MarketStEl

It is a bit sketchy, but if I can ride there on the trolley, so can you: Nearest SEPTA service: Route 36 trolley to 68th Street and Elmwood Avenue. Walk two and a half blocks south on 68th and turn left onto Guyer.

← I couldn't help smiling over it for a completely different reason. Explaining it would get this post reported, so I will simply say that they're selling it way too cheap at 88 cents! Since I've been commenting on everyone else's exhibitionism, it's high time I did my own paper striptease. I have receipts from the two chains I shop most often, though not from the same week. The results in the savings department are somewhat atypical for this first one, from the Acme at Passyunk and Reed on the Saturday before Thanksgiving: I went back two days later to buy the $16 worth of groceries I needed to qualify for the free turkey. This freebie, however, remains unclaimed as of this posting: I'll get to that later today. The other receipt is also a departure from the norm for where I shopped. I had reserved a car share so I could take a bulk mailing to the U.S. Postal Service sorting facility in Southwest Philly, so I decided to swing by the huge Super Fresh at Pier 70 (known to some as the "Überfresh") instead of my neighborhood Super Fresh at 10th and South. The store has a much bigger selection and variety of products than my local Super Fresh, but that alone is not enough to warrant my getting a car share and shopping here all the time. That said, my haul here was not atypical in amount saved. I used the self-checkout: And CM_LANE_104 was so polite, too! One of the things that amuse me about receipts are the abbreviations stores use for products. I probably wouldn't have grabbed a bag of "PUR HAIRBALL" off the shelf for our cats, but I did pick up a bag of Purina One Hairball Control Formula cat food. Note that despite all the discounts on the Super Fresh tape ("CS" = "club savings," or frequent-shopper-card specials), the total amount I saved with specials and coupons worked out to a mere 17%. By comparison, the amount I saved at the Acme was a respectable 36%, close to the 40% threshold above which the former maintenance guy in my building would treat himself to a drink after shopping. (He characterized his grocery shopping as a game: "It's me versus the supermarket: Who is going to walk away with more of my money?") I have achieved 50% and even 66% savings on some small bills, but have broken 50% on a large trip tab only once or twice. I've exceeded 40% at the Acme often enough to shift the bulk of my supermarket purchases to that chain.

I don't know -- something tells me that you won't find this on such a scale in San Fran, for the immigrant streams into that city came largely from either the other side of the Pacific or the North American interior and are thus light on Central Europeans and Jews. What I do know is that the next time I show off Philly in a foodblog, I must include Port Richmond in my meanderings for purposes of comparison. Oh god. You just described what too many of my days are like. (Sez she who is way behind schedule, but is nonetheless futzing around on eGullet instead of logging billable hours. Ah, the joys of freelancing ... ) ← Why I Can Never Support Myself Entirely On Freelancing, Reason #251. (My freelance work will return from center stage to the sidelines as of Monday, Dec. 3. It looks as if I will be able to work in both at my new employer, a supply-chain management software firm located in the heart of the charming Bucks County borough of Yardley.) Guess what I'm not doing right now? I'll close with a somewhat relevant tangent, even though Nina hasn't really hit this ethnic group yet: Author Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker's resident forever Kansas Citian, penned a wonderful memoir of growing up in our mutual hometown for a special Father's Day issue the mag produced in the early 1990s. One of the things he touched on was growing up Jewish in an overwhelmingly gentile city (while the city has a non-trivial Jewish population -- the neighborhood where I grew up went from mostly Jewish to mostly black -- it struck me growing up that in Kansas City, Jews were regarded more as Christians who attended church on the wrong day of the week) and the code words that businesses used as signals to their intended customers: "In Kansas City, 'New York' was a code phrase for 'Jewish' just as 'Lincoln' was a code phrase for 'black.'"

