Category Archives: Table

Tastes Like Home

HOME COOKING

We’re heading into hibernation with big appetites and familiar cravings.

Recipes and photography by Yelena Strokin

The return to cool days and cold nights sparks a hunger that almost feels insatiable. Overnight, we find ourselves craving the kind of hearty meals that are going to anchor us to the dinner table for a couple hours at a time and leave us not just full but warmed, too. Once the holidays pass, it won’t be long before we’ll start to feel boxed in by root veggies. But, for now, the scent of roasting meats and baking desserts smells like the start of a cozy new existence.

img_4805Rosemary Roast Leg of Lamb
Serves six to eight.

5 lbs. leg of lamb, bone removed, untied
3 tbsps. vegetable oil
1 cup dry white wine
6-7 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsps. fresh rosemary, chopped
1 onion, peeled and minced
5-6 potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 turnips, peeled and quartered
3 tsps. salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

• Place the lamb in a glass baking dish.

• In a bowl, mix together the vegetable oil, wine, garlic, rosemary, onion, salt and pepper, then pour it over the lamb. Move the lamb to the refrigerator to marinate for anywhere from three hours to overnight (the longer the better), turning it occasionally.

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

• Move the lamb to a rack in a roasting pan and add half of the marinade. Roast it for about two hours, or until the lamb becomes tender. An hour in, add the potatoes and the turnips, along with the remaining marinade. Baste the lamb frequently.

• Place the lamb and the veggies on a hot serving platter and let them stand for 10 minutes before carving.

Baked Acorn Squash with Chestnuts, Mushrooms and Quinoa
Serves four.

3-4 acorn squash (about 1 pound each), halved lengthwise and deseeded
6 tbsps. extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of cinnamon
½ tsp. paprika
5 ozs. chestnuts, roasted, peeled and chopped
1½ cups cooked quinoa
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 cups assorted mushrooms, chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
Bleu cheese
Fresh sage
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

• In a small bowl, mix together three tablespoons of the olive oil with the cinnamon, paprika and salt and pepper. Brush the cut sides of the squash with the mixture. Then place the squash, cut side down, on two baking sheets and roast until they begin to tenderize, about 25 minutes.

• Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining olive oil over a medium heat. Then add the onion, carrot and mushrooms. Stirring occasionally, cook until softened, about five to eight minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

• Turn the squash cut side up. Spoon the onions, carrots and mushrooms into the cavities, top with a few crumbles of bleu cheese, then return the squash to the oven until the stuffing turns golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

• Transfer to plates, garnish with sage and serve hot.

Apple-Almond Tart with Baked Apple Chips

A couple of notes: Don’t add sugar to the apples. It’ll draw all of the liquid out of them. There will be plenty of sweetness in the pastry. And, if the tart seems too full after adding the apple slices, it’s OK; they’ll shrink as they bake.

For the pastry
1½ cups plain all-purpose flour
6 tbsps. unsalted butter, diced (and kept cold)
¼ cup ground almonds
2 tbsps. superfine sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. cold water
¼ tsp. almond extract

For the topping and filling
1 cup plain all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. mixed spice
¼ cup (4 tbsps.) unsalted butter, diced
¼ cup raw sugar
¼ cup sliced almonds
1½ lbs. cooking apples
3 tbsps. raisins
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

For the chips
1-2 apples
Cinnamon

The apple chips

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

• Cut the apples into eighth-inch-thick slices with a mandolin. Then, arrange the slices in a single layer across a parchment-lined, rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle the cinnamon evenly.

• Bake in the bottom third of the oven until the apples are dry and crisp, about an hour to an hour-and-a-half. Then, let them cool completely.

The pastry and the topping

• Add the flour to a food processor or a mixing bowl, fold in the butter and mix until it takes on the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Then, stir in the almonds and sugar. Separately, whisk the yolk with the water and almond extract, then add it to the food processor/mixing bowl. The dough should now be soft and pliable. Knead it until becomes smooth, then wrap it in clear film and leave it in a cool place for 20 minutes.

• In the meantime, make the topping. In a large bowl, sift the flour and the mixed spice. Knead in the butter, then stir in the sugar and almond slices.

• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured counter. Then, line a quiche dish with it, taking care to press it into the nooks and form a lip over the top edge. Use a rolling pin to trim off the excess. Then, stick it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

• Put a baking sheet in the oven and preheat it to 375 degrees.

• Peel, core and thinly slice the cooking apples. Then arrange them in the quiche dish, overlapping, in concentric circles, doming in the center. Top with the raisins, then, with light pressure, the topping mixture.

• Place the quiche dish on the hot baking sheet and bake until the top of the tart turns golden brown and the apples, tender, about 30 minutes. (Test them with a fine-gauge skewer.)

• Let the tart stand for 10 minutes. Dust with the confectioner’s sugar and serve warm.

Yelena Strokin is a Newtown-based food stylist and photographer and the founder of the blog Cooking Melangery

[divider]What I’m Drinking Right Now[/divider]

Brandywine Branch Distillers The Revivalist Botanical Gin

$41.75 to $50.95 (750ml)

I’m a brown-spirits guy. But this summer, I began exploring the suddenly-evolving world of gin. Gone are the days when the juniper-heavy London dry style was about the extent of your options. Now, they come in so many unique varieties, it hardly seems right to refer to them all simply as gin. Among the most intriguing is this series of four, small-batch, seasonal gins being made right in our own backyard, at Brandywine Branch Distillers in Chester County. Each kind is infused with its own unique blend of botanicals and spices that plays to the season. Harvest Expression, out now, bears the essence of orange and clove. Solstice Expression marries dried cherry, anise, orange peel and ginger. If you left the gin and tonic behind with your white jeans, it’s time to reconsider.

ADAM JUNKINS

Partner/Sommelier, Sovana Bistro, Kennett Square

Photo courtesy Brandywine Branch Distillers

The Democratization of Wine

That guy from “Shark Tank”—not Mark Cuban; the other one—is aiming to convert the non-wine-drinkers and the casual drinkers of the world one $20-bottle at a time. Or, rather, one case of $20-bottles at a time.

While Kevin O’Leary may be blunt to the point of offensive on TV—he didn’t earn the nickname Mr. Wonderful because he’s an especially gracious Canadian—he knows too well the cocktail of emotions raging within each budding entrepreneur who comes before him on “Shark Tank” after 33 years of his own experience.

When you consider that one startup goes under for every two that get off the ground, today’s innovators need to possess paradigm-shifting visions and wills of steel. Which is why pitching on “Shark Tank” is akin to going viral for wannabe celebrities. “Any product we put on the show increases its sales twentyfold,” O’Leary says. Thus, the hundreds of thousands of applications a year.

Long since established in his own right, O’Leary’s been devoting a good chunk of his seemingly infinite attention to a more personal endeavor as of late. O’Leary Fine Wines is aiming to put not-bad wine in the hands of the masses. O’Leary, the consummate entrepreneur, perceives it as a void in a lucrative market. To that end, he’ll be hosting a tasting of his cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay at the Philadelphia Taste Festival of Food, Wine and Spirits October 21.

“A decade ago, I asked myself why inexpensive wines have to be so bad,” O’Leary says. “I figured I could do a better job.”

He partnered with 20 vineyards in California’s Napa, Sonoma and Russian River regions to create his own line.

“This isn’t a story where some celebrity slaps his name on some swill,” he says. “I create these varietals with my own palate. And I challenge anyone to do a blind taste test with one of my wines and a $100- or $200-bottle. Very often, mine will be better.”

Thanks to loosening liquor laws, like the one recently enacted in Pennsylvania, O’Leary Fine Wines is now shipping directly to 40 states. Business is booming, basically. Though, do you expect a more modest report? Earlier this month, he debuted his latest vintages on QVC. In anticipation, O’Leary said, “We’ll move thousands of cases that day.” Excuse us, then, for assuming this was an introduction. —Sean Downey

Rules to Host By

ENTERTAINING

Somewhere along the way, the dinner party got away from us. Time’s come to reel it back in and appreciate it for what it is: a safe harbor in a chaotic world.

No one remembers the table setting—or the food, for that matter—after a couple of cocktails.

