Lots of Brews

Tried a lot of beers lately.


Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA from Minnesota. From their website  "Inspired by West Coast I.P.A.'s, but brewed with Michigan style. The Crooked Tree is heavily dry hopped to give it a big aroma of pine and citrus. The flavors are big, yet very balanced between fresh hops and malt. Often described as "grapefruit" our hops give this beer an excellent fruit flavor that finishes dry, crisp, and clean. It will pour a nice deep copper color with a bit of haziness. Because of our almost patented "Intense Transfer Methods" our Crooked Tree has won several medals in the India Pale Ale category. " Darkhorsebrewery. A pretty decent beer but some of the beers below are a bit better


Burton Beer - Cask - An okay bitter which is low on the APV at 3.8%, and easy to drink.


Victory Headwater American Pale Ale - Headwaters-pale-ale. This was a good one. Worth trying over and over.


Thornbridge Merrie Spiced English Brown - From their website "Fantastic deep brown ale spiced with Coriander, Juniper and Lavender. " APV 5.9%. Interesting taste, with almost a apple cider kind of taste. Worth trying but probably wouldn't try too many of them. Maybe a good one to have with dessert, maybe even with the Pumpple.

Flying Dog - Old Stratch Amber Lager - From their website "Old Scratch Amber Lager is a malty, mellow beer that is fermented at medium temperatures to develop both ale and lager characteristics. "Gold Scratch" raises the standard in the amber lager category". APV 5.5% Old-Scratch  . A very good beer, great taste.


Weyerbacher Winter Ale - Winter Ale. A pretty good ale. Easy to drink.


Mission Street Pale Ale - Paso Robles, CA. Gold Medal Winner chosen by PrimeTime in our beer exchange. Great taste with an interesting finish, which was surprising. 

Flying Dog - Snake Dog India Pale Ale - From their website "Snake Dog India Pale Aleis a Colorado-style IPA, power hopped with specialty hops from the Pacific Northwest. This is the brewery's hop monster, and the citrus fruit aroma will hypnotize the senses of the most hardcore  craft beer drinkers." APV 7.1% Snake-Dog . This one was from Bone Marrow's choose for the exchange. A great choice.


Avery Brewing - Joe's Premium American Pilsner - Premium American Pilsner. This was my choice for the beer exchange. Very much reminded me of Australian lager beers. It even came in a can, which of course I got crap about.

The Burger Choices

After a fair amount of discussion we have come up with the following 12 places to try their burgers. The list is in no particular order is:

The Good Dog
Village Whiskey
Burger & Singer
Snow White
Ted's Montana Grill
500 Degrees
Bobby's Burger Palace
Five Guys
PYT
R2L
Rembrandt's
Rouge

We also have 2 alternates in case any of the 12 are not available at the time. They are London Grill and Parc.

Also to finish the challenge we have to eat at the 3 major fast food places, McDonald's, BK and Wendy's.

We also have an extra credit category. Any burger place can be added, scored, and if good enough win the challenge, but it will have to have multiple votes to unseat one of the 12.

Pass the ketchup.

The Next Challenge

After Reading Terminal it would have been wise to take a break, but I think we missed it so much we have jumped straight back into the next food challenge. This will be a year long challenge and will involve Burgers. We have chosen 12 different restaurants around the city. Plus McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King, plus any other place for extra credit.

On top of this we will also do a beer of the month swap, and coming in the summer "Street Meat 2011".  We will hit the street vendors and see what interesting things we can find. Check back often for updates.

The Top Ten

After 6 months of eating at Reading Terminal we unveil our top 10 foods places:

The Top 3 are all with 5* are:

The Rib Stand - Boneless Rib Sandwich with cheese and hot sauce, and 2 sides (Mac & Cheese and Potato Wedges)
Miller's Twist - Warm Cinnamon Sugar Pretezel Sticks
Becks Cajan Cafe - Gumbo or Jambalaya

4th - DiNics - Roast Pork Sandwich with Provolone
5th - Carmen's Famous Italian Hoagies & Cheesesteaks - Cheesesteak with sharp Provolone, Banana Peppers, onions on a seeded roll.
6th - Diener's Bar-B-Q Chicken - BBQ chicken wings
7th - Bassett's Ice Cream - Pick your favorite, but the Chocolate is very good.
8th - Beiler's Bakery - Apple Fritters, Donuts, Pies are all exceptional
9th - By George Pizza, Pasta & Cheesesteaks - Big Slices of Pizza and the biggest Cheesesteaks in the market.
10th - The Original Turkey - Great Turkey Sandwich.

