Edible World Food Tour Coming to South Philadelphia

Ellen Yin Leads Next Edible World Food Tour
Fork Owner Creates Eclectic Walk

First Person Arts has devoted itself to telling real-life Philadelphia stories. Many of those stories lie in the foods of the various neighborhoods of the city. For the next quarterly Edible World Tour, Ellen Yin, owner and founder of Fork Restaurant and author of Forklore, will lead participants through a unique and varied journey through the streets of South Philadelphia. The tour will begin at Vietnamese restaurant Nam Phuong at 11th and Washington on Thursday, September 10th from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. The tour will conclude with a champagne toast and book signing of Forklore.

Tickets for this event cost $75 per person, $140 per couple, and $65 for First Person Arts members. Tickets include all food, gratuity, and champagne toast. Tickets are available online at edibleworld.firstpersonarts.org or by phone at 267-402-2055.

Fork owner Ellen Yin will take guests on a culinary voyage through the streets of Philadelphia, from Vietnamese food to Mexican cuisine, sampling the panoply of flavors that inspire Fork’s eclectic cuisine.  Attendees will taste summer rolls, fried oysters and clams, goat tacos, and much more as Yin showcases the range of tastes that influenced her renowned cookbook.  Her recent book was the winner of a Pewter Award at the Gold Ink Awards.

Yin is owner of Fork Restaurant, the acclaimed New American Bistro in Old City, Philadelphia. Since its opening in 1997, Fork has received many regional and national accolades, including being named one of the “Best New Restaurants” by Philadelphia magazine and one of Philadelphia’s “Top Tables” by Gourmet magazine. In 2004, she expanded Fork to include Fork:etc, a specialty food store with prepared foods, artisanal and gourmet products. Now celebrating its 12th anniversary, Fork continues to delight new visitors from throughout the world as well as its own local fans. Her last cookbook, From Our Restaurant’s Kitchen, a compilation of the restaurant’s recipes and staff favorites, benefited scholarships for inner city students.

First Person Arts is a nonprofit organization that produces the annual First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art and other programs that tap into the power of personal stories and speak to diverse audiences, including people whose voices are not often heard. First Person Arts believes that everyone has a story to tell and that sharing our stories connects us with each other and the world. For more information, please visit www.firstpersonarts.org .

Fried Flounder Hoagie FTW!

I’ve been living in Newbold/Point Breeze for 7 months now. I’ve passed by 16th Street Seafood and had been curious about it. While I’m not a huge seafood fan, I do love fish – fresh, fried, baked, raw. Yummy! Anyways, I was not in the mood to make lunch today and this place immediately came to mind. So I sauntered down to peruse the menu. In addition to big seafood meals and platters – shrimp, scallops, snow crab, and various fishes – they also have sandwiches and hoagies. As the name implies, the majority of the menu is seafood or fish, but they also have cheesesteaks and chicken options.

Today I wanted fried fish! So I ordered the fried flounder hoagie w/ tartar, lettuce, tomato, and raw onion. The verdict? Outstanding. First of all the hoagie is HUGE! Easily a foot-long. The flounder is perfectly fried on the outside, juicy on the inside. According to their menu they also have tilapia and whiting hoagies as well fish cake and crab cake on round rolls. Color me impressed! Oh, but the best part… it was only $5! Screw Subway, this is the $5 foot long you want! Especially if you’re a fish sandwich/hoagie fan. Do yourself a favor and check this place out! (Note: it’s take out only)

Website is “coming soon”, so do a search on Google maps (16th & Tasker) and you’ll see where they are located.

Horizon’s New Vegan Cuisine

If you’re looking for phenonemal vegan cuisine at a decent price, look no further than Horizon’s New Vegan Cuisine on 7th Street, between South and Bainbridge Streets, in South Philly.

In the late ’90s/early ’00s, I tried the vegetarian life and was rather successful at it for almost 5 years. Even though I was eating “hand to mouth” (thanks to low income), I managed to subsist on an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet and not crave meat (often).  However, in 2002, while working for a cafe/catering company in Reading, PA, the lure of their famous chicken salad (which many customers raved about) did me in!  After hearing “This is the best chicken salad I’ve ever had” countless times, I succumbed to its gloriousness.  It was indeed very, very tasty.  The rest, as they say, is history: I’ve been a meat-eater ever since.

While I’m not vegetarian right now, to this day, I can certainly appreciate a meatless meal. So last Friday a small group of friends went to Horizon’s to help celebrate our vegan friend Todd’s birthday.  This didn’t bother me.  In fact, I was looking forward to trying bonafide “vegan cuisine” as I had little clue (besides tofu and tempeh) what constituted such fare.

Much to our group’s delight, we found everything well prepared, nicely presented, and downright scrumptious. I don’t think I could go back to the vegetarian lifestyle again, nor subscribe to a strictly vegan diet, but I certainly didn’t miss meat or animal products here. From the appetizers to the main courses, everybody was quite pleased with their meals.

I started with the Chantrelle & Corn Chowder: it was light, flavorful, and simply delicious. It was quite a generous bowl, but I made handiwork of it.  As if by sheer determination, I reserved my appetite for my main course: the Pacific Rim Grilled Tofu. Delicately prepared with a spicy glaze, the abundant grilled tofu square sat on a bed of seared sushi rice with a cucumber gazpacho under that.  On top, a dollop of edamame puree and shitake yakimono.   A wildly successful, flavorful, and well-seasoned dish that stimulated the taste buds!   If I hadn’t been full, I would have gladly eaten more.  (Though I did sample my friend Mirimah’s Five Mushroom dish and concurred it was absolutely amazing!)

Whether you are vegetarian/vegan or not, as long as you’re not craving meat, you’re sure to find something tasty and substantial at Horizon’s.

I’ll give this 4.5 Noms. It would have gotten 5 Noms, but we had some minor service issues.

Horizon’s New Vegan Cuisine
611 S. 7th Street
215-923-6117