Favorite Bites 215

If only we were always guaranteed the crispy edges

It’s natural for a fully composed dish to come to mind when recalling to your favorite things to eat. On a smaller level, sometimes it’s that one addictive bite that has you coming back for more.  Like the four corner brownies in a batch or the buttery surface layer of popcorn, the following bites, bits, and morsels are our favorite things to savor in the city.

Apple doughnut, candied bacon, bacon caramel (Photo: George Sabatino)

7) -Bacon Caramel- Stateside

Only a select few got to experience Stateside’s bacon caramel as a dessert at the preview Pop-Up at Green Eggs Cafe last fall.  It was changed for the opening to a vanilla bean variety and added as the compliment to the Bayley Hazen Blue cheese on the restaurant’s stellar cheese board.  Either application has you wiping the bowl clean of the smokey, sweet, and salty caramel. Now available at Burger King,  bacon desserts may be a passing trend, but this one is no gimmick.

Always thought they look alike (Photos:Food and Wine, Flyers)

6) Bread and Butter- Bibou

It’s that Echire butter.  The butter Bibou imports for their bread service is perhaps the best in the world.  It’s all about the fat. American butter must contain a minimum of 80% butterfat compared to the 82% minimum of its French counterpart.  That two percent may not seem like a lot,  but ,then again, we are two percent away from being this.  Slightly tangy with notes of grass and pure, rich cream, the Echire and Bibou’s housemade baguette are the exemplary basket in town.

The feeling is mutual  (Photo: Foobooz)

5) Caramel Shake Dipped Fries-Shake Shack

Fast food novices are even hip to the trick of dipping fries into your milkshake to make one so-wrong-it-must-be-right concoction of starch, salt, cream, and sugar. I don’t know if there is a place in Philly right now that we love more than Shake Shack. The burgers and custard are stellar and their cheese sauce knocked Chickie’s and Pete’s version out of its throne as tops in town.  But the caramel shake’s deep, authentic dulce provides perfect foil to the salty, accordion-esque fries.

Hold, pinch, bite, slurp (Photo: Elizabeth Bomze)

4) First Slurp of Xiao Long Bao- Dim Sum Garden

Dim Sum Garden is one of the funnest dining experiences around.  The non-traditional dim sum service is perfectly fine when offerings like the brisket noodles and fried dumplings are involved.  The Xiao Long Bao is a perennial favorite. It takes a moment to develop a technique that doesn’t tear, drop, or puncture the bun, but once you get it down, the first slurp of the gelatinous and meaty soup washes down the small bite of dough in a river of depth and flavor.

You’re going to want more bread. (Photo: Beerlass)

3) Clam Broth- Southwark
Southwark was doing farm-to-table before it was cool and they use the much less obnoxious Slow Food to describe their style of cuisine. Whatever you call it, the clams with vermouth are otherworldly. A Sheri Waide original, the littleneck clams are coaxed open by dry vermouth, touched with always fresh canned Jersey tomatoes, a lick of heat from some chile flake, and mounted with butter to form the most remarkable sauce. You will finish the clams, but save that broth for dipping.  Dip anything in it. Bread, vegetables, your entree, a piece of salumi, it doesn’t matter. Chef Nick Macri’s charcuterie is worth the trip to 4th and Bainbridge on its own, but the clams are not to be missed. 

Yes, Chef! Photo-Urban Spoon

2) French Onion  Soup Crock Perimeter- Penrose Diner

In the hierarchy of South Philly diners, many outsiders turn to the Melrose as king, while true Southerners will attest to the Penrose as their diner of choice.  Easter brunch after church, late night waffles post prom, or a patty melt just because , Penrose is the backdrop for many occasions of a South Philadelphia life. The chewy, charred, and salty rim of baked on Swiss cheese on the crock of French Onion soup is the true prize of the lacquered bowl of onions and beefy stock that rivals anything you will find on Rittenhouse Square.  For another uniquely Penrose allium experience, the takeout French Onion comes without any of the crispy salamandered top. Instead you receive a take-out container of the broth and onions with a buoy of melted cheese and toast that is more of a panade than a true soup, but every bit as satisfying.

What’s left is the real treat (Photo: Jessica Rossi)

1) Share Plate Debris- Han Dynasty

We are addicted to Han Dynasty. The cucumbers, tripe, dan dan noodles, dry pot, cumin lamb, double cooked pork belly, three cup chicken, all of it. Seriously can not get enough.  One of the best parts of any Handy Nasty meal is what is left on your share plate after you’ve eaten like a civil human being. A civil human being who can’t feel their face. The smattering of sauces, pools of chile oil, errant noodles, mixed proteins, and hodgepodge of vegetables  join forces to form some sort of Super Sichuan dish, made up of parts of lesser dishes.  A megalodon of flavors, textures, and temperatures. Ask for some more rice to sop it up. It hurts so good.