Honorable Mention - Olympic Gyro.

This was a great Challenge and couldn't have asked for a better set of friends to do it with. Now onto the next one.

New Brews

PrimeTime, The Minx and I went to the new Stephen Starr English Pub "The Dandelion" the other day. It has only been open since New Years Eve but it seems like it has been their so much longer. The food was good, the atmosphere great (check out the dog bar upstairs), and the beer selection much better than average.

I add a Yards Brawler but it was poured in the English style from a cask and served at just below room temperature. The beer was great, and the room temperature wasn't bad at all. Keep in mind it wasn't warm. The beer is described as an "English Session Ale" and at only 4.2% APV pretty easy to drink. This malt-forward, ruby colored ale is great for when you want to go a few rounds. Yards Brawler. PrimeTime and The Minx both has the Yards IPA which I wrote about previously. I have to say the Yards beers are very impressive.


The other one I tried at Dandelion was the Chester County Bitter from Sly Fox. From their website it is described as "A cask only beer brewed to be poured exclusively from firkins, either via gravity from the bar top or through a beer engine. This traditional British ale is authentic cask conditioned beer with a smooth malt profile balanced by a subtle hop presence. Dry -hopping in the cask produces an enticing hop aroma in this quaffable session ale." Chester County Bitter. The APV is 4.5%, so again not too heavy. Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed with this beer. I love the Sly Fox Pikeland Pils and was hoping for more, but it just wasn't to my taste.


I finally got to the Hop Devil from the Christmas Beer Exchange the other week. I had saved it as I was sure that I wouldn't enjoy it, but I was really surprised. It is a great beer from Victory Brewing. It is described as "Menacingly delicious, with the powerful, aromatic punch of whole flower American hops backed up by rich, German malts. HopDevil Ale offers a roller coaster ride of flavor, coasting to a smooth finish that satisfies fully." Hopdevil. Good choice PrimeTime.


The last new beer I tried was the Summit Maibock from St Paul Minnesota. "This is a malty pale beer using Czech Saaz Hops, specialty malts and German yeast." The APV is above average at 6.5%. It was okay, but bad but nothing special either. Summit Brewing

Wing Bowl Recap

Another great Wing Bowl. We were in the doors just before 7 am and the entourages had already started their processions.

Finally the eating started. El Wingador consumed 150 chicken wings in the first 14 minute period. Just amazing. In the end it was The Squib who won with 255 wings after another 14 minute period and then a 2 minute sprint. Squib was behind by one before the sprint and won by one over El Wingador. The home town favorite came up one short. 255 wings is the new record.

The other amazing stunt was Kobayashi trying for the world record of eating a cheesesteak quicker than 48 seconds. The video is attached. A truly amazing feat.

The normal array of characters where there. You have to experience it to truly appreciate it. It is more than you can imagine but never as bad as the media makes it out to be. Just truly something that if you are a male in Philadelphia you should attend at least once. Do not take your wives, girlfriends or daughters.

We went to Finnegan's Wake afterwards which turned out to be lame this year, finished our eating challenge at Reading Terminal (see last post), and the ended up at McGillin's Olde Ale House for lunch. Mcgillins

Seven of us sat down to eat 100 wings. Which we did but just barely. It just makes it all the amazing that the real wing eaters can eat over 250 wings. Our beer of choice PBR.

As a side note, the funniest part of the day was Bone Marrow falling off his chair was we are about to leave McGillin's. The chair makes a huge noise. He quickly gets up and asked if anybody saw or heard it. Oh yes they did.

It's all over

The final two places on our eating journey were completed last Friday. Diener's Bar-B-Q Chicken and the Beer Garden were the finishing line. Bone Marrow described the 2 pounds of bbq chicken wings as "Outstanding". T-Bone added "well worth the wait", and even PrimeTime stated "Pretty good for non hot wings". Our guest Puddles was understated with "good flavor" and "nice and crispy" (like his women). Overall scores were Bone Marrow 4.5, T-Bone 4, PrimeTime 4.25 and Cast Iron 4.375. Overall score was a fantastic 4.28125*, pushing it into 6th place.

We washed the wings down with the surly service we come to expect from the Beer Garden. Not many wingettes to be found here but they are serving beer. Scores Cast Iron 2*, PrimeTime 2.25, T-Bone 2.5 and Bone Marrow 2.5*. Overall score 2.3125*.

