I hadn’t planned on eating at Noble at all. The plan was just to have a drink after a concert. But then the concert got cancelled. And even though I had eaten before the concert, my stomach felt like I hadn’t eaten at all. Where did my dinner go? So that’s how we ended up eating at Noble. Not a full dinner, but some snacks, because the strong drinks needed some food to soak into!
I know there’s been some drama here lately… as the original executive chef / co-owner left in october and they recently announced who the replacement was. I never had a chance to eat with the original chef, and I’m not sure if the menu has been completely changed or not. It was V day, so the regular dinner menu was not available, but we were able to order a few bites from the bar menu. I asked about the chickpea fries and our fantastic bartender recommended them wholeheartedly. Called panisse in france, it’s basically chickpea flour mixed with water and shaped into a cake, and then sliced and deep fried. While the outside is slightly crispy, the inside is smooth and custard like. It was served with a marinara type sauce, and it was delicious! It’s one of the coolest and best new things I’ve tasted.
We also got some french fries, because really, who doesn’t like deep fried slices of potatoes? These were quite good. But they were made even better by the house made ketchup.
Do you see the color of this ketchup? It’s not red. It’s more of a burgundy color. And can you guess why? When I started eating these fries, I smelled a distinct smell that can’t be anything else but this secret ingredient. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, and then after a few more bites, I had it. Beets. BEETS! There are beets in this ketchup! Which easily explains the beautiful hue. And what do I think of beet ketchup? Damn, I could put this on everything. This kicks heinz out of the damn water. We were watching our bar neighbors mowing down on the V day prix fixe, and it certainly looked scrumptious! If these little bar bite teasers are any indication, I can’t wait to come back here for a proper meal.

After the second snowpocalypse, the roads in philly, especially west philly, were fairly horrendous. Vietnam Cafe is lucky that it has a huge parking lot. Except that the road and the entrance to the parking lot was covered with 5 inches of ice with grooves in it, so that it was impossible for you to get into the parking lot without getting stuck in a groove. Somehow, I extricated myself before becoming another victim, and found a spot on the street. Boy, was this place packed. I’d been here once before, to get take-out, when it was still teeny. It has since taken over where their neighbor used to be, so now the place is positively ginormous.

I was just trying to shovel some food into my belly before heading over to javaflix, so I just scarfed down some pho bo kho at the bar. The bowls of pho here are smaller than at pho only joints. Remember, this is a fancy vietnamese restaurant. But it tastes pretty good. The meat here is pretty fat-free, which I like. This pho bo kho is not really spicy at all, so it’s very easy to eat. It’s an easy breezy small bowl of pho. You’re paying a lot for ambiance here, so pound for pound, it’s more expensive here. But that’s ok. The portion sizes at regular pho places are probably too big anyway.

I probably sound like a broken record, but after snowboarding on friday, we went and got korean food again. But instead of disappointing august moon, since H/A insisted on korean, I insisted on good korean. That’s how we ended up at Gaya again. I had just gone there for my birthday dinner but yeah, I was happy to go back there agin.
I certainly sound like a broken record with what I ordered… yep, the squid stir fry again. I can’t help myself. It’s my favorite. And it’s so damn good here. Trust me, it’s some of the best of this around.
H/A ordered meat again, but I made him get the galbi, and not the bulgogi. It was tasty, and even had grill marks! Because of the lovely complimentary giant plate of wrappers that they give you (first pic of this post), we tried them all. My favorite is still the original red leaf lettuce, but I tell you what, the cold steamed cabbage was a close second. The seaweed was just a bit too strange, and hard to maneuver. It’s slippery, so it was hard to keep it together as a roll/taco.
While I generally love all the food here, especially the entrees, let’s take some time to discuss the banchan this time. I was just here a few weeks ago when the banchan selection was completely different. Really, aside from the kimchi, which is requisite, everything else was different. In front, a broccoli dish. Barely spicy, barely tasty. Above that, a strange dish that was pretty much just raw onions with some seaweed in it. There was barely little flavor of anything. It just felt like a waste of space. At the top was kimchi, which was just fine. And in the big bowl on the right, I have no idea what this thing is called, and it’s just as difficult to describe it. It’s a cold dish, with a bunch of liquid, with slices of daikon radish and some cabbage. It’s unbelievably refreshing, and I love it, but I couldn’t really explain it. So sorry.
Ok, on top here, something almost like japchae, but not quite. It’s like they had some leftover ingredients for japchae, but not all of them, and they just sort of threw this together. On the right, something very akin to japanese seaweed salad.  Except this seaweed salad had no flavor at all. Can we say blah? And in front, the gaejang, or spicy seasoned raw crab. This was the only other repeat, and yes, still my favorite. I made them give me a refill. And yep, I certainly appreciate them doing so. While the bbq dishes here are pricey (as they are pretty much at any other joint), everything else is quite reasonably priced. I’d be happy to come back here every time after snowboarding!