Holly Moore

Am watching Bourdane's tour of the Rust Belt. He starts in Baltimore at Chap's Pit Beef. For some reason I haven't tried pit beef yet. Definitely a reason to stop in Baltimore my next trip south on I-95. What perked up my ears was the reference to Tiger Sauce. When I was opening manager for the first franchise Arby's (Maple Heights OH, mid 60's), Arby's was a lot different from today. Back then whole muscle top round was roasted rare/medium rare. Served on a bun that looked like a kaiser roll, but much softer. One of the three sauces offered - "Tiger Sauce" - a blend of horseradish and mayonnaise. Same thing the pit beef places have been serving a lot longer than Arby's. Chap's grills cuts of meat rare, slices it and puts it on a kaiser roll. Most popular condiment Tiger Sauce. I'm guessing that Baltimore pit beef was the Raffle brothers' inspiration for Arby's which started up in Akron - not that far from Baltimore.

Open's tomorrow. Training today. From what I saw looks like the same staff as South Philly. Glad to see it.

Got a small with bittersweet chocolate and caramel crisps today. No extra charge for the emptiness in the middle of the yogurt swirl my first spoonful uncovered. Still - it was really good. I just wish they'd pick - only one - a false bottom cup or false center yogurt swirl.

Orange Shrub - Orange Juice With Lime Sherbet Baked Grapefruit Stuffed Celery (usually blue cheese) Tomato Juice with Lemon Wedge Fruit Cocktail Supreme - topped with sherbet Tomato Aspic (I'd like to see brought back) Herring in Sour Cream

Umm, kinda like it says in the thread title

I suspect hell won't freeze over and I will still be able to consume my minimum daily requirement of nitrates and offal without being nagged by the packaging.

Someone put me onto the Plymouth PA Kielbasa Festival. There are a bunch of German butchers in the area that make fresh and smoked kielbasa and both serve it at the festival and enter it in a contest. There's a parade, Kielbasa Man character, Elvis impersonator and polka bands. Seems like going back in time fifty years The festival link is kinda weak but there is a schedule of events and, at the bottom of the video and photos page, the YouTube link (Go Meat! 2008 Plymouth Kielbasa Festival) that convinced me to put it on my calendar.

Looks like the Starr Organization needs a pit stop between Philadelphia and New York City. According to Michael Klein in the Philadelphia Inquirer, they are taking over the management of Rat's

This season is the most scripted Hell's Kitchen yet. Diner guy was a dead man walking. Had to find a place for Robert. There was no way Ramsey was going to like diner guy's biscuits and gravy. If anyone should have walked off the show it is Jean-Philippe. Since when does an apprentice get away with yelling at the maitre 'd both in the dining room and in front of a chef? I know. It's only TV. But Hell's Kitchen claims to be a "reality" show. No matter. I've got a TiVo record series set up.

I had a server with a heavy French accent working for me. Customers would ask where he is from. He'd make them guess. France? Maybe Belgium? Nope, Montreal.

The past few times I've been to Pub and Kitchen I ask they same question, "Are onion rings back on the menu." These were great onion rings, maybe the best ever in Philadelphia, but I suspect that decided the kitchen could not keep up with demand. Batter dipped onion rings have to be pretty much cooked to order and that is tough in volume. So I'm thinking. Philadelphia once again needs a great onion ring at a reasonably priced restaurant. Sketch really cares about quality. Wonder if they could fit another fryer in their kitchen since the onion flavor dominates the shortening and would ruin the fries? Maybe they have one already.

Gotta love progress. Boy do I want one. Trouble is west coast trends can take as much as five years to reach Philadelphia.

From Forbes Traveler article on America's Best Stret Foods": Yeah, I always think of University City when I'm looking for a cheesesteak???

Congratulations on your restraint, Gunga Din (as in "Your a better man than I am"). Totally greedy restaurant approach to service. It would have been too candid for the server to say, "Our accountant would prefer..."

Half of a Paesano's "Daddy Wad" or Italian hoagie. I rank it right up their with Salumeria's hoagie - too good to be considered a real hoagie.

I think I first noticed it when many restaurants no longer offered a cup of soup. Just a bowl. Brings in another dollar or more if customers wanting soup are forced to order a bowl. Same with hamburgers. Used to be they came on traditional size hamburger buns with 4 ounce patties. If I wanted eight ounces of beef I could order two burgers or double patties. Now burgers are typically eight ounces or more. Brings in another $3 or $4 when customers are forced to order eight ounce burgers. It may be that is what customers have been conditioned to expect - the bigger the burger, the better the burger. But few grill people can cook an eight ounce burger medium rare. Or to rush things along, because the burgers take so damn long to cook, the grill guy uses his spatula to press the burger to the grill, squeezing out any remaining juice. Eight ounce burgers more often than not are a travesty - slow out of the kitchen unless pre-grilled, cooked medium well when ordered rare, served on a bun that falls apart in one's hands, with a pile of glop on top that oozes out of the bun and onto one's shirt. Back to the subject at hand. The diet coke I order to compensate for the burger and fries. Used to be I could order and pay for the size I want. Now it's free refills. The soda costs a buck more, but the refills are free. Since when do desserts and apps each cost 2/3rd the price of entrees? Since neighborhood restaurants figured out they could get away with it. Keep the entree cost low and make up for it with apps and dessert pricing. Once upon a time I could order my dessert a la mode if I wanted ice cream. Pay an extra buck or two for ice cream. Nowadays, no choice. Desserts are tasting plates - two desserts and ice cream. Maybe a cookie or two. Adds a couple of bucks or more to the dessert cost, want it or not. Want just a small salad before dinner at a small price - just to take away the guilt of not having salad? Out of luck. Salad may be small but so is the value. Assuaging salad guilt doesn't come cheap - $5, $6 or more. I appreciate that restaurants need to get a return on seats and boosting the average check (selling more to the customers a restaurant already has) is the easiest way to make that happen. But at some point the choice to participate has been taken away from the customer. I am already up-sold the second I look at a menu.

