Philadelphia – part 2
My first stop in the morning was down the block to a Dunkin Donuts for coffee. It’s located across the street from City Hall, and out of respect to my readers Ill resist the temptation to spout cliches about cops and donuts or that it was the safest place in Philly. Im just pleased for the taxpayers of the city that the steady stream of officers were not passing through the Starbucks a few doors down.
With the magic of fresh java well on its way to my cranium, I walked north-west a dozen blocks to the Franklin Institute. My plan to take advantage of the VIP pass for the King Tut exhibit early in the day seems to have been fortunate. 
As the day unfolds, I suspect more and more people are likely to be lingering amidst the displays in spite of the efforts of museum personnel to limit the number of visitors permitted to enter each hour. For no specific reason, I chose not to opt for the audio tour, a decision I did not regret even though it would offer more detailed descriptions. Wisely, the text on all of the exhibit placards were duplicated on the top edge of all four sides of each showcase. This offered everyone an opportunity to read them as they waited for their turn to get up closer. The choice of font was questionable or text size a shade too small (imo) and difficulty reading it exacerbated by the dimly lit rooms. Whether because of the large percentage of people who took the audio tour option, or the sheer awe of the 3200 year old treasures, the rooms were surprisingly quiet. This is even more stunning considering there were children among the visitors.
Nearly every one of the artifacts reminded me of how advanced, in certain respects, these ancient civiliations actually were. Some had me wondering what it must have been like to have lived in a king’s palace during that era. But I experienced my real intrigue in the last exhibition room where dramatic images and sounds portrayed Howard Carter’s first glimpses inside Tut’s tomb. If you’ve already seen the exhibit, or are able to visit before it moves out of the U.S. after September 30th, please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
The Franklin Institute is also home of an interactive (hands-on) science museum. I took about an hour to breeze through a number of the other exhibit areas, many of which are best suited for school-age children. I felt that, in what appears to be an unforgiving acoustic environment, the ambient noise level was at all punishing (with the exception of the repetitive heart-beat sound effect used to fortify the museums legendary heart exhibit).
Walking back to toward the hotel, I passed through the Rittenhouse District along Chestnut Street and stopped into Fogo de Chao near City Hall. Its a churrascaria, which is a steakhouse featuring barbecue with roots from campfire roasts of the Pampa region in Southern Brazil. If youre a meat-lover, this is definitely a cuisine youd enjoy. The meal, an all-you-can-eat affair, begins with a trip to the buffet table. Its decked with a plentiful array ranging from beets, to smoked salmon, to cheese. Once back at the table, each dinner guest is armed with coaster sized disk. It starts out red side up; green side down. Once youre through with your appetizers from the buffet, turn the disk green side up for dinner service to begin.
Side dishes of mashed potatoes, fried bananas, and cheese bread are delivered to your table, with more available for the asking. Then, the rodizio style service of a churrascaria gets underway. As long as your disk remains green side up, passadors (waiters) dressed as gauchos (Brazilian cowboys), each with a skewer of barbecued meat fresh off the spit, visit your table in rotation. Sirloin steak, smoked sausage links, pork loin, chunks of turkey wrapped in bacon, fillet mignon, leg of lamb, several kinds of ribs, and so on are offered to you on an ongoing basis. Slices of beef and pork, to your personal preference from rare to well done, are carved right from rotisserie skewers and soon fill your dinner plate. Before long you grapple for the green disk in order to turn it red side up and acquire time to catch up. Want more? – just turn the disk back to green. You can easily turn down anything you don’t want or even request accelerated delivery of whatever you prefer.
Typically, dinner at these places cost around $50 per person, with lunch generally half the price. It seems to me that lunch in a churrascaria is a phenomenal deal since the choices, portions, and quality are equal to that at dinner time. Fogo de Chao, like Greenfields in Queens, and Texas de Brazil, are high profile churrascarias with locations in other U.S. cities, but I have also enjoyed equally great food at individually operated Brazilian restaurants (your mileage may vary).
- more later….