Anyways, on Friday we saw the comedian Jo Koy at the DC Improv, and he was hilarious! One of my favorite bits that he does is when he talks about his mom (who's Filipino) and roofies as seen here below. The show was great and his opening act was awesome as well!
The next day, Justin and I woke up bright and early to go to Philly. You might be thinking to yourself, "Joanne, didn't you just go to Philly not too long ago?" Yup, I in fact did go to Philly with my sisters in February. I'll let you know some time later why we went there again...*wink, wink* In any case, Justin wasn't opposed to going because he wasn't with me the last time that I went with my sisters. He may have also wanted to go because of all the great places to eat at around Philly, but we'll get to that in a bit.
The first thing that we did was go the the University of Kentucky bar for the UK-Florida men's basketball gamewatching. The UK Alumni Association has their viewing parties at the Tavern on Broad. It was a small group (they are under new leadership!) compared to the huge gatherings we go to at Grevey's, but it was nice having the Jim Beam room all to ourselves with a few other people.
After watching Kentucky pull off the win, we went bar hopping to a couple of the bars in the area. Being on my nutrition challenge, I was a little bummed that I couldn't drink, but I still liked being social with our new friends from the UK gamewatching, and Justin's friend from college, Oak. He lives nearby in NJ and came into Philly to meet us up. It had been a couple of years since Justin and I had seen him, so it was great catching up and rehashing old memories. It was pretty cool walking around and seeing some of the local bars celebrate St. Practice Day because not too many bars in DC celebrate it, especially if the actual St. Patrick's Day falls on a weekend.
All the walking around got us hungry, so we went into Schlesinger's where Justin had a Doris Reuben. His sandwich was huge, but not as big as the other sandwich he encountered on our Brooklyn trip. It was a decent amount of food that was enough to fill him up and get him sober for the time being.
I had the cabbage soup and pastrami sandwich (I didn't eat the bread).
Here's a picture of Justin and Oak. As you can see, Oak's name is quite fitting because he's super tall! He earned the nickname playing rugby with Justin at Xavier University. Justin's nickname was "Oddjob". Sounds fitting too, eh?
After saying our farewells to Oak, our evening began with us checking into our hotel. Situated in the Historic District/Old City area of Philly, we decided to check out the neighborhood. We walked along Market Street, past many bars, and stragglers from the "St. Practice Day" festivities. In the end, we came across The Continental, which had a cool retro looking facade that drew our attention and caused us to check it out.
Their concept was small plates, but you could also get an entree if smaller portions weren't your thing. Justin started off with the Korean Pork Tacos, which I must admit were pretty spicy even for me!
Poor Justin went on a sweating spree, which didn't hamper his drive to finish the whole plate. He certainly claimed victory, but did so with many beads of sweat all over his forehead and bald spot :)
I started off with the beef kofka (aka: Indian meatballs). They were delicious and I even got Justin to try one, too!
For my entree, I ordered a bunless bacon burger with grilled onions underneath. I got a huge side salad to go along with it. It had some feta cheese in it, but I was able to pick around it. I was so hungry that I found it to be too much of a hassle to send the salad back just to avoid the feta cheese.
Another item Justin ordered was the barbeque chicken quesadilla. I didn't get to try it, but they looked good! It came with a black bean salsa, which was also untouchable due to my diet. Justin was so full by the time he tackled this one. We both can agree that stepping into The Continental for our dinner was a great choice.
On my last Philly trip with my sisters, we made a trip to Reading Terminal Market to try the many food options it had to offer. We'd seen this place on TV, and figured we would try it out for ourselves. When we returned to DC, we had a few leftovers that Justin kindly took care of. After his little taste of Reading Terminal Market, Justin made sure that he too got a chance to pay a visit. On my second visit, I chose to try out Wursthaus Schmitz, which served German food such as sausages, sauerkraut, smoked meats, and potato cakes. I tried the bratwurst, sauerkraut, and baurenwurst.
Justin went to Tommy Dinic's for the roast pork and broccoli rabe sandwich that was featured on Man v. Food. Unfortunately, he ate it so fast and I couldn't get a photo of it. I did get a photo of this jerky place, which was closed at the time of our visit. Some areas of Reading Terminal Market were closed on Sunday, due to the fact that most, if not all are run by the Amish.
So delicious, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Just another excuse to make another trip to Philly in the future, definitely during the week when this place is open.
Before our departure for DC, Justin wanted one more thing for the road. We saw a long line that swung all around this restaurant, so we decided to give Spataro's a try. We figured that the place must be pretty good to attract such a long line. The wait for our Philly Cheesesteak was about 15-20 minutes. The sandwiches were freshly made to order, and the staff was very friendly. Although Justin waited until we arrived back in DC to bite into his sandwich, he still claimed it was pretty good. Again, he ate it so fast, I couldn't snap a photo. Luckily, I was able to get a shot of the huge menu at Spataro's.
That was our weekend trip to Philly. It was definitely a fun time, and I'm sure we'll be back sooner rather than later. With so many great places to eat at all over the city, I'm somewhat glad our trip was a short one. The awesome food options would put a wrench in my diet plans, and I'm sure my weight loss goal would be harder to come by.
