Philly and its food karts

This particular trip into Philly was inspired by this article from Gourmet. I first got to know the food karts the summer of my sophomore year when I stayed at Swarthmore to do research and Chris was living near the UPenn campus. There was this Halal kart right outside his apartment with excellent fallafels and schwarmas and such. I also visited the Crepe shop in Houston Hall in UPenn which used to be a kart but has since moved on. Since then, I've wanted go back and try more karts. This fall break at Swat provided the perfect opportunity.

From Fall Break 2009

From Fall Break 2009

From Fall Break 2009

A couple friends and I ventured into Philly in the morning for a quick tour of the Franklin Institute. It felt more run down than other museums of a similar nature such as the Boston Museum. Many of its exhibits were out of service. But overall, it was still super fun to do silly things like walk through a ginormous human heart and watch an eye dissection.

From Fall Break 2009

Exercising to improve our heart, health, and mood!

From Fall Break 2009

Jimmy, the chief investigator:

From Fall Break 2009

We walked to 33rd and Market, where there were about 5 karts parked pretty close to each other. As we explored our options, we settled on the strategy of divide and conquer. We got something from three karts: Mikey D's Grill (a hoagie stand), Ton-Ton (Japanese), and La Dominique Crepes.

The pork bento box from Ton-Ton:

From Fall Break 2009

It was a pretty standard Japanese thing, with pork kebabs over rice. The skewer had pork and onion on it and was deep fried. And frankly, I find it hard to dislike fried pork as a genre, so I thought it was pretty good. Their other items on the menu also looked interesting, including rice omelets (Crazy! I guess fritattas are also rice and eggs, but for some reason a rice omelet just seems so odd. Must try it next time), onigiri (rice balls), and pork dumplings.

I got a veal stew crepe from La Dominique, and it was SO DELICIOUS. First of all, the stew itself was just amazing. It was flavorful, rich, and dotted with vegetables. The guy must have made it at home and brought it over because it definitely tasted homemade. And I hate to say this in case it makes it sound any less good than it actually was, but the stew almost tasted like it was not made that day, like leftovers. But you know how soups and stews always taste better after a day or two after the flavors had melded. Well, it was like that, in the best possible way.

And once the stew's wrapped in the crepe, he topped it with a light salsa of cilantro, which made the entire thing. The taste of cilantro lightened the whole dish and gave it a citrus kick. It was fantastic. Who knew that stews can go in crepes and be so fantastic?

From Fall Break 2009

From Fall Break 2009

From Fall Break 2009

From Mikey's we got a chicken and prosciutto hoagie, heavily flavored with balsamic vinegar. Sounds odd, for sure, but it was actually pretty fantastic. The chicken was tender and the prosciutto added a lot of flavor. The only complaint here was that there was not enough cheese.

From Fall Break 2009

We also got a lemon crepe from La Dominique, which had lemon juice, powdered sugar, and lemon zest on it. Simple and delicious. We passed it around the table but I was lucky enough to get the last bite, which was pretty much drenched in lemony, sugary goodness.

From Fall Break 2009

Wursts

This blog is terribly, terribly out of date. Which goes to show just how unstressed I've been this semester. I've mentioned before that it's only when I have something big due and need a lot of procrastination to keep me going do I update this blog. And now, finally, while working on a Spanish essay, do I decide to finish up my three-part series on Austrian food. I know, I know... That was MAY. How dare I talk about something I've had a whole five months ago?? Well, because they're too good to not mention. And once I'm done with this, I can fiiinally write about my trip to China the next time I have a paper due.

Anyway, traveling Austria was super fun, but it was also the most expensive week I've spent anywhere, I think. Maybe it's just because I had to pay for the whole trip myself, but I really think the amount of money spent per day for that week was higher than any other trip I've done. Sure, the flights to Asian may be marginally more expensive, but once you're there, the accommodations are pretty cheap (or free! Gotta love family) and the food even cheaper. But I swear, I spent almost another round trip flight's worth of money on food and lodgings for a week in Austria. Pretty terrifying. But who can turn down delicious food and tortes?

The cheapest meals Chris and I had in Austria took the form of sausages (2-3 Euros per delicious meal? Count me in!). When we were in Innsbruck, there was a wurstkart parked in the middle of the touristy square, next to the golden roof.

From Austria

From Austria

There was a huge crowd of tourists ordering in every language imaginable. Naturally, Chris and I joined the crowd of tourists and ordered from their huge selection of sausages.

From Austria

Chris ordered a St. Johannes, which looked like any old sausage, except it was super long and skinny (coincidence that Chris ordered that one?).

From Austria

I got a weisswurst, which is literally a white sausage. The reason it's white is that it doesn't have the nitrite preservative. Because of this, it's usually eaten as a mid-morning snack and never left for later in the day. Apparently it can be so liquidy that the traditional way of eating it is to open the sausage and suck the meat out of its casing. That was not the state of the sausage that I got, thankfully, but it was way more tender than any other sausage I've had before. Inside, you can see small flecks of herbs and spices that its made with.

From Austria

The interesting thing about buying wursts in Austria is that they're usually not served on a bun, like hot dogs, but are given to you cut up on a plate with a squirt of mustard and a thick slice of brown bread. The brown bread is a much better accompaniment to the sausage given its heartiness, as opposed to the flimsy and blank white bread buns.

After we got back to Vienna, I went looking for another wurstkart, and ordered Hungerwurst (Hungarian sausage), which was spicy and bright red from the paprika. Also very delicious.

From Austria