The mea culpa was no surprise to the assembled guests at Osteria, a familiar stew of chefs and journalists. They'd been herded to the reception by Food & Wine, and by Philadelphia Magazine, which had challenged Cowin's original notion and was indulging in a little cross-marketing now that her retraction had been published in this month's issue: "There are now more places I want to try in Philadelphia than New York," Cowin had expansively concluded.
So it was a feel-good event all around, the latest rediscovery of the Next Great City, a hoary safari that can trace its recent roots to 2004 with Saveur's anointing of Philadelphia as "The Most Underrated American Food Town."
Sometimes (though apparently not in Cowin's first forays), the adventurers drop by the city's crown jewel, the Reading Terminal Market, a century-old fresh market still pulsing (with a cheese stand that gives Di Bruno Bros. a run for its money, and better Italian pulled pork than you'll find in most of South Philly) at the very center of the city.
A day or two after the Osteria event, its Amish farmers were selling off the last of their crops of asparagus, strawberries and sweet peas; raspberries, blueberries and white peaches are on the way.
In Chinatown, ropes of elastic dough were being slapped on a counter and drawn by hand into slender soup noodles. At 11th and Mount Vernon, a few blocks east of Osteria, Nigerian cab drivers were mopping up their chicken stew with gummy pinches of foo foo, made from pounded yam. And on Ninth Street, they were selling game sausage, cilantro-laced Vietnamese hoagies, and, around the corner, big cups of pineapple water ice.
