I WANT CANDY!

I've always been a huge sucker for delicious, sweet sweet candy. Who can forget all their favorite childhood candies? My personal favorites?



Wonka DinoSOUR Eggs. Like the real thunder lizards now extinct, they were a variation on Gobstoppers, with a less roof-of-mouth-shredding texture and featured a cascade of wonderful fruit flavors and they candy shells wore away.



Seemingly difficult to find in Philly are ROLOS, which are said to contain a whole roll of smiles. It's simply a dollop of caramel surround by crappy milk chocolate. Simple... but delicious.



These seem disgusting to me now, but I used to adore BOSTON BAKED BEANS. They're just somewhat waxy candy-coated peanuts. Why they were likened to beans is beyond me.

Thankfully for you, dear reader, and I both, CapoPenn now has a PLETHORA of amazing candies made of much better ingredients and by less corporate folks for you to enjoy. We have the Philly-produced artisanal LOVE BARS and LOVE ROCKS, as written about last week by our own Sarah B . We also have CHICKEN BONES, oddly named but delicious, they are peanut butter wrapped in a candy coating and covered with coconut flakes, kind of like a much fancier version of CHICK-O-STICKS. We also have HELLO BARS in both chocolate or hazelnut, awesome multi-flavored caramel lollipops imported from jolly France, and excellent little hazelnut chocolates. Though not quite candy, GILDA'S BISCOTTI are locally made and a lovely compliment to any coffee drink. CANDY! It's so good.

Snow Survival Guide

According to the Philadelphia Chocolate Tour, which visits our store almost daily, ice cream was first created in China like a gazillion years ago. They say that the emperor (dunno which one) would send his servant up a mountain to gather snow and ice and then they would scurry back down and the snow would be mixed with yaks' milk and other ingredients and presto! - ice cream. I hear this speech a lot, and always feel kinda bad for the servant who had to go and fetch the ice. I wonder if any of them ever got trapped in the snow in pursuit of the emperor's tasty treat. As my brain thinks in one long run-on sentence, this led me to start thinking about avalanches.


Tips on surviving an avalanche:

Ditch yer gear. In an avalanche, it's usually blunt force trauma that will kill you, so you want to make sure that you don't get bashed in the head with your snowboard or impaled on your ski pole. Throw these things as far away from you as possible. As a bonus, any debris that may be sticking up out of the snow can help rescuers find your location and maybe save you before you die of hypothermia. Yay!

Paddle, paddle, kick. During an avalanche, the snow is pretty loose and kinda acts much like a great big cold wave. You want to try to stay near the surface of the avalanche, because once it stops, all the snow will settle and you will be completely screwed if you aren't as close to the surface as possible.

Make room. Before the snow settles and packs down upon you in an icy coffin of doom, you want to make sure that you give yourself plenty of breathing room (this is assuming that you are clearheaded enough to overlook the fact that you are in an AVALANCHE). Try to create an air pocket around your mouth by cupping your hands over your face. Also, be sure to take a deep breath as the snow starts packing in, so that your breathing won't be restricted by your chest being crushed.

Spit. Being in an avalanche is, and I'm just guessing here, a very disorienting experience. It may be hard to tell which way you should start clawing at in order to get to that sweet, sweet air. If you can't tell which way is up, try drooling a bit. Whichever direction the spit goes is obviously down, and therefore NOT the direction you want to go. Thanks, gravity!

Scream and pray. Holler a lot. Go crazy. Yell your face off! Hopefully there is a search party looking for you and making a lot of noise will help them find you. It might also help hungry bears find you, but at this point that's the least of your worries. It probably wouldn't hurt to give a shout out to whatever gods you hold dear, and with any luck this guy -->
will find you and give you some nice brandy while he digs you out.

Can't Go Wrong

Or maybe not. Either way, Mexican Chocolate was pairing quite nicely for me yesterday with Basil. Call me crazy. Call the whole world crazy. But it was. In fact, we often say to customers that you can't go wrong. This is a prime example of that. You really almost can't go wrong with mixing out flavors. Each is so perfectly round in it's own right, that you never really need the flavor it's sitting beside it to complete it. BAM. Capogiro 101: Get whatever you want, mix whatever you want, at the end of the day, you're gonna LOVE it.

LoveROCKS!

