Winter 2019/20 Issue

Last Updated November 25, 2019

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

CELEBRATION SEASON

I TRY TO AVOID REPETITION in Edible Philly, but sometimes there’s just something in air. This season, it seems to be Mission Taqueria’s Taco Lab event series.

I knew Sarah Maiellano was going to write about Taco Lab in our Food Life section, but I didn’t expect it to turn up in Elizabeth Einhorn’s essay, No Plates Like Home, too. But there it was!

And I get why. I’m not going to explain Taco Lab here (you will read plenty about it in this very issue), but I will say what makes it irresistible is its exuberant spirit of collaboration and togetherness.

The national media never misses a chance to portray Philadelphians in a negative light, but we aren’t like that. Last week, my husband’s credit card was returned to him after he’d left it behind at a store. I watched a neighbor check out library books for a woman who didn’t want to leave her dog outside so she could do it herself. And total strangers gave me a ride from East Falls to Center City when the regional rail was running 86 minutes late. This is just the last seven days.

What I’m saying is we’re not the mob throwing snowballs at Santa. Actually, we really are the City of Brotherly Love, and in my view there is no place that this good will shines more brightly than in the food community, and never more so than at this time of year. Taco Lab is just the tinsel on the tree. The four magazines we produce each year are the tiniest sliver of what we’ve got to celebrate here.

Happy holidays to the whole Edible Philly community of readers, partners, and contributors. If this is the first issue of ours that you’ve read, welcome to our local food family. I hope you have a season filled with shared treats and gratitude for all we have as a city.

Sincerely,
Joy Manning
Editor