1. Pastificio: The Chicken Cutlet Italian from Pastificio was a force to be reckoned with, getting top marks for its bread (Abruzzi Brick Oven bread), broccoli rabe (fresh and flavorful, with a hint of red pepper) and chicken (perfectly cooked). The only complaint was that there wasn’t enough cheese, which oddly enough turned out to be a common complaint for all of the sandwiches except for Tony Luke’s. If you’ve never been to Pastificio (next to Chickies and Pete’s on Packer Ave) it’s worth a trip — pretty much any of their cutlets are fantastic (especially the Buffalo Chicken Cutlet) and they also have delicious fresh pasta.

2. Iannoni’s was a late addition to the contest, and it was a great one. The sandwich was massive, with a thick, tasty cutlet that hung out the sides of the bread. Says RudeTanks, PUT THIS IN YOUR GPS AND DRIVE IT 624 East Basin Road, New Castle, DE (302) 322-5000
 
 
 

3. I’ll be honest, I was a little surprised at how good the Tony Luke’s sandwich was, but the cutlet tasted great, there was plenty of cheese (though the provolone wasn’t that sharp) and the rabe was chopped and very flavorful. The only downfall was the bread, which was a little too doughy for my taste.

(Tie) 4. Chickie’s / Cosmi’s – Fourth place seems too harsh — both of these were good sandwiches, but the competition was tough. Chickie’s had a real garlicky broccoli rabe, which I really liked but some people found unpleasant. Cosmi’s pounded their cutlet flat and wrapped it around the rabe, which I thought worked well.

5. Shank’s was the only disappointing sandwich of the group, which was surprising — I’ve had good sandwiches from Shank’s many times before. But their Chicken Cutlet Italian just didn’t stand up to the rest. The chicken was tough, overcooked and had a weird purple-ish color to it. Also, the rabe had a strange mustardy taste to it — something was off.

So there you have it. What did we learn?

• Pastificio’s is the winner.
• All of the sandwiches were good except for Shank’s.
• I enjoy conducting these taste tests much more than writing about them.
• These Friday Throwdowns make everyone in my office uncomfortably full. We probably shouldn’t do this more than once a month. I guess it would be nice to do some sort of healthy food battle, but where’s the fun in that?

If you’ve tried all of these sandwiches and want to fill out the survey, go here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GD3NDCN

Today’s Throwdown will be a Chicken Cutlet Italian Sandwich battle between several worthy competitors:

• Shank’s – 901 S. Columbus Blvd
• Tony Luke’s – 39 East Oregon Ave
• Pastificio - 1528 Packer Ave
• Chickie’s Italian Deli – 1014 Federal St
• Cosmi’s – 1502 S. 8th St

Also, don’t go to Pat’s and Geno’s, go to John’s Roast Pork if you want the best cheeseteak in the city. But first try their roast pork — you can skip the line of people waiting for the grill.

Federal Donuts: We got 12 wings (6 Chile Garlic and 6 Honey Ginger) and 2 halves (Za’atar and Harissa). Opinions ranged from  “great flavor” and “encompasses what great fried chicken is” to “thoroughly unimpressed.” In my opinion, the larger pieces were better than the wings, and the Za’atar was my favorite. Also, the Japanese style pickles that come with each order are fantastic.

GSC: We got 9 regular and 9 spicy wings — believe it or not, they were made to order in a pressure cooker. Everyone loves an underdog, so perhaps GSC benefited from lower expectations. Testers felt this was a “classic wing” that was “impressive for where it came from” but one person commented that “the flavor was a little off.” I personally enjoyed the GSC and felt like it was above average fast food fried chicken — a different kind of crispiness and flavor, but very good.

K-Town: So it would appear that K-Town was the winner, with the highest overall score among the three offerings. We got 10 each of the Soy-Garlic, Honey-Sesame and Spicy wings.  Most raved about the unique crispiness of Korean fried chicken, saying “the texture it produces is without comparison” although one  person felt that they were “drenched in way too much sauce.” I personally enjoyed the batter of the K-Town wings the best although I would have liked the spicy wings to be a bit more spicy.

So there you have it. If you want to look at a summary of the survey data, click here. Obviously this was a very small sample size (9 taste testers) so I am opening up this survey to the vast PhoodAddict.com audience — 6 absolute unique visitors yesterday according to Google Analytics, including one from Iran (fried chicken diplomacy!)  I had to alter it slightly so that a response isn’t required for all of the questions, since I’m fairly certain not many people have been to Federal Donuts, K-Town AND the BP on Essington Ave across from Pacifico. The free version of Survey Monkey handles up to 100 respondents. I’m pretty sure my head would explode if 100 people visited this site and filled out the survey. Actually, I’m pretty sure my head would explode if anyone outside my office actually visited this site.

Most of the visitors I’ve had to this site post weird long spam comments about Ugg boots. It kinda freaks me out. So please, if you are a real person and not an Ugg-obsessed spam robot, post a comment or tweet at me. Even if it’s just to say that this site sucks and I should shut it down.

