Midtown Lunch

• Which Wawa is best? [Billy Penn]
• No more mozzarella topped, bacon dogs :-( Moe’s has closed [The Insider]
• Jerr’s Food Truck makes some balanced sandwiches [Penn Appetit]
• Green Olives makes an authentic lamb couscous dish [Philly.com]

My Cambodian dining experiences around Philadelphia have been largely positive, save for some corn starchy frog legs. When I read about I Heart Cambodia’s opening and later, saw the menu on their Instagram account, I immediately yearned for another Khmer adventure. Luckily, a friend with a car and identical taste for Asian food was able to take me.

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• Gus’s Fried Chicken is coming to Philly [The Insider]
• Early Reports for Bonchon mostly criticize the speed and service [Yelp]
• South St Bagels (which this NYer actually approves of) has a new location on Chestnut [The Insider]

Today is the Chinese New Year. (It also happens to be one year since I visited and ate my way around China!) We planned a dinner tonight for 10 hungry friends in Chinatown; I picked out a menu of scallops, eel, shrimp, whole fish, eggplant, string beans, lamb,  and clams.

Chinatown isn’t the easiest to navigate (hence why I run my Chinatown food tours!), so I’d like to help.

Here are some suggestions for where you can celebrate tonight (and don’t forget to BYO, it is New Year’s after all)

• Spice C– for shaved noodles
• TT Skewer – if you are dining solo or with one other person
• I-Green– if you want frozen yogurt after your soup dumplings
• Xi’an Sizzling Woks- for a different style of Chinese food
• Tasty Place– if you want an authentic environment and to buy groceries after dinner
• and of course, there are always the usual stand bys Nan Zhou, Sang Kee, Sakura Mandarin, and Dim Sum Garden

Where are you eating tonight? Check my Instagram to find out where I picked!

a menu in China

slurping soup in an alley in China

Did you miss me? I just spend the past few days in San Antonio, visiting a friend and eating bbq and kolaches, but I am back to share this new place that is bringing us Dominican food without the visit North Philly.  Parada Maimon opened a few months ago in the Callowhill area (right above Chinatown)- serving Dominican food in a festive setting. All of the unexpected wood reminded me of Uncle’s Backyard last weekend. And according to my Dominican friend, the paintings on the wall are exactly what you would find at a home in the D.R (something about a child picking at her feet in a field).

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burger photo courtesy of Foobooz

• The kitchen is complete at Nom Wah Tea Parlor [Eater]
• Lunch Hour in Philly also added pork belly to her curry soup at Cheu [Philly Lunch Hour]
• P’unk Burger opens today on E Passyunk and the space and the burger toppings looks rad [Foobooz]
• I have tried almost all of the dumplings on this Zagat list- have you? [Zagat]