MarketStEl

After reading through the thread on Jack Daniel's watering down its best-selling whiskey, I thought for a while about one of the main reasons given for the change: holding costs in line. (A Brit noted that alcohol taxes in the UK are based on the amount of alcohol by volume, which would lead distillers there to lower the alcohol content to reduce taxes.) Then I thought about the cans of tuna in my pantry. This kitchen standby comes in six-ounce cans now. When I moved to Philly 20 years ago, it came in 6 1/2-ounce cans; the net weight has gone down twice since then. Same phenomenon with candy bars, though I forget how much they weighed in the past. All these moves, if I understand them right, are attempts to hold the retail prices steady without eating into company profits. Meanwhile, on the prepared-foods side, portions seem to be rising--still, the effect of works like "SuperSize Me" notwithstanding. Are restaurant economics so different from grocery store or food manufacturer economics that the eateries can offer *more* for the same price where the processors cannot?

How can you tell from the package whether your carton of Philly came from the US or Down Under? And how widespread is Australian Philly in the US? (Aside: This reminds me of a label change Anheuser-Busch made some years ago on its flagship beer. It used to be that on the Budweiser label [and the labels for its other beers], the company would list which brewery produced the bottle or can in your hands. For instance, a typical Philadelphian would probably see a label that read, "Brewed by Anheuser-Busch, Inc., of St. Louis, Mo., at Newark, N.J."--the Newark brewery being closest to Philly. (Word spread among beer lovers that longneck bottles of Bud brewed "at St. Louis, Mo." were better than those from the other breweries-"after all, Gussie Busch drinks this himself." Soon the price of St. Louis Bud got bid up as Bud drinkers elsewhere began to demand the hometown brew. (Not long after that, A-B changed the label to list the headquarters, followed by all their brewery locations. Today's label omits the list of branch breweries.)

"Philly roll" sushi?

Sounds to me like Wolfgang Puck is taking the Gap business model--a chain for every price point (Banana Republic at the top/Gap proper in the middle/Old Navy for the bargain-lovers)--and adapting it to food. Only Spago isn't being chained. As for the Boiardi/Boyardee reference another poster wondered about: But that's the point! Boiardi was the pioneer in trading on his name to the point where it got diluted beyond recognition. (FWIW, I've also tried Wolfgang Puck's canned New England clam chowder and found it wanting. It was nicely spiced--a bit more peppery than I'm used to in canned clam chowder--but thin.) At least Puck is still in charge of the show for now. I assume that whatever licensing arrangement he has with ConAgra gives him the right to pull his name from the products if he is dissatisfied with them?

Good photos, Percy, although it looks like the ambient light in Nectar was a bit too low. This topic brought to mind a meal that probably belongs over on that "strangest thing you ever ate" topic in General Food Topics, but since it was eaten in Chester County--and since I hope someone else may have eaten at this place and remembers its name--I'm posting it here. The place was a restaurant/bar/wannabe dance club on Old Route 1 near Avondale. It looked like two or three sheds stuck together and (I vaguely recall) had a buffalo sign hanging over it. At the time, the owners were trying to attract a gay clientele, which is why our group heard about it at all (the restaurant advertised in the now-defunct Au Courant). We decided to try it out after visiting Longwood Gardens one December evening. The place was very simple, but very bright on the inside--plain white walls and lots of windows. Most of the people--including us--were clustered around the bar. It was a mixed crowd, including a few people who appeared not to have gotten word that the place had gone gay. The woman who served us--I believe she told me that she was the owner--explained that the restaurant was also experimenting with food, too, offering items usually not found on menus anywhere. Like alligator, for instance. Or rattlesnake. The buffalo sign was a way of advertising this, as at the time, buffalo meat was still regarded as somewhat exotic--the herds hadn't been built back up to their present state. So I decided to order the rattlesnake. About 15 minutes later, a plate was placed in front of me with what looked like a long, coiled bowel movement on it. This brownish-black object, I was told, was the rattlesnake. It tasted as good as it looked. I strongly suspect that the restaurant did not last that long in this particular incarnation. Maybe the building is still standing; if so, I'd be curious to find out whether it is still a restaurant, and if so, what's on the menu.