Actually, Ron, I think that very little is known about how slaves celebrated Thanksgiving, if celebrate it they did. Think about it for a minute: While they too had friends, a roof over their head and food to eat [often what the master didn't want], do you think they would really want to give thanks for their enslaved state? (Somewhat relevant aside: Our best known historical theme park, Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, has over the past decade or two incorporated the slaves into its past-comes-alive narrative of everyday life in early Virginia. I would be interested to know what roles they play this time of year.) It's also my suspicion that African-Americans since Emancipation have celebrated Thanksgiving much as their Caucasian counterparts have, with the main differences coming in what surrounds the main dish. Some of those differences in sides could be said to be a Southern, rather than a black, thing -- ISTR there are occasional debates over in Southern Food Culture about the degree to which black "soul food" and Southern folk cooking overlap and diverge -- but whatever they are, they're there. The absence of Green Bean Casserole from black holiday tables is a subject I've tackled before, but it also extends to those 1950s side dishes Tyler commented on. I will, however, note that I've been in black homes where ham shares pride of place with turkey on Thanksgiving, a pattern that also holds on Christmas Day in homes that include a big dinner as part of the holiday. (Those that don't serve ham on either of these days usually trot it out for New Year's Day, along with black-eyed peas "for good luck.") As a f'rinstance, I had a bit of the leftover Thanksgiving dinner my friend Jonny's boyfriend prepared for the two of them on Monday night at his place in Lansdowne. On their menu was: Turkey, chicken liver stuffing, shells and cheese, mixed collard/mustard greens, cranberry sauce, vanilla cheesecake. (On my visit, we observed the dictum "Life is short - eat dessert first.") Macaroni and cheese in place of mashed potatoes is something I see often in black homes; ditto greens instead of Green Bean Casserole. The absence of sweet potatoes or yams from the menu is notable, though: those usually appear -- without marshmallows on top -- on black Thanksgiving tables without fail, either as a side dish or in the pie served for dessert.

Did notice your commendable unflappability for which I...um...commend you. Actually though, I believe that, in direct contradiction to what I think was gfron's spouse's point (he/she appeared to be saying that Thanksgiving is all about WHAT you eat so if whatever you're eating is of the 70's, it can't be the "quintessentially American" experience because it's only a quintessentially white folk baby boomer experience), although Thanksgiving is about coming together for a grand and lavish celebratory meal, it doesn't really matter that much what exactly your grand and lavish celebratory meal consists of. So in fact, I agree with you. I DO think that Thanksgiving is the quintessential American experience, NOT the quintessential baby boomer experience, and I think that the exact menu is pretty far down the list of the reason why. You can have your Funyuns or little pastel marshmallows or whatever. You can shoot a wild turkey and make an effort to be totally "authentic" or have lasagna or enchiladas or bbq or Kentucky Burgoo. I'd never take it unto myself to declare to people that might not know enough to disbelieve me that Thanksgiving only belongs to one group of folks based on my opinion of what they ate. I guess what I'm trying to say in my silly, convoluted way, is that gfron's spouse is wrong. ← I think even Ron Connoley agrees with you: (300 White Castles! What I wouldn't give for even one White Castle now, and no, the microwavable ones you buy at the supermarket don't count. I still mourn the day White Castle departed the Philadelphia market in 1999. Edited to add not-terribly-relevant aside: Technically, this means that the title characters in the instant-classic stoner pic Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) would not have been able to do what they did in the film, which was to endure a series of misadventures stretching the length of the Garden State in order to get what they craved at a White Castle in Cherry Hill, N.J.) But on further reflection, I don't think any of this contradicts Tyler's central point, which is really about a much narrower issue than what we're discussing here. I actually agree with Tyler too on his point and would only add: It's also a white thing. I wouldn't understand. BTW, Ron, we -- well, at least I -- would welcome your partner's further thoughts on this discussion. He's clearly articulate and opinionated, so I'm sure he has some. Wanna let him back onto your account for a post?

No, I don't think that was what he was saying at all. What he was saying was that the Thanksgiving tradition many consider "quintessentially American" and (implicitly) "timeless" was actually bound to a particular era: the Thanksgiving spread so many (white folks) serve is actually the 1950s version, not something universal. As we have seen in this very discussion, not even the turkey is universal as a Thanksgiving centerpiece, though it remains the iconic one. Aside from that, there are all sorts of variations on the theme, all as American as salsa and marinara sauce. If there is anything universally American about Thanksgiving, it is the fact that on this one day, friends and family gather together mainly for the purpose of breaking bread together and counting their blessings. (That point is mine, not Tyler Connoley's.) As for bristling at the value judgements (deleted here), did you notice that I remained unflappable in the face of yet another Southern assault on perfectly innocent Midwestern bread stuffing? Edited to correct spelling of the Connoleys' last name.

okay, vocabulary time: "Blind baking" is when...?

