YUMM!! I mean.. I feel like that was one of our main objectives on this short trip, and we are over-achievers!

Ashok got up early and visited the busy and comfortable coffee shop, Elixr Coffee Roasters in Center City. Then.. as has been our luck.. it started to rain. It was already cold and wet so this was just mean. I was up by this time so I grabbed my rain jacket, balled up his, and went to meet him. I personally love the rain, although my fingers got pretty numb in the cold!

We’re staying in the Center City neighborhood of Philadelphia. We discovered when we arrived that this portion of Center City is known as Gayborhood. True to its name, I noticed that even in the gray, dreary, morning light there were elements of color throughout the streets. Much of this is common across residential Philadelphia really. I particularly like the narrow, one-way, tree-lined streets.

We went to the Reading Terminal Market, a premo food court style eatery. It’s a top site in Philly and we were blown away by the options and quality food all-around.

We decided to eat at Dutch Eating Place within. It has a pair of counter.. peninsulas, so maybe ~twenty customers are on stools next to each other and the wait staff is right in front of you. It’s a unique and very cool way to do it that we really liked. It’s a family-run business, and we had a very sweet, helpful pair of sisters waiting on us. Great personalized recommendations and prompt service with a sincere smile. Happy Day!

The Western Omelette was big, and stuffed with all the expected fillings. Almost too much filling, but Ashok took it down. The Bacon Jam Sandwich was.. well.. one of the best breakfast sandwiches I’ve ever had. Probably one of the best sandwiches period. Just the right amount of crispy, lean, thick, flavorful bacon. Fresh bright yellow local farm eggs and cheeses smoothing out the texture and flavor. Jam somehow magically infused into it all giving a touch of sweetness.. but not too much. All served on fresh, perfectly toasted rye bread. The daily special juice was even right up my alley- fresh ginger, orange, turmeric, I don’t know what else.. but it was tasty, refreshing, and a healthy feeling waker-upper.

All this, and they are most known for the Apple Dumplings. I was a bit skeptical after years of “great” apple pies and turnovers that seem to have gelatin as their top ingredient. and granular sugar on top (why would anybody do that to a good fruit pie?!). Well.. I was pleasantly surprised! It was legit apple in a flakey crust with tasty whipped cream. I can’t say there wasn’t thickener or other fruit pie assistants in there, but it had a pure texture and flavor to me! We scraped all of our little plates very clean. Highly recommended!

It felt criminal to leave the market at this point having only sampled one vendor, so we sampled a nearby donut shop. Somehow watching them make them fresh right in front of us makes it taste so much better!

Sugar-high and perhaps a little endorphine-rich, we left the warm womb of the market to walk across the city. We walked back past City Hall and through the skyscrapers. It seems like every block in Philadelphia has modern glass, Revolutionary War brickwork and some towers or turrets.

We walked by a Portal, a live two-way video with identical devices elsewhere in the world. Today this one was paired with Litweski Square in Lublin, Poland. As we approached, some people in Lublin waved at us and we waved back. What a simple, genius, GREAT idea for global connections. There are apparently only a handful worldwide, let’s lobby for more!

Our destination was Mütter Museum, a unique collection run by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. It is a fairly popular but bizarre place, which of course sounded good to us. We paid $20 apiece to enter a few fairly small rooms of exhibits. Photography is strictly forbidden so all I can share is a picture of the front door & fascia.

Inside.. are hundreds of scientific exhibits of skeletons, skulls, limbs, organs.. you name it. Most are real human remains preserved in dry or wet form (the latter being a scientific term that feels.. icky to me). Some are done in wax to better illustrate soft tissue. The majority show unusual conditions; deformities, diseases, fetal deaths, and other tragic situations. There’s even a large cabinet of items extracted from inside bodies. Photography isn’t allowed to respect the rights of these people and their families who entrusted their remains to science. I definitely had some “this isn’t comfortable to look at” moments, but it was an eye-opening experience that I recommend considering.

We left maybe a little stunned. Back to the beautiful and sometimes comfortably-odd streets of Philly.

Mid-day break then we went back out mid-afternoon to try the local pizza scene. I know it must seem like all we do is eat, but that’s true.

We went to a nearby pizza place called Santucci’s Pizza on 10th. They offer the Philly-style pizza, which is essentially a square “Tomato Pie” with sauce on top and served room temperature. Ok technically Santucci’s pizza is served hot, but we let the tomato pie style cool before eating it so there.

Our waitress was awesome and greeted us as we entered from outside. Much like our breakfast waitress, the energy translated to a whole different experience. Funniest thing though was that we asked what was the best, most representative pizza of Philly. Without missing a beat she listed a pizza place down the street then started to describe another before we stopped her and said ~”we meant here, which of YOUR pizzas!”. Love the honesty.. although we did question our choices a bit! She then worked with us to get us two small pizzas, each half-half so that we got to try four distinct pizzas for a very reasonable price.

She was seriously excited when she brought the pizzas to our table, loving the combination and how they turned out. When she returned to the table to check on us she talked to us a ton and fielded our barrage of random questions. Huge props to Carrie! (even if she believes in ghosts).

From Santucci’s, at Carrie’s recommendation, we went down the street to John’s Water Ice. They just opened for the season despite what the web site says. As the name suggests, they are known for a water/ice-based treat.. we didn’t have that. They also have homemade ice cream! We had Coffee with Chocolate Nibs and Cookies & Cream. Both were very fresh and full-flavored and textured (strong coffee, semi-sweet chocolate, smooth sweet cream, and crispy cookie bits!). They also have small-ish cups for $2.50, so welcome in these days of $6 scoops!

From John’s we walked about 1.5 miles to the Old City area on the Delaware River, overlooking New Jersey. Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are nearby. It was after hours, but it’s behind glass anyway and a free exhibit so the outdoor window wasn’t bad at all.

The blah-but-obligatory peek at Camden, NJ over the Delaware.. and I-95. This is not a scenic riverfront you might notice.

We continued to Elfreth’s Alley, the longest continuously inhabited street in the USA. Beautiful old (but in immaculate shape at least from the outside) homes on a narrow one-way road with slate slabs. One is for sale actually..

We then walked back to Chinatown, on the edge of Center City. It’s a solid ~two by four block area, so not huge but substantial enough to get some immersion. With so many dumpling and noodle houses we had to sample a little.. you can see where this is going.

We went to Lucious Dumplings. It was good but.. not great. unlike our top tier waiters elsewhere, the guy barely spoke to us. At first it seemed possible that he spoke limited English, but we quickly came to the conclusion that he just wasn’t happy, nor social. We got maybe two sentences worth of “yes”, “no”, and “uh-huh” from him the whole time we were there.

No food pictures, I think because the dumplings weren’t exciting. Now to be fair we were not starving or even hungry, but I am a dumpling addict and these were.. meh. Next time in Philly I want to try one of the hand-pulled noodle houses.

Back to our AirBnB for the night. We walked 25K steps today and I’m sure didn’t come close to offsetting our intakes. No complaints! 😎