Last Saturday night, I had the opportunity to eat at Cochon, the relatively new French BYO at the corner of Passyunk and Catharine in Queen Village. Scott and I went along with Philafoodie so that he could have one last taste of the food and take pictures for the review he posted today. David’s review is really wonderful and complete, but here are my two cents anyway.

The food at Cochon is deeply pleasurable. There were moments when I would take a bite and need to stop and close my eyes. The crispy chicken livers were so good, sweet and crispy on the outside but still retaining deep pockets of melting softness on the inside. I wanted that bowl to last forever. If you are like me, always looking for food experiences that make you stop, focus and enjoy (and you eat meat) I definitely recommend that you find the time to have a meal down there.

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If you’re looking for any other last minute information about the election, the candidates or for returns later tonight, make sure to take a peek at the Great Expectation site, they have a ton of good information.

I realize that the Tap Room has been open for at least a couple of years, but this was my first visit down there. Hopefully it won’t be the last though, because the beer list is amazing (this was the first time in my life I’ve come across a bar with organic beer on tap) and the food. Oh, the food. I had a Wild Boar Burrito that was filled to bursting with tender, spicy meat and topped with smoky sauce that had more than a little kick. It came with a mixed green salad that had a cooling ranch-style dressing drizzled on top. The plantain nachos (I nabbed a bite from the house hunter’s plate) were a tasty reinterpretation of a stand plate of nachos and the towering burger was filled with beef that had to be ground in-house. I’m already trying to find a time for my next visit.

It was at this moment that I realized what I was witnessing was a brazen daylight robbery. I didn’t know what this man had stolen but from where I was, it looked like perhaps a piece of electronic equipment. With my backpack strapped to my back, and my bike left unlocked outside the coffee shop, I just took off after this guy. Didn’t think twice about it and just started huffing it as fast as I could after this guy.

Go read the rest of his story, it will give you hope for the future.

I have always felt totally safe walking through the city, at any hour of the day and the recent events have started to shake that feeling of comfort. It now takes a concerted effort for me to walk down the sidewalk with confidence in my gait. I’m wondering how other people are feeling? Do you feel safe in the city these days?

The above pictures is, in my humble opinion, the best plate of food you can get in Philadelphia for $5. It is the tacos al pastor from Plaza Garibaldi on Washington Ave. (between 11th and 12th Streets). Tasty crumbles of cooked pork with pineapple, corn tortillas, guacamole, cilantro and onion that just get better when you squeeze a little lime over them. If you aren’t a pig eater, you can get shredded chicken for the same price. It is definitely worth the trip.

Each day that I worked for The Post involved attempts to prevent my own killing. No one in my neighborhood knew where I worked or what I really did for a living. I told everyone that I ran my own business, an Internet cafe, in a remote area of northern Baghdad. If people had known the truth, word might have reached bloodthirsty insurgents who wait for a chance to add another name to their death lists.

His article is a viscerally felt reminder of the ways in which we are insulated from the violence that is occurring in Iraq at this time. I feel lucky and mournful at the same time having read this article.

There are lots of things going on in Philly that I could be posting about today. There was the huge turn out for the 10,000 Man March/Community Patrol event this last Sunday at the Liacouras Center. There’s also Philly Mag’s blog post about how they think we should combat the fact that Philadelphia has been voted the ugliest kid on the playground.

But I don’t have the mental fortitude to dig in to those stories. So instead, I’m going to point you at the cool old pictures that Septa Watch linked to yesterday. It’s a set of scans of old postcards that feature public transportation as it once was in Philly. Oh, simpler times.