Green papaya
Chef Ari Weiswasser is crazy about this unripe version of the tropical fruit native to Mexico. Popular in Southeast Asian cooking, green papaya is bland on its own but acts as a tremendous flavor carrier.
Weiswasser, a Gladwyne native whose resume includes Restaurant Daniel and Gilt in New York, will marry the julienne fruit with tuna, lemongrass, fish sauce, sugar and lime in a signature dish at Pearl, a Pan-Asian fusion restaurant opening at 1904 Chestnut St. next month.
"Green papaya easily takes on the flavor of a marinade while keeping its textural integrity," said Weiswasser.
Blue Foot chickens
At XIX, chef Marc Plessis cries fowl unless he's using a Poulet Bleu, a homegrown version of France's mythical poulet de Bresse, a breed favored at restaurants including Per Se and Alain Ducasse. "It tastes like a chicken is supposed to taste, not the fatty, mass-produced birds we're used to."
Free-range, and blessed with feet as blue as a booby's, these birds are a bit older, a tad gamier and about 30 percent leaner than the average chicken. The result of a partnership between a Canadian poultry breeder and a California farm cooperative, the birds are available through D'Artagnan, the Newark-based gourmet purveyor (go to www.dartagnan.com and type "Blue" in the search window).
"They're three times the price of a good chicken," said Plessis, "around $4 a pound. But this bird is so juicy and flavorful - it's the Porsche of chickens."
Whole-grain pasta
At Penne, the gem of an Italian restaurant tucked into the Inn at Penn in University City, executive chef Roberta Adamo is thinking about your health.
