Om Nomz Hero note to self: Everyone should eat more chicken livers
I am a notorious Philly/6th Borough hater and Yankee fan; here were the only good things that came out of Philly:
1. Sandwiches/hoagies
2. Rocky
3. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
4. The Constitution
However, with all kidding aside, I started going to Philly a bit more and realized that it was not as bad as I made it out to be and that it has a growing food scene that rivals some of the places in New York. While I still will continue to hate the Philadelphia Phillies as much as I hate the Red Soxs, I am now coming around to the Philadelphia dining scene especially with my visit to Osteria.
Osteria is co-owned by Mark Vetri, one of the biggest chefs in Philadelphia and most knowledgeable American chefs on Italian cuisine. The restaurant under the helm of the very capable hands of Jeff Michaud. Osteria is considered one of Philly’s top restaurant and easily one of the best meals I had in a while.
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| Salumi slicer is always a good thing |
Osteria is located in North Philly in the non-Killadelphia part of town. The restaurant is spacious and if you can, request a seat on the side terrace that if is a beautiful greenhouse like space that is perfect view of the church next door and soaks up all natural light. Service was great and friendly though the host did that annoying thing where even though I said reservation for one, and confirmed on the phone a day or two before did the, “Oh, just you?” Yes. Just me, after doing some quick math and counting with my fingers, I can affirmatively say, yes I am dining alone\sarcasm.
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| Bread and olive oil |
Cursed with only one stomach, I wanted to eat everything on the menu but I decided to go a bit easy which was hard because the semolina bread, grissini, sea salted foccacia in their bread basket made it hard to resist. I started off light with the porchetta tonnato. This is a variation of the classic vitello tonnato but instead of veal, they use porchetta, which they make with the belly and cure it. It is topped with Italian tuna, not something that is considered to be in the same class as Bumblebee, arugula, celery and parmigiano. To the uninitiated that have not had a vitello tonnato, the combination of pork and tuna sounds like a car crash in your head but once you taste it, it makes sense. The porchetta is slightly rich and nicely salted and the briny fishiness of the tuna works well together. The addition of the bitterness of greens rounds everything out. More Food After the Jump!