 

The dinner party is a deceptively simple affair: friends, drinks, dinner and dessert. Really, that’s all there is to it. Yet, we consistently overthink it, ruining our evening and, usually, our guests’. Why? Because deep down, we want to impress our friends, even the lifelong ones who love us unconditionally. Sometime during the course of the planning, we lose our bearings and start to think that they’re expecting signature cocktails and elaborate, exotic meals. The reality is, they just want to spend a few hours together. We’re all so busy anymore; simply sharing time has become the most intimate affirmation of a friendship.

That said, don’t throw a few almond butter-and-pomegranate jam sandwiches on a platter and call it a night. This isn’t lunch, and we’re not six. To help us strike a balance between afterthought and overkill, we tapped our friend Jack Staub, who, as a founder of the Hortulus Farm Foundation and a friend to many, has hosted more parties at his Wrightstown estate than he could ever hope to remember. Here, his four rules for pulling off the perfect dinner party.

It’s not about the food
It’s about the ease with which you greet and eat. Buy some steamed lobsters, toss together a salad from the garden and throw in a loaf of garlic bread. I’ve even picked up a bake-at-home thin-crust pizza with some seasonal toppings on a few occasions. Finish up with a bowl of fresh cherries or peaches and an excellent cheese or a store-bought pie and ice cream. The point is: Keep it fresh, delicious and, above all, simple so that you (and your guests) can concentrate on having a good time.

Have it all done beforehand
No one wants to see you stressing in the kitchen. This time of year especially, room-temperature meals are your savior. Roast a pork loin. Poach some salmon filets or chicken breasts. Or grill a steak. Serve the pork with a mango salsa and the chicken, salmon and steak with a homemade green sauce. Roast some asparagus. Make a potato, pasta or tabbouleh salad. Set them out on a buffet and cover with plastic wrap. Relax, unwrap and enjoy.

Know what your friends drink
I’m a huge champion of the full bar. Enough of this, “May I pour you a glass of a very insouciant chardonnay?” stuff. Certainly, have a serviceable white, red and even a rosé on hand, as well as some beer. But don’t neglect the five basic liquor groups: vodka, gin, scotch, bourbon and rum. Make sure you’re stocked up on tonic, seltzer and cranberry and orange juice, too. And lemons and limes. Or, did someone say margarita night?

Spread the love
Yes, people need to eat. But in this chaotic, nonsensical world, what people need most is to connect with something comforting and sustaining. Laugh a lot. Hug as much as you can. The most important thing is to gather your friends about you and give them a space and few moments of genuine calm, security and affection. The miracle is that those are the very things that will sustain you, too.

Beyond Burgers

LOCALLY SOURCED

Pick up your lagging grill game with these under-appreciated cuts.

The bacon-looking cuts, pictured alongside the pork shoulder, are the kalbi.

 

We’re all well aware of how long your burger recipe was under development before you finally branded it your own. And, yes, your chicken breasts are impressively moist, the cross-hatching on your T-bones, a masterful display. But it’s all starting to feel a bit stale. When you grill almost year-round and your wheelhouse consists of a few different things, it’s inevitable. Longevity comes from being bold enough to constantly reinvent yourself. Now’s not the time to hide behind a little bit of success. Or your smoking grill. (We can still see you.)

To spare you from the need to humble yourself, we asked Damon Menapace to show us the way through the dog days ahead. Damon’s the executive chef at Kensington Quarters, the Frankford Avenue restaurant that’s developed a stout reputation for knowing how to handle meat. Case in point, KQ has its own butcher shop, which Damon also took on earlier this summer.

Here, he offers up a few under-appreciated cuts that cook up especially well on the grill. (All, BTW, are available at the KQ butcher shop.)

Kalbi Short Ribs
Also known as galbi, these Korean barbeque-style steaks are cut thinly across the bone, so they’ll grill up fast. “Nobody wants to braise a big, square-cut short rib in the summer,” Damon says. Marinate them beforehand. They’ll come out tender, juicy and concentrated with flavor.

Country-style Pork Ribs
The name is misleading. These aren’t actually ribs. They’re bone-in slices of pork shoulder that are cut to resemble the barbeque favorite. They cook similarly, too. Think of them as a cross between pulled pork and ribs. Damon says, “Cook ‘em low and slow and with plenty of smoke.”

