Hospital Closings

There are all these rumors flying around that Methodist Hospital in South Philly is closing. This is in addition to Northeastern Hospital in NE Philadelphia already closing! If Methodist Hospital closes, that will really put other hospitals in a difficult position. If the other city hospitals are anything like Pennsylvania Hospital, they're already overfilled with patients currently. How are they going to handle the load and stress of another hospital closing? It's a very sad state of affairs when hospitals have to close because they're losing money.

Zahav

We went to Zahav last night for restaurant week. It's supposed to be a modern Israeli restaurant, and it was spectacular. A nice treat on a non-call and non-post-call night. Sometimes restaurant week is hit or miss because some restaurants become overloaded with customers and they're not used to - so the service goes downhill as well as the food. I think the really good restaurants though, ones that are often busy all the time and are used to the customer load, do just as well during restaurant week as they do during other times.

Last night, they started us off with some pickles and olives, and then brought some large trays of amazing hummus with this homemade bread called laffa that reminded me of naan. Then they brought an appetizer of 8 different vegetables/salads prepared different ways: pickled turnips, beets, carrots in a peppery marinade, cucumbers, a pepper pesto, eggplant, and a couple other things I can't remember off the top of my head. They were all excellent - the beets were my favorite, as well as the table's favorite.

Then we each got to choose two appetizers and an entree. As you can imagine, there was a lot of sharing. I personally ordered the fried cauliflower (one of their specialties) and mini stuffed peppers. The fried cauliflower was soooo good. Pete got bulgar wheat stuffed with ground lamb (sort of like an empanada) and chopped liver. It was probably the best chopped liver I've ever had. From other people at the table, I also tried the fried sheep's milk cheese, which was amazingly tasty and rich, and also these leek and mint fritters, which were mild, but I thought really really good and creamy.

For entrees, we all got similar items. I got a ground beef and lamb entree (the "bulgarian) while Pete got a ground beef and lamb sausage ("Monsieur Merguez"), which was very very tasty, with good spiciness and texture. Then for dessert we shared a cashew baklava with white chocolate argan ice cream and a "konafi" which looked a little bit like sugar and chocolate deep fried noodles, topped with ice cream.

I think I'm still full. :)

Korean food in Philly

We've been really getting into the Korean food lately. There's an asian grocery store called H-Mart near the 69th street station, and on the second floor, there's a Korean fast food court. It's great. There's Korean food, Japanese food (with a Korean accent), Chinese food (with a Korean accent), a Korean bakery, and even a place that sells fried chicken (with a Korean accent). We always go to the Korean fast food counter - it's soooo good. They have all sorts of barbecued meats, soups, fish, tofu, you name it. Some of it's not spicy at all, but some of it is pretty spicy (one or two peppers on the menu). I think my favorite is the marinated beef short ribs. TASTY. And it's so cool - all the dishes come with rice (or noodles depending on whether you get a rice dish or a soup dish), maybe soup, and about 3 or 4 other small side dishes. They always give you kimchee, and the other 2 or 3 might be things like pickled vegetables, broccoli, bean sprouts, tofu, whatever. Even better, they recently put up pictures with their entrees, so now I'm not stuck wondering if that's what I got last time, or if that's something I'd like to try. I had been thinking of starting to take pictures with my cell phone and labeling them with the menu order number. Not a bad idea huh?

So for Pete's birthday yesterday, we went to a new Korean place, in the same general vicinity. However, this was an actual sit-down place where you order and they take it to you at your table, and you get tea and water and everything. It's called Moo Jin Jang. I didn't even realize it had my name in it until I got the receipt. I think it was a good omen. It's not a fancy place - there's no alcohol, they serve the tea in big plastic pitchers (not even a teapot), and the menu is this laminated card on every table that lists about 20 choices. The one waitress was the only one that spoke English, and I think she translated for her mom and dad. But everything still looked good. I only recognized maybe half of the menu - all the other items listed things I had never heard of before. I was tempted to try one, but I stayed with tried and true. I ordered the barbecued pork (spicy) and Pete got the beef short ribs. DELICIOUS!! And unlike the little fast food counter, this meal came with about 8 different little side dishes - it was great. We got fish, broccoli, bean sprouts, kimchee, pickled vegetables, hot pickled vegetables, little meatballs (which I think were marinated hot dogs), pickled potatoes, I can't remember them all. It was a lot of food, and of course I took it home. I'm pretty sure we'll go back at some point.