The Situation

You know what's great with tapas? Sangria.
For one of my wedding showers, Brian actually made mass amounts of sangria (and mojitos. Go Brian!).

Your Mission

There are a million recipes out there, and while I'm willing to try some, what I want right now is your recommendations of where I can go get the best sangria in Manhattan, Queens, or Nassau County, NY; Philadelphia or Montgomery County; New Jersey; or Dover, DE.
Leave a recommendation in the comments below -- I'll try as many as I can in the weeks ahead, and give you a round-up with the results.

Thanks!

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Melting Pot

1219 Filbert Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107

You should know

So for my bachelorette party, the guys took me out. Yes, the guys: Dan and Brian, plus Dave and Michelle. They said we could go anywhere I wanted, it being my party and all. I figured this would be sufficiently fancy and different, plus it was a good excuse to finally check the place out.

Brian, being Brian, tipped them off that it was an event, so they hooked me up with a little logo'ed teddy bear and a framed group picture. Very cool.

So?

So we had five people, including one with lactose sensitivity (me), one with assorted allergies, and one vegetarian.

We started with drinks; I lost track of what others ordered, but I got a glass of Riesling.

Melting pot meals come in four courses: salad, cheese, entree, and dessert.  Our salads were tasty but not memorable; I don't actually recall what we got.

For our cheese course (and yes, I took a Lactaid before I started), we got two pots of Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue ("fontina, butterkäse, and buttermilk bleu cheese with white wine, scallions, and a hint of sherry," $16 for 1-2 people). They came with apples, bread, veggies. Almost everything was excellent, but it seems I will never like cauliflower. Oh well.

Oddly, even though both pots were supposed to be the same, one tasted far more of the sherry base, while the other one tasted very strongly of blue cheese. That was kind of nice -- it gave us a little variety.

For the entree course, we again got two pots of the same flavored oil, and kept one for meat and the other for veggies. We ordered The Vegetarian ("fresh vegetables, tofu, artichoke hearts, portobello mushrooms and spinach and Gorgonzola ravioli," $17), Land & Sea ("a collection of new york strip, marinated breast of chicken and white shrimp," $23), and The French Quarter ("Cajun seasoned shrimp, filet mignon, breast of chicken and andouille sausage," $22).

With the meals came several types of sauce, some to go on the food before dipping, and some to season the food after dipping. The posed some interesting challenges (such as, "How many layers of tempura can you put on a potato, anyway?").

My only complaint was that in the French Quarter meal, everything was so heavily (and deliciously) seasoned that you couldn't quite tell the chicken form the beef until you cut them open -- whcih is really a concern when you consider that the two meats have different cooking times.

For dessert, we got The Original ("this original recipe features our signature milk chocolate complimented with a swirl of crunchy peanut butter") (amazing on bananas!) and one Pure Chocolate ("dark chocolate, melted for the most pure of all chocolate fondues." Both $16)

The chocolate fondues came with Dippers ("fresh strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, tasty marshmallows, pound cake and brownies for you to dip into any of our decadent chocolate fondue creations"). There  was easily something for everyone.

Rating

Tasty but a bit pricey
We technically didn't order enough food for five people, and we still had leftovers -- if you're going with a group, that's a decent option. Either way, definitely save it for a special occasion, but give it a try.

The rest of the Internet

Sabah Karimi at Associated Content explains what to expect at the restaurant.
The Wikipedia page.
Patricia Schaefer at FranchiseTrade discusses the restaurant from a business perspective.
Jenna Brucoli at Jenna Sais Quois posts some great pictures of Melting Pot food.
Online and logged in reviews the restaurant.
The Beeze at The Beeze's Tales from the Fish House enjoyed good food but suffered bad service.

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I usually don't have a lot of time on weekends, but as of writing this I'm coming off of two wedding showers in a row (three if you count the one at work) and a meet-up and ballgame with Chris, Brian, and Paul, so I'm setting this up in case I need to skip a week.

Dave Loveless at The Prodigal reviewed the Nicholas Cage movie Knowing.  When I originally saw the ads, I was not impressed, but Dave's review makes me reconsider: He gives it 3.5 out of 4 stars (assuming you like thrillers).  Dave's blog is one of my must-reads, so go ahead and browse around while you're there.

slainte

You should know

So?

