At an unholy AM hour on Sunday, one that freelance writers are very unaccustomed to, blogalicious departs for its first trip ever to Central America. We're spending four days on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, on the Papagayo Peninsula of the Guanacaste region. Our experience with CR is limited to what we've seen in Jurassic Park, so please, share your tips and maybe we'll bring you home some of the legendary coffee, or a shaving cream canister full of raptor embryos.
Maybe one day, somewhere, somehow, some way, Philly will have a waterfront worth spending time on. While other metro areas (Chicago, Vancouver, New York) have capitalized on their harbors and riverbanks, we’ve been content to gaze at ours from the Ikea cafeteria rather than risk life and limb Frogger-ing across Delaware Ave. Penn Treaty Park, seemingly serving as the village green for Fishtown/Kensington/NoLibs, is a good (but rare) example of life along the River. The conversion of Pier 11 is another step in the right direction. This summer we hear of OCTO Waterfront Grille, setting up shop in the old Rock Lobster. When we were kids, we remember thinking Rock Lobster was the pinnacle of sophisticated grown-up entertainment. We were stupid kids. 
scapes to pesto in the early summer, for example, and fresh peas in the spring. The bright, oniony flavor of the ramps killed it in today’s version. It also freezes beautifully, so you can enjoy this springy sauce all year round.
comes together into a thick, glossy, green puree. Today we used a combination of DiBruno’s fruity cold-pressed oil from Italy and Les Moulins Mahjoub’s delicate, organic oil from Tunisia, but you can use any good-quality EVOO you happen to groove on. You can take the pesto to a smoother consistency, or just pulse it for a rough, rustic version.
Pour the pesto into a freezer-safe container and give it a try. The cheese is pretty salty, so don’t salt and pepper until this point. We added a little of each, and dialed up the brightness with a little extra lemon zest and chopped mint stirred in at the last minute. For lunch we spread some on a simple pan-roasted chicken breast alongside sweet-and-sour mushrooms. Ramp pesto: make it now. 
We’d very much like to tell you we didn’t cream our pants when we heard Capogiro was opening a gelateria on East Passyunk, but that would be a big fat lie. The thought of not having to venture into Center City for Cap absolutely boggles the mind of the downtown addict. It’s like in season three of The Wire, when the cops round up all the drug dealers in one are and let them sling with impunity. This is going to be dangerous; having to schlep to Rittenhouse or Midtown Village was pretty much the only deterrent that kept us from a 24/7 gelato coma. With ciocolatto scurro, baby kiwi, blood orange, Saigon cinnamon, Thai coconut milk, ricotta and tangerine gelati and sorbetti right in our backyard, it doesn’t look good for us, kids. But enough about us; here’s what Stephanie Reitano, who owns Capogiro with husband John had to say about moving to P’unk Ave.:
On April 6, a deadly earthquake crushed the Abruzzo region of Italy. L’Aquila, the inspiration for East Passyunk’s Le Virtu, was one of the worst towns hit, and owners Francis Cratil and Catherine Lee are hosting a benefit for the quake victims on Tuesday, April 28. “L'Aquila … was home to Cathy and I—and our Jack Russells—or six months in 2001,” says Cratil. “We go back every year and have done so since 1999. All our friends there are homeless. We have little information about the shopkeepers and neighbors we knew. Many of the villages, including the villages of the Campo Imperatore, have suffered terrible damages and death. L'Aquila changed our lives: there would be no Le Virtù without it and its people.” The benefit will be $40 per person (you can donate more if you wish) and will include traditional Abruzzese buffet—hopefully with their airy sage-and-mozzarella-stuffed pizza fritta (above). Proceeds from admissions as well as all alcohol sales will go directly to the victims of the L’Aquila earthquake. Doors open at 5pm, rain (Cratil and Lee are planning on tenting the patio if the weather doesn’t cooperate) or shine.
