#PHL BETTER SATISFY ME

[tereishqnachaya]

wal way shutar sawaar mudataan beet gaiyaan.

{an imagination for the modern retelling of the tale of “Sassui Punnhun” with Maya as Sassui.}

[igrublocal]

The Best Takeout I Ate This Month, When I Could Only Eat Takeout

In the span of three weeks, I somehow managed two moves while trying to find an apartment that I liked: from Uptown to Woodlawn, then from Woodlawn to Printers Row. Turns out that I need someplace larger than a tiny studio, and also within walking distance of a coffee shop (preferably one that has macadamia milk).

There was a lot of packing and unpacking, and packing again to unpack. But the one thing I never unpacked was my kitchen, so I found myself grabbing something to-go, virtually every day, in neighborhoods across the city. And of all the things I ate, these are my favorites. So if you’re looking for good takeout, read on.

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The Takeout

 in 

$$$$ 2621 S Halsted St.

Cold Noodles

This is the spot formally known as A Place by Damao, right on the border of Bridgeport and Chinatown. Da Mao Jia specializes in Chengdu cuisine and is home to one of my favorite dishes in the city. It’s the sweet and spicy cold noodle, made with perfectly chewy handmade noodles, peanut sauce, and a housemade chili oil. In fact, the entire menu is delicious, and the cold noodles also serve as a refreshing palate cleanser in between mouth-numbing bites of the wontons in volcano broth, or their ChengDu Spicy Duck Wings.

 in 

$$$$ Wilson

Meat & Jollof Plate

The best part about living in Uptown was all the different West African restaurants I had the chance to try. Out of those, Palace Gate Ghanaian Restaurant became my go-to. A lot of different stews, rice, and starches make up the menu, but my favorite is the meat and jollof plate. It’s a container packed with deliciousness - spicy, fragrant rice, tender stewed beef, and ripe, roasted plantain.

 in 

$$$$ 4949 N Broadway St

Khao Soi

Another Uptown favorite, Immm Rice & Beyond serves up a khao soi that’s so good I ordered it at least once a week while I lived in the neighborhood. The dish is a spicy but sweet curry with braised beef, hand-cut noodles, and topped with a tangle of fried noodles and a dollop of chili paste. It’s a great mix of flavors and textures, and thanks to their khao soi, this dish has become the first thing I look for on the menu of any new Thai restaurant I visit.

$$$$ 2447 N Clark St

Hot Wings

You know how you have those hot wings that are hot, but somehow still bland? No kick, not enough salt, and the only notable flavor is “spicy”. They’re the worst, and far too common. But House of Wings is breaking that cycle with their crispy, well-seasoned, and well-sauced hot wings out of a little storefront in Lincoln Park. Plus there’s no seating, so this place was primed for takeout even before the pandemic.

,   in 

$$$$ 901 W Randolph St

Mr. G Sandwich

I call this the Italian sandwich to beat out all Italian sandwiches. The Mr. G comes courtesy of J.P Graziano’s, a family-run place serving up subs (hoagies, cold cuts, sandwiches, heros, whatever) in the West Loop since 1933. In other words, way before rent went up 500%. And their longevity must be based on the fact that the sandwiches are straight-up quality - made with chewy fresh-baked bread from D’Amato’s, imported meats, cheeses, spices, and oils. The Mr. G (named after the original owner) is layered with sharp provolone, hot soppressata, prosciutto, genoa salami, truffle mustard, balsamic vinaigrette, hot oil, marinated artichokes, fresh basil, and lettuce.

$$$$ 3452 S Western Ave

Croissant Breakfast Sandwich

In the words of a famous Chicagoan, “Hurry up with my damn croissants!” But please don’t actually say this to the nice people at Butterdough in McKinley Park. I warn you though, the airy, buttery croissants will make you wanna curse. The pastries alone are good, but when they put bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and herbed ranch on said croissant? I was hooked. But get there early, ’cause once they’re gone, they’re gone - and they sell out quick.

