Darling's

Um, that's what remains of a slice of Banana Foster Cheesecake from Darling's, 404 South 20th Street (20th and Pine) in Philadelphia. I'd eaten half the slice before I remembered I wanted to take a photo and write about it, so I put some whipped cream in the missing spot on the plate to make it look better.

(Have you noticed in the last few posts that even my dinner and dessert plates are black?)

Man, that was some fine cheesecake. Julie had the pumpkin, and the shop also offers Grand Marnier, cherry, and chocolate. It was sick!

"It's Philadelphia cheesecake, not New York," the owner told me. "Very rich and full of flavor, but lighter."

In the meantime, Julie and I saw slices of homemade coffee cake and pounced -- we munched on that before we even left the cafe. We both agreed it beats out the coffee cake at Le Bec Fin, that's how good it was...sickly full of butter, nuts, and cinnamon. Nadine's also offers lunch on baguettes baked on premises, and their fresh mozzarella and tomato is sprinkled with fine olive oil and cracked peppercorns and comes in at around $5.00 which is a hell of a lot cheaper than most downtown shops and the fact that they bake the rolls on premises....mmmmm.

In other news, my pal Leslie is meeting me in New York on Monday so I no longer have an extra Neil Gaiman ticket but what do I read this morning -- my luck -- he'll be in Philadelphia on January 26 speaking at the Center City campus of Temple University which is like a five minute walk from my house. Grrr....

(Neil: Would you like to have dinner with us beforehand? Hahahaha - Julie makes some mean sushi.)

(Just kidding, just kidding.)

Actually, it'll be cool to see him speak twice. Because I need to be inspired. I've been reading some of his older essays on writer's block, where do ideas come from, etc. and I think it's just the ticket (oy, a cliche) to get me out of my winter doldrums. I've been manic lately. I'll write for a few days straight, feel wonderful, then spend the next three days in my pajamas, not leaving the house and feeling sorry for myself because all I seem to do is veg out on line or worse, eat until I can't move because I'm putting tremendous pressure on myself...and...truth be told...now that I no longer have a real job, writing is my job, and naturally, since it's now a job...you get the picture. I am actually thinking of going back into the nine to five workplace a couple days a week just to break this self-destructive pattern!

Or not.

Both Julie and Eric are still asleep so I have no news on how their shows went last night. Julie played a big punk rock fest last night and Eric did some recording at Indre Studios so as soon as I talk with them, I'll be back with a full report.

Also, a couple friends of mine have won some pretty impressive writing contests/awards over the past two weeks and I've neglected to mention that...hmmm...it really requires a separate post complete with links to their work, so yeah, yeah, I will do another post on that by the end of the weekend as well.

But right now, it's coffee time...

xo