Rating

The rest of the Internet

Star Trek

2009, in theaters

You should know

Now, I'm not a huge Trekkie (Trekker?).  I've watched Star Trek off and on in its various incarnations since I was old enough to realize the guy from Reading Rainbow was also on TNG.

But Brian and I had heard really good things about the movie, so we grabbed a quick dinner and then headed to the theater.

So?

Please keep a few things in mind before we debate over whether this is "real" Star Trek.

First of all, time travel, particularly time travel with really inconsistent rules, is canon, as are parallel universes that may or may not be caused by time travel.

 Second of all, even the canon historically has very little regard for continuity.  So even the things that just seem wrong are, in fact, in keeping with those two points.

So the movie was a total reboot of the original series, spun as an alternate universe story so that nothing that has come before will be contradicted.

I didn't particularly buy that our favorite bridge crew were all in the same class at the academy, but the writers wanked things enough to at least account for the age discrepancies -- Kirk was an aimless ne'er-do-well until his mid-twenties; McCoy joined the academy as a doctor, rather than attending Starfleet Medical; Chekov was a child prodigy (which means Wesley Crusher isn't all that special after all, which is nice); and so on.

Now, there are spoilers ahead, so go ahead and skip the next bit. 





I really had a bit of a problem with the fact that the only female main character was only on the Enterprise because she was sleeping with her professor.  I mean, I guess she might not have been at that point, but when Spock made a comment to Uhura about avoiding favoritism, and she overruled him... if they weren't sleeping together by that point, they were both certianly considering it.

There's already been plenty of controversy about whether  Kirk would/should/could ever have been made captain of the Enterprise after all that, but my attitude is... he's James T. Kirk.  He can do whatever he wants and Starfleet will kiss his feet for doing it.  Even when he got court marshalled and demoted that one time, all they did was make him captain of the Enterprise again, which really was all he wanted all along.

Then there were the two Spocks.  Spock Prime (as he's credited) came accross less as "I am Spock, come back in time to save the universe," and more "I am Leonard Nimoy, and how cool is it that I get to do this one more time?!"  Meanwhile, young Spock was awesome, but there were a few fleeting moments when he stopped being Spock and started being Sylar.  And while it would have been pretty cool to see Spock telepathically open up Kirk's skull... that wasn't the movie I was there to see.

Image via WikipediaImage via Wikipedia

Burger Heaven was something else. I took lunch a bit on the late side, but still within the normal lunch hour. I was seated quickly, and ordered a Classic Beef Burger ($6.55), but had to pay extra for lettuce and tomatoes ($0.95). I also had a Coke ($2.05), but again skipped the fries.

While the burgers don't come with lettuce and tomato by default, they do come with red relish (tastes like chunky ketchup; not my thing but not bad), a big slice of fresh onion, and three large pickle wedges. They also come with mayo on the side, which I love because while I like a little something to moisten the roll a bit, most places that add mayo put about half a gallon on, which is just disgusting.

I ordered my burger medium, which may not have been the world's greatest idea, since the meat was a bit pinker on the inside than I usually like in ground beef. On the other hand, it was so tender and juicy that the burger was falling apart in my hands. Delicious.

Over the to Dog House. Again, as the name suggests, this place focuses more on hot dog than hamburgers, and with a few exceptions, I do not like hot dogs (Gray's Papaya? Big exception. Yum).

If you eat in, you sit right at the counter, which is not something I love to start. I just prefer seats with backs. Your food is served up to order, with your choice of toppings.

Brian got a massive hot dog with mustard ($2.75), and a Coke ($1.50). I got a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion ($2.50), and a lemonade ($1.50). The burger was decent; not especially memorable, but tasty enough. I had no complaints. The scene wasn't really my thing, though. This is probably my issues screaming through, but I felt sort of like I was intruding on a group of people who all knew each other already, and who were nothing like me. That's not a feeling I like.

Also, the Dog House doesn't have an online menu, so I can't vouch for the exact prices, but everything was much cheaper than it was at either of the other places.

Rating

Try them
They're all good, depending what you're looking for and where you are. Burger Heaven was easily the best, but Cheeburger Cheeburger was great for atmosphere and sheer size of the burger, and the Dog House had the best deal for the money. Next time, I think might go with takeout from the Dog House, though.

