Philly bucket list: Poe house, Fednuts

The mister has put together a "bucket list" of places he wants to see, things he wants to do, and restaurants he wants to try before we leave. Today:

The Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site is on 7th Street, one block north of Spring Garden. Admission is free and you can see a short biographical film before you take yourself on a self-guided tour with a laminated card (PDF). My friend Joseph is a volunteer ranger there -- he can explain to you why they close for an hour every day at noon for lunch rather than stay open the entire day. We got there about 10:00 and spent 90 minutes or so poking around the tour.

Then we got hit by the hungry stick. Right up the street is the "North Philly" (really just Northern Liberties) location of Federal Donuts. The cake-type donuts and fried chicken do live up to the hype -- this is absolutely a destination if you want to try some great Philadelphia food. For a home economics calculation, I'll try to compare it to fast-food staple Kentucky Fried Chicken. There's no straight comparison menu-to-menu, however. The closest I can get, I think, to what we tried would be something like this: We shared a 3-piece basket of Korean-style chicken, with a complimentary honey donut, or 4 items, for $10.00. (We added 2 more donuts and a coffee to our bill, for a total a little under $20.00 with tip.) KFC offers a 2-piece basket of its "Nashville Hot Chicken" with coleslaw and a biscuit, or 4 items, for $5.49. So, no, obviously you're not saving money by trying some of the best fried chicken in the U.S. rather than hitting up the KFC down the street.

As for donuts, an individual Federal Donut will run you $1.75. Dunkin Donuts charges $0.99 per piece. Again, obviously not a money-saver. However, I've written before about how a bargain can be too good to be true. What do we think of the quality of the ingredients in a $5.49 basket of chicken and sides, or a 99-cent donut, when we know what kinds of profits these companies make? (That's a double-digit rise in operating profits for KFC's Yum Brands in Q4 2016, and $50+ million quarterly for Dunkin' Donuts.) Of course, the Fednuts operators seek to profit from their work, too. But they're clearly aiming at quality, which they're not going to get if they start using cheaper chicken or cutting back on their spice blends.

Two little food review notes: Conventional wisdom is that Fednuts' coffee is amazing, but we didn't find it so. It's not bad at all; it's simply not so spectacular that you should go to Fednuts solely for the coffee. And to be honest, don't tell anyone, but I prefer yeast-raised doughnuts, Beiler's style, to cake donuts.

Anyhow, fun way to spend late morning and lunch, especially since Joseph happened to come into Fednuts himself for lunch right after we'd sat down. We got some pro-tips for visiting Grand Canyon (he also volunteers there) and had a real nice chat until he had to head back to the Poe house.

And we walked home to try to burn off at least part of one of our donuts.

On trash picking

Light blogging today; we took a tumble on the pavement over the weekend and are still a little sore.

Over at Grid magazine, an article about trash picking in Philadelphia, where "there’s plenty of opportunity for salvageable items to be absorbed into new homes before the trash truck comes lumbering down the street."

I live just off of South Street, in a neighborhood that includes million-dollar, single-family homes as well as condos and rental apartments, both low- and high-rise. The trash-picking opportunities seem endless sometimes. I've personally trash-picked a lamp that sits prominently in my living room; some mason jars for canning; a small stockpot; and even a sweater. When my last TV gave up the ghost, a friend of mine hauled it to the curb for me, and it was trash-picked itself within a half hour.

Not just my neighborhood, though. Over in University City at the end of the academic year, there's always "Penn Christmas" -- a pejorative term that the university has embraced over the past few years with a benefit sale of items that the area's temporary residents abandon upon leaving.

How's the trash picking in your neighborhood?

Philly freebie: Concerts at World Cafe Live every Friday

Quick item today. One of the best entertainment options in Philadelphia is WXPN's Friday Free at Noon concerts. Though they sometimes fill up early because XPN members get advance notice of the artists who will be performing, you can almost always get two absolutely no-cost tickets to the show. And world-class, sometimes very prominent artists, too: I've seen Thomas Dolby, Michael Kiwanuka, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Glen Hansard, The Mekons, Tim Robbins, Sonny Landreth, Hoots and Hellmouth . . .  and a few others I wasn't so much of a fan of, but it's good to expand your appreciation, I guess, every once in a while. And, did I mention, it costs zero dollars.

Since it's broadcast over the radio, the artists keep their sets pretty PG-rated -- so I've never had any qualms about taking my daughter, who's now in her early teens. (She loved One EskimO, who performed a multimedia set.) In fact it's a very fun way to break up an interminable day when the kids are home from school, whether it's weather, a teacher inservice day, or an odd leftover vacation day.

Save money by eating an early lunch at home first; bring earplugs; and meet me and my daughter (if it's a school vacation day) downstairs at 3025 Walnut Street, Phila 19104.