In short
Podcast Notes: This Is TASTE - Episode 576
Episode Overview
- Title: TASTE Travels: Eating Really Well In Philadelphia with Tyler Akin and Muhammad Abdul-Hadi
- Hosts: Aliza Abarbanel and Matt Rodbard
- Description: In this episode, Matt Rodbard visits Philadelphia, exploring its vibrant food scene, featuring interviews with local chefs and discussions on culinary discoveries.
Key Highlights
Philadelphia Food Scene
- Matt highlights Philadelphia as one of America's great food cities, noting his visits to bakeries, coffee shops, and a unique cookbook store.
- He emphasizes the variety and quality of restaurants, mentioning how the food landscape has transformed over the past two decades.
Guest Interviews
Tyler Akin - Chef at Bastia
- Cuisine Focus: Celebrates foods from Corsica and Sardinia, showcasing distinct culinary traditions.
- Concept Development: Tyler shares his journey, explaining how his deep dive into Corsican cuisine influenced the restaurant's concept.
- Dishes Discussed:
- Cured honey crisp apple with Lanzu (a type of cheese).
- Swordfish dish highlighting its local availability and flavor potential.
Muhammad Abdul-Hadi - Owner of Down North Pizza
- Mission: Focuses on hiring individuals impacted by the carceral system, aiming to reduce recidivism through employment.
- Pizza Styles: Incorporates a range of flavors including plant-based options and turkey-based pizzas.
- Wings: Offers in-house sauces with unique flavors, emphasizing a well-rounded menu.
Dining Recommendations
- Bastia: Noted for its beautiful presentation and use of high-quality ingredients.
- Down North Pizza: Celebrated for its mission-driven ethos and unique pizza offerings.
Notable Mentions
- Restaurants Featured:
- Kalaya (Thai cuisine)
- Fork
- Mighty Bread
- Isgro Pastries
- New June
- Loratta's
Cultural Insights
- The conversation touches on the sense of community among chefs in Philadelphia, emphasizing collaboration over competition.
- References to cultural landmarks and the city's rich history, including influence from famed chefs and iconic dishes.
Key Takeaways
- Philly's Culinary Growth: The food scene has expanded dramatically, with a diverse range of offerings from various cultures.
- Chef Community: Chefs in Philadelphia share a collaborative spirit, often recommending each other’s restaurants.
- Social Responsibility: Down North Pizza exemplifies how food businesses can engage in social change by addressing systemic issues through employment.
Conclusion The episode paints a vibrant picture of Philadelphia's food culture through insightful discussions and personal experiences in the culinary landscape. Matt Rodbard's encounters with local chefs and their unique stories underscore the importance of food as a means of community building and cultural exchange.
---
For more information and updates, visit [TASTE Cooking](https://tastecooking.com) and consider subscribing to the podcast for future episodes.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:28This episode is brought to you by Resi and American Express. You know, when I started pounding the pavement with a resume in hand after I'd made the decision to move up, you know, there were maybe four or five restaurants that I felt like I truly would have been happy to work at. And, you know, now I think if I were a line cook, aspiring sous chef in my mid-20s, like, there might be 30 or 40 restaurants I'd put in the same boat. This is Taste. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard. I'm so excited to bring you this episode. Recently, I headed out of the studio to visit Philadelphia, one of America's great food cities, to check out the scene and report back on my findings.
1:09I visited bakeries, coffee shops, and stopped by a really cool cookbook store. I felt the incredible spice and vibes at Kalaya and met a bunch of new friends along the way. On this episode, I speak with Tyler Aiken, the chef at Bastia, an incredible tribute to Sardinian and Corsican cooking. I also catch up with Mohamed Abdul-Habdi, who runs the mission-driven Down North Pizza and is the author of a terrific new cookbook, We the Pizza. And throughout the episode, Eliza and I catch up about some of my dining experiences and discoveries. I've been visiting Philly for almost 20 years and so enjoy bringing this great city to you, the listener.
1:47I hope you enjoy this special episode of Taste Travels.
1:55Tyler Akin, welcome to This is Taste. How are you? I'm doing great, and thank you for having me. I'm really excited to talk to you. I had an incredible visit to Philly, and in this episode, I have many spots to call out, and Bastia is certainly one of the highlights. I love what you're doing, and I think we're going to get into some of your career. But I wanted to get a sense about the style of the cuisine and, you know, you're centering Basti around the foods of Corsica and Sardinia. And tell me just like what does that mean? Our listeners, I've never been there, so I don't know. I've had your food.
2:29What does that mean when you think about those two locations? So, you know, there are some commonalities, but, of course, like very distinct in their own ways and distinct from their mother countries in both cases. Right. So Corsica, you know, you'll encounter people speaking French more often than not. And Sardinia, likewise with Italian. But in each case, you know, very independent people who have a very strong identity of their own. And I think, you know, in the late night conversations that I had and I was lucky enough to visit kind of in the in the offseason. Both islands deal with an influx of kind of wealthy European tourists from roughly May through September, October.
3:22And my extended trip to both islands fell outside that. So the people really had time to give me. And what I found over and over in these conversations is that they think of themselves as Corsicans or Sardinians, respectively, first. And, you know, French or Italian second. I just, you know, like the topography of the island spoke to me. It felt like almost a Wild West culture, you know, where people are wearing knives on their hips. Yeah. You know, not to engage in battle, but to, you know, cut charcuterie and cheese. But really just like this, you know, especially when you're there in the offseason, it feels like almost undiscovered.
4:07And you're a bit of a curiosity even being there at all. But I found them incredibly welcoming and the food in both cases to be, you know, something that really spoke to me. Yeah. What drew you to the cuisine? I mean, did you want to do a coastal concept with this restaurant? Did you feel like there were certain dishes that were firmly Sardinian that you wanted? I mean, or had you traveled in Italy and decided you wanted to do more of an island Italian menu? I mean, your own history is you've certainly cooked Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. But there must have been something that drew you there.
4:45Yeah, basically, yes, you know, to all of those questions. When we set out to open this restaurant, it was not clear that this was going to be the concept, you know, per se. But there was a desire, you know, among the stakeholders, you know, myself, you know, the husband-wife team that really led the development of the hotel, you know, that this should be some novel, you know, kind of take on Mediterranean food. You know, I think that we've all encountered restaurants that are sort of French, Italian, coastal, and that's great. And there's certainly a lot of fertile ground, I think, along, you know, the Riviera as it bleeds into northwestern Italy.
5:29a lot of mixing and blending and plenty of things to play with there. This just felt like something that would give me an opportunity to really sink my teeth in and explore something new. I had begun to deep dive three or four years ago on Corsican Food. A friend of mine who had been a chef I worked under in D.C. at Comey, John Seibert, who's chef owner at Tail Up Goat now, he was going to come up to my restaurant in Wilmington, Delaware to collaborate. And their concept is sort of broadly island food, not just Mediterranean. And, you know, we kind of found common ground in Corsica because the restaurant where he was to cook was, it's a brasserie.
