Philadelphia: Federal Donuts & By George! for Cheesesteaks

I asked a bunch of people what is a must in Philly and they all told me that I must visit Federal Donuts, which is this gourmet/hipster donut shop that sells donuts and fried chicken!  It was bit far from from the convention center, but I was determined to try it, so I made the 20 minute trek to Federal Donuts' location in Center City during lunch.

Just realized that I visit a donut shop in every city I've been to and it's always some cool, new, hip thang.  Where's LA's hipster donut shop??

Federal Donuts

1632 Sansom St 

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Rittenhouse Square, Penn Center 

federaldonuts.com

Federal Donuts!  Went with my coworker again.  He always said that if he follows me around, he'll be sure to try something good haha.

Coffee, donuts, and chicken.  Genius.

Inside.  Very simple but pretty cool decor.

So for the donuts, they have two categories: fancy and hot fresh.  Fancy donuts cost a bit more and exactly like the name implies, fancier than your average donuts.  They only had two different ones left.  Got the Blueberry Muffin, and it is a donut covered with blueberry glaze, then sprinkled with blueberry muffin crumbs!

Strawberry Lemonade!  Lemonade glaze with strawberry icing.  When I took that first bite, my brain was so confused because it really did taste like a strawberry lemonade, but I was eating a donut.  I got the last one too!

Besides donuts, also got a 1/2 order of the fried chicken.  I'm actually not too sure which seasoning I got... since I ordered the Shabazzi but may have gotten the honey ginger.  In any case, ridiculously good fried chicken.  It's done like the Korean-style fried chicken, so a nice crunch outside and moist inside. They also give you a small side of Japanese cucumber pickles.

With every order of the fried chicken, you get a honey donut!  It's part of the hot fresh, so they fry it on the spot.  Nothing better than fresh donuts

Some fried chicken and three donuts later, I went back a really happy dude.  Good thing I had that short work too just to work some of it off.  Dammit.  LA needs a place that sells donuts and fried chicken!

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For my last day in Philly, I figured I should at least eat cheesesteak once.  It's just I've had a few cheesesteaks, and they have never lived up to the hype.  Yelped a bit, and found this vendor, By Geroge!, inside the Reading Terminal Market that sells Italian food and cheesesteaks.  A little skeptical, but all the other cheesesteak spots had crazy long lines, so I went for it.

By George! Pizza, Pasta & Cheesesteaks

Reading Terminal Market 

51 N 12th St 

Market East

Philadelphia, PA 19107

readingterminalmarket.org

Still a line, but definitely not as long.  There's one vendor that had to use a security guard to direct the line.  That place wasn't even that good.

After about 20 minutes, my cheesesteak with whiz, onions, and bacon was finally ready!  It is a biiiig sandwich.  When I was walking back, I held it in the palm, in a horizontal position so the juices wouldn't all drip to one spot, and man my arm actually got tired.

Damn that's a lot of steak!

Bacon!  Someone told me that I had to get it this way.  Good thing I took his suggestion haha.

There is a layer of cheese whiz on the bottom so when you take your bite, after you go through the bread, your tongue hits the cheese!

Not gonna lie, it is probably the best cheesesteak I've had anywhere.  Tons of steak, tasty cheese whiz, and sturdy bread that held up to everything.  I'm sure the bacon helped too.  It was the last thing I ate in Philly and I'm glad it was that huge sandwich.

Philadelphia: Malaysian in Philly & Amis Trattoria

Best thing about traveling is discovering something new, but Malaysian?  Never thought I would be eating Malaysian in Philly.  I can only name one Malaysian restaurant I've tried in LA, but coworker and I were down to try something new, so for lunch, we walked over to Chinatown, which was about 2 blocks away from the convention center.

Penang

117 N 10th St 

Chinatown

Philadelphia, PA 19107 

penangusa.com

Apparently, Penang is a popular chain on the East Coast.  Good Yelp and Zagat rating too.

Our server was this old dude and he recommended us the Roti Canai.  Said that it was a must. Very glad we ordered it cause it was damn tasty.

