Birthday Fun Times c/o Buffalo Billiards, Han Dynasty and Yakitori Boy

My birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, which isn't really ideal for a night of celebration given the propensity for the people I know to have jobs that require them to use their brains effectively on weekday mornings. So I sent out a call to birthday arms for the Saturday preceding the actual day of my birth. It was sort of a two-pronged call. To a slightly  more select group I suggested dinner and to a broader, more dart-loving group I suggested darts before that dinner. This was all a bit more last minute than might have been ideal, but I was still really pleased and grateful for the turn out...nothing worse than inviting folks to your own birthday celebrations and finding yourself totally alone. L. and Fat T. came down from Brooklyn a bit before our first scheduled activity. I made a little cheese plate and L. and I drank champagne while Fatty and A. drank beer. We all threw some darts. Then it was on to Buffalo Billiards, where our numbers soon allowed us to take control over all three boards.

Mr. Ass couldn't make dinner, but we did play a game of darts. It was a funny mix between the true blue darters and some of my less dart savvy friends. The majority of darters are legitimately better than me, and usually when I played them I lost. Meanwhile the friends who aren't throwing darts on a daily or weekly basis were quite impressed by my prowess. My dart ability: a sliding scale of awesome based solely on others' own abilities.

After a good amount of time playing the darts, it was time for our rather late dinner reservation at Han Dynasty's new Old City location, just down the block from its old one. I basically ordered for all of us after hearing certain suggestions or desires from the crowd. So our meal ultimately included dumplings in hot chili oil.

Cucumbers in hot chili oil...these suckers are sooo good .

Dan Dan Noodles. Not everyone ordered a sazerac, but I did and I loved it.

This was the cumin lamb.

This was L. reacting to her imminent turn getting the cumin lamb as A. scoops some on his own plate.

I think this is Fatty and LW with the eggplant.

Yep. Succulent, savory eggplant. Love it.

This was either the kung pao chicken or the garlic chicken,

I think this was the twice fried fish maybe?

String bean magic.

Pepper scallops if I recall correctly. SO GOOD.

The dinner was quite lovely and I was so pleased to share my birthday with such fun and funny folks. After that C. and R. went home while Fatty, L., LW, A. and I decided that we would try to do some karaoke at Yakitori Boy, which we did. I sang a Tom Petty song. We also just sang along with all the other people singing. A.'s gf G. joined us and the night went late.

Sake bombs did happen.

I don't really know what's happening in this photo except that LW and I both look quite taken aback, but from different things.

I'm a homebody for much of my daily, weekly or monthly existence, and the older I get the more okay I am about it...that said, every once and a while it's good to have an evening full of folks and fun, and this was certainly such an evening. A hearty thank you goes out to all who partook in my pre-birthday fun times!

Pierogies, Dumplings and Lamb Burger c/o North Third

LB and C.'s wedding was last weekend. In the days leading up to the big event, there were a few opportunities to hang with LB, C. and some of the other out-of-town bridesmaids and guests. This started with a Thursday dinner with the soon to be wed couple, BC, and N. who had flown in from Portland, Oregon. We met up at North Third for dinner, drinks and a few good yuks. We shared pierogies and dumplings. The dumplings were especially tasty treats.

I went with one of their specials for my entree: a lamb burger with goat cheese, roasted onions and red peppers..or maybe it was roasted tomatoes...I'm a little unsure from my own memory or the photographic evidence.

In any case, it was great to be in a small group in the days leading up to the main event, which was not quite an intimate affair. And very good to see N., as I hadn't seen her since our 10th year high school reunion in 2009.

Cocktails and Dinner c/o Han Dynasty

A few Fridays ago I rallied a little group of folks in an effort to cross two more things off of my resolution list. First, cocktails at Southwark. I had a Hemingway Daquiri, the ingredients of which, according to the website, were rum, maraschino liquor,lime, grapefruit. I don't really recall the maraschino element, but I enjoyed the overall drink very much. It was nice and tart, not too boozy....but actually quite boozy.
I'd long been hearing great things about Han Dynasty, and knew it was a good place to go in a group. And the great things were all true, and it does make sense to go in a group. LB arrived separately from those of us who had cocktails, and held down the table fort until we met up with her. I became a slight tyrant when it came to ordering. My camera also seemed like it was going to die at any second so I gook photographs quite quickly and with the flash for the most part. These were the spicy, crispy cucumbers. They were spicy, but also cool.
In this photograph you can see the Taiwanese sausage that Mr. Ass suggested we add to my tyrannical menu decisions. A good call.
Dumplings in chili oil.
Wontons in chili oil. I was totally remiss and forgot to order the Dan Dan noodles. Just a reason to go back.
I'm not sure what this was. Maybe the pork belly double cooked style?
This was the tofu long hot pepper style.
This was the LB and Mr. Ass Han Dynasty style.
This was string beans with minced pork.
Eggplant in garlic sauce.
Scallop dry pepper style.
We also ordered chicken, hot sauce style. I tried to order a range of dishes that covered Han's spectrum of spice (8-10 being VERY spicy and on down to 1 being wimpy). I did express that we weren't looking to completely lose our taste buds, so while everything had a little kick to it, nothing was quite as throat scorching as I might have expected. This, to me, is a good thing and I think a result of the server hearing my desire for moderate spice as well as full blast. I think my favorite was the scallops dry pepper style. Nice and crispy, but still succulent. And the pepper gave it some pizazz without overwhelming the actual taste of the scallops themselves. I think the eggplant was also particularly tasty. I prefered the dumplings to the wontons. And I loved the green beans. I felt like one moment, all the food was arriving and then seconds later I was stuffed, but probably 20 to 30 minutes went by. After dinner we went to Reserve for another round or two of drinks. I believe I ordered the Kentucky Lemonade.
And at least at one or two points in the evening, I looked like this.
I got punchy by the end of the evening and slightly embarrassed myself, but up until that point I thought the it was a good night. Great company. Great food. The whole package.

