Market Street Grille: Where Diet's Go to Die

I know I have reviewed this place a little while back, but I had to talk about it again, because this restaurant is a glutton's heaven.... and I wanted to make sure I didn't make the same mistakes as I did the last time I came here.

Last time: Their tap was like drinking toilet water and their coffee tasted the same

This time: played it safe with bottles water and a diet snapple (hey, I know what you are all thinking...don't judge the diet... I was about to consume a billion calories in a short bit!)

Last time: Didn't see their awesome specials they had on the chalkboard at the end of the resturant

This time: Grabbed a seat at the counter this time to make sure I had a good view of what they offered that day

Texas French Toast

I  threatened with a sharp knife convinced Buddy to get the french toast special. It came with honey, walnuts, raspberries, and nectarines with a nice dollop of marscapone cheese. The toast was a little soggy and the fruit syrup was too sweet. However, the chunks of fresh fruit, crunchy walnuts and creamy tart cheese made up for it. The portion? HUGE.

Price: $9.00

I ate most of it. He polished this off pretty nicely though!

Grilled Cheese Tomato Eggs Benedict

I also went with a special. A grilled cheese the bacon, and tomato on a brioche topped with eggs benedict. Now this should be on that website thisiswhyyourrefat.com. Bigger then my head and thicker then a crappy text book about string theory, I dived into this thing full force.

Holy shit, was this thing tasty! The brioche was chewy and thick, it soaked up all the gooey egg yolks and binded with the generous portion of american cheese beautifully. The bacon? Chewy, and crispy, and oh so cholesterol filled. I was in animal fat heaven( or hell?). I planned on buying a pack of TUMS afterwards....

Price:  $11.50

Yes, this was a 10 inch plate, and yes, I did finish it...how am I going to wash it down you ask?....

With a chocolate dipped ice cream cone from Dairy Queen of course!

Verdict: The best Massive hangover brunch food I've had in PA, but remember: DON'T drink their water, LOOK at the specials on the blackboard and be prepared to STUFF your face! It's very busy during the weekend, so getting a counter seat is your best bet!

Market Street Grille

6 West Market Street

West Chester PA 19382

Food Comic Monday: Translation Please!

If anyone wants to tell me what the hell is going on in this comic, that would be fabulous.

Black Lab Bistro: Table on the Road-er- Outside Please!

After Buddy picked me up from the train last Friday, we headed down to our parents neighborhood to grab some food in Phoenixville. It was already 9:30pm and I had not eaten since 11am. I. Was. Starving.

When we got there, it was still pretty poppin! Since it was such a nice night, we wanted to sit outside.  This is the table they gave us. Practically on the road. Well I do love the smell of exhaust when I try to eat. Fantastic. Buddy looks like he is passing gas, or smelling it. Either way, gas was involved somehow.

Complimentary Bread

Yum, my favorite buttery rosemary herb spread. The bread is forgettable, but the butter is very tasty, especially for how hungry we both were!

Price: Free

Lobster Mac and Cheese

I normally dont order appetizers, but I felt like I had been on a fast for the past week so I picked the most luxorious sounding thing on the appetizer menu. This was in a small tart dish and disappeared as quickly as it arrived. The menu says there is truffle oil in here. but I didn't really taste any. But who really gives a shit about truffles anyway? They are overrated.

Anyway, the mac and cheese was super duper, uber velvety to little chunks of loster meal hidden in every nook and cranny. The pasta was cooked a little over al dente, but thats okay, it just added more to the creaminess. The generous topping of panko crumbs was nice, but ended up being a bit soggy.

Price: $12.00

Colossal Lump Crab Cakes

Buddy ordered this dish. These are the best crabcakes. EVER. No seriously, they are fucking amazing. Chunks of crab, not that mushy pulverized crap. With the nice sear of the pan  to add crunch and the tangy, tart tartar sauce, this is a solid meal. And look, it even looks like a face, how cute!

Price: $26.00

Pan Seared Red Snapper

This was on their specials menu for the night. It was topped with lobster chili sauce and came with coconut rice and edamame. Super creamy sweet rice paired with buttery fish. An interesting combination in my mouth. Maybe not the most successful thing they had ever put out but satisfying none the less.

