Founding Farmers Brunch

I had brunch with Sarah and Erin at Founding Farmers in downtown DC for veteran's day a few weeks ago, and it was a wonderful experience full of good food and even better company.



We started out with some doughnut holes served with a selection of dipping sauces (chocolate, caramel, and vanilla rum) and French pressed coffee for the table.



I got the red flannel hash, which is hash browns with beets and goat cheese with two poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce on top, making it almost like an eggs benedict but with hash browns. The Hollandaise sauce distracted from the more delicate beet flavors but the rest of the dish was really good. Their hashbrowns were crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, and the eggs were poached to perfection. And the awesome beet-potato-cheese combination made me realize that I need to seriously start adding beets to non-salad dishes.



The dish was served with their home made English muffins and jam, and these were the best English muffins I've ever had, although my previous experience has really only been with the Thomas brand muffins. They were hearty, crispy, and sourdough-y. Topped with a layer of butter and jam, or the rum sauce the doughnuts came with, they were perfect.

The portions were so big that I had to pack home half my brunch, which I ate for dinner that day. Even reheated, everything was just as delicious.

Del Posto

After a phenomenally busy and eventful final semester at Swarthmore, I now finally have the time and the mental capacity to write a very overdue post about a fantastic restaurant I visited over winter break.

I first became intrigued at this place after a Serious Eats Post about it before break even started. Since I was going to NYC anyway, it only made perfect sense to splurge a little and have an excellent dining experience. And at 35 dollars for a three-course and then some prix fixe lunch, Del Posto was practically inviting us commoners to come and eat off their delicious menu.

In which Helen eats and eats and eats... and forgets her camera

Last weekend Chris (!) came (!) to visit (!). And we ate so much good food that I hesitate to post about them without picture evidence. But nonetheless, the food and company was too good to not blog about.

Our first stop was Mixto, a Cuban/Latin restaurant near Market East station. There was a lot of meat on the menu, and unfortunately, after a bad experience with burger bar earlier in the week, I had to go for the only meatless option, a vegetarian platter. Chris, on the other hand, ordered Churrasco Argentino Con "chimichurri," a grilled skirt steak with a zesty herb sauce. The veggie platter was surprisingly good and hearty, with lots of roasted vegetables and plantains and little cheesy polenta blocs, and rice and delicious black beans. Chris' steak was flavorful and done to perfection. And the sauce that came along with it brightened the meat up considerably. Awesome.

The service at Mixto, however, was quite shoddy. As soon as we didn't order an alcoholic beverage, our waiter turned on us and did everything in his power to rush us out, ending with the act of bringing us the bill before I even had a chance to wonder about dessert. But, that turned out to be a good thing soon after, since the bitter, bitter cold brought us into the Naked Chocolate Cafe. We were much smarter this visit than our last and ordered only their delicious drinking chocolate. I got the Aztec, which was very robust and full of spices. But my order paled (both literally and figuratively) in comparison to the rich, dark, almost-pudding like European Bittersweet sipping chocolate Chris got. It was served in a little espresso cup and you had to use a tiny little spoon to "drink" it.

The next day we gathered up a large crew for dim sum at Joy Tsin Lau in Chinatown. Despite the fact that our options were not as varied as other larger establishments, the food was quite good. Lots of meat and shrimp, but light on dessert stuff -- there were no egg tarts! And like all dim sum experiences, you had to look very carefully for anything green to fend off that scurvy you've been worrying about ever since entering Swarthmore. Regardless, it was pretty cheap for so much food -- about 12-13 dollars for a bunch of ravenous college kids. Not bad.

After dim sum we went walking around in Reading Terminal Market, bought a half gallon of apple cider from the Amish and wondered around a bit. We pondered buying an ugly fruit for the next meeting of the society of exotic fruits, but decided against it. After that, we went to the Northern Liberties to possibly check out galleries and such. But the only gallery we found was one that featured an exhibition called the "Obamarama" and another called "Guilty Pleasures." The rest of our time was spent walking around this slightly run-down but charming little neighborhood filled with interesting little cafes and shops. We walked by a Paraguayan restaurant with featured a prominent sign that said "NO MICROWAVES." As we were looking, a man beckoned us in for a lesson on microwaves. Inside, we found a lady who told us about a study where they watered two plants (great sample size, eh?), one with cooled microwaved water and one with regular water (at least they have a control...). And lo and behold, the plant watered with microwaved water died within a week. Moral of the story -- don't go near microwaves! Duh. She also told us that a hot "baked" potato cooked using a microwave will ruin the molecular composition of your stomach, or something scientific sounding like that. She used the word "molecular," and I was immediately sold. But despite their silly "science," the menu to cafe looked really good. Maybe next time.

Anyway, a light dinner happened at Soy Cafe (2nd st), where we ordered two delicious and filling salads (I got the grapefruit avocado, Chris got the crab and seaweed). Their signature ginger miso dressing was some of the best I've had. Plus, the serving size of a very large mound of fresh veggies was the perfect thing after a meat-heavy dim sum meal.

We got back to Swat fairly early since I had to study for macro. And Chris left the morning after. Despite how short it was, the weekend was probably one of the best I've had this school year. Definitely need to get into Philly more often.

Fuji Mountain

Chris and I went to a Japanese restaurant in Philly last Friday for our one-year anniversary (!). The weather was gorgeous and warm, and the streets and trains were filled with semi-inebriated people celebrating the Phillie's win.

The funny thing about Fuji is that Chris and I have previously passed it before, and I dubbed it as "generic looking." And I booked a reservation a week ago not knowing that it was the same restaurant. When we got there, it was TOTALLY empty. I was really worried that it really was going to be a bad restaurant. But then we realized that it was 6:30 on a Friday night, and we were being total old people getting in on the early bird special, so we took our chances and went in. Luckily, my intuition was totally wrong and it ended up being a sweet little restaurant.

I ordered the Nabeyaki soba, which is a huge bowl of buckwheat noodles in clear broth with fish cake, eggs, and some veggies. One of my main worries about soba is that it will turn out hard and chewy, but theirs was perfect -- tender but not soggy. Definitely a solid dish. Chris, on the other hand, got a yaki udon, essentially thick white noodles in a "special sauce." It turned out a bit too saucy and the meat was a bit funky. He ended up giving the dish a grade of 90%, although I think there was some grade inflation involved here. Other than that, their sushi was good, but tempura was oily and not excellent. Get the mochi ice cream for dessert. It's worth it. And the service was pretty decent.

From Edacious Eatings

From Edacious Eatings

The real kicker from the night was our adventure back to Swat. Because of the parade, SEPTA was completely backed up. Silly Septa thought that they could handle the number of people in the streets that day. But the fact that our train was 85 minutes late definitely told otherwise. We ended up taking the sketchy subway to 69th street and taking another sketchy bus, finally arriving back on campus at 11pm at night (we got to 30th street at 8:30). Oh man. By that time, I was just glad that I wasn't alone.