6:20and the dinner never happened, but I had amassed like every English language and, you know, easier to understand even French language books about Corsican cuisine as I prepared for this dinner and just really started going down the rabbit hole. Wow. So it was always in the back of your head and then this opportunity comes up. It had been. And I was lucky enough to have partners in this, you know, at Hotel Anna and Belle who were trusting. and I think, you know, although it on paper obviously looks very like obscure and niche, you know, really embraced it and trusted me to bring this vision to life.
6:59Well, we'll talk about what, of course, the kind and serenity in food means in your lexicon in the kitchen with some highlights of some of your cooking there because I really did have some highlights and we'll get into some of the details, but I want to zoom out and talk about Philadelphia and, you know, your place there is firm. I mean, my friend Aaron was a huge fan of Res Ipsa, your last restaurant. And you really captured the city's attention. Tell me a little bit about your relationship with Philly. I know you haven't lived there your whole life. And a little bit about how you view the dining scene there.
7:32So having grown up in Wilmington, Delaware, which is 30 minutes south of Philly, you know, everybody is a Philadelphia sports fan. It was truly the big city for us. If we were playing hooky during high school, it was to run up to South Street and get a cheesesteak. And, you know, it was a different era of retail on that on that street. But where you could like actually kind of spend a day and entertain yourself. You know, so Philly has always been like, you know, a big part of my identity, I guess, you know. Um, and it just seemed like, you know, at the same time, I think DC's food scene was taking off and I felt as though, you know, I had, um, had a really great time down there for sure.
8:22Um, you know, some, there were some reasons that I wanted to be closer to home at the time. This was around 2010, 11. Um, and it was apparent that things were like about to pop off in Philly. And, you know, really already were. But the proliferation in the meantime, the last 15 years is just incredible. I mean, it's like I've said this before, but, you know, when I started pounding the pavement with a resume in hand after I'd made the decision to move up, you know, there were maybe four or five restaurants that I felt like I truly would have been happy to work at and proud to, you know, spend some time with.
9:01And, you know, now I think if I were a line cook aspiring sous chef in my mid 20s, like there might be 30 or 40 restaurants. Totally. Put in the same boat. I mean, it's just amazing. The quality for the size of the city is is is remarkable to me. And I'm very fortunate to travel the States a bit. And, you know, it's like every five feet there's like great restaurants in Philly. I know that's generalization, but I just, and you'll hear in this episode, all the spots I get to go to. What's the community like? Is it a cool vibe, like with all the restaurants? I mean, do you feel like you're competing or what's it like?
9:41I do think that most chefs have a competitive streak, you know, however you dress it up in public. And, you know, deep down, it's kind of, you know, there is a bit of that always. I think, you know, in my mind, when I look around and think about it, sort of organized a little bit by like Family Tree tracing to these kind of what may now be considered institution restaurants, you know. So there's like the folks who came from Vetri, the folks who came from Cook and Solo, you know, in more recent years, the past decade, you know, like places like Vernick have established a really incredible Family Tree.
10:25Betia now has it too. Sure. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And we're lucky enough to have a couple X, you know, Betia folks in our walls. But yeah, I mean, that is how I broadly think about it. But, you know, when we all see each other at these big off-site events and these occasions where, you know, we get to mingle all in one place, you know, it's congenial. It's cordial. Oh, yeah. You're fighting for the same audience, of course. It's in their slow parts of the year. Can't forget Ellen Yen as well. That is a massive mistake that I forgot. No, it's not a mistake. If you're talking about Family Trees in Philadelphia, there may not be a stronger one than hers.
11:11Yeah. You know, and then like the Perrier folks who came out of Quebec, you know, and there's obviously crossover and people who spend time in various camps. But, you know, those restaurants are the gift that keep on giving. You know, you can tell, sometimes we'll be staging a perspective higher and you can, you know, if you watch them closely, you can sort of see who they've cooked under. Oh, wow. You know, I feel as though I know people's styles like well enough and the working habits within those kitchens and the cultures that you can sort of identify that readily. Let me ask you, and I didn't prep you for this question, so maybe you don't know, but Le Becfin.
11:56Yes. I wonder about this restaurant because that was for a long time going back, you know, the 80s and 90s, 2000s. I mean, this is like considered by many the city's best restaurant, most established restaurant. What's your take on that restaurant? It closed not that many years ago as well. Yeah. It's sort of the granddaddy of them all. Yeah. I went to a culinary school outside of D.C. called l 'Académie de Cuisine, which, you know, the whole faculty was ex-White House, ex-French Embassy. And I mean, they would talk reverently about Georges Perrier. Yeah. And we'll ignore the fact that I never got a call back when I dropped my resume there.
12:44This does happen. Sort of in the twilight of its run. But yeah, I mean, like the spread of technique, of this super high standard of both service and food execution, I really think it's all traceable to Lebec Fenn for sure. Yeah. You know, and people have all kinds of things to say about the personality and the culture, but you can't deny what it gave us. Yeah. Yeah. Tyler, thanks for sharing some great history about Philly because I think some of our listeners might not realize these deeply rooted restaurants and why this culture for all the places you mentioned, the culture is really strong in cooking there.
13:32I want to talk about your food now. I have some highlights that I would say really struck me as exceptional. I mentioned it on three things I think on the show when I got back. There's a cured honey crisp apple with Lanzu. Now, this dish, really delicious, really exciting, and really, it felt complicated. And I'd love to get a sense of what you're thinking about with apples and pork and the way this all works together. Yeah. You know, it's interesting that you call it complicated because I actually think of that as a really simple dish. Every chef says that, by the way. Just saying it. Sorry. You know, I think like the seed for the idea of that dish, when I arrived in Corsica, I kind of beelined from Ajaxia where I'd landed, rented a car, went straight to Bastia, arrived there the night before their kind of big like Saturday.
14:26this huge, well, not huge, but it's a sizable street market, you know, all kinds of vendors from the region, producers in the central square of the city. You know, so it was like my first experience was a real immersion into the producers. And I love the idea of really selectively, you know, sourcing ingredients and like not manipulating them too much. And I think that, you know, when I had that first day at the market, I quickly latched on to this young woman. Her name was Alexia Guyen, and she operated a charcuterie business called Les Delices de Castellu. She's producing this incredibly natural, like beautiful charcuterie on CapCourse, just north of Bastia.
