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3rd annual belgian bierfeesten


Last Saturday I attended the 3rd Annual Belgian Bierfeesten at World Cafe Live in West Philly. I’ve never been inside World Cafe Live before, though I’ve been meaning to make it to shows here. The event was held downstairs on the basement floor. There was a band playing on stage, seven tables on the lower floor with different types of Belgian beers, and the food and bar on the upper…or…entrance floor if you will.


This is the first “alcohol-driven” event/tasting I’ve gone to. By that I mean I normally attend food tastings where restaurants have tables set up with their food. Belgian Bierfeesten was similar, but I guess my expectations were a little different. Regardless, I had a great time. They had a decent amount of beers to try. It was also great to try a lot of the different kinds of Belgian beer available. I particularly liked the strong ales.


The food was pretty good. They served Belgian fries w/ a Chimay Truffle sauce, venison berry sausage in a Westmalle Tripel gravy, and mussels just to name a few.


During the last 45 minutes, a squirrel had a fight with a transformer and they lost power. Fortunately, the band stopped playing (I wasn’t too into them plus I could now have a conversation with my friend w/o yelling), beer kept being served, and the emergency exit double doors gave enough light to see everything fairly well.

I had a good time and just might go again next year!

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ben franklin bridge at night


Took this picture last night from the top of a parking garage in Old City. Wish I had my SLR, but my father’s camera wasn’t too bad. There’s a bit of noise in the shot, but it was my first awesome night shot w/o a tripod!

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distrito


Distrito is one of the restaurants I’ve always wanted to go to, but never attempted to go…until I heard they were starting weekend brunch. The atmosphere was comfy and full of pinata-ish colors (green, white, blue, (primarily pink). I sat right next to the bar on one of the long wraparound wicker “benches”.


I started the morning off with some horchata, something I’ve been wanting to try for for a while now. Definitely enjoyed it. It was just sweet enough and nothing too strong that I had to chase with a water afterwards. Not that I have tasted previous horchatas to compare to though… I also got to try some of the Ojo Rojo, a drink consisting of coffee, mexican hot chocolate, patron xo, whipped cream, and caramel. THAT was pretty damn good.


We ordered Nachos Ignacio as our appetizer. My main entree was the huevos rancheros. Around the table the following was ordered:


enchiladas de pollo


breakfast burrito


steak & (scrambled) eggs


torrijas

I really enjoyed my huevos rancheros. They’re definitely some of the best I’ve had…soooo tasty! I got to try a little bit of everything at the table and they were all great. The one that really stuck out besides my huevos were the torrijas. The torrijas is a tres leches french toast. I’m a sucker for tres leches and the toast was delicious and had a texture similar to a churro but a couple steps lower on the crispy scale (a good, not bad thing in my book). It almost made me wish I ordered it, though I rarely order the sweet things for breakfast.


huevos rancheros

For the last dessert course:


side of platano y crema


flan


tres leches

Distrito’s take on the sweet plaintain was interesting. It was served with a little bit of refried beans and some queso fresco. The plantain was sweet and mixed with the beans and cheese definitely made for an interesting flavor but it was good.

The Tres Leches cake was ridiculous. Could have been my favorite dish throughout the whole meal. The flavor was delicate and had that “just right” feeling to it. I could (and maybe would) eat SO much of this if I had the opportunity.

Definitely want to go back already…anyone wanna join?

Check out full brunch menu here

Distrito
3945 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215.222.1657

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han dynasty


It all started Monday morning as I was reading my tweets and checking e-mail. Michelle of An Empty Fridge gave me a heads up about Han Dynasty’s monthly tasting. Every first Monday, Han Dynasty holds a $25 tasting and they bring out all kinds of dishes that you can try. When I read previously that Han Dynasty was a Sichuan restaurant, I was immediately interested in checking this place out at some point. I used to live in central NJ and there was an awesome Sichuan restaurant there that served legit Sichuan food, with hua jiao (Sichuan peppercorn) and all…NOT your typical American takeout Chinese garbage. Since moving to the Philly area, I haven’t found any places that quite satisfied my craving for authentic Sichuan cuisine…until now…

I was out on inspection on Monday, so that was the only thing that could have stopped me from attending this dinner since I wasn’t sure what time I would be finished. Around the lunch hour, I felt pretty good about our progress and gave Han Dynasty a call…

“Walk in’s are for suckers!” Han Chiang said to me on the phone as I told him I might call back if work runs too long. I laughed…but at the same time a little shocked at what just happened. Then he said he was joking and said it was no problem if I couldn’t make it. Just that little interaction made me wanna go even more. This guy was hilarious.

