Category Archives: Food

Tastykake: Good in Shakes, Ice Cream and Spiked Blended Drinks

I believe it was Marie Antoinette who once said, “Let them eat Tastykakes.”  Or maybe that was just the Marie Antoinette impersonator during the Storming of the Bastille re-enactment during Philly’s Bastille Day celebrations of years past.  Regardless of whoever said the quote, we should heed the advice.

Tastykake, of course, is a Philly original, serving wonderful baked products for close to 100 years.  Sure, it merged out of necessity with Flower Foods, Inc., but that doesn’t mean it changed any of its recipes to its krimpets, kakes and pies.  And one of the best things about Tastykake products is that you can incoporate them into other foods, such as milkshakes, ice cream and blended alcohol drinks.  Thanks to the good folks at The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (Visit Philly) and Foodspotting, I had the opportunity to take part in an “Eat Up” tour of various Tastykake-inspired dishes throughout the city.

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The Great Downtown Philadelphia Chocolate Chip Cookie Project

(UPDATED, 4/11/12) I’m a big fan of lists, especially ones that have rankings or otherwise note the best of a particular category.  It’s not too difficult to find countless roundups and surveys that espouse Philadelphia’s best restaurants, hoagies, pizza, hot sandwiches and, of course, cheesesteaks.

But you know what category of food in Philadelphia has not had much in the way of rankings or listings?  One of my favorite snacks: the chocolate chip cookie.  Sure, chocolate chip cookies are not exactly the first thing people think of in terms of Philadelphia food, but the great thing about them is that they’re so widespread.  Bakeries, coffee shops and even fast food restaurants all make chocolate chip cookies, with some more notable than others.

To say which cookie is the best in the city isn’t an easy task.  Everyone has different qualities they enjoy in a cookie, and there’s not really one perfect cookie.  Similarly, a cookie may be absolutely phenomenal but may also be prohibitively expensive.

So, after some research, word of mouth, personal experience and some aimless wandering, I tried out cookies from sixteen seventeen spots (a Sweet Sixteen (with one play-in) , if you will) within the Philadelphia downtown area with the potential for being among the best chocolate chip cookies in the city.  Just like the NCAA Basketball Tournament, I’m not guaranteeing that these selections are the fifteen best cookies in the city, but I can tell you that some or many of the best, along with my personal favorites in the city, are among them.  I tried to stick to mostly local spots, but truthfully, some chain locations had some great cookies I couldn’t ignore.

The additional superlative rankings are relatively self-explanatory and very scientific.   Continue reading →

Marra’s Offers Old School Italian and Philly’s Oldest Pizza

Deep in the heart of South Philadelphia’s Passyunk Avenue, alongside the newer, trendier establishments, is Marra’s.  It’s an old school, Italian restaurant in the tradition of Ralph’s, Villa di Roma and Dante and Luigi’s.  Many visitors and celebrities from out of town have dined here through the years.

Perhaps its claim to fame is that Marra’s has been in business and serving pizza since 1927.  That’s before any current Philadelphia restaurant (including Tacconelli’s, which is older but did not start making pizza until the 1940s).  Continue reading →