Pumpkin Streusel Cake

Who loves pumpkin? Y'all do!

How do I know this? Because every other blog post and tweet is about some pumpkin dessert, pumpkin savory side, pumpkin latte, or pumpkin beer. I guess it is Autumn, the most pumpkin-iest time of the year, but I'll confess that I'm not as passionate about pumpkin as y'all are. I don't hate it, and I'll eat an entire pumpkin pie gladly, but pumpkin desserts in particular are not my first choice.

So why am I making a pumpkin struesel cake? Because I'm eating down my pantry, and there was a can of pumpkin puree in there from, I guess, last year when Autumnal pressures made me buy it, and, then, I was not compelled to use it. Plus, I know y'all love pumpkin, and not every post has to be about what I like. And, it's about time I posted a vegan dessert recipe. And, I wanted to use Sweetzels Spiced Wafers in a recipe.
Sweetzels is a Philadelphia food institution that you'd never know about unless you live in the area. These crisp and thick spiced cookies baked in Skippack, PA, are only rolled out seasonally in surrounding area stores, but recently have made a push into the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard. They're really no different than other mass produced gingersnaps, save for a few extra spices in the mix, but they're locally iconic, and I'm embracing the local foodways.
Pumpkin Streusel Cake
adapted from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
makes 16 servings

This vegan streusel cake bakes up very moist. Skip the streusel top, if you'd like something more pumpkin bread-like. And, make a standard spiced struesel topping, if you don't have gingersnaps.

Streusel

7 gingersnaps, broken into pieces
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

• Pulse gingersnaps in a food processor until a flour-like consistency.
  
• Mix pulsed gingersnaps and brown sugar together in a bowl. Sprinkle with canola oil, and mix until combined. Add pecans and mix

Cake

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
3/4 cup soy milk
3/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons light molasses (I used sorghum)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

• Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  
• In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, soy, milk, oil, sugar, molasses and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking poser, salt, and spices.
• Adding half of the flour mixture at a time to the pumpkin mixture, gently mix the ingredients by hand, avoiding over mixing.
• Pour batter into the prepared baking pan. Top evenly with the streusel mixture.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes until done, or a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

New At Divan

Update: no longer open.

With a recent shift in ownership, the acquisition of a liquor license, and newly added menu items, the owner of Divan Turkish Kitchen in the Graduate Hospital area of Philadelphia invited me back to sample their new vegetarian menu items.

New on the vegetarian front: artichoke, lima bean, and dill salad; Russian salad with carrots, chick peas, and pickled cucumbers mixed with mayonnaise; and steamed spinach dumplings topped with garlic yogurt and mint.
With the new liquor license, Divan now serves beer, wine, and cocktails, but is still keeping it's BYOB status. Bringing your own beverage is free, except Friday and Saturday nights when a $10 corkage fee applies.

And Divan really wants to get you in the door with a daily noon-5pm happy hour that will net you 30% off the entire menu, including alcohol. Also, pay with cash no matter when you dine and get an additional discount.

Divan
918 S. 22nd St., Philadelphia, PA, 19146
215-545-5790
Open every day, noon-11pm

PYT

Has everyone been to PYT, the burger bar in the Piazza at Schmitd's, yet? It seems like it. And everyone has an opinion about PYT's West Coast-style burgers, and those opinions seem to swing far to the left and far to the right, due to what I have gathered to be an inconsistent kitchen and waitstaff. One night your burger is awesome, the next night not so much. Service is only OK when it's not busy, and, when it is busy, gets worse.

During a September Philly Burger Club "meating," I had the chance to sample the two veggie burgers on PYT's menu, which might be a little more stable from visit to visit than meat burgers. There are no degree-of-doneness or seasoning-of-meat quibbles when you go veggie!
Everyone can agree that the alcohol-spiked adult shakes are great, with flavors like Jack Rabbit Slim, a vanilla or chocolate milkshake spiked with Makers Mark; and The Jon Valdez, an espresso ice cream milkshake spiked with Kahlua and Patron. Virgins are also available.