Anyway, when I got to Han Dynasty, there were tables of all sizes placed adjacent to each other (rounds, squares, rectangles). I luckily sat at a table with a lazy susan, closest to the kitchen. They started to bring out the food to our table, eventually bringing out other plates to some of the others after.


fuqi feipian (夫妻肺片)

They started off with two cold apps, a beef tendon dish with a chili vinaigrette and one of my favorites, fuqi feipian (夫妻肺片), which is a beef offal dish consisting of thin slices of tongue and lung with a chili vinaigrette of some sort. That fuqi feipian was delish. It was tasty and had a lot of ground hua jiao, which numbed my lips and tongue just after a couple bites.



mung bean noodles

The next appetizers they brought out were Taiwanese sausage w/ slices of garlic and spicy cucumbers. The noodles came out soon after. There was a spicy mung bean noodle, a chili noodle, noodles with minced pork (or beef – don’t remember), and my all time favorite Sichuan dish, the dish that got me so into Sichuan cuisine…dan dan mian (擔擔麵). The dan dan mian was fantastic. It had a good amount of spice, with the perfect hint of sesame paste in the sauce. Ahh, it was heavenly. I’ve bought a Sichuan cookbook since my time in Shanghai a few years ago and learned to make dan dan mian…but I still can’t quite make it like this. Han Dynasty’s dan dan mian is close to what I had originally. This dish alone is reason enough for me to come back!


dan dan mian (擔擔麵)


rabbit dry pot

After the noodles, the entree dishes started to make their way out. There was a frog dish which was great. It reminded me of a similar frog dish I had at a Hunan restaurant in Shanghai. Some of the other dishes served were a dish of Chinese broccoli sauteed with garlic, fish w/ veggies, pork in chili sauce, a rabbit dry pot, and a dish of crispy beef slivers.


frog dish


crispy beef slivers

The final dessert was a sort of tang yuan, a sweet soup with glutinous rice balls.


tang yuan

I was officially stuffed and entering a food coma towards the end of the meal…though at the same time, I was euphoric. Some buddies and I got caught up in conversation that we ended up being some of the last people there. Han came by and gave us some boxes to take home some of the leftovers! Dan dan mian leftovers for later! Woot!

Han, thank you so much for filling the Sichuan sized hole in my stomach. I’m so glad you are close by and I will certainly be returning. I still have to try one of my other favorite Sichuan dishes, mapo doufu (麻婆豆腐).

Huge thanks to Michelle for the heads up on the tasting. I’m glad I made it out!

Sidenote: Dan dan noodles at Pei-wei Asian Diner are nowhere near the taste and flavor of true Sichuan dan dan mian, don’t be fooled.

Han Dynasty
108 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215.922.1888

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square burger


This past Friday, there was a lot of talk and hype about the opening of Stephen Starr’s seasonal “Shake Shack“-ish burger joint, Square Burger in Franklin Square Park. I blame the tweets of Allie Harcharek of A Food Coma and Art Etchells of Foobooz for indirectly peer pressuring me to go (this is a good thing).

I was under a bridge until pretty late on Friday and I found out that Square Burger closed at 6 pm. Having read the tweets, I got myself pretty stoked for a Cake Shake, a vanilla shake with varieties of Tastycake mixed in! Suspense kicked in as I wondered if I was gunna make the 6 pm closing time. Luckily, I got to Square Burger at about 5:50 pm! I can’t believe I made it!


The Cake Shake was delicious and was worth the trouble of getting there during rush hour. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too hungry so I didn’t get to try any of the food. I’ll be back for sure to get a burger and fries.

Check out Allie’s post on Meal Ticket for further information, pictures, operating hours, and menu.

Square Burger
Franklin Square Park (North of Race St, between 6th and 7th Sts.)
Philadelphia, PA

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