$$$$ 1646 W 18th St

Pork Jibarito Plate

Usually, I go to Humboldt Park to satisfy my jibarito craving. But Jibarito Stop (which started out as a food truck and is woman-owned), set up shop right in the heart of Pilsen and is making some seriously delicious jibaritos. I like ordering the pork with arroz con gandules and a Champagne kola, but they also have great dinner plates, like stewed black beans or empanadas.

$$$$ Location changes

Steak Taco

This one only pops-up occasionally so requires a bit of planning, but is worth the effort. Taco Sublime is a taco truck from the Under The Bridge Project, a community rehabilitation non-profit, that serves the best steak taco I’ve ever had. The perfectly-seasoned meat is tender and the salsa is tangy and delicious, but what really sets it apart is the caramelized cheese coating the inside of the corn tortilla. And the best part (even better than the crispy cheese) is that they donate their profits to different local charities every time they come out and serve food.

A post shared by Tacosublime (@tacosublime) on Jun 8, 2020 at 1:46pm PDT

 in 

$$$$ 1637 W Montrose

Tropical Arepa

I have a special relationship with arepas. The first time I ever had one was while working on a Venezuelan food truck after deciding to quit my marketing internship post-college graduation. During that time I made (and ate) hundreds, if not thousands, of arepas - so I know a good one when I bite into it. And the huge arepas at Bienmesabe are good ones. They’re crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and stuffed with meat, handmade white cheese, and a variety of other delicious fillings. My favorite is the tropical arepa, which has shredded chicken, black beans, and plantains.

 in 

$$$$ 57 E 47th St

Bananas Foster Combo Scoop

That line isn’t out the door for nothing. If you’re craving something sweet, Shawn Michelle’s makes some of the best ice cream in the city. The first time I went I wanted to try virtually everything, but there are over 25 flavors, so I ended up going with the bananas foster combo: a mix of banana pudding and Jamaican rum raisin ice creams. Y’all. This woman made me like raisins. Let that be a testament to how good the ice cream is here.

[johnesmithiii-blog]

“The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of Philadelphia International Airport.”

This week concludes the formal internship segment of my summer work at Philadelphia International Airport, but I’ll stick around an additional few weeks to wrap up loose ends of the project. I have two model exhibits that I will reveal to my supervisor this week, but I anticipate additional changes before we publicize the final version. This week I will conduct two last-minute interviews and finally meet with a member of PHL’s IT Department in person to make minor tweaks to the exhibit.

The segregated, bureaucratic nature of the airport has provided the most challenges for me this summer. Like most history students, I’ve become quite accustomed to working in museums, historic sites, libraries, archives and other institutions devoted to accessible historical knowledge, but as one of my sarcastic co-workers recently reminded me, airports have more than just art installations and historic exhibits (shocker, right?). The members of the IT Department at PHL have been nothing but overly responsive, accommodating, and incredibly helpful, but somethings are difficult to articulate via email or over the phone. This is in no way reflective of the individuals who I have worked with this summer, but not everyone understands or appreciates the purpose of an exhibitions program, and I feel as though my work may not be taken as seriously or urgent as other priorities. Therefore, I have really struggled with making improvements to the exhibit through the IT Department who has complete access to the server with respecting their time and not distracting them from more urgent priorities.

As a member of the Digital Library Initiatives Department within Temple University Libraries, I see the workings of a more accessible chain of command when it comes to online content. One day, for example, someone visited our department with concerns about our Civil Rights in a Northern City project. The visitor discussed the issue with my supervisor, and within a couple of minutes, they fixed the problem. Most of the IT staff at PHL work off location and I am forced to express my issues entirely over the phone or via email. And again, as a summer intern, who am I to delegate these individuals with even more work and responsibilities?

When I began the internship, I expected access to the PHL or a third party server, but I quickly discovered that would not be possible (what could go wrong with a new summer intern having access to PHL’s server). Therefore, any changes I wanted to make to the exhibit (aesthetics, functionality, etc.) needed to go through the IT Department. The final version of the exhibit does not reflect my original intentions but rather practical capabilities. Is there more I wanted to do with the exhibit? Of course, but I’m relatively satisfied considering the limitations.  

