Philly: the food

Food is a big deal to me.  I love eating yummy stuff, I enjoy the hunting and gathering (as far removed from primitive methods as it may be), I can spend hours in a kitchen, happily, cooking.  When I travel, what I will eat while there definitely comes into play in my planning.

Conversely, I will travel, in order to eat something good.

It is genetic.  I remember vividly a drive my family of birth took in the vicinity of Yosemite one December, long ago.  My dad was questing for a legendary menudo he had heard of.  So there we were, my sister and I getting more car sick by the minute, taking hairpin curves, being barred entry on certain roads for lack of chains...but we made it, to a very simple, local storefront.  Hours from where we started in the Bay area.  My dad got his menudo.  He was happy, all was well.  (I don't remember what I ate.)

Sag has the DNA.  When we began plotting out our Philly trip, trying an authentic Philly cheesesteak was high on his list.  It turned out to be the first thing we did.

Gem, as most of you know, has multiple food allergies.  Traveling, for/with him, has historically meant hours of pre-planning and preparing GFCF food.  It also meant assembling appropriate storage and transport containers for the food.  It also meant ascertaining the availability of meal prep facilities at each location.  It also meant that he would almost always be eating the bulk of his meal not off-the-menu...and out of various Tupperwares we would pull out of a cooler bag.

Philly was different.  Philly rocked. 

I did spend hours researching eating options.  And I did book a hotel room that came with a fridge and microwave, just in case.  But, as it turned out, Gem ate every single meal from or at a restaurant that was able to provide safely GFCF food.  I didn't pre-make or pack any food for him this trip.  I still can't quite believe it.

See it and believe.  Here are the food photos:
 

Lunch, Friday : :

We drove from home directly to John's Roast Pork.  When we arrived it was the tail end of the lunch rush.  They are old school: cash only, no seats inside and they close at 3pm.  I had the cheese steak with provolone and sweet peppers and mayo.  I plucked the innards out of the bread with chopsticks.  It was delicious.  Really tasty and satisfying.  The steak was so tender and flavorful.

Sag ordered the pizza steak.  He enjoyed it, but, he thought a "cheese steak" sandwich was going to be a slab of steak with cheese melted on top.  He also felt this sandwich did not have as much sauce or cheese on it as he'd have liked.

After we picked up our cheese steak subs (and chewable Claritin for Sag at the Target across the street), we drove up to Sushi Planet.  Gem and Cap picked up their sushi lunch.  We continued on to the comic book store.  The tiny green square on the map near the store turned out to be the courtyard of the historic Christ Church.  What a score: bench seating under Spring trees in bloom and a visitor center with clean bathrooms, to boot.  (The $50 parking ticket was not so good, but it was better than being towed which, apparently, we only closely avoided having parked in a spot reserved for tour buses.)

Dinner, Friday : :

Sag loves strawberry shakes.  This was the first of three he had over the weekend.  We had dinner at Bobby's Burger Palace in Cherry Hill, NJ.  After the comic book store, we drove over the Ben Franklin bridge back into New Jersey.  We stayed in Mount Laurel, about 15-20 minutes outside of Philly.  The hotels in this area were less expensive compared to the hotels in downtown Philly, had free parking, and pools.

There is a swanky big mall in nearby Cherry Hill.  On Friday night we had dinner on one side of the mall and then walked across the pedestrian bridge to the other side of the mall and saw The Three Stooges.  It was a fun night.  (The movie, which I had low expectations of, far exceeded those expectations.  It was funny, we all enjoyed it a lot.)

I had the L.A. burger.  Topped with watercress and an avocado relish and...I don't remember what kind of cheese that was.  You can order any burger without a bun ("topless") and then it will come on a bed of spring greens dressed with a tasty balsamic vinaigrette.  This was very good and quite satisfying.

Seeing this picture makes me so happy.  It was incredibly uplifting being there and watching him eat.  This was the meal he enjoyed the most.  (We returned on Sunday for lunch at is request.)  He had a burger, topless, which we put in a GF bun we brought with us.  The fries at BBP are gluten-free.

After the movie, we hightailed it to the local Rita's and got in line with the closing time rush.  A sweet nightcap.  Sag chided me on the small tree that died for all my Google maps printouts, but they sure got the job done.  We made our way from one place to another very smoothly.  (We don't have a GPS.)

Breakfast, Saturday : :

One of my very favorite things to do is to go out to breakfast.  And in my opinion, you can't beat a good diner breakfast (so good they serve it all day!)  Saturday morning, we drove back to the Cherry Hill mall and had breakfast at Silver Diner.  (Strawberry milkshake #2.)

They serve coffee roasted locally in Pennsauken, NJ.  Their ingredients are locally sourced and they have seasonal menus.

I finally was able to satisfy my months long craving for corned beef hash.  Though I must say, the absolute star of this excellent plate, was the side of home fries.  Being Paleo-ish, I tend to stay away from white potatoes.  But, these spuds were scrumptious.

Here is Gem's breakfast plate.  They make GF waffles!  And the bacon was safe to eat.  (Bacon is typically GF, but can fall victim to cross-contamination depending on how/where they are cooked.)  Again, it makes me so happy to gaze upon this photo.  Our Gem was able to order a dish like this, off a menu, in a diner.

