MarketStEl

Jones (7th and Chestnut) is Starr's nudge-nudge, wink-wink Mom-food place. Decor straight out of a 1950s California coffee shop (only with higher ceilings) and good interpretations of food you remember from back when, whenever that was. The only time I ever burst out laughing reading a menu was when I got to the desserts at Jones. I ate at Striped Bass when Neil Stein still owned it, but I understand the Starr version is every bit as good, so I'd say that would be a good choice for your certificate. Haven't eaten at Barclay Prime (home of the $100 cheesesteak -- Starr has a good sense of humor), so can't join the chorus there, but everyone who's weighed in on that place is knowledgeable.

State College is just far enough away for me to avoid catching the Nittany Lion fan virus. I have to do something to maintain a claim to non-nativehood, and continually mentioning Kansas City in various posts on these boards probably isn't enough any more. Count me in among the blue cheese-on-burger lovers. I wasn't aware that you could get blue cheese in slices -- most, but not all, of the good varieties are crumbly. But since that's possible, apparently, what the poster said upthread about waste is true; however, if you can afford it, I'd go with crumbled blue cheese instead. I'm assuming here that your customers willingly pay for a superior product. If my assumption is correct, don't skimp on the blue cheese, either -- go for a good variety like Buttermilk Blue if you can get it in sufficient quantity. (Roaring Forties would be even better, but it costs anywhere from 50% to 75% more at retail, so I'd suspect there's a similar difference at the wholesale level.) If my assumption is incorrect, any decent domestic or Danish blue will do.

One of the Moroccan places where you nearly sit on the floor and dine communally, perhaps? Marrakesh (on a small alley just west of 5th between South and Naudain)? The other place on (I believe) South 3d below Bainbridge? (I forget its name, but went there once with a large group. The waitress even performed a belly dance!) You might want to consider either of these. You can make an evening's entertainment of the meal. Google and Citysearch come through again! The two I know of (I've been to both) are named for two of Morocco's three principal cities: Fez, 620 South 2d Street, 215-925-5367 Marrakesh, 517 South Lithgow Street, 215-925-5929 (Missing is the capital, Rabat.)

This is all completely new to me. All I knew about Estonia is that it was forcibly annexed to the USSR in 1940 after a brief period of independence, then regained independence with the breakup of the USSR. So I'm just going to sit back, listen and learn, with only a few questions. One is: Is a dollop of sour cream (or is that yogurt?) a standard garnish on soups in Estonia? The other is a trademark: No tram or metro? So far, everything's very pretty, that parking field excluded.

In a past life, I'll wager the smoker on the bottom was a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy"-class locomotive. (These are often described as the largest articulated steam freight locomotives ever built -- they were certainly the most powerful. They were built between 1941 and 1944 to haul long UP freights up the steep mountain grades in Wyoming. 25 were built in all; one sits at the entrance to the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pa.) That is one mighty impressive piece of equipment! And this has been one mighty enjoyable blog. Thanks for teaming up and sharing your passions with us.

One of the three is within walking distance of your hotel: the Reading Terminal Market. Stroll through the aisles, take in all the sounds, sights and smells. If you go in the morning, have breakfast at the Dutch Eating Place (as you will be in town on a Friday, it will be open). If you go at lunchtime, have a roast pork sandwich from DiNic's. Buy some barbecue chicken from Dienner's to take back to your room for snacking later. (12th and Filbert streets.) Friday isn't quite the right time to experience the 9th Street ("Italian") Market at its best, but you might want to stroll through the street market anyway just to say you did. Gawk at the folks lined up for cheesesteaks at Pat's and Geno's, but eat at Taquitos de Puebla (Mexican immigrants from that state have transformed the face of Ninth Street without having to change the dominant color scheme on the awnings) or one of the many pho/Vietnamese/Laotian/Cambodian/... restaurants on Washington Avenue in the vicinity instead. (Broad Street Line to Ellsworth-Federal; Washington Avenue is one block north of the station and the Italian Market five blocks east. Or Bus Route 47 southbound from 8th and Market.) Have a good microbrew while you're in town; the city's brewing heritage has come back from near-terminal condition thanks to a host of great microbreweries and brewpubs. You could pay homage to the craft beer that started it all locally by hopping the Route 34 trolley to 50th and Baltimore and hoisting one at the Dock Street Brewery, which also serves good pizza and light fare. Or you could kill two birds with one stone -- sample good brews and the atmosphere of Old City, the gallery/nightlife district, by visiting Triumph Brewing Company (import from Princeton, but who cares?) in the 100 block of Chestnut Street. (Get some exercise and walk there, but if you must, you can take either the Market-Frankford Line to 2d Street or any eastbound bus on Chestnut; get off at the end of the line if your bus terminates at Independence Mall or at 2d Street if it goes to Penn's Landing.) Of course, my fellow eGulleteers will have alternate recommendations for the Three Things You Must Do While In Town. But I hope they agree with me on the first one.

