Paesano's Italian Market

1017 S 9th St
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 440-0371
Website

Paesano's II, Paesano's Italian Market, Paesano's Philly Style, I am not exactly sure what the name of this location is anymore. I call it Paesano's Italian Market, for obvious reasons. I have written about this spot before, but I haven't given a nod to their chicken of the sea sandwiches yet.

 

They offer two regular menu fish options on the menu, and both sounded delicious, so I dove right in and went all pesce. Well, maybe half Pesce. Note: they say on the website that the pesce is only offered one Fridays but I have seen it numerous times when I wasn't there on the best day of the week. For instance in this case.

The Pesce Fritti is comprised of a crispy tilapia filet, with caper maionese, iceberg, tomatoes, onions, sharp provolone & hot sauce. It's basically an Italian take on a fried fish po' boy. And like everything Paesano's, it does just the trick. The fish is fried to a crispy exterior, with a flaky white interior, having no overtly fishy taste, but not fried to oblivion. The briny maionese mixes with the hot sauce to create a deliciously salty and savory coating. The sharp prov lends some teeth to the whole sandwich, while the vegetables provide a fresh crunch. I would take this over most po' boys any day.

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The Tuna Italiana is on a higher level than any other tuna sandwich you have ever eaten. A seeded hard roll over-filled with Italian-Style Tuna salad (olive oil based), green olives, spicy cheese spread, hard-cooked egg, roasted tomatoes, pepperincino, arugula and chips. This thing is ridiculous. First of all, the tuna is great on its own, but when you add all of the components, the sum is greater than its parts. I would have never thought that hard boiled egg and green olives would complement a tuna sandwich so well, together. The chips add the salty crunch, while the arugula gives this hoagie the much needed punch of peppery greens. This is THE tuna hoagie to beat in my opinion. If anyone knows of a better one in the city, I am all ears. Until then, I will gladly eat this sandwich whenever a hankering for tuna strikes.

Royal Tavern

937 E Passyunk Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 389-6694
Website

Royal definitely has one of the best burgers in the city, but I often forget to mention it because it's the kind of place you need no special occasion to stop by. Not to mention, some of their other food is just as good if not better. The Royal is a great place to drink a couple of reasonably priced craft beers and grab some food. One of my favorites, actually. There are plenty of menu items that I could talk about in a glowing light, but that is for future posts. Right now, I just want to encourage you to go try the angus burger. Bacon, grilled onions, smoked gouda (which I LOVE), pickled long hots and chili mayo. Nothing too out there, but everything works perfectly together and the kitchen is always on point. Also the french fries are absolutely delicious, and downright dangerous when paired with their complementary malt vinegar mayo. That mayo alone is worth a trip.

This is also one of the few places I will ever order a vegetarian entree. The special "wild mushroom seitan cheesesteak" was one of the best non-carnivorous sandwiches I have eaten to date. The mushrooms were smothered with prov, and upon request, fried onions. The meaty chunks of seitan gave it the requisite chew, and the wild mushrooms lent it "umami" (yea I hate that word too) that most meals without animal fat seem to lack. Delicious. Most other things on the menu are also winners, but I will let you decide what to enjoy for yourself.

Far From Home Cafe (Food Truck)

Love Park
16th and JFK
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Website

Far from home, this food truck serves a mash-up of comfort-style foods from around the globe. Look for their brightly painted truck at Love Park around lunchtime, and follow their twitter feed to see what specials they are serving for the day.

If you have any question about them being far from home, just talk to them for a minute, and their friendliness might shock you. It is not your typical Philadelphia greeting. More like you just showed up at an old family friend's diner and they want you to be well received and well feed.

I wanted some of the delicious sounding empanadas, and the tacos looked like too good of a deal to pass up (2 for $5). I mentioned Fidel Gastro after reading on "the twitter" that it was the word of the day, and got a soda for a quarter. Like Tyson Bee's, they give you a card to hold until your order is up. This one was from the deck of an Old Maid set. Might carry some negative connotations depending on who is holding it.

 

The beef tacos were nothing fancy, but the ground beef was well seasoned and the ingredients were packed to the top of the soft flour tortillas. Beef, lettuce, tomato, onion, black olives and cheese. They were definitely a comforting, Americanized version of tacos, which sometimes is just what the doctor ordered. Two were definitely a filling meal.

The empanadas were what I was the most excited about, however, as they offered three different varietals, Puerto-Rican style, Argentin-ish style, and mac and cheese (you might call that "American style"). They came out perfectly warm, but not too hot on the inside, with a deep golden crust that was not the least bit greasy (the beef inside took care of that).

