Picnic
3131 Walnut Street
(215) 222-1608
The first thing I notice as I walk into Picnic is the colorful hand-written menu on the wall behind the register.
A glass case holds desserts, hot dishes, and fresh salads. The ubiquitous breads and pastries from Metropolitan Bakery are sold here as well. All-natural chocolate bars tumble from a picnic basket on the countertop, and organic and locally packaged products and produce line the shelves on the west wall.
Chef and co-owner Anne-Marie Lasher sits down at a corner table to talk to me about her six-year-old enterprise, started after twenty years in the restaurant business, eight spent at University City's own White Dog Caf‚ and three as head chef and partner at Fork, in Old City.
Why take-away food? Lasher said that when she started on her own, she "didn't know a single twenty-year-old who knew how to cook." This, plus her passion for cooking - which she chose over using her Bryn Mawr economics degree and, as Lasher put it, sitting "behind a desk 48 hours a day" - has proven successful, even if "the first couple years were difficult."
Now she makes things easy with this recipe for all your picnic needs.
CHILI-SPICED COLE SLAW
Ingredients:
4 cups thinly sliced or shredded green cabbage
« green pepper, julienned (sliced in thin rectangular pieces)
« red pepper, julienned
1 carrot, peeled and grated
2 scallions, sliced thinly on the bias (diagonally)
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 « teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons honey
¬ cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
salt to taste
Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Allow the slaw to sit for at least two hours or overnight. It will keep refrigerated for 5 days.