15:23And, you know, she kind of took me around like, and her cheese is incredible too. But took me to the, you know, kind of said, this is where these guys have the best honey. in my opinion she had the best cheese in charcuterie and you know so I was in an Airbnb and that night it was kind of like I had the bounty that I put together you know throughout that day and it was you know Coppa and Lanzu and you know prosciutto as they call it and various cheeses and Tom cheese which speaks to me I think like it's a real it's a humble cheese it's like sort of the what's It's made with the dairy that's left over after the fancier cheeses are made.
16:13And I really like the idea of, you know, again, just like putting great ingredients together. And, you know, I do, this will sound like apocryphal maybe, but I do remember eating Tom and Lanzu and honey like all in one bite. It made sense to me. It felt like it needed some acid. It felt like it maybe needed something verdant, you know. So when that became a dish, you know, we added the Honeycrisp apples, which we compress with liquid that we made to kind of resemble the profile of a Honeycrisp, you know? So trying to mimic that balance of like sour, sweet, you know? So it's honey, it's verjus, it's apple cider vinegar.
16:58We compress that into the apple. and then a very simple tarragon emulsion is on that dish. Really, really cool to hear the story about that. And yeah, the apples, I thought, the way that you balanced it with the verjus and the acidity, delicious dish. This episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. If you're one of those last minute shoppers, you might know the feeling. Ideas are running low and the clock is ticking. Here's a fun idea, Aura Frames. AuraFrames is the solution with a GIF that feels personal, a little curated, and sent with love. And a GIF that can be purchased in no time with a few clicks of the mouse.
17:39AuraFrames are great. They sent me one to check out, and it was really cool and dumb simple to set up. I loaded photos using the app, and it was displaying them instantly. There are no limits to the amount of photos you can load, and you can customize messages with each photo. And here's the deal. You can preload an Aura frame with photos and have it directly sent to that special person in your life, gift-wrapped and all. There will be no price tag, and you can include a personalized message. Think about it. All those photos from this past summer's family reunion delivered in a digital frame. That is pretty cool.
18:13For a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting AuraFrames.com to get$35 off Aura's best-selling Carver Matte Frames, named number one by Wirecutter, by using promo code TASTE at checkout. That's A-U-R-A frames dot com, promo code TASTE. The deal is exclusive to listeners and frames sell out fast, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. From February 20th to March 7th, dive into Canada's biggest culinary festival, Montreal en Lumière, an exclusive partnership with the McCord Stewart Museum and its exhibition, On the Menu Montreal, a restaurant story.
18:58The 2026 festival invites food lovers on a flavorful journey through time. Montreal's top restaurateurs will reimagine 65 years of the city's iconic astronomy, crafting inventive, nostalgia-inspired dishes with a modern twist. Prepare your palate. World-renowned chefs, including several Michelin-starred talents, will team up with over 80 of Montreal's finest local chefs to create unforgettable, one-of-a-kind menus. The full program is available at MontrealOnLumiere.com, presented by Lotto Quebec in collaboration with National Bank. So you named this restaurant after this town in Corsica. Yeah.
19:38I mean, that's a statement. I mean, first of all, you must love this town. And second off, what's this town all about? This is cool. Yeah. They were, you know, it's funny because we had sort of landed on that name already before my big trip over there. And they thought it was like hilarious. Like not in a way that was derogatory or anything, but they thought it was like interesting to say the least. It would be like some French chef showing up and saying, I'm going to open a restaurant called Philadelphia. Yeah, I was thinking more of a hipsy personally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's a legitimate city.
20:15It's the second largest city in Corsica. And, you know, we were looking at, you know, places that would kind of, you know, it's historically a port, you know, mercantile city and wanted to, you know, evoke like, you know, the spirit of exchange, I think. And, you know, it seemed like to me from afar, a place that embodied that. And, you know, sure enough, through my exploration, I think the idea was vindicated. I mean, when you're named the number one restaurant for Philadelphia Magazine, do you think you get some press out in Bastia that this restaurant in Philly is is getting all this great press named after this town?
21:00So I did. I made some friends there who I've kept in touch with either through like Instagram or WhatsApp, you know, some folks who are making wine in Patrimonio. Like there's an incredible natural wine scene there. You know, some of the producers who I met on the very first day. And ultimately, I keyed in with a group of folks who, you know, the gentleman who owned several restaurants is the he kind of. heads up this slow food Corsica organization. So he opened a lot of doors for me. And as these, you know, accolades have trickled in, you know, I've shared them, you know, almost like kind of running to like your parents as a high schooler, like looking for validation or something.
21:49But they're like really incredibly proud that somebody's doing Corsican-inspired food. And it's not strictly Corsican, but, you know, I think they're They're proud. They must be. And I would imagine that the mayor is going to give you a key one day to saying that. That would be amazing. Yeah, maybe you'll go back there and have some pop-ups. Yeah. It'd be pretty fun. Swordfish. I want to hear from a chef. I've seen it pop up a lot recently, which is, it's really cool. Yep. Because, like, even five years ago, and definitely 10 years ago, the least cool fish. Yeah. Like, considered pedestrian, considered dry.
22:27I mean, there's like a lot of negativity around swordfish. But I want to ask a chef about, you know, you're cooking with it. What are you doing with it? And what draws you to the swordfish? I think what draws me to the swordfish is exactly what you just said, like the association with it being dry. I don't think I ate properly cooked swordfish until I was maybe in my late 20s. And when I finally did, it was a revelation. You know, this thing that, you know, maybe like growing up, we picked up a couple pounds, you know, when it was on sale at Pathmark or something and invariably kind of, you know, cooked it to all hell.
23:07You grilled it. I mean, people end up using it. And you know more than anyone, you know, grilling fish is not for the novice. Yes. So I think that the beauty of swordfish, A, is like it's local. For much of the year, it's accessible to mid-Atlantic-based fishermen. These migratory fish, they're off our coast. So there's that, which is great. And we try to embrace that as much as possible.
23:45It's like a sponge for flavor. That's what my impression is. It's a relatively neutral flavored fish with a lot of opportunity to go crazy as a chef. Yeah, you can. And, you know, our treatment of it is pretty traditional. We marinate it with something that's like equal parts salmurillo, which is a Sicilian base, like typically lemon, garlic, olive oil, oregano, maybe another herb or two. So we kind of break that with our very rustic salsa verde. That becomes the marinade. And, you know, it gives it a cool green color, which I always like. I think the first time I encountered green meat, I was like, oh, that's weird.
24:33And then you realize it's always better. Funny. That's so perceptive. Green meat is always better. It is. You're right. Like a chicken that's green. Think about the best chickens. Green. Yeah. Even steak. Yeah, verde, persossa verde, yeah. Yeah, so, but that, like, when you hit that sort of, like, maybe it's a couple degrees past medium rare, you know, it's just that, like, barely set flesh. It's perfect. It's just, it's a magical fish. It's very cool. Yeah. Well, there's so many other highlights, and really, we could talk all day. I think you just need to go to Boston and check out the restaurant, and I have some other comments about it later on the show.
