so-cheet

Now, this may seem strange coming from a New York football Giants fan, but I like Philadelphia. If only there weren't so many Eagles fans there, the place would be perfect. Okay, okay, before all youse guys who boo Santa want to take me out back and beat the heck out of me, I apologize. At least the Sillies won last year's World Series, so one would think that the Philadelphia sporting mood would be a bit more sedate, but this is a football town. So, good luck in the impending season (just not a lot of it).

Truthfully though, I do like Philadelphia. Since my divorce 5 years ago I have been exploring this city more and more, and with Janet as the tour guide these past 3 1/2 years, she has shown me a lot of this historic city. There are many nuggets to explore (like Chestnut Hill) and several entertaining events like the Dragon Boat races we attended back in June. Over the years Janet has dragged me all through the city; we've strolled through Elfreth's Alley, gone to several operas, eaten Italian in the 9th Street Italian market, devoured Jimmy's cheese steaks on South Street, strolled through Fairmount Park and the city's Museum of Art. We've had beers in so many places around the city I've lost count. Yes, Philadelphia is worth exploring and it's an easy destination for the Home Vacation Team.

On my birthday Janet took me to a restaurant in Head House Square in a section of town called Society Hill. It is a very affluent with a high concentration of 18 and 19th century original homes. The streets are rough cobblestoned and Janet walked me through some absolutely beautiful alleys and hidden gardens to marvel at the trim neat homes. She remarked that as a child from Upper Darby she dreamed of living in this section of town.

Anyway, Head House Square used to be called New Market Square, in order to distinguish it from a similar market on High Street, which is now called Market Street.... There's a test in the morning... The head house was originally used as a firehouse. It was started in 1804. The structure behind the firehouse is called the Shambles, which is an archaic word for butcher, it is evidently the oldest farmer's market in the United States. The original structure was erected in 1745. When we walked through the Shambles Saturday night there was a crafts show.

Janet took me to a restaurant right there on Second Street, just across from the Shambles. Xochitl (so-cheet) is a very good, high end Mexican restaurant. Janet doesn't like the normal Tex-Mex food that passes for Mexican and after this meal I doubt that I will ever get her to taste another Poblanos Rellenos. The food was exceptional and because we each ordered a "tasting menu" at a reasonable price of $45 the cobblestoned streets were especially treacherous because we were so stuffed. There were five courses involved in the tasting menu. The first was guacamole made fresh at our table. The guacamole guy came up to our table with his little platter of avocados and other ingredients and mixed everything in a molcajete, which is a bowl made from lava rock.

For our antojitos Janet had a lamb carpaccio and I had Gorditas de Huitlacoche, which are little mushrooms that grow in place of kernels on a cob. For our ceviche or Mexican sushi Janet had Vuelve a la Vida “Return to Life”, a menage of sea critters garnished with cilantro, jalapeno and avocado and I had "Yucataco" de Atún, tuna flavored with apple, lemongrass and aji amarillo pepper.

Every bite of this delicious meal stopped us and we'd flop back onto our chairs to savor each morsel. We giggled like school children and rolled our eyes at the good fortune with having found this place. For the main course Janet had a strong tasting Cabrito con Salsa Mulato y Habas, baby goat with salsa mulato and a Fava Bean salad and I had a bacon and lime encrusted chunk of halibut with a watermelon salsa that forced my taste buds to bounce in several directions at the same time. This was definitely not your typical Mexican restaurant, especially when the head chef himself came around the neatly decorated, diminutive restaurant to thank people for coming to eat his food. He asked us what we had ordered and nodded his head approvingly.

The fifth course was dessert. Janet had a semi sweet chocolate souffle and I had caramelized bananas with walnut ice cream. When we rolled out of Xochitl we were lighter in our pocketbook, but quite stuffed. Perhaps this was the best meal I had ever had for my birthday. It is a somewhat transient tradition that I like to eat a Mexican meal on my birthday. I doubt too that I would ever be able to eat another Poblanos Rellenos after this.

Afterwards we attempted to stroll along South Street, but it was brimming with people that were a bit too rebellious for us and rather than ruin the euphoric haze that clouded our senses we ducked quickly back into the extremely quiet confines of Society Hill. We marveled at the trim homes as we made our way back to the car for the relatively short ride home.

Wow... what a birthday....