
Tried something new this weekend when I met up with Mama Vamp in Philadelphia. Instead of checking out the latest and greatest restaurants to make the scene in The City of Brotherly Love, we took to the streets. And, boy howdy, am I glad we did.
I have beloved recollections from my college days at Penn of filling up on fantastic street food. The grub was good, fresh, cheap and piled high enough in white styrofoam shells to account for both lunch and dinner.
After volunteering with the folks at the Vendy Awards last fall, I was surely overdue for a visit to University City to embrace the street food of my youth.
Still, intentions aside, we didn't get that far. In fact we didn't make it much past 30th Street, where we sidled up to an alluring pastel pink truck called Denise's, which had won raves online for its Caribbean-styled Soul Food that promised to satisfy.
Let me just say here and now -- it did a heck of a lot more than simply satisfy. Denise's Jerk Chicken was so good it made me want to slap my Mama...

Well, not literally. Mama Vamp has a mean left hook.
But still, this moist, kickin' Jerk Chicken was a marvel. The side of Rice and Beans was divine. Dang, even the freakin' Cabbage was fabulous, sweet and wilted to toothsome perfection. (Yes, that's right! I'm raving about Cabbage!)
Needless to say, I think I'll be spending more time on the streets when I visit Philadelphia. Call me a "streetwalker," if you will, but you best remember that I've inherited that mean left hook from Mama Vamp. Better to just mind your manners and pass me some more of that Jerk.