MarketStEl

Oops! Answered my question before I asked it, though I would appreciate further elaboration on the Chinese and Asian food scene in Sacramento if you would be so kind. For a few years in the mid-1980s, I joined friends for the annual Chinese New Year banquets sponsored by the Chinese Cultural Center (former Chinatown YMCA) in Philadelphia. The center flew in chefs from Beijing or Guangzhou for the dinners. They were spectacular. I can only begin to imagine what you will dine on this week, but you're off to a good start already, even if the restaurant wasn't all that hot.

I'm not gonna let you off that easy! I keep a disorganized refrigerator and a messy desk, as you may recall from my blogs. If I can post pics, so can you. As I don't hang out on the China and Chinese Cuisine forum, I can only begin to guess what delights I will encounter on this blog. Though I do have one question regarding this already: Yes, California has a large Asian-American population representing several nationalities, not just Chinese. But I don't associate this attribute with the state capital. Am I merely misinformed or are the Chinese and other Asian food choices in the Sacramento area less extensive than in, say, the Bay Area downriver? One more somewhat geekier question that's been burning a hole in my brain for some time: Whence your handle on eG? I would parse "rt8w" as "Route 8 West" (you wanna trade geekeries, I'm a roadgeek as well as a railgeek and foodie), and I don't know whether a) there is a California State Route 8 near you (Interstate 8 heads east from San Diego) or b) you had an affinity or an epiphany or an unfortuante accident or an urgent rest stop or a bad meal or a great meal or something on a highway with that number or c) all this is completely off base. And that still doesn't explain the "hz", nor does anything pertaining to your real name. Care to explain between meals?

Disclaimer: The only Genuardi's I've ever visited is the one in Radnor, and that's where I bought the new potato salad. It was made from tiny little red new potatoes, fresh dill and a sour cream like dressing. It was delicious and waaaayyy easier than making it myself, yet it tasted "homemade". Not sure if every Genuardi's would have it, but I suspect there's probably some consistency across their deli departments corporate wide. If you do find it, it was the best store bought I've had. ← Feh. I'd have to take my chances with Genuardis.com. That, or hop off the 109 one evening en route home and hope their Springfield store has it.

I imagine that in the course of your jam-packed life (kinda rivals my own), you overlooked this post, but I am curious to know whether the Pommery of the champagne is the same Pommery that produces the coarse-grained mustard. You may also share your opinion of Clueless if you wish, but that's purely optional.

Well, if we're going there, I refer you to a contribution I made in my second foodblog: Meatloafication: The process of transforming ground bits of cow and pig into a favorite comfort food through the addition of various ingredients and vigorous mixing with one's hands.

A followup question I forgot to ask: What is the difference in marbling, if any, between meat taken from between ribs 12 and 13 and that taken from in between ribs 6 and 7?

Is this the same Pommery that makes the coarse-grained Moutarde de Meaux? I used to buy it all the time from a liquor store/specialty cheese shop near where I lived in Allston, Mass. I really couldn't afford it--or the cheeses I bought with it-- but I didn't care. Oops! Edited out your Austen reference. I wanted to ask you here what your opinion was of the movie Clueless. I was chatting with a friend of mine at Pure's karaoke (see first foodblog) last night--the friend is a local playwright and also an Austen fan. We both thought that Clueless was an entertaining modernization of Emma. I also liked the film for its useful contribution to contemporary English, namely, the phrase "going postal". I don't know if you watch the Today Show in the mornings, but one memorable segment involving cheese from that program lingers in my brain. They were doing an on-location program in Paris; this was when Bryant Gumbel was still co-hosting, but after Katie Couric had joined the party. Apparently--as we learned from the segment--Gumbel is a serious cheeseophobe; he can't even stand the smell of the stuff. So they had him do a segment in which he went into a French cheese shop to examine its wares and chat with the proprietor. I still remember him donning a face mask and rubber gloves on camera, then saying, "Cover me--I'm going in" before entering the shop. As for you, congratulations on having overcome your childhood distaste for cheese. I don't share your dislike of milder varieties, but agree that the smellier ones are more interesting. Not being a big fan of Brie, however, I have probably given runny cheeses short shrift and need to educate myself more about them.

Tips? You're supposed to cook the tips too? I guess I must have been conditioned by too many orders of restaurant wings. Though the place that serves the best Buffalo wings in Philly--Moriarty's, around the corner from me on Walnut--serves their wings whole, not separated.