Price $26.00

Black Lab Bistro

248 Bridge Street

 Phoenixville, PA‎ 19460

www.blacklabbistro.net

Product Review: Trader Joe's Shrimp and Green Curry Frozen Meal

I was craving Thai food the other night and I had remembered that I recently purchased this frozen meal from Trader Joe's. It looked appetizing, huge and delicious, let's see if it tastes as good as it looks!

Instructions say to "poke holes" and microwave for 3 minutes.

After 3 minutes, the rice was piping hot, but the curry was still frozen. I had to scoop out the rice and continue to zap the curry. It was finally hot after another 3 minutes. I must add that this looks like vomit. Yum.

Lets Break it Down by Components:

Shrimp: There were only 4(!??) Trader Joe, I expected more from you. tsk tsk. They were nicely cooked however, not rubbery nor too stringy

Curry: Delicious. Spicy,  and not too watery or oily. If you gave this to me and told me it was from a restaurant, I wouldn't have known the difference

Rice: Jasmine rice, fluffy but a bit grainy. What you would expect from frozen precooked rice

 Vegetables: Okay I don't know what the hell this is, but it tastes like little bombs of bitter mushy vomit. Tricking me into thinking it was a pea, this was much much more disgusting. I like peas. I hate this thing.
Price: $5.00
Verdict: Just okay, but pretty good for frozen. If anything, the rice is what will fill you up. The amount of shrimp is disheartening and the vegetables were bitter. I would not buy this again.

Blackhound: Who Doesn't Love Free Samples?

Doo, do, doo.. walking down 2nd Avenue and I looked to my right, hmm, this looks like an abandoned/ just new store. Wait... are those cakes in the window??

Com'on, look at the entrance, who would have thought there were delicious treats in here?

Praline Cake

On the counter there were free slices of cake! Who doesn't love free cake? A smelly weird women in the store took 4 pieces and ran out. I probably would have done the same thing, but I have some self control... I think...

Airy, moist, nutty and spongy. Now I know why the smelly woman took so many slices! Alas I did not want to spend over 10 dollars on dessert that night.

Display of gorgeous delicious cakes. Check out the Cafe Mousse, so freaking cute!

The mini cake balls more in my price range, $3.50 a piece. Now... which one do I choose?

Snowball Cake

After talking to the guy behind the counter, he convinced me to get the snowball cake. Though he said the checkerboard ball was the most popular, this one was his favorite, so I went with the underdog on this one. This was chocolate cake made with white chocolate buttercream and sliced almonds. Dense, moist and with a great nutty crunch from the almonds. Would I go back for this? Probably not. This was a solid cake slice, but there was nothing special about this in particular.

Price: $3.50

Verdict: I would definitely come back to try their mini specialty cakes, and they also sell individual cookies by the pound!  The people working there were are very friendly, patient and were great at helping  to make a choice for you.

Blackhound

170 2nd Avenue

New York, NY 10003

www.blackhoundny.com

Saint Alp Teahouse: How Much for That Painting?

Melissa and I met up last week for an early dinner and we decided to stop by Saint Alps Tea House for dinner. This is usually a "bubble tea" joint, but their food menu had pictures of all their food and crazy cheap prices, we couldn't resist trying it out.

Before 7pm.... by 7:30pm, every single seat was taken with people waiting at the door!

Not going to lie, totally scoping out a girls drink... they come in 2 sizes... I'm guessing this is the large?

Crispy Squid with Spices

This was nicely coated with panko crumbs and perfectly crunchy and spicy. I wasn't a fan of the the cheap tasting duck sauce, but for 4 dollars who could complain for such a good portion?

Price: $4.00

Curried Chicken with Green Tea Noodles

Bits of fried chicken, soft potatoes and green tea noodles drowning in curry sauce. Absolutely DROWNING. By the middle of my meal , the noodles got rather soggy and mushy and at the same tim edry ( is that even possible?) The curry flavor was pretty forgettable and the bits of chicken were dry. Egh, again for the price, I guess you can't really complain for the amount you get. Would I get this again? Nope.