Chuck Eye Steak
“The poor man’s rib eye,” as he calls it, is taken from farther up the shoulder. “Most people hear the word ‘chuck’ and think it’ll be tough,” Damon says, “but this lovely little steak is tender, fatty and super-rich.”

Lamb Shoulder Chops
Sliced with a band saw across the bone, these inch-thick chops are an affordable alternative to the more widely-known lollipops, and they’re packed with way more meat and flavor. “Throw them on the grill with a little baste,” Menapace advises. “They can be chewy, but it’s fun to get messy ripping into them. This is summertime grilling, after all.”  —Mike Madaio

Photo by Matthew J. Rhein

Weeds of Change

DIY

At the forefront of the wild food movement, lawyer turned forager Tama Matsuoka Wong is turning weeds into a thriving business and a way of life.

By Jessica Downey • Photography by Josh DeHonney

 

Tama Matsuoka Wong was an international financial services lawyer for decades, working in major urban centers like New York City and Hong Kong for 25 years, but when she and her husband Wil decided to move to New Jersey in 2002, near where she grew up in Princeton, Wong was prepared for her life to change course. She wanted lots of land and big sky, so they bought a house on 28 acres in Flemington.

 

With all that open space, for first time in her adult life, Wong tried to grow a vegetable garden. What she got instead was a tangle of uninvited weeds and roots, which ended up being her ultimate good fortune. “Friends tried to show us how to grow tomatoes and vegetables, and everything died. I had a black thumb. We eventually found out we lived on a clay flood plain and all we could grow was weeds,” Wong says. “I tried to get rid of them, but I found that it was a losing battle.”

 

When she enlisted her Japanese father for help removing the weeds, she was surprised at his reaction—he couldn’t believe her luck. One of the weeds she wanted removed was chickweed, one of Japan’s “seven treasures,” known as hakobera, which can be delicious when prepared properly. Wong started scouring the Web and bookstores for recipes, but most books and blogs she found suggested boiling them three times to get out the bitterness, so she went in search of a more refined understanding.

 

One night, in 2009, she brought some of her chickweed and other “twigs” with her to Daniel, the four-star Michelin-rated restaurant in New York City known for its inventive vegetarian cuisine. The head chef, Eddy Leroux, was delighted by her offerings and asked her to return with more, as well as roots and any other wild plants she found on her land.

 

These weeds were valuable, she soon learned, a discovery that coincided with the early days of the foraging movement, which was quickly gaining speed and momentum. These kinds of ingredients were gaining prominence on the menus of fine dining restaurants from New York to Copenhagen, and her 28 acres of twigs, roots and leaves provided her with an opportunity to be on the forefront. Later in 2009, Wong started her own company, Meadows and More, with the primary goal of helping people turn their yards into more natural landscapes.

 

While the concept of foraging brings to mind images of scavengers or anthropological ancestors scouring the earth for food, a more culinary interpretation has led to a movement described by the iconic chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud as “harvesting the wild, ephemeral and rare flavors found in nature.” The movement has blossomed around the idea that we’ve been selecting plants for many generations that are increasingly high in sugar and starch and consistently lower in vitamins, fiber and minerals. Wild foods, foragers contend, are more nutritious and easy enough to find when you know what to look for.

 

A quick Google search will turn up plenty of resources and food blogs with ideas on cooking with foraged and wild foods, but when Wong made her discovery in 2009, books and sites to turn to for inspiration and advice were sparse.

 

“Publishers were looking for an American book,” Wong says. She obliged by writing a field guide/cookbook with Daniel’s Leroux called Foraged Flavor: Finding Fabulous Ingredients in Your Backyard or Farmer’s Market, which was published in 2012.

 

The book garnered plenty of attention and was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2013, which, of course, was a boost for her budding business. Today, she grows and cultivates weeds and wild plants on her land and land she leases from local farmers. Then she partners with restaurateurs and chefs, including Brick Farm Tavern partner/executive chef Greg Vassos, supplying them with the likes of garlic mustard and nettles and helping them develop flavor profiles for each plant.

