Ethnic Food

When I stay here in Philly, my favored haunt is a block outside of Chinatown, and a block behind the Reading Terminal Market (which I have written about in the past, you know). Good food on all sides. Well, not on the north side - that's a freeway. Anyway, good eating.

I've been relying on Yelp.com iPhone application to pick good places... I discovered that my own Food-ar was broken my first week out here when I had the worst indian food I've ever tasted, in a place where despite the candlelight, wood paneling, and comfortable chairs, the food came on STYROFOAM PLATES. So I need recommendations. And Yelp has not done me wrong.

Tonight I wandered two blocks eastward into Chinatown to a chinese noodle soup place that was highly recommended. I sat down, the only non-Mandarin speaker in the place, with the TV blaring some sort of Chinese Idol singing contest with amazingly garish graphics behind the singers, and a wizened panel of judges who may have been critiquing the songs, or they may have been offering advice on balancing Chi. Not sure.

I skipped over the "fried intestine" appetizer plate, and went for "Sliced Beef Noodle Soup". Here's where we get to the part where sometimes truly ethnic food can be.... strange... When you get this dish in a vietnamese place, it's called Pho, and the beef (if you order Pho Tai) is very lean and it's a somewhat refreshing dish, with fresh basil and light rice noodles. In this restaurant, it was thick brisket-y beef, with a meaty broth, with egg noodles, and picked greens strewn across the top.

I won't say it wasn't delicious - it was actually very good. But it was almost startlingly "ethnic" - there was very little there to cater to a western taste bud, and I found myself just a little disappointed - not in the meal, but in my inability to just let go and enjoy it. I ate most of the greens, some of the beef, and all of the noodles, but left a fair amount of soup in that bowl. I can't help but think that if uncle chicken (Nick) were there, not only would he have eaten it all furiously, but I guarantee that one of the appetizers would have been attempted as well.

Walking is something I'm doing a lot of here in the City of Brotherly Love: My hotel is 3 blocks from the subway, the client site is 6 blocks from the subway the other direction. So I walk a good 18 blocks total just to and from work. Then on days like today when I need to head out to Jersey for meetings, I walk another 9-10 blocks one way or the other to a ZipCar parking facility, and back. Today, I've done around 40 city blocks of hoofing it. Plus a half hour on the elliptical (because it's not just about walking, you gotta get that heart rate up too)

Walking all that distance with my laptop bag has got me thinking that I need to lighten up: a 6 lb laptop doesn't sound that big, nor does the bag (with all sorts of papers in it). But after a few miles, you notice the weight. I'm looking at those Macbook Airs again, this time with INTENT. It also makes me resent the existence of neckties, especially when it's 90 degrees and humid.

I think I'll try to get a good night's sleep tonight: I'm meeting a client at 8am at the Amish Diner a block from my hotel, and I am very excited. Last time I ate there was with him, and it led to me leaving my job and taking this crazy new life. Mostly because he shared a slice of the best turkey bacon I'd ever tasted. The bacon turned me. And tomorrow I will get my own turkey bacon.