Philly Food

So, as some of you know I am moving to Philadelphia...place of brotherly love and cheese steaks. Well I don't ingest cheese steaks but I will say there are some fine places to dine in my new city.

Here's what I recommend:
Mertiage located at 500 South 20th Street. This place has a clean aesthetic yet warm and familiar feel to it. The family photos on the wall give you sense of history and family pride as you wander into the main dining room to enjoy a different form of art, Meritage's menu and their presentation. It is inventive, surprising and extremely fresh!

What we ate:

Tuna Tartare with soy wasabi foam, Tobiko caviar Organic micro greens, and wonton chips
(Awesome! and I am picky about my Tartare)

Five Spice Marinated Grilled Quail with a watercress and Apple salad
( I have never had Quail and although they are rather petite and not really first date food, it was very tasty and much lighter then duck. The salad part was a perfect balance of crunchy sweet that I adore.)

Pan Roasted Skate with asparagus flan, sauteed asparagus and fiddlehead ferns with a lemongrass beurre blanc.

(Asparagus Flan is awesome! Perfection! A fiddlehead, for those who don't know...Fiddleheads are the unfurled fronds of a young fern. They must always be cooked before eating to remove the shikimic acid. Sounds dangerous...but it's not. They taste a little like a collard green mixed with an asparagus)

All around an amazing place to eat and drink wine!

My Other Recommendation:

Noble located at 2025 Sansom Street. My favorite part is the bar! Not only do they have inventive drinks, but the bar is made out of a fallen tree! The price is a bit high, but the portion size for the smaller plates is a great way to enjoy Noble on a smaller dime.

What I ate:
Gnocchi Parisienne: leek, trumpet royale, and sunchoke.
( The Gnocchi was amazing and lightly crisp on the outside. The trumpet royale is tender and a little more dense then a portobello mushroom. Sunchoke is a slightly sweet cross between a potato and a rutabaga, but way less starchy :) )

Celery Root, Leeks puree
(Not normally on the menu, but creamy and made me want to puree everything)

And Haricot Verts. ( Which is french for green bean :) )

An all around yummy experience.

All for now... eat well...be well.