Philadelphia: City of Granddaughterly Love, Part Deux

When I last left off, Izzy, Bubba, and I had finished our second museum of the day, and it was nearing 2:00. We were feeling peckish, so Izzy shepherded us to a wonderful little place called Barbuzzo, where we shared some incredible food for a late lunch.

Debating over the menu, we eventually settled on sharing the cured meat board and the shaved asparagus pizza with guanciale and a truffled egg.

Both were amazing, and not just because we were famished by that time. It was difficult restraining ourselves from finishing it all, because we had a reservation a few hours later for dinner.

We rolled out of Barbuzzo about an hour later and headed back to Izzy's house to nap and freshen up before dinner.  Izzy and her partner, Dane, had been debating between several restaurants for our meal that evening, but once they learned that Zahav had an opening at 7:30, it clinched their decision.

Well, it was a great choice. I've been to quite a few Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurants before, but never one that was specifically an Israeli restaurant, and I ended up just loving it.  Izzy had requested a quiet table, and we were rewarded when we walked in by being taken to a side room with a banquette draped in soft curtains that leant a real sense of privacy. Dane and DH chatted about their respective trips to Jerusalem, while Izzy and I listened with a certain rapt attention, but then it was time to order.

DH, Izzy, Dane

My lovely granddaughter and me

DH and me

Zahav is a tapas-style restaurant, but since Dane doesn't eat some meats, we decided to just order what sounded best to each individual. I loved all of my dishes and some of the ones the others ordered, too, but I also loved my cocktails. I ordered the Desert Rose, comprising gin, hibiscus, grapefruit, and cucumber because it sounded refreshing and not too sweet, and I ended up drinking three of them over the course of the night. But who could resist such a brilliant red drink like that, I ask you?

Our menu

We ordered the salad sampler for the table, which was six small plates of various kinds of vegetable preps, of which all were pretty good, but two were amazing: a smoky eggplant dish and a savory beet dish.  They don't look especially appetizing here, but believe me when I say the flavors were very interesting and well-balanced.

The eggplant and beets are in the foreground.

I ended up ordering the crispy halloumi, which is a kind of cheese, which was accompanied by dates and pickled onions, plus the fried cauliflower served with chive, mint, and garlic. Both were outstanding.  Also at the table were crispy lamb's tongue (not bad), grilled eggplant, kofte (a meatball made with lamb & beef), plus a few other things I no longer remember.  I think I liked my dishes best.  

My frickin' delicious haloumi

The unattractive but amazing cauliflower

The kofte

Grilled eggplant

We ordered dessert more because we wanted our evening to continue, rather than we were still hungry or actively craving something sweet. The desserts were fine but nothing special. One was a semifreddo with ginger and cantaloupe and the other was similar to a bread pudding in texture.  Neither one is particularly beautiful, I'm afraid. 

We Uber'd our way back to Izzy and Dane's neighborhood, where we stopped in at their local watering hole to have one last drink for the night, but then we had to beg off. I had definitely imbibed more than my usual amount, but I felt liberated by Uber 'cause I'm usually the designated driver. 

The four of us at their neighborhood bar

Despite the fact that our train left early on Saturday afternoon, Izzy had a very full day planned for us, including brunch, a stop at Reading Terminal, and one last museum visit.  We began our day at Honey's, which was pleasant enough, but not amazing.  I enjoyed my pancakes with bananas and pecans and everybody else seemed to enjoy theirs, too.

After brunch, we dropped Dane back at home so that the three of us could head out to the Rodin Museum.  Our admission to the Philadelphia Museum of Art the day before entitled us to next-day admission to the Rodin, so off we went. 

It's a small museum but well done.  I never would have pegged myself as someone particularly interested in sculpture before, but I have to say, there were multiple pieces there that I could have looked at for hours. 

The iconic Thinker 

The Kiss

The Kiss

Cathedral. This might have been my favorite.

I was taken with this one because of the
unusual model -- one doesn't often see
skinny, old, women modeling like this.

St John the Baptist 

It didn't take us long to see our fill, so we headed toward Rittenhouse Square for a little people watching before hying ourselves off the Reading Terminal. It was a cool but beautiful late morning and we enjoyed the people watching opportunities.  I also enjoyed seeing the blooming window boxes, as spring is much further along in Philly than at home, and seeing some of the buildings.

After nearly an hour of people watching on an uncomfortable park bench, we started suffering from Numb Bum syndrome, so it was time to head to Reading Terminal.  This place was staggering in the variety of food it offered, not to mention the variety of humanity that was on display there.  It's row upon row of food and foodstuffs, and woe betide you if you enter there hungry. 

Cheese, glorious cheese

I mean, if you're gonna eat salami, it might as well be hard

Yum. BBQ.

This place was outrageous.  I'm not actually super-comfortable in crowded spaces like that, but with all of that food to focus on, I was doing pretty well.  It's amazing that the three of us didn't get separated, now that I think about it. 

DH and I had to hand it to Izzy -- she had planned a superb visit for us and we both left Philly feeling very impressed and with a desire to visit again.  Basically 30 hours in the city, and we did three museums, three restaurants, and Reading Terminal. Not too shabby.  

And it came to pass that it was time for us to board our train back home, feeling very sassified with our brief trip but sad to say goodbye to Izzy.  We can't wait to go back to visit!