Friday night was the first nice day/night out in… oh… months. So what to do? First Friday! We hung out a bit, and then ended up at National Mechanics. We didn’t eat there, but I have eaten there before, but I don’t remember it at all. I think I vaguely recall nachos. They had chicken on them? But I do like the place. It’s different, in a good way.

After a night of shenanigans, R was feeling peckish and wanted to go to a diner. I was still feeling pretty crappy so I didn’t really care. There aren’t many late-night options, so we somehow ended up at the Manayunk Diner. Never imagined I’d ever eat here. It’s big and multi-levelled… they even have wifi! Ha!

R went with her diner food and just general favorite food of choice – lox and bagels. I’ve never seen anyone so in love with lox and bagels. I’ve never actually officially tried it. I really should see what all the fuss is about. I’ve eaten plenty of bagels and plenty of smoked salmon, just not together. Although I’m not that into smoked salmon, but I will try it soon.

I went with the blintzes with apple topping. Screw the apple topping! It came from a can and was heated up, but they were fairly blech. The blintzes themselves were good, although because I was sick and stuffed up, I really didn’t taste much. That’s kinda been the worst part of being sick. I really don’t care about the feeling crappy and the phlegm and the sniffling. What sucks is not being able to taste food. Ugh.

There are crazy random characters hanging out at the Manayunk Diner after hours. But what do you expect? The service was quite fine and really, their dessert case looked pretty frickin good!

Manayunk Diner
3720 Main St
Philadelphia
215-483-4200

It ended up being a crazy week of pasta for me. We stopped by Tony and Joe’s for lunch during the week. You wouldn’t know it from the outside, but it’s not just a pick-up joint here… they actually have an adorable little dining area inside.

T went with the eggplant parm. Biggest plate of eggplant parm I’ve ever witnessed in my life. HA! Those veggies aren’t just plain… they were loaded with garlicky and buttery goodness!

R went with her trusty old standby – ravioli.

I ordered the rigatoni. The only rigatoni on the menu was rigatoni abruzzi… which was supposed to come with sausage in a spicy sauce. I ended up with plain old rigatoni with a red sauce. It was fine and all, but plain as all get out. I don’t know what happened… You also get garlic bread, which was pretty good. And soup or salad… we all got salad. My russian dressing was really really weird. Service was pretty good. All the pasta was made to order so it took a bit of time, but not tremendously long. It’s a nice hidden option on Conshy’s main strip.

Being homebound most of the week, I got inspired to cook a little. So I tried out this penne recipe from Pioneer Woman. I took a bit of creative license… added some sweet peas (organic ones from trader joe’s) and some diced tomatoes (probably will leave these out next time). I also used chicken stock instead of the wine.

It turned out great! It didn’t really turn out anything like her recipe, and like some of the commenters said, it wasn’t very thick and rich or chunky. It ended up being quite light, and dare I say, healthy? Yeah, I know it had cream in it and all, but it was quite light. It was a huge batch, so I ate it all week. And it tasted even better as leftovers.