Plan a party for 40+ people? That will be a piece of cake compared to keeping a foodblog, trust me. (This might not be the case if it weren't for the requirement that all images be uploaded to ImageGullet.) As for the wine: If you go back through my second foodblog (link in .sig), you will note that I devoted a fair bit of time to Pennsylvania's liquor laws and state monopoly on liquor sales. The only alcoholic beverage producers who are exempt from working through the State Store system are the state's own wineries, some of which are coming into their own as producers of interesting, quality wine; they may sell directly to consumers at the winery or through their own retail outlets (Blue Mountain Vineyards has one of these in the Reading Terminal Market). Otherwise, if the LCB doesn't carry it in their Wine & Spirits shops, your only options are: 1) Use the LCB's special order system to have it shipped to a State Store near you or 2) head to an out-of-state retail outlet to purchase it illegally. Pennsylvania wineries were allowed to ship product directly to Pennsylvania consumers, but a court decision ruled that this practice discriminated against out-of-state wineries and thus ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution's interstate commerce clause. As a result, Pennsylvanians can't have wine legally shipped directly to them from anywhere, be it Chadds Ford or Chatsworth. I guess I'll have to travel to California to check these out. Thanks again for a great blog!

I think I saw it at Martin's butcher shop in the RTM when I was in the market last Saturday.

Lucy, this has been a fabulous blog. Lots of lovely pictures, some great tips on wines I'll never find in Pennsylvania, I suspect, and adorable pet photos. Glad to hear that Atkins, loosely interpreted, is working for you. Thanks a bunch for sharing your week with us!

Paminna cheese? Sounds interesting. What's the recipe?

Can I get an Amen!? Here's my grocery list from yesterday: See any of these on it? Triscuits, Wheat Thins and the "Flavor Originals" crackers from Nabisco were all 3/$5 at the Acme, and Ritz and Club crackers were two-for-one. I had coupons good for the entire haul. I figured this should take care of my cracker needs for our Christmas party and holiday entertaining. Of course, I already know I will buy some Carr's Table Water crackers before the month is out, completely forgetting the WFM 365 Brand Entertainer Crackers currently in the pantry. (BTW, I did buy the bread, fruit juice, hand soap and facial tissue. [Edited to add: And the cashews.] The cleaners will wait until my next trip. I also bought sliced Swiss cheese, two 12-packs of soda, ground beef and a half pork loin; both of the last two were on super special at the Super Fresh.)

I think that this too is a Thanksgiving tradition. There's just so much one can remember with all that food to cook and serve. This year, it was the pumpkin pie, which I bought pre-made this year because (as I said to the bakery counter person at the Ak-a-me) "I'm simply going to be too busy with everything else to make one." By that time, though, we were so stuffed, neither of us missed it. I note this morning that roomie had some last night. I will probably have a piece before going up to the Northeast to help friends move.

Is there a Junior League anywhere in the country that does not produce a cookbook as a fundraiser for their charitable work? IMO, "Junior League Cookbook" should be trademarked like "Girl Scout Cookies." You have heard, haven't you, that Miss Semi-Homemade has a new autobiography out? It's called Made From Scratch. The customers on Amazon.com give it decidedly mixed reviews. Here you go: Durkee Famous Sauce - An American Cult Classic Since 1857! It's great on roast beef, among other things.

Actually, Tyler, Funyuns (1) weren't introduced until the 1970s and (2) are not part of the iconic Green Bean Casserole recipe. You're confusing Funyuns with French's (nee Durkee's) French Fried Onions. The latter are the mandatory Green Bean Casserole topping. Get a load of me instructing a white guy about Green Bean Casserole! I was born in the peak year for births of the Baby Boom (1958) and have the constant sensation that when everyone talks about Baby Boomers, they're talking about the people who came along just a few years ahead of me. I was too young to take to the streets either when Martin Luther King died or in protest over the Vietnam War, the music of my high school years was disco, and technofoods (Pringles, Funyuns, Jell-O 1-2-3...) rather than convenience foods were the rage of the day. Save for disco, which I much prefer to what passes for dance music today ('80s New Wave is also superior), I am in no rush to go back to the days of my youth. At least I was fortunate enough to be spared Green Bean Casserole at the holidays, what with me being black and all. Edited to add: All that other 1950s stuff -- the jellied cranberry sauce excluded -- never made it to my Grandma's Thanksgiving table either, nor my mother's when she began making her own, somewhat unorthodox, holiday tradition (no roast turkey but a spread to die for). Like full equality before the law, I guess these were things that passed black Americans by in the 1950s.

