Rexfeng

[Photograph: Charlie Taylor]

A friend of mine in college insisted that Pho 75 was the real deal because, of the handful of pho joints on Washington Avenue, it was the only one that didn't have pictures on the menu. In his mind, if it didn't have pictures, it must be for the natives, and that was a good thing. I could never be so sure. Now, an older and wiser me, having actually tried pho in several restaurants in and out of Philadelphia, is ready to tackle the question: is Pho 75 truly the realest of deals?

No doubt some of Pho 75's appeal to purists is the lack of almost any offering other than pho. There are no appetizers, no rice plates, and no bubble tea. There are exactly 37 items on the one-page menu, including beverages and four desserts. The interior of Pho 75 is sparse with a cafeteria-like feel, which adds to the "we're not screwing around" vibe.

The pho comes out nearly instantly here and, of course, steaming hot. The Number 1 ($6.25 regular, $6.95 large), pho with eye-round steak, well-done flank, fat brisket, soft tendon, and tripe, covers most of the meat options, but you can get meatballs and chicken, too, if that's your thing. The brisket, which elsewhere is often an overdone and mushy affair, is especially good. It's moist with a firm texture and a nice sliver of yellow fat running the edge.

The broth is where Pho 75 really shines. Though not at all cloudy, close examination shows some remnants of the spice mix and roasted bones in the form of small brown flecks. There is little to none of the sweetness that can sometimes overwhelm a pho broth, and the cinnamon and anise come through just enough without dominating the taste. The broth is clear and beefy, with just enough fat to add to the flavor, and is no doubt what gives Pho 75 its excellent reputation.

The noodles are little smaller and a little less firm than I like them and you don't get quite as many as elsewhere—for a rice noodle fanatic like me, bad noodles can be a show-stopper. In this case, however, it's only barely worth mentioning.

So, is it the absolute best? It's hard to say without attempting to apply a little science, but Pho 75 is certainly a strong contender. What are your favorite phos in Philly? Let us know in the comments!

About the author: Charlie Taylor is enjoying the heyday of South Philadelphia gastronomy.

Noodles without borders.

China will surpass America in consumption of processed foods by 2015, market research company Euromonitor International estimates, as all things "instant" and "ready-made" gain prominence in the country. Supersize rates of obesity and diabetes to rival our own are also projected along with that, of course, although the "average Chinese resident will eat only about a quarter as much processed food as the average American," and the U.S. market for processed foods will still be worth an estimated $100 billion more. Still, who will emerge on top as the most artery-clogged country of them all? The race is neck and neck, but no one wants to win. [Quartz]

Read more posts by Belle Cushing

Filed Under: deterrence, china, food politics, junk food, obesity

Sure, most of the attention has been on Ben Affleck being cast as Batman in Zack Snyder's sequel to Man of Steel, but what about the rest of the Batman universe? Deadline reports that Fox has closed a deal for a television series centered around none other than the Dark Knight's ally Commissioner Gordon. Called Gotham, the show focuses on Gordon's early years as a detective on the Gotham City police force, and while it will include some of Gotham's most famous villains it will reportedly not feature Batman himself.

Bruno Heller, the creator of The Mentalist, will be producing the show in conjunction with Warner Bros. Television, and Fox's deal includes a series commitment — signaling just how bullish the network is on the project....

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Amazon may be trotting out new versions of its Kindle Fire tablets and an updated software platform for them, but its also introducing a unique new feature that's arguably the most interesting part of the whole deal. Called Mayday, the feature is a built-in remote support and instant helpline for every Kindle Fire HDX. If it sounds like a virtual version of Apple's vaunted Genius Bar, that's because it kind of is.

Mayday is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is accessed by a dedicated button found right in the tablet's Quick Settings menu. A tap on that button connects the user with a live support representative in 15 seconds or less, no matter what time or day of the year it is. Once connected, the user can see the support...

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It probably doesn't come as much of a surprise that the NFL is a highly profitable business. But it might come as a shock that the league enjoys nonprofit status. From Gregg Easterbrook: How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers.

Taxpayers fund the stadiums, antitrust law doesn't apply to broadcast deals, the league enjoys nonprofit status, and Commissioner Roger Goodell makes $30 million a year. It's time to stop the public giveaways to America's richest sports league -- and to the feudal lords who own its teams.

