DanCole42

My PERSONAL favorite is Rich's Deli in Fort Washington, but when taking out-of-towners for their first, I generally prefer Pat's, as much for the historic value as for the actual cheesesteak.

Amoroso's website lists locations where you can obtain their rolls outside of Philly: http://www.amorosobaking.com/

Food processor vs meat grinder - is there a difference?

That's a big 2-shay, ol' buddy.

How about we keep an open mind here? All I'm saying is don't knock it if you haven't tried it. Cheese Whiz just has negative connotations. Try and look around them. Millions of Philadelphians can't be wrong. Just think if you'd been raised without any concept of wine. "You want me to drink a glass of fermented grape juice that's been sitting in someone's dank basement for three years??!" Oh, and Perrik, you think shirts and Whiz are a bad combination? Once I accidentally spilled a cheesesteak's worth of the stuff into my WALLET. My pockets smelled like Cheetos.

I bought them at 4:30 on Saturday, and cooked them at 6:30 on Sunday. Although to be fair, much of those extra two hours were spent bringing the steaks up to room temperature in preparation for the grill. So really, I DID start cooking them withing 24 hours, it's just that much of said cooking was done over extremely low heat over a long period of time.They came out fantastically. I didn't get the grill marks I was hoping for, but that's because I had to move the steaks off the coals every once in a while to prevent flare-ups. This was done very quickly and only long enough for the flames to die down. The steaks were cooked a beautiful medium-rare (expect for the barbarian at the table who insisted on medium), with great char. There was no burning at all - just a crispy, carmelized, sweet-tasting char. Where does that sweetness come from, anyway? For sides, we had some VERY LIGHTLY creamed spinach to which I added some roasted garlic, vermouth, and lemon juice, mashed potatoes with truffle salt and roasted garlic, and garlic bread made with a composite butter of paprika, herbs, garlic and parmesan. Please note that those are three separate sides, not a continuation of the things I put in the spinach. Can you tell I like garlic? The steaks themselves were seasoned (per Michael's suggestion) with some Montreal steak seasoning (who knew America Jr. knew how to do steak so right?), then on the plate topped with crumbled Maytag blue cheese. Oh, and did I mention that this was all cooked by candlelight because our damn power was out from 6PM to 6AM? Today for lunch I'm having some leftover potatoes and spinach. I also made a sandwich out of the garlic bread, some slices of the NY strip, and the Maytag blue. It took all my willpower not to eat that sandwich last night after making it.

It took me a minute to realize that "it will flare up some" referred to the burgers on the grill, not the juice running down your chin.

I've never actually made one at home. Not sure if I could do it justice. I think I once read something about using yellow fat vs white fat, but wouldn't know how to tell the difference.

NO self-respecting Philadelphian would order their steak witout da Whiz™. Kerry found this out the hard way when he ordered his with swiss (blech).

Oh god, now I have all this pressure to perform. Hopefully with yours and Michael's tips, I can do right by the steaks I "carted away."

As a proud native son of the City of Brotherly Love, I can tell you that no self-respecting cheesesteak establishment would make you wait that long. If you don't have your cheesesteak in the time it takes you between ordering and pulling out your wallet at a place like Pat's, you better believe it's because someone it having a heart attack on the griddle. On that note, anyone know where to ACTUALLY get an authentic steak this side of Delaware? I'm talking one that's just fatty griddled beef, onions, and some Cheese Whiz on an authentic Amoroso roll.

Five years I lived a block from the Courthouse Farmers' Market! Why why WHY was I not informed about these amazing brownies? Thank you, Porcupine, for organizing this great for-a-good-cause event! Michael, thank you for the libations and comestibles. Those three NY strips are sitting in my fridge mocking me - "Hahaha! We're delicious and you can't have us until you've digested your pizza! Muauhahah!" Too much food, beer, and heat. It was great to meet everyone, even if I didn't catch/remember all your names (Ferhat knows what I'm talking about). Jacques, you look exactly like I imagined. I apologize if I came off as a LITTLE shy and reserved, because normally I'm not like that at all. Normally I'm MONSTROUSLY shy and reserved. Next time I'll have to drink more. See you all at an upcoming event!

Hehe... sorry Ferhat. I meant no offense. Seriously, great job and thanks again for the help on picking a wine. Watch out for those Portugeuse corks

