In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with Michael Savett, founder of the blog Gluten Free Philly, A partner in a Philadelphia law firm who resides in Cherry Hill, Savett founded GFP in March 2009. Updated about thrice weekly, the blog explores and chronicles gluten-free dining options in the greater Philadelphia area.

What is your personal connection to celiac disease and what motivated you to start the site?

My older son, now 8, was diagnosed with celiac disease at age 3, so our family is well-versed on the gluten-free diet. I started Gluten Free Philly because I wanted to establish a resource not only for residents of the Philadelphia area, but also for visitors and tourists. My wife and I like to travel with our kids, and I have frequently found myself going to enormous lengths to track down “safe” restaurants in cities we would be visiting. I maintain links to gluten free-friendly restaurants, markets and the like in the tri-state area on my site so that people can find places near where they live, work or visit that can accommodate them.

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD Vol. 17: Michael Savett of Gluten Free Philly (442 words)

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In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with Phyllis Stein-Novack, longtime restaurant critic for the South Philly Review. Phyllis has been grading area restaurants on her signature “tips of the toque” scale since the mid-’90s.

How did you get your start in food writing?

My life in food began with my grandmother, who was born in Vienna and was a modern accomplished cook and baker. She would have been the first on her block to own a Cuisinart. I think Austrian and Hungarian Jews are the best cooks. When I was in graduate school, I shared two floors of a Victorian house near Penn with three other women. I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse: “I’ll cook, you clean up.”

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD Vol. 16: Phyllis Stein-Novack of the South Philly Review (995 words)

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• Vol. 1: Arthur Etchells of Foobooz
• Vol. 2: Burger Baroness and Jaimeshake of Fries With That Shake
• Vol. 3: Pete Proko of Philadelphia Style
• Vol. 4: Shao Zhi Zhong of FriedWontons4U
• Vol. 5: Food writer Adam Erace
• Vol. 6: Holly Moore of HollyEats.com
• Vol. 7: Nick Normile of Foodie at Fifteen
• Vol. 8: Joy Manning of Philadelphia Magazine
• Vol. 9: Trey Popp of City Paper
• Vol. 10: Amy Strauss of Apples and Cheese, Please
• Vol. 11: Hawk Krall and Kris Chau of Drawing For Food
• Vol. 12: Craig LaBan of the Philadelphia Inquirer
• Vol. 13: Collin Flatt of Phoodie
• Vol. 14: Kirsten Henri of Grub Street Philadelphia
• Vol. 15: Kelly White of Living on the Vedge

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The Good Word is a weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We’re going to start by highlighting the city’s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.

In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with Kelly White of Living on the Vedge. The nine-year vegetarian began her writing career as a City Paper intern in 2005 and contributed to Philebrity from 2006 to 2008. She started LOTV, which touches on all aspects of the local and national vegetarian scenes, in 2007.

You travel quite a bit — so where does Philly rank among other cities in terms of being veg-friendly? What do we do better than other places? In what ways are we behind?

Philly vegans used to eat the same five places. There were no tablecloths or flatware. I would say it’s a lot better now, but we still only have one fully vegan upscale dining experience. [Horizons]. That needs to change. The ethnic food scene here is remarkable and you can find a lot of stimulating flavors in any given neighborhood, where menus are generous with vegetables and grains because those were the cheap, native ingredients. Brunch is one of the easiest meals for vegetarians and is also one of the best meals to have in Philadelphia.

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD Vol. 15: Kelly White of Living on the Vedge (521 words)

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In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with Kirsten Henri, editor of Grub Street Philadelphia. Kirsten, who reviewed restaurants for the Philadelphia Weekly from 2005 to 2007, worked with Foobooz editor (and fellow Good Word-ian) Arthur Etchells for about a year and a half before signing on for the national expansion of New York’s Grub Street blog this past July. Kirsten’s notoriously camera-shy, so the picture she submitted is her grandmother brandishing a plate of cookies.

If it wasn’t writing about food, what would it be?

Hmmm. If I wasn’t writing about food, I’d probably still be serving it. HA! Do you mean “still writing, but not writing about food in particular?” In that case, I’d say I really like interviewing people, especially surly ones, so I think writing profiles of public figures would be fun. Observational essays might be in my future? Love notes to Rick Nichols for writing such beautiful articles?

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD Vol. 14: Kirsten Henri of Grub Street Philadelphia (906 words)

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In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with Collin Flatt, editor/contributor at Phoodie. In addition to instructing at the Wine School of Philadelphia, Collin consults on restaurant beer and wine lists and represents private clients in the wine auction market.

What are some of the most underrated restaurants in Philly right now?

I’m going with Rangoon as my underrated haunt. The only Burmese place in town, and it’s been around quite a long time. They bring the heat and have really supple and textured plates no one else can match. And I’m not just saying that because it’s the next entry in the Search For Umami. It’s been a favorite of mine for years with some one-of-a-kind vittles.

