The Flying Deutschman

Food Truck
Media, PA
(610) 333-7908
Facebook

2SP is a new-ish DelCo brewery complete with a canning line and they have gotten quite a bit of publicity recently. They focus on beer, and typically have a different food truck serving hungry drinkers on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I have been wanted to try the Flying Deutschman for quite a while, after seeing it zipping by on the highway many a time, and it JUST HAPPENED to be at a brewery, so I decided to take one for the team and go drink some beer and eat. Selfless, as usual.

The truck is painted like a ship, and is quite cool. They offer a variety of specials mixed with standard menu items, of a German variety. There is a tablet for paying, so you don't need cash. Always a big plus in the old PP book.

You can get a couple types of schnitzel and wurst, and all can be served sandwich style. This means put on a roll for those with comprehension issues.

The truck has a nice clean work space. You can see the ordering tablet in the below shot.

I tried the currywurst sandwich, the jaeger schnitzel with mushroom sauce, and a side of cucumber salad.

I loved the currywurst. The curry sauce was packed with flavor, the wurst was juicy and had a great snap to the casing. I like the toast marks on the roll. My complaint is on the price. The sandwich was $8 I believe, but the side of cucumber salad was a whooping $5. It was a small portion for the money. I DO believe that this is some extremely fresh, homemade German-style food, on par or better than most any German restaurant in the area. So it does even out. But be warned, this isn't a cheap food truck meal.

I could have easily eaten two of these delectable sandwiches.

The jaeger schnitzel was another winner, with a thin, well fried and seasoned cutlet smothered in mushroom gravy. You can see the black pepper flakes speckled throughout the creamy sauce below. It was served with a roll, which coincidentally made quite the sauce mop for anything left behind.

The thin cutlet was was easily sliced with a plastic knife, and the seasoned crispy breading soaked up the indulgent creamy sauce. It was a great schnitzel, even though white sauces tend to be not very photogenic.

And the beer at 2SP was not bad at all either. I will be back and even if it's not the Flying Deutschman, I'll be happy to give another contender a try.

Brauhaus Schmitz

718 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(267) 909-8814
Website

Just in time for the end of our Oktoberfest contest with CityEats comes a review of Brauhaus Schmitz.

Brauhaus is an anchor of the South Street community, a welcome reprieve for thirsty (and hungry) folks venturing down to the touristy, yet somewhat gritty section of the city. At least one of those sections. So if you aren't looking to buy a pipe, get your hair cut or braided, buy diamond jewelry that is Looney Toons character-studded, this may be just the place for you.

The interior is fantastic, with a strong German beer hall influence (obviously).

The draft list is extensive, heavy in the lagers, hefeweizens, and pilsners.

You can get various sizes, from 12oz., to half liter, full liter, to das boot!

The menu is reasonably priced, and has a wide variety of German fare. I love the ability to sample a number of items for $3 a piece. One of these offerings is the rollmops & sour cream on rye. Rollmops are technically pickled herring filets that are rolled around some sort of filling like pickled vegetables and/or green olives, but in this case, their interpretation is more like a whitefish salad.

There's definitely a briny undertone here, a tasty one. A combination of creamy texture and chopped pickled fish makes for a surprisingly good snack - and a "must try" at this price point.

The landjager, or in this case, pickled smoked sausages, were certainly another surprise. A recommendation from the fabulous bartender, they were (dare I say it) another steal at $3 for four. They had a deliciously addictive, briny flavor, with a touch of smoke, and a nice (un)healthy balance of fat to meat. Delicious.

The gravy fries were more than plentiful. Smothered in brown mushroom and beef gravy, with a blanket of Emmenthaler, this was a maximum value at $7. The portion was seriously ridiculous. The fries were extra crispy, and the gravy was so deeply condensed, had it been taken any further I am sure it would have been burned. This is one hell of an order of gravy fries, and a delicious German nod to poutine.

Every platter is served with a side or two, and as I went with a double wurst, I had to try the sauerkraut in addition to my two other (included) sides. The tart, tangy cabbage was no slouch, though the encased meats were so delicious they really didn't need any help.

The main event.

On the outside is the Bauernwurst, pork & beef, hickory smoked, with garlic, pepper, and mustard seed. This was by far my favorite of the sausages that day. The rich smokey flavor really permeated throughout, and the addictive snap of the casing was exactly how it should be. On the inside was the Käsewurst, pork-based with emmenthaler cheese, hickory smoked, and some garlic thrown into the mix. Surprisingly, the cheese didn't add much that wasn't already there. Don't get me wrong, this was a delicious tube steak as well, but I would highly recommend the Bauernwurst as top dog.

Now opposite sides, you can see a pocket of cheese on the left.

