A Day In The City of Love

Our weekend trip to Philly has been going great! We are staying right in Rittnerhouse Square (and I just found out that Rittnerhouse is the inventor of the mathematical balance, bet none of you knew that. Okay, I'm sure my dad knew this but he is a complete history nerd, opps, I mean buff. ;)

The hotel is quite luxurious...

Last night, we had dinner reservations at a very upscale chic restaurant, Buddakhan. I actually first heard of this place when it was featured on the Foodnetwork awhile back and thought that it would be a great choice to celebrate our anniversary. It's unique Asian fusion drew me in and both me and the hubby love any upscale Asian eats.

But before dinner, we ventured downstairs to enjoy Happy Hour at the hotel bar.


5$ cocktails! Yes, please.
The champagne cocktail was a perfect pre-dinner drink. Nice, cool, bubbly and refreshing....

One of the known features of this restaurant is the gigantic Buddha that sits in the middle of the dining room. You are supposed to rub him for good luck, but there was a table of people sitting right underneath him and we didn't feel inclined to interrupt their dinners so we could give Mr. Buddha a rub-down.

Okay on to the eats....

We started with an appetizer. Steamed Crab Dumplings in a mango/ginger reduction.

These were awesome. Nice, soft chewy texture filled with luscious crab meat. And the sauce was my favorite part. Subtle hints of ginger accented with bold flavors of creamy purred mango.


For my main dish, I chose the Hot and Sour Scallops with tofu.

And Toly ordered the Crab Fired Rice

The scallops were very good. Perfectly seared with a crisp coating but a delicately smooth texture.

I also had a little of the rice, which was also very good. Not greasy at all (which was surprising for fried rice). I really don't like rice all that much, but this was tasty.

Obviously we had dessert. Philosophy here- when eating at a 4 star gourmet restaurant, you don't pass on dessert. If the food is nothing less than spectacular, just image how descendant the dessert must be. Go big or go home people!

The first thing that caught my eye was the carrot cake. Not a cake person in general, but carrot cake is a whole different story. Haha, leave it to me to be in love with a cake that is made from a vegetable. ;)

The carrot cake was very good but truthfully, I was expecting it to be a little more traditional. This was more of a pound cake accented with subtle carrot flavors. The cinnamon ice cream was an excellent accompaniment, however.

Overall thoughts of Buddahkhan; definitely an exceptional experience. The atmosphere was distinctive and very classy and the food was delectable; however, a little overpriced for amount. Everything was a la carte so it's easy to rack up a 100$ tab without feeling like you really got your moneys worth. But, I am so happy we went and we both left feeling too full for words and completely satisfied.

Today, was spent in true tourist tradition-walking for hours doing some authentic sightseeing.

Here is Rittenhouse square...


And then me enjoying my first true Philly pretzel, straight from the dirty cart of a grubby street vendor. It was DELICIOUS!!

And Toly at The Liberty Bell....

Reading Terminal Market.....

And there were a few more stops along the way.

We are really enjoying our stay in the City of Love. (Can you believe Toly has never seen this epic statue before? He didn't even know what it was. And he calls himself a die-hard Philly fan.)

Tonight, we are off to the game. I am beyond excited to see my boys in live action. Howard is en fuego at the moment, so lets hope he keeps it up for another night. And Chase, my love....I will sitting behind left field, blowing you kisses uncontrollably while I think sweet thoughts for you. ;)

Alright guys, hope everyone is having a great weekend. I'll be back to recap the rest of the trip later.

Go PHILLIES!