I thought I read in The New York Times sometime last year that New York City had lifted its longstanding ban on garbage disposals. I've this vague recollection that it had something to do with that huge new sewage treatment plant in Harlem. Or was this just a limited demonstration project in a specific part of the city? (I also seem to recall that the stated reason for the ban had something to do with clogging the water and sewer lines.)

The link is to a subscriber/purchaser-only page. Maybe you can cut and paste? I have a simple but good recipe that's very cheesy: 8 ounces dry elbow macaroni or small shells 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 1 1/2 cups milk 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard 1/4 teaspoon white pepper 3/4 pound shredded extra sharp Cheddar cheese (about 3 cups), divided 1/2 pound shredded Monterrey Jack cheese 1/2 pound crumbled blue-veined cheese (Gorgonzola works very well in this recipe) Boil pasta according to package directions; drain. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a 2-quart saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Add spices and heat until sauce just reaches a boil. Reduce heat and stir in two cups of the Cheddar and all of the Monterrey Jack and blue cheeses; continue stirring until cheeses are melted. Place pasta in ungreased casserole dish and pour sauce over pasta. Top with remaining Cheddar. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until topping is bubbly and slightly brown around the edges. 4 to 6 servings.

Various? Not ALL?!? ← Not directly food-related, but this bit of reportorial cluelessness brought back a tale oft told by Philadelphia-area print types as a way of dissing their broadcast brothers and sisters: A reporter for WCAU-TV (then the CBS station in town, now NBC; the reporter's name will be withheld, as the person is still in the business) was assigned to cover the trial of Ira Einhorn, the notorious Sixties guru who was charged--and convicted three decades later--for murdering his girlfriend, whose body was discovered in a trunk in his Powelton Village house. The reporter was informed that Einhorn was being tried in absentia (he had fled the country after the arrest warrant was issued). The reporter asked the assignment desk editor where Absentia was located.

Where I am temporarily ensconced--Drexel University, at least until the end of the year--the big boss decided to bring the food to the employees. The President's Holiday Party featured foods from around the world, in themed booths--meat patties and jerk chicken from the Caribbean, sushi, barbecued spareribs and teriyaki wings from Japan, empanadas from Spain, German meatballs, fondue, New England clam chowder...you get the idea. All served in a festively decorated Great Court (for those of you who have never been inside Drexel's historic 1891 Main Building, this is one of the most impressive interior spaces in the city), festooned with huge red balloons and placards bearing holiday greetings in many languages (the balloons and banners are still in place as I type this). There were performances and entertainment, including a Chinese dragon dance. Everyone I spoke with afterwards had a fabulous time. Me, I didn't think Sodexho could turn out such impressive fare. (Sodexho does Drexel's campus food service and catered the party.) And some people I spoke with afterwards who avoided this year's party because last year's was a real stinker were sorry they didn't come after they heard what happened this year.

The Rose Tattoo (18th and Callowhill) isn't a BYO, either, but it's popular with Community College faculty (it's nearby), and we had a couple of very good holiday lunches there when I was working in University Communications at Penn. You might want to check it out.

Actually that book has been written and it is into it's second edition. ← "...He studied science and literature at Caltech and Yale..." --from the back jacket flap to the new 20th anniversary second edition So I'm totally wrong on the second count but not that far off base on the first.

I'm sure I'm not conversing with the crowd that watches "Iron Chef," but nonetheless: Anyone else miss "Ready, Set, Cook"? I thought the idea behind that show (an Americanization of a popular British game show, BTW) was a good one.

