Philadelphia, PA.

I love summer!

Even though it can get hot and steamy there is nothing like eating out doors. The smell of BBQ's sizzling all around the neighborhood is intoxicating. Meat on a grill just tastes better no matter what type it is. With the summer comes vacations. My wife's brother just came out from Philly with the family for a few weeks stay here in Utah and it got me reminiscing about the trip the wife and I took to visit him back east a few years ago.

The first thing you have to do when planning a trip that would include New York, Philly, Wilmington, Baltimore and DC is to plan where you are going to eat. There are certain types of food in every city that must be eaten.

Our first few days out there were spent in Philly near Independence Square and that vicinity so of course the first thing I had to eat when I was there was a philly cheesesteak sandwich. I have watched the Food Network enough to know about Pat and Gino's and the debate of Provolone versus Cheese Wiz. I however didn't hit either location on that trip as I didn't want to take time to hit the touristy locations. I wanted to see where the locals eat and head there. Now I had eaten a lot of cheesesteaks from around the country but never in Philly so I really wanted to see if there was a difference. I'm glad to report there was. After asking a few locals where to get a good cheesesteak we received  some great recommendations and one place won out more than the others.

Sonny's:    http://www.yelp.com/biz/sonnys-famous-steaks-philadelphia

The difference between cheesesteaks in Philly and other lo-cals is the bread. The bread has to be moist, soft and chewy so the sandwich works together. Bread out west is too dry. In the south the high humidity can make the bread too soft or stale quickly. Being an original cheesesteak virgin I told the guy behind the counter to make mine the way he likes his. This has it's risks but I do it a lot when I'm eating something or somewhere for the first time. It consisted of sauteed onions and mushroom with the cheese wiz. I must say I was hoping he would say the Provolone as I had never had the cheese wiz variety. They had both options there but I was really surprised how well the cheese wiz worked on it. I really needed this big sandwich as we walked a lot that day and it made for a killer lunch.

Reading Terminal Market:     http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/

I really wanted to eat at a couple of other places but we ended up eating here for lunch and dinner. This is the coolest place. It's like have 10 farmers markets all rolled into one. The food choices were from all over the map and authentic as the people that were working at the different eating establishments were from those countries....as far as I could tell. For lunch we hit the Amish area where I got to have a huge pickle in a barrel and a killer fresh chicken sandwich for lunch. The cheese on the sandwich was goat cheese and a little strong but worked well. For dinner we hit the Greek stand called Olympic Gyro and my Gyro was built for an Olympian. Warning: it is sensory overload and you will sample a lot of desserts, cheeses, meats as everyone is willing to offer you a taste of their specialties. Once again I'm glad we walked a lot all over Philly those two days.

I was really impressed with the city and it's layout. Everything was easy to navigate and the people we encountered were really friendly and helpful. We had a chance to do a ghost walking tour the evening we were there and do not miss that opportunity.

I will give you some recommendations in the other cities we visited and please let me know what you like.

CHEEEEESESTEAKS RULE!