Roti Canai, a Malaysian favorite, is a crispy style pancake from India, and at Penang, they give you a little cup of chicken potato curry as dipping sauce.  After I tried the curry, I sorta regretted ordering noodles instead of a curry cause it was fantastic.

But still, I was glad with my Chow Kueh Teow.  It's another Malaysian staple: stir fried flat rice noodles with fresh shrimp, squid, bean sprouts, eggs, soy sauce, and chili paste.  First time trying it!  I got it medium spicy, but totally could have increased the heat level.

Coworker's Mee Goreng, which is Indian style stir-fried egg noodles in a mild dried squid sauce with tofu, potato, shrimp, egg, grounded peanut, and bean sprouts.  It was his first time eating anything from Southeast Asia besides Thai food.  I tried a little bit and gotta say, it is good. Looks like pad thai, but definitely doesn't taste like it!

After eating at Penang, I've decided to seek out some Malaysian restaurant in LA!  A little late to the party, but I liked what I tried in Philly!

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Last time at Philly for the company dinner, we went to Fogo de Chao.  While Fogo is good, I wanted something that I can't get in LA, and with me in charge of reserving a restaurant for the company dinner this year, I chose an Italian restaurant, Amis Trattoria, which is about 15-20 minutes walking from the convention.

Oh also, sorry for the pics... since I was with some of our sales rep from other regions and customers, I didn't want to be rude and hold everybody so I tried to take the picture as fast as possible... resulting in some mediocre shots.

Amis Trattoria

412 S 13th St

Washington Square West

Philadelphia, PA 19147

amisphilly.com

Amis Trattoria.

Menu.  Amis'  menu is actually pretty modern for an Italian restaurant so some of the guests from the Midwest and the South, they were a little bit confused.

Open kitchen.  Very dim everywhere else.

Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale.  Decided to go with a beer since our table were more beer folks.  Pretty good choice though!  Very drinkable Belgian brew from New Jersey.

Since most of the folks didn't know what to order except for their main plate, I ordered a few appetizers and the first to arrive was the Mixed Salumi Plate.  It is all made in house!

Mortadella with Hazelnut Honey.  Love moradella and that hazelnut honey is perfect with it.

Rabbit Terrine.  I think some of the folks at our table was weirded out by the rabbit terrine, but after they tried it, they all liked it!  Terrine is sorta like meatloaf, except this one made with rabbit.

Salami del Giorno with marmalade.  Very lightly cured.  

Meatball with tomato potato.  I wanted to try the swordfish meatball but decided that the old fashion meatball is much more familiar to everybody.

Fried cauliflower with Pecorino and salsa rossa.  I'm a sucker for cauliflower, especially ones that are fried!

I actually ordered something else as my main, but they messed up so I got the Rotini as my main.  Came with a variety of mushrooms and a fresh pea ragu.

Huge fan of the pea ragu and they certainly know their cooking time for the pasta!  Perfect texture.

Overall, good dinner, except for the mess up.  Luckily, my pasta was still tasty and I didn't want to make the others wait.  Not too sure how the others felt about Amis since it was a little different from the Italian they are used to, but hopefully they liked it too because these dinners are so important in developing good business relationships!

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After dinner, a coworker and I decided to walk back to our hotel instead of taking the cab to help digest a little bit.  On the way back, I remembered that two years ago, I went to the old fashion ice cream shop called the Franklin Fountain with the same coworker.  He's a huge fan of the sweets so we decided to make a little pit stop on our 30 minute walk back!

Franklin Fountain

116 Market St 

Old City

Philadelphia, PA 19106

franklinfountain.com

Outside of Franklin Fountain.

Inside. Exactly how I remembered.  They definitely go for the old fashion feel.  

Ordering counter with a list of the homemade ice cream available.  

Rather than ordering just ice cream like last time, I went all out and got the Franklin Mint sundae. 

Holy it was a big sundae and so damn good.  I like mint chip so I went full speed for the first half.  The minty Creme de Menthe helped too, but I definitely slowed down quite a bit after that.  The marshmallow glaze was way too thiiick and in the end, I just ate all the ice cream, with about half the glaze left.  

Got back to the hotel with this crazy sugar rush for a good hour or so!