Ah yes, but how about the turkey dressing? Did y'all have turkey and gummy white bread stuffing? Or turkey and heavenly cornbread dressing? ← The former. This should prove once and for all that Missouri, despite the presence of many Confederate sympathizers within its borders, is most assuredly not part of the South. (Well, maybe the Bootheel is, but Kansas City is a world away from there.)

On the larger subject, I think that it's well nigh impossible to separate the food from the everything else about Thanksgiving, which is my favorite American holiday for the same reasons everyone else who has posted to this thread likes it. And it is the only American holiday where the meal is the whole point of the day. Put me down with those who actually like the foods traditionally served on Thanksgiving -- especially pumpkin pie, my single favorite dessert (I'm generally not a big dessert eater). Confidential to divalasvegas: There are some who claim Missouri is actually a Southern state because of its slave past. In addition to the fact that blacks were never disenfranchised in Missouri the way they were in the South, my grandparents' culinary habits are further proof that it is not. Sweet potato pie was something I never experienced until well into my teens. This Thanksgiving was a departure from the norm, for none of the guests we had invited made it (one failed to show because of extreme rudeness to our front desk guard). We usually invite people we know who don't have family traditions of their own to uphold to our dinner. My turkeys usually turn out juicy; I've found that cooking them unstuffed helps. But I have made a turkey of a turkey once or twice. Indeed! The bird I dismantled last night, and the remnants of a dinner prepared for six but consumed by two (including most of a turkey big enough to feed 12 -- I decided I'd indulge (ex-)partner's big-bird fetish, even though his reaction this year to my remark about the overlargeness of the bird suggested I didn't need to) fill the fridge to bursting. They will be joined by stock later today. In the meantime, I have about two complete dinners' worth of food to dispense with (not counting the excess turkey). Nobody wants to eat Variations on Thanksgiving for the entire month between it and Christmas. I plan to dispose with some of it by serving it to people who couldn't come yesterday, which, I guess, puts me in the same category as those various relatives and friends. I know many people may not like green bean casserole, but it was one of the first things I learned to make when I was young (age 8) . You know the drill I am sure most of us here on this site could not wait to help out for thanksgiving and that was my job. Of course my mom made a point telling everyone I made it so they all said how much they loved it! I wonder how many people here remember the first dish they made for thanksgiving dinner and if like my mom made sure everyone at least put some on their plate! Now mom makes it like you described Pennylane - and it is really good. As for brussel sprouts I am the only one in my house that will eat them, in fact when I was carrying my son I craved them with loads of butter! ← It's been almost two years since I contemplated the incredible whiteness of Green Bean Casserole in this very forum. The funny thing is, French's French fried onions, green beans, and casserole showed up in my Thanksgiving menu this year, but not all in the same dish. The green beans I served simply steamed. But I had these two winter squash I had bought at the RTM several weeks back, so I decided I would make a squash casserole. I found a recipe that called for winter squash -- which I had to augment with yellow summer squash -- eggs, mayo, onion, chopped green bell pepper, grated Parmesan cheese (which I augmented with a bit of shredded Cheddar) and a bread crumb topping (which I replaced with the French fried onions). The resulting dish had the consistency and taste of a quiche. What I'd like to know is: Did I make a mistake in not peeling the winter squash before boiling it? The peel remained hard in the dish.

Thank you, and thank you for the gorgeous pet photos! I think someone remarked on the prevalence of animal lovers in the eG foodblogs -- cat and/or dog shots are as ubiquitous as the obligatory fridge shot, which I note you have yet to provide *hmph*, and love of food and love of pets do seem to go together. Your cats and your dogs are all precious! Now I have to go back to checking on the mashed potatoes and getting the squash casserole ready.

Lee's is ubiquitous and mediocre. I'd second Charlie's recommendations, but would also strongly urge you to consider some of our better independent shops as well in the course of your research. Two in the Reading Terminal Market warrant mention: Carmen's (nee Rocco's) has very good traditional hoagies, and Salumeria makes first-rate fancy/specialty hoagies that have picked up their share of "Best of" awards. Sarcone's on 9th Street at Fitzwater, just north of the Italian Market and their bakery, is proof positive that it really is the bread, baby.