Jinmyo is right. I can never understand the interest of the public in high gloss Cook Books. Nine out of ten are simply bought for Jacket Picture. Possibly two recipes will ever be used out of them. Besides, none of those are really "Cookbooks", as they do not teach anyone to "cook", and most Americans now do not really know how to "cook". They can read, assemble and 'fire-up' and then call it a meal, and 'think/believe' this was the best ever eaten since Mom's Tuna Casserole. I suspect that if a cookbook were ever to be produced that explains in lay terms the basic tastes (four or five, depending on whether you count unami) and how they interact, or what happens when heat is applied or flavors blend when chilling in the refrigerator, either (1) the author would be a professor of chemistry* or (2) it would sell about 100 copies. That old American fave, Joy of Cooking, actually does a somewhat decent job of explaining much of this in the chapters "The Foods We Eat," "The Foods We Heat" and "Know Your Ingredients." Wonder how many of us take the time to read these chapters in full? (I know I haven't.) *One of the funniest things I've ever seen was an article on Bearnaise sauce in a peer-reviewed journal of biochemistry. My guess is that people do want to feel that they are eating something out of the ordinary, something a little better than what they're used to, at home from time to time, and these products cater to that desire. I used to refer to this section as "the Knorr section" because all the products made by that Swiss food manufacturer (acquired by Corn Products Company, now Bestfoods, in the late 1960s, IIRC) were usually located in a highly visible spot there. They certainly share one major characteristic of all processed food, which is that it would certainly taste better if you made it yourself from scratch using good quality ingredients. But making a good Hollandaise sauce is tricky even with a blender, and most of us in the US don't (seem to) have the level of skill, confidence or both to want to try that. (Making lump-free gravy really isn't all that difficult, but lots of people seem to have either no ability or no desire to do this, either.). But they often offer taste sensations or ingredients that aren't (or weren't) found in the mainstream brands. (Seen any cans of Campbell's condensed hot and sour soup? I didn't think so. I have prepared a packet of Knorr dry hot and sour soupmix. It was on the bland side, and a bit thin even after adding the egg listed as an optional ingredient. But it was still recognizably hot and sour soup, something the big US manufacturers don't make. One sign that even mass tastes have broadened a bit is the variety found in the Campbell's Select soup line.) Edited to correct my confusion of eel with that savory-but-not-salty taste that people use MSG to get on foods that do not have it, or do not have enough of it.

What I'd like to know is: How'd you get such a dynamite shot? Food photography is trickier than landscapes, buildings or human/animal subjects, and many of the food pix on this site, while they illustrate their points well, look kind of, well, flat. We get an idea what the dish ought to look like, but the picture doesn't quite do it justice. This one does and then some. For starters, I assume you weren't using a point-and-shoot snapshot camera--or if you were, then you weren't using the built-in flash? What else did you do or not do? As for baked potato dressing, I like the idea of topping one with broccoli and cheese, but haven't turned that into reality yet. Usually, I still eat it nearly naked, with only butter and black pepper. Trust me, this picture gives me ideas--which, I thought, was what good food photography was about anyway.

Okay. Just like Gov. Rendell. You've confirmed my thesis yet again.

As some of you are no doubt aware, it's possible to do a "barbecue" version of just about anything. Here's mine: 1.5 pounds meatloaf mix (or 1 pound ground beef and 1/2 pound each ground pork and veal) 1/4 cup bread crumbs 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 tablespoons dried minced onion 1/2 teaspoon Season-All 1 teaspoon barbecue spice blend 1 egg, beaten 1 1/4 cups Gates' Barbecue Sauce, divided Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine all ingredients in bowl, reserving 1/2 cup of the barbecue sauce. Mix well to blend. Shape into loaf and bake at 400 F for 40 minutes. Pour remaining sauce over top of loaf and bake an additional 20 minutes. Gates' Barbecue Sauce is available directly from the source online. However, a fellow expat Kansas Citian I know--a retired math professor at Drexel--warned me when we last spoke that Gates' and Son's mail order service is erratic and hires butterfingered handlers; he has received shipments that included broken bottles. You might do better ordering from one of the many barbecue lovers' emporia online such as America's Best Barbecue. Or better still, make it yourself. Ollie's been pretty busy spreading the recipe around lately, appearing on the Food Network's "From Martha's Kitchen" (recipe link no longer easily accessible, but I know someone posted it when I mentioned this on eG some months back), CBS' "The Early Show" and other programs. This version of the recipe on Just Recipes recommends you simmer the sauce for 30 minutes to blend the flavors properly. So do I. Most versions of the recipe I've seen online do not call for this step, and you will get an okay Gates' sauce without it, but it really does make a difference. Warning: The recipe as published makes lots of sauce. You can freeze it, but unless you're a big barbecue sauce user, you may want to consider halving it. Too lazy to order or make Gates'? You have my permission to substitute KC Masterpiece instead, but the flavor won't be the same.