I do like getting tipsy, and I do like milkshakes, but one adult milkshake doesn't quite get me to that happy place, and there's no way I could down more than one milkshake and still have room for food. Asking for a double shot of liquor might be the way to go.
Or you could just throw back PYT's signature shot of whiskey followed by a shot of pickle juice. It's an ingenious way to get rid of all the pickle juice at the bottom of the pickle containers (a pickle comes with every burger, so they're burning through the pickles). Sounds gross, but it works, although I don't know if I would make this my regular drink; it's more of a "why the hell not" drink.
The onion rings are covered in a thick and sweet beer batter that's crispy and not greasy. These puppies are great, but, with about five rings in a tray, are not enough to share.
Beef, chicken, and veggie burgers are on the menu, and all burgers come with lettuce, tomato, and choice of cheese and condiments. For $1 or $2 each, depending on the item, toppings like mushrooms, sauteed onions, jalapenos, bacon, avocado, or a fried egg can be added to any burger. Kettle chips are strewn across the burger and plate, and a long dill pickle accompanies.

Being the tail end of Summer and tomatoes still in season when I dined, the tomato slices were fresh and tasted like a tomato should. And, be sure to get hooked up with the oniony mayo-based special sauce if you're into special sauces.
The Shroom Burger has two beer battered and fried portabello mushrooms sandwiching shredded Cheddar cheese. The heft from the mushrooms satisfies, and the crunch from the batter pleases. The squishy Martin's Potato Roll gives no fight and lets the portabellos shine. There's a backyard comfort from the potato roll, but the battered and fried portabellos are an extra step not seen at most backyards parties.
The Calibunga Burger is a thick seared white bean, garlic, basil, and breadcrumb patty. Even with crisp edges, the mushiness of the patty was too much — like eating a mound of heavy mashed potatoes. The pungent basil taste was also unpleasant, mostly because I don't expect basil in a burger. I ended up eating the Calibunga burger without the white bean patty.

I do appreciate the veggie love of putting not one, but two kinds of veggie burgers on the menu, but the Calibunga's pasty bean patty needs to be sent back to the drawing board. Maybe some other texture should be thrown in there?

And, wouldn't you know it! My visit swung far to the left and far to the right, but more so in the direction of delicious.

PYT
In the Piazza at Schmidt's
1050 N. Hancock St., Philadelphia, PA 19123
215-268-7825
Mon-Fri, 5pm-2am
Sat and Sun, noon-2am
Kitchen open until 1am

Vegetable Pot Pie

One of the joys and liberties of living alone is that you can eat soup for dinner five nights in a row without worrying about boring a dining companion. Nor do you have to be shamed in the presence of others when you pull out leftover rice, roll it up in a tortilla, and call it dinner. The downside of all this lackadaisical culinary freedom, is that because no one is there to impress, nor there to judge you, you (or at least I) tend to not put more than ten minutes of effort into a meal, and we all know that the meals that take more than ten minutes to prepare are usually tastier.
I absolutely relish my loner kitchen liberties, but I do miss having a reason to cook for another person, so am looking forward to my near future when I will have another person for whom to cook. One of the dishes I used to make all of the time when I had a house guest — a dish my non-indulgent, lazy cook self misses so very much — is pot pie. After a seven year hiatus from pot pie (admittedly insane!), I recently tried it out on the boy, and I think he's gonna want me to make it again. I always make my vegetable pot pie with the usual suspects of veggie fillers — peas, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, and maybe celery — and for the protein either tofu or seitan. For the gravy it's always nutritional yeast gravy, which, if you haven't had (I think every vegetarian and vegan has had this), is absolutely awesome. I could wrap nutritional yeast gravy in a tortilla and call it dinner, and I'm sure I have! And, I have no shame in picking up a pie shell made with vegetable shortening from the store (which would also make this recipe vegan), if I don't feel like rolling out one — or two, 'cause I like a bottom and a top crust. Vegetable Pot Pie

Double pie crust
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 sticks butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
7 to 10 tablespoons ice water

• Pulse flour and salt in a food processor. Add butter and pulse a few times, until coarse crumbs form.
• Add water and pulse until dough holds together and is not wet or sticky.
• Divide dough into two portions, shaping each portion into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight.