Lunch, Saturday : :

After breakfast, we drove into Philly.  We parked on the street and went to the Academy of Natural Sciences.  We also frolicked at the Swann Memorial Fountain.  Then, we met up with Cap's dear old friend Melissa and her husband, Pierce.  We met at Underdogs.

He was hungry and ordered two hotdogs.  You can order your hotdog with a gluten-free bun.  The buns are baked hyperlocally, right in town.  I ordered the Coney Island with GF bun, pictured above.  Yum.

Pilgrimage, Saturday : :

High on my private things-to-do was a visit to Sweet Freedom Bakery.  I lucked out, it was literally on the way from Underdogs to the Phillies' stadium.  (I was not as lucky with yarn shops.)

My oh my oh my oh my.  No white sugar!!!  Because of my Paleoish ways, I would not have stopped in if they didn't use sugar alternatives.  I was the proverbial kid in a candy store.  The donut was consumed in the car.  It was delish.  What it lacked in the gluten-y pull apart quality of a wheat donut, it more than made up for in moistness and flavor.  It had substance without being dense at all.

The Fauxtess cupcake was enjoyed as a midnight snack Saturday night.  I was tossing and turning (I did not sleep well either night), too hot, too cold...and I suddenly remembered the cupcakes in the fridge (the fridge did come in handy).  For a few seconds I contemplated the wisdom of a Fauxtess cupcake in the middle of the night when I was already having trouble relaxing...but I threw caution to the wind and, man, that was a satisfying few minutes of sugar-free, allergen-free culinary heaven.

The blueberry filled lemon cupcake with lemon frosting was consumed for breakfast Sunday morning.  Post-pool and pre-check out.  It was my favorite of the three.  The frosting was out of this world, replete with the best qualities of what you would imagine lemon frosting to have.  The cupcake held up incredibly well after a night of refrigeration.  And the blueberry filling just tipped it over the edge.  It was a dollop of wonderful.  So good.

Gem ordered a vanilla cupcake with pink frosting.  He thought it was okay.  He did not finish it.  He is not a fan of baked goods in general.  He did like the chocolate chip banana bread which he enjoyed post-pool the next morning.

Specialty baked goods are not cheap.  We paid $18 for five items.  But, if you can afford it, I tell you, it was well worth every penny.

Ballpark, Saturday : :

It's pretty simple when we go to a ballpark.  (Which we do a few times every year.)  We pack some sort of snack for Gem in our bag (for the Phillies' game it was a bag of cookies), the kids share a cotton candy and Sag gets a hotdog.

He dug this one a lot.  He said it was better than Fenway franks!  (Thanks to godmama Jamie for the heads up: Fenway has started serving up their franks in gluten-free rolls this season.  Gem is excited to have his first Fenway frank this Summer.  The boy assumes we'll be going again...a special but very expensive tradition is born?)

Dinner, Saturday : :

We left the game after the seventh inning.  It was a fairly slow game.  We were going to leave after six, but the kids and I spent much of the sixth inning in a souvenir stand.  For dinner, we headed to the The Pop Shop in Collingswood, NJ.

Strawberry shake #3.  And English muffin pizza.  Sag loved all the fun of eating out/eating favorite foods.  But, it is really hard for him to stop when full.  He is also like me in this way.  If something tastes good and there's more of it on the table/plate, we keep eating.  He kept getting stomachaches from over stuffing himself and asked us to help him modulate.  So when he said he wanted the milkshake, we recommended going with the English muffin pizza rather than the cheeseburger.

Gem ordered the gluten-free chicken fingers and fries.  The Pop Shop has a dedicated fryer for their gluten-free fare.  If only everyone would do this...such a simple solution to avoid cross-contamination.

Every sandwich at The Pop Shop can be made with gluten-free bread.  So I ordered the 5Bs which was an homage to Bobby Flay's grilled cheese Throwdown visit to the restaurant.  The bread seemed homemade, but I didn't ask.  The sandwich was comforting.  Truly.

Post-pool snack, Sunday : :

Sunday morning, the kids wanted to hit the hotel pool.  They chose that over breakfast.  So we splashed about in the chlorine on empty stomachs.  After showers, the kids noshed on leftover fries from dinner and chocolate chip banana bread from Sweet Freedom.  I scarfed the blueberry filled lemon cupcake.  They iPadded, we packed.  Then, we checked out.

Lunch, Sunday : :

We headed back to Bobby's Burger Palace for lunch.  The Cherry Hill mall was hopping at noon on a Sunday.
 

Gem's burger.  Medium rare with an Udi's bun from home.  (Sag, who is unafraid of rare meat, found the medium rare at BBP too rare.  Medium well was the best match for him.)

I split an order of fries with Gem (continuously falling off the Paleo wagon by this point, really) and they were tasty.

After lunch, we drove to Camden and the Adventure Aquarium.  We explored the aquarium for a couple of hours.  It was great to avoid the crowded food court.  We went back to Rita's, which was on the way to the highway, and the kids got their cool down snacks.  It was hot!

We drove back home, through heavy traffic much of the way, in good spirits.  Our Philly car-cation was nourishing in so many ways.  But, to have had such excellent food adventures was uniquely and deeply satisfying.  Thank you, Philadelphia/Cherry Hill/Collingswood!

(Holy crap that took a long time to compile.  I don't know when the next Philly post will come, I'm exhausted!)

Peace and love.