I'm not a professional and I never make cheesecake, but I do eat cream cheese a lot, and even the store brands vary. The A&P family store brand (America's Choice), for instance, is unusually sweet--most of the store brands are both saltier and drier than Philly or Smithfield.

Key West (207 South Juniper Street). Named "Friendliest Gay Bar" in Philadelphia Magazine's 1993 "Best of Philly" issue. Currently the default black gay bar in town, but everyone's welcome. (Edited to add: It's also the place to be if you're a gay Eagles fan--the crowd in the sports bar gets really worked up, and there's a free halftime buffet. If I were the owner, I'd institute a $2 door charge good towards your first drink to keep out the riffraff coming in for the free food, but I'm not.)

I've usually baked mine as well. I'll have to try this. But do they then take the wing sauce properly? (There's a bar near me that serves up 10c wings every Saturday--unsauced but seasoned (choices: Cajun, garlic, Old Bay). They're definitely deep-fried -- and very good.) Maybe I just haven't been looking in the right places. The Super Cruise had them for a while, then discontinued them (the Super Cruise is on the small side for a modern supermarket--about 15-20k sq ft--but it's at least twice the size of the next two closest supermarkets (the Food Rite @ 15th and Spruce and the Super Fresh @ 5th and Pine). The Passyunk and Reed Acme is bigger and may still have them. There's a growing Mexican population in the area, so I might have better luck finding authentic Tex-Mex items there. Generally speaking, though, when it comes to brands, in the local supermarkets, Hispanic means Goya. (I believe that South Philly Acme carries some Vitarroz products too.)

Passable alternate version with ingredients you may already have in your spice rack: 1 pint sour cream 2 tablespoons dried minced onion 1 tablespoon instant beef boullion Mix well. Chill one hour. Serve.

And now for my own quick 'n' dirty preferences, aside from the canned chili (I prefer Bush's Chili Magic when I can find it; I suspect Campbell's Chunky will also work) and Velveeta: Take bag or two of Li'l Smokies--regular, Cheddar or both. Dump in glass casserole dish. Pour barbecue sauce over it all. Nuke 2 minutes. Place dish and box of toothpicks on table. Sit back and relax.

Ever see the Bissell carpet cleaner commercial featuring biker types downing smoothies and watching figure skating on TV in their clubhouse? (One of them bought his toy poodle in...) That image just popped in my head.

You speak the truth One of the first "recipes" any good Texan learns. ← About a year or two ago, I spotted Ro-Tel tomatoes on supermarket shelves in Philly. There were even coupons in the Sunday newspapers. I bought a can and tried the above recipe. Perfect game-day snacking. I haven't seen them much since. Was this a misguided attempt on their part to go national? I suspect it would be like seeing Yuengling Lager in package stores in Florida...what? They have it there?

Modification: Your next lunch choice should be: on a spring or early fall day, Tony Luke's at the corner of Front and Oregon Streets, just off I-95. You and Lou can split: the chicken cutlet with broccoli rabe the roast pork with broccoli rabe and if you really must the cheesesteak. ← I know that Tony Luke's cheesesteaks are not held in as high regard as their roast pork sandwiches, but I found the cheesesteak with sharp Provolone and broccoli rabe as sublime as the other sandwiches above. Besides, where else are you going to get sharp Provolone on a cheesesteak? That alone, IMO, is worth giving it a try, although I will concede the roast pork sandwich is a cut above it. (Haven't tried the chicken cutlet yet.)

We're glad you enjoyed your visit to Philadelphia and that our suggestions were at least somewhat helpful. Your obligatory cheesesteak on your next visit should come from Tony Luke's if you can manage to work your way down to the South Philly waterfront area. As for Fork: I forget whether it is that restaurant or nearby Paradigm that has the glass bathroom doors that fog up when you latch them closed. These doors sparked far more conversation than the food did when the restaurant that has them opened. Fork and Paradigm opened at about the same time. Now--on your next visit, maybe you might consider settling down here, then running for mayor? --Sandy, occasionally shameless self-promoter