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cooking: five-spice roasted chicken

Tonight was a failure of epic proportions…maybe not epic, but I feel like I failed. I spent yesterday getting a nice roasting chicken from the Reading Terminal Market, then prepping the ingredients and marinade. Tonight, I finished the roast…sorta…

I’ve been intrigued by Aida Mollenkamp’s Five-Spice Roasted Chicken recipe. It sounded fantastic, and it would give me reason to use the five-spice powder a bought a while ago. Everything was going well (I even trussed the bird!) until I “overshot” the thermometer…

I know I was praising this tool/gadget last week, but it still deserves that praise. This time, I messed up. When I placed the probe in, I pushed it in too far into the thigh that the tip was actually really close to the bottom of the chicken (didn’t quite realize this until I pulled it out). Of course, I assumed all was well and proceded to carve the bird. Fortunately, 90% of the breast was cooked perfectly. Unfortunately, the legs/wings were not, so I finished them off in a saute pan.


The picture may look like it wasn’t too bad, but it definitely didn’t come out quite how I had hoped, and it was my own fault. Oh well, a couple more weeks and a couple more birds before the big day.

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solo: 串吧


Side Note: When I did 6 weeks of study abroad in Shanghai, I fell in love with the Chinese street food of lamb on skewers, yangrou chuan.

I really can’t explain how happy I am that I came across this place yesterday! The place is called Solo, and in small Chinese characters it says 串吧, Chuan Ba, I guess meaning kebab/skewer bar. It’s a tiny place with bar seating and a few tables for two along the wall.


I already had lunch, but the fact that I could have yangrou chuan at this very minute excited me. Of course I now had room for one little skewer of goodness. Five minutes after ordering, the chuan was finished and it looked fantastic with tender, juicy pieces of lamb and a sprinkling of this spicy powder (never quite knew what they used). Ahh it was amazing! It was so delicious and reminded me of the time I spent in Shanghai.

For a $1.50, it’s a little steep when compared to what you would pay in China, but I’ll pay that $1.50 anytime here in the US because it’s worth it.


I just might have to stop here every time I’m in Philly Chinatown now…

Solo – 串吧
50 N. 10th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

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cooking: roasted chicken w/ sage and garlic

Last weekend, I roasted a chicken for dinner. This is the second bird I’ve roasted (first chicken, I roasted a turkey last year). Since there’s a great possibility that the family Thanksgiving gathering might be here, I’m a little driven to make sure I put out an excellent bird.

So here’s the plan, I have a couple weeks to go before Thanksgiving. I want to roast a bird (preferably a chicken) at least once a week, before the big day (essentially to work my way up to a big bird…to get used to the technique and method of roasting). Since the turkey I made last year was so-so, I definitely want to improve.


Anyway, the chicken I roasted last week came out fantastic! It was fairly simple to do and I only messed up a little bit while spreading the butter/sage/garlic mixture under the skin….I accidentally ripped part of the skin towards the bottom. I will also attribute the success of the chicken to the in-oven thermometer I purchased two years ago when LNT was closing down. If you don’t have one of those yet, you should totally go out and get one!

I found the recipe here.

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happy halloween

My sister baked some cupcakes for the family today…

Happy Halloween everyone!

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sang kee peking duck house


Tonight I took the pops out for dinner. It was between peking duck and yakitori, but peking duck won, since I haven’t had it in forever. We went over to the acclaimed Sang Kee Peking Duck House in Philly’s Chinatown. I always passed but never went until tonight.


I always get excited when I walk into a place and see the ducks hanging by the front and the chefs preparing the dishes. Ahhhhh! I guess I didn’t mention that I LOVE peking duck…like a LOT. It’s soooooooo good (when done right of course, I’ve had some pretty awful duck before).


We started our meal off with roast pork wonton noodle soup. The soups on the menu are perfect for two people. The soup used thin noodles and was delicious. The broth had an extra sweetness, probably due to the roast pork.


For the duck, we got a half portion ($19.95). They serve their duck here in two courses, first traditionally with the pancakes, hoisin, and scallions. The second course is a stir fry of duck, green beans, scallions, peppers, and onions. The duck and pancakes were good, though I do prefer my duck with crispy skin, and this skin coulda been much crispier. It still did a great job satisfying a craving for peking duck though! The second course was really tasty. There was a sauce they used (maybe oyster) but everything just came together really well.


I did wish the skin was a bit crispier, but it was a good experience and I’ll probably be back next time the peking duck craving kicks in.

Sang Kee Peking Duck House
238 N. 9th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215.925.7532

P.S. They don’t take credit cards, so if you plan on going, make sure you bring some cash!

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