I hesitate
to even remotely consider myself a foodie. Someone who has only recently
started eating most foods and cooking for themselves cannot be labeled a
foodie. Just because you eat out a lot does not make you a foodie. I am sure
there are various definitions of what defines a foodie and I am certainly not
one of them.
What I do consider
myself is someone who is on top of what is new and hot in the Philadelphia restaurant
scene (thanks to twitter this is very easy). People like spending their money
on going out to bars, sporting events, concerts etc. Those are all great but I
would rather spend my money on a great meal/dining experience somewhere.
Many have
written about what makes the Philadelphia restaurant scene so great. For one,
it is very affordable. This isn’t New York or San Francisco where stepping into
a top restaurant will set you back a couple Benjamin’s. Continuing with
affordability, many great restaurants in the city are BYOB. While I would argue that the culinary foundation
of Philadelphia does not feature signature dishes and ingredients per say (I am
not going to mention sandwiches here), the range of affordable and eclectic
dining options, combined with the exponential increase over the past couple
years in highly touted restaurants and chefs are reasons why Philadelphia is
fast becoming one of the top food cities in America. I won’t even mention the
beer.
Before this
turns into some puff piece about Philly, I wanted to review my visit to Kevin
Sbraga’s new restaurant “The Fat Ham.” This is the Top Chef’s second restaurant
in the city, following the opening of “Sbraga” in 2011. Terri and I had one of our
favorite meals at Sbraga last fall which is an upscale take on modern American classics.
The Fat Ham is a small plate style restaurant of the chef’s take on Southern food.
The interior is small but warm with wooden décor and a bar stocked full of whiskeys.
Throughout the dinner, our server was attentive and everything was paced
perfectly. We didn’t have to wait to put in our drink and food orders and there
was the perfect amount of time between the six dishes that we ordered.
What I love
about small plate restaurants is that you are constantly looking forward to various
dishes. Most restaurants you are simply waiting for your app and entrée. There
is nothing wrong with that but the small plate experience is a more fun dining
experience. I won’t get into the details of what every plate was garnished with
but here is the summary of the food we got:
-Fried
Green Tomatoes with Horseradish and Sour Cream – Perfectly fried and
surprisingly light with nice flavor. Nothing to salivate over but a nice little
dish to start the meal.
-Grilled
Trout with Brussels Sprouts and Pecan Butter – The Pecan Butter brought
everything together in a perfect bite of salty sweet.
-Shrimp
& Grits – The sweet richness of the grits combined with the shrimp was
delicious. The texture of the dish was really nice.
-Baked
Macaroni & Cheese - This dish is highly recommended. Southern Mac and
Cheese at its finest. Homemade shells combined with the BBQ potato chip crust
made this dish a winner.
-Hot
Chicken – Apparently this dish has been thrown into the conversation of best
fried chicken in Philly. It was perfectly spicy and paired beautifully with the
Ranch dressing, pickles and bread. Another dish I highly recommend.
-Charred
Cabbage – The dish seemed out of place with this cheesy Italian like sauce that
accompanied the cabbage but it still had an elevated taste that was delicious
nonetheless.
We ended
with Banana Pudding and the Chocolate Chip Cookie Skillet. Both were rich but
not to the point of being too heavy. A perfect end and compliment to the main
dishes.
What made this meal so great was that everything worked in harmony.
Despite the small dining area, we felt transported to some cozy warm dining
room in the South, while it was snowy and freezing outside. We were happy throughout the
entire meal which is the most you can ask for when you go out to a restaurant. The
number of dishes left us both feeling perfectly satisfied without feeling
overly stuffed or sleepy.
I don’t normally
write restaurant reviews so someone might believe that there is no context for
my food opinions. I could walk into any restaurant and say everything was great…right?
I’ll leave at this: The Fat Ham was so good it made me write my first blog post
in over a year.