Instead of another underrated restaurant, I’m gonna give you an underrated plate. The Royal Tavern is always pimped for its bad ass burger. But what you don’t hear enough about is the chicken sandwich. Topped with prosciutto, pear, arugula, blue cheese and honey, it’s a flavorful beast and beautifully layered, texture-wise. The snap of the pear against the blue cheese is really kind of precious. I’ll order that before the burger any day of the week.

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD Vol. 13: Collin Flatt of Phoodie (300 words)

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In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with a guy who needs little introduction: It’s Craig LaBan, who’s been the restaurant critic for the Inquirer since 1998. We had a quite a few things we wanted to ask Craig, so we super-sized this week’s Good Word to seven questions.

We all know you love Philly – but what was your honest reaction when you heard Frank Bruni would be leaving his critic’s post at the New York Times? Any fleeting moments where you pictured yourself trading in bells for stars, a la Ryan Howard pondering how he’d look like in pinstripes?

What hungry food writer hasn’t fantasized – at least for a moment – about feasting across the five boroughs on a New York Times expense account? I’ve lived in New York and it’s among my favorite places in the world. It certainly is one of the most exciting, diverse eating cities anywhere. But filling the critic’s spot at the Times is definitely one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for jobs, with 10 times the pressure and scrutiny of any other restaurant critic position in this country – and a ramped-up eating schedule to go with it. I think it would be an awesome challenge, but there’s a reason few people have lasted in that seat longer than five years. Gourmet burnout. I like seeing my family too much to imagine how that scenario would work in real life. It makes me appreciate how liveable our city is. Good thing NYC is just a couple hours away – that way I get to taste the Apple whenever I want, and come home to Philly, where I belong.

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD Vol. 12: Craig LaBan of the Philadelphia Inquirer (1,234 words)

by Drew Lazor for Meal Ticket, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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The Good Word is a new weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We’re going to start by highlighting the city’s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.

In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with Hawk Krall and Kris Chau of Drawing For Food.  These two professional illustrators take a pen in one hand and a fork in the other, cataloging eats both fast (Moe’s Hot Dogs) and fancy (lunch at Del Posto).

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD VOL. 11: Hawk Krall and Kris Chau of Drawing For Food (291 words)

by Drew Lazor for Meal Ticket, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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The Good Word is a new weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We’re going to start by highlighting the city’s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.

In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with Amy Strauss of Apples and Cheese, Please, who describes herself as a “Philadelphia suburb-based food fiend who lives to chomp up and down the East Coast.” The craft brew fanatic and accomplished baker/home cook has also contributed to CP’s food section — in fact, the name of her blog originates with this 2007 Top 5 piece.

You grew up Mennonite — strong cooking traditions there. What’s your first food memory?

If ever there was a baker’s hall of fame, my grandmother, Naomi Strauss, would be the star. As a Mennonite and a Pennsylvania Dutchwoman (same as myself), she crafted killer traditional sweet treats that were mixed, mashed and pinched to perfection, and I am forever grateful to her for passing on to me all that she could. With a childhood flooded with rounds of funny, shoo-fly and apeas cakes, mountains of fluffy Dutch doughnuts and delectable sweet buns and rolls, I never questioned whether I should skip a night’s dessert.

Although it’s still surprising that I possess a petite frame, a typical Sunday afternoon scene from my youth went like this. Multiple folding tables packed, corner-to-corner, with a smorgasbord of covered dishes with lines of Mennonites, including myself, surrounding the perimeter, piling our plates with a ton of ever-changing tastes: simple sausage sandwiches, spicy chilis, ham and sweet potato casseroles, cold salads, homemade breads — and, of course, calorie-killing desserts.

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD Vol. 10: Amy Strauss of Apples and Cheese, Please (561 words)

by Drew Lazor for Meal Ticket, 2009. | Permalink | Add the first comment | Add to del.icio.us
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The Good Word is a new weekly Meal Ticket feature where we ask Philadelphia food people questions. We’re going to start by highlighting the city’s many excellent food writers and bloggers, with eventual plans to extend beyond the scribeosphere. The questions will be different every week unless we come across a really sweet one we want to reuse. Want to nominate a future Good Word candidate (yes, you can nominate yourself), or submit ideas for questions? E-mail drew.lazor@citypaper.net.

In this installment of The Good Word, we’re chatting with our very own Trey Popp, who’s been reviewing restaurants for City Paper for close to three years. Readers who are fans of his entertaining, often-travelogue-like prose might wonder where his style and expertise stems from. Take it away, Trey.

So what makes you qualified to tell us what and where to eat?

Aside from my six-million-dollar bionic tongue? I’d love to have an answer as short and easy as that. But I’m not sure it would qualify me to tell anyone else what to eat or drink. I guess what I try to do is convey why I like or dislike the things I taste — how harmonies and contrasts of flavor and texture add up to something that’s greater or lesser than the sum of the parts. As far as what qualifies me to sit in judgment, I think I’m lucky in that I have a broader experience as an eater than most people I know.

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Read the rest of THE GOOD WORD Vol. 9: Trey Popp of City Paper (1,397 words)

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