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Around the World at the Not-So-Italian Market!

Posted: February 24th, 2009 | Author: Jack | Filed under: Jack's Blog |

Around the World in the

Not-So-Italian Market!

 This is the first blog I have ever done so please give me some feedback either good or bad.

 

 

I plan to occasionally write about various food-related topics and experiences. This first one is about last Saturday’s outing when my wife, Nikki, and I decided to go to one of our favorite food areas around here: South Philadelphia, which has lately become a vibrant mix of Italian, Asian,  and Latino cultures.

 

 Our first stop was PHO 75 in the Wing Phat Shopping Center on Washington Avenue between 12^th and 11^th Streets. (Parking in the lot is often difficult, but you can usually find metered parking on 11^th Street.) PHO 75 is not much to look at, but you can smell the wonderful aromas as soon as you walk in! The restaurant serves only 1 dish – namely the national soup of Vietnam – Pho! The base is a wonderful beef broth cooked for hours with such spices as star anise and ginger and cilantro. You can order the regular bowl (huge!)  for $5.75 or the large bowl ( immense!) for $6.50.

 

The fun comes in ordering what ingredients you want in it (at no extra charge). First, select the meats, that can include raw slices of eye round beef that cook in the steaming broth, brisket, flank steak, tripe (yes, I know many people recoil at this; however, it is amazingly good in the soup)  and a number of other choices. Nikki’s favorite is Number 14 that has the eye round and tripe, while I prefer Number 7 that also includes well-done flank steak. The soup is filled with wonderful thin rice noodles in the bottom. By the way, did you know that noodles originated in Asia and not Italy?

 

Along with the soup comes a plate overflowing with fresh Thai basil, fresh bean shoots, slices of jalapeño peppers, and lime wedges. We also like to order a dish of jumbo onions in vinegar to add to the soup. Also on the table are bottles of fish sauce, Sriracha hot pepper sauce (sold at the Co-op), and a sweet plum sauce. You have a flat porcelain spoon and chop sticks to attack the soup after you’ve doctored it up with all the goodies. It is an amazingly good meal! You can look around and watch the various techniques others use to get the soup from bowl to mouth without too much spilling.

 

For beverages, they serve table tea, but you can also order several other beverages – my favorite is their fresh lemon soda. You can finish off the meal with an intense Vietnamese coffee that drips into sweetened condensed milk.

 

After being thoroughly nourished, it was time to visit one of our favorite grocery stores in the world  (except for the Co-op of course!) Just walk down the indoor hallway from the restaurant and enter Hung Vuong Supermarket. If you want to buy 100-pound bags of rice, this is your place! Turn right when you enter and check out the hanging whole Peking ducks ($15), roast pork and other specialties ready to take home and eat. Then walk down the produce aisle and check out all of the fruits and veggies that you may never have seen before. We always pick up quail eggs for $1.59 a dozen. At the end of the aisle, you come into the seafood section with dozens of aquariums with live swimming fish, crabs, lobsters, and even eels and frogs. “Please do not open the lids!”

 

Then on to the meats where you can buy every part of a pig or any other animal that you could think of – and probably some parts you have never thought of! The interior aisles are filled with every type of Asian spices and sauces you can imagine at very low prices. There is also a section for cookware so if you are looking for a good wok, you will find it here.

 

Now head to the Italian Market just 2 blocks east on Washington Avenue to 9^th Street. You can park in a lot next to Anastasi’s Seafood Market (just past 9^th on the right for $3 for the afternoon – a deal if there ever was one for parking in the city.)

 

 

The Italian Market runs along 9^th Street for many blocks, but our favorite shops are within a few blocks of the parking lot. We first head north toward Philly on the west side of the street. First you will come to Fante’s Kitchen Ware Store that has been there since 1906. Whatever you need for the kitchen you will find here – checkout their website at www.fantes.com. Just down the street is Talluto’s Pasta and Cheese shop. They have 3 types of fresh pasta that they will cut for you at what ever size/variety you want. In addition, they have chesses and great pasta sauces, raviolis and others yummies, many frozen.

 

 Farther down the street, you will smell the wonderful aromas of ripe cheeses and sausages, so you must be at DiBruno’s Brothers who have an amazing selection of cheeses from around the world as well as other  great Italian specialties (note that they have been a large supplier of the Co-op for many years.)

 

Next-door is Claudio’s Cheese Shop – their house olive oil for $12.99 is excellent in addition to all sorts of olives, cheeses and sausages. Next-door they have a mozzarella-making machine that produces the freshest and best in the city.

 

Just down the street, past the mural of Frank Rizzo, and across the street is D’Angelo Brothers’ Meat Shop that has been there for over 70 years. Sonny prepares fantastic sausages, pates, and oven ready roasts. He also is the best supplier of fresh game in the city – quail, grouse, pheasant, rabbit – you will find it here!

 

After buying more than we should have, we strolled back to the parking lot and drove home with some truly wonderful food memories as well as enough goodies for the rest of the week.

 

We are so lucky to have such diverse food options so close to us, starting with the Co-op! This entire trip took about 3 hours. Try it – it is fun for the whole family

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