Tags: football   Gregg Easterbrook   NFL   sports

Once, late on a strange Christmas and newly in San Franciso, Kozmo.com delivered me fresh fruit, flowers, a vase, a dvd copy of A Christmas Story, a DVD player, a bottle of wine, an opener and a glass. I later returned the DVD.

A wonderful service that brought all manner of stuff to your home, pretty much at all hours, Kozmo.com rose and fell with the dotcom boom and bust.

Lots of folks have far better Kozmo.com stories than I.

Welcome back, Kozmo. You are well remembered.

Suzanne LaBarre:

A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to “debate” on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science.

Hard to believe it took them this long.

From Drinks

Cappuccino at Ninth Street Espresso in the Lombardy Hotel. [Photographs: Liz Clayton]

Though it would be going a bridge too far to say that Midtown Manhattan has become the kind of hip, cool, delicious place one might fantasize about vacationing in, the coffee landscape is improving by the minute. We've updated our midtown coffee guide from nearly two years ago to include some of the greatest new additions.

Cafe Grumpy

If you'd told any New York coffee aficionado five years ago there'd one day be a Cafe Grumpy just off of Times Square, they likely would have done a spit-take with their Americano. But this latest of the Cafe Grumpies is one of the nicest: spacious and convivial, two large communal tables (and a few spare benches) center this 39th-street oasis. Enjoy pastries housebaked at Cafe Grumpy's Lower East Side bakery alongside pourover coffee and espresso (prepared on a comely orange Synesso) made from coffees roasted by Grumpy as well. It's a lovely cafe that departs fully from the surrounding neighborhood vibe—there's even a public washroom!

Cafe Grumpy: 200 West 39th Street, New York, NY 10018 (map) 646-449-8747; cafegrumpy.com

Gregory's Coffee

Local coffee hero Gregory Zamfotis—we'd say wunderkind, but he's too suave looking for a name that reductive—actually has five outlets of his mainstream slash hip coffee business in midtown, but the one we like best is on 31st and Sixth. It's the geekiest of the lot—there's a custom-built Aeropress bar, to give you some perspective—and provides a great place to stop for both casual coffee lovers and curious connoisseurs alike. Gregory's beans rotate, so check in regularly for the latest offering, and for the occasional coffee-world "special event" that takes place here.

Gregory's: 874 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10001 (map)
646-476-3838; gregoryscoffee.com

Ninth Street Espresso

Longtime Lower East Side coolholders Ninth Street have dabbled in other parts of the city than Ninth Street—Tenth Street, for instance—but their newest location in the Lombardy Hotel is their grandest departure yet. The half-underground, marble-clad space is part of this up-and-coming historic hotel's renovation towards a boutique future, and the full-service Ninth Street Cafe is spacious, classy, and has a good amount of seating if you'd like to linger before returning to your Park Avenue business of the day.

Ninth Street Espresso: 109 East 56th Street, New York, NY 10022 (map)
646-559-4793; ninthstreetespresso.com

Joe (Grand Central Terminal)

The first great coffee to arrive at Grand Central Terminal is still thriving at Joe, who now roast the entirety of their own coffee for this growing local chain. Find it in the Greybar Passage, and enjoy your to-go coffee (or your to-stay espresso drinks served in ceramic—they're not barbarians) at this no-nonsense, good service, coffee's-always-great kiosk.

Joe: 44 Grand Central Terminal (Grand Central Terminal Greybar Passage), New York, NY 10017 (map)
212-661-8580; joetheartofcoffee.com

Irving Farm Coffee Roasters (Grand Central Terminal)

Down below the Grand Central rush in the bustling food concourse (when is that Shake Shack opening again?) is another contender in the GCT coffee scene, an outpost of Hudson Valley roaster Irving Farm, that opened earlier this year. The circular cafe often has a boggling number of people working behind its rounded marble counters, but they're all needed to serve espressos, to-go filter coffees, or iced Kalita pourovers brewed on demand—or to make those cute little baguette sandwiches.

Irving Farm Coffee Roasters: 88 East 42nd Street (Grand Central Terminal Dining Concourse), New York, NY 10017 (map)
212-983-4242; irvingfarm.com

The Shop

Many have witnessed (or been) the weary urbanite, spilling out, glassy-eyed, from the steps of the New York Public Library, seeking another kind of enrichment or escape. Their sleepy call has been answered by The Shop, an innovative, startlingly welcoming hotel-foyer-cum-cafe, in the lobby of the Andaz Hotel. With arguably the city's best-stocked cookbookshelves of any cafe, The Shop positions itself (well) as a sort of gourmet microstore, featuring giftable takeaways such as pickles and chocolate along with cookbooks, whole bean coffee and prepared drinks from across-the-river-roasters Cafe Grumpy.

