The Blogiversaries Just Keep Coming

Holy moly, it's the end of January, and that means I'm entering my sixth year of food blogging! I just won't die.

I'm not dead yet, but, if you haven't noticed, I've been ramping down over the past couple of years. Posts are down about half from my height of an average of 13 posts per month in 2008, and I'm just fine with that. I'm enjoying the more chill schedule and reduced calories.

Before we get on with the yearly recap, I'd like to give a big thank you to all the old timers and new comers who read and comment. You're awesome!

Favorite Posts
I just love doing side-by-side taste tests, especially of sweets (see here, here and here), so sampling the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookies available at Green Aisle was pure pleasure. I also love, love, love cafeterias, and the Mitsitam Café at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in DC is one of the best. Y'all probably don't give a poopstick about the newly opened Groucho's in Newark, DE, but their sandwiches and special sauce taste like home to me.

Best RestaurantsWhat Koo Zee Doo and Kanella both have in common — and what makes them uncommonly good — is that they're doing down-home ethnic foods (Portuguese and Cypriot, respectively) so simply and tastefully. And, Blackbird Pizzeria is killing it on the vegan front. Even omnivores love Blackbird, and if they don't, they're just macho prickish snobs.

Best Restaurant DishesThe sesame cold noodles at Han Dynasty are so simple, but big on flavor — easily, my favorite dish of the year. The vegetable board at Kraftwork is a veggie-lover's delight. Blackbird's seitan cheesesteak trumps all veggie cheesesteaks.

Viet Tofu

Ha! It turns out I'm not crazy.

I knew there was a place in South Philly that made their own tofu and sold it at very reasonable prices, but when I tweeted for help in remembering the name of the place, people chimed in, "Check any Asian grocery or Whole Foods for Nature's Soy."

Nature's Soy is made in Philly, and their plastic tubs of reasonably priced tofu are abundant in the city's grocery stores, but I was just sure I had heard of some other place making and selling tofu cheaper, and doing it specifically in South Philly.

That place is Viet Tofu!
In the large Vietnamese shopping center at the intersection of 11th St. and Washington Ave., you'll find Viet Tofu (right across from Nam Phuong on the 11th St. side), a Vietnamese store selling housemade banh mis, bubble teas, sweets, snacks, and quick lunches. Viet Tofu's specialty is their housemade tofu and soy milk, though.

Nam Phuong

My introduction to Nam Phuong, one of many Vietnamese restaurants along Washington Avenue, comes thanks to a comment from one of my blog readers, Beth, who suggested I check out Nam Phuong if I wanted a bowl of vegetarian soup. Beth also mentioned that Nam Phuong has an entire vegetarian section on the menu, which is sort of rare amongst the Washington Avenue Vietnamese restaurants.It's true, Nam Phuong does have a vegetarian section on the menu, which includes 17 dishes ranging from spring rolls, summer rolls, rice vermicelli bowls, soup, tofu in curry, and eggplant in garlic sauce. Prices are reasonable ($5.95 to $7.95 for entrees), and the amount of food is substantial (I haven't been able to finish any entree, yet).I was so happy to see vegetarian sweet and sour soup on the menu, since I love it so and have not had it in a restaurant in some time, so I skipped Beth's recommendation to order an off-the-menu vegetarian noodle soup, but will be back to do so soon.

Vegan Lunch Delivery

Miss Rachel's Pantry is now delivering $10 vegan lunches every Friday to wherever you work or live in downtown Philadelphia. Each week there will be three vegan options (including a gluten-free option), which includes a sandwich, soup, fruit, and sweet treat.* It's like having a mom who lovingly packs you a brown bag lunch! Just be sure to get your order in by the day before Friday.

This week's options are:

• The Jim - Tofu “chicken” salad sandwich - creamy with a zippy Dijon mayo and crisp romaine on a local roll, a cup of veggie-noodle soup, a local apple and a chocolate chip cookie
• The Bubeleh - Seitan Reuben with slaw, gazillion island dressing, homemade pickles and crisp romaine, a cup of veggie-noodle soup, a local apple and a chocolate chip cookie
• The Silly Yak - (gluten-free option) Sweet Korean-style BBQ tofu tacos with shredded romaine and slaw, a cup of veggie soup, a local apple and a crisp rice treat

*Cookie Monster ate my cookie before the photo shoot.

New Year, New Recipes

Been back about a week, and I still haven't eaten anywhere new in Philadelphia. What I've been doing is cooking new-to-me recipes at home, instead.

Thanks to a post by a local vegan couple over at Goodbye Texas, Hello PA about a cookbook challenge — actually making an effort to cook recipes in cookbooks instead of just reading them — I decided that I should probably take on the same challenge, since I have a whole bookshelf of ignored cookbooks, not to mention the new ones I just got for Christmas. Oh, and let's not forget the stack of last year's cooking magazines in my living room with dog-eared pages, and the online bookmark folder of hundreds of recipes.You might think that since I write a food blog, I'm always trying new recipes, but I don't. I rely mostly on my basic cooking knowledge and a well stocked pantry and fridge to come up with most meals. Just look in the fridge, see what's there, and start cooking. I want to make all those recipes I bookmark and dog-ear, but, invariably, I forget about them two minutes after I've marked them.

So, my new "thing" is to make a short list (not to overwhelm myself) of recipes I'd like to make, and pin them on the fridge. There's no time line or "this will be made on Monday, and this on Tuesday," because I don't like too much rigidity.

I probably should note where I found the recipes, because it took a while to figure out where the onion and blue cheese pasta recipe on the list came from — a new cookbook, which, or course, I forgot two minutes after I wrote it on the list.

To new things, and new recipes!

Food Blog-less Vacation

Hi, ya! I'm back in Philly after my Christmas vacation. I visited my parents in South Carolina, then headed to the South Carolina coast for a little chill time.

We stayed on the coast at a friend's house (that house in the top picture). Yes, it does look like a shack, but that's because it pretty much is a shack. The house is a Freedman's cottage, which is a two-room home built after the Civil War and rented to newly freed slaves.Our friends are restoring the house, and have actually removed an addition to the house to bring the house back to it's original footprint, and have also gotten the house on the National Register of Historic Places. Pretty cool, since lots of these houses are under threat of being torn down (or have already been torn down) due to development.In the kitchen there is an antique electric stove. She's pretty darn cute, but, trust me, you do not want this as your every-day stove. It's basically a two-burner hot plate, and the oven part is identical to the round electric coil burner on the top of the stove, except there is a metal box surrounding it — kind of like an Easy Bake Oven.

Circles

It's hard to get delivery (from a restaurant I'd want to eat at) where I live. We're juuuust out of delivery range for most Center City restaurants. So, when I found out that Circles Contemporary Asian Cuisine, a casual Thai take-out in the Newbold neighborhood delivers to my area, I was on it.

I cannot tell you what Circles looks like, because I've never been there, and probably never will. That's the beauty of delivery — they come to me! From what I hear it's a corner take-out joint with a glass partition separating the cashier and kitchen from walk-in customers and the waiting room, so don't head to Circles for a romantic evening of dining out.

The vegetarian summer rolls are standard fare with vermicelli noodles, carrots, scallions, lettuce, and basil. I would have loved less lettuce and more herbs. The peanut dipping sauce is sweet with crushed peanuts.
Fried tofu with a side of thin, sweet and sour sauce with crushed peanuts arrives extra crispy thanks to the the corner of the Styrofoam box that is thoughtfully cut off to allow the steam to escape. At $2.95, the fried tofu is a great deal.