Dishcrawl Philly: Midtown Village, Stop Numero Uno

At some point before my Bahamian vacation I stumbled across an article about the upcoming Dishcrawl Philly event. It sounded like fun, so I ran to the roof of the highest building and flipped the switch on the 'CC Signal,' which in this poorly thought out comparison notified the eating public that I was need of fellow eaters. Sigh. See, what I was trying to do there was have you imagine that, like Batman, I am so popular that there's a light specifically designed with my initials, which is used not to call me to others, but to draw others to me. Ok it really didn't work, so we should move on. BC, intrepid socialite that she is, quickly got back in touch with me and soon tickets were purchased and then it was just a matter of the days and weeks passing. The premise of Dishcrawl is that one or two organizers plot out a few different restaurant stops in a specific neighborhood, then collaborate and work with the management of said locations to do little servings of some of their fare. When we bought the tickets, the restaurants that we would frequent were entirely unknown. So BC and I both laughed a bit when the first stop on the tour was, of course, Sampan and its Graffiti Bar. With the exception of McCrossens, it's rare to see me go to the same place three times in two weeks, but after dinner with M., then drinks with BC, AS and BA, it was clearly fated in the stars that Sampan and I will eventually get married and spawn some strange half restaurant half person. I digress. Again.

The bar area, which isn't overly spacious to begin with, was definitely packed by the time we arrived. We ended up in a bit of a dead zone, near the bar but more in a corner by a door. This was good in some ways; we were jostled and bumped less. But there were drawbacks; when the complimentary appetizers started coming out of the kitchen, none of them were really making it to our little corner of the world. But with some effort and collaboration with other Dish Crawlers, we managed to snag tastes of each of the dishes that came out. First up, the chicken satay with wasabi aioli. BA and I had a discussion about how chicken can be tricky to cook. I have great confidence in my ability to roast a chicken and keep it moist, but - paradoxically - when it comes to individual pieces of the chicken, I still struggle not to overcook or dry out the meat. Sampan did not have this problem. I loved the marinade of the chicken, which was succulent and not dried out a bit. And the wasabi aioli had just enough of a creamy kick to push this skewer from good to great. It was a great first taste of the night.
There were also edamame dumplings. Dainty things, these were. With just a little broth to accompany the pocket of edamame puree. BC was particularly a fan of this, if I recall correctly. There was a third treat, something that loosely resembled a bruschetta...but I never got a clear read on what it actually was. My fave of Sampan was the skewers, but I think others were raving far more about the unphotographed dish.

