Flip to the back, and there you’ll locate my copy…


What made me want to become a restaurant reviewer in the first place? One major reason is, it helps me to remember -


Remembering the impact that I gleaned from flavors most recent, or, of those I discovered in my youth, and the exciting affect they had had on my palate as much as on my psyche: that first deliciously-bloody slice of seasoned rare roast beef my grandmother made me try - me, the curious six-year-old who had up until then only known well-done meat because that was the way my mom made it for my dad, who liked his charred to a crisp.


The lemony piquancy of my first veal picante, which was ordered at the Stokesay Castle along Mt. Penn, by Reading, PA (still in operation!) - and not just that veal picante alone, but taking in the whole restaurant scene there: the regal tapestries and vivid coats of arms af- fixed to the high stone walls; the snappy crispness of the waiter’s black apron; the milky, caper studded veal melting on my tongue…


After that particular meal, I just knew that I wanted to spend my life learning about restaurants. Or, remem- bering the time my parents took my sisters and me to


the Astral Plane in the mid-‘70s; a hippy-trippy eatery on 17th Street in Philadelphia - one of the city’s vaunted “First Renaissance” restaurants. It was there where I had my very first taste of sweet red curry via a plump and pungent chicken breast. It was as if the floodgates of Thai flavors (and Eastern spices in gen- eral) were suddenly opened to me like some dusky and mysterious maiden for the very first time.


Then, much later on, I got to enjoy the one dish that’s become sort of my culinary pinnacle: close to twenty years ago, when I was attending a small gathering of local journalists held by Chef Derek Davis at his then- operational steakhouse called Kansas City Prime (in Philadelphia), one of the finger foods being passed around was Derek’s Wagyu beef cheesesteak, which was smothering an asiago-topped Italian roll lan- guorously ladled with white truffle-accented lobster tail.


It was the ultimate comfort food decadence!


Sure, there were the weekend family jaunts to King Fu for highly-average Chinese food; to the Howard John- son for those incomparable, oil-soaked, all-you-can- eat clam strips; to the Thunderbird in Broomall (a Philly suburb) for a big, sloppy pepperoni pizza and a Pepsi…


MPI PHILADELPHIA CHAPTER Mark your Calendar


January Monthly Education January 15, 2020


Science History Institute, Philadelphia, PA


Education Institute February 19, 2020


Normandy Farm Hotel & Conference Center, Blue Bell, PA


March Networking Event March 25, 2020


Top Golf, Mount Laurel, NJ


Global Meeting Industry Day April 14, 2020


PA Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA Learn More at www.mpiphl.org


Mid-Atlantic­EvEnts Magazine 73


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