Holly Moore

Just to once again whet everyone's appetite.

Yes! Do you refrigerate it? I've noticed that bad pizza will be really bad when it's been refrigerated and eaten cold. ← It is an acquired taste. I'll have a slice or two cold for breakfast. Warmed up for other meals.

Steinberger in the FT: Now there's an original observation. Given Steinberger's poor opinion of Philadelphia restaurants in general, it is telling that his review opens and closes on Vetri's reputation. Sir Steinberger heroically slays a backwater dragon to defend his beloved preconceived notions. When a reviewer writes: you just know he plans to be disappointed.

Anything and everything having to do with US Thanksgiving. Especially a turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce sandwich. Heating is optional

Like buying an extra-large pizza so there will be something for breakfast in the morning.

No idea if it works, but think Tootsie Roll Pop. Core the center out of the apple and fill the cavity with taffy or something. Don't ask my how. I'm just an idea guy.

Pizza

Think whole grain whole wheat flour and 75% chocolate. Build from there. For fruit: cherries, apples, pears. Maybe even a dash of Splenda. Edited to add peanuts and walnuts. The ingredients are there. And type II diabetics are one of the fastest growing food segments out there. Bakers who can adapt their recipes and, like chefs accommodate vegetarians, and add at leat low glycemic index dessert to their dessert menu will be ahead of the curve as the high fructose corn syrup generation comes to pass. Pastries should not just be for "splurges."

It is more than Atkins. Anyone with Type II diabetes is interested in bakery products that have a low glycemic index.

Also, considering that you live in Rhode Island, a local delicacy - chop suey sandwiches.

Sloppy Joe's

That was easy. Based on the other meatball sandwich thread I headed to Shank's and Evelyn's. They were closed. I wondered if one of my favorite sausage sandwich place, George's Sandwiches on 9th, just south of Christian might do a meatball sandwich. They do... and it was fabulous! Really good. Normal sized meatballs and plenty of a great gravy. Had mine with aged provolone. Really, really good. Note, there are two George's Sandwiches on 9th in the Italian Market. This is the one on the west side, next to Lorenzo's Pizze, just a couple of doors south of Christian.

Hmmm. And someone logged on as me said that Sarcone's does a great sandwich. Maybe I've become grumpier over the past two years, but theirs just doesn't have enough moisture. It needs wetter meatballs and more gravy.

Every once in a while I get a craving for a meatball sandwich. I have tried a few in Philadelphia. They have been ok, but not great. Usually the meatballs are too big and there is not enough sauce/gravy. My favorite is probably Sarcone's Deli, with Chickie's coming in second. But both are too meatbally and dry for my taste.

I'm curious - do other Italian neighborhoods in places like Boston, Chicago and New York do slow roasted pork sandwiches comparable to Tommy Dinic's or is that just a Philadelphia thing? Haven't seen it elsewhere, but haven't looked either.

That's kinda my point. For all the food that is mishandled at one or more points in its trip from farm or factory to the gullet, there are very few cases of food poisoning.

Between food service, food processing, wholesalers, delivery trucks, and markets, it is amazing that so few people suffer food poisoning. I am not sure if it is that bad bacteria and viruses are so rare, humans have built up immunity to them, or more people than I believe possible are handling food perfectly.

Finally tried the new pretzel place in the Market, Millers Twist, across from the old pretzel place. First course, a hot dog encased pretzel, good eating. Second course, pretzels - one for now and the rest to take home. I was a little leery, they were much browner the Fisher's. But they tasted fine. One major issue though. "I''ll take them buttered." The guy starts putting them in the bag. "No, I wanted them buttered." "They already are." I tried a pretzel on my way out. I could taste the butter. But they weren't oozing and dripping melted butter, and that is a loss. A great product and a Philadelphia tradition not quite as good as before. Pricing has changed too. Fisher's had a sliding scale that incremented by pretzel. Now there is a price for an individual pretzel and one for six pretzel's - nothing in between. I ordered three, and the guy gave me four. Good deal, but I miss the per pretzel pricing.

Heading south on 15th, between Chestnut and Sansom, I saw a sign announcing the coming of the "Original Shank's," opening up in the small space that is part of the parking garage on the NW corner of 15th and Sansom.

During my formative years cocktail hour always arrived after my father arrived home on the Erie-Lackawana. He usually had scotch on the rocks. My mother what she considered to be an old fashioned. Her recipe - maybe a tsp of a good quality British orange marmalade and a couple of spurts of bitters muddled together. Then a very generous shot of rye, ice to fill, and a splash or water. Incidentally, for some reason I now remember that the scotch old fashioned served at the Top of the Sixes in the late 60's was called a Wheeler Special created by and named for the then manager. A round of Wheeler Specials was the cocktail stop for the Cornell Hotel School senior class trip - a day that started at 5 AM with breakfast at Sloppy Louie's and a tour of the fulton fish market, after which we sojourned to Jersey to visit a slaughter house and observe the kosher kill of lambs and all that "entrails."

In a restaurant situation a service charge is normally the same as a tip. I would phone rather than write and I would expect that your credit card tip be removed. Not only did you tip twice for the meal, you also tipped 20 percent on your tip.

I never suggested it was a review. But totally disagree that it is a puff piece. Puff piece is a pejorative that implies that a writer is motivated to present a glowing picture of a subject no matter the writer's observation - such as cutting and pasting from PR releases. A writer can be objective without being critical. A writer can be objective without writing a "discerning evaluation."

I disagree. Lots of people have done exactly that. Andrea Strong, Danyelle Freeman, Ed Levine and many many more...including many newspapers around the country and many internet folks too The inevitable result (even if it doesn't start that way) is that they all end up writing puff pieces. Which is how we end up with much of writing about restaurants, whether it be in print, blogs or on the foodboards, being simply shilling (I'd say the majority of print actually). ← I'm not familiar with all the writers you list or their work, but are they presenting their articles as critical evaluations? What makes a puff piece? Was the article in Sunday's NY Times business section about DBGB a puff piece?

The qualification "my experience" is implied in a food ranking. Just like an op-ed piece need not begin, "in my opinion." I am happy just looking through such lists for any choices that reaffirm my opinion. The more we agree, the more accurate a list.

I always want to know who comes in 26th or 11th, depending on the number of places ranked. Good to see Tacconelli's appears relatively high on the list. Having recently gotten into a wee public tiff with Ed Levine on Tacconelli's, I feared all New Yorkers, though food knowledgeable in so many ways, were similarly pizza impaired. One Philadelphia pizza was missing, though understandably so as it was only prepared once by a now out-of-work food colunmnist at a charity function sponsored by what is now a defunct pizza parlor. It is my very own creation: Ye Olde English Pizza - brown mustard, caramelized onions and melted cheddar. I remain saddened that it never caught on.