Dinner c/o Sampan

The Saturday after our wondrous Modo Mio meal was spent largely in prone positions. I went out in the morning and bought a few breakfast goods (and about $30 worth of juice because I was sooooo thirsty) and returned home to start frying up bacon. After we enjoyed our bacon, eggs and Three Peckered Goat coffee, I created something I have since dubbed 'Afternoon Slumber Party' time. This basically consisted of me bringing out the air mattress, inflating it, lying down on it after having placed the computer on the television console and pressing play on Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. Oh yes, and closing the curtains so the living room became a cave-like space perfect for Kevin Costner, Alan Rickman, Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman to shine through. M. cozied up with Zul on the sofa, and even my roommate came out to watch a bit of it. Once the movie concluded we went to the museum. But what I really want to talk about is the dinner we had that night. Sampan had been on my list, and I've been following the restaurant's twitter feed for a while, so that is where we ended up going. It's a very neon lights, bumping music, attractive waitstaff, 'let's be a scene' kind of place. But not necessarily in a bad way. At least not where the food is concerned. We decided to go the tasting menu route: 7 courses for $45 per person. We could choose two small plates, one kind of satay, one dish from the 'cold/hot' section, one meat, one fish and one side. And boy were there some tough decisions to make. One decision that was a little bit easier to make was what to drink. We went with a carafe of the white snow sake. As for the meal. It began with hamachi ceviche with tempura flake, soy and truffle. For such a tiny spoon, there was so much going on. It was the perfect opening to the meal. Really fresh, the tempura gave it a little crunch and the dab of truffle oil made the whole thing have this wonderful after mouth glow.
Next up were the General Tso's Soup dumplings with chicken, soy and ginger. I've long wanted to try a soup dumpling and expected the meat to liquid ratio to be slightly more in the liquid's flavor. Good, juicy, flavorful, but not quite as exciting as I had expected.
We had a moment's deliberation when it came to the satay, I alternately leaned towards the lamb or the Kobe beef, but in the end we decided lamb was the way of the winners. And win we did do. The cilantro element and 'citrus crust' were nice, but it was really the meat in and of itself, nice and pink, that made me the happiest about this dish.
For the hot/cold option, we went with their special of the night, which was some crazy dumpling with foie gras and something else fancy, but I forget what. I liked the crunch of the dumplings, and the pickled cauliflower that accompanied them, but it didn't have that melty rich taste that I most associate with foie gras. Still good. No complaints.
We chose the kim chi fried rice with egg for our side, which M. did a great job of stirring up while I was taking photographs of some of our other dishes. Not the spiciest or most pungent of kim chis, but this place isn't exactly a bastion of authenticity (and that's not a bad thing) so it was all good. I also think that I've just never really understood the appeal of fried rice. Give me the choice of any noodle or rice, and I'll go with the noodle nine and a half times out of ten. The one exception being, perhaps, risotto.
For our fish course we chose the seared tuna with chilled soba noodles, avocado and tomato. M. loved this course a bit more than me. Again, I think this is less about the quality of the food and moer a matter of my own foodie preferences. That or maybe it needed a little extra burst of flavor in the form of citrus or vinegar. That said, the tuna was well prepared and the presentation was delightful.
I was a much bigger fan of the crispy Szehuan chicken with Chinese greens, sesame, garlic and delightfully pickled slivers of cucumber. Perhaps not as 'exciting' a dish, but it was so much better than your corner store takeout Chinese store's version. And those cucumber slices were a nice cooling touch.
And then there was M. For dessert we were given two mini cones of soft-serve ice cream they make in house. One was chocolate chocolate chips ahoy (I think) and the other was Capt'n Crunch flavored. M. especially enjoyed the Captain while I was more drawn to the chocolate chip.

It was really a great meal. Definitely a good deal for the amount of food. And while not all courses took me away into foodie nirvana, enough did that I definitely want to go back and try a completely different combination of dishes (well, that hamachi ceviche I would have again). And, as the blog continues, you'll see that I actually have made it back, albeit more for drinks than food.

Restaurant Week Dinner c/o Buddakan

Some weeks ago, I asked AS if she might not want to go to another fancier-than-average restaurant during the winter Restaurant Week madness. She expressed interest, so it was on. We decided to go big and try out Buddakan, which wasn't too far away from Union Trust, which is where we went in the fall. I walked the three + miles, which wasn't too much of a thing since winter isn't really doing its thing this year...except that about a mile in to the walk it began to spit rain and I hadn't thought to bring an umbrella. Thank goodness it didn't really get worse. We both decided to get specialty cocktails. I chose "Solid," which was a mixture of bourbon, jasmine, honey and cherry. AS went with a drink that I recall being named "Strength," which I don't see on their downloadable cocktail list. I think it was gin based with cilantro perhaps? I enjoyed my beverage very much and appreciated the slightly fancier version of cherries - no neon red, but a subdued burgundy that packed a sweetness and a bit of tartness into each little bite.
Because it was restaurant week, we were given a few different options for our three courses. We were both intrigued by the satay and dumplings, so ordered both and split them. The satay was certainly above average in terms of the cut of meat or its preparation. Far more tender and rare than the satay you might get in a high turnover thai place. You'll note that the lighting posed a considerable challenge to me. In fact none of the dumpling photographs are worth any of our collective time, but they were delicious and I could have eaten far more than the two allotted to me.
Our server was pretty cool considering the shit show of people in the place. When I asked him if I should go with the fried sea bream or the shortribs with chow fun, he suggested the bream as it better displayed what the chefs could do. I'm not sure I 100% understand that argument, as the bream was fried and I've always thought that it takes less talent to fry something than it does to slowly make something tender as hell...but if I am not anything, I'm most certainly not an expert. The bream came with a mandarin miso sauce and gingered cucumbers and a few peppers. The citrus note of the sauce was a little weird for me, but the fish was really delightful. The light batter was nice and crisp and had a saltiness to it that worked, and the fish inside was nice and moist and flaky and delicious. AS also ordered the wasabi mashed potatoes, which were an interesting combo. I think I would have liked them even a little spicier.
For dessert I chose the 'dip sum' donuts. These five spice sugar suckers were fresh from the fryer and came with a chocolate sauce, blackberry jam and gingered cream cheese. These were quite tasty but filling at the end of the meal. I wasn't able to actually finish them all and AS' chocolate lava dessert was so filling for her, she couldn't give it a shot either.
It was certainly crowded. And we were given a table by a column, which blocked the view of the larger dining space/giant buddha on display...but the server wasn't grumpy and the food was really tasty. I'd go back again and try a few different things. Though probably not all at once; place is pricey.