25:13Now, I want to ask you about running a restaurant in a cool hotel. I mean, quite the party. I had a good time. It seemed like it was kind of the scene. I love that. But that's a different type of restaurant when you're operating in this boutique hotel and you've got people from all over the world staying there and eating there versus being on the street. I love to hear about, as a chef and an operator, what's it like being in the hotel where the room's upstairs, you can drink as much as you want. It's got to be a unique dynamic. It is. We're situated in a relatively small hotel. We have 50 keys.
25:51So this restaurant was never going to sink or swim on the basis of hotel occupancy. We really needed to make it clear that, first and foremost, we are an independent restaurant that is part of the community, part of Fishtown, where I've lived since moving to Philly 15 years ago. and so on the one hand yeah there's like there's also a little bit of an uphill battle because i think there's a bit of a stigma around hotel restaurants generally um you know so we were very intentional and conscientious about that and you know really again putting ourselves out there is like an indie um but yes having that steady stream of people from around the country especially a property like this that I think attracts creatives largely it is it's a gift even if we're doing 160 covers or something on a Friday night 20 or 30 of them are from some other city reliably which in a place like Philly is not necessarily the case you know I think part of why I want to do this episode is because I love your city so much But I don't think people visited enough.
27:08I mean, it's so close to New York. I think people come from California, go to New York. They don't go to Philly. I mean, they should change that, right? Well, yeah, I mean, yes. Short answer, yes. You know, we've got the Barnes Foundation. We've got Longwood Gardens. We've got the, you know, PMA is amazing. There's the sports and, you know, the cultural institutions on South Broad. There's plenty to do. It is cheaper than New York. I think that, you know, some people will criticize this maybe, but like there is many good restaurants in Philly, I think. Well, maybe not. I mean, I like where you're going.
27:53New York's huge. New York's huge. However, you know, like. Per capita? There are plenty. Yeah, per capita. I think it's a pretty good number probably. And I think that, you know, how many restaurants can you really go to in visiting Philly for a week or a long weekend? You know, so like you've got all your meal periods for all those days covered and then some. Absolutely. Well said. I think you're not being controversial because I think per capita is probably more restaurants of quality in Philly than in New York. I mean, that's that's that's that's probably undisputed. I'll just say that. But yeah, it's just such a creative, creative culinary scene.
28:26I mean, the Barnes and you mentioned the cultural reasons to go. You have the Super Bowl coming in 26. and I talked to Mark Vetri, I think last year, and he was like, they've got the Super Bowl and you've got the World Cup and you've got the 1770, the 250 year. Yeah. It's going to be a big 26 for you. It is going to be a hell of a time. And, you know, it seems like the Tourism Bureau, the Visit Philly is geared up for it. Yeah. You know, I think the city's done this before when the Pope came. I think we're ready for it. It's going to be amazing. Love it. Yeah. But let's close and just I'd love to get a sense of your places that you like restaurant wise that are not Bastia.
Read the full transcript
29:05You know, I know you're just speaking with you off mic and I know you're a huge fan of restaurants. You go out, you're here in New York right now going up to restaurants too. But like where do you like to go in Philly for a meal? Yeah. So I've got two buckets. One bucket is a place where like the kids can act however they're going to act and it's not going to be a problem. And I love those restaurants very much. You know, the places that I would say the, you know, date night kind of more, maybe not the kind of place that, you know, you want the kids to bust out like a coloring book. You know, I love the new High Street that Ellen opened last year.
29:47The pizza, in my opinion, is the best in Philadelphia. It's fantastic. The pastas, while like a very different style from what we do at Bastia, are really special and unique. Really excited to see what Sam Henze does. New executive chef at Fork. Came from Middle Child and Wernick before that. Spent time with Mina. I mean, he's like a pasta whiz and a really great dude. I love Kalaya, of course. What a special restaurant. I mean, really, I gave it as much praise as I could. Yeah. I was fortunate to eat a lot of Thai in New York and L.A. Yeah. Nothing better. Nothing better in those cities. I think you might be right.
30:31And, you know, Mon, shout out to Pila, who was a chef at Stock, which was something I closed during the pandemic. But Pila, Cambodian-American chef, grew up in South Philly, is absolutely killing it at Mon. His small restaurant, which coincidentally is in the space of the original Kalea before it expanded. Saman's great. Scampi, Liz over there is doing amazing pasta, really unique perspective on Italian food. Her place, Supper Club, Amanda kills it. I think like the through line with a lot of these things, and you mentioned it in reference to Bastia, is like it feeling a little bit like a party.
31:17You know, and I think that was one thing that was special about Razipsa as well. That's just something that speaks to me and I find myself gravitating towards. I mean, the best restaurants of this style, date night restaurants or places where you're not taking the kids, it should feel like a dinner party. I mean, you should feel hospitality. You should have some nice drinks. And, of course, the food should feel like it's plentiful and abundant. And you really nailed it there, yeah? And I think if it's a little boisterous and you can't hear the people next to you, like, all the better. Oh, I agree.
31:48Yeah. Yeah, I mean, sometimes in New York, I'll be like, I can't hear what you're saying. But I know you all do your best out there in the restaurant world. Well, I love this conversation, Tyler. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me.
32:04Eliza, I had a wonderful trip to Philly. And I want to tell you about some of the recent discoveries I've had. This is by no means my favorite restaurants in Philly, Roundup, because I have so many other favorites. I've been going there for years. Shouts to my friends John and Aaron. They've been living in East Pashyunk for over a decade. And I get to go a couple times a year and really experience this incredible food community there. And I say community because I think of Philly, like Chicago in some ways, has like real food community. It's not as big as New York. It's not as spread out. And I think like the chefs are always hyping up the other chefs.
32:42Bakers are hyping up the other bakers. When you go in, they're recommending other places. And that ethic, we find it in New York, of course, but it really is prevalent in Philly. So I think some of these places I was recommended by another chef. There's a little bit of overlap there, but I have quite the journey. I have some picks for restaurants. I have some non-food little visits, and I can't wait to share it. Yeah, I am like newly obsessed with Philly since I had a really great trip there. In the fall, obviously, go Eagles. So I'm excited to hear about it. Wow, we're doing sports. I mean, Eagles was a theme.
33:14I visited a couple weeks after the Super Bowl win, and I think that the hangover was still apparent or the jubilation. I'll call it that. That little bit of glow after a great night out. It's not a hangover. It's the glow of the morning after. I almost took a midnight train to Philly to watch the Super Bowl there. Oh, my God. Really? Yeah, because I have some good friends that are from Philly, and they were going back to go to some Super Bowl parties. And I, to be clear, don't really watch sports, but I wanted to hang out and witness the like hopefully Philly celebrating after the win. But then I realized I was going to literally have to take a midnight train.
