Can You Eat

So, it’s the New Year and we all made it…  No earth exploding, bombs going off or massive tidal waves (again).  But it’s not all bad. :)  We have another year to make new friends, go out and eat and great places and try to find new and exciting hobbies to perform.  And we always have next New Years — who knows, maybe my friends and parents will come out to my new apartment (not yet located) and dance the night away again.  But now it’s time to reflect.  I promise, only a little bit of reflection.

Last year I started two new blogs (Srcasm and this one) and had a great time making many new friends in the Philadelphia area and finding new places to eat.  Some of the restaurant favs of the year were National Mechanics, Zot, Eulogy and Triumph to name a few.  I’m hoping to get some pictures, write some reviews and have some good times at all of these places and more in the coming year.  I’m going to try to find places to eat that I never would have tried before — the hole-in-the-wall places in Chinatown, the tiny cafes and diners all over Philly and some of the more upscale places in the city like Panorama.   There are the restaurants and fooderies that I believe people will find most helpful.

As for dining out, I would like to setup a monthly visit to a new place in Philly.  All of my new and old friends should join me on my expedition to find some of the strangest and coolest spots in Philadelphia.  So if you have any ideas for places to start off seeing and eating, please let me know.  Leave a comment, send a tweet or shoot me an email at yes (at) canyoueat (dot) com.  As always, keep enjoying great eats and great prices in Philly!

Images courtesy of inter.jection’s Flickr stream and Yelp member Wallspro S

I’ve finally decided on a rating system… Drum roll, please.

A tipping scale — How much should one tip if they ate at this restaurant. To be fair I do not tip a waiter or waitress based on the deliciousness or lack-there-of of the food but I will use it for rating restaurants. The ratings will go on a scale from 1 to 4 (errr, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%). There will be few restaurants that will get a 25% tip but they may be out there. I also hope to find few restaurants that deserve a 10% tip but alas there will be some of those as well. And to prove to you how I feel about the meal I will scan in each and every receipt to go along with the restaurant I visited (sans the CC digits).

Second, I will use cheesesteaks for the quality of food rating. Again, a simple 1-4 cheesesteak scale (and yes for those of you who know, I am lactose intollerant but I love cheesesteaks) will do the trick. Here’s to hoping that there are many restaurants in the Philadelphia area that serve 4-cheesesteak rated food!

So please, keep enjoying great eats and great prices!

Well, one of the two title statements are true. I am back in the states. I was in Mexico for a week long trip for work. For those of you who didn’t know I was in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico — a great home of cheese (that I can not eat). The plan was to review restaurants and bars down in Chihuahua but I figured it would help most of my fellow Philadelphians in finding great eats and great prices up here in the northeast.

The second part of the statement is almost true. Channukah and Christmas have passed and I’ve definitely gained quite a bit of weight over those few weeks and with New Years around the corner I have one more holiday to make it through. I plan on eating and drinking around this final holiday of 2007 and then off to bigger and better things. I’ll try to get the first review of a restaurant online right after the 1st of the new year. Let me know if you have anything you’d like to see reviewed here and I’ll see what I can do.

Image courtesy of GourmetSleuth.com

Alex and I just came back from a slightly disturbing meal at Taco Bell — but lucky for you I won’t review that (for now). But there is one thing that I was thinking about. Before I begin blogging and rating restaurants and meals I need some sort of rating system. Ebert & Roeper use a thumb system to rate movies and Tucows uses five little blue cows to rate their software… I believe that I need a good rating system. Maybe steaks or little “Mmmmm”’s (yes, that was the sound that we all make when something is delicious). What do you think? Let me know in the comments below or send me an email at yes@canyoueat.com.

I would also like to find out what other features you’d like to see on the site. I have a few ideas in mind. I’d like to have a map that shows you the restaurants in the area or the delicious meals that are close by. In addition, there will eventually be two sub-domains to make it easier to find what you need. First, what.canyoueat.com will show you everything categorized by the type or style of the meal. Second, where.canyoueat.com will list the restaurants that are in the area. As always I want to hear what you think of both of these ideas and anything else you have to say. Let me know what you have to say.

Image courtesy of www.veggieboards.com