Linnnerzism: Wandering back in Philly

It's been five years since J and I went back to Philly. We were afraid a lot had changed, especially shops disappearing and landmarks fading.

We went on a quick 2 days 1 night weekend trip with two other friends. It mainly consist of a lot of eating, and quite a bit of walking.

Philly was still how I remembered it, just like NYC but a lot less congested. We revisited places like City Hall, Independence Hall, Pat's and Geno's. We stroll along new places like the Italian Market and the Franklin Fountain.

It was a good weekend getaway especially for the change of scenery. Our favorite seafood restaurant was still there, which we were ecstatic about. Oyster House has definitely gotten more popular. They even changed their happy hour which used to be 5-7pm and 9-11pm, we usually went for the latter since it usually means less people. But nowadays, happy hour on Friday is only 5-7pm and weekends are 9-11pm. We were lucky enough to snatch a table within a 15 minute wait. The oysters and clams here are the best, they're fresh and full of meat. Not briney or salty at all and they're just $1 during happy hour - can't express how much I loooove this place. And a new discovery this time around, the New England Clam Chowder is pretty bomb also.

Our 2 days in Philly involved a lot of sandwich eating. We had four Philly cheese steaks and 2 pork sandwiches. For the pork, I like DiNic's better. The pork is sliced thinner, the broccoli rabe gives a nice crunch and dimension to the sandwich and the provolone was sharp but not overpowering. As for the cheese steaks, I realized that J and I can't choose between Pat's or Geno's. I know I've mentioned in the past that Geno's was better but after this past weekend, it felt like both sandwiches complimented each other a lot more than anything else. The juiciness of Geno's made up for the lack sauce that Pat's didn't have; and Pat's cheese and generous amount of steak made up for the few slices of meat that Geno's offered.

Other honorable mention during this trip was Franklin Fountain - delicious ice cream, the Hydrox Cookie (what an awesome name) basically tasted like cookies and cream but so much better, the cookies were soft, not crunchy or hard, and it blended with the ice cream so well; Federal Donuts - the honey butter donuts was just as good as I remembered it, the story goes that I ate the only donut five years ago when we ordered it with the fried chicken (I was drunk when I devoured it), luckily this time around they were willing to sell the honey butter donuts without an order of fried chicken - WIN!

Side note - after this mini trip, I definitely need another trip. Actually, I need a vacation where I can just lounge, soak up the sun and drink. Also, J and I are planning our Japan trip coming this fall, exciting!