THANKSGIVING WEEKEND POST, PHILADELPHIA

This Thanksgiving, Tom and I decided to go down to Philadelphia and New York. We spent 15 hours in a car over 3 days, and have now decided to spend the next Thanksgiving in Boston. However, I was glad to get back to Philly. I hadn't been there in some time and it really is a great town. So early Wednesday morning, we picked up Leah (who was going to her brother's place in Philly for Thanksgiving) and we headed down. Luckily, we didn't hit much traffic. Unluckily, we got a bit off track and ended up on a one hour detour. But we still made it into the city in about 7 hours, which was pretty damn good for the day before Thanksgiving.

Every time I go back to Philly, I drop by Petit 4 Pastry Studio. It's the place where I got my start in the food biz. I was really lucky to have a boss like Joe who gave me a chance and taught me so much about pastry and the industry. Unfortunately, I was looking up Petit 4 on Chowhound right before we left and found out that it had closed in September. I wasn't overly surprised, it's such a hard industry, and they were around for 6 years, but I was heartbroken. I still am, really, cause that shop was one of my favorite places in the world, and it's not there anymore. I made Tom drive by it, just so I could see with my own eyes that it wasn't there anymore, and sure enough, it is now an ice cream store. Sigh.

So our first stop was the Reading Terminal Market. I used to come here in college to do some of my shopping. Basically, it's an indoor market created from an old train station. There are lots of booths where you can get food and other supplies. Here's a pic of a cheese vendor.And here's another pic of Leah buying some bread and pies.I was really looking foward to chowing down at the market, but the thing about sitting in a car is that you don't burn calories while sitting. So I wasn't hungry, and neither was Leah. We wandered around the market for a bit and eventually took a seat, waiting for the arrival of my friend, Sugata. In the meantime, I had a slice of Leah's cheese bread.It was pretty good, though kinda dry. I could see it being wonderful toasted with some butter, or as part of a grilled cheese sandwich.

When my buddy Sug finally arrived, we headed out to Capogiro, which I've written about before, but is the only place I've found in the U.S. where you can get Italian quality gelato. I'd only been here once before, so I actually walked by it, but good thing Tom and Leah noticed. Here's a pic of their case (Yes, that is avocado flavored gelato in the middle)And here's my dish of pomegranete and chocolate gelato. We each got a medium size dish (and this place is freaking expensive, but worth it). And it wasn't as sublime as the first time I'd had it, maybe it was the flavors I picked? But it was still the best gelato I've had in the U.S.After a trip to the Naked Chocolate Cafe, we dropped Leah off at the train station so she could head over to meet her brother, and Tom and I headed back to Sug's place. At Sug's suggestion, we decided to eat at Mama Palma's that evening. The thing about Philly is that it really is so small and accessible that I could visit all these places I'd gone to in college. Mama Palma's was actually located on the same block as the apartment I lived in my senior year of college. I used to order out from there, but had never actually eaten inside the restaurant.The place wasn't crowded, but it did have several tables of families with their screaming children in tow. Clearly, it's a "family friendly" establishment, though not so friendly for the single diners who just want to have a quiet dinner. I'm looking online now and can't find a menu for the place, but we ordered two medium size pizzas to share.

The first is a peking duck pizza.It reminded me a lot of the CPK peking duck pizza, though not as well made. The duck on this one was pretty overcooked, but it was still tasty.

At Sug's suggestion, we also ordered a pizza with marscapone and pistachios (they were whole) . I ended up liking this pizza more than the duck one, so if you're ever in Philly, check it out.It would've been nice if we'd had more energy to go out that night, but we were all exhausted. I guess that's what happens when you get older. I hope to spend a little more time in Philly during my next visit, though, and then we can get Tom his cheesesteak from Geno's.