KETCHUP

It's been over 5 weeks since I last posted something on this blog, the longest gap between posts I've ever allowed to happen.

I'm sorry, but I have been ridiculously busy.

Beginning with a nearly 14-hour birthday party for the twins (where I grilled almost 200 various kinds of sliders--- a gamble that really paid off--they went over big!), lit and cut TWO birthday cakes, and had lots of 90-degree weather fun watching the twins and their friends bounce and waterslide (thanks Aunt Renee, it was a BIG hit!) themselves crazy, and continuing with a government-related project that I am prohibited to discuss, my days and nights have been full.

In between all that there were a few stops during Philly Beer Week (only McGillin's Olde Ale House's 150th Anniversary was well attended; the others were....much quieter), Ben and Sophie's touching "graduation" from pre-school, a slew of other birthdays (including my mom's 75th!), some BBQ at Sweet Lucy's for MY birthday last week, and some favorite beers shared in our weekly beer chat, the "No Bull Inn," on starchat.net.

My dear friend Lew Bryson lost his dad last week to pancreatic cancer, after a long and courageous fight. His tribute to his dad is another example of how great a writer and son he has been. Don't pass up reading it.

Bob Sheppard, the voice of Yankee Stadium for half a century, passed away Sunday. And today the Yankees' owner, "The Boss", George Steinbrenner, died after suffering a massive heart attack.

So we have a lot to catch up on. And I need to get back into the rhythm of writing again. I missed the interaction, reaction and feedback. I promise I won't wait this long again.

Already 5

Today is Ben and Sophie's 5th birthday and I still can't believe it myself. It really seems like such a short time ago that I was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Mercer Hospital in Trenton holding each of them, one at a time, in the palm of my hand, just a little over 2 pounds (Sophie) and 3 pounds (Ben) each.

I know what I am reflecting upon isn't anything earth shattering or unique to anyone whose had children, but I am astounded by how quickly the time has flown.

They have amazed me every day of those 5 years, and I want to say "thank you" to them somehow for what they've taught me. I hope I can figure out how to do that.

Happy Birthday kiddos. Daddy loves you more than you'll ever know. But I'm working on that.

PBW 2010: A Week Like No Other

The momentum has been building since before the beginning of the year, and it is about to reach a fever pitch the likes of which few cities have ever seen. And I'm NOT talking about the Flyers and Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup.

LET'S GO FLYERS!!!

What I am referring to is PHILLY BEER WEEK 2010, far and away the biggest (and likely the best) beer festival ever held in this country.

The schedule is both a beer geek's dream and a beer geek's nightmare. The festival's website boasts 1,000 events at 195 venues across the Delaware Valley. 1,000 EVENTS.

That is beyond impressive.

I would only be repeating the writing of hundreds of others across every medium from newspapers to Twitter, so I'll just encourage you visit the PBW 2010 website, as well as check in with prodigious bloggers such as Jack Curtin (his Liquid Diet is a must-read) and Lew Bryson (Seen Through A Glass will be blogging from all over town, I suspect) and Joe Sixpack (he's the Festival Director, so expect and insider's look at things on his Beer Radar blog).

I am still (mostly) undecided as to which events I'll be able to make, but I'll let you know as soon as I know. But for now, drink it all in, folks, it's gonna be a terrific, extended week!

LET'S GO FLYERS!!!

A Tale of Two Tomato Pies

I had the incredible good fortune to sample two exceptional examples of the tomato pie-making art a while back, and it was almost too much of a good thing. That might explain why it's taken me so long to write about it.

While on a brief business jaunt into Philly one day, I made a side trip to the Conshohocken Bakery in, of course, Conshohocken,PA, to grab some of their famous tomato pie. Back in 2007, I wrote about the bakery in a Daily News article about the variations of tomato pie that exist in the Philly area, and Conshohocken's falls into the category of "bakery tomato pie", the room-temperature sheet pan pie topped simply with slightly chunky tomato sauce, olive oil and a dusting of grated cheese.

Conshohocken's pie is, to my taste, the best of the lot, in a field that includes the famous Marchiano's in Manayunk, Coropolese Bakery in Norristown, Michaelangelo's in Warminster and Gaeta's in NE Philly. I had sampled Conshohocken's tomato pie only once since I wrote the Daily News piece, and the bakery's arrival on Twitter and its tempting Twitphotos of their breads and those tomato pies had me determined to arrange to bring it home. The folks at Conshohocken set aside a large pie for me, owing to my late arrival, and I added some of their rye bread and a large loaf of Italian bread to my bag. This is a dangerous place in which to linger: before you in their small retail store sit shelves full of fresh rolls of every size, loaves of crusty bread, pastries in a pastry case, and sections of tomato pie, white pie and variations of both. The aromas of freshly baked good swirl about the place. It can be, for a bakery fanatic like me, overwhelming.

But the tomato pie is worth it. A crunchy, airy crust, glossed with olive oil. A tangy sauce spiked with basil and oregano. Fresh pecorino scattered on top. Heady stuff at room temperature. Warmed in the oven, its fragrant sauce fills the room and the cheese expands its salty nuttiness. Intoxicating stuff, and why, to my tastes, it's the region's best bakery tomato pie.