Salad Waste: The iceberg lettuce and cardboard tomatoes they serve on the side with your burger platter. Edited to add because I was slow on the uptake: Liquid Waist: See "beer belly." Also, any ample avoirdupois around the midsection caused by consumption of sugary sodas.

There was a wonderful quote from some disinterested* observer during the strike that cut short the 1994 Major League Baseball season; the observer said something like: "The players have the talent, but it's the owners who have all the money. But no one goes to the ballpark to watch the money." I think this would have tasted even worse if you just piled the Benjamins on top of the scallop. And now that you mention it, I note that the superlative adjectives used by those quoted in the story were reserved for the over-the-top excess, not the quality of the food and wine consumed. (Well, maybe one person was impressed by the wine itself.) *Usage Nit of the Day: A disinterested party is not, as some believe, the same as an uninterested party. Rather, it is someone who is neutral regarding two sides in a dispute.

I'm agnostic on the question. The drums are easier to eat, but the flats are tastier. Not to mention that if you work the flats right, you get two opportunities to dip 'em in the blue cheese dip, as opposed to just one pass for the drums. On second thought, put me in the flats column too.

Whenever I see this term, I have to remind myself, "France, NOT New Jersey." Talk about a "money shot"! (Don't tell PETA, but there's a foie gras tasting taking place soon at an undisclosed location in Philadelphia. The poor organizer hadn't realized when he proposed a series of tastings--this one's the third--that about twice as many people as the undisclosed location could handle wanted to participate! Of course, for this tasting, participants will have to submit to background checks to avoid terrorist infiltration. ) Great photos, as usual, and I see that the weather hasn't sapped your energy. Speaking of weather, do you have to work today (V-Day, 2/14)? Widener is closed today.

I_call_the_duck: Maybe we should send Mr. Duck and Gary (my partner) out grocery shopping together sometime. They'd return with a ton of stuff that we'd probably never even think of buying. As there is a Whole Paycheck near me, though, maybe the trip should take place on your turf. Despite this observation, I am not immune to impulse purchases. These usually take the form of something I've never tried before that looks intriguing or something I regularly buy that's on an incredible special but not on my list for the week. I do do a weekly fill-the-cart-and-larder run, in large part because stopping for food on the way home from work guarantees my arrival no earlier than 7 p.m. If I do a full-on dinner from that point, we eat around 9:30 p.m. So I try to plan what I will fix that week on the weekend, and I try to stock up on basics that I can keep in the freezer. I can count the number of times I've bought nothing more than was on my list on the fingers of one hand and have five left over. Nonetheless, I have to make a list, because if I don't, I will forget some must-buy item or a request from partner or roomie. I find the "stuff the cart when it's on sale" policy I follow for most frequently used goods to work well--it allows me to pick up neat stuff off-list while keeping the total grocery bill within a narrowly defined range. For instance, that 100-count box of trash bags I bought for $8 on my most recent trip not only means I've saved a buck--or more when you factor in the price difference between this and seven 15-count boxes--but also that I don't have to buy more trash bags for two to three months. The difference can then go to other foods during that time period. But I don't gorge myself after bringing home the bacon--no matter how appealing the bacon may look. And I also often shop hungry, a practice I sometimes mitigate by popping some fruit into my maw before heading off to the markets.

What Katie and Chris said. You should consider renting a hall, perhaps?

You know the story behind the mural in the lobby of 30 Rock, right? It's a replacement for what was to have been the original work.

Sorry I'm late to the party, Fress! Ellen: Your mom, my dad. He also ate limburger cheese on very rare occasions. I had not channeled the sardine-eating part of my dad's personality until about two years ago. Now I do so in fits and starts. I have yet to try King Oscar, which everyone recommends, but I do have a tin in the pantry. There is also a Portuguese brand sold locally where the fish are packed in tomato sauce spiked with hot sauce that I like. The King Oscars are packed in tomato sauce. I'll check this thread out later. John Yi at the Reading Terminal Market had fresh sardines on display today. 11934 Roe Avenue? That was farmland way back when I lived in the area. I note that a) they are currently a $10 appetizer and b) they need to fix their PDF generator--it's cutting off the bottom of their pages. I find a Stoned Wheat Thins cracker to be a fine sardine carrier. Sardines are also one of the few foods I don't think are improved by adding cheese. I remember that first thread now. I guess things really do go round in circles. I'm glad I have a private office. No one complains about the sardine smell when I eat them at my desk. They are a really good source of portable, ready-to-eat protein.