The Shop 485 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 (map)

Culture Espresso Bar

Culture used to be the sole worthy oasis in the coffee desert above 23rd street, but they've been staying the course for several years now and continue to hold their own among the noobs crowding the landscape. A LaMarzocco Strada and a pourover bar compete for your attention with fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and a rotating array of other treats, while the roaster roster rotates regularly—as of this writing, the cafe was featuring esteemed Portland, Oregon roaster Heart. Visit them on 38th Street on your next see where the Midtown scene all began.

Culture Espresso Bar: 72 West 38th Street, New York NY 10018 (map)
212-302-0200; cultureespresso.com

Stumptown Coffee Roasters

The first East Coast outpost of this legendary Pacific Northwest roaster is four years old now, but the new-cool sheen still hasn't worn off this brass-and-steampunk boîte emanating from the Ace Hotel's superhip lobby. Queues for the sturdy espresso and seasonal selection of Red-Hook-roasted single origin coffees (on Chemex, or from an urn if you're rushed) often reach well around the counter and into the hotel itself, where by the way you're welcome to take your cappuccino to see and be seen (there are no seats in the actual cafe) and even enjoy free wifi!

Stumptown Coffee Roasters: 18 West 29th Street (in the Ace Hotel) (map)
212-679-2222; stumptowncoffee.com

About the author: Liz Clayton drinks, photographs and writes about coffee and tea all over the world, though she pretends to live in Brooklyn, New York. She is the creator of Nice Coffee Time, a book of photographs of the best coffee in the world, published by Presspop.

I had no idea that's how rubber bands worked. Once again, Feynman takes something that seems pretty simple and makes it both simpler and vividly complex.

(via @stevenstrogatz)

Tags: physics   Richard Feynman   science   video

Twitter has chosen to list on the New York Stock Exchange as it moves ever closer to becoming a public company, The Street is reporting based on its own sources. Twitter reportedly intends to sell between 50 and 55 million shares at a price between $28 to $30 each, bringing in around $1.5 billion for the company. Such an offer would value Twitter around $15 or $16 billion — far short of Facebook's $100 billion valuation.

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Today's Amazon Gold Box wants to make sinners out of those who've abstained from Saints Row 4, the daily deal whittling it down to a lustworthy $37.49 on Xbox 360 and PS3, and $29.99 on PC. If that can't tempt you into buying Volition's latest sandbox of insanity, maybe a $70 Wub Wub or $90 GOTG edition will push you over the edge.

Otherwise, you'll want to keep an eye on Lightning Deals today, given how this morning's Muramasa Rebirth discount was quickly gobbled up. Highlights include $50 worth of Amazon credit with a Xbox 360 purchase (6AM PT/9AM PT), BioShock Infinite (12PM PT/3PM ET), and a whole bunch of Skylanders deals towards the end of the day.

Bling Bling: It's Saints Row 4 on Amazon Gold Box originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 24 Sep 2013 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Motley Fool collected 20 snippets of business wisdom uttered by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos over the years.

All businesses need to be young forever. If your customer base ages with you, you're Woolworth's.

Totes agree with this, which is why I use words like "totes". (Obvs.)

Tags: business   Jeff Bezos   lists

Want to turn your PS3 games into PS4 games? It's not hard. You just have to follow these steps.

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I’m testing a new all-purpose New Yorker cartoon caption.

Dean Takahashi, Venturebeat:

The results confirm what users believe about the devices, and they highlight a feature that is usually left out of technical comparisons.

In its first TouchMarks benchmark test, the iPhone 5 responded to touches at an average time of 55 milliseconds, compared to 85 milliseconds for the iPhone 4. The closest Android device was the Samsung Galaxy S4 at 114 milliseconds.

“Apple trounced the competition,” said Peter Relan, chairman of Agawi. “There is this whole other dimension of responsiveness that Agawi cares about.”

Interesting to see it measured, but this is something we’ve all known all along.

