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Craig LaBan on restaurants and food
 
12:36
Philly.com -  Craig LaBan will be here at 2 p.m. Until then, please submit your questions and comments below.
2:00
Craig -  
Top o’ the afternoon to you, my hungry friends. Welcome back to our Philly food chat and Happy St. Paddy’s Day! I can only imagine the joy Philadelphia’s publicans are feeling now, having just wound down a rockin’ Beer Week only to turn the taps back on full blast to quench today’s celebration. What are you all planning to do (or not) in honor of the day? I’m hoping that my order of Irish whole meal flour shows up in the mail today from King Arthur so I can make the Ballymaloe brown bread recipe with molasses that I got years ago from Simon Pearce. Great, earthy stuff, and dense, too! Doorstop material, for sure, if there’s leftovers, which there rarely are. Advanced planning for cooking projects, though, has never been my forte. We may be having our own private SPD this weekend.
 
In the meanwhile, I’ve had an interesting few days of eating "out there", as you can tell from this week’s Crumb Tracker quiz. Name in order all three places that I ate these dishes, and win a prize: 1) Grilled pork neck; 2) iskender “kebap”; 3) Guinness-battered fish & chips (boatloads better than last week’s tracker fish & chips)…. Ready, set….start crumbing!  
2:03
Craig -  
Speaking of Beer Week, I’d be curious to hear some of your highlights. The best thing I drank? A pint of “Backwoods Bastard”, a wee heavy Scotch ale from Founders being featured at the Sidecar Bar (22nd and Christian) that tasted like a fizzy glass of bourbon-with-a-spritz-of-beer. Really bold and balanced, like all of Founders’ brews (we also loved the coffee-flavored Breakfast Stout and the spicy Red Rye).
 
On the topic of St. Paddy’s themes, though, I also had the intriguing opportunity last weekend to meet up with one of Ireland’s greatest beer rock stars for a pint: Fergal Murray, the brewmaster from Guinness. He was here on tour in between appearances on the Jimmy Kimmel and Today shows, and I found him at the tail-end of a one-day eight-stop Irish pub crawl  through Philly. I have to say he looked a wee bit numb from the rigors of his journey as he perched against a railing inside the Black Sheep Pub, flanked by a posse of kilt-clad Guinness girls and local distributors, with a glowing green Guinness trinket dangling around his neck.  He was in charming spirits, nonetheless, and politely gave good marks to the pints he’d sampled in town – though he noted with mild pique that the Black Sheep had served him Guinness in a Harp glass. Between his 11 p.m. brogue and the din of the bar, our brief chat was  uneventful. But it was still one of my highlights from Beer Week. It also made me realize that with all the great local and international craft brews coming into town over the past few years, including Sly Fox’s O’Reilly’s Stout, which might my favorite dry stout of all, that I’ve pretty stopped drinking Guinness of late. ‘Tis a shame. For an industrial beer, it is still a remarkably good product.  
2:05
[Comment From Michael G]
I'm having Irish soda bread and some scones but today is an amateur day i'll stay home and just hope no one gets green beer on my car.
2:05
[Comment From Joe]
Happy St. Patricks Day! I've got a hankerin' for corned beef and cabbage. Any good spots?
2:06
Craig -  Joe - funny you should ask, 'cause my neighbor just cooked up a batch of boiled corned beef and cabbage last night for the bock. (Thanks Dawn, mighty tasty!) But this is serious home-cooking, not something I've seen a lot   - at least on regular menus - around town. If anyone has a favorite spot for this specialty, now's the time to chime in.
2:06
[Comment From Guest]
3 - dark horse
2:07
Craig -  Sorry...
2:08
[Comment From Mike H]
1) Mango Moon 2) Divan 3) Pub and Kitchen
2:09
[Comment From Jeff B]
1)mango moon 2) divan 3)pub & kitchen
2:11
Craig -  You've got the first one, Mike H and Jeff B, but nay on 2 and 3. I know everyone talks about the P&K fish, and it is excellent, but I think this one might really be a close competitor. As for Mango Moon, this is the new Thai small-plates place in Manayunk from the owner of Chabaa Thai. Very interesting, with lots of challenging items like the pork neck listed above - though it's really just strips of very tender meat (with some extra fat attached) that grilled up with delightfully marinated flavor. Stay tuned for more on Mango Moon, which gets reviewed on March 29.
2:11
[Comment From Dani]
did you try the lambic gelato at capogiro? I was really upset I never made it there.
2:13
Craig -  No, Danij, but that sounds awesome (pretty much everything Capogiro makes is great), and it was  one of the many  creative things chefs and other food artisans were doing with beer around town. For example, I absolutely loved the chocolate truffles infused with six different local beers that Eclat was making out in West Chester.
2:13
[Comment From Bucks Boy]
3 ... Black Sheep .. could it be so obvious... Personally enjoy the brown bread and the irish smoked salmon at Gerry Timlin's Shanachie. For myself I will be listening to Solas at the World Cafe Live tonight, wishing that some place in the Philadelphia was both a good music venue and a decent restaurant.
2:17
Craig -  Sorry, Bucks Boy, but I'm not as obvious as that.

I echo your comment, though, about the lack of venues in town that do both good food and music. I've seen so many places that get the music right - Warmdaddy's, Chris', Word Cafe, Tin Angel - that too rarely nail it with the food. (though it's been a looong time since I ate at the Tin Angel). It's a challenging concept, as inevitably one always seems to take away from the other, but I do wish someone could figure it out, because food and music are kindred spirits. Anyone ever notice how many cooks are also musicians, and vice-versa?  
2:17
[Comment From Michael G]
Beer flavored gelato?? Well as long as it's not a beer float i guess it could work.
2:18
Craig -  Michael G, I wouldn't write off a beer float until you've had a good one.
2:19
[Comment From Dani]
actually, i've had a lambic float at Derek's in Manayunk. It was amazing
2:20
Craig -  You see? I might actually drive to Manayunk and try to park somewhere to taste something like that. (Actually, with Cooper's, Mango, and even Derek's, the reflagged Sonoma, Manayunk is finally started to heat up again.)
2:20
[Comment From Jeff]
James served nut brown beer flavored gelato this past weekend. Delish!
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