Philadelphia: Tommy DiNic's & Cuba Libre

Recently got back from Philly and Boston, so will be updating with pics from the two trips!  And yes, I actually flew to Philly, then flew back to LA, and then the next day out to Boston.  Philly was for work and when I was planning the Boston trip, I found out that it just wasn't worth it to pay to change my flight and book a train ticket, as well as paying for an extra night for hotel out of the own pocket.  Two red eye flights in one week, definitely tough.

To be honest, Philly is not really my destination of choice for exhibiting for a tradeshow, especially the largest in our industry, but Philly does offer some delicious grub (and not cheesesteaks).  The best part about the Philadelphia Convention Center is that the Reading Terminal Market is right across the street and Chinatown is about 3 small blocks away so there's plenty of option for dining.

Tommy DiNic's

Reading Terminal Market 

136 Arch St 

Market East

Philadelphia, PA 19147

tommydinics.com

For lunch that first day, I knew what I wanted to eat so as soon lunch break arrived, I headed towards Reading Terminal Market for Tommy DiNic's!

Why... would you wait for this average cheesesteak when you can get a much better hoagie/sandwich??

Tommy DiNic's!  

The line.  It was still shorter than the line for some cheesesteak vendor.  I made it a priority to go there because I knew that once the show started, the line would be twice as long.

Hmmmm.... a little pile of delicious roasted pork sitting right there.

The Italian Style Pulled Pork with sharp Provolone and broccoli rabe!  I did a pretty horrible job ripping the sandwich apart :P

Look at how the bread just soak up all the juices!  They put the sharp Provolone on the bottom so after you chew through the bread, the cheese is the next thing you taste.  Love the mildy bitter flavor of the rabe.  Still one of my favorite sandwich anywhere.

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After doing manual labor in setting up the booth, we were rewarded with a dinner and bossman wanted to try something new, so on the way back to the hotel, we saw a Cuban restaurant and decided to dine there.

Apparently Cuba Libre is a popular high end Cuban restaurant, with several locations mostly on the Eastern part of US.  The only Cuban food I've had is Versailles in LA so definitely excited to check it out.

Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar

10 S 2nd St 

Old City

Philadelphia, PA 19106

cubalibrerestaurant.com

Cuba Libre.

Bar area.  

Cool decor to make you feel like you are in Cuba!

Buttered toasts with mango butter!

I decided to go with a classic and ordered the Lechón Asado.  Definitely a lot more fancy than Versaille's.  Slow roasted marinated pulled pork, classic sour orange mojo with vigorón slaw, amarillo chile smashed yuca and black bean broth.

Mojo is the garlic sauce and a must for this dish.  The vigorón slaw is a cabbage salad with pork rinds.  Very nice and refreshing and since it is a bit acidic, helped with the heaviness of the pork!  At first I thought the mashed yuca was sweet potato because it was very similar.

Also got to try a bit of the Seafood Paella.  Comes with shrimp, clams, mussels, Mahi fillet, squid and baby octopus, and completed with saffron “Bomba” short grain rice and the roasted piquillo pepper salad.

I love the flavor of saffron so this dish was a win for me.  A little more wet than your Spanish paella, but never anything wrong with fresh seafood!

I gotta say, not bad for first day!  Even better that it is all paid for :] 

Philadelphia: Pork & Beef

Day 2 in Philly meant that it was the opening day for the biggest industry show in the lighting. I actually didn't have time to grab breakfast and had to wait until around 1:30pm for my lunch break. Right across from the convention center is the Reading Terminal Market, which is a downtown farmer's market, with the same kind of feel to Seattle's Pike Place (much smaller of course). There's specialty foods vendor, butcher, fishmonger, bakery, grocer, and food spots.

With the convention right next door, the market was packed during the lunch rush, well into 2pm. Co-worker and I decided to walk around a bit first to see what our options were.

Reading Terminal Market

51 N 12th St

Philadelphia, PA 19107

www.readingterminalmarket.org

Lots of people sit around the counter or just order to go.

Lots of cool looking vendors in there.

The famous Tommy DiNic's! They are known for their roast pork sandwiches.

Just look at that line! I had to try to so I stood in line just like the rest of the folks haha.