There's widespread consensus that the best cosplayers at this year's Dragoncon were the people who dressed up in bodysuits patterned after the notoriously bizarre institutional carpet at the Atlanta Marriott hotel, one of the event's venues. But when one of the cosplayers offered to supply carpet-camo to other attendees, Couristan Inc (the company that designed the carpet) sent them a legal threat.

Of all the things to get a Cease and Desist over, of ALL the replicas I've made over the years, I've received one from Couristan Inc., designers if the Marriott Marquis Atlanta hotel carpet. Spoonflower has pulled the design, as is their right, so sorry everyone who wanted some fabric of their own!

The absurdity is palpable.

Carpet designer threatens cosplayers with legal action (via Super Punch)

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Expanding in its home borough.

Soon there will come a day when all of the world's flea markets bear the Brooklyn Flea logo, feature porchetta-sandwich stands, and offer pour-over coffee. The latest spot to be colonized: The flea market held outside P.S. 321 on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. The management changeover will happen on Columbus Day weekend, and when it does, expect 40 vendors offering antiques, vintage clothing, and "a tightly curated slection" of jewelry, arts, and crafts. On the food front, Flea co-founder Eric Demby tells Grub Street to expect "maybe one cooked-food vendor so the other vendors can eat and there's something to nosh on." [Park Slope Stoop, FiPS, Related]

Read more posts by Alan Sytsma

Filed Under: empire building, brooklyn, brooklyn flea, park slope, smorgasburg

Last month amidst heightening controversy over government surveillance, President Obama pledged that the National Security Agency would soon hire a civil liberties and privacy officer. The NSA has now launched a search to fill that open position, and a new job posting offers insight on just what the role will entail. The CL/P officer is meant to "serve as the primary advisor to the Director of NSA for ensuring that privacy is protected and civil liberties are maintained" by NSA policies, missions, and programs. That involves providing "guidance" to the NSA's senior leadership team and holding special briefings for lawmakers regarding any NSA-related questions or concerns they may have. The privacy and civil liberties officer will even...

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From Serious Eats: New York

[Photographs: Lauren Rothman]

I'm a born and bred New Yorker. That means many things: it means that some of my earliest memories take place in Central Park or the Natural History museum. It means that I memorized (most of) the subway map by the time I was nine. It means that I never learned how to drive a car. And it also means that if you tell me you're from New Jersey, which I understand is quite near New York, I'll ask you, "Oh, what part?" and then I won't comprehend your answer at all.

Unless, of course, you say, "Jersey City." Jersey City I know. It's super close by. The PATH train stops there and I've been there, oh, twice. I've heard that place has really good Indian food.

I'd been wanting to get to Jersey City to eat some Indian for a while now, and when my roommate started working there a few months ago, I knew this was the time. So recently I headed to Newark Avenue, which boasts a sizable Indian population and many great restaurants, to Sapthagiri, one of the local favorites.

Items from the chaat and dosa buffet.

We stopped by on a Wednesday night, and I highly recommend you do the same: Wednesday is all-you-can-eat dosa and chaat night for $10.99. That means you can get as many made-to-order dosas, or thin crispy crepes stuffed with savory fillings, as you like, as well as an entire buffet offering several types of chaat, or crispy Indian snacks, as well as pav bhaji, toasted buttered rolls heaped with potato curry; mysore bajii, airy coconut-wheat flour fritters studded with scallions and served with a coconut-tahini dipping sauce; fluffy rice pilaf, and some kind of dessert.

Papri chaat.

Everything on the buffet was tasty, but the sleeper hit was the Papri Chaat, crunchy, greasless crisps of fried dough smothered in sweetened yogurt and tangy tamarind sauce. Our server told us that chaat are commonly sold on the beaches of Mumbai; this sweet-salty snack would make the perfect summer treat.

Onion masala dosa.

For our dosa we opted for the Onion Masala Dosa, a paper-thin rice batter crepe griddled and rolled around a filling of mashed potatoes, peas and cashews. The dosa's tasty, well-seasoned filling was concentrated at the center of the crepe, so we used the empty ends for dipping into the restaurant's mint and tamarind sauces.

Paneer makhani.

If you go during a buffer you can still order items a la carte, and a north Indian dish of paneer makhani ($9.99) doesn't disappoint. The cubes of squeaky fresh panee in a super-rich, buttery tomato sauce are subtly flavored with crushed fenugreek leaves.