Filling
5 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
5 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups potatoes, 1/2-inch cubed
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, 1/2-inch cubed
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh sage, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup dry white wine (can be omitted)
2 1/2 cups miso broth (can use vegetable broth)
16 ounces seitan or firm tofu, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups frozen green peas

• Mix together flour and nutritional yeast. Stir in melted butter and mix. Set aside.
• Boil cubed potatoes in a small pot of water, until just tender and can be pierced easily with a fork, about 8-10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
  
• In a large pot over medium-high heat, heat olive oil and add mushrooms, onion, and carrots, and saute until vegetables start to soften, about 10 minutes. Add thyme, sage, and garlic, and saute for 3 more minutes. Add white wine and boil until almost evaporated
  
• Add miso broth, and bring to a simmer. Add nutritional yeast mixture, whisking until incorporated. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes.
• Add seitan or tofu along with green peas and potatoes and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

Assembly

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Roll out pie crusts on a lightly floured surface to fit an 8 or 9-inch pie pan.
• Gently lay one pie crust in a pie pan. Fill pie shell with pot pie filling. Top with second pie crust. Trim overhanging pie crust, leaving one inch of overhang. Flute edges and cut four slits in the top crust for steam to escape.
• Bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
  

More Café con Chocolate Love

I've already expressed my love for Café con Chocolate, the sunny-hued corner restaurant in South Philly serving up reasonably priced, vegetarian-friendly Mexican and Japanese food, in a write up from almost a year ago. Then I named Café con Chocolate's mole sauce in one of my yearly roundups as the "Best Thing From A Restaurant That I Put In My Mouth." And, a few weeks ago, when the Food Blogger's Brunch panel I sat on was asked what memorable food item from a Philly restaurant they recently ate, I chimed in with Café con Chocolate's mole sauce. So, yeah, I like Café con Chocolate.

Above is a picture of the awesomely delicious and huge vegetarian torta, a Mexican sandwich stuffed with spicy scrambled tofu, mushrooms, cheese, onions, avocado, beans, lettuce, and tomato. I ate half, and, too full to finish it all, had the other half boxed up to go.That bittersweet (but not too bitter) mole sauce I like so much can be ordered as a side from the menu. Thinking I'd receive a little ramekin of mole when I asked for a side, I had to pop my eyes back into my head cartoon-style when a large soup bowl of mole arrived. But, for $4, I guess a side of mole should be generous. This was also wrapped up to go and got me through many happy meals at home.
Cheese and scrambled egg enchiladas with mole, crema, queso fresco, and a side of corn-studded rice are damn good...and more food than you should really eat for breakfast.

Café con Chocolate
2100 S. Norwood St., Philadelphia, PA, 19145
267-639-4506
Thurs-Sat: 10 am - 8 pm
Sun: 10 am - 3 pm
Mon-Wed: closed
BYOB

Cincinnati Chili

Ever since seeing the Cleveland episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bordain's buddy, food writer and cookbook author Michael Ruhlman, turns his nose up at a plate of Cincinatti Chili at Skyline Chili, I've been dying to try some. A vegetarian version, of course.

In and around the Cincinnati, Ohio, area, people eat the bejeezus out of chili (two million pounds each year, according to the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau), and most of what they're eating is what's called Cincinnati chili served up at many mom and pop chili parlors, and chains like Skyline, Gold Star, and Empress.

Some argue that Cincinnati chili is not chili at all, since it doesn't contain beans, nor is it hot in the way of spices. Cincinnati chili is essentially a thin sauce of boiled ground beef with aromatic spices, and not dissimilar to many Greek meat sauces—Greek immigrants, after all, are alleged to have originated Cincinnati chili.