Menuuu.

Huge pieces of roasted pork to be delivered. Lucky bastards.

Chopped up pork ready to be served.

AHHHH my Tommy DiNic's Roast Pork with Broccoli Rabe & Sharp Provolone! Waited 40 minutes in line for this baby.

Look at how the bread glistens :9

The last time I enjoyed a roasted pork sandwich this much was... never. Juicy and tender, the pork is as good as it gets, and the broccoli rabe has a little bit of bitterness that's perfect with the sandwich. One thing you can really taste is the sharp provolone!

I only had 20 minutes left but I'm pretty sure I devoured the sandwich in less than 15 minutes. Too gooood.

After the show we had a company dinner planned for several invited guests and a few of our important customers. I figured the best place would be a steakhouse and super elated to find that there's a Fogo de Chão about 15 minutes away on foot from the convention center so made a reservation!

Fogo de Chão

1337 Chestnut St

Philadelphia, PA 19107

www.fogodechao.com

First ever Fogo de Chão experience. I've had Brazilian BBQ before but not Fogo. Some of the people kept on saying "Hey look did you have a long lost ancestor in South America??" -___-

The awesome salad bar.

Co-workers grabbing some salad.

Charcuterie (prosciutto, salame & smoke salmon) & cheese. I took a piece of cheese, wrap a slice of prosciutto, and just engulf it.

Bread.

My salad plate. The basil cream dressing for the salad was out of this world. Never had basil flavored dressing before! Fresh mozza ball was seasoned with oregano and they actually provided you with real pieces of fatty bacon.

I sat next to the wine cellar. Didn't order any drinks since I wanted to save room for the protein, but maaaan... so close yet...

There was a crate of Opus One wine just sitting there.

First side dish up, fried bananas!

Garlic mashed potatoes.

Fried polenta with parmigiano. Never had polenta before. Not bad at all.

Fogo's famous buttery pão de queijo, cheesebread. OMG straight up addicting.

Green light! Gauchos serving the cuts.

First to arrive, bacon wrapped filet mignon & bacon wrapped chicken. Yes!

Alcatra (top sirloin) & Beef Ancho (rib eye). Do you see the layer of fat around the rib eye? :P

Linguica (sausage), Frango (chicken leg), and more bacon wrapped filet mignon. The juicy sausage came together with the tender chicken leg. On the bottom right corner is actually the Picanha cut (top sirloin), which is Fogo's house special. Totally forgot to take a picture of it cause every time I would just devour it. My favorite!

Leg of lamb. There was also lamb racks... but after a bite, I realized I'm still not a big fan of lamb :P

Filet Mignon, perfect medium rare! Tender goodness.

Fraldinha (bottom sirloin). Plate's getting full hahah.

Lombo (pork loin). They sprinkle parmigiano over it as a seasoning!

After all that protein, one of the patrons wanted something to wash it all down and ended up ordering a fruit cup. Came with strawberries, papaya, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. It was good and refreshing but definitely not worth the $8. Good thing I ain't paying for it haha.

Since we ate so much, a few of my co-workers and I decided to take a 30 minute trek back to the hotel to help us digest. Along the way, I was taking pictures of historical buildings, as well as Yelping on my phone to see what was around the area. Found that there was an old-fashioned ice cream & soda shop so I convinced them to come with me. Nothing better than some ice cold sweets to help wash down the greasiness yea?

The Franklin Fountain

116 Market St

Philadelphia, PA 19106

www.franklinfountain.com

Old school feel to the whole place. Lots of flavored syrup for soda drinks and sundaes.

Love the cash register and the old-fashioned milk canister!

The offerings!

Decided on an old-fashion mint chip ice cream with waffle cone.

I like how it doesn't have that artificial green color to it! Creamy and nice mint flavor with big pieces of chocolate chip throughout. Perfect way to end the day!

Ok looking back at it now and typing this up.. I ate a lot that day O_O. No wonder I was craving for something healthy like a salad once I got back from Philly haha. Really though, gotta try the Fogo in Beverly Hills since I actually didn't get to try some other cuts of meat like ribs since I was so full when they came by.