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2:02

Craig -

Good afternoon, my hungry friends, and welcome back - after a two week lunch break - to Philly's spiciest online food chat. I hope you’ve all been well fed since our last meeting. I know I’ve been busy munching and sipping away, but as usual, I’ve had a mixed bag of bites. On the bright side – I just devoured the leftovers this morning of a loaf of whole wheat country boule that I bought for take-out recently at Parc. Wow! What a shattering-yet-delicate crust. What a soft yet earthy center. Kudos to the baker. This just might be my new single favorite rustic loaf of bread in the city (sorry, Metropolitan Organic Miche, my longtime fave, you've been very good to me…)

On the weird side, there seems to be a piece of crinkled plastic wrap that has been following me around, finding its way into not one, but TWO plates of food at separate restaurants on consecutive nights. Talk about cling wrap! The first one was in a roast beef sandwich I purchased at the PJ Whelihan’s stand at the Wachovia Center during a Flyers game last week. Geez...the food options at that stadium are just awful – and I’m not even talking about the plastic parts. The beef was chewy, too. My next up close and personal experience with Saran was at a considerably more upscale venue. I can’t disclose name or specifics quite yet, but it did get me to thinking about what’s the proper response when a kitchen goofs like that. A free meal? A free dish? A drink? Just a genuine over-the-top "sorry"? Probably all of the above, if a place is smart. What are your thoughts?

2:03

Craig -

Thankfully, it hasn't been simply all culinary mishaps for me these past few weeks. Here are a few of the highlights for this week’s Crumb Tracker Quiz – all of them delightfully edible. Name all three of the places in order where I ate these dishes, and win a prize: 1) tuna crudo with Greek yogurt and pomegranate; 2) rice net spring rolls; 3) nachos topped (by a new chef) with braised pork, asadero cheese and tomatillo-pineapple salsa (maybe best nachos in city?). Ready, set….start crumbing!

2:05	[Comment From Paulie Walnuts] What up Craig? Just had a great banh mi xa xiu from Flying Monkey. With a cupcake chaser. I think I'm addicted to these sandwiches. Where can I find some great ones? I'm thinking Wash. Ave.

2:06	Craig - Paulie - that sounds great...I think. Do you mind telling the rest of the chat room what a banh mi xa xiu is? The cupcakes, I can see Flying Monkey doing. The vietnamese hoagies, I can't. Am I missing something? otherwise, we can definitely talk viet hoagies...

2:07	[Comment From Guest] Do you think Jose Garces won The Next Iron Chef? I heard several theories of why he did.

2:11

Craig - Hey Guest - Who really knows if Garces has already won the Next Iron Chef? The pre-recorded finals are to be played out on TV next Sunday, but certainly there are many people who know, since it looked from the previews that he'll be cooking once again with his team of sous. Either way, Garces has been very diplomatic about parsing his words when talking about the show's outcome. And though I'm not there to actually taste the dishes - he certainly APPEARS to be the strongest candidate. His competition, Chef Mehta, has been edited into these shows as something of an iconoclastic dark horse (and a pastry chef, no less!) who despite his insistence on making odd ice creams every week, keeps getting past the challenges by sheer luck. If Jose doesn't win next week, I believe, simply from following the show, that it would be a huge upset.

2:11	[Comment From Marty] Hi Craig. Sad news - Meg Votta, chef/owner of Sycamore in Lansdowne, passed away last week. A huge loss for all of us, her food was great and she was such a nice person.

2:13	Craig - That is terrible news, Marty. I really don't know much about this yet, though we've confirmed it's true. We'll definitely follow this up with some more information (probably in my colleague, Michael Klein's column) but this really is sad to hear.

2:13	[Comment From Mike H] Went back to Village Whiskey this friday, put our names on the list at 8, didnt sit down till 11, still the best burger in philly

2:14	Craig - How much did you spend over at Tinto while waiting for your table? So far, this has been one of my biggest beefs with Village Whiskey - it's just so darn small.....

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