Pat’s Wildways: Foodies in Philly

My brother Ken only turns 80 once in his life and the time is now. So what if I just got back from a couple of weeks in Belize? In two days I was off to Philadelphia for a family gathering to celebrate this monumental event. And whenever the Foster tribe gets together, local and/or gourmet food gets into the picture too.

Ken picked me up at the Philly airport and our first stop was to the Vietnamese area of the city, where soon enough we settled into large bowls of pho. The large Asian grocery nearby piqued my interest and of course we had to explore it. Want live frogs or eels? Want fresh durian, rambutan, and mangosteens? No problem — it was all there for the purchasing.

After all my work trips to Southeast Asia, I felt right at home. But the live frogs disturbed me a bit. Many Buddhists believe that releasing a live animal into the wild gains them good karma. I worried that some of the Chinese edible frogs, native to Asia, but imported live for the Asian markets in the United States, could be released into the wild here where they do not belong. And sure enough, these invasive frogs are becoming a problem in some parts of the U.S. Go figure.

That evening, my niece Margaret and her family from Durham, North Carolina, flew in to join us. With two young active children in the mix, dinner that evening was take-out food, an easy solution. But this was not “normal” take-out food that most would recognize. This was a gourmet spread from Pera Turkish Cuisine, an acclaimed Turkish restaurant. So we dined on moussaka, lamb shank over smoked eggplant, whole sea bass, lamb stuffed dumplings, hummus, pita and all the fixings. Nice.

I was staying in my niece Anne’s apartment nearby and awoke to a fresh cup of espresso prepared lovingly on a home coffee apparatus fit for a professional barista. Of course, with my proclivity for breaking anything mechanical, I didn’t go near it and happily waited to get served.

Later Ken and I set out to procure food for the evening’s birthday party, when another niece and her family would join us too. Our first stop was the Magic Gardens — hey I had to get some sightseeing in. This is an immersive display of walls and courtyards covered with mixed-media objects, paintings, and sayings by artist Isaiah Zagar. It was a refreshing change from the more staid Philadelphia Museum of Art, and at least to my taste, much more fun.

But the most fun for me came after our museum visit. Ken and I were tasked with picking up his pre-ordered birthday cake from Isgro Pastries, a famed bakery in South Philly near the Italian Market. Waiting in line at this popular store was challenging for me as I stared at the refrigerated shelves of delectable treats. But I couldn’t resist buying a bag of pizzelle cookies in honor of our old neighbor Josie who made them for us each year, even when she was nearing 100 years old.

As Ken and I were driving home, I saw a familiar landmark, John’s Water Ice! Wow, so we just had to stop and buy lemon ice. We reminisced about the many lemon ices we ate together when we rode our bicycles to Branch Brook Park in Newark, New Jersey, back when kids like us were free-ranging.

That night was the grand event: Ken’s 80th birthday! My third niece, Ellen showed up from the suburbs with her family, and our cousin Josh joined us too. Ken and Mary’s apartment was soon full of the hubbub that four kids, balloons and birthday cake can create. Mary had worked for weeks organizing this first-time meeting of all her grandkids and was eager to memorialize the event with matching t-shirts and a group photo. And what fun that was! Out of dozens of photos a neighbor snapped for us, only one had everyone looking forward. But all of them showed all of us laughing! And what is better than that?

For dinner that night, besides that amazing carrot cake of course, we did the all-American thing. We ordered pizza. But I had to be different. I had an authentic Philadelphia cheesesteak. I just couldn’t visit there without it, all that gourmet food notwithstanding. And what a great cap to a wonderful visit. I feel blessed.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com