Aloo gobi.

It's difficult for me to visit an Indian restaurant and not order aloo gobi ($9.99), that classic curried cauliflower and potato dish. But Sapthagiri's version was unlike any I'd ever tasted: much, much richer, the sour/savory aspects of the sauce—provided by dried mango powder and a host of ground spices including turmeric, cayenne and cumin, respectively—completely in balance.

Visiting Jersey City's Newark Avenue is a treat; the steeply-pitched street is lined with dozens of restaurants and a handful Hindu temples, and strands of multicolored lights hanging from the street lamps and power lines lend the area a festive air. The atmosphere alone is worth a trip; the excellent food at Sapthagiri is just one more reason to go.

All the way to the top.

City officials in Munich have directed Oktoberfest bartenders in Germany to make sure they top off stein pours at this year's festival, or risk legal action, according to German newspaper Münchner Merkur.

Given the amount of beer consumed at the festival and the exorbitant prices paid for each stein — Quartz reports the average beer at this year's Oktoberfest will cost the equivalent of $13 — the short-pour scam actually adds up to a hefty amount.

According to German news site the Local, the most egregious offender last year served only 80 percent of the total beer that customers paid for. Even at the most generous beer tent, drinkers lost almost a dollar per beer.

Authorities, who will be the only ones sober enough to notice, are threatening to ban servers from the festival if skimpy pours continue after two warnings. If three offenders at one tent are banned, the Kreisverwaltungsrefera — responsible for order in the city — will seek legal action. Even planned, tourist-driven debauchery must be carried out in an orderly fashion in Germany.

German officials warn Oktoberfest tent operators to stop skimping on the beer [Fox News]
The price of beer at Oktoberfest completely defies economic logic [Quartz]

Read more posts by Belle Cushing

Filed Under: warnings, beer, booze news, oktoberfest

Last month, we learned both that a GLaDOS announcer pack would come to Dota, and that we've all apparently been pronouncing 'Dota' wrong this entire time. And now we finally know when that update will launch: September 23rd.

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Can we just appreciate how good the backgrounds in Adventure Time look for a minute? 'Cause they're pretty freaking gorgeous.

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First, there was the ramen burger—which we showed you how to make. Now we return with another ramen curiosity: the ramen pizza. And yes, there's a recipe for you to follow.

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A playable demo of Capcom's upcoming enigmatic online multiplayer game Deep Down was available at this year's Tokyo Game Show, but unless you're in Japan and manage to get there early or have a play reservation, good luck with the 4+ hour wait.

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Earlier this month, reports about the NSA’s efforts to crack or otherwise circumvent the encryption protocols commonly used to securely transmit web traffic were released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, ending up in a widely-circulated New York Times report. Those concerns aside, many have long suspected that the NSA engineered vulnerabilities in a 2006 standard allowing it to more easily break common encryption schemes, and the US federal agency responsible for recommending cybersecurity standards said that it would be reopening discussions around the contentious algorithm. As a result, network security firm RSA is telling its developers to stay away from the standard altogether.

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Team Gravity, the Sony Japan Studio group responsible for the topsy-turvy PlayStation Vita game, Gravity Rush, are working on a new project - and it resembles a sequel so far. Sony issued the brief teaser above, which asks us to "fall again" and shows Gravity Rush heroine Kat flying around a floating city - possibly a new city altogether.

Gravity Rush established itself as a top Vita game as soon as it launched in May of last year. In our review, we lauded Gravity Rush for its beautiful anime-inspired world and free-spirited flying.

Gravity Rush may 'fall again' in new game originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 19 Sep 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After months of rumors, Dow Jones has confirmed that it will not renew its agreement with All Things D, the influential tech blog run by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, at the end of the year. The move means Mossberg will no longer write product reviews for the Wall Street Journal, where he's been an industry fixture since his Personal Technology column began in 1991. The Journal has not announced who will replace him, but managing editor Gerard Baker says the paper will be hiring 20 new staffers to replace the outgoing ATD team.

@WSJ and #AllThingsD have decided not to renew agreement at the end of the year.

— WSJ Communications (@WSJPR) September 19, 2013

Swisher and Mossberg have been shopping All Things D for months,...

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This group on Flickr shows just how fantastically designed Japanese manhole covers are. Here are some of my favorites:

(via mr)

Tags: design   Japan   photography