The Puerto Rican might have been the most flavorful, with ground beef, cheddar cheese, and spices. I really liked this empanada. It had a perfect crust, that made the perfect vessel to hold the juicy fillings.

The Argentin-ish beef empanada was another winner (inside tip, they all were), containing more of the delicious ground beef, but this time spruced up with raisins, green olives, onion, egg and paprika with a soft cream cheese (the "ish") instead of the traditional hard cheese. What was remarkable was that all three of these meat applications had completely different flavor profiles.

 

The mac and cheese was comfort food at its finest. The mac was tangy from the addition of sour cream, and had a hint of spice from the copious amount of black pepper that was blended throughout.

I am always a fan of Philly gaining more weight - I mean great, cheap places to eat and Far From Home fills a comfort food void in the heart of Center City. They were sold out of the delicious sounding hotdogs, and I will return to sample the burger, texas dog, and frito pie (one of my favorites) in the near future.

Square Burger

Franklin Square Park
200 N 6th St
Philadelphia, PA 19106

A burger shack in a local park. Not exactly original, but still a welcome addition to (almost) any park in the city. With the Starr pedigree behind it, the buzz surrounding it, and the proximity to my work (very close), I was pleased to go eat lunch in the park and give it a go. Disclaimer, I did not go for the much hyped Butterscotch Krimpet shake, as I am not a huge fan of sweets, nor of overly sweet dairy-based drinks in the middle of the day. Anyway, as it was extraordinarily nice this week, to Franklin Square I went.

When I approached the line, which was not too bad considering the weather, I was squinting to see the menu. Not too long, or fancy, which was promising. It took a bit longer than expected to get to the front, but it gave me time to hash out my choice. I was a bit taken aback when I saw that a classic cheeseburger was $4.75, but it IS a Steven Starr burger shack, so I guess I was feigning shock for the most part.

When I got to the front, the order taker was running around like crazy. I skipped fries because I had a previous arrangement to split an order, and I need to watch my intake so that I don't die as quickly during the Broad Street Run this year. I really pushed the envelope when I ordered a classic cheese burger with everything on it, plus hot peppers. I heard her explicitly tell the grill guy my correct order, and he confirmed with, "plain burger no hot peppers." Wrong. My heart sunk. She corrected him, and he confirmed my actual order. Could they possibly get this right?

Grill man in question below.

I then proceeded to dream of pickles and hot peppers, onions and a potato roll on a griddle-crispy, salty meat patty, while the smell of the flat top wafted in the air around the park as I waited. And waited. Until about fifteen minutes after ordering, when one of my dining partners' names was called. While we hovered around the pickup side like vultures biding our time until that lost adventurer takes their last sip of water, a lady that ordered AFTER us went up to the window screaming at the staff that her friends had all received their food before her, and were waiting to eat. The poor woman working inside casually informed her that her friends had ordered items that take less time to prepare thus the extra wait. Personally, I would have: #1 eaten with the crazy screamer, and #2 realized that maybe a salad doesn't take as long as a burger to prepare. When the counter person informed her that my party was STILL ahead of her, I am pretty sure I saw smoke coming out of her ears. Seriously people, that is no way to spend your lunch break.

Finally, after drinking half of my over-priced, unsweetened iced tea [see aforementioned medium distance run looming in the future like the dark towers of Mordor (I can't believe I knew how to spell Mordor, nerd)] my order arrived. When the person to the left of me, who ordered a plain cheeseburger with just ketchup started pulling hot peppers off of his sandwich, I knew I was doomed. On a side note, after all of the craziness that had already ensued, I neglected to correct the man when I saw him slide an order of fries into what I knew was my brown bag.

Upon first glance, the burger looked . . . small. The fries looked tasty, but so do Ore Ida's when I am starving, and these had just about as much flavor. It was like eating old fries that had been in some even older oil. Not too hot. I opened my burger, which was slightly larger than a silver dollar, and discovered that there indeed were no pickles, nor were there any hot peppers. Also the burger itself was even smaller than the tiny potato roll it was served on. I added a couple of packets of relish, instead of risking being assaulted up in line, and slowly ate my food. I did, however, find one thing that was absolutely fantastic. The weather. My god, I forgot how much I enjoy the city when spring rolls (mmmmm, spring rolls) around and the people come out of the woodwork (even when it's just to yell at underpaid employees in a burger shack).

I really have to say that I was highly disappointed. It really doesn't take much to make an old school flat-top burger delicious, but whatever was on that thing left a truly terrible taste in my mouth for hours afterward. If I were playing a mini golf match at Franklin Square some time in the future, I would make the loser eat a Square Burger.