The rest of the Internet

Cheeburger Cheeburger

The Wikipedia article on Cheeburger Cheeburger.
David St. Lawrence at Making Ripples loved Cheeburger Cheeburger.
Dolores Kostelni at The Roanoke Times was not impressed.
Scott Joseph at The Orlando Sentinel found it to be decent, but not amazing.
Restaurant Mom was pleased with her family's lunch.
Jason Perlow at  Off the Broiler has lots of great pictures of the restaurant and food.
Lee Barnes at The Richmond Times-Dispatch was pleased with his meal.
Learn about the parent company.
You probably don't want to know, but check out the nutritional information.

Burger Heaven

The Wandering Eater has some great pictures.
A glowing review of Burger Heaven's patty melt at Midtown Lunch.

The Dog House

UPDATE: Paulusa302 at TalkDelaware.com provides a menu, so I have updated the prices for you.

Image by Craig Grobler via Flickr

Intense. Dark and suspenseful and just intense.

Gotham is starting to get used to the idea of Batman. Street gangs imitate him and attack petty thieves. Organized crime struggles to stay out of his sight. The city is inspired to elect a "white knight" of a District Attorney in Harvey Dent. And a new villain, calling himself the Joker, relishes the elevation that Batman has brought to the battle between order and chaos. Joker loves chaos.

Dealing with these three larger-than-life characters are Jim Gordon, one of the last noble cops left in Gotham; Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne's childhood best friend and recent ex-girlfriend, who left Bruce when he chose Batman over her and has since started dating Dent; and Lucius Fox, one of the geniuses of Wayne Industries and the man responsible for the Batmobile. Oh, yeah, and Alfred the Butler.

Have I got this right when I say that Joker is Chaotic Evil, Batman is Lawful Good (at least, according to his own moral code), and Dent is Lawful Neutral? My Geek-fu is not strong.

But I may up it through this: Two-Face was appropriately grotesque, but I couldn't help thinking he looked like Jonah Hex.

Rating

See it...
Assuming, of course, that you haven't already, and that you can handle some very intense, violent, and occasionally heartbreaking scenes. It does its job very well, but it has a completely different job than anything involving Adam West ever did.

The rest of the Internet

Beware of spoilers...
Andy at Selections From the Scrolls of the PlatinumWarlock deems Iron Man the superior superhero movie, but The Dark Knight the better movie.
Michael Clayton and moviejohn at BlogCritics wax enthusiastic, while Craig Lyndall warns against overhype.
The IMDb and Wikipedia pages.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2008, online only

You should know

Most of what I heard about this initially was from people raving about it on Twitter the first day it went public. Of course, at first I couldn't get the site to work; opening night, it overloaded. High demand.

I did manage to see the whole thing straight through more than once, and also shared it with my parents, Chris, Brian, and Dan. It somehow didn't occur to me to review it until a few weeks ago, and real life and Iron Man got in the way.

So?

Dr. Horrible is a small-time supervillain about to make his big break. He's working on perfecting his freeze ray, and in between fantasizes about Penny, a regular at his laundromat.

When he finally gets word from Bad Horse, "The Thoroughbred of Sin" and head of the Evil League of Evil, that his application to the League is under serious consideration, Dr. Horrible sets out to steal the Wonderflonium ("Do Not Bounce") he needs to finish his freeze ray. His heist succeeds only because his nemesis, Captain Hammer, "Corporate Tool," gets distracted... by Penny.

The bad Doctor's objectives: perfect the ray, defeat the Captain, impress the Big Bad, and get the girl. Can he do it?

By the way, this is a musical, and if you're prone to catching earworms, beware -- the songs are extremely catchy!

It also may not be appropriate for younger children or more conservative workplaces. There are some mild but blatant sexual references, plus implied and shown violence, including one sympathetic character suggesting another kill a child.

It also has an ending that's pretty controversial, but ultimately unsurprising in context.

I genuinely enjoyed this serial, and pretty much everyone I've shown it to has gotten a kick out of it. If the premise I've outlined sounds interesting, you'll probably enjoy it.

Rating

Check it out
In fact, if you enjoy it, consider watching it more than once. It's extremely heavy on tiny details and blink-and-you'll-miss-it jokes, so the laughs don't fade because you catch something new each time.

The rest of the Internet

Beware of spoilers
Follow Dr. Horrible on Twitter for news and updates, or become a fan on Facebook.
The Wikipedia and IMDb pages.