 

It takes consistent trial and error to figure out what will grow, sell and taste good, but Wong says the experimental nature of her work is a thrill. “For every failure there’s this new and good thing happening,” Wong says. “I have relationships with conservation groups where I take things they don’t want, and I work with organic farmers. And it’s completely invigorating.”

 

[divider]Walk on the Wild Side— But Watch Where You Step[/divider]

If eating your weeds is more tempting than constantly battling them in your garden,  Wong offers some advice on how to start foraging. —JD

 

Look down. If you have a backyard or a vegetable garden, instead of throwing out something you don’t recognize or didn’t plant, take a closer look and try to appreciate it. I have a forum on my Web site (meadowsandmore.com) that lets you upload a picture, and we’ll identify it for you.

 

Start small. Try something you’re already familiar with, like a dandelion, and be patient.  Find out when its tenderness and sweetness peak. (Those initial leaves can be bitter and harsh.)

 

Get to know it. Engage with the plant and get to know it—it’s behavior and what you can do with it.

 

Don’t rule anything out. I came across some hickory bark. It looked like a house shingle, and I was like, Oh, great, bark. But to my surprise, my client came back and said it was amazing. He used it in shag bark/hickory bark ice cream, which tasted like smoky caramel.

The Making of a Pitmaster

KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL

Drew Abruzzese is a relentless chef. So when a smoker landed in his lap, he, naturally, dove down the rabbit hole.

By Mike Madaio

 

“I can’t sit still,” Drew Abruzzese says. “I’m always looking for my next big thing.”

Abruzzese is the executive chef at The Pineville Tavern, which is owned by his family. It’s a position he’s held since 2010 at a restaurant he’s helped out at in one way or another since he was a kid. So that hyperactivity may be rooted in a restlessness. But Abruzzese is also someone who’s keenly conscious of his evolution as a chef, perhaps because he realized early on that if he didn’t challenge himself, no one was likely to.

So when his mother-in-law gifted him a home charcoal smoker, it was an impetus. The kindling was already arranged. “Salty, crispy, crusty meats are maybe my favorite thing on the planet—besides my wife, of course,” he says. Overnight, he became consumed with barbequing. Soon after, he and a friend went in together on a 55-gallon drum smoker. Abruzzese christened it with a dozen chickens.

He spent the ensuing summer studying the nuances imparted by slight adjustments in temperature and different kinds of smoke, consuming book after book, experimenting as he went along. All the while, it was purely about mastery—until it became evident that it wasn’t.

“When we pulled that smoker open and met this amazing meat, that was the beginning of Big Q BBQ right there,” Abruzzese says. “That was when we said, we can do something with this.”

Big Q BBQ is the fast-casual restaurant Abruzzese opened last summer in Levittown. Earlier this summer, he opened a takeout-only offshoot at the tavern. But before it was either of those things, it was a massive smoker (his second upgrade) that Abruzzese carted between the tavern, where he served barbeque on the patio during the weekends, and the Wrightstown Farmers Market down the road on Saturday mornings. The latter became a testament to his latest progression. He arrived confident in his barbeque, dying to share it. But who wants to eat barbeque at 9 a.m.? Abruzzese adapted, quickly and creatively.

“I started putting pulled pork on an egg-and-cheese,” he says. “Which turned into brisket, egg and cheese and, eventually, The Ultimate: pulled pork, brisket, bacon and cheese.”

Once word of mouth started to catch on, he was making 50, 60 Ultimates on a given Saturday morning.

In spite of his rapid spiral down the rabbit hole, Abruzzese seems to have emerged with an appreciation for barbeque’s simplicity.

“It’s easy to get nerdy about it, but you shouldn’t overcomplicate it,” he says.

Then you won’t mind sharing how you go about making yours?

“It’s hard to explain, other than to say, well, it’s proprietary.”

The Big Q BBQ site, at least, dissects the process, but only in broad strokes: “traditional, time-honored methods,” “dry-rubbing our meat cuts,” “our secret blend of awesome seasonings and spices,” “slow-smoke it in our authentic, custom-designed smoker,” “our own blend of aged and seasoned hardwoods,” “smooth, slightly tangy smoke,” “literally hours and hours for the smoke to cook, tenderize and flavorize the meat.”