In his Metro blog Sept. 13, going-out columnist "Johnny Goodtimes" posts a roundup of what he considers the most overrated and the most underrated things about Philadelphia. Sandwich mavens on this forum and jtnicolosi will probably jump out of their seats upon reading this pair: I think a few people around here have been saying this for, oh, like, forever? Foobooz responded to the blog with an online poll. As of today, the votes are running 2-1 in agreement with the proposition that cheesesteaks are overrated. The sandwich revolution is at hand!

That's where I discovered them! (The pickles, that is.) Diann says they are. You had said that Bacchus also carried them; I had asked if they sold them for less than Whole Foods did. Upthread, Diann said that both the hummus and the pickles cost the same at Whole Foods as they do at the Head House market. ISTR they were going for $6 at the Head House market.

Also cheaper than Whole Foods, or same price? If the latter, I'll hope they turn up at Head House Square first. The retailer always gets a cut, so buying direct from the manufacturer means more money in their pocket.

Nice looking ribs there, Owen! Still, I am just a bit disappointed that you use electricity, especially since you have outdoor space (I don't), but hey, whatever works for you. Of course, you wouldn't expect me to comment on ribs without touting Gates' Bar-B-Q Sauce, would you? If you prefer, rather than buy it, you could always make your own. But tell me: How did Syracuse get so many different ethnic restaurants? I'll wager Syracuse University has something to do with that. I wouldn't expect to see such variety in Central New York otherwise, as I don't think the region is an immigrant magnet. Forgive me, Melissa: I'm dense. I'm reading your prose and it's only gradually soaking in that I'm reading another professional writer (the tone and pacing stand out -- not to say that Mark doesn't do well in this regard too). You state you're a hired gun; is that "hired gun" in the sense I'm one (I refer to public relations as "journalism's hired-gun cousin") or in the sense of writing books for a client, company or organization? Do you also do freelance work? I assume you posted fridge shots in your earlier foodblogs. Guess I should read them.

Leave it to me to look at this picture: and get all historical-trivial on everyone. Products displaying awards and endorsements have been and will always be with us: Britons are long used to seeing royal warrants with the legend "By appointment to HM the Queen" on products, perhaps the ultimate in celebrity endorsements. And there's an organization devoted to bestowing "Best Taste" awards on scores of name-brand commercial products. (I've long wondered who funds this organization: it had to change its name to avoid confusion with one of America's premier culinary schools.) I guess that with the demise of "World's Fairs" as showcases for global commerce, these sorts of glittering prizes, however contrived, take the place of international trade fair medals as marks of distinction. But it appears that international trade fair medals have a long shelf life, if that can of oatmeal is any guide: the label still proudly displays the medals the product won at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. By comparison, Campbell Soup Company has all but eliminated its 1900 Paris International Exposition medal from its signature red-and-white labels (more trivia: inspired by Cornell football uniforms), but you can still find it where it's always been on the Tomato and Chicken Noodle varieties. Maybe someone needs to organize a "World's Fair of Food" solely for the purpose of handing out medals to food processors that they can display on their labels for the next hundred years or so. Given your post immediately above, perhaps the McCain's folks should give some thought to a new package -- and retire that World's Columbian Exposition copy.

I asked about the pickle folks. Brian from the Food Trust told me they'd called them with a reminder. I hope it was just a bad hair day or something like that. They missed at least one customer this past Sunday.

Ahhh, we got a bad pun right around the corner from me: I assume the menu is now heavy on the seafood too. I also see the roundup gives Michael Klein another chance to mention the Wood brothers' new place in my building. I can tell you that the bar crowd (mature division) has found it; we're waiting for you diners.... --Sandy, who plans to watch the season premiere of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" tonight

Please share - which Whole Foods location? Our Wegmans (State College) stopped carrying it, but I do have a sister in center city. Addictively wonderful blue! ← 929 South Street. I picked up another wedge two weeks ago. I just polished off the last of that two days ago; time for another.

