Brewer's Plate

On Sunday, I (along with two dear friends) volunteered at the annual Fair Food event, the Brewer's Plate, at the Penn Anthropology and Archaeology Museum.  About 50 local restaurants and breweries team up and serve bite size- and some more than bite size- pairings of food and beer.  There's really something exciting about drinking a nice beer, eating fancy food and leaning on a sarcophagus (until a guard comes and politely asks you to not lean on said sarcophagus).  Volunteering is the way to go, seeing as tickets were upwards of $125!  We got to enjoy the event for about an hour and a half before manning our "farewell" station; handing out shopping bags, potato chips and magazines.  (Sidenote: Beth smooth talked/befriended one of the museum guards who slipped us in the back entrance to view the Silk Road mummies! If you don't know why that is exciting, check here. Super dramatic- think Chinese government vs. UPenn).

Needless to say, the food and drinks were amazing, and while I don't have pictures, I will tell you, oh reader, my favorite tastes of the night.

Best Drinks

1. Art in the Age Root and Snap. These were by far my favorite drinks of the night. Root is like root beer for grown ups, and a thousand times better. 

Here are some beautifully done videos that explain what they are:

2. Dogfish Head Midas Touch.  Another fun Penn related story- Dogfish worked with one of the head archaeologists at Penn to recreate the oldest known beer recipe which was found in King Midas' tomb!  How could I not love such a wonderful mix of anthropology and beer?  I went back for seconds.

3.  Prism Brewing Company Love is Evol.  I'm not even sure why I liked this one, probably because it was genuinely unlike anything I'd ever tasted.  It's a strawberry jalapeno brown ale (whaaaat?).  It's weird. But good. Brewery tour anyone?

Best Bites

1. Night Kitchen Bakery had some fantastic cakes. 'Nuff said.

2.  Betty's Speakeasy fudge is just oh so good.  I had the dark chocolate with smoked sea salt.  If you've never tried any of their interesting flavors, it's time to get some. 

3. JG Domestic.  While I could really only take about 3 bites of the duck rillette topped with foie gras and lavender caramel (yes, I had to google that), it was delish and came with a really cute spoon.  I'm a sucker for really cute spoons. 

4. Royal Tavern's Porchetta sandwich with broccoli rabe.  I ate 2.  I could have eaten 15.

5.  Biba's (Tria's new place) cheese spread was ah-may-zing, and the crudités had goat cheese and beet spread! Yum! 

So, there you have it.