The official fan site.
Lifehacker interviews Felicia Day, while Wired interviews Joss Whedon.
Entertainment Weekly has scoop from Comic-Con.
The Dr. Horrible/feminist controversy, summed up nicely (read as many of the comments as you can stand).
And now: Buy the DVD!

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Dana Stevens at Slate ponders how the Indiana Jonesseries, and Crystal Skull in particular, will be remembered in 1100 years.

Image by admiller via Flickr

Pei Wei Asian Diner

4040 City Avenue, Bldg. 2 Space 2
Philadelphia, PA 19131

You should know

Actually, Brian and I wanted to go to Chipotle. But, alas, dairy and I are not the best of friends, and I didn't have an Lactaid on me. And I'm sorry, a burrito is just not worth the bother without the cheese and sour cream.

Fortunately, this spin-off of P. F. Chang was right next door, and I had been meaning to try it.

For what it's worth, Brian ended up not going to Chipotle, either, but instead trying out the sandwiches at Potbelly. But you'd have to ask him how that went.

So?

I ordered the Spicy Korean Chicken with fried rice ("Korean hot pepper sauce, garlic, white mushroom, onion, carrot, long beans, toasted sesame seeds," $7.95) and a fountain soda. The soda fountain was in the back of the restaurant, so I had to cut through the casual dining room to fill my cup. There were two kinds of tea (chai and citrus green), but when I tasted them, I was disappointed. I honestly don't know if they were supposed to be iced teas that hadn't been sufficiently iced, or hot teas that had cooled down too much. Either way, both teas were tepid, so I got Coca-Cola instead.

Back with the soda fountain were tubs of assorted sauces for seasoning dishes; metal spoon for soups; small boxes for taking home leftovers; and big tubs full of fortune cookies. Cups of wrapped chopsticks, plus nice napkins, sat on each dine-in table.

The restaurant must have a vigorous order-ahead service, because the dining room was not very full, and the take-out line was not particulalrly crowded, but the cooks in the visible kitchen were working frantically and my food still took quite a while to come up.

When my food finally came up, the woman at the counter tossed the take-out box into a plastic bag and handed it to me. No napkin. No chopsticks or fork. No sauces. No fortune cookie. All of these things were visibly stacked beneath the front counter, in addition to being available to dine-in guests at the back of the restaurant. I may be interpreting this incorrectly, but it seems to me, then, that I should not have had to then wait around for five minutes, trying to flag down the counter-attendant's attention so that I could requst a fork and napkin. Yes, using a metal fork from home would be more ecologically sound, but I wasn't going home -- I was going directly outside to eat dinner with Brian, who as noted above had bought his food from a different establishment.

Fortunately, I had snagged a fortune cookie from the back when I got my drink.

My food was delicious, but I'm glad I got the fried rice. There was nowhere near $7.95 worth of chicken in my meal. I did manage to get a good lunch out of my leftovers, but had the rice been plain brown or white, I wouldn't have bothered. There not enough chicken or sauce to stretch out rice that did not have flavor of its own.

The chicken I got was good, though. Spicy, though not overly so. As I had predicted, in chains like this even "spicy" food is pretty mild, which is fine with me. The rice was very nice, with a decent mixture of vegetables and egg. There were more carrots than I would have chosen, but overall, a nice blend.

And the fortune cookie was very tasty.

Rating

Almost worth it
I don't know if the service would have been better had I dined in, but if I go back, I'm going to find out. The food was good, but I don't think I'll be getting take-out again. I don't care if you give me chopsticks or a fork, but I need one or the other.

Also, at risk of sounding like an idiot, I had no idea how to pronounce the place's name until the writing of this entry. Yes, I am an ignorant American.

The rest of the Internet

An interesting business article about Pei Wei by Bret Thorn at bnet.
Thank you, Philadelphia Inquirer! According to The Discreet Diner, it's pronounced "Pay Way."
The Wikipedia page.
The nutritional information for my meal. Mmm, healthy.

Image via Wikipedia

So?

While this movie took more liberties than LWW did, I really enjoyed it. The plot was obviously updated for a 2008 audience (Susan is both an action hero and a romantic heroine, when in the book she's not really either; Edmund is the master politician to Peter's master warrior, which is in the book but not as obviously so) and certain elements were shortened, lengthened, or moved around, largely to make the title character more of a hero in his own story. Caspian and Peter butting heads is actually more believable than Caspian demurely submitting to a king who is a) essentially a fairy tale's fairy tale and b) biologically younger than he is, as he does in the book.