Cincinnati chili just straight up is eaten in a bowl. Order yourself up a Coney dog in the Cincinnati area (other variations of Coney dogs, or Coney Island dogs, exist), and you're eating a hot dog topped with Cincinnati chili, yellow mustard, and diced onions. Add cheese to the dog and make it a Cheese Coney. But, when most people think of Cincinnati chili, they think of spaghetti topped with chili and cheese. When ordering Cincinnati chili it's important to specify which "way" you want it.

2-way: spaghetti, chili
3-way: spaghetti, chili, shredded Cheddar
4-way: spaghetti, chili, onions OR kidney beans, shredded Cheddar
5-way: spaghetti, chili, onions, kidney beans, shredded Cheddar
6-way: not widely accepted, but it seems to be a 5-way with whatever other ingredient (garlic, sour cream, etc) a chili parlor or home cook likes to add.

Now, since I've never eaten Cincinnati Chili in Cincinnati—or any other place, for that matter—I did an extensive amount of looking around to find a recipe. What I found is that, with any regional food, people are very firm in their beliefs about what Cincinnati Chili is and how it should be prepared and eaten – and, of course, every recipe is different. So, I took notes and devised a recipe of my own, trying to incorporate what I thought were the right elements from many recipes. Vegetarian meat crumbles are most definitely wrong, but that can't be helped here.This is what I found to be the general consensus about Cincinnati Chili:

Thickness
Cincinnati chili is much thinner than your average chili. Some say it's even soup-like, and will pass it through the food processor a bit. I didn't go that far.

Meat
Meat is finely ground beef. Never brown the meat; the meat should be boiled.

Tomatoes
There should not be tomatoes in the chili. Some use tomato sauce, but some even say no to tomato sauce—even though most recipes contain tomato sauce. Tomato paste is supposedly the more authentic ingredient.

Onions
Onions are not in Cincinnati Chili—even though most recipes contain onions—but raw diced onions are on top of the chili. I found one recipe that stewed the chili with a whole onion, then removed the onion before serving. As a person who thinks onions make everything taste better, I found this to be a nice compromise and cooked my chili in this fashion. Then, after eating a plate of 4-way chili for a no-onion-in-chili experience, cut up the sweet, sweet onion and stirred it in the pot.

Beans
Kidney beans are used. Never are they cooked in the chili. They are cooked separately and added to the top of the chili.
Seasonings
Everyone stresses that Cincinnati chili is not hot, although it's not uncommon to squirt hot sauce on top of a plate of the stuff. The chili does have a unique blend of spices—which seem to be unique to every recipe and chili parlor. Chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne, salt, black pepper, bay leaves, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce seem to be in almost every recipe, so I included all of these (except Worcestershire, since it's not vegetarian). Sugar, cloves and cardamom appear in about half of the recipes, so I included them, as well. Oregano, marjoram, tarragon, thyme, paprika, turmeric, and coriander appear only occasionally, so I skipped them. I went middle of the road in the amount of each spice I included.

Chocolate
Some claim chocolate or cocoa powder is the secret ingredient — along with the spice blend, of course. Some claim that Cincinnati chili never started out with chocolate. I added the chocolate

Broth
Most use a beef broth. In recipes I found from someone's neighbor's uncle that used to work in a chili parlor, there was no broth, just water. I made mine with water, trying to stay closer the the recipes from chili parlors. Halfway through the cooking, the chili was lacking depth, so I changed it to vegetable broth (easy to do, since all I had to do was drop in some bullion paste).

Spaghetti
Use a thick spaghetti noodle, not thin spaghetti or vermicelli.

Cheese
Sharp Cheddar is the only way, and thinly shredded so that it melts easily on top of the hot chili. Pile it on heavy.

Crackers
If you're gonna crumble crackers on top of your Cincinatti chili it better be Oyster crackers. Saltines are not allowed.

