Philly and Food
Last weekend was great. We went home to Philadelphia and then down to Ocean city NJ to visit friends and family. There is no place like home and even though I’ve been living in some beautiful rural areas, Philly is still home and South Jersey an important appendage.
Usually when we get into town a dinner date at one of the cities great restaurants is involved. I have lived and traveled far and wide and have not found another city with such a variety of excellent dining opportunities. This weekend did not include fine dining as part of the weekend. Our tight schedule meant cheese steaks, hoagies. crab cakes and mussels would be our fare for a few days.
In Philly this situation is not a hardship other than for the 2 or 3 extra pounds that the weekend will add.
Our first family visit took us to South Philly where a niece had bought a house. It was a quick visit with a Grandson (Ryan) along to help with directions, South Philly has a pizza joint or cheese steak shop on almost every corner and Pats and Geno’s are a block apart on 9th St.in the Italian market.
I said to Ryan “ let’s grab a cheese steak at Pat’s or Geno’s while we are down here”. He looked at me and said” Grandpop have you become a tourist? If you want a cheese steak, I” take you to a great cheese steak at Dalesandro’s in Manayunk”. Manayunk is section of the city that defies accurate verbal description. It needs to be experienced. It is hilly with streets so narrow that bicycles need to squeeze carefully along. How I navigated to Dalesandro’s is still somewhat of a mystery. My Grandson is a Philly guy. His cheese steak needs to be great and Dalesandros meets that requirement. No tourists are here. The shop is 20′ wide and filled with people and the line is out the door. Our cheese steaks were ready in a flash and we were sitting on the grass having a cheese steak picnic that those tourists at Pat’s will never experience.
The cheese steak is the story here. The people in line are not interested in ambiance or even a good cheese steak. Only a “great” cheese steak is acceptable
Philly Hoagies and crab cakes as well as mussels followed during the weekend and will be covered in my next post