Thursday, April 29, 2010
Vic Sushi
Our plan this time was to drive down, call for takeout, and pick it up. After we decided what we were going to get, we realized the address was different. Turns out that they're in Spring House now, not Philly. No biggie, it's just under a half-hour to drive there now, plus it probably seats 20 instead of 10.
We ordered the red dragon roll, the white dragon roll, and a Philadelphia roll. The dragons are eel, cucumber, and avocado. The red means topped with tuna; the white is topped with white tuna. A Philadelphia roll is salmon and cream cheese. We split everything, and thought they were delicious. The white tuna was especially fresh. Jonathan thought the Philly roll was very good... I thought it was average. The red dragon was a little more moist... not sure if it was avocado or if it had to do with the fact that our sushi sat in boxes for half an hour while we drove home, LoL. Regardless, very good sushi, reasonable prices, and a nice little place now (in a shopping center, so there's actually parking now, too).
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Golden Eagle Diner
I knew I wanted a burger and fries, and it didn't take me long to pick the Canadian burger, which came with cheddar cheese and Canadian bacon. Turns out, that's not the most delicious combination ever. I'm also not positive that the cheese was cheddar, it tasted more like really melty American. The fries weren't as done as I would've liked them, but with ketchup they were fine. I opted out of the coleslaw, so I got an extra pickle. Nothing special there, just an ordinary dill spear. I will say, though, that tomato was the only other garnish provided for my burger, and I probably would have liked a few slices of onion or something.
But, let me back up. See, after I ordered my burger, Jonathan went with the lamb. That came with soup AND salad, AND two sides. So, before I even had a bite of burger, Jonathan had his minestrone soup (average, but he'd get it again over something like chicken noodle), his caesar salad (good but the dressing was heavy. and the serving bowl was super neat!), and rolls. I feasted upon half of the rolls pretty quickly. One was stuffed with cinnamon and butter, while the other was a sweet cheese of some sort (not sweet like cream cheese though, and neither of us have any leads as to what might have been on that bread).
The lamb itself was average, but was served with a lot of mint jelly on the side, some decent macaroni and cheese, and some vegetables that were cooked very well. While he did end up taking the leftover lamb home (they gave a lot!), he wouldn't really recommend it.
Oh, and on top of all those foods, we were also each given a small sliver of Italian Cream Cake, complimentary. It was a little dry, so I imagine that it had been sliced much, much earlier in the day and there were just plates of it sitting around to be given out. In retrospect, we probably shouldn't have had any, since it had probably sat out for several hours, but oh well.
Would we go back? Maybe. The rolls were good. The salad was good (and probably the best thing that either of us had... and for a diner to do salad the best, that's probably a bad sign). The prices were good. The concept of a diner doing cocktails intrigued us both. But, let's also remember, that a milkshake was $5.45, and extra thick was $6... I can't possibly imagine what they're putting in that milkshake to drive up the price so high!! My burger was only about $9!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Julio's Famous Pizzeria
Jonathan went with a calzone, with mushrooms, sausage, and pepperoni. He'd get it again, and thoroughly enjoyed each bite.
I chose the Taco Chicken Pouch... an interesting selection. Think of an oval-shaped bread bowl that's really moist and fresh, not hard like bread bowls tend to be. Now, stuff it to the max with chopped chicken mixed with salsa and a *tiny* bit of cheese. That's what it was. I wasn't impressed, but I blame myself. The bread, however, was AMAZING, even as a leftover.
We'll probably be back to Julio's, since it was a neat place inside, the menu was large, and they have something there called a ginacotti. Apparently it's a deep-fried calzone. Sounds different!
Friday, April 23, 2010
New Jersey Nets vs. Charlotte Bobcats
Let me give a quick rundown on the game... basically, whenever you go someplace, you can open Gowalla on your phone (works on iphones, androids, palms, and anything that goes on the web), and "check-in" to the location where you are (restaurant, store, park, etc.). There are over 100 items that can be found and traded at various places, so you try and get all of those and vault them. You can also create spots, "found" spots by putting items at them, and work on creating and founding more spots to get more pins of achievement. You also get a stamp for every place you visit (you can go to a place multiple times but you only get one stamp per location), and there's a stamp for each state as well.