Federal Donuts - The most hyped fried chicken in all of Philadelphia, and deservedly so. We are going to go with Chile Garlic and/or Honey Ginger.

Sammy Chon’s KTown BBQ – They just opened a Chinatown location and feature wings in Honey Sesame and Soy Garlic.

Gas Station Chicken – There aren’t many places to eat right near my office. It’s pretty much crap from the Ambu-lunch (an old ambulance turned into a lunch truck) or fried chicken from the gas station. When we preparing to move into our office last spring, Gas Station Chicken was a regular meal. It was surprisingly fresh and tasty, and we ate so much it made us sick and damaged our self esteem, which is the hallmark of many good foods.

FAQ’s:

Is this really fair? All three places are pretty different? I know, this is not really an apples to apples competition. And to be clear, you won’t go wrong getting chicken from any of these places. But come on, you’re reading a blog called PhoodAddict, did you really expect sound journalism or science?

I thought you said it would be very detailed, scientific study? I was being sarcastic, idiot. But there will be a survey, courtesy of the good folks at Survey Monkey. My office will complete the survey first, then I will open it up to my massive audience (Google Analytics says I had 3 absolute unique visitors yesterday!)

You should have included <name of fried chicken place> in the contest! We can only eat so much chicken, but if you have suggestions, tweet at me, son. Resurrection Ale House’s chicken is great, but they unfortunately don’t do takeout. Also, I’m not ashamed to say I enjoy Popeye’s, but one time I went to the one on Broad Street and a lady who was missing an eye was hanging out by the entrance. And she didn’t have an eye patch, it was just an open socket. I swear this is true. I am a fat guy who has a blog called “PhoodAddict” so I got chicken anyway, but it was still pretty disturbing.

Don’t you have a job? Don’t you do any work at your job?  Yes,  I have a job and everyone in my office works really hard. We also all really enjoy food, which is why group eating events like the Pizza Olympics and Wing Eating Contests (I ate 25 and finished second to last in my office) are a regular occurence.

It was a great game with Team Vetri coming out on top. Jeff Michaud was the MVP, and the Vetri Foundation came away with the charity donation. Family, friends and helping a great cause. Can’t think of a better way to start Thanksgiving.

Photos courtesy of Heather DiPiazza Photography

So I went to Ela on Saturday and it was fantastic! A few minor issues, but overall the food was awesome. Didn’t take any pictures, but Meal Ticket has a great spread if you want to see what the space and the dishes look like. The menu is a little confusing — it’s divided into First, Second, Third and Fourth bites. First and Second bites were appetizer sized portions and Thirds and Fourths larger. Our server recommended that we order three bites for a full meal. Honestly, portions were not that large, but everything was exquisite.

We started with the garlic pannacotta with shrimp, popcorn, asparagus, smoked roe and olive oil — delicious and unlike anything I’ve ever tried — and the hamachi, which was good but sadly did not include the horseradish granita I had heard about. For seconds, we had the crab banh cam and baby beets with brie, quince and cardamom. For thirds, we tried the duck breast over pretzel spaetzle and the scallop “noodles” — scallops somehow crafted into delicious noodle form. Again, delicious and unlike anything I’ve ever tried before. For dessert, we had hot chocolate chip cookie dough with vanilla semifreddo and banana and whipped pumpkin pie with pumpkin seed praline, candied ginger and figs, which both tasted as good as they sound.

Everything about the meal was great, though I did have a minor quibble: the dining area was loud and way too crowded. The space between our table and the next was so tight that our server’s ass was literally on our table every time he came by. I understand wanting to pack in as many diners as possible, but it was pretty uncomfortable at times.

So in conclusion, Ela: great food, too much waiter-ass in my face.

And I couldn’t find a clip of Leslie suggesting headlines to the reporter so I’ve included another random funny Parks and Rec clip:

Despite being overly full from lunch (this blog is called PhoodAddict) I picked up a 16 piece order of “Wings, Arms and Drumsticks” (Arms being the tiny drumstick part of the wing) with half in the spicy, sweet sauce and half in the garlic soy sauce. They smelled so good I had to try one at a rest stop on the way home to Philly.

Even reheated later at night, the chicken was delicious — everything I had hoped Korean Fried Chicken would be, with a perfect crackly, crispy crust and just the right amount of heat in the sauce. I know I’ll be craving this in the future, and I hope the chile garlic fried chicken at Federal Donuts will do the trick.

After 30 minutes our food was finally ready , and it was all disappointing. The cheese and meat platter was a random assortment of cubed cheese, Rodele spread, soggy bread and slices of salty salami. The bacon and Nutella toast was good but skimpy with the Nutella — come on, spread it to the edges. I don’t even remember anything else we ordered. Portions were really small.

And to top it off, Double Dragon was broken. In fact, several games were broken, even though the place just opened a few days ago. Makes you wonder how well the machines are going to hold up.

So overall, Barcade was a disappointment. I’m pretty sure I won’t be going back.