Staff Blog
SNACK TIME: Joe Sixpack vs. Penn on the Man Full of Trouble, chicken and waffles=magical healing properties, cast your vote on Prop. dirndls, designer chocolate and booze melt winter at once, and a Snoop Dogg holiday mashup
posted by Felicia D'Ambrosio
Every Wednesday, Meal Ticket pokes around the food blog world to see what’s simmering.
- One to add to the Why the Hell Not File: Adam Kuban of Serious Eats reported on Snoop Dogg’s recent appearance on The Martha Stewart Show,
where he and the Martha-bot smash up some cognac mashed potatoes. The
two original gangstas have a splendid visit, with the Dogg turning
Martha on to correct usage of “Snoop-guistics” and inducting her producer
as a junior member of his posse, all while whipping the shizzle out of
some taters with “a machine. (It’s a KitchenAid, dude.)
- Joe Sixpack, aka Don Russell of the Daily News, takes deep issue with the University of Pennsylvania’s neglect of the oldest standing tavern in the city, the Man Full of Trouble at Second and Spruce. Penn was bequeathed the building 14 years ago and has declined to get on the stick, despite development offers from interested parties. Russell wants to see it made open to the public again, ideally in conjunction with a program that would celebrate the role taverns played in the founding of the nation. He softens the slap with an offer to discuss the matter with Penn prez Amy Gutmann over a pint of Dock Street’s new Man Full of Trouble Porter.
- Indefatigable food explorer Adam Erace of Blogalicious shares his latest discovery: Merl’s South Philly Breakfast Spot. A baby blue dining room and thick china mugs of coffee set the stage for some soulful diner chow. Erace is particularly hot on Merl’s take on the Southern classic, chicken and waffles. The best news: Merl’s is only a short crawl from the South Philly Taproom, so if the Belgian beers are beating you over the head come morning, Newbold residents are well-placed to fight back with cheese grits and the detoxifying effect of maple syrup poured over fried chicken.
-Kristin Henri at Foobooz is assisting Doug Hager and Kelly Schmitz, owners of upcoming German beer bar Brauhaus Schmitz, with the hairy issue of staff uniforms. Hager is pushing for those wonderfully fetishized dirndls, while Schmitz is not interested in owning a theme park. Ever democratic, Henri put up a survey so readers could weigh in on this most pressing issue. As of noon today, results are standing at 52 percent for and 3 percent against, while an 18 percent minority doesn’t care if the waitresses even have heads, as long as the beer is good.
-Set your tasers to drooool: Collin Flatt at Phoodie.info pops in for a cocktail at an Old City institution, Fork, and ends up with a deconstructed, spiked hot chocolate that will melt down even the bitterest winter day. Frothed milk, Barbancourt rum and Bailey’s Irish Cream are served with a swizzle of Hot Éclat, a decadent paddle of dark chocolate that drinkers can stir into a hot bev in their own sweet time. It’s not for nothing Éclat won Philly Mag’s “Best Chocolate” category for 2008.
[...] Joe Sixpack Wants Man Full of Trouble reopened, and rightfully so. how sweet would it be to have a jefferson ale in this colonial era tavern? [quuote] – Joe Sixpack, aka Don Russell of the Daily News, takes deep issue with the University of Pennsylvania