33:48And then that was too much for me. Rolling in a midnight. Wow. But I still love Philly and I'm excited to hear about where you went. Well, Philly is a great city. And I got to visit a couple of places I've been to before. And one of those is Fork. And this is the iconic restaurant from Ellen Yin. And, you know, Ellen is a longtime restaurateur and thought leader in the Philadelphia restaurant scene. I think you spoke at one of her conferences, right, last year? I did the Cookbooks and Convos conference that they do. That's when I was last in Philly in the fall. Yeah, you know, Ellen has this wonderful month-long cookbook celebration in the fall, and she's going to be doing it again this year.
34:22And we'll have her on to talk about it. It's great. And, you know, Ellen is behind restaurants A Kitchen, High Street Restaurant and Bakery, and a few other places. But at Fork, she's recently rebooted the restaurant and hired a brand new executive chef, Sam Henze. And I really liked visiting the space. I hadn't been in over a decade. And they had a recent remodel. It's a, you know, really high ceilings and such energy in the room. And a real highlight was Scalp Crudo with Blood Orange, Buddha Hands, and Fennel Grimolata. And really, I think this menu is evolving in real time. He's only joined a few weeks ago.
34:58But I have to shout out the pastries. The pastries. It is like, Eliza, my perfect menu. Three options. One, dark chocolate tart with cranberry jam, a coffee creme caramel with porcini shortbread cookie, and a Basque cheesecake with sour apple and pink peppercorn meringue. All three of them speak to me in different ways. Terrific work there. I love that. It's a perfect trio. They all kind of hit on different points. Did you have a favorite? they were all good. I would say the Boss Cheesecake because of the presentation and I love Boss Cheesecake was probably the looker of the three but honestly the Coffee Crème Caramel was probably my favorite.
35:40Okay, where else would you recommend? Oh man, I have so many more and I'm just going to go through these quickly. This is kind of the pastry bread portion of my recap. I finally made it to Mighty Bread in East Pacheonk. I spoke about their cherry pie during the holidays on three things last time and it's truly the best cherry pie I've ever had. And I finally got to visit and I had a great morning bun, a savory Danish. And they do donuts every morning and the Mexican hot chocolate donut was great. And the fact that they're doing these they're known for their sourdoughs and their bread program, but the idea that they're doing donuts as well is just like, wow, you're doing a lot out of that small space.
36:19So that's Mighty Bread but sticking with pastries, let's go on a little pastry journey. I was definitely going to some bakeries during this recent visit. It was kind of my mission because there's a few I wanted to check out. But first things first, I went to this historical place, Isgro Pastries, in I think it's kind of, I would call it the Italian market area of Philadelphia. And they were definitely still celebrating the Eagles victory. There were a couple of Eagles cakes still being sold. This is like two weeks after. They really went hard for this win. I don't think they're ever going to stop.
36:50They're never going to stop. As they shouldn't. and this is like in a traditional Italian American bakery and what you get there is the chocolate chip ricotta cookies really light you know ricotta cookies are so good and but when they're with chocolate and you can really taste the ricotta in there and to me it was a really I we bought a box we had them with coffee throughout the weekend I love that but you can get all sorts of things like you know, a key lime tart. The Zeppoles are there. And what a vibe on Saturday morning to walk into Isgro. My next pastry visit was New June. Have you heard of New June?
37:27Yes. When I did the Cookbooks and Convos event last fall, New June was one of the bakeries on the panel. The bakery is owned by Noel Blizzard, and they have two locations in Philadelphia. And I was hip to this place by a couple people. I put out some feelers about where to go in Philly. this place came up and really delivered. I would say a couple highlights for me. There's a brown butter fennel cake with blueberry ginger and lime jam. The carrot cake. You and I share a love of carrot cake. They went hard with the nuts. It's a nutty spiced carrot cake with pear and lemon marmalade. They're doing like a lot of spins here.
38:05It's a creative place. And I would say, I didn't try this, but I spotted it on the menu. Double chocolate chip shorties. What does that mean to you? No idea. I'm like, that sounds cool. Like, I got to try that. Yeah. And everything that they do is very kind of beautifully decorated in that kind of vintage cake style, right? Exactly. Yeah. They're hearkening back to like classic Americana with kind of the presentation. And the shop we went to had that vibe as well. Beautiful little shop. They sell slices to go, which is great. Always when you're in a bakery, you can get a couple cookies to eat there.
38:38Take the slices to go. Bring them back to your friends. So that's New June. The last place I visited is a bakery, but it's also a restaurant and a cafe. It's called the Reda's. And I was really excited to visit, and I tried this Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie. I did a ham and cheese with brie, with apricot harissa jam. They do sandwiches there to go. I didn't try the meatloaf patty melts, but that's kind of what they're known for as well. But Eliza, we are recording this in late February, and the wonderful owner, Kelsey Bush, stopped by our office just before recording this and dropped off some pastries.
39:17Like randomly, not randomly, but like just like. Coincidentally. Coincidentally is the better word. Thank you for that. Coincidentally, she'd reached out to you. You're like, sure, why not? And wow, thank you so much for stopping by and bringing those great pastries. Yeah, I was tempted because, you know, she reached out and said that they were going to be in New York. They were doing some pastry drops and also that they were the designated pastry supplier for the Eagles home games. Wow. So do you think that means that they were going to Lincoln Financial Field where they play the games and like standing outside of the locker room and handing out the pastries while the players were getting ready?
39:56Does that feel right? They bring them to like the training facility at 7 a.m. every, I guess, Sunday, every day whenever they have a home game and then they have them. and they make a bunch of different pastries, but the cherry Pop-Tarts that we just had, which are very like flaky, substantial hand pie, I guess like a football player sized hand pie. Totally. Like twice the size of what I would consider a Pop-Tart to be, but really flaky and delicious. I liked that a lot. I also just tried their kind of, I would almost say it was like a Spanakopita empanada. It was like a creamed green spinach flaky pastry, savory, which I really enjoyed.
40:31And especially considering my newfound status as like Eagles fan adjacent, It just seemed like it would be worth trying. I was hoping that maybe Jalen Hurts would deliver them, but that was just my wishful thinking. What a game, Jalen Hurts. What a terrific game. Look at me mentioning football players on the podcast. I mean, right? Eliza, do you think next year you're going to do fantasy football? No. No, I don't think I'm informed enough to do that, but he's just such a cutie. I was like, maybe he'll be bringing the Pop-Tarts. Love Jalen Hurts. What a great guy. I will be back at the end of this episode with a few more wrecks during my recent visit.
41:07It was great sharing these with you, Eliza. Yeah, thanks for sharing.