In Trenton, however, tomato pie is a religion. It is a basic Neopolitan pie composed in reverse order: dough, olive oil, mozzarella and crushed tomatoes. Baked in a hot oven to a crisp char, it melds into a thin crust with streaks of red and pale yellow, as good to look at as it is to eat.

No one does the Trenton tomato pie better than Delorenzo's of Hudson St fame, and its newer location in Robbinsville, NJ.

After a long abscence, we stopped into the Robbinsville Delorenzo's early on a busy Friday and only had to wait about 15 minutes for a table, a huge booth actually, and were quickly brought drinks and an impressive antipasto plate (below), crowded with cannelini bean salad, sweet sopresatta, fresh mozz, prosciutto di Parma, artichokes, roasted red peppers, stuffed cherry peppers, green and black olives, bread sticks and salad greens. Given the time it takes for the tomato pies to arrive after ordering, this is a terrific, brilliantly composed diversion:

The kids were a little sleepy from the drive to Robbinsville, but Sophie perked up with the breadsticks, a rare cup of birch beer and some olives. We ordered two large pies, a classic plain tomato pie and one topped with pepperoni and sweet peppers. I continue to be amazed at Robbinsville's owner/pizzaiolo Sam Amico's (a Delorenzo grandson) skill at creating an impossibly light and crispy crust that holds that perfectly judicious amount of mozzarella and crushed tomatoes, as his dad and grandfather before him. Sam has not missed a beat in Robbinsville, and he may have elevated the pie. It is as good as it has ever been.

Pepperoni & sweet peppers pie

A sausage topped tomato pie

Robbinsville owner/pizzaiolo Sam Amico


We live amid an embarassment of tomato pie riches, we do.

(Urp) I DID THIS FOR YOU.

I took the bait, I bought the premise, and, well, I got a free coupon in the mail for a free KFC Double Down, the much-hyped and pre-maligned chicken sandwich without the bun that melts two slices of Monterrey Jack cheese (one plain, one pepper-jack), two strips of bacon and some "Colonel's Sauce" between two boneless chicken breasts. And then wraps it up in flimsy french fry bag because, you know, it's just what we've been asking for!!!

WHO exactly asked for this chicken Hindenburg? What twisted focus group designed this "specialty sandwich"?

I couldn't get anyone at Yum Brands to answer that question. They're the parent company for KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Long John Silver's. And nowhere on their corporate website could I find any practical explanation for the Double Down.

SO what the hell, we just took a bite (first I blessed myself three times, just to be on the safe side). The slippery mess did smell like a bucket of KFC chicken, which is not a bad thing, and the twin fried breasts did look as good as a fried chicken breast can look. And the chicken itself was fine, in fact, quite good. But when you reach that melted mess in the middle, well, it just ruined it for me. Pepper jack, garlicy mayonaise and barely bacony bacon did nothing to advance this past some sorry stoner's idea of food: grilled cheese meets fried chicken meets bacon cheeseburger with a little touch of jalapenos.

I just couldn't get past three bites when the cheese and bacon and mayo hit my mouth. They just ruined what were once nicely fried boneless chicken. Yech. I can't imagine that the "grilled" version of this bad boy would taste any better. And no, I'm not going to try one to find out.

Thank God I did this for you. Really. Just thank God.

The Hop Angel

DER HOPANGEL?

Really cool and good news for a change: as reported first by Jack Curtin on his Liquid Diet website, and the website for The Beer Yard, our buddy Mike "Scoats" Scotese is at last taking that momentous step at expanding the Grey Lodge empire with the purchase of the old Blue Ox Bistro in the Fox Chase section of Northeast Philly (7980 Oxford Ave) and renaming it the Hop Angel Brauhaus. Opening is scheduled for late summer.

His immediate plans are to keep many aspects of the German history and flavor of the place, which has been serving German food and drink for over a century (the building dates back to 1683), but you know it will soon be enlivened with that Scoats brand of irreverence and general mischief, two of the many reasons his Grey Lodge Pub has become one of the most popular and well know beer destinations in the city (and one of Esquire's "50 Best Bars in America" just a couple of years back). I am imagining some kind of Fox Chase Festivus, and surely one uber-Oktoberfest.

And so, the empire begins.....

INQUIRER TO DEBUT WEEKLY PIZZA COLUMN

It's true. Trust me. And I couldn't be happier. Finally, a writing gig I can stay interested in for more than a few months. Inquirer Food Editor Maureen Fitzgerald broke the news to me yesterday for release today.

My original idea for the column's name was "Pizza, Pizza!", but Fitzgerald informed me that the title would have to change. "Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!" will be the name, and it will help us avoid any confusion and trademark infringement with the Little Caesar's chain of pizza parlors headquartered in Detroit, MI (remember when they were all around Philly? God, I miss those little squares of yumminess...).

BTW, the photo above is a slice of sausage pie from SLICE at 18th & Sansom, Good stuff. No foolin'.

So wish me luck. It will be a tough task seeking out the best and brightest pizzas in Philly. But somebody's gotta do it. And it's gonna be me! I'm so happy I could scream! Or burst. Or something.