Over Memorial Day weekend I traveled to Philly and New York with my friends Jonathan and Rachel (on the left here). We stayed with their friends Kim and Ben in South Philadephia. We took a long walk to all the neighborhood shops (fish, wine, beer, bread) to put together our dinner, and added some vegetables from their backyard garden. We had a delicious Italian meal called crudo ("raw")-- raw fish with olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon and lime, and pumpkin seeds for a crunch.
Kim and Ben's neighborhood in South Philly seemed like it hadn't changed much in the past few decades. It felt densely urban but with a low building profile-- two-story row houses and storefronts. There seemed to be a real stoop culture in their neighborhood--groups of older men were sitting and chatting in lawn chairs and little girls were filling water balloons on the sidewalk.
The goal of the trip was attend a surprise birthday party in New York, where Jonathan and Rachel would play music with their old band from Connecticut, the Balkan Situations (ha ha). The band members came from near and far, and got warmed up pretty quickly after a year's break. There was some great accordion, guitar, clarinet, bass, and fiddle playing.
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