41:14Muhammad Abdul Hadi, welcome to This Is Taste. It's great to talk with you. It's great to be on the show. How's everybody doing? Oh, I'm thinking about pizza. So, I mean, your book, We the Pizza, you're stretching the possibilities of pizza so well. And we're going to get into the cookbook and what's happening at Down North, which is your restaurant with a really, really great mission and cause. And we'll get into that work. But I want to just start off and ask you, what style of pizza did you grow up eating? I grew up eating square pizza. And I don't know my age is about to show right here, but Elio's pizza was the thing when I was growing up in the 90s.
41:58and it was a square pizza. It was one of the first meals that I was actually able to prepare on my own because we used to have a toaster oven at my house. And I was trusted at a young age to be able to put the Elio's pizza into the toaster oven and cook it until the timer went off. And that was the ding noise was the indication that the pizza was ready. I remember those vivid memories of preparing Elio's pizza because how it used to cook in a toaster oven was that the top would get burnt before the bottom would cook sometimes. So when you would eat the pizza, it would literally scorch the top of your roof, the roof of your mouth because the cheese and the sauce on it was so hot.
42:49It was like hot. Oh, we've been there. Oh, I know that feeling.
42:56So that was the pizza I grew up eating. Of course, we had school pizza, square pizza. And the luxurious pizza back then was like the Pizza Hut pizza, where it would usually be a family outing. We used to go to the actual Pizza Hut restaurants, and they used to have a salad bar. That was one of the memories, too. I remember vividly going to the Pizza Hut and being so excited because of the salad bar and being able to eat pizza. But did you ever dabble in putting a little bit of ranch dressing on your pizza? Were you ever in that headspace? No. And honestly, we get a lot of people that come into the shop that ask about ranch on pizza, and it's not something that I remember at all ever doing.
43:39I don't even remember, honestly, ranch being a thing other than a true solid dressing. That was the use of it when I remember growing up. Nothing else. And it was like blue cheese for buffalo wings. And it was like, I think the sauce thing, I don't know, it's became more prevalent in like food with like the dipping and dabbling and, you know, just trying different sauces. For me, I just don't remember it actually like people exploring into sauces like that growing up. I have to talk about wings because We the Pizza is not just a pizza book. And you've got incredible wings recipes, all sorts of flavors.
44:17I feel like you're like a sneaky wings restaurant as well. yeah a lot of people yes we definitely because uh we do our sauces in-house so um the chef you know paired some some sauces that really pair well with the wings so a lot of people like you know come here for the wings sometimes you know especially this early on it's like i don't feel like the heavy pizza and sometimes you know people want it together and they like you may sell out of wings right and they can't get it but their pizza's like a bummer I was like, oh, man, like y 'all got any wings. And it's like, you know, we know being in the restaurant industry, the price of wings fluctuate, the accessibility of wings fluctuates.
44:59So it's a lot of different variables that are delivered to the customer behind these these the fluctuation in the markets with different food items. So, yeah, we definitely get a lot of like, you know, people requesting the wings and a lot of people like actually coming to the restaurant for the wings as well. They look incredible in the book, and we'll talk about the photography because this is one of my favorite photography books around for a cookbook. But before we get to that, you write in the book, quote, Dismantling the prison supervision industrial complex requires creativity and social entrepreneurial spirit.
45:35Now, Mohamed, I want to ask you, how do you strike that balance with the work you're doing at Down North? So, you know, I knew getting into this, this is a little backstory. No prior restaurant experience, never ran or, you know, had a restaurant, never even been in the commercial kitchen prior to down north. And for me, I knew that this can work. I knew that for me, it was more important to build a team that can get me to the finish line, that can make this, you know, thing the actual reality, this idea, this concept. But the neighborhood that we reside in is Strawberry Mansion. And I'm going to just paint a picture for the listeners who are not familiar with the area.
46:18So Strawberry Mansion is literally in the center of Philadelphia when you look at a Mac. And the accessibility to other parts of Philadelphia is, you know, you can get to South, North, you know, Center City, all of that pretty easily because you have the freeways that are, you know, accessible as well. But it's also one of the poorest, you know, underdeveloped, underserved communities and within Philadelphia. And it's been like that historically. And they also have a high recidivism rate. They have a high rate of individuals going in and out the carceral system. A lot of people on parole, a lot of people from this area are sprinkled out through Pennsylvania and these state prisons.
47:03So it's a lot that's going on around the prison, the carceral system in general in this particular part of Philly. And when I purchased this building in 2015 and I was kind of up in arms of what I'm going to do with it, what I knew was a non-negotiable was that I needed to do something that could benefit this neighborhood because it's ailing, it's hurting in so many different ways. understanding that I can't just come in and fix the neighborhood as a whole. I can focus on one issue. And recidivism was the issue that I chose to focus on. How can we combat recidivism with this particular location, with this restaurant?
47:45And understanding I knew the value of individuals who've been previously incarcerated because prior to the restaurant industry, I was doing development in Philadelphia. And I had a construction crew that was also all individuals who have been formerly incarcerated and suffered from substance abuse and things like that. So I always knew the value in hiring individuals. I knew their work ethic. I knew a lot. So the actual bones of the building, the structure itself that down north resides in was actually built by individuals who were previously incarcerated as well. So that's the full circle moment about the spot in general.
48:22But for me to be able to pair the two was like, OK, well, we can do this good thing. We also can have this great product and we can be a for profit business, not a nonprofit and do good for the neighborhood and the people. and understanding that a lot of the guys and women that work have culinary experience. They have worked in kitchens and prison and things like that, that we could build this environment that can be conducive to growth for them because they're able to thrive in an environment where they can be the best version of themselves because they're around other individuals who have the same or similar lived and shared experiences.
49:04So that was the thought process of, I knew it could work because typically that's what they do. When people are suffering from addiction and things like that, they usually put them around other individuals who are going through the same thing. So for me, creating this environment, I knew it could work. And I knew that if we, you know, buckle down and did this thing that we can start this, you know, quote unquote revolution behind the pizza that we make. It's an incredible story, Mohamed, and really the book tells the story and paints the picture of some of the folks who work at Down North. From your point of view, when you hire somebody to work there, what are you hoping that they gain out of the experience there?
49:47Are they there for the indefinite amount of time or do you hope that they leave Down North and further their careers? What's your point of view with that? So initially it was, you know, I wanted to be a landing spot because I knew how hard it is just to get that start coming out of prison and things like that. So that was the intention to, you know, provide them with a springboard to be able to catapult and do great things outside of down north. So I can give as many people as possible a chance or a springboard. What it turned into was that it became this hub for us to really focus in and the guys that we started off with are still currently with us now.
