Sometimes I get cravings for certain dishes. The other week, I desperately wanted to go to Tampopo, but it just didn’t happen. So this week, I was determined! Just before I headed out to G’s monthly movie event, since I was going to have to be in West Philly anyway, I stopped in at Tampopo 3. Tampopo tends to get mixed reviews. Some people love the ramen, some people hate it. Some people think their sushi is only ok. I don’t care about any of that because all I care about is their fresh tuna bi-bim-bob. It is possibly one of the most perfect dishes ever.

There is nothing in it that I don’t like. And the beauty of it is that nothing is cooked. Well, except the rice, of course. There is raw tuna, avocado, asian pear, cucumber, lettuce, and purple cabbage. These are all lovely things all on their own. But together, along with the zesty and slightly spicy and nutty sauce (which is technically cooked), it’s just perfection. Get it with brown rice, because brown rice is awesome, and it has a more firm texture that goes along really well with the other mostly crunchy ingredients. I literally left nothing in this bowl. And since they didn’t give me a spoon, I chopsticked out every little kernel of rice. I wasn’t leaving anything! It was a lot of work but totally worth it!

We’d been planning on going to Zorba’s for awhile. My friend C, who is greek, talks about it all the time and about how amazing the calimari is. R was even talking about it awhile back when she went there on a pseudo-date. And ever since I’d watched a terrible movie on my last flight, which happened to take place in greece, I wanted to go to Zorba’s even more. It’s a very low-key BYOB in fairmount. On this beautiful evening, there were a few tables set up outside. We chose to sit indoors. As soon as you sit down, you get some complimentary bread with olive oil, vinegar, and dried herbs for dipping.

H/A got the lamb shank. It wasa baby lamb shank cooked in an egg lemon and artichoke sauce, served with rice & potatoes. According to the menu, it is one of the classics of the sunday family table. Neither of us had ever had lamb that came out like this before. I’ve had lamb chops and I’ve had ground lamb that was made into kabobs, but I’d never seen a lamb shank. It’s kind of like a big drumstick. And it kind of tasted like it too! It was very lemony yet creamy.

I was feeling the seafood so I got the shrimp santorini, which was shrimp sauteed with garlic, paprika, and red wine, served with rice, roasted potatoes, and mixed veggies. These shrimp were excellent! And so was the rice and veggies. The potatoes were way too salty for me. The food came out really quickly, almost too quickly. But then I figured all of the sides were probably all ready to go, and the lamb was probably also already cooked and probably just needed sauced, and shrimp are super speedy to cook.

The service was fine. I think I scared the original waitress slightly at first when I decided to mess with her. But then after she realized I was just kidding, she played along. Something that amused me was that there was a bottle of windex that was constantly being used to clean up the tables. It made me chuckle because of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Zorba’s Taverna
2230 Fairmount Ave
Philadelphia 19130
(215) 978-5990

H/A wanted to go to Chickie’s & Pete’s to try the lobster cheesesteak. If you ask me to go here, I will. Not because I want to be in a giant warehouse full of drunken strangers with loud ass tv’s and terrible music. But I like the food here. It’s as simple as that. We were at the south philly one again. Man, is this place crowded on a weekend night. It’s maddening how crowded this place is. And even more crazy because of how humongous it is, and it’s still beyond packed! We had to wait about half an hour for a table. And even after we sat, we waited much longer to actually get waited on. Our waitress sucked. And she had a sucky ass sourpuss look on her face the whole time. Miserable much?
At least their food makes up for the waitress suckery. The infamous crab fries. Their fries are crunchy and not soggy or greasy at all. And their cheese sauce (who the hell knows what’s actually in this) is lovely and mild. It’s a nice contrast to the savory crab dusting.
R and her chowder. She always orders this, and she always barely eats any of it. But that’s fine, because H/A and I got to eat all the mussels and clams she ignored. It’s good soup folks, it’s good soup.
R and I got the king crab legs. That’s what you do when you come here.

There’s no dainty way to try to eat these. Don’t even try to not get dirty. Just go in full force with your hands and get to cracking. You’ll get the delicious red mess all over yourself. It will fly hither to and fro. But who cares, because you’re rewarded with zesty big pieces of succulent crab flesh. It’s worth the work.

And you’ll remember it for days because your hands will stink of crab. Their menu calls them “gloriously messy” and they are indeed.

So H/A came for the lobster cheesesteak, and that’s what he had. This is a cheesesteak, with lobster meat and the cheese sauce on top. Before it came out, we were debating amongst ourselves on how to dress this thing. What condiments do you use on a cheesesteak with lobster on it? Ketchup? Butter? Then R suggested cocktail sauce. Ooh, I liked the sound of that. But they didn’t bring any out, and we didn’t ask for any. So what is a lobster cheesesteak like? Well, it tastes just like a cheesesteak. And it’s a good cheesesteak. Even though you can clearly see the lobster, you can’t taste it at all. The taste of the lobster is clearly overshadowed by the meat. So while it’s a delicious cheesesteak, what’s the point of having lobster on it when you can’t taste the lobster? So you’re just paying for something that you can’t even notice. I say just get a regular cheesesteak here instead.