Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Amanda from Traverse City, Michigan

The following is a guest post from our Traverse City, Michigan correspondant Amanda:







Pearl’s- a little taste of New Orleans….in Elk Rapids, MI
The bloody marys come with a blue cheese stuffed fried okra and a crawfish. The jalapeño cornbread is to die for. Such an unexpected delight just outside of downtown Elk Rapids. I have been vacationing in Elk Rapids for as long as I can remember. Pearl’s has been a vacation dinner tradition since it opened in 1998 and I don’t see it ending anytime soon. I usually go for a fish option (since it’s always fresh from Lake Michigan)…so this night I decided to have the pesto walleye with collard greens and cheddar mashed potatoes. I also picked off of my mom’s meal- crawfish cakes, more collard greens, and sweet potato fries served with chipoltle honey mustard dipping sauce. Over all, Pearl’s get a 2 thumbs up for food and drinks…and an extra high five for such cool décor!





Tom’s Mom’s Cookies-just plain “Yum!”
Tom’s Mom’s Cookies comes from the beautiful town of Harbor Springs, MI…where the ladies look like they just stepped out a Lily Pulitzer catalogs and the boats are mansions compared to my little box of an apartment in Philly. I had one white chocolate cherry cookie and my sweet tooth was satisfied….did I mention that Traverse City, MI is the Cherry Capital of the World?!




Don’s Drive In- the home of the BIG D
Well, this one is another vacation dinner tradition. Located in Traverse City, MI, Don’s drive in is by far, the best burger joint…ever! I always order a kidding burger basket; fries and a loaded cheeseburger (the usual plus fried onions and green olives). The best part is that is comes in this cute little car basket. For all you big eaters out there, the _ pound Big D is the perfect choice. Oh! Can’t forget the cherry milkshakes! They’re made with fresh Traverse City cherries. Must bee eaten with a spoon because the cherries will get stuck in you straw.




Chef Charles- only $1.86 for a slice of pizza and a coke
You can’t find pizza and a drink much cheaper than that! Chef Charles is yet another up north tradition….usually followed by a day on the beaches of Grand Traverse Bay. This place is located in the tiny little town of Elk Rapids right on River Street. If you’re lucky, you will be served by Chef Charles himself. The menu has a wide variety of tasty pizza and salad selections. This also goes good with a cold beer around the camp fire.

pepperoni rolls

in the northern mountains of west virginia hides the pepperoni roll.
it's a small pepperoni stick baked into a soft yeast roll and left to sit so the grease soaks the bread. only available in west virginia and parts of maryland and ohio, I found these at a combination gas station/diner/post office/gun shop in the middle of nowhere.






unfortunately I didn't make it to fairmont,wv; where you can get them freshly baked at Country Club Bakery, the birthplace of the pepperoni roll.

to learn more about pepperoni rolls, check out
bob heffner's pepperoni roll page

meat camp

spent last weekend deep in the mountains of west virginia drinking "old german" and grillin' up meats over the old campfire.
25 miles from the nearest ATM or cel phone service in the craziest backwoods country I've ever seen. fantastic.









check out my flickr page for more west virginia photos..
hawkkrall's flickr page

Monday, July 23, 2007

Pork Wraps

Tonite's Dinner:

Coffee Marinated Pork tendorloin
Fresh Jersey Heirloom Tomatos
Tim's fancy chili garlic mayonaisse
Avacados
Red Onions




Wrapped.

Jammin'

I was lucky enough this week to have 3 lovely people in my life give me jam as a present. I recieved a jar of West Virginia Blackberry Mountain Jam from Tim. I got a jar of Traverse City, Michigan Cherry Butter from Amanda. And from Gianna I recieved the sweetest jar of blueberry jam from Japan. All these jams in the span of 24 hours, I told you I was a lucky girl. Of course I had to have it with a loaf of fresh multigrain from Metropolitan Bakery and sweet butter with bits of sea salt churned in it.




Tim really enjoyed the Blackberry Jam the most. The Japanese jam was rather amazing because it was whole blueberries and wasn't too sweet, it was more like pie filling. The Cherry Butter is the kind of thing I would smother all over cheese because its not too jelly like, but has a good flavor that would go well with savory things.