Well, yeah it does, but I'm not that much of a hippie...unless I'm talking about food. So not long ago, traipsing through the Headhouse Square Farmers Market, a brightly colored candy looking thing caught my eye. I'm a bit like a magpie, in that shiny or brightly colored objects snag me like a distractable child. And it was a candy thing! A fantastic, chocolate candy thing, in fact.
LoveBar was founded by Tegan Hagy and Philip Asbury, with the aim of creating top-notch products that nourish the community and those who make the chocolate bars possible. They do the best they can to source sustainable ingredients, and have traveled to the ends of the Earth searching for cocoa beans. Their bars are only made of three ingredients (cocoa nibs, cocoa butter and organic sugar) are gluten and nut free, as well as vegan. These guys do it all! From roasting the beans to wrapping the bars, everything produced from LoveBar is made with tons of time, energy, and of course, love. Oh, and one of my favorite things? All of the designs on the wrappers are from Philly artists. What! So rad.
Hit up any of our stores to try ones of these babies, but I'm telling you, if you're a dark chocolate fan, beware. They're pretty fantastic.

Happy Firthday!

I saw 'The King's Speech' this weekend and was totally blown away. Colin Firth is an incredible actor and deserves every award that he has and will receive. I want to be best friends with Colin Firth. I want to go shopping, drink beer, and tell jokes with Colin Firth. I want to skip through Rittenhouse Square with Colin Firth. I'm pretty much obsessed with all things Colin Firth.

I don't know much about Colin Firth on a personal level (yet), but I do happen to know that he is from England. So here's my plan to lure Colin Firth into coming here, by taunting him with some of our delicious offerings.

Stuff we have at 20th Street that British people seem to like:


Toast. We have amazing Big Toast from Hudson Bread Company, available in white or wheat. Our Big Toast is presented with your choice of toppings: butter, jam, Cream Nut Peanut Butter, or Nutella. I'm guessing that Colin Firth likes jam AND Nutella on his toast, so we may need to order more for his impending arrival.

Tea. We carry large selection from Two Leaves and a Bud tea company, which is based in Basalt, CO. The tea makers there have traveled all over the world to find the best organic, black, herbal, and green teas. I think that my new friend Colin Firth would really love their Earl Grey tea, which to me contains the perfect mix of tang and bergamot-y goodness with the richness of a strong black tea.

Sparkling Water. At Capogiro, we have all types of water; sparkling, flat, tap, and ice. Our British customers always seem to go for a nice San Pellegrino when they come by to visit. In addition to unflavored San Pellegrino water, we also carry their Limonata, Aranciata, and Chinotto varieties. It's fizzy love all around. I'm betting that my buddy Colin Firth likes his on the rocks with a wedge of lime. I know I do!

Meyer Lemon Sorbetto. I'm not really sure if British people love sorbetto as a whole, but I'm going to go out on a limb and assume they do. Today is the first day of the year for Meyer Lemon Sorbetto, and boy is it delicious. It's a little known fact that Meyer lemons almost became extinct a few years back due to a nasty citrus virus, but scientists were able to develop a stronger strain that fought back and won victoriously. Also, a Meyer lemon is sweeter and rounder than its regular lemon cousins. Much like Colin Firth.

Meyer Lemon Sorbetto

cookies, Cookies, COOKIES!!!

New cookies at 13th street y'all!!

Cookie Confidential are locally made yum-yum treaty treats that'll make your stomach go YO! And they come in 4 FABULOUS flavors: Chocolate Chip (obviously,) Snikerdoodle (why yes, please,) Apple Chai (souns good,) and Lemon Cashew (hold the presses!)

They're only a dollar and they're waiting for your smiling faces. :)

Goin' BIG in Texas

The stunning Central Market in Texas has Capogiro on its frozen shelves!!! What do I know about Texas? Well, I have visited this great state and had some mean, mean margaritas and tacos, but honestly, all I need to know has come from the great Lyle Lovette. I have been to at least 12 shows. “That’s right, you’re not from Texas, but Texas loves you anyway!” I listened and we contacted Texas! Central Market is an awesome market and they forgave my yankee lingo and loved our gelato. It is an honor to be there!

Some of you may question our reach. No worries. The same great grass-fed, Scottish Ayrshire cow’s milk, local produce, hand-crafted in small batches is in every pint. We just need some more people in our kitchen to create our stuff! 

"It's important to be successful enough to be able to keep doing what you love.” Mr. Lovette said that.