“You can use the same rub, smoke over the same wood for the same time and yours isn’t going to taste like mine,” Abruzzese says. “That doesn’t mean mine is better or yours is better, just that every single one is different. It’s important to do your own thing.”

Read: He spent more nights than he cares to remember breathing in thick smoke, learning and then perfecting the oldest—and maybe most elusive—culinary technique there is, cooking meat over coals. So, yeah, we’re on our own.

Abruzzese’s eyeing up additional Big Q BBQ locations—with one eye, at least. The other, true to his nature, is scoping out a potential new frontier.

“There just happens to be an H Mart across the street from the restaurant,” he says, “so now I’m all over Vietnamese cooking and Korean barbeque.”

 

And Now for Something More Decadent

PROFILE

Our favorite food photographer is about to expose a deeper, darker side.

Pictured: “Farmer’s Table, Still Life,” 2014, photograph, Yelena Strokin.

 

She begins with a single object. It could be anything. Or nothing. Sometimes, it’s the perspective alone that starts stirring her thoughts. And once they’re set in motion, they’ll consume her for weeks on end. Gradually, she’ll begin to piece together a composition. Only when she knows it inside and out does she retreat to her studio. There, the process accelerates, but it’s still methodical, even though the light is fleeting. Shoot. Shift incrementally. Shoot again. And so on.

You know Yelena Strokin as the stylist, photographer and recipe author behind our Home Cooking column, the woman capable of making you crave just about anything at the mere turn of a page. But there’s a greater depth to Yelena and her photography that few beyond her own family are privy to. That’ll change next month when she’ll debut a collection of still-life photographs in the A-Space Gallery at the New Hope Arts Center. It’s Yelena’s first solo show, but not her first exhibit. In 2014, she was awarded Best of Show at the 22d annual Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibit, an affirmation for the self-taught photographer, but hardly a coming-out party.

Yelena took up photography when she started traveling—Nepal, India, Southeast Asia. But fine art has had a strong grip on her since she was a little girl in St. Petersburg, Russia. Its influence is clear in her coming exhibition (which she titled “A Glimpse Through the Flemish Window” as a nod to the roots of still-life painting). But over the course of the four years Yelena spent shooting the collection, it’s just as evident in those 30 or so images that she matured from awe-inspired student to an artist of her own right. —Scott Edwards

“A Glimpse Through the Flemish Window,” September 2 (opening reception: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.) through Sept. 29, the A-Space Gallery at the New Hope Arts Center.

Our Favorite Day-Drinking Spots

DRINK

Because the summer’s too fleeting to squander on work and socially acceptable drinking hours.

By Mike Madaio

Happy hour, pre-dinner apéritifs, post-dinner digestifs, a marathon pub crawl that lasts until last call (and then some). We don’t refer to any of those experiences as night drinking. Yet, we feel pressed to qualify any imbibing done before 5 p.m. (even though it’s always five o’clock somewhere) as day drinking, such is the stigma that stems from the “Mad Men” era, when the men drank themselves under the lunch table and the women, under the coffee table, neither supposedly the wiser. Clearly, we’re a much more restrained culture now.

Day drinking these days is more about taking advantage—of a rare couple of quiet hours among old friends, of a gentle breeze on a July afternoon, of a setting that’s far too cool for our likes come nightfall—than blacking out. (Though blacking out’s still on the table. We’re not Mormons.)

Summer itself is practically an open invitation to ditch the to-do list (and the kids) and rustle up a spur-of-the-moment BYO gathering by the pool, at the park or the beach. But there’s also something about sliding into a dimly lit booth on an ideal afternoon that feels deliciously rebellious. Neither way’s wrong. There are, after all, no rules for day drinking. Other than postpone the errands for another day altogether, not simply until later in the afternoon. That’s a viral video waiting to happen.

On that note, allow us to introduce you to a few of our favorite day-drinking spots.

Paramour (at the Wayne Hotel) | Wayne
When the sun’s shining bright and the humidity’s lightened up, the sidewalk seats along North Wayne Avenue are highly coveted, naturally. But the savviest among us know to seek out the 110-year-old Tudor Revival veranda, complete with ceiling fans and ample views of the surrounding gardens. Either way, order the Parisian Spritz, a light, bright sparkling wine cocktail spiked with a dollop of peach puree.