Checking in late to this blog. My first question is geographical: How far is Ithaca from Syracuse? Cornell is one of only two Ivy League schools I've never even visited -- the other is Dartmouth. I attended one Ivy, visited either classmates from my school or other schools in Kansas City at four others, and got hired at a sixth. As close as I got to Cornell was a chat with a Cornell HR recruiter at an NAACP job fair during my un/self-employed period (2004-06), after leaving that sixth Ivy. I understand that "Ithaca is gorges!" Will we see any? There are better lunches than that? Bigger, yes; more adventurous, yes; better? I don't think so. Okay, I'm a cheesehead, and I haven't yet heard (down this way) these multiples applied to Cheddar. I assume they refer to degree of sharpness (and by extension time spent aging)? What distinguishes 4X from 2X? Is there a 3X? Are there higher multiples? And since this is a New York State blog, what are your picks for great New York State cheddars? And should those not make it across the Pennsylvania border, any preferences among the supermarket varieties, if you have any at all? (My go-to cheap Cheddar is the A&P (in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, Super Fresh) store brand, America's Choice New York Extra Sharp. Edited to add: Well, let me revise that -- it was my go-to cheap Cheddar until Tillamook started popping up on store shelves here.) I'll have to try that fish sauce-in-salad dressing thingie you do. (It'll be the only way I can get rid of a bottle I bought about a year ago; both partner and roomie must limit their sodium intake, and fish sauce has a ton of it.) About how much fish sauce would you add to, say, a cup of vinaigrette? Do I get to groan at the pun? Someone mentioned Wegmans. People down this way wax rhapsodic about the place. Do people react the same way in its home region?

I'll start with this observation: In arguing that meat-eating humans must take the interests of the animals into account at every step of the way (an animal liberationist argument Pollan contemplates and ultimately dismisses, or so we are led to believe in this review), animal liberation advocates ascribe to other species a moral agency that many species lack (does the wolf feel guilt before he eats the steer?). That is no less a form of "speciesism" than what they decry. But there I'm on a whole different level from the reviewer, who I will wager hasn't even bothered to contemplate this apparent internal contradiction. I did recognize in Myers' writing some stylistic habits I use, or at least tend to admire when I run across them. That ended up making the article even worse: It's one thing to use wit when one is either satirizing a tempting target or dismantling a position one disagrees with, and another entirely when the purpose is simply to demonstrate one's own (in all likelihood unjustified) moral superiority. His prose couldn't have been more contemptible if he had written "the black man has no rights the white man is bound to respect" (the worst part of Chief Justice Taney's majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sanford).

It's probably cold comfort, but Appalachian State ran roughshod over Lenoir-Rhyne in their home opener the following week. Remember, "KISS"* -- especially at the outset. Most of the really great burger places have just one really great burger, or maybe two. Your own research confirms this. You already know you put out a superior product. That's all you need. *I really don't have to spell this one out, do I? Just make sure you've got someone good to mind the store while you're working the truck. I'd say you succeeded with your redesign. What Mike and diva said, though I don't go for tatoos personally.

Nice parting shot there! (Though I would have preferred you on your bike. ) Thanks for a very comfortable blog. Like the food you serve, it was very simple and very delicious.

Not a potential advertiser but a curious reader. Thanks for the link; I downloaded the first issue. There is a certain self-conscious historicism about the paper (which the publisher admits to right on Page 1 of Vol. 1, No. 1). The tone and style of the articles also recall an earlier era in American journalism, even if the plentiful color photos do not. I'm gonna try that gazpacho recipe on the paper's Food page next summer when my co-worker's garden starts producing tomatoes by the ton. Looks a good bit more interesting than the one I tried this summer. I wish you best friend's daughter's godfather's newspaper success. Every community should have a local chronicle of goings-on.

Since you have a connection in the Philadelphia part of the state, you are no doubt aware that your home: really belongs in Medford Lakes, a pretty, historic little Burlington County community that has over 150 of 'em. Back to North Jersey for a minute, though: How far is your community from the little piece of New England that's tucked away in the state's northwest corner? I got a glimpse of it driving up I-287 once -- the last stretch of the highway to be completed in New Jersey passes right through this very charming part of (I think) Sussex County -- which is also the only one of New Jersey's 21 counties that is not part of a metropolitan area; all the others are part of either the larger New York or larger Philadelphia conurbations. Your veggie haul looks wonderful! Are those yellow heads below the purple broccoli broccoli or cauliflower?