I will say that I miss it already. It was a great way to experience a part of Philadelphia that most Philadelphians have heard about, and probably most have visited, but few have actually experienced. I'll recap the best places in a future post.

Pumapple Cake

A colleague from another city came across the Pumapple Cake, found out that it was from Philadelphia and wondered if we had heard or tried it. We hadn't heard of it before but as luck would have it, the cake was from the Flying Monkey which was at our favorite market. We had already decided that we had to go there so PrimeTime could catch up on a couple of meals.


Flying Monkey Website



So what is a Pumapple Cake? It is a really two cakes and two pies in one. Chocolate Cake, White cake, Pumpkin Pie and Apple Pie surrounded in about 2 inches of vanilla frosting.

Cast Iron - I liked it and would order it for Thanksgiving. I thought the apple and pumpkin tasted like real pies and the chocolate cake was excellent. The only downside for me was too much frosting. I score it a 3.25*. 

PrimeTime - Maybe it was because I am still digesting my two sandwiches, but I thought it was "ok" and very expensive for what it was. Also not a huge pumpkin pie guy which is makes me a little bias. Would give it 2.25*.

T-Bone - I'd go 2.75*. I got the impression that the cake was a bit dry, possibly more than a day or two old? Interesting concept and a good effort though. I appreciate the uniqueness. Agree that $8 for a slice of cake is steep. 

The above photo is from their website, and the below is our actual cake. 

Wing Bowl 19

The excitement is building. This is the official website of Wing  Bowl 19.

WingBowl 19

Contestants and official odds:

Wing Bowl 19 Eaters

The Shocker (qualified 1/27) Overall Odds: 12 - 1

Hometown: Philadelphia            Height: 6'1", Weight: 325lbs

Kenso Kevin (qualified 1/20) Overall Odds: 50 - 1

Hometown: Fishkill, NY            Height: 5'8", Weight: 220lbs

Drunken Mussel (qualified 1/20) Overall Odds: 25 - 1

Hometown: Philadelphia            Height: 5'7", Weight: 190lbs

Wild Turkey (qualified 1/20) Overall Odds: 40 - 1

Hometown: Collindale, PA            Height: 6'1", Weight: 240lbs

Damaging Doug (qualified 1/19) Overall Odds: 8 - 1

Hometown: Parts Unknown

Joel The Cannon (qualified 1/19) Overall Odds: 7 - 1

Hometown: Laurence Harbor            Height: 6'0", Weight: 250lbs

Hank The Tank (qualified 1/19) Overall Odds: 6 - 1

Hometown: South West Philly            Height: 6'3", Weight: 357lbs

Obi Wing (qualified 1/18) Overall Odds: 00 - 1

Hometown: The Foothills of Valley Forge, PA Height: 6'1", Weight: 258lbs

Qwazy(qualified 1/13) Overall Odds: 20 - 1

Hometown: Conshohocken, PA Height: 6'5", Weight: 325lbs

The Bulldog (qualified 1/13) Overall Odds: 50 - 1

Hometown: Manyunk, PA Height: 6'1", Weight: 260lbs

Furious Pete(qualified 1/13) Overall Odds: 3 - 1

Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario            Height: 6'2", Weight: 230lbs

Rick the Manager (qualified 1/11) Overall Odds: 100 - 1

Hometown: Royersford, PA            Height: 5'10", Weight: 230lbs

Gentleman Joe (qualified 1/10) Overall Odds: 4 - 1

Hometown: Cheshire, CT Height: 6'1", Weight: 310lbs

Iceman (qualified 1/10) Overall Odds: 8 - 1

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA    Height: 6'2", Weight: 255lbs

Cheesecake Beefcake(qualified 1/7/11) Overall Odds: 45 - 1

Hometown: Drexel Hill PA

Tiger Wings N' Things (qualified 1/4/11) Overall Odds: 9 - 1

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Lord Bemis (qualified 12/18) Overall Odds: 50 - 1