Unlike my cohorts, I spent little time at the airport conducting extensive research (besides the oral histories), but this internship provided invaluable moments of professional growth. Besides the panel labels and exhibit text, I started the project with a blank slate. I was entirely responsible for downloading Omeka, scheduling the oral histories, reserving rooms to conduct the interviews, checking out equipment, and curating the digital exhibit. The independence certainly provided moments of frustration and anxiety, but I’m proud of the accomplishments and feel better prepared to tackled larger projects in the future. Next week, I intend to share the final exhibit and discuss its design and big idea, but in the meantime, enjoy this short video I created that describes the purpose of the Exhibitions Program at PHL.

Total Hours as of 07/28/2017: 135 Hours

[thepoolscene]

The Pool Scene - Darren Appleton, Johann Chua, Lee Vann Corteza, Ruslan Chinakov - World Pool Billiard

New Post on http://thepoolscene.com/?p=21407

Finals Report from the Molinari Players Championship

THE SIBERIAN EXPRESS STEAMROLLS TO THE CROWN

Russia’s Ruslan Chinakov claims the Molinari Players Championship with an emphatic 16-6 win over the Philippines Lee Vann Corteza in New York City.

Russia’s Ruslan Chinakov is all smiles after capturing the Molinari Players Championship at Steinway Billiards in New York City

By Ted Lerner WPS Media Officer

Photos by JP Parmentier/WPS

(New York City)– Employing an absolute monster break shot, combined with some seriously solid potting and pattern play, Russia’s Ruslan Chinakov handily won both his matches today, including an emphatic 16-6 finals win over the Philippines Lee Vann Corteza, and captured the inaugural Molinari Players Championship at Steinway Billiards in New York City.

Chinakov’s success on Tuesday represents the biggest win of the 23 year old’s career. Since he began his international career at the tender age of just 13 years old, the young Russian, a veritable pool prodigy since the very beginning, has been a fixture on the pro scene around the world. At 15 years old he won the WPA Jr. World 9-ball Championship. He also captured two straight Kremlin Cup titles. And he’s had many solid finishes in tournaments globally.

But this week’s win in the Big Apple surely represents a new level of accomplishment for Chinakov, and signals a new phase in the towering and talented Russian’s career. The Molinari Players Championship, the first of four 8-ball tournaments that make up Darren Appleton’s brand new tour called the World Pool Series, attracted a seriously world class field of 120 players from over 35 countries. They played a version of 8-ball that was designed to be as tough a test as players could possibly face. And when the four day slugfest concluded, it was Chinakov who clearly stood well above this amazing field.

Steinway Billiards in the Queens area of New York was packed for the last day’s semis and final.

Tuesday will be a day that Chinakov, and those that watched it, won’t soon forget as he manhandled two of the Philippines best on route to the winners circle. In his semi-final match against hot shot Pinoy Johann Chua, also 23 years old, the Russian wasted little time in stamping his class on the proceedings. Chinakov lived up to his nickname, “the Siberian Express” as won the lag and proceeded to run the first six racks on the Filipino, and quickly pushed his lead up to 9-1 with his smashing break shot and crafty shot making. Chua did manage a brief fight back, but the Russian rebuffed him at every turn and walked into the final with a 15-8 victory.

Corteza came into the final playing some of his best pool in the last two years, but he nearly didn’t even make it out of his semi-final match with Appleton. The Englishman was wearing two hats as both promoter and player this week, and was playing care free and as strong as ever. Appleton looked to be on his way to a finals date as he powered out to a 9-4 lead. Corteza, though, would have none of it as he stormed back with six straight racks to lead 10-9.

From there the two greats went toe to toe, and headed straight for the cliff. Down 14-13 and with the pressure bearing down, Corteza took advantage of a dry break by Appleton and cleared a very difficult layout to tie, and send the match into a dramatic shootout. In the shootout Corteza shot first and made his first attempt at the full table spot shot on the 8-ball. From there he never trailed, eventually winning 4-2 to advance to the final against Chinakov.

At over three and a half hours long, Corteza’s match against Appleton had clearly drained the Filipino as he only had one hour to get ready for Chinakov, while the Russian had rested for 6 hours. In the end, however, it probably made little difference as Chinakov was playing too good to be stopped.