50:33Mahmoud, tell me a little bit about a visit to Down North. I mean, looking at the recipes in the book, you've got such a range in the styles of pizza. You've got your own recipes. You do collabs with folks like Marcus Samuelson, Mike Solomonov, and many others. I mean, what's on the menu if we're walking in Thursday, Friday, we're wanting some pie? You got something for everybody. You got something for your plant-based crowd who are vegans and, like, do you know, vegan pizza. We have the vegan wings that are cauliflower, ready cauliflower wings. you got you know people who love your traditional this cheese pie we have a it's called a no better love we have a four a three cheese blend and we finish it off with an aged parmesan with our famous north sauce our north sauce is our actual marinara sauce and we like to describe it as when you go to a pizza shop you like to put the oregano the garlic you get seed peppers on top of a pizza, but we do that for you and put it in the sauce.
51:40So that way we don't have to have those, you know, that on display. It's like you really get everything into the sauce, sweet, smoky, you know, spicy marinara sauce on the pizza. Yeah. And like the sauce is so foundational, but when you're thinking about your pies, I mean, in the book, I mean, your show says creativity, I couldn't pick my one or two myself i want to hear from you like what's a few recipes that you feel represent uh your restaurant in this book definitely the no better love cheese pie i want to say because what we also do is this cool thing that we name all of our pizzas after um notable philadelphia artists have had little songs in philly so uh no better love was a song that was by a rap group called young guns in the 2000s and there's no better love than a cheese pizza that's why you know it's a lot of process that goes into the naming of these pies so you know i feel like from a pizza perspective you can't not have like the go-to like your cheese pizza has to be like one of your best pies i feel like because that's going to determine if people want to come back and try other things if you can't do a cheese pie but then it's you know you'll have a hard time in the pizza industry um my opinion so though you know that recipe in general um we have a recipe where we do um kale on a pizza like you know things like that that you know we push the envelope we had you know salted shiitake mushrooms red peppers red onions and we do kale and then we top it also with our north sauce and that's like our you know play on a vegetarian pizza um so you know things like that where you know we're combining flavors we have a p you know we don't offer any pork products all our products are beef or turkey so we have a actual pizza that i really i feel like this pizza called the i'm a boss which has all turkey products is like so philly because it's you know you're probably gonna find a pizza that has turkey pepperoni turkey you know sage turkey sausage red peppers you know shiitake mushrooms then a north sauce I don't think you will find a pizza that has, you know, primarily turkey products on it because it's like not really something that you see too often in pizza.
54:00It looks incredible. And I can't wait to visit and try myself because I feel like it's such an opportunity to offer pork free pizza and serve a community who maybe have dietary restrictions. And, of course, doing plant based to very, very cool. You do tastings at your shop. What's that all about? I was looking at it. I was like, I want to sign up for a tasting because this looks really fun. Yeah. So it's typically for large groups that want to do it on a day that we're not open and come in and like bring a group of people and like try our whole menu. Yeah. So, you know, you can go to the website and reserve that.
54:37And, you know, the chefs will show up and then they'll literally feed the whole entire menu to a group of, I think, less than 10 people. That's fun. I mean, that would be the best way to visit in some ways, just to have a survey. Make sure you haven't eaten in a couple of days. It took all of the menu. Yeah, that's amazing. And, you know, I have to say the playlist at the front of the book, where you got a QR pointing to Spotify, I love that. I love that you did that. You put in a lot of work just to, like, figure out the mix. I mean, how did you determine the list? So the list is literally all of the pizza names that are in the book.
55:15Yeah, okay. So a lot of people, we didn't expect them to be too familiar with some of the songs because a lot of them are like Philly Philly songs. So what we want to do is to use the opportunity to educate people so they can know, like, oh, this song is called, oh, this pie, per se, is called Tales of a Hustle, right? And there's actually a song that, you know, some people may have never heard, so it's in the playlist. So the playlist is literally all of the pizzas that are in the cookbook. That playlist of the names, you know, the names of the pizzas, those songs are in that playlist. Yes, that's so cool.
55:49I'm going to link to that playlist. You got to check it out. It's really good. Let's talk about the photography. We publish a lot of books here and we have incredible photography programs. But when I got this book a little early and I was stacking up against other books, I was like, this book's the photography. This is the best photography I've seen in a long time. It's incredible. How did you decide on that style? and really what was that process like shooting all of the pies and photographing your staff? I think it was really well done. Yeah, the photography. That was probably the most fun part because when I thought about this book and I thought about the brand, there's nothing traditional about Down North Pizza.
56:33And therefore, anything that we do has to push the envelope on the non-traditional side. So thinking about this book in a non-traditional way was like, okay, even down to the pictures, like you see, like, to your point, you see a lot of cookbooks with this, a lot of beauty shots of food, right? This is like these beautiful pictures of like food on a table, you know, you know, aesthetically pleasing. And I'm like, I don't know if that really is aligned with our brand and, you know, the neighborhood, like the grit that we have, the grit from the individuals. and I don't think they will really play on like us from a branded perspective so I literally reached out to Amari Kenzie who was the one who is who shot the book and she's a photographer lifestyle photographer but she's actually from North Philly the neighborhood right so that made all of the sense even though her primary focus from a photography standpoint was not food And I felt like it didn't need to be because what we're doing and what we want to show is what we like to call it is pizza in the wild.
57:43We want to actually show people actually eating pizza, you know, people's, you know, actually, you know, enjoying the food and pizza in like different places, whether it's cracked marble, whether it's concrete. Like this is what really shows the true essence of our brand. And that's what I wanted to come through in the cookbook. so her being from north philly understanding you know from her vision and her eye what we're trying to do collectively we came together and was like yes this is going to work and we want this to actually show the essence of down north even from like how we showcase our wings there's a picture in the book of and it's funny this is my son he's holding a chicken bone and he's like chewing it and that's you know that's how we used to eat wings growing up so a lot of it too is nostalgia in a sense of we're showing you, we're bringing you to our world to get the true experience of the brand.
58:37Yeah, it's really, really well done. And you meet so many cast and characters from your shop along the way. This is a Philly episode. So we're dedicating the full episode to Philly and we've got lots of wrecks in this episode. So I have to ask you, Mohamed, can you give me three local restaurants, Philly restaurants that when you're not working and not making pizza, where are you going? All right. So let me start with pizza, right? So I'm going to break the rules a little bit. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's do it. Because the pizza, I want to say if I'm going to go get pizza, it's like one or two places I would go to go get pizza.
59:23One of them is, my favorite is 20th Street Pizza. It's a plant-based sourdough pizza spot right off of 20th and Chestnut in the city. That's like my go-to. The pizza is called the Hangmaker. It's just a bunch of goodness on it. I don't honestly know about it, but it's like that's my go-to. Yeah. And if it's just like a tomato pie thingy, like I'm definitely going down to Joe. Yeah. To get that, you know, a friend of mine. So not just because, you know, Joe's a friend of mine. And I also think that Joe was one of the early pioneers to the pizza thing in Philly, really putting it on the map. Not that we didn't have pizza, but I feel like he was able to elevate and put pizza on the map for Philly as being one of those towns.
