Full of Garlic

Yes, a food post. A few weeks back we tried to do a company outing to a well known Italian restaurant in the Southern reaches of Philly, only to discover they'd closed for good. There was another place nearby but it was too crowded, so we fell back to a good nouvelle-style place a ways away... but I was always curious about that other place. Ralph's is the second oldest restaurant in the US, operating in the same family continuously since 1900.

An unpretentious red sauce joint with tight tables and mobster accents all around.

But was it any good? I had ziti with grilled italian sausage with a very garlicky red-sauce. And it was wonderful. Add on a sprite, and I was out of there for well under $20, completely stuffed. The waiter was very nice, and we had a long chat about the Kindle - his daughter is going to college and he's hoping she can get textbooks on it.

One of the things that fascinates me about Philly is the subterranean complexity: There are areas near City Hall where you can go several city blocks without ever coming above ground - some areas are long tiled tunnels with harsh lighting, some are depressing 70's era underground malls. Some stations have art deco tiling and iron work reminiscent of the 1930s, others are newer and more sterile.

In some areas, there are three distinct eras of technology: The Broad Street Line (north south) is a classic old subway from the 30s or earlier, passing right under the street, a single flight of stairs down. The cars have a laquered metal look, and you can see the iron beams and parallel tracks as you go. The Market street line (east west) feels more like a 1970s line, with smaller, darker tunnels and gleaming aluminum cars. And deeper still are the old streetcars, which have large subterranean boarding stations in center city, and emerge from the ground west in University City. And right by my hotel, all 3 are present.

And that doesn't count the commuter rail lines running east/west just a few hundred feet north of all of this (which I use to get to the airport), even further underground, nor the entirely separate lines going eastward - the "Patco" lines with ill lit stairways on side streets and peeling paint indicating ancient disrepair, yet somehow it's still going. Whereever you walk, you feel the rumble of something moving underground.

The world right under my feet is bustling. It reminds me of my time in Tokyo, in the Shinjuku district, where we went blocks and blocks without being in sunlight.... but while it all felt very clean and new over there, it's all old, worn, and yet strangely loved here. You almost get the feeling that some of these stations aren't so much DIRTY as much as they're just like the well worn jeans you can't bear to throw away...

Yeah, I like Philly ok.