Hometown: Trooper, PA            Height: 6'2", Weight: 250lbs

Freak of Nature (qualified 12/17) Overall Odds: 15 - 1

Hometown: West Deptford, NJ            Height: 6'5", Weight: 260lbs

Mongo (qualified 12/17) Overall Odds: 25 - 1

Hometown: NE Philly            Height: 6', Weight: 190lbs

Not Rich (qualified 1/2) Overall Odds: 6 - 1

Hometown: Schwenksville,PA

The Polish Assassin (qualified 1/2) Overall Odds: 25 - 1

Hometown: Newark, DE            Height: 6'0", Weight: 190lbs

U.S Male (Qualified 12/7) Overall Odds: 10 - 1

Hometown: Voorhees, NJ            Height: 6'1", Weight: 250lbs

The Lunatic (Qualified 12/7) Overall Odds: 4 - 1

Hometown: Uniontown, PA

T-Bone (Qualified 12/6) Overall Odds: 20 - 1

Hometown: South Philly            Height: 6'0", Weight: 215lbs

El Wingadore (Automatic) Overall Odds: 3 - 1

Hometown: Woodbury Heights, NJ

Super Squib (Automatic) Overall Odds: 2 - 1

Hometown: Berlin, NJ

Past Winners

Wing Bowl XVIII (2010) - Jonathan "Super" Squibb - Wing count: 238

Wing Bowl XVII (2009) - Jonathan "Super" Squibb - Wing count: 203

Wing Bowl XVI (2008) - Joey Chestnut - Wing count: 241

Wing Bowl XV (2007) - Joey Chestnut - Wing count: 182

Wing Bowl XIV (2006) - Joey Chestnut - Wing count: 173

Wing Bowl XIII (2005) - Bill "El Wingador" Simmons - Wing count: 162

Wing Bowl XII (2004) - Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas - Wing count: 167

Wing Bowl XI (2003) - Bill "El Wingador" Simmons - Wing count: 154

Wing Bowl X (2002) - Bill "El Wingador" Simmons - Wing count: 135

Wing Bowl IX (2001) - Bill "El Wingador" Simmons - Wing count: 137

Wing Bowl VIII (2000) - "Tollman Joe" Paul- Wing count: 90

Wing Bowl VII (1999) - Bill "El Wingador" Simmons - Wing count: 113

Wing Bowl VI (1998) - Mark "Big Rig" Vogeding - Wing count: 164

Wing Bowl V (1997) - Eric "Gentleman E" Behl - Wing count: 120

Wing Bowl IV (1996) - Glen "Fluffmaster" Garrison - Wing count: 155

Wing Bowl III (1995) - Kevin "Heavy Keavy" O'Donnell - Wing count: 133

Wing Bowl II (1994) - Kevin "Heavy Keavy" O'Donnell - Wing count: 127

Wing Bowl I (1993) - Carmen "The Beast From The East" Cordero - Wing count: 100

Of course we will be cheering for T-Bone.

New Calendar

PrimeTime has proposed a new calendar system. Instead of it following the Gregorian Calendar (Jan 1 to December 31), Wing Bowl will be the first day of the year. That makes tonight New Year's Eve.

We will live the rest of the year under this calendar.

Then there was only 2

For those of us that braved it to the office, vs those that "worked from home" we again went back to Reading Terminal. Clearly PrimeTime likes his commute the way he likes his beer, no ice.

T-Bone, Bone Marrow and myself venture to Salumeria a store which Italian origins. We opted for the sandwiches which looked good. Bone Marrow and T-Bone were both happy with their meals, me no so much.

I had the Italian Hoagie which had decent meat, ok bread but overall could have had more flavor. The service was indifferent (and that is being polite). When asked what I wanted on it I said "salt, peper and oregano", the response "the salt and pepper is at the register. The register guy was too busy talking to one of his friends. My score of 2 has more to do with the crappy service (now not so polite) than the average hoagie. Like so many places here it could have been so much more. Bone Marrow ordered the Italian Hoagie Combo. His Italian Hoagie with everything on it was an "Explosion of Flavor". Bone Marrow had a different server than Me. Only downside was that it was a little sloppy (much like the service I received). This was a best value for $7 received a 6 inch hoagie, chips and a drink. Bone Marrow impressed with the house dressing (which was not offered to BA) Score 4.05. 

T-Bone had the Chicken Parm sandwich. It started with the microwaved chicken which made it questionable but after a table discussion it was decided that this may be the best way to warm the food, vs a regular oven (too long) or heat lamp (too dry). The quality was good and loaded with chicken. It needed a little more sauce and the cheese was a non factor. The sauce and cheese didn't take away from the sandwich but didn't help it either. Score 3.5*. Overall score was 3.18*. They just cracked the top 20 at 19th place.

T-Bone has now caught up by eating some Fried Shrimp from Wan's and the that only leaves 2 places left for Bone Marrow, T-Bone and myself. PrimeTime is lagging with 4 to go. I think it can be wrapped up by this week.