World of Beer | Exton
The franchise is comprised of 75 locations spread across 21 states, yet this one, which opened in May, is Pennsylvania’s first and only (because control states rarely get to have nice things). A thousand-square-foot patio holds more than enough table seating, as well as several outdoor sofas and a cornhole court. It’s what your backyard would look like if you had room for a thousand-square-foot deck, 60 rotating taps and a 600-bottle menu.

Martine’s RiverHouse | New Hope
People watching can be overstimulating. And sometimes—most of the time—the whole point of day drinking is to step out of your routine and dive headfirst into your company. On such occasions, there is no more tranquil setting (with a well-stocked bar and a well-versed bartender at your disposal) than the riverside deck at Martine’s. Main Street bustles on the other side of the restaurant, but it may as well be miles away.

Pag’s Wine Bar | Doylestown
Stuck home when, really, you should be using your vacation days more wisely? Head to Paganini. Between the deep (and reasonably priced) wine cellar, the small-plates menu and the just-out-of-the-way location, it’s an honest facsimile of a European square experience. Sip, nosh, repeat. No hurry.

Mas Mexicali Cantina | West Chester
If there was an official drink for day drinking, it’d have to be the margarita. Mas Mexicali obliges with 11 varieties. Paired with the rooftop deck, there may be no better place around here to watch a hazy sun set with a drink in hand (and a taco in the other).

Va La Vineyards | Avondale
Sidle up to the bar to try one (or four) of Anthony Vietri’s authentic, Italian-style field blends, each paired with a locally made artisanal cheese. From there, grab a bottle of your favorite and head for the deck out back, where it feels more like Tuscany than Chester County.

Tired Hands Fermentaria | Ardmore
The large picture windows (ideal people for watching), tall ceiling and the skylights make for one airy space. But unlike the saturated suckers walking by on the other side of those windows, you’re savoring your house-brewed session beer (a beer made for day drinking) and whiskey dills at a lovely 70 degrees with no hint of humidity.

X Marks the Spot
Legally, we can’t advise you to head for your secret-but-public spot with a bottle or a sixer in tow, but they’re the places that spring to mind first when you hear “day drinking,” are they not? No table, no chairs. Maybe a blanket. Definitely a spectacular view. We won’t tell if you won’t.

Put It On a Stick and Lick It

HOME COOKING

In this humidity, everything tastes better in popsicle-form. Start with these foolproof combos, then go crazy.

 

One afternoon, when I was a boy, my neighbor walked over to the corner of her yard where I was digging with her son and held out a funny-looking ice tray. She was a short and squat French woman who I’d become used to offering me foods I didn’t eat at home. This time, it was a popsicle. Made from orange juice. Blew my mind. I must’ve slurped down three or four of them. Naturally, I went home and emptied a carton of OJ into a couple of ice trays—they were all we had. Orange juice ice cubes are nothing like orange juice popsicles. It was an important day in my maturation. —Scott Edwards

Recipes and photography by Yelena Strokin

Currant Popsicles
(Pictured, top) Serves six.
2 cups vanilla Greek yogurt
2 cups red or black currants
(or a combination of both)
2 tsps. honey or agave
1 tbsp. lemon juice

Strawberry Smoothie Popsicles
Serves six.
1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
2 tsps. honey or agave
1 tbsp. lemon juice

Mango Popsicles
Serves six.
½ cup heavy cream
3 mangos
1 tsp. honey
Juice from half a lime

The directions are the same for all three popsicles: Add everything to a blender, then puree the mixture until it achieves a smooth consistency. Pour it into a popsicle tray, plant a popsicle stick in each mold and freeze for at least four hours.

Mango-Strawberry Popsicles
(Pictured, right) Serves six.
1 mango
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
2 tsps. honey
Juice from one orange
Juice from one grapefruit

Add the mango, orange juice and 1 tsp. of honey to a blender and puree the mixture until it achieves a smooth consistency. Then, spoon it into a popsicle tray, filling each mold halfway.
Puree the strawberries, grapefruit juice and 1 tsp. of honey next, and top off the molds. Plant a popsicle stick in each, then freeze for at least four hours.