Now, back to the story... the Nets project allowed Gowalla to put out 250 "tickets" as items. Each of these items was redeemable for 2 tickets to the final home game for the Nets. Well, the Friday 10 days before the game, Gowalla put out the announcement that you could try your luck at finding tickets at various locations in NY and NJ, and it specifically indicated that they would most likely be found at sports-ish venues, whether that be a sports bar or a sporting goods store, etc. The day they announced this, we drove into Jersey for some errands, and I stopped at a Dick's and a Sports Authority to try. Nothing. And, since we had company coming the next day, I kinda gave up on the idea.
Fast Forward to the following Friday, when we took Jonathan's parents to New York City. We had just gotten off the train and were heading to our first destination when I checked into the Manhattan Center (we went to the Diggnation there a few months ago). My jaw dropped as I saw the little icon and message telling me that I found a pair of Nets tickets!! I immediately showed Jonathan (who is a casual Gowalla player... I'm quite avid), and he decided to check-in, too. He was lucky enough to snag another pair, so we had four tickets to use on Monday, April 12th.
We invited a couple people, but in the end it was just us and our friend, Rob. We drove up to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in NJ, and hit little traffic on the way there. However, the signs are not the best once you get off the highway, so we had to backtrack a little bit to actually get over to the IZOD Center. Parking wasn't bad, and we found the Gowalla table pretty easily. I was really excited about meeting one of the developers, since I've been a fan of Alamofire for over two years now.
The seats were pretty awesome. At first we couldn't find our section... turns out it was because we had FLOOR seats. Now, for someone who isn't that into basketball, this made me pretty excited. I was able to get a few good pictures of the game, but there weren't that many awesome shots/dunks/etc. to begin with. Also, I got a Gowalla shirt, which I was pretty much ecstatic about. I was really hoping that they'd have them there, and I hope it works as an advertisement when I wear it, since I've been trying to get more of my friends to play (what I think is) this awesome game. Anyway, the Nets lost, but they were close on and off. Here's some photos form our sweet seats...
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
By George
On our way out, we had lunch at By George. I ordered a chicken parmigiana sandwich, while Jonathan and his parents went with cheesesteaks. Jonathan and I both decided that if we had seen all of the food displays of the place first, we probably would have ordered other items, since everything on display looked so delicious!
Regardless, the cheesesteaks were gigantic. Jonathan thought it could have been cheesier, but the problem was balanced with the fact that the sheer volume of meat was incredible. Jonathan also said he'd probably go for provolone next time (that's what his parents went with). The chicken parm was average, and didn't reheat well. I'd go for something else next time. We also had a small order of fries that the table shared. I didn't particularly care for them (they tasted undercooked to me), but the rest of the table thought that they were okay and very potato-y.
And, last but not least, we finally learned the validation process at the Reading Terminal Market, and it worked for us. We only paid $4 to park for up to two hours (and that's about all of the time we had, since we needed to be on our way to the airport after that!). Which is good... last time we missed out on this and paid big time.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Bettola
While we were in
We were the only diners in there for the majority of our meal. We had a table in the corner, next to a window, and received excellent service from the time we sat down until our bill was paid. Our water glasses were refilled promptly, suggestions were good, and questions were happily answered.
We all ordered different items and were all satisfied with our selections. I went with the gnocchi, which wasn't the best I had ever had, but was very filling and rather delicious with the fresh mozzarella that was on top. Jonathan went with the prosciutto pizza - thin crust, fresh ingredients, perfectly baked. His mother had a tomato basil soup with pesto and croutons... I only had a taste and I'd give it two thumbs up! She also went with a warm salad that contained cannelini beans. Not something I'd go for, but it was certainly different! Lastly, his dad went with the fettuccine. It was green noodles and was served with fresh peas. He enjoyed the peas, and that's coming from a man who normally doesn't eat peas (although I'm not quite sold, LoL).
I'd completely recommend the place to anyone. We probably won't be back (at least in the near future) just because we don't get to NYC often, and we're always trying different places. [Next time, I'm dying to try out a burger place near Ground Zero that we heard about forever ago!]
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The American Museum of Natural History
I must start off by saying that I was rather disappointed in the American Museum of Natural History. Now, I just saw the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum last summer, but it was far superior.
We saw the vast majority of the museum, although I must admit that we skipped out on the Central and South American Peoples areas. We also accidentally snuck in and saw the Snake & Lizard exhibit - on the map it cuts from one area to another, and we entered the far end. Didn't have any idea you were supposed to pay to see it until we walked out the other end and there was a guy taking tickets! That's a real shame tho - probably the worst display of snakes and lizards I had ever seen, with the exception of a microscope-ish thing you could use to zoom in on two of the lizards... I saw incredible details of their cute tiny feet!