Tried out Sketch at 413 E Girard Avenue in Fishtown. At last, hand cut, twice fried french fries, fried to order and NOT cut shoestring. Next time, when I order them without seasoning, I'll be ordering the best french fry in Philadelphia. This time they came highly seasoned with a blend of salt, pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika and some other stuff. Kinda like putting chrome on an Aston Martin - uncalled for and detracting from perfection. I asked, and owner Phyllis says that's what her customers want. So be it. I'll just order them unseasoned. Note - fries are a much bigger portion than they appear. They are served in the same size paper tray as the cheeseburger below The cheeseburger was good. Cooked as ordered, medium rare. But again I'd order it unseasoned. I'd also order it smaller if it were available. A huge eight ounces and totally unwieldy with all the toppings and the big bun. Had a coffee milk shake to go with it. Served just the way I like it, with the remainder in a stainless mixer cup. Great potential here.

SquareBurger's TastyKake Butterscotch Krimpet Shake - Vanilla ice cream, half and half, a pack of TastyKake Krimpets and topped with whipped cream and caramel (maybe butterscotch) syrup. The shake was great, except I found the crumbled up Krimpet coming through the straw weird - like cookie crumbs in a glass of milk. I thought I'd like the whole concept, but after trying it, I'd prefer the krimpets on the side. Maybe if I were 9 years old... Gotta comment on the counter service this time. Curt, almost challenging. Heard one employee making fun of a lady before me not wanting whipped cream. A supervisor type was walking around talking to employees in the service area, distracting them from customers. Last time service was friendly. This time not so much. Maybe the workers need more breaks on a hot day. But based on today they need a strong manager to keep employees focused on service, starting with at least a friendly "hi."

I am sure there are similar places elsewhere - but Philadelphia is lucky to have a photography-centric gathering place called Project Basho. Among other things they do there is teach an 8 hour "Learning Your Digital SLR" course which I just took today. I learned so much, most of which I can apply specifically to food photography above and beyond Auto mode. Aperture and shutter settings, ISO settings, all the modes - especially manual, white balance, exposure adjustments, depth of field, flash adjustments, file options, and a bunch of other stuff I won't remember until I need it. Lots of individual time with the instructor figuring out one's camera and specific questions. By professional photographer standards, I now probably know just enough to screw up all the settings. But I'm no longer intimidated by my new SLR and I've got a good feel how to approach food pics.

Thank you for making a life long coffee drinker curious about tea.

This morning I did not know what Activa is. Now I want to buy some. Is it available for home use (small quantities)? Where do I find it - must it be on-line or would a place in a city like Philadelphia have some? Edited to add: Egads $88 for 2.2 lbs of the stuff. All I want to do is try Nils Noren's recipe for Slow Cooked Salmon from Top Chef Masters.

Likely you've never seen a shop owner dip ice cream for a customer who wasn't a friend. You want one perfect scoop wait until he's doing the dipping. I too dipped ice cream one summer. We used scoops that loosely rolled the ice cream into the scoop rather than carving out a solid chunk. Marketing. Gave the perception of receiving a lot more ice cream than actually ended up on the cup or int the cone. Further marketing - we would add another quarter-rolled scoop to the top of the cone so customers would think they were getting a bonus. Over time that token gesture has evolved to a full extra scoop or more. Over-scooping is a constant frustration of ice cream shop owners. Ice cream is one of the few areas of food service where the portion size is controlled by the person serving you. Ice cream dippers, wanting to be liked and having to look their customer in the eye, would rather risk over-dipping than under. Ice cream dipping is a skill. Someone who isn't properly trained or isn't supervised can give away 20 or 30% more product than they should. Ice cream is one of the toughest food costs to control. Nowadays many places are doing small, medium and large instead of one two or three scoops. Makes it easier to trade up customers. People are more likely to order a medium than a decadent double scoop cone.

It seems almost guaranteed that one chef and only one chef will screw up the Quick Fire competition.

There is a Capriccio Coffee and sandwich place in a similar building on the small park at the northwest corner of 16th and the Parkway. Much better location - SquareBurger would have rocked there. I've always thought that the little building in the middle of Rittenhouse Square would make a nice food stand. A goldmine. Think of all the money the Friends of Rittenhouse Square and Fairmount Park Association could raise to benefit the square. I've also wanted to close off 18th between Locust and Walnut and let all the cafes expand across 18th. I suspect the last pigeon will leave Rittenhouse Square before either of those happen. But would be great. Drove by SquareBurger today on the way to drop off something for a customer. Around 2:15. Not one person in line. Grand Opening is tomorrow.

Two things I really like about the Shake Shack, above and beyond its oasis-like setting and its architecture/signage - the burgers are really good and the frozen custard is wonderful. I'm not all that upset about the Starr Organization copying the Shake Shack. I just wish they had equaled or surpassed the original. It seems like, other than the burger, they didn't try as hard with "fast food" as they have with all their other concepts. Maybe SquareBurger has a metamorphosis in its future.