When you mentioned Schaller and Weber upthread, I was going to ask whether you lived in Yorkville. This post answers that question. I had a friend of German descent who lived at 151 East 83d; I've fallen out of touch with him. He did take me to a German restaurant on 86th Street one evening back around 1980 whose name I've long since forgotten. Perhaps you could rattle off a few names on the off chance that one of them might trigger a reaction? New York rents and rent control being what they are, I suspect he may still be living at 151 East 83d. Maybe I should see if I can track him down.

You think this consumerist approach has made things tougher for restaurants? You should check out higher education these days. Edited to add: Especially when you consider how many dinners at Le Bec-Fin you could buy for a year's tuition at a good private university.

I hadn't thought of LaBan as a hater. He seems to me to praise at least as often as he pans, with the difference made up of weakly positive or mixed reviews. Pardon the tangent, V. Like any critic, LaBan is expressing an opinion, and to that extent, I lump him in with the pontificators, even if they are writing about vastly different subjects. I hold them all to the same standard, though: Make me think about what you're saying, and do it in an engaging fashion. LaBan passes this test.

That FDA document provides a good introduction to nutrition labeling and its evolution, and this one, linked from within, explains something about ingredient labeling. As this document makes clear, the regulations have gotten more explicit over the years as manufacturers kept trying to pass A off as B in various ways. One other point about reading an ingredients list: Ingredients are always listed in descending order of their percentage by weight of the finished product (by volume in the case of liquid products). Anything that comprises 2% or less of the finished product is listed alphabetically in a group at the end. Component ingredients of specific ingredients are listed in (nested) parentheses (and brackets) following the ingredient name. I believe, but haven't bothered to confirm yet, that this practice was required in the original 1936 product labeling law, the Pure Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

And... And... And... And one more like these: This morning at Commerce Bank, one of the tellers was talking about coffee drinks, explaining that she loved Starbucks' chocolate mocha latte. "But their coffee--I can't see how anyone can drink it," she went on. After I gave her an "Amen!," just about everyone else on duty chimed in in agreement. Yeah, YWalker: just how much of their sales volume comes from straight coffee? (And how much of that volume consists of coffee sold to people like me who, while driving down the turnpike, decide they need a cuppa and pull into the service plaza, only to find that the only coffee options available are Burger King and Starbucks?) Consistency is the reason chains exist at all. From White Castle on down through the years, the idea is that the patron will get a product of uniform and predictable quality no matter where he or she may be. Fans of independent establishments rightly point out that they have personality that the chains lack. If that personality clashes with your own, well, there are other similar establishments out there. But what if the personality keeps changing with the personnel, as in this case? You may, as pansophia did, opt to go to a place where personality isn't part of the formula. Which, in most cases, means a chain.

IOW "sharp"? I encountered the word "tasty" used this way in a microwave cookbook I got about 10 years ago, published by a Canadian publisher. I've never seen it used this way in U.S. English. All of these are Australian varieties, I assume? Never mind that--with this confession, you have just shut yourself out of ever being able to experience the original Philadelphia cheesesteak. You will have to settle for one of the Johnny-come-latelies, namely, the version with provolone. And as for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, well... Necessity is the mother of invention.

In case any of you tried parsing 21 CFR 133.169 yourselves: The folks who invented process cheese explain it all for you. Including the percentage of actual cheese in each of the categories. Now to confuse things further: I was at the deli counter this afternoon, picking up some cheese for sandwiches. The Super Fresh deli was running a sale on Land O'Lakes American cheese. (As Land O'Lakes purchased the local manufacturer of "New Yorker" deli cheese a few years back, and both brands were on display, I had to ask which one was the one on sale.) The wrappers on both the Land O'Lakes American and the Land O'Lakes New Yorker blocks read "Pasteurized Process (American, on the New Yorker label) Cheese Product." Yet this cheese had a perfectly acceptable consistency, mouthfeel and slightly cheddary, slightly milky flavor. Not at all what I usually associate with process cheeses bearing that label. Maybe Land O'Lakes is allowing itself some room to maneuver on the fat content by labeling their cheese in this fashion? BTW and FWIW: For those who care about such things, Land O'Lakes, like Ocean Spray, Sunkist and Welch's, is a co-op.

Certainly the cheesesteak sandwich ought to fit the definition of an emblematic food that is particular to a region, even if, like Buffalo wings, it can be found outside its home region. Lebanon bologna should also qualify here.

Pittsburg is a city of about 15,000 located along the main line of the Kansas City Southern Railroad in Kansas' southeastern corner. I don't think it could support enterprises like these. Perhaps, though, we could explore whether or not the Primianti Bros. sandwich is perhaps more emblematic of Pittsburgh than any of the foregoing.