the miso soup and unlike the one I tried at House of Tricks in Tempe this was the more traditional size you expect. It was a very good miso soup especially for a cold day. It was full of tofu, seaweed and green onions.

My entre was the Mongolian beef with brown rice. Any Mongolian dish is typically served with a sweet ginger garlic sauce. My favorite Mongolian beef is from PF Changs, which I used to eat at every place I could go. This dish was a very reasonable size, especially for traveling. It was also very tasty. The sauce was mild and had a mild ginger and garlic flavor. It also had a good balance of sweetness as sometimes this dish can be overwhelmingly sweet. 

I’m always a huge fan of trying random places with interesting names. I missed out on Veritable Quandary in Portland so I wasn’t going to squander the opportunity while in Phoenix. House of Tricks is close to the university, Arizona State. So close that I was able to people watch college kids walking around with the backpacks on their way to and from class.

I started with the miso salmon soup and was shocked at the size of the soup. When I think about ordering miso soup I anticipate a small tasting, but instead got a heaping bowl that was filled with pieces of salmon, cabbage, and tofu and topped with crispy wontons. The wontons ended up being a little soggy and it was just far too big for an appetizer, however, the broth itself was the best part.  It was filled with flavor from the salmon and a strong miso base. One of highlights of the meal was the butter that came with the bread. Normally butter is just that, butter. But not at House of Tricks as tonight’s butter had caramelized onions mixed in. It was quite tasty all melted on my piece of bread.

I ended up ordering the burgundy braised short rib and it was served with haricot vert and potatoes. The best part of this meal was most definitely the burgundy sauce. It was savory and complimented the very tender short rib. The veggies were crisp tender, just like they should be. The potatoes were under seasoned and tasted kind of bland, but I was OK with that because I had enough carbs with the bread and enough pre-entrée flair from the giant miso soup.

I truly believe that one should “never judge a book by it’s cover” when it comes to restaurants. There are times when I pick a random place to go and when I get there reconsider my selection. This would have to be one of those places where I really did reconsider based on the outside looks alone. This was very close to my hotel and I didn’t want to stray too far and most of the reviews I read said this was the best Chinese food in Philadelphia.

It’s located in a rather isolated strip mall with a very large parking lot. The outside is very nondescript and it didn’t appear as though there were a lot of people. But I remembered to always give it a chance and if the food literally didn’t pass the sniff test then it there was a TGI Friday’s right in the front of the hotel. And I am so glad I had the courage to venture in.

Since moving to rather small town (in the opinion of this native southern Californian), my choices can be limited with it comes to ethnic food places. In Los Angeles and Orange County there is no shortage of Indian, Armenian, Thai or even Ethiopian restaurants if you’re willing to drive. In small towns it can be limited to maybe one or two places, if they even have any. So my quest here was to find a decent Thai restaurant. There are a handful of them and I’ve tried maybe about half and I must say that Bangkok Thai is by far my favorite, even in comparison to some Thai restaurants in larger metropolises.

Once I find a dish I like, and I mean really, really like, I rarely stray away from it. At times I feel like the appeal of a restaurant will diminish if I try something else and don’t like it. So the one thing I order time and time again is #25, the Nau Ong Bak, which is Thai style beef with sautéed mixed veggies and steamed rice along with a side of egg drop soup. The beef is sliced super thin and I cook very quickly is a hot wok. Although this place doesn’t have an open kitchen, you can see into it while ordering and see how things are getting made.

You may remember from this post that I’ve been to a place once where the food was so mediocre that I didn’t even bother remembering the name. I had no intention of ever going back even though so many people extoled how great the food was. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t remember how much I didn’t like it because I’ve now been back, twice, and the food is actually pretty delicious.

Let’s first start with my first memory of a French dip sandwich. During my days working at the mall there was a this deli that I would visit many a times during my lunch break and order a very simple French dip sandwich. It was served with a side a fries and the most tasty au jus I ever had. It wasn’t any spectacular, but it gave me a good base line to determine what makes a good French dip sandwich. This one at Willoughby Brewing Company is nothing short of French dip heaven. The meat is so tender and moist. The au jus was the perfect dipping sauce, full of flavor. And of course my side of broccoli was steamed to perfection.

The Mission is a trendy, but casual lounge located in Old Town Scottsdale. The food is more than a few steps up from causal bar food and offers Spanish food with a modern twist. I ordered the crispy pork belly with the cola lime glaze. The pork was flash fried to perfection with a crunchy outside and a soft inside. The flavor was beyond amazing with the reduction of cola and fresh lime drizzled on top along with pickled red onions and grated peanuts. The tanginess of the red onion balanced out the sweetness in the glaze. It was a small portion, but it ended up being the perfect sized entrée for me in the end, especially since I did follow it up with dessert in the form of fried bananas. The fried bananas had a crispy outer coating and was served with a creamy peanut butter and ducle de leche. The contrast between the hot fried banana and cool dulce de leche was enjoyable. I would definitely recommend going to The Mission on a visit to Old Town Scottsdale and remember to make reservations.