1:00:12If I'm sitting in a restaurant, I'm doing Maughan, Philly. If you can get a spot, that's the thing with them. I love Asian food, so that's always been my go-to. So Mon, Dariel is Vietnam, like is also one of the places I like to eat. The book is We the Pizza. Mohamed, I love this conversation. I can't wait to try your pizza. Thank you so much for joining us. This is Taste. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
1:00:46Eliza, we're back. I have a few additional thoughts during my recent visit to Philly. I want to share with you. Yeah. Let me know what you have. Well, first is it's not a restaurant, not a bakery. It's a cookbook store right in South Philly. It's called Binding Agents. And it's really, really, really cool. It's been started by Katie Gaynor. And I got to visit during this last trip. And I love the spirit of the shop. They have all the titles we've been talking about on this show for the past couple years. They have a great periodical section, including Cakezine. I spotted it there. and I just love they were doing a little pop-up with a local pastry chef on a Saturday morning.
1:01:27The place was jammed and I just really like the way that Katie is curating this selection of books. I think it's mostly new. There's a little bit of a vintage used section and really I think running a cookbook store is not easy and we've had a few of the sellers on the show and you really got to bring in new books all the time. You got to keep the classics around. And I love the way it covers the universe of cookbooks. That's Binding Agents. Yeah, I actually didn't guys go on my last trip to Philly, but it's a cookbook store that I love following because they're always doing events and bringing in interesting titles.
1:02:03I think also the name Binding Agents says so much, right? Because it's obviously a reference to like an egg or something that you would use when you're baking, but also this idea that cookbooks are things that bring us together. I love the name. Yeah, it speaks to me. And I can't wait to visit with them. And I know Binding Agents is partnering with Cookbooks and Convos in Ellen. So during that fall festival, they'll be selling there. And I can't wait to visit again. I have more stops. My next stop was I finally, finally made it to Kalia. That's the restaurant from Nock Santoranon. And we've had Nock on the show.
1:02:40Nock published a terrific cookbook with us last fall and it was a great conversation. in my brain I kept thinking when I made the reservation that I was going to the old space and you know the history of Kalia is you know they started in South Philly and they had like 14 tables and I kept thinking like okay we're gonna go into this like really small spot I was really really not not informed or hip to this this new opening in Fishtown this this expansion of Kalia first off this place is incredible the space is cavernous it feels like it could be in Austin or parts of Los Angeles even. I love the design.
1:03:17There's lots of trees within the space, very comfortable and cozy in like your little nooks within the space, but really energetic as well. And, you know, this is Thai cooking at its finest. And I had never tried the food and I'd always heard great things, you know, knock one to James Beard Award a couple of years back. And we were really, really, really impressed with the cuisine. And a couple of highlights for me, they have these tiny little bird-shaped dumplings. They're so cute. they make them by hand. She was telling me on the visit that they start at 9 a.m. and go all the way till 5, all the dumplings.
1:03:50There's three orders of dumplings that they're doing by hand. They're beautiful and absolutely delicious. This one had caramelized cod and preserved radish in it. We tried a crispy garlic chive rice cake with a sweet and spicy soy sauce. And I would say one of my ultimate highlights was a crab and coconut milk gravy with roe and shallots and tamarind and and chilies and it's served with crudités on the side and with lots of sticky rice and you're you know you can use the crudités to offset this you know this curry and it's such a beautiful presentation we also had a whole branzino that was steamed and gorgeous and and really i've i've been lucky enough to try thai food around america i've been to thailand as well but like in america like thai town in los angeles and of course pok pok i remember going many times in in new york But wow, this is probably one of my real highlights of the past year.
1:04:45Delicious cuisine, like really, really beautiful restaurant. Please go there, Kalia. It's big, too. So I think booking at the previous location was very hard. And I think it's easier now, though I imagine it was probably resi wait list for a lot of time. So definitely book ahead. Yeah, I have been wanting to go there for such a long time. And also, like, she had a chef's table episode. Oh, yeah, right. Brought a lot of interest in the restaurant. So great to hear about it. Yeah, that Chef's Table episode is great. Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that. And my last stop is we just heard from Tyler Aiken, and on the interview I talked to all of them.
1:05:18I love for this restaurant, but it's called Bastia. It's located at the Hotel Anna and Bell in Fishtown. And, you know, Tyler is focusing on Corsica and Sardinia with the cuisine here and really technically so, so spot on with the cooking. Course after course came out just beautifully presented and delicious. a couple highlights the pressed apples with cured ham and they did swordfish cheeks which wow they were really big and amazing and that was a highlight uh tyler had much to say in the episode so i won't go over it all but that's bastia from tyler aiken again i have other favorites in philadelphia um these are not these are the new visits is a recent discoveries i'll call this one yeah when i was in philly i actually stayed at the hotel anna and bell and so i got to have some snacks at Bastia.
1:06:08And I think they do a lot of interesting, more like difficult to find kinds of seafood because in addition to swordfish cheeks, is that what you just said? Never had those before. I got to have blowfish tails, which are so delicious and kind of harder to see. So I'm excited to listen to the episode. Yeah, it's a terrific conversation. And Philadelphia, you got to go. It's really close to New York. How about that? You can just take the train down there. Not that far. Go birds.
1:06:38This is Taste is hosted and produced by Eliza Abarbanal and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is edited by lead producer Clayton Gumbert and supervised by Pat Stango, director of media production and development at Penguin Random House. Thanks to Shalia Harris and the production team at Penguin Random House. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Logo and guest illustrations by Ellie Skrzat. Visit Taste Online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated on all cool things in the world of taste.
From the publisher
We are excited to bring you this episode. Recently Matt headed out of the studio to visit Philadelphia, one of America’s great food cities, to check out the scene and report back on his findings. He visited bakeries and coffee shops and stopped by a really cool cookbook store. He felt the incredible spice and vibes at Kalaya and met a bunch of new friends along the way.
In this episode, we speak with Tyler Akin, the chef of Bastia, an exciting tribute to the food of Sardinia and Corsica. We also catch up with Muhammad Abdul-Hadi, who runs the mission-driven Down North Pizza and is the author of a terrific new cookbook, We the Pizza. Throughout the episode, Matt and Aliza chat about some exciting food and drink discoveries.
Mentioned on the episode: Bastia, Down North Pizza, Fork, New June, Mighty Bread, Kalaya, Isgro Pastries, Loratta's, Binding Agents.
Save our Google Map of all the places mentioned in the episode.
Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