Yelena Strokin is a Newtown-based food stylist and photographer and the founder of the blog Cooking Melangery.com.

 

[divider]What I’m Drinking Right Now[/divider]

Amador Whiskey Co. 10-barrel Straight Hop-Flavored Whiskey
(Limited Release) | $90 (750ml)

I can’t say I’ve ever met a whiskey that I haven’t liked, and I’ve met a lot of whiskeys. But never one like Amador’s 10-Barrel. Hits of citrus, toffee, clove, leather and hoppy spice weave together to create a bottomless complexity. The limited release is 60 percent straight malt whiskey sourced from high-end distillers and 40 percent hop-flavored whiskey distilled from Bear Republic Brewery’s Racer 5 IPA. The beer’s full-bodied flavor contributes a malty hoppy-ness without overwhelming the whiskey’s flavor profile. The components were aged separately for over two years in French oak wine barrels before they were combined and aged for another couple of years in chardonnay barrels. You taste every day of that.
On a lighter note, I’m not big on fruity beers, but Free Will Brewing Company’s Mango Wheat has just enough of a mango overtone to keep it refreshing. It also happens to pair really well with some of my favorite summer foods: ceviche, crab and corn.

ADAM JUNKINS
Partner/Sommelier
Sovana Bistro
(Kennett Square)

A Study in Restraint

GRASSROOTS

The Doylestown Food Market’s annual dinner pays homage to the growers at the heart of its mission.

By Kendra Lee Thatcher

To me, the only thing sexier than a classy crowd of farm-loving, loca-gastro-vores is a classy crowd of farm-loving, loca-gastro-vores dripping in sweat.

Saturday’s relentless heat index of 106 was no deterrent for the Doylestown Food Market’s supporters, who gathered around communal tables under tents at the Bucks County Audubon Society’s Honey Hollow preserve in Solebury for the market’s annual farm-to-table dinner, proceeds from which help support the cooperative grocery.

Responsible for the night’s menu were twins Keith and Kevin Blalock. Keith is the chef at PA Soup and Seafood and Penn Taproom, both in Doylestown. Kevin is the chef at Lookaway Golf Club in Buckingham.

The star of the cocktail hour was a decided underdog, given the stylish offerings. The Dublin-based Sole Kombucha’s watermelon lime kombucha mixed with Rushland Ridge Vineyard’s Trimonette was a refreshing respite from the stifling night.

Mushroom risotto croquettes and horseradish-crème filet mignon toast points were passed around. I stood at an out-of-the-way high top and took it all in—honey-colored beams crisscrossing in an architectural web above a fluid, mingling group.

Dusk cast its evening twilight over us and, mercifully, reduced the humidity to a comfortable level. Twinkly lights and filament bulbs, strung above our tables, gave the setting a quintessential summer glow. Almost right from the start, the conversation around my table flowed effortlessly, rife with gardening advice, recipe swapping and updates on a host of other grassroots movements.

The dinner was studded with the fruits of nearby farms. An heirloom tomato salad with Blue Moon Acres microgreens. A vegan ratatouille with Roots to River squash.

And then there was the porchetta, made from a heritage breed hog raised in Lancaster. The chef placed a healthy serving atop my plate, but I didn’t budge. He looked at me. I looked at him. Our eyes dropped down to the carving board together and I asked, “Would it be weird if I requested a helping of the skin?” A wide smile spread across his face. “Are you kidding? Do you hear that crackling,” he said, as he crushed and snapped the skin in one hand. He piled several large pieces onto my plate, and finally I moved on.

The pork was not disappointing, succulent and seasoned deftly with garlic, rosemary, sage and thyme. But my table, the tent, the world went mute when I bit into the skin—crispy, caramelized, savory, fatty perfection.

The menu was not especially innovative. But, then, we weren’t soaking through our clothes in anticipation of witnessing any culinary feats. This audience and the chefs shared a fondness for the ingredients, harvested a day or two earlier at the peak of their ripeness. We were there to taste purity, which may actually be a kind of culinary feat.