The dinosaur floor was one of the more interesting... we say an Amyda fossil, and I promptly declared that it was the "Amy Dinosaur" - which is cool because it's a turtle.



Saturday, April 17, 2010
Saladworks
I didn't go with the salad, since I was craving a sandwich. I was in luck! They had some good-sounding panini, and I love a good panini. After some silent debate, I went with Smoky T (or something similar, I can't remember and the menus on the website aren't loading for me right now). It was Turkey-Bacon-Cheddar with mustard. The turkey wasn't the freshest, and I wouldn't get it again. However, I would still go there, and I'm looking forward to it. At this late date, I also no longer remember what either of his parents had, although I remember his mom also ordered a panini. I guess that's even more reason to go back, hehe.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Mercer Museum & Fonthill
With over 10,000 tools and artifacts in the four-story museum, it was packed. Each room in the castle-like structure was dedicated to a type of exhibit - like sewing materials, cobbler materials, kitchen tools, etc. Larger items, like Conestoga wagons, stagecoaches, canoes, and giant bellows, hung from the ceiling or near the rails of the 2nd and 3rd floors. There weren't always great descriptions of what items were, but each was numbered and there were a set of corresponding books that were organized by number and gave information about what each was, how and when it was acquired, etc.
The poured concrete castle was built by Henry Mercer, eight or ten other guys, and a single horse. And Mercer collected the items because he saw new things coming out and thought it would be interesting for future generations to see objects that were written out of use.

After Mercer Museum, we went to see Henry Mercer's home at Fonthill. It's a 44-room castle, and you can tour about a third of it. The interesting things about the castle are the fact that he even built his bookshelves and things out of concrete, and also all of the tile work from around the world that he used to decorate. He also had other types of artifacts (like pottery) from other countries. The castle had some neat innovations, like a call system that connected the kitchen to several bedrooms, and multiple skylights which allowed for the place to have excellent light. Finally, because the entire thing was concrete, Henry Mercer started a bonfire on the top terrace when it was complete to show everyone that it was done and that it was fireproof.
We were not permitted to take photographs inside Fonthill (reasons were unclear, and it wasn't a hard-set rule, since they had an article up about how they allowed a high school photography class to take pictures), but I did get some nice shots of the exterior of the estate.






Thursday, April 15, 2010
Kildare's Irish Pub
The menu looked pretty good, and they have some very good lunch specials. However, all five of us decided to go traditional and order boxtys. His mother and I went with the chicken (I got no mushrooms); everyone else went with the Philly cheesesteak variety. What's a boxty, you ask? Well, it was news to all of us as well. Apparently it's a popular dish in the Ireland countryside that's kinda like a burrito, only the outside it a thin potato pancake, not a tortilla. And not like a latke, either. It's like a pancake with some potato flavor... kinda like if potato bread was made into a pita, that's a good description. Anyway, the chicken type had grilled chicken, tomatoes, onions, and cheddar cheese inside, with plenty of sour cream on top. The Philly kind was roast beef with onions, peppers, and American cheese, with CheezWhiz on top. The portion was huge, and all of this was served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables (mostly peas and corn).
I really enjoyed it, but I don't think I'd order it again. However, I can honestly say it's my favorite Irish dish so far (I have a history of disliking the Irish cuisine, LoL). It was an interesting combination of ingredients so it made for a very unique flavor. Everyone else at the table was also impressed with how different the meal was. I didn't eat many of the vegetables, but I can say that the mashed potatoes were only average - real with some skins. Anyway, if you're in Scranton, go ahead and check it out. I don't know of anything else in that area to recommend, LoL.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Longwood Gardens
Monday, April 12, 2010
Grounds for Sculpture
Jonathan's parents came to visit for a week, and we were able to spend Easter with them. After Easter Dinner (our first one hosting, which was exciting. For posterity, we had hickory-smoked spiral ham with glaze, Amish potato salad, macaroni & cheese, zesty green beans in white wine, and red velvet cake for dessert), we went to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. It's barely outside of Trenton, and easy to find. It was probably about twenty minutes from our place, and it took us a little over two hours to walk through the entire thing.
The setup was a little strange, just in that it was kinda difficult to plan a path. I'm not even positive that we saw everything in the end, but we sure got a glimpse of most everything. Most the the exhibits are outside, but there are a few installations inside, and it was neat to see everything. We even came upon some pieces that were under construction. We all had our favorites, and overall it was a really neat place. Jonathan really enjoyed the Albert Paley pieces and the peacocks running around.