Did you know there was a riverboat that cruises the Delaware and you can eat and drink on it? Yeah, me either! I got invited to take a ride on the Philadelphia Belle and sample its cuisine! Who’s going to refuse a ride on a boat, with food? There’s multiple floors, and each has tables and a dance floor. It’s a big boat, and a smooth ride, so don’t worry about getting seasick. I felt great!
It was a beautiful and romantic table setting. Much less romantic is the live band. Ok, basically, it’s a party boat. But not a booze cruise or anything. It’s more like a wedding reception on the water.
And there’s tons to drink! And folks, these drinks are no joke. Despite being on water, nothing is watered down at all. In fact, their drinks are extra strong! Knock back a few of these and you might think there’s waves undulating in that river.
The starter plate was a sampler of sorts. The italian market sampler was a little skewer of roasted tomatoes, mozzarella with basil, olives, and dry sausage. The best part was definitely the mozzarella. The red pepper hummus was good, but the pita it came with was hard and crunchy, and not in a good way. The cute and adorable philly cheesesteak spring roll was good! It was served with a spicy ketchup.Here is the crisp oysters rockefeller with a touch of cream spinach and topped with chipotle cream. These were big and tasty.
The lobster bisque! It was served with a light swirl of tarragon creme fraiche. This was a very respectable bisque.
Let’s move on to the entrees! Here’s the atlantic salmon with roasted vegetable orzo and a tomato-coriander vinaigrette. The salmon was cooked nicely and was a nice and fresh piece of fish, but the sauce was a bit too sweet. And I’m someone that loves sweet!
This is the center-cut filet of beef with asparagus, potato gratin, and a red wine demi-glace. Ooh y’all, this was really good. I mean, I rarely ever just eat a big hunt of steak, but this was so good! The meat was super tender and the sauce went with it perfectly. I could have eaten another one!
Dessert was a little piece of cheesecake and a brownie. So the cheesecake was pretty soft and so-so, but the brownie was great! And you know, I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate or brownies. There’s a live band that plays throughout the evening and you are free to go out and take a look at the view from the boat. On a clear night, the views are quite tremendous. And you’re on a boat! The night I was there, there were a couple of sweet sixteen birthday parties as well as an older birthday. Towards the end, people started dancing, and that’s when it got a little surreal for me. I felt like I was crashing some sweet sixteen parties! But it was a great time and I feel very lucky to have been invited for the ride. Special thanks to H/A for being my event photographer.

My mom and I headed to Columbus for a long weekend to visit the only person that matters in my family anymore, my baby nephew. For lunch, my sister-in-law decided to make us a nice meal with scallops! Using a recipe from Padma Lakshmi’s Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet, we were treated to some surprisingly tasty scallops!
Here are some of the ingredients… chopped peanuts, cucumber relish, and breadcrumbs with mango powder for dusting on the scallops.
As it turned out, she had no idea how to cook scallops. I didn’t really know how either, but I’d tried once before, and failed spectacularly. But considering I had some “experience”, I ended up actually cooking them. And shockingly, they turned out well! I seared them on both sides and they turned out cooked just right. I don’t know how that happened. Let’s chalk it up to luck!
We also had some colorful salads and some wheat naan bread. I know, seriously, I never make myself meals this extensive. I’m lucky if I actually eat my food out of a bowl, instead of the pot.
We also had some leftover red velvet chocolate cake in the shape of a heart. Awww…

Sometimes you just want to eat some americanized chinese food but don’t want to get take-out. So we went to Beijing Homestyle in Manayunk, which is quite an attractive restaurant. It’s large too, and the dining room is swathed in blue. Blue isn’t typically the color that might jump out at you when you think chinese joint, red and yellow tend to jump in my brain. But here’s a place that has blue all over the place. There are also tons of colorful photographs along the walls. The decor appeals to me quite a bit.
The Shanghai’s Famous Soup Dumplings. These are filled with ground pork, ginger, and spring onions and are served in bamboo cages after being steamed. These are good but there wasn’t very much soup in them. In fact, some had none. And the ones that did had very little soup. But these were still good dumplings.
Here’s the orange chicken. If you like orange chicken, you’ll like this! No complaints here!
Upon the recommendation of our server, we also go the Iron Pan Short Ribs. These are extremely savory yet sweet short ribs that come out on a sizzling hot plate. This was also quite good. Both these entrees would appeal to anyone who loves americanized chinese food.
This dessert sounded interesting, so we tried these moon drop things. It was basically a mochi type sphere filled with stuff, in this case, a sweet sesame paste. It came in a brothy type liquid, which didn’t really taste like much. It was just warm. The mochi was warm and chewy, and the sweet and nutty sesame paste inside was a nice contrast with the slightly salty broth. I’ve never tasted anything like this before and quite enjoyed it. Service was good. It was a nice dine-in chinese food experience.