Cut or Twirl
You're supposed to cut the noodles, so that each fork-full will have a bit of each componet. Do not twirl the noodles around the fork. I did both, and it's about the same as to what makes it on your fork.
The final recipe I made is fairly true to most of the recipes out there (except the whole meat thing), but, of course, I've never had the real deal. Don't let the cookie spices scare you; Cincinnati chili does not taste like dessert, but just a very aromatic meaty sauce.

A big plate of carbs smothered in greasy, spicy meat sauce topped with cheese sure sounds like comfort food to me, so I can't blame Ohioans for eating boat-loads of the stuff, but, in the end, I felt like I had done nothing more than homemade Hamburger Helped a plate of spaghetti. Still, glad I tried it, 'cause trying is half the battle...er...or something like that.

Feel free to chime in with your memories of eating Cincinnati chili, whether you love it or hate it, and, of course, how you make it at home. Vegetarian Cincinnati Chili

2 quarts vegetable broth
2 pounds MorningStar burger crumbles
6 ounces tomato paste
1 medium onion, peeled, left whole
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

• Throw all of the ingredients in a large pot on the stove and stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until liquid has reduced, but chili is still a bit thin and runny.
• Remove the onion and bay leaves. For a thinner consistency, you may want to run a portion of the cooked chili through a food processor or blender.
• Serve on top of a bed of cooked spaghetti noodles topped with any combination of diced onion, kidney beans, shredded Cheddar cheese, or Oyster crackers.
  

Gingerbread Pudding Cake

In an attempt to clean out clutter, last week I went through a huge stack of cooking magazines, ripping out pages of recipes dog-eared as promising (and then completely forgotten about for years), and I happened upon a recipe for Gingerbread Pudding Cake from the December 2007 issue of Bon Appetit that sounded like the perfect dessert for a brisk Autumn evening at home.

Oh, and it was! This spice heavy ginger cake with a bottom layer of ginger pudding (I prefer to call it goo) is so good and perfectly homey, I think I'm going to make it again this weekend for a relaxed dinner at a friend's house.
First you make the batter, and pour in into a baking dish. Then you top the batter with brown sugar. Then...
you pour a mixture of water and melted butter on top of the brown sugar-topped batter, and shove it in the oven. Crazy! Kind of scary, too. But, fret not. It bakes up with a crackly cakey top and a gooey bottom. The goo is the best part. Whipped cream would be a heavenly accompaniment, but I had none. I would say I was sad about not having whipped cream, but I wasn't; the self-saucing cake is fabulous enough on it's own.Gingerbread Pudding Cake
adapted from Bon Appetit
serves 8

I used sorghum syrup in place of light molasses, because I have sorghum to burn in my pantry. Also, I have no allspice, so added 1/4 teaspoon more of each cinnamon and ginger.

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons beaten egg (from 1 egg)
1/2 cup sorghum syrup
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water
5 tablespoon butter, melted

• Butter a 2-quart baking dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  
• Mix flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl.
• In a large bowl, cream together 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup sugar. Beat in egg.
  
• Stir sorghum and 1/2 cup water in a measuring cup.
• Alternately add flour mixture and sorghum mixture to butter mixture, mixing to blend between additions.
• Pour batter into the buttered baking dish, and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the top of the batter.
• Stir 1 1/2 cups hot water and melted butter in a small bowl. Gently poor over top of batter.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until top is cracked and toothpick inserted in to center comes out clean.
  

Mi Lah

I feel like a really bad vegetarian for not patronizing Mi Lah, an all vegan restaurant in Center City that opened October 2008, sooner than now, but, you know, Philly has lots of great eats to tick off my list. What's a girl to do? Complimentary bread and herbed butter started us out.
Then we received a huge plate of fried coconut crusted King mushrooms garnished with lime and cilantro. We really enjoyed the sweet coconut crust and meaty mushroom starter. This dish would be perfectly suited as a fried bar food, and we were wishing for a special dipping sauce. We behaved and ate the appetizer with a fork, since we weren't at a bar.
Going with the server's suggestion of their favorite dishes, we ordered the cauliflower au poivre with fried sweet potatoes, and spinach salad in cream sauce. This dish is a whimsical take on steak, fries, and salad, with the cauliflower slab being the steak, the fried sweet potatoes being the fries, and the spinach, obviously, the salad.

