I always look for sicilian because I love the cuisine, but like other regional italian places they tend to play it safe and be more eclectic. There is fennel salad with citrus there too. I guess it qualifies. But bufala? gorgonzola? gnocchi sardi? Anyway does look promising from its IG so I am hopeful for you!
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The endless summer weather yesterday had us craving Turkish food at Isot, a cozy & popular BYOB off of South Street.
Our party of four shared the cold mezze platter with abugannush, acılı ezme, haydari, saksuka, hummus, and Russian salad — some unusual items I’ve not seen at Turkish places in Berlin (the saksuka, which is fried veg, and the Russian salad in particular).
That said, it was all very nice & the acılı ezme had a pleasant kick to it. We also shared the manti, billed as an appetizer but enough for one person to make a meal out of it. Tender, juicy lamb dumplings in yogurt and chili sauce.
The main event was the mix plate for 2, as experience has taught us to generally under-order at Turkish/Greek/ME places. We still couldn’t finish the meat-a-palooza we were presented with
(beef kebab, chicken adana, İçli Köfte, grilled chicken thighs, kasap köfte and lamb kebab), nor the large side of bulgur.
We did finish the vegetable sauté, which was not very Turkish, but flavorful and cooked perfectly, leaving the various veg nice and crisp.
We are spoiled by the Turkish food in Berlin, and this didn’t come close in terms of seasonings & variety of mezze, but it was a very nice meal with great company 
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Went back to Ba Le Bakery for another banh mi, this one far better than our initial experience. Got the grilled pork banh mi with extra paté and do chua,
and lemongrass pork summer rolls.
We also purchased this spectacularly spicy & scrumptious kumquat dipping sauce, which I think may just go with everything 
I almost grabbed some pork & egg quiche, but decided we had enough food for lunch 
A customer I asked about these told me they were sweet treats. The banana steamed in banana leaves with sticky rice sound great, the neon green mung bean dumplings not so much.
I didn’t have a chance to ask what to do with any of these items, so will post a general inquiry 
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“Mam Ruoc is Vietnamese fermented shrimp paste, a staple condiment in Southeast Asian cuisines. It can also be effectively used to disperse a crowd.” 
Sounds delish! And thank you 
I have to admit liking those mung bean things in pandan jelly. they are VERY bland but not as sweet as you would expect and somehow itworks. Probably a minority taste!
Wonderful meal at Illata, a tiny, cozy BYOB. Considering I almost cancelled our rez due to general Weltschmerz, I’m so glad we went! A welcome distraction a day after Election Day.
The place has a few counter seats around a bar, and maybe 6-8 tables — mostly 2-tops and 4-tops.
We’d brought a favorite Falanghina & a Greek rosé, both great pairings for our meal.
We shared a fantastic salad with endive, radicchio, frisée, comté, anchovies and buttermilk dressing,
spectacularly flavorful eggplant tortellini with tender and delicate skins in a tomato broth with basil oil,
“potato, leeks, and ricotta salata” — looks like nothing, but def worth returning for,
and finally, the strip steak with sweet Jimmy Nardello peppers and cippolini. We both would’ve preferred the meat closer to MR, but that’s a minor complaint.
We ended up taking home dessert: a very nice, small chocolate cake with peanuts and caramel.
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Dim Sum Garden is no secret location by any means. The place has been around for as long as I can remember coming to Philly, and we’d been to both their former location near RTM as well as the ‘new’ one in Chinatown a handful of times.
That said, it had been far too long, so a revisit was in order. What better occasion than having a friend in town with his teenage daughter, who used to join us for our Sichuan chili head outings back home when she was just a lil baby?
Plus I’d been fantasizing about XLB for a while now. The place was hopping on a Saturday night (they take no reservations), but the line moved fast. We were seated across the kitchen, which provided us with a great view of the perfectly choreographed workflow feeding the multitudes of eager eaters.
The main draw here are the XLB, no doubt, and you can choose from 6 varieties: pork, crab & pork, spicy pork, chicken, pan-fried pork (never had pan-fried soup dumplings, will have to try them next time), but there are also many other dumplings, as well as many popular Shanghainese dishes like noodz with scallion sauce, and a few Sichuan faves.
We shared the spicy pork XLB and the crab & pork XLB, as well as the pork & shrimp shumai, and stir-fried Shanghai bok choy. The girl was in a sweet mood & got herself some baozi with red bean paste, those sesame buns, and a boba tea.
The XLB were all that and more: juicy filling, flavorful broth, tender skins, whereas the pork & shrimp shumai were much larger than we were accustomed to, and light on shrimp flavor.
When we go back we will stick to the XLB
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