If you live in Texas, or know someone in Texas, pass this along!

“It's difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost.” Mr. Lovette said that too!!

Click HERE to order!


La Regina-

El Ultimo Dia

gratuitous cat picture

Hola y adiós. Me voy, con mi bella esposa, de viajar por algunos lugares. Lloro, con el corazón pesado,paradejar mis buenos amigos detrás a languidecer en la miseria del invierno. Gracias a todos por hacer midíaCapogiro tan húmedo y delicioso. Voy aacariciar los recuerdos que han creado para mí con su desdentada sonrisa y las manos sucias.

Duzun dut uste guztiak Euskal landarenahuntzak ederra dudan bezala joateko.Berenlarruzko zakarra, pungent usain eta ludikoakitzulerako direnak maiteatzeanutziberreskuratu konstante bat izan da. Mesedez esan niriotoitza, eta beharbada zureetxeanzutik aldare bat, non gozo eskaintzakuzten baduzu, delikatua jainkokontrola nirepatu mesedez.

Ben Truva antik sitesini ziyaret olarak ve ören bakar, ben geride güzel bir şehir ele alacağız. , antik bir zamanlar görkemli şehirlerinden gibi Philidelphia (bir kez şanlı)kalıntıları da olduğuiçin. Öğrenme ve kültür merkezi olarak gelişmeyeyine yeniden ve bir kezyeniden inşa etsin. ekmek Mayıs etleryumuşak ve lezzetli olması.Oynak köpükbardak ağzınaMayıs fermente tahıl ve arazizevk getirmek. Güney PhillyMayıs sürücülerinasıl düzgün onların araçlarınıçalıştırmak için öğrenirler.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES IT FEELS WEIRD TO LEAVE I AM TINGLING WITH NERVOUS EXCITEMENT WHOOP WHOOP I WISH EVERYONE ALL OF THE BEST FOR EVER AND EVER WE DO NOT HAVE A WHOLE LOT OF DAYS ALLOTTED TO US ON EARTH SO LIVE LIFE, DAMMIT, CUZ THERE ARE MORE AMAZING ADVENTURES AVAILABLE TO US THAN THERE IS TIME IN LIFE TO EXPERIENCE THEM ALL, AMEN, AND IT ONLY TOOK ME FORTY YEARS TO FIGURE THAT OUT.

(special thanks to Google Translate)

How to Beat the Winter Doldrums: Pt. 1

So I can't imagine I'm alone here - dreaming wistfully of balmy summer nights with friends, maybe a beach, and some really awesome food, preferably cooked over charcoal. So many times over the last two months have I looked out my back door at my fire pit and grill and thought "maybe it won't be sooo cold..." and quickly huddled back inside without a second thought.
Last week, however, I resigned myself to a night of cooking with one of my best friends, Mike. For Christmas, my brother got for me a copy of David Thompson's Thai Street Food, a book I love for the pictures just as much as the recipes. I've been trying to recreate the food I had in Bangkok pretty much since the day I got back, and I'd always heard this book to be the be all end all of street food.
We shlepped to the Asian market at 11th and Washington (one of my favorite places in the world) and started compiling the 25 or 30 ingredients necessary for what we'd planned to make - beef in coconut milk and green curry, roti and pork skewers. Now, these pork skewers are things of legend. I'm so conditioned to the smell that I perk up like Pavlov would have wanted at nascent whiffs of charcoal. I knew going into this venture it wouldn't be quite the same, because we couldn't grill anything and I'd have to settle for a stovetop grill pan...which is ok. Definitely not the same. However when we were scanning the butcher's case for the perfect cut of pork, I spied it...the EZ-Grill (except the Asian supermarket version)! "HOLY CRAP!!!!" and dove for it - "MIKE LOOK!" He laughed at me, but we bought two. Pork skewers proper! And we could just move away all the excess snow from my back patio! Perfect.
We got back to my place and I went to work on the green chili paste, NOT something I'd recommend for those of you with especially powerful senses of smell, or low tolerance to spice. The recipe had me put TWENTY FIVE bird's eye chillies (holy crap...) into a mortar and pound them into oblivion, along with a long hot green pepper, galangal, cilantro root, kaffir lime zest and a host of various Thai spices. I had quite the head cold at the time, and was relatively unphased, until I realized that my eyes were weeping all over the place. As soon as I realized I was crying did Mike burst into a coughing fit and fled from the room. I transferred the whole mess to a food processor and started blending the mixture into a paste in small bursts, choking and laughing and crying the whole time from the sudden overwhelming blooms of abject heat. Now, I've made curry paste before, and it was really quite hot, but nothing like this. This was insane.
Meanwhile, I had pork butt and fatback marinating in palm sugar, fish sauce, shrimp paste and spices which I transferred to skewers. Mike had fired up the "grill", which involved igniting a piece of wax paper that had been doused in what seemed like kerosine. Not bad for five bucks, right? But the pork skewers! Oh dear. Amazing things happened. For the first time, the sweet salty spicy crust that I'd encountered in Thailand was present, but they were moist and so freakin flavorful with the perfect amount of blackened char. Perfect. The green curry and the roti were amazing as well, the curry being the spiciest, most brutal and complex thing I've ever made, and rest assured I will continue making it until I no longer cry like a little girl in the process. Go out now and concoct something that will make you think of happy, sweltering hot evenings bent over your stove/grill/wok! Winter in Philadelphia may be long, it may be bleak and occasionally abjectly depressing, but it can also be the perfect time to get into the projects you put off when it's beautiful out and you're running around like a nut. If you're up to it, go seek out Thai Street Food, I promise you won't be let down. David Thompson, I salute you.