In all the time I’ve been on this foodie adventure, never have I really experienced bad service. Slow service, yes, but just flat out bad service is a rare occurrence. Unfortunately my one and only night in Charlotte ended up being one of those rare occurrences. And to add insult to injury my street cred as a self-proclaimed foodie was on the line with a new group of co-workers to take on an adventure with me. Little did I know the awful ride we would end up on.

After a morning at the beach followed by some rather successful retro video game hunting, we were hungry by the time we got back inland and wanted to find someplace simple to try. It was also getting late so we had to find something on the way back to the hotel. Luckily there was this Vietnamese place right across the street. And by now you may know that I’m always up for a good bowl of pho (if not see here, here, and here). It was almost closing time and I was surprised by how busy this place still was. It’s a small restaurant but still inviting and cozy. Most of the tables were full and the service was spectacular. They were more than happy to serve us.

We started with the spring rolls. It was served with the traditional peanut sauce and you really can’t go wrong with a spring roll. The flavor profile is the same at most places I go to so I was very satisfied to have the same experience here. Same thing goes with the pho. About the only difference I noticed is that you could customize the size of your order. I had never seen that before and seeing as how I usually end up with leftovers I opted for the small bowl. It was probably the most traditional pho I had in a long time. The beef was tender and the broth had all the flavors I would expect.

For my last night in Florida before heading to another out of town destination, I wanted to keep things simple and tried this café was in the same strip mall as Pho Hoang but on the other side. You couldn’t tell by the name but this was actually as Japanese sushi and hibachi place. I ordered a traditional shrimp hibachi and was not disappointed. It came with the traditional accouterments with hibachi: miso soup, ginger salad, and of course, the special sauce. All was very delicious. 

In the LBK there are two Indian food places, both of which are decent. When I passed by this place on a previous visit to Cleveland, I knew I had to put it on my bucket list. It’s located in a small strip mall that used to be very busy until a local gym moved down the street. I’ve been back a few times and it appears to be family owned. Each time I’ve gone there also seems to be regulars that go back time and time again and I can see why.

I started with the vegetable samosa. It was accompanied by a cilantro sauce and a tamarind chutney. The tamarind chutney was delightfully sweet and almost tasted like a cranberry sauce. It provided a hint of sweetness to the fried samosa. The cilantro sauce also provided a light fresh flavor.

The best Indian dish I think I’ve had in a very long time was the Aloo Gobi. I’ve ordered this before at other Indian restaurants. With anything I’ve had before I always like to have it someplace else to compare the flavor profiles. Aloo Gobi is a tomato based dish made with cauliflower, potatoes and onions. This is very delicious because it was a good consistency (not too thick or too thin) and it had a nice blend of Indian spices including garam masala and turmeric.The Aloo Gobi here is what keeps me coming back. So full of flavor from the spice blend! And what meal isn't complete with a side of naan. Yum!

Since I had the opportunity to have Sunday brunch I researched (more so than usual) a good brunch place to take my MIL. I landed on The Rusty Pelican. I didn’t realize this was actually a chain restaurant and my MIL remembers seeing one in California. The Sunday brunch is a buffet that includes every possible brunch item you could imagine.

http://frenchysonline.com/locations/frenchys-original-cafe/

Our beach adventures continued with a visit to Frenchy’s Original Café. It took us a bit to find it because there are actually four different Frenchy’s restaurants in Clearwater, but of course for my first visit I wanted to try the original. And I wasn’t disappointed.

First up was the fried grouper cheeks. Nothing else says fresh more than it’s only available in limited quantities on any given day because it depends on the haul from the fishermen that morning. I’ve never had grouper cheeks before and it was the most tender and mild tasting fish I had ever eaten. It was perfectly breaded and fried. The burst of flavor from the lemon wedge added a nice citrus touch.

http://www.aniseglobalgastrobar.com/

It’s always fun to enjoy a food adventure with family and friends so I was super excited to try this place out with my MIL in tow.  During the day it’s a super fancy yet cozy restaurant. From the electic décor it looks like at night it transforms into a super fancy yet cozy bar.

One of the first things we tried was the veggie Panini served with fried lotus root. I don’t think I had ever had lotus root before, fried or otherwise. It had an earthy flavor that was balanced by the light coating. It was garnished with an aioli and fried ginger. I’m typically wary of eating a large quantity of ginger. With ginger most of the time less is more because it can have a strong flavor. But the fried ginger was not overwhelming at all.

There isn’t a single memory I have about shopping for furniture at Ikea that doesn’t include going to their café and having some good old fashion Swedish meatballs. And for about $5 it’s a huge deal. You get a ton of good food for pennies. And let’s be honest who doesn’t want some Swedish meatballs before or after an Ikea shopping trip. That place is amazing!!