A longer roasting, or maybe a dunk in the fryer, would have taken some of the rawness and crunch from the cauliflower and imparted a sweeter caramelized flavor. The fat sweet potato fries are not visible, but are underneath the pile of spinach with sweet, creamy dressing. Perhaps due to the thickness of the fries, or the soaking in dressing, the sweet potatoes were not as crunchy as they could have been. This dish, unfortunately, is a victim of poor plating. By simply not piling all the components of the dish atop each other, Mi Lah could have maybe avoided soggy sweet potatoes, and even added a little color from the orange sweet potato fries to the presentation.
Pistachio gratin with roasted butternut squash and brussels sprouts in a lemon beurre blanc was comforting and warm, with the vegetables being cooked to the perfect tenderness and the peppery sauce plate-licking good. Little crunchy bits of pistachio added a nice textural contrast to the layers of potatoes.
Who here loves Pepperige Farm 3-Layer Cakes? I do! (Even if that Cake Fart girl did ruin my associations with the dessert. Yeah, go back and check the video. That's a Pepperidge Farm 3-Layer Cake.) Mi Lah's vegan chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting tastes like a vegan version of Pepperidge Farm cakes, so while it tastes kind of boxed, I absolutely loved it. The chocolate sauce was a little thin, though.

Mi Lah frequently gets compared to Philly's other fine dining, and highly lauded, all-vegan restaurant, Horizons, but I'm not ready to compare the two. My meal at Mi Lah was good enough to return and sample some more, especially since my partner has had two positive experiences at Mi Lah during lunch.

The dinner entree prices were a buck or two higher than I felt they should have been, but the fact that Mi Lah is BYOB more than evens out the bill. Next time, I will probably return to Mi Lah for the cheaper lunch menu featuring sandwiches and flat breads not available on the dinner menu.

And, if you're a fan of the huge weekend brunch, Mi Lah has a $20 prix fixe Sunday brunch that includes a cup of tea or coffee, a plate of fruit with muffins and scones, a pitcher of one of their fruit juices or mimosa mix (remember to bring your own champagne), plus a choice of a brunch main from the menu. Sounds like a lot of food (and a bargain) to me!

And, try to get get seated upstairs, if you can. While similarly decorated as the downstairs, the upstairs dining room is larger and airier with a more pleasant feeling.

Mi Lah
218 S. 16th St., Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-732-8888
Lunch: Mon-Sat, 11am-3pm
Dinner: Mon-Sat, 5pm-10pm
Brunch: Sun, 11am-3pm
BYOB

Food Blogger Brunch

The annual 215 Festival celebrating the written and spoken word, and focusing on Philadelphia-based writers, performers, and word connoisseurs, along with special guests from outside Philadelphia is coming up this weekend (October 2-4).

What I'd like to draw your attention to is the Food Blogger Brunch held Sunday, October 4, from 11:00am-2:00pm at National Mechanics. Jess of fries with that shake will be moderating the event and asking all sorts of nerdy questions to a panel of food bloggers while you, dear reader, enjoy brunch (event is free, but you gotta buy your own brunch/Bloody Mary), and maybe even get to throw out a question or two.

Oh, and I'm on the panel! I'd rather lick a urinal than speak publicly, so I don't know why I agreed to this, but I did. So, come on out; it may be one of the only times you'll see me speak. And, if I bugger all my answers, there are always the other talented bloggers on the panel and a kick-ass veggie burger at National Mechanics to set it all straight.

Also on the panel:

E from Foodaphilia

Drew from Meal Ticket

Collin from Phoodie

Ben from Unbreaded

Robyn from Serious Eats and The Girl Who Ate Everything

Food Bloggers Brunch
Sunday, Oct 4, 2009
11:00am – 2:00pm
at National Mechanics
22 S. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Free