Price: $6.00

Supreme Matcha Green Tea Toast

This is possibly the only thing I would come back for (and to try their drinks). The toast was the size of  a nice texas style. The matcha butter was sweet, sticky and addicting to eat ( I totally want to try and replicate the recipe sometime soon!) Soft, fluffy airy center; it would have been perfect with bubble tea.

Price: $2.00

Painting Over My Head

Um.. so this is the most Asian thing ever. What the hell is going on with the girls fingers on the left?? Is she skipping, about to attack the guy with the red dot nose or pretending to be a monster? I have no idea. And why does that dude have a red dot as a nose? Wat happened to his friends nose? How much is this painting, because I want it! 

Verdict: Well.. by the time I left there was actually a wait for tables at this place (??) Maybe there wouldn't be if their service was a little more organized and speedy, I had to literally flail my arms around   like a person on a stranded island trying to find a rescue  boat just to get my check. I guess I should try their drinks next time because people certainly can't be waiting out the door for their dinner.

Saint Alp Teahouse

30 3rd Ave

New York, NY 10003

http://www.saintsalp.com.hk/

Food Comic Monday: Salt and Sugar by Melanie "Minty" Lewis

No.7 Sub: Mystery Meat is Greasy but Tasty

 So I got a new job. What does this mean for me? A new area to explore food of course! I am currently RIGHT across the street from Koreatown, which also means I am much closer to No.7 Sub. On my first day at my new job, I decided to celebrate and treat myself to one of their tasty sandwiches.

Roast Turkey

This was made with bleu cheese, pickled melon slices, dijon, and basil. Okay I see all the ingredients here, but... WHAT KIND OF SHENANIGANS is that massive pulverized meat blob in the center of my sandwich?!? I was utterly confused when I unwrapped this. Could they have messed up my order? Is this a joke? Did they accidentally throw that in? I even decided to look at their online menu to see if they did mess my order up...nope. No other kind of meat that even slightly sounded like this blob of meat. Well, anyway I guess onto the tasting?....

I took a bite, I could barely taste the turkey itself, the flavor of the ultra salty, greasy mystery meat over powered anything the turkey had to offer. On the other hand, there was just enough blue cheese to add some tang and the melon was a delightful refreshment after each bite (it was actually my favorite part of the sandwich). I got a couple bites of basil, but not much, though the basil was fresh and fragrant. This was a pretty heavy sandwich, I still couldn't figure out what kind of protein it was, but I was anticipating meat constipation for the next 3 days. Bring on the laxatives....

Price: $9.00

Verdict: Maybe not the best sandwich I have had from there, but this will not detour me from going again. There is a massive line out the door during lunch rush for a reason.  They also started serving breakfast sandwiches and I am very excited to try one!

No.7 Sub

1188 Broadway

New York, NY 10001

Capogiro: Memories of Italy In One Delicious Lick

Okay, 1 more post on Philadelphia, and I tomorrow I will post about New York again! I had to post this because this gelato place is so fantastic.

I went to the Sansom location ( yes after I got the cupcakes from yesterday's post) because who could resist a cool creamy treat after a day for walking around eating?

 Roomy, clean, and not only do they serve delicious gelato, they also have panini's, croissants and cookies too. Oh and get this; they also have H& H bagels from New York. I personally am not a fan of that particular bagel company, but it's nice to know.

 Bacio and Mora Gelato

Bruce ordered Bacio (which is chocolate and hazelnut gelato with bits of hazelnut in it) and Mora (which is blackberry gelato). I didn't have any, but it looked incredibly decadent.

Price: $4.50

 Thai Coconut Milk Gelato and Watermelon Sorbet

As usual, I had to get mine in a cone. Holy Cannoli, was this refreshing! The coconut milk gelato was ultra creamy, natural hints of coconut with an after taste of rum. This complimented the watermelon (which actually tasted exactly like watermelon without being overly sweet or fake tasting.) With every lick, I was one step closer to heaven until...

This! WTF?? A hollow cone is the saddest thing ever  :(

Price: $4.50 (+ .25 for a cone)

Verdict: Ah.... this small reminder of Italy is enough to subside my urge to buy a plane ticket there and want to order another serving! Great quality gelato when you don't feel like walking over to Reading Terminal for Bassett's Ice Cream.

Capogiro Gelato

119 S 13th St

Philadelphia, PA 19107

www.capogirogelato.com