People's Restaurant

On the way to West Virginia, stopped at this amazing spot deep in rural Pennsylvania. The sausage and scrapple were amazing, everything perfectly cooked...just wish I was hungry enough to try the creamed chip beef. Great service & atmosphere provided by the locals from the rotary club and 4-H hanging around and shootin' the breeze over coffee.








140 West Main St. (route 23 between Blue Ball & Leola)
New Holland, PA 17557

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Bubke

For my birthday this year (which is the reason for slow posting) I went out for a duck dinner with 16 of my friends. And then the memory card of my camera got erased.

Sorry no pictures of duck dinner. Don't hate me.

And then my sweet friend Andy, who is from Boston, said she would get me a loaf of bubke when she went back to Boston. Bubke as far as I can figure is an egg based bread like challah, but is filled with goodied like raisins cinnamon and sugar. But, the bakers were on vacation, BUT her sweet dad, fed ex'd a box of it. A box of SIX loaves!!! ( thanks Andy's dad and Cheryl Ann's Breads of Brookline!)It wieghed a ton, or like 6 loaves of eggy bubke bread. It was so amazing I took a picture.

And then my camera's memory card got erased, and all these great pictures disappeared....

Except one picture of a late nite that me, Tim, and Hawk had together drinking. And on this school nite, we came home drunk and hungry, and Tim that genius, made french toast out of bubke! And bacon of course. My apartment smelled like bacon and syrup the next day.

Bubke is amazing on its own, but with more egg and fried, it was like heaven decided to pay you a brief visit, IN YOUR MOUTH!

Rooster Sauce

Tim doesn't like spicy things. No hot sauces. It's just gross to him. He doesn't even use ketchup, he thinks it's gross. So for someone like me no hot sauce is like why even bothering to eat that bowl of Pho, or that plate of dim sum, or PUT DOWN THAT BURRITO! So imagine my pleasant surprise when he brought this home from SuperFresh:



And then made me this beautiful coconut shrimp curry. With straw mushrooms and lots of cilantro. Just how I like it.



I'm still in shock.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Chick's Wine Bar

I had recently discovered Chick's Wine Bar in the Bella Vista area of Philadelphia. I normally don't cross Broad to eat since I am chained to my studio ( the chain, not me, doesn't cross broad). Chick's is everything I want in a wine bar. There has been a lot of wine bars opening up in Philadelphia recently and they are too much for me. I don't want to feel like a snooty tutti frutti jerk to get wine and I don't want to feel stupid. But I want to be in a place that has yummy food to go with the wine. Chick's looks like a pub, which I like, but is actually a delicious wine and beer bar. It has this beautiful dark wood bar and brick exterior along with outside seating. The staff is really friendly and not pushy yet very informed. Me likes. If you like bacon, they have this magical date stuffed with some amazing cheese and wrapped in bacon. Sorry for the terrible description, I just know I ate it up.









Chick's Café & Wine Bar
614 S 7th St
Philadelphia, PA

cute beers

Brielle has a scooter. One day she scooted to the Foodery and picked up these "cute" summer beers and surprised me with them. One of them had Puka, that cute Korean girl character thing. But the winner was this Orange Blossom Creme Ale with the solid orange bottle cap. It was refreshing and crisp orangey tasting, but not sweet. Friends are nice.


Morning Glory


Morning Glory is just one of the Philadelphia delicious breakfast brunch lunch staples. So it's almost inevitable that you will wait for 1 hour for this golden prize. Everything on the menu is good, they do not, I repeat do not make omelettes. Don't even try it, it's not the place to do it. There isn't a wait outside for nothing. I highly reccommend the biscut and the homemade jam, and theres nothing better than coffee in a tin mug.








Morning Glory Diner
735 S 10th St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 413-3999

Sunday, July 8, 2007

hot dog guy again!



from the new york times, hopefully they won't sue me for posting this.

roof garden





my roof is starting to look like a jungle, herbs and hot peppers growing everywhere. watering your plants 3 times a day beats paying $4 at the grocery store for a wet bag of wilted old basil.