Dine Online visits Philadelphia

Clifford Mould casts a Londoner's eye over the City of Brotherly Love!

Philadelphia is one of my favourite cities. I hadn't been there for over ten years, but when I was invited by the Culinary Arts program of Drexel University to visit the famous Book and the Cook Fair and Festival I jumped at the chance. Philadelphia has all the grand vistas and fine public buildings of a important metropolis, but it also remains accessible on a human scale. I wandered about on foot, poking my nose into interesting little restaurants here and there, with a delightful sense of freedom. Everywhere I went there was a warm welcome and a cheery smile.

I'd barely got off the plane when I popped into the bar at the Brasserie Perrier, the "second" restaurant of Georges Perrier. Having already been surprisingly well fed in the comforting ambience of British Airways Business Club Class, I was not quite ready to eat, but the Brasserie's maitre d' showed me round the restaurant and I noted with enthusiasm the large plates with well arranged presentations. Americans are used to mega portions, and these seemed to be a good compromise between elegance and generosity. The decor of the place is so retro that I wasn't entirely sure whether it's an example of the latest thing in post post-modernism or a total lapse of stylistic savoir faire. Given the sophistication of the cuisine, I assumed the former.

From there, my guides and hosts Chef-Professor Fran McFadden of Drexel University, and Donna Maguire who runs the training restaurant at the University, led me further down Walnut Street to the former Philadelphia Stock Exchange Building which is now a very handsome restaurant called The Striped Bass. It's amazing what a glass of champagne will do to restore one's appetite. We tucked into some very juicy oysters and a salad of peeky-toe crab. There's nowt but fish on the menu at the Striped Bass, and although fish is in abundance everywhere in Philly, this very buzzy and exciting venue probably offers the widest and most innovative selection. We peeked in at the wine cellar which is probably the most secure in the world, located as it is in the old vaults behind the largest steel door I've ever clapped eyes on.

By now I was glad to be able to walk the short distance back along Walnut (past other restaurants that caught my eye) to the Latham Hotel above left where I was to spend the first two nights of my visit.

I was picked up very early the following morning to be taken to Nifty Fifty's in South Philadelphia. It's a real all-American diner with in-yer-face fluorescent lighting, neon signs, bright red banquette seating and enough chrome to deck out a 1953 Lincoln - all it lacked was the fins. It's the best place for breakfast in a city that's so hot on breakfast it's cool! We had omelettes, pancakes, French toast, scrapple, hash browns and eggs over easy. This is where you need an American-English dictionary. I'm not going to translate now, you probably know it already, but if you don't, motor on down to Fifty's and learn the enjoyable way!

I was glad we had eaten breakfast early because we went for lunch to Le Bec-Fin, the flagship restaurant of the aforementioned Georges Perrier. This is generally accepted as the best restaurant outside of an hotel in Philadelphia. Its greatest rival is in the other category, being the restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel, of which more later.

As you can see from the sketch, the dining room is very Versailles, rather formal (gentlemen should wear a jacket and tie), to the extent of service involving silver domes, a custom relegated in London at least to the most old fashioned of hotel dining rooms. I was just recounting our amusement at a recent dome debacle involving dishes set before the wrong diners, when as if to illustrate my point, it happened again, at Le Bec-Fin. The waiter's composure slipped for a fraction of a second only.

Another rather old fashioned touch is the dessert trolley. But this is a trolley of such magnificence, on such a grand scale, and with such a super-abundance of patisserie that it is an institution that should never be threatened by change. Old fashioned it may be, skilfully fashioned it mostly is.

After lunch I begged to be allowed to pop along the street to the Latham for a little lie down, but first I wandered around on foot, spying out other restaurants. I was much taken by Le Colonial also on Walnut Street which is Philadelphia's leading restaurant row. Le Colonial has been open a year, definitely a child of the culinary revolution that is sweeping the English speaking world at present. The cuisine is Vietnamese, but the more obvious Oriental theme-restaurant approach has been avoided. Instead, a colonial French atmosphere has been invoked, which reminded me rather of New Orleans. I suppose that figures!

In the evening I was taken to an excellent BYO (bring your own) restaurant called Restaurant Nan, where the food is cooked by a Thai chef. The cuisine is fusion leaning more towards European styles than oriental. BYO is popular in Philly because of the high price of wine owing to the State monopoly on liquor sales. I don't know how they get away with it in this day and age!

I have to admit that at the end of day two, I felt rather like a stuffed goose, with a foie that was extremely gras!

I also spent some time in the training kitchens at Drexel University where the students were preparing dishes according the recipes of one of the cooks whose book was to be featured in The Book and the Cook Festival. I have been woking in London with Drexel students who come here to study Continental and Ethnic Cuisines.

I had been looking forward to the fair because I was hoping to meet chefs and taste signature dishes. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, as there were long lines of punters queuing up for little dollops of food on tiny plastic plates, not a good advertisement for the restaurants who'd troubled to attend. It was interesting to note that few of the leading eateries were represented.

The fair itself (not the Festival) was provincial in conception, and you could have saved the more metropolitan $25 entrance fee by walking across the road from the Convention Center to the Reading Terminal Market. Here, in what used to be the railway terminus, is a bustling farmers' market, with stalls piled high with cornucopias of superb produce, fresh fish, fresh and cooked meats, pies, pastries, waffles and heaven knows what else. Many of the prepared foods come from the traditional kitchens of the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish communities. For $25 you'd eat like a king and take home fresh asparagus at 99 cents a fat bunch, pig's trotters to stuff with the morels from the next door stand, and oysters, crab and clams. A community may be judged by the quality of its markets, and this is one of the best I've seen anywhere in the world.

I now decamped to the Four Seasons Hotel for a bit of treat for a couple of nights. Typical of the Four Seasons brand is the liberal use of space in the major public rooms, coupled with an equally liberal use of the finest materials: the woods used in the panelling are really spectacular and the floral arrangements are stunning.

We ate dinner in the Swann Brasserie, and chatted up the staff a bit, so that the chef of the adjacent Fountain Restaurant - pictured left - sent us some little bonnes bouches for us to sample from his menu. I'll describe this very splendid dinner in the detail it deserves later on.

Sunday was to be a day of rest, at least partly. Some very old friends drove in to Philly and took me out to their lovely farm on the Brandywine river. The only concession to work was a visit to the Chaddsford Winery where we tasted some excellent locally made Pennsylvanian wines. I was impressed and I promise some tasting notes to follow. We also visited the Brandywine River Museum Art Gallery where the work of three generations of the Wyeth family is displayed. This is well worth a visit. Jamie Wyeth's huge painting of a pig is just about the best animal picture I've seen since those of Stubbs.

On my last evening I enjoyed the highlight of my trip. However good the restaurants of any city may be, the very best gourmet experiences are always at the home dining table of a good cook! I was lucky to be in the exquisite surroundings of Mr & Mrs Michael Adams' home overlooking the woodlands of the park. I've never before seen oriental antiques so effectively displayed in a domestic context. We had the services of three brilliant chefs, all connected with the Drexel University culinary arts program which is part of Nesbit College of which Professor Adams is Dean. We washed down some delicious Californian Foie Gras with some 1988 Rieussec, and the perfectly cooked veal chops with the 1982 Haut-Batailley. Philadelphians sure know a thing or two about hospitality!

I spent my last morning exploring the area around University City, with the campuses of the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University jostling cheek by jowl. University City has its own restaurant row on Sansom Street, and we popped in to The White Dog for a light lunch. A few doors up is the rather chic looking French restaurant La Terrasse.

Clifford Mould March 1999