so i began writing a blog entry about how the day in philly went, but i spent 2 pages writing a review of amada, the restaurant at which we had lunch friday, and i thought that putting everything into a single blog entry would be hard to read—that review is over here, if you’re interested. :>

so friday, we were underway by 9:30—which for us is surprisingly early, considering we decided just to go with whatever time we woke up. we awoke to a steady rain, which we expected fortunately.

we made a slight detour to pick up a new compactflash card for my wife’s digital camera—

[random aside: i love store locator sites and the fact that google maps uses ZIP codes!]

—and we were underway relatively quickly. that went pretty well. my wife’s camera previously had a 16 mb card (the default one that ships with it) and we’d just never remember to get a new one. it was only last week that we finally ordered a conversion device that would read the card directly and transfer to a USB connection. prior to that, my wife was getting

we arrived extra early at the hotel. along the way, she called and asked if it would be a problem of we checked in early: the hotel offered parking and if we’re gonna be mostly in that area, why not?

i believe i mentioned in my last blog about the occasion that there was a concern since several colleges & universities were holding their commencement friday? the problem is that of course a lot of hotels were booked. well, when the mrs talked with the hotel’s reception, she was informed that we could park at the hotel and we could store our luggage there but wasn’t sure a room would be available, as a lot of guests hadn’t checked out yet—our fault for getting started too early, ultimately.

so once we finally got there, we parked, got our stuff, checked in and shockingly, they did have a room ready for us! that bit of luck right there set the mood for the rest of our trip: that we were gonna have a good time, no matter the circumstances!

so we got to the room, unloaded our stuff, i set up the laptop (i only brought it so we could plan stuff for the day if we wanted), and soon, we headed out into the city.

the rain got heavier. now, even though i knew it was raining—even though i’d seen almost a week’s worth of weather.com forecasts calling for rain for that day—i only brought along a coat, and we realized only then that we had just the one umbrella (a one-person one at that) in the car. so i kept my coat, the mrs had the umbrella.

about half a block from the hotel, i realized at some point that i needed a hat b/c i couldn’t see a darned thing—that’s the sucky thing about wearing glasses and being out in the rain. we quickly made it to the visitor center for a break from the rain and finally found the gift shop where i bought a souvenir hat that turned out to be a real lifesaver as the day went on.

we stumbled into a park where we learned a bit more about the history of the city—that’s always fun to me. learning a bit more about how a city was early on helps me to see where it is now. and it was just fun exploring, you know? b/c once i had a hat, i didn’t really care that much about the rain.

so we poked around hither and yon until it was time for lunch, which was, in a word: magnificent.

there was a lot more we wanted to do but the weather made some of it less interesting as an option, so eventually after poking around we returned to the hotel, got changed, and after a brief visit to triumph for a beer (didn’t care for their nuit de folie, too heavy, sadly, but the amber ale my wife got was tasty!), we continued on to dinner.

then we zoomed on to dinner at morimoto.

i’ve already given a review of the establishment, so i’ll be discussing the meal in a less formal manner this time.

for this visit, we opted for the $100 omokase, a seven course tasting menu, which involved the following items:

1. toro tartare with fried shallots, wasabi & dipping sauce reminiscent of a noodle dish sauce. i’m a fan of toro (tuna) so right from the start, this dish made me happy. morimoto was first trained as a sushi chef, and his enduring love of fish goes beyond the usual level you’d expect from a japanese chef, at least to me.

2. seared red snapper (flashed in extra virgin olive oil) with soy sauce and a micro-cilantro dressing. snapper’s one of my favorite fish so seeing how the delicate meat retained its texture and flavor was really rewarding.

3. raw striped jackfish (tuna) with micro greens in a yuzu vinaigrette dressed with chive oil and shaved dried, smoked jackfish. the smoked jackfish added a nice texture and flavor contrast with the raw fish and i was surprised at the way the flavor here was stronger, nicely set up by the previous dish’s delicate flavor.

4. strawberry & balsamic vinegar soda intermezzo. yes, soda. i’ve known that strawberries pair well with balsamic vinegar but a soda featuring that flavor combination was revelatory. this was exceptional!

5. steamed halibut in phyllo wrap with seaweed in a yuzu/beurre blanc sauce, accompanied by a lobster claw. the membrance was removed from the claw so that made eating it much easier but i’m not sure how that feat was accomplished: the meat of the claw showed none of the signs one would expect! the halibut’s flavor was muted nicely by the yuzu/beurre blanc. with this dish i felt that i was understanding better a lot of the comments made by the tasting panel while watching the original iron chef.

6. panko-crusted lamb chops over sautéed spinach and spicy pine nuts, accompanied by a red pepper ragout. my wife’s was accompanied by fern bracken and shaved parmiggiano-reggiano, as she expressed a distaste for bell peppers when our server asked about food preferences/allergies and i have to say, her accompanying fern bracken was also quite good. the chops were flavorful and pleasantly heavy, yet the flavors did not linger on the tongue heavily, a trait which i’m only now beginning to understand is part of morimoto’s way.

7. sushi sampler featuring: chu toro (a particular cut of tuna, and IMHO the best part: it’s from the belly), striped jackfish and baby squid (not a comprehensive list). this was probably the best dish in the set: it’s morimoto’s specialty and highlights his skill best. the mrs was disappointed to see striped jackfish again and while i can see her point (why repeat an ingredient in a tasting menu?), i still found it a satisfying dish.

as a bonus, we also had a slice of flourless chocolate cake with mango ice cream as we told them this was our anniversary. it was true in the most meaningful sense, anyway.


dinner was superb and at least 3 servers/hostesses made sure to wish us a happy anniversary. i liked that they made the effort to know that.

the entire experience was deeply satisfying, although not quite as revelatory as our last visit. having said that, i can’t say that i was disappointed, really: i mean, it was still a damned fine meal!

we made our way back to the hotel afterwards and proceeded to enjoy the rest of the evening.

morning saw us check out and head to the italian market, a several-block-sized part of the city where apparently there was a street fair going on this weekend—we didn’t know this was happening! we were pretty early, so a lot of the stands were still being set up when we got there, but we did have fun looking in the various stores. one shop, a tea shop actually, was really cool: we found a jasmine/earl grey tea that smelled fantastic so that came home with us.

we were both a bit tired still: neither of us slept enough on account of the fact that our room faced the street and there were buses coming and going all night. that puzzled (and annoyed!) us: how is it possible there were buses coming and going at 4 am?!

still, we had a lot of fun in our visit—and we prospected a whole bunch of places for our next visit. :>

all right, there’s more i wanted to say but MS word says this is over 2 pages long now, so i think that’s more than enough out of me for now. thanks for reading all of this! :>

the deeply ironic thing is that of those 218 pictures the new compactflash card afforded, we didn't take a single picture! the rain just made us anxious about using the camera, and once we were indoors, we just plain forgot! ah, well... :>

ed