"Fairy tale's fairy tale?" Well, yes. Caspian is the underage, usurped heir to the Telmarine throne. Centuries ago, not long after the Pevensies (the kings and queens of old) left Narnia, the Telmarines conquered the land and made every effort to exterminate the Talking Beasts and other mythical creatures. Those who remained had varying levels of faith in Aslan and the kings and queens, and Caspian himself was raised to believe that there were none left at all. Caspian is as shocked at being saved by a dwarf as the dwarf is at being saved by Queen Susan.

If you're a stickler for letter-perfect faithfulness to the book, you won't like this as much as LWW. But if you're here for a summer epic, sit back and enjoy. Brian has said that the changes actually improve on the story, and I largely agree.


Rating
Go see it.
You don't need to have seen the first movie, but it does help. Most of the necessary exposition is handled up front, so don't let having missed LWW stop you.

That said, go see LWW.

The rest of the Internet
Beware of spoilers...
The IMDb Page.
The Wikipedia pages for the movie and the book.
Good, but not great, reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.

Roller's at Flying Fish
8142 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19118

You should know
Brian and I wanted to grab a late dinner. It being Good Friday, Brian wanted fish; I wasn't sure of a good, local seafood place. So he plugged "fish" into his portable GPS unit, and we got this Chestnut Hill address.

We got there about 15 minutes before they were set to close, and I was dressed in jeans and sweats; these two things made me a bit wary, but the menu looked good and so did the prices.

So?
When we got there, there was a ton of meter parking across the street. Fortunately, 2-hour parking ended at 6:00 PM, so we could park for free while we ate.

The restaurant was empty, and, as I said, it was about to close, so I figured the staff was ready to go home. Instead, they were incredibly gracious and welcoming, reviewing the pros and cons of the different tables and commenting on the different specials.

Brian and I each ordered a glass of wine (Riesling for me; chardonnay for Brian). I got an appetizer in lieu of an entree: lump crab nachos ($10.75). Brian got broiled tilapia with cranberries, pecans and ruby grapefruit ($17.75).

The food was delicious. My nachos were covered in a gooey crab-and-cheese mixture, with a healthy scoop each of salsa (almost more of a pico de gallo) and guacamole. The chips, which had been lightly toasted, were very, very salty, but the attentive waitstaff kept my water glass full at all times. Brian was happy with his tilapia, though he said all that fruit just slightly overpowered the flavor of the fish.

The waitstaff were constantly coming over, not in an annoying, hovering sort of way, but in a very friendly manner, chatting with us, making sure we didn't want for water or rolls, and trying to talk us into a cup of coffee or a dish of gelato (which we had to decline -- we were stuffed). At one point, Paul Roller himself came out, joked about us sitting at a table with no tablecloth, and noticing that Brian and I were both wearing outfits in support of our alma mater, chatted for a few minutes about college basketball. We reasoned that either the staff was very bored, or the restaurant is not doing so well. From what I've found out online, it appears to have been the former.

The only downside of the evening was when the bill came. I know, I know. But while the price of our food was quite reasonable, the price of my wine nearly doubled my tab. These things happen, I understand that, but if I had known about it going in, I might have opted for tea.

Rating
Go... but get a soft drink.
Again, the food was amazing, the prices were reasonable, the staff was attentive and friendly, and I kind of want to try that gelato, but I'm not a huge fan of having my wine cost as much as my meal. Next time, I'll be getting tea or soda, and stopping for a beer elsewhere on my way home.

The rest of the Internet
Robin at Ponderings and Pawprints remembers working at Roller's.

Awesome link of the week
Beth Terry at Fake Plastic Fish has given up plastic. After reading about other bloggers who have made the effort to go plastic-free for a year, or leave minimal ecological footprints, she set four goals, involving preservation of natural resources, lessening pollution and landfill fodder, improving health, and educating. And once a week, she tallies her plastic waste, sorting it by recyclable or not, and by whether she bought it before or after this project started.

Now, I'm not about to give up plastic altogether, but her blog has given me plenty of food for thought, and a list of ways to start cutting back. Look it over, and consider trying even one.