Good grief, Chip Roman. You’re on this blog more than Miley Cyrus is The Soup. (It’s Chip!) Still, on a day like today, the Margate sea hags seem so close we can smell their Panama Jack and Marlboro Reds, and it makes us happy to mull over what we’ll order at Blackfish at the shore, recently relocated from Avalon to Stone Harbor in the old Henny’s spot on 9628 Third Ave. We’ll be starting with the cute-as-a-button Cape May salts—you know their story, right?—then follow up with the foie gras terrine (real Sicilian pistachios?! Yes!) For entrees, it’s a toss-up between the rib-eye and the dourade. We have a sweet spot for sweet Jersey corn. Come correct, Chip, and make summer ’09 one to savor.Gazpacho, crushed avocado, opal basil
House Smoked Scottish Salmon, crispy potatoes, deep fried egg, crème fraiche
Tuna Tartar, spicy kimchee, micro greens
Baby Arugula Salad, Bulgarian feta, local blueberries, walnut vinaigrette
Jersey Tomatoes, handmade mozzarella, local basil
Hudson Valley Foie Gras Terrine, sour cherry, compressed Anjou pears, Sicilian pistachios
Cape May Salt Oysters, carbonated Meyer lemon, watermelon, pink peppercorn
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Dry Aged Rib Eye, summer vegetables, red wine sauce
Roasted Scottish Salmon, lentil salad, lemongrass emulsion
Dourade Royale, sweet corn, soybeans
“Surf and Turf”, glazed beef short ribs, day boat scallops, parsnip puree, horseradish
Roasted Free-range Chicken, morel mushrooms, white asparagus, ramps
Bouillabaisse (seasonal fish poached in a saffron broth, crusty bread and rouille)
Photo: BuyStoneHarbor
West Philly's beloved Marigold Kitchen just landed on Bon Appetit's top 10 brunch list. "Enjoying Southern dishes...in a converted Victorian home, you'd think you were somewhere in Dixie," says author and BA restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton. "But no: It's just Sunday at this lovely University City BYOB." Congrats to chef Erin O'Shea. If this nod does for Marigold what it did for Little Fish, expect every critic in town (present company included) to be re-reviewing in the coming months.
There is an area in the mountains of Abruzzo called Campo Imperatore, Italy’s “Little Tibet.” In the winter, the gondolas of medieval ski resorts whisk fashionable Romans to snow-capped trails. In the summer, wild boars and European antelopes scamper along the blooming alpine meadows crisscrossed by autostradas lined with roadside barbeques serving arrosticini. These skewered lamb kebabs are among the “the quintessential Abruzzese summer food” Francis Ceratola and Catherine Lee will be serving this season at their sunny Avenue ristorante Le Virtu. The garden adjacent to the trattoria’s patio was originally supposed to be an art gallery, but funding fell through, and we’re kind of happy about it. Not that we don’t like art, we just much prefer grilled lamb chops, sausages, steaks, veggies, shrimp, calamari and Scamorza (smoked mozzarella). Might we humbly suggest some organ meats on the ‘que too? (David Ansill has given us an unnatural craving for hearts and kidneys.) Expect all that working on an outdoor grill, as well as communal picnic tables scattered along the lawn. Just imagining Il Campo (that’s what Le Virtu is calling the greenspace) is seriously perking up our day, what with the dreariness outside. Barefoot on the grass. The grill going. A little Vermentino or Avery White Rascal. Stop teasing us spring; there are lambs waiting to be eaten.
If we were the graphic-novel-writing types, we think we'd have to christen our badass heroine Chartreuse. She'd be an exotic dancer turned vigilante when her twin stripper sister Chanteuse is murdered by the head of an evil crime syndicate. She'd be blonde with green streaks, and her weapon of choice would be a brass pole. Her costume would be tastefully sheer. But we're not the graphic-novel-writing type. We are, however, the drinking type, and Chartreuse the liqueur is as bewitching as the heroine in our pretend comic. The green (there's also a yellow variety) elixir, made from 130 herbs, spices and botanicals, is the preferred tipple of Jay Gatsby and Stuntman Mike alike. But it also works well in cooking, according to Blackfish boy Chip Roman, who recently turned out a chocolate soup with Chartreuse gelato and malt for the finale of his Monday night $45 four-course pre-fixe. "Sometimes you try something and it works," says the chef. "I was just experimenting." These set suppers are happening every Monday night, so make some rezzies, or make the chocolate-Chartreuse soup home. If you're fresh out of Chartreuse gelato (and really why would you be?) just follow the manufacturer's instructions on your ice cream maker, or go and beg the nice people at Capogiro to spin some up for you. Enjoy. 