Misfits take Manhattan

So, Capo's awesome district manager and all around swell person, Sarah, and I share the same day off. Recently, we have also been sharing a kind of Philly cabin fever, one that makes me want to pick this city up like a whiny child and give it a good shake. Since that is both impossible and crazy, I needed a quick fix. Solution = Day trip to New York City! Here are some highlights:

Epic Gyros. After we arrived in the Flatiron district we trekked over to the East Village and found a cheese shop. Cheese was not enough, I was getting pretty hungry and therefore cranky. We wandered around a bit more, then got a little lost when things started looking really fancy and we realized we had drifted into SoHo. There was a lone gyro cart parked in front of Sotheby's so we decided to give it a go. Best. Gyro. Ever. (This is not a picture of it but my hands were too covered in awesome to take a picture so imagine that this is it only it is lamb and smothered with tzatziki and spicy sauce and when you bite it it feels like little fat Greek gods are dancing around inside your mouth).


Old Men's Bar. Sarah knows of a bunch of little secret gems in the Village, the best of which had to be McSorley's Old Ale House. Apparently it's the oldest continuously operating Irish bar in the country (opened in 1854). Her dad spent a bunch of time here when he was in college, so the bar is really sentimental to Sarah. This place was awesome. It was the most bare bones, 'we don't ever change because we were perfect to begin with' old school pub ever. No music playing, no frills, sawdust on the floor, history covering the walls. They only serve two types of beer, light and dark. They refused to allow women here until the 1970's. Above the bar there is an ancient lamp, covered in at least a century of dust. Hanging from the lamp are a dozen or so wishbones. Story goes that local lads stuck them up there when they were shipping off for WWI, to be removed once they returned. The bones that are still hanging are presumably from those who did not make it home. Heavy.

Lobstah Rolls. Sarah had a craving for these babies, and I had never had one. She did some research, and found a place on 7th St. called Luke's Lobster that serves lobster that was caught in Maine the day before by Luke's own father. So fresh! We both went for the a la carte lobster rolls. These beauties consist of a toasty split-top bun with a bit of mayo, a hefty serving of fresh claw meat, a dab of lemon butter, and a pinch of their secret spices. Delicious. Go there. Get some. Now.

Secret Spy Bar. I might get killed for this but I'll tell you anyway. Around the corner from the lobster joint is a hot dog shack called Crif Dogs. It's an unassuming place, just your typical dog stand. There's an old phone booth in the corner. Sarah entered it and dialed right on the rotary phone and waited. After a few minutes the back wall opened up and a well dressed woman escorted us in. We were suddenly inside PDT, a hidden lounge in the style of a prohibition-era speakeasy. Pretty swank. The ambiance was something out of the Maltese Falcon, small and dark and classy with amber lighting and well-placed taxidermy spaced around the room. They had an amazing craft cocktail menu, and you can still order some of the fancier dogs off the Crif's menu if you're in need of bar food. PDT was definitely pretentious, but that's kind of the point.


Thanks again, Sarah, for showing me around and getting me out of this city! I had a blast. Whatchoo up to next weekend? How's about Montreal?!