Had my first Corduroy "experience" tonight. After wondering if I was using the correct parking garage and wandering aimlessly around the Four Points lobby for a few minutes, we managed our way upstairs. Our waiter was great, although I didn't catch his name (or did, and am just horrible at remembering - he was bald, well-groomed, looked kinda like the tough secret service guy with the heart of gold - I'll call him Goldy). Per Don's recommendation, I set my heart and tongue on the torchon of foie gras... which was unavailable that evening. Phooey. Luckily, it was replaced with a lobster & basil oil salad, which was the best cold lobster dish I've had outside of Maine (the best HOT lobster dish being a thing with lobster, champagne, vanilla and truffles at Allred's in Telluride, CO - yes, I said "thing" - not all of us went to L'Cordon d'Fancie-Schmancie). My better half got the oysters, which I gotta say were a little fishier than I expected. They were still very meaty and refreshing. For dinner she got the scallops and I had the lamb. Goldy was kind enough to recommend a pinot noir as a light red that could go with both our dishes. I chose a half bottle of pinot noir from Willamette Valley, because Willamette Valley was the final desination in the Oregon Trail educational video game I used to play as a kid (I can hear ever oenephile on this board wretching over my selection methods). The scallops were huge! I thought maybe a little TOO huge, as the ratio of perfectly-carmelized-outside to chewy-innards was not as high as it could have been. The morel sauce was incredible. If I drank coffee, I'd replace my morning cup with a jar of the stuff. My lamb was beautiful. I've never seen a more perfectly cooked piece of lamb before, and I'd walk a mile for that red wine sauce. The goat cheese ravioli was scarfolicious - it's a damn good thing my fiancee hates goat cheese. I could have done with the ravs being a bit larger though - it felt like I was eating the best tasting Chef-Boy-R-Dee in history. I resisted the urge to order the chocolate sabayon in favor of the vanilla bean creme brulee (since vanilla is fast becoming my favorite indulgence). It was good. REAL good. Too many creme brulees go down like heavy, gloopy custard - this one was light and not too sweet. The blueberries on top were fresh and juicy. My one complaint is that all the vanilla specks had settled to the very bottom, and that maybe they needed to steep a bit longer because I wasn't getting quite the intense vanilla flavor I'd hoped for. My fiancee, on the other hand, was unable to resist the pull of the sabayon. My GOD that was good. The texture was a lot like a souffle I make, but the quality and flavor of the chocolate that they used was so divine. I'll bet if Jesus were a chocolatier he would have made chocolate like that. Rissa came up while we were waiting our agonizing fifteen minutes and introduced herself. This was nice, because nothing is more satisfying than a good meal other than being able to thank the people responsible for putting it in your tummy. So thank you, thank you, Rissa! And can someone please explain the difference between a souffle and a sabayon?

And the best part is, 'cause it's ground into the meat, none of your kosher friends will be the wiser!

Laura - they're damn good, aren't they? If you want to try duplicating them (or at least the flavors) at home, trying picking up some truffle salt from Cheesetique in Del Ray, along with some parmagiano reggiano. Then cook up your favorite french fries and toss. If you lack a deep fryr, a potato cutter, or the patience to cut fries by hand, you can just use roasted potatoes.OR, if you want to get creative, go to McDonald's and ask for some french fries with no salt. This is a little trick a former employee taught me. Because you ask for no salt, they HAVE to make you a fresh batch. That way you know you're getting them right out of the deep fryer instead of from under the heat lamp (plus you'll be adding the truffle salt anyway, so you don't want them TOO salty). Toss them with the truffle salt and parmesan, and enjoy.

I've done this a number of times, usually with Maytag. I was always very careful to make sure the burgers were fully sealed.Lately, though, I've decided that you get much more in the way of appropriate flavor by just putting it on at the end. Blue is better at room temperature, anyway. For me, the perfect burger should have several very DISTINCT flavor profiles. With something like chili, you're combining tons of different ingredients to try and come up with something new, something that's a synergy of the different parts. But with a burger, when you bite into it, you should taste each element seperately - the beef, the cheese, the lettuce, the tomato (or, depending on your taste for extravegance, the foie gras, the truffles). Each ingredient should be appreciated for its own quality and flavor before combining in your mouth. Stuffing the beef with the blue defeats this purpose, and you're left with beef whose flavor is masked by the cheese and cheese whose flavor is masked by the beef.

She had Italian tonight. She wasn't in the mood for full-on French. I'm saving Restaurant Eve for a special occasion. Although your suggestions are all appreciated, I think I'll give Corduroy a shot. As one of the few threads with more posts than Ray's, it's gotta be good.

You can find an empty bottle of it in my recycle bin. The things you've heard about it are true. Sadly, it was a gift from my dad in Philly, so no dice on the DC source.

I don't know what either of those things mean

I'm taking my fiancee out on a date tomorrow night. Where should we go that's more expensive than Ray's but less expensive than Maestro, and where we can still get reservations? And... go!

Anyone know where I can find a bottle of Cacique Guaro, the official turpentine-esque drink of Costa Rica?

110 minutes to get from 15th and M to 19th and M yesterday. Then another 40 minutes to get from there down to Seminary on 395.

Bobby Vans is like a caricature of everything wrong with the traditional steakhouse. I felt like a little kid when I was there because everything is so damn BIG. Big steaks, big wines, big waiters in vests. I'm pretty sure my feet didn't touch the floor of our booth. It was damn crowded and noisier than Ray's was, even before RTS scaled back the number of tables. One thing, though - my caesar salad was damn good. Damn good.

I've been running something of a boarding house.Sunday night I had a friend over for pizza. She tried to get home but flooding, accidents, and road closures caused her to nearly run out of gas. Eventually she gave up, turned around, and spent the night on our couch. Our other friends' carpet flooded thanks to an A/C malfunction, followed by an immediate power outage and thus no way to dry out said flood. They spent the night at our place last night because even after 24 hours their power STILL wasn't back on and they didn't want to spend their evening in swamp-like conditions. As a meteorology buff, though, I'm soaking this stuff up.