When a foodie friend, cook book author, and Julia Child Food Arts Curator at COPIA in Napa, CA, visits Philadelphia, where do you take her for dinner that is casual enough for good conversation but high in food quality and presentation? Answer: Fork on Market Street in Old City. Ellen Yin is owner and gracious hostess at this sharply decorated and very popular restaurant. Since another dinner guest and colleague of mine at Temple University, Betsy Barber, had worked with Ellen on the Book and the Cook in March, I thought my foodie friend, Linda Carucci, would enjoy meeting Ellen. I was also a bit nervous about providing the kind of dining experience that would impress and satisfy. No need to worry, Fork filled the bill. From the moment we walked in and were greeted by Ellen to the time we parted, the Fork experience was an evening to remember.
The meal started with complimentary oysters dressed with fresh tomato, cilantro and onions, which we all enjoyed. I selected an affordable New Zealand Selaks sauvignon blanc ($35), which was delivered in a screw cap bottle. This is the third time in a month I had to assure dinner guests that screw caps are no longer reserved for Ripple and Night Train Express. The menu is extensive but remains pretty constant from month to month. I recognized many of the items from our visit over a year ago. That’s good, because we could recommend items we had enjoyed before. Linda started with a hearts of palm salad with goat cheese ($8.50). Judy and I shared a truffled duck pate with cornichons, grainy mustard, and warm pear ($8.50). Other dinner guests (there were six of us) had the crispy duck confit with red lettuce, black mission figs, gorgonzola and lime vinaigrette ($9.50), and two tempura dipped soft-shell crabs with Belgian endive- radicchio slaw, asparagus tips and Thai basil ($25), .
Dinner entrees included pan- seared halibut with dill beurre blanc, Belgian endive, wild mushrooms and spring potatoes ($26), pan-seared, pomegranate glazed duck breast over a corn and chick pea relish in curry sauce ($25), a grilled pork chop topped with stuffed squash blossom over mashed potatoes ($24), and steamed whole striped bass with sautéed tomatoes, fava beans, and fennel ($24). We topped the meal with a key lime napoleon ($7.50) and a crispy crostada filled with blackberry coulis ($7.50). Like many restaurants, Fork adds am 18% gratuity for parties of six or more.
Now for the back story. Linda Carrucci, author of Cooking Secrets for Real World Cooks, is on a cross-country tour to promote her first book. In addition to radio interviews with locals like Jim Colman (A Chef’s Table, WHYY), Linda is doing cooking demonstrations at Sur La Table and book signings at libraries and restaurants from Naperville, TX to Marlton, NJ. We learned at dinner her book is outselling Mario Batali and Alton Brown. How’s that for a first effort! We met Linda several years ago when I was researching cooking classes to give our daughter as a gift. Like Linda, our daughter lives in Oakland, CA. As a bonus (yea … I’m sure she viewed it as such) we flew out to take the course with her. It was during the Big Night craze, so we all learned to make timballo. After that, she and our daughter become fast friends, so we see Linda when we visit California once or twice a year. When we heard she was visiting the Philadelphia area on her book tour, we made arrangements to meet her and her friends Susan and Steve at Fork.