Results tagged “italianfood”

Something about a fun invitation—this time in the form of a note tied to the stem of a sunflower—makes me want to cancel all plans and head to the event in question. This invite beckoned me to Girasole, a new(ish) restaurant in the ground floor of Center City's Dranoff-developed Symphony House condominium building that got its start in Atlantic City. The small restaurant, with its gold-upholstered banquettes and black granite tabletops, isn't as bright and cheery as one would expect from a restaurant named for a sunflower, but it's certainly Italian in that "Dude, where's my Godfather theme music?" kind of way. (It's an observation, not a negative. Perhaps negative, though, are the plastic chairs at every table in the dining room. Summer heat + short skirt + plastic = not the most pleasant dining situation.)

DiBruno Bros. is a really dangerous place for me. I visited their Center City location yesterday because I was in the neighborhood and I thought maybe I'd pick up some fresh pasta. I was planning on making a quick pomodoro sauce to go with it... and then I got inspired. What I ended up serving alongside the porterhouse steak I ended up buying at DiBruno's (not part of the original plan, but it just looked so good) still resembled pasta pomodoro in the end... only better. The combination of crispy proscuitto and fresh goat cheese lend the dish an interesting texture, and the red wine helps the dish to have a more robust flavor. Recipe, or an approximation thereof, is below.

Sometimes, to quote that awful Taco Bell commercial, you just want something cheesy and melty. But if you're like me, there's little—short of being very, very broke or very, very drunk—that will persuade you to patronize Taco Bell, so when the craving hits, you must look elsewhere. And as entertaining as it was to watch Mayor Nutter really enjoy his margaritas at the Love Park Mexican Post last week, I didn't find my meal there to be nearly cheesy or melty enough. (Odd, because looking at the menu, you'd think there was nothing there but cheesy and melty.)