DiBruno Brothers After Hours
Honestly, all I can think about on a snowy day like today is melted cheese. A few weeks ago we had our second annual Ali and Slip joint birthday party cheese tasting extravaganza. If you are a self-proclaimed cheese nerd like me, and you live in Philadelphia, this is a must-do experience.
The original 9th street DiBruno Bros. opens up their tiny and charming shop from 7-9pm for you and 10-15 of your closest friends. You all bring your own beer or wine. Throughout the evening you set aside all the goodies you want to take home (at 10% off). And 2-3 cheese mongers create insane tasting plates amidst your own requests to try that due latte, truffled burrata or jamon iberico you've been craving. The catchphrase of the night? "We're going to be taking you on a tour of the world... through meat and cheese."
Mole salami (a personal fav) with dulce de leche and a cocoa pecan. A little amuse bouche to start the evening.
Cheese, meat, and fruit. Yummy prosciutto, soft mild cheese with blackberry jam (one of the things we purchased), and manchego with membrillo (quince paste, a favorite from my time spent in Spain).
The stinky plate: delightfully stinky cheese with pate and tiny toasts, mustard, and little cornichons.
This. This plate was it for me. The cubes on the right are truffled mortadella. I'm not gonna lie, I grew up eating bologna and liking it, and mortadella is really fancy Italian bologna. Add truffle. BOOM. In addition to all the other meats on the plate (which, frankly, I can't remember each one), paired with the mustards, including a black truffle mustard... this plate was it for me.
Until we had this, which was frankly a tiny spoonful of heaven. Sheeps milk ricotta, topped with bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. We bought the ricotta, and savored it for several days on toast topped with blackberry jam, or just by the spoonful. It was the lightest most perfect ricotta I've ever had.
Hand-pulled mozzarella drizzled with our 2 favorite olive oils and black lava sea salt. Blurry photo but very clearly memorable taste, pulled the perfect amount, salty (but not too salty) with really grassy olive oil. I would consider trudging into the snow for this.
DiBruno's version of sushi: a very dry beef filled with blue cheese. "Wasabi" and "ginger" made from meat and mustard, the "soy sauce" was balsamic. It was honestly the only thing I didn't love that night, just because the blue cheese was a little too intense for me. But a really neat idea.
And the platter everyone was waiting on, our dessert tray. Delice de Bourgogne cheese alongside duck prosciutto wrapped around amarena cherries. Delice is the creamiest cheese, with a higher fat content than butter. This cheese is another guilty pleasure of mine, reserved for special occasions. This night certainly was one!
There is definitely a reason a group of our friends asked us to plan the same birthday party a year later... this type of night is the one you savor and then spend a year salivating over. Luckily some of these items enter our kitchen regularly, and after a night with the cheese mongers our cheese brains are on... and thinking of new dishes for our happy hours at home!