A side of pickled cucumber and red onion salad was another highlight, with the fresh crispy cukes contrasting with the inordinate amount of meat products I was consuming.

In addition, the spätzle, buttery rich, crispy fried egg noodles, were a big hit.

There were two types of mustard brought to the table, and both were delicious, but the stone ground really won my heart (which was struggling to beat at this point).

While there may be another German beer hall in Philadelphia with a slightly nicer atmosphere, this one takes the food category and runs away with it. I absolutely loved this place, and I can't wait for the winner of our contest to get a chance to eat, drink, and be merry. One word of advice, I learned the hard way, DO NOT play in a hockey game after consuming this much sausage and beer. It was seriously the wurst.

Oktoberfest Contest courtesy of CityEats!

CityEats is sponsoring a contest for my awesome readers. In honor of Oktoberfest, we will be giving away a $100 dinner for two at South Street's famous Brauhaus Schmitz. That's a lot of schnitzel! In order to enter, all you need to do is comment on THIS POST about your favorite thing German. It could be a car, a food, a beer, or a trip. The category is pretty broad, and we encourage creativity. On October 15th, all valid entries (as determined by me) will be assigned a number, and a winner drawn at random through Random.org. The winner will then simply make a reservation through the easy-to-use CityEats site, and they will then be eating and drinking their way through some of the best German food in the city – for free. If you don't want to create a profile in order to enter with a comment, shoot me an email with your comment so I can contact you if you are the big winner. One comment, and you could be drinking liters of beer and eating all types of the best wurst.

Photo from Meal Ticket

Contest details:
When: October 1st-October 15th, entries close 10/15/2012 at 2pm EST.
What: $100 dinner credit at Brauhaus Schmitz, 718 South Street, Philadelphia PA.
How: Comment within the parameters set forth above, subject to my sole discretion. Winner to be chosen at random.
Who: Anyone who will be able to physically be present in Philadelphia for a great German dinner.

Mazaltov!

Kibitz Room

Neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square
1521 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102

215-735-7305

A Philadelphia deli is no New York deli. We are so different, deli wise, that I often forget that delis DO serve corned beef and pastrami in other parts of the country/world. Most of the popular delis in Philly are hoagie joints. And unless I had a specific recommendation, I am traditionally not inclined to order corned beef cold-cuts. I have always been a fan of Hershel’s in Reading Terminal Market for my Reubens and admittedly, in Philadelphia at least, I have not been super impressed, nor sought out the best Reuben. When I lived in LA, Canter’s was always the go-to spot, plus they were open 24/7 and didn’t care what kind of shape you were in when you showed up.

Today, in an effort to do something different (and perhaps reminisce), I decided to try out Kibitz Room, which is a new addition to Locust Street, and one I noticed on the aforementioned bike ride to Locust Rendezvous. With little research, I discovered that this Kibitz is apparently not related to Kibitz in the City on 7^th and Chestnut, but rather is affiliated with another Kibitz Room in Jersey. That aside, I decided to give one of these massive meatwiches a go-around.

Upon entering, the employees were more than happy to take our order, and repeatedly asked for it, although we hadn’t yet had a chance to look at the menu. I then located a menu, and he kept asking what I wanted, though I clearly told him I would let him know when I was ready, numerous times. We decided to split a full Reuben, although I am aware most delis give you more when you order one half each than a full together. But considering it was $11 a half and $15 a whole, I was not going to find out this trip. The workers were great with the splitting, and with the order you get one side. We opted for the potato pancake served with a side of sour cream and a side of applesauce.

While walking to a table I stumbled upon the pickle bar. What’s that you say? The pickle bar? YES! The pickle bar. Literally ten FREE pickled side dishes, including (ironically) numerous kinds of pickles (Irony = pickle bar including pickles). Well, THAT certainly takes a piece of my heart. Soon enough, I had already consumed a week’s worth of pickles, and our order was called. So we stand up to grab it. But a lady comes by and tells us she will bring it over. Okay. She also asks if we are splitting, and grabs an extra plate and napkins. We certainly needed both.

The sandwich is served just like you would expect from a good Jewish deli, heaping piles of freshly sliced corned beef, on rye bread with a healthy dose of kraut, and a hearty schmear (yes I said it) of Thousand Island. It came together like a well planned Bar Mitzva. All of the ingredients played off each other seamlessly and it was a perfect (if not sloppy) melding of those involved. The real star for me was the corned beef, tender, yet held together in nice slices, and not overly salty, but maintained the salty tang one would expect from a cured meat. I was all too happy to take any and all scraps that were thrown my way by my lunch-mate. There was an abundance of meat; all of the ingredients were of great quality and served in the right quantity. I was highly pleased, and after a couple of pickles for dessert, I was ready to go back to work/take a nap.