Long since disappeared from the scene. The space now houses the French bistro Zinc. But I guess the history never gets stale. However, you did leave out two other revisionist histories: the Wawa version and the Suburban Heresy, which places the sandwich's origin in Chester. I put links to both in this post from my second foodblog.

Peppers are sort of non-standard for a cheesesteak (though they'd be kosher on a cheesesteak hoagie -- yes, there are places that combine the two archetypal Philly sandwiches into a single glorious work), but that does look decent enough. However: When you make your way to Philly, you should try the true king of Philly sandwiches, the roast pork Italian, with sharp provolone and broccoli rabe. The best in class are served at Tony Luke's in South Philly near the riverfront and DiNic's in the Reading Terminal Market. You might get some funny looks asking for no roll, but you won't faze the counterfolk at all. Then eat a cheesesteak just so you can say you've had one in its birthplace. Cute highwater bungalow you've got there! And so far, you're off to a great start with your blog and your diet. We await more tales of love and loss. Edited because Philly's three iconic sandwiches are served on rolls, not buns.

I must regretfully confess my lack of conscientiousness in failing to properly document and photograph the array of cheeses I took with me to a first meeting with an online friend at his Lansdowne apartment. It turns out he is a big ol' cheesehead, like me, so I splurged on several varieties. One was a Spanish cheese similar to Idiazabal in hardness and flavor. The second was a half-goat, half-sheep cheese with a layer of ash in the middle, from France. Third was good old Roaring Forties Blue, which he agreed was as good as I said it was. Fourth was Shropshire, a British blue Cheddar. Fifth was a horseradish-cheddar cheese spread I picked up at Whole Foods; neither of us were that impressed by it. Sixth was a half-pound block of Tillamook Extra Sharp. Folks, I will put this supermarket dairy case cheese up against farmhouse Cheddars costing two to three times as much -- it's that good, IMO. (As he kept half of what we didn't consume -- I offered him his pick of stuff to keep -- he must have agreed.) Now I need another excuse to serve lots of cheese to cheeseheads. Thanksgiving is not a good one; one, and maybe two, lucrative job offers probably is. The occasion would be the first paycheck from the job I take.

Drama queen is more like it. Did he give you his phone number? Now for your T-shirt slogan: "Hamburgers...they're not just for breakfast anymore!" Edited to add: Glad I never got infected with Nittany Lion fever.

I find that map very revealing indeed. What it says to me is that it's less about efficiency or low prices for the consumer and more about one pork processor's desire to become the Microsoft of hogs. Note where most of the green dots are located. They're scattered all over our agricultural heartland, including states long known for pig raising and pork production. The butcher I patronize in the Reading Terminal Market won my business for life when I purchased from him the best ham I have ever eaten, produced by Van de Rose Farms in Iowa. He has switched to local Pennsylvania product mainly because he can't get a steady dependable supply from Van de Rose; those green dots may explain why. The decade covered by the map is too recent to capture my mother's older sister, who raised a few pigs for both home consumption and sale on a small farm (and I do mean small: her home was a trailer) outside Circleville, Kan., but I can't help but imagine that those dots do represent thousands of small farmers like her (she gave up and moved to Kansas City around the time I was 14). By contrast, there's that big brown splotch covering eastern North Carolina, where the Luters' company is headquartered. Like the similar brown splotch that permanently resides over the Los Angeles Basin, this (at least on this map) is a visible manifestation of the concentration of too much of a certain kind of activity in a place that cannot absorb or process the byproducts. Has the price of pork fallen substantially, or its availability risen, because of this shift from decentralized to highly concentrated production? I certainly see no evidence that either has occurred. So while JohnL may be correct in theory, it looks to this observer that in practice, the model doesn't apply here.

Vinegary fried chicken? Vinegary barbecued chicken I get. I can't wrap my brain around the idea of vinegary-tasting fried chicken, unless maybe it's a spicy variety like Popeye's (which doesn't taste vinegary at all). But since we're bringing up local/regional variations on fast food, did any of the rest of you out there ever encounter McDonald's Philly cheesesteak? Yes, they sold it in the Philadelphia market! "Like carrying coals to Newcastle," I think the phrase goes.