The pair traded several racks to open the race to 16, winner breaks final. But when Corteza missed a makeable 8-ball while down just 4-3, Chinakov pounced and never looked back. His towering break shot led to balls dropping and patterns opening up, and soon the Russian was up 7-3. Chinakov kept feeding off the momentum while Corteza had few answers and the score quickly went to 12-4. The Filipino tried to mount a comeback with two racks of his own, but the day belonged to Chinakov, who was just too strong, too good and clearly destined for victory. Chinakov took the next four racks, and when he dropped the final 8-ball he had claimed an emphatic, awe inspiring16-6 win.

Afterward a clearly delighted and overwhelmed Chinakov basked in the glow of his sensational victory. Already a hard worker, he said he had doubled his efforts over the last two years, even hiring famed Dutch coach Johan Rysink to help him build up not just his technical skills, but also his mental toughness to deal with his sometimes uncontrollable nerves. The work had clearly paid off on all fronts. The future for 2017 and beyond was suddenly looking very bright indeed.

From left, Lee Vann Corteza, Darren Appleton, Ruslan Chinakov and Johan Chua.

“This is probably the biggest event I have ever won,” Chinakov said. “It’s a great feeling. I still can’t believe I just did this. I didn’t really think about winning today, I just tried to play good and show what l can do. I didn’t play 100% but I still won. Even at this level anyone can miss balls, I just missed less than the other guys. That’s why I’m quite happy about it.

“This is very satisfying because I’ve worked hard for the last two years. This is definitely going to give me a very big boost going forward and hopefully I can keep winning. I also know that this win will help me to perhaps win even more this year. When you can compete and then win against the best players in the world, world champions and other greats, I think 40 of them, and you can even win the tournament, it really tells me that I am headed in the right direction. `

“We both made some mistakes and that’s to be expected in a race to 16, these are really long sets and there’s a lot of ups and downs. When it was up 4-3 I made a few good runs, some break and runs and my lead kept increasing. I think that put him under pressure and he then made a few mistakes, and I just cleaned the table.”

As befitting the always classy Filipinos, Corteza took the loss on the chin and gave credit where it was clearly due. The Filipino took solace in the fact that he started 2017 with one of his best finishes in the last two years.

“I missed a couple of shots, the 8-ball in one rack, then the 10-ball in another,” Corteza said. “I just had bad luck today. I couldn’t get good layouts on the break shot, or I have no shot on the break. It was very difficult to figure out what to do. He broke fantastic and was always getting shots and he had the momentum. I was also feeling a bit tired.

“But he deserved to win. He broke better than me, he really had power on the break. I’m still happy because I played good this week. This is one of my best finishes in a while so I just have to go to the next event and I feel really good about my game.”

With the biggest win in his ten year career to date, Chinakov deservedly felt even better about his game and prospects for the coming months.

“After you win big tournaments, you just come to believe in yourself more and more,”Chinakov said. “And that means in the next big match, I might be less nervous and have better concentration, and that means you have more chances to get the title or finish quite close to the title.

“This is the best start of the year that I could ever imagine.”

By winning the Molinari Player’s Championship Chinakov received $20,000. Corteza took home $8500.

*The first event of the World Pool Series, The Molinari Players Championship, took place at Steinway Billiards in Astoria, Queens, New York City from January 14-17, 2017. The World Pool Series is sponsored by Molinari, Predator, Cheqio, RYO Rack, Aramith, Iwan Simonis, Kamui, Billiards Digest, Ultimate Team Gear, and High Rock.

For more information on the live stream, please visit the official website of the World Pool Series at http://www.worldpoolseries.com/

Complete online brackets and live scoring can be found here: https://cuescore.com/tournament/WPS+1st+series+-+Molinari+Players+Championship/1286018

The World Pool Series is on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/worldpoolseries/

RESULTS SEMI-FINALS Ruslan Chinahov (RUS) 15 – 8 Johann Chua (PHL) Lee Van Corteza (PHL) 16 – 15 Darren Appleton (GBR)

FINAL Ruslan Chinahov (RUS) 16 – 6 Lee Van Corteza (PHL)