The September issue of The Atlantic arrived in my mailbox today with a poke-in-the-eye above-the-banner teaser: "The Case Against Foodies." The teaser refers to a review of Best Food Writing 2006 and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma titled "Hard to Swallow," written by B.R. Myers, a regular contributor to The Atlantic, author of The Reader's Manifesto (2002) and a confirmed vegetarian, judging from what he wrote. The article is available on The Atlantic's Web site, but only to subscribers; if you'd like to read it, PM me and I'll e-mail you a link that's good for three days. Or I can spare you the enervating task of reading 3,450 subtly (and not-so-subtly) sanctimonious words with the following two-sentence summary of his argument: If food lovers were truly moral, they would all be vegetarians. These writers clearly aren't, so they deserve no respect. But that doesn't even begin to capture the contempt that oozes out of every word of this essay. Perhaps the opening paragraph might do the job better: Not enough? How about this passage: The feverish tone makes clear that Pollan is writing for his fellow gourmets, the sort of people who can read the line “ruined an untold number of perfectly good meals” with a straight face. I can’t help thinking, though, that with hamburgers and milk shakes conquering deeply rooted diets from Mexico to Micronesia, America’s eating habits may well be the most stable in the world. Even the Atkins-diet craze reduced national bread sales by no more than 3 or 4 percentage points. Pollan nonetheless asserts that our dietary upheavals have returned us, with “atavistic vengeance,” to a bewilderment last experienced millennia ago: Then Rozin’s dictionary must be the one that Alanis Morissette used to look up the word ironic, but let that pass. Is our national eating disorder really a matter of people pacing supermarket aisles in an agony of indecision? Or do we perhaps feel too little anxiety about what we eat? Despite his choice of title, the subject does not hold Pollan’s interest for long, so readers will have to make up their own minds. Now, let's grant that Myers is right when he points out that the Atkins craze did not have the devastating effect on millers and bakers that Pollan suggests it did in his passage. Nonetheless, it's clear that Pollan's uncritical acceptance of humans' omnivorous nature offends him mightily, and he sustains this tone throughout the essay, save for a few approving comments about Pollan's skill as a writer and a grudging nod to his fairness in wrestling with the arguments Australian ethicist Peter Singer makes in Animal Liberation. He can't even spare that for the snippets from Best Food Writing 2006 that he deigns to include. It's also clear, at least to me, that Myers must not be a Christian. Otherwise, how could he be so dismissive of the opinion expressed by Pollan below? With that belittling passage, he handwaves away the central Christian sacrament: the transformation of the body and blood of Christ into food and drink, a recalling of the Last Supper. He does no better by Judaism and Passover later on in his review: It is common these days to see moral arguments veer off into appeals to self-interest. We have reached a pretty pass when they start veering off into the realm of etiquette. The bit about Passover surprised me a little, Pollan having just tacitly admitted what he thinks of Orthodox Jews, but perhaps for him it’s all about the brisket. That's quite a leap Myers takes in writing that last sentence: The meal is the central ritual of Passover, and the foods eaten at the meal take on more than mere alimentary significance. One does not mess with tradition lightly. I will also grant Myers his point about vegetarians often being the only ones with the stomach to listen to detailed accounts of how animals are killed for food, but his saying this after acknowledging near the start Gourmet's expose of chicken-slaughtering practices diminishes its force. If Myers' attitude towards food lovers like Pollan who at least make an effort to consider the ethical implications of what they eat is typical of vegetarians in general, it's no wonder there aren't more of them.

Au contraire. Even though we already have a Chinatown, Washington Avenue is now Washington Heights and Chinatown/Little Italy rolled into one. (Actually, is there a Southeast Asian community in Manhattan? I think they're more of an outer-borough phenomenon in NYC.)

Could you imagine 16 hours on fruits, vegetables, pork products, poultry, and scrapple, with one of those 16 devoted just to the Amish? All set to an original score by Wynton Marsalis adapted from old Shaker religious music? I dunno. I think I'd rather watch a Stephen Colbert expose of the place.

Oh, my- Peppers. My Sister-in-Law's husband took me to dinner at Starboard restaurant in lieu of giving me a batchelor party. We stopped there afterwards. ← How long ago was this? It looks as if Peppers has closed their Dewey Beach and downtown Rehoboth Beach locations in favor of their emporium in the Tanger Outlets Oceanside at 365xx Highway 1 (they must have renumbered the addresses on DE 1 to continue northward from the north end of Ocean City, MD (155th St -- the Delaware-Maryland border)). I stopped there on the way out of Rehoboth this past weekend. I could get lost in that place and spend all day at the tasting bar. As it was, it was on the strength of the samples that I walked out with a variety pack of their own make Blue Crab Salsa. I also walked out with a bottle of Original Juan (Pain Is Good) Batch 114 Jamaican Style Hot Sauce, a bottle of orange peel habanero sauce from Belize, and a bottle of lemon-herb piri piri sauce (Zulu Zulu). If I had a few more bucks, I would have walked out with much, much more. It would probably have required me to rent the studio apartment next door to store it all. Peppers is absolutely amazing.

Now that's mass transit! And for a good cause to boot. Now I realize I missed a little of your own background. You work in...the restaurant industry? Public safety? Homeland security? Something else altogether? I trust you have a Hog. You being such a respecter of pork and all.