MarketStEl

Great news, Janet, and welcome to the ranks of the published! I guess blogs aren't just shouting into the void after all. I need to regain the discipline you found in maintaining your blog.

This only holds true if taxpaying were an equal proposition for all taxpayers. That is not the case at all. ← I understand what you're saying and at the same time hope you don't begrudge the double benefit the poor get in the form of food that's cheaper than it otherwise might be* and the Earned Income Tax Credit. (And the third benefit of food stamps for certain poor people and many graduate students.) *Though since a lot of that cheap food is highly processed and loaded with ingredients of dubious nutritional value, this might not be as great a benefit as it looks on the surface.

Okay, since you asked us to take stock: In 2006, I will eat ethnic dishes I've never tried before. Did that -- I forget right now what was being served along with the squid at Music Town in Olney, but whatever it was, it was delicious. I will make real dinner rolls--sayonara, Doughboy!--and real bread. So Thanksgiving rolls around and I reach for the can of Pillsbury Crescents. At least I still make my own pumpkin pie, though I use canned pumpkin. I will find either permanent employment, or more freelance gigs, or both--and maybe even my voice as a food writer! Two out of three ain't bad. Widener and I are getting along famously after ten months, and while it looks like I may have blown a steady source of resumes to edit via a well-known Web site, I have developed a small client base locally for manuscript editing and resume writing as well as a few customers well beyond Philly who correspond with me via the Web. Shameless plug: If you would like to be one of them, I offer top-quality, accurate work at reasonable rates; PM or e-mail me. However, not only have I not written a word about food for pay this year, I've also let my other freelance writing slide. Losing the resume stream may prove a blessing in disguise in the long run. I will learn more about wine, now that Jonathan Newman's made it more affordable to do so. I was getting somewhere on this front. Then my partner hit bottom and went into recovery. In support of his efforts, I've refrained from consuming alcohol at all at home and cut back on what I drink when I'm out. I will teach myself how to prepare great meals that my diabetic roommate can enjoy. Still on the to-do list. Diabetic roomie is in the hospital right now, so I haven't had the occasion to cook for him for several months now. I will read Steven Shaw's book, and maybe even subscribe to Cook's Illustrated. The subscription offers from Cook's Illustrated are gathering dust along with a bunch of other unread magazines, and I still have yet to pick up the Shaw book. (I also haven't been to New York City at all this year, so have not had the occasion to redeem the Starwich coupons I received after the eG discussion of the sandwich shop chain.) This is the year I will try all those unusual cheeses I see at DiBruno's every time I visit. Making progress on this, bit by bit. If you read my second foodblog (link in .sig), you saw a photo of one of them. I've got another in my fridge right now. I will taste a little bit of everything the great buffet of life has to offer. Except deep sea diving--I can't even stay afloat. Does appearing in tights and a tutu as a Sugar Plum Fairy count? (The PGMC holiday concert was very well received -- and we got excellent pre-concert publicity in print, on radio and on TV that probably contributed to the packed house, our biggest audience ever. [Who did the publicity? Send e-mail to press@pgmc.org and I'll tell you. ]) I will use more fresh ingredients and locally produced foods this year. I did do this--my purchases from Kaufmann's in the RTM shot up dramatically during the peak growing season. I will give myself permission to override my innate impulse towards frugality every now and then in order to splurge on really good food and ingredients. Did this too. In the case of the ham I fixed when the roomie got done serving time, it was worth every penny, and that wasn't the only time this was the case this year. I have much to be thankful for, including good health and good friends. I resolve to have more of the latter over for dinner, or to dine out with them more often. There are a few friends who are regular visitors; I can count on one of these to help relieve me of leftovers. I went out to his place for dinner with two very charming, very positive black men who I've known for some time last month, then had these same two over for dinner on Thanksgiving Day. I hope they become part of the occasional regulars (there are a few of these too). We don't go out together much anymore. I'm of two minds about fixing this, but I'll continue to offer him the chance to accompany me to a good restaurant meal when I have the opportunity to write about a place to eat. Make that "we don't go out together at all anymore" -- except when I accompany him to his family rehab session on Saturday mornings. I'm afraid that to a large extent, we now live separate lives together. He's still welcome to join me for dinner out if he feels like it. My kids? What kids? I've got my hands full with my partner, two cats, a roommate and a cast of friends, acquaintances and hangers-on. Feeding them is challenge enough. Still true, though some of the cast of friends and hangers-on had to be pared.

More perfect is acceptable Matt... George Orwell said "All animals are equal but some are *more equal* than others" I suppose those would be the ones that havent been pumped up with antibiotics, hormones and tryptophan.................. ← I thought tryptophan occurred naturally in turkey. You mean to tell me they inject it along with the water?

Actually, you used the phrase exactly right. You: "...a more perfect serving atmosphere..." US Constitution: "...in order to form a more perfect Union..."

Nope. But I believe they do grind their beans fresh for each cup or pot--there is a grinder next to the coffee and espresso machines. Yep. Most assuredly not.

Some other options if you're in the mood for burgers: --Good Dog, on 15th Street between Walnut and Locust. The house burger comes stuffed with Roquefort cheese, topped with caramelized onions, and served with sweet potato fries on the side and is one of the best burgers in town, if not indeed the best. Decent selection of craft brews to boot. One caveat: I don't know what the crowd is like at lunch, but at happy hour, the lawyers and bike messengers together produce an almost-deafening decibel level. --Bootsie's, on 19th just below Market. You'll end up shelling out $10-$15 for your burger combo here, but that gets you a juicy Kobe beef burger and some of the best fries in town. Service runs the gamut from attentive to slipshod, but it's still fairly quick and efficient, and if they screw up, they make it right right there and then. No license, but I think you can order off their menu at Tragos next door; Bootsie told me he was planning to add beer to his offerings when I dined there last month.

Too late now, but that Cajun place looked mighty good! I also note that you got a little plug in for the Daily Breeze. It's only fitting. (Edited to add: Wonder whether any of your viewers, based on the narrative in the show's intro, assumed you wrote for the Los Angeles Times? )

Let us note, before going any further, that the line between agrarian and urban society was crossed the moment we figured out, thousands of years ago, how to produce more food than we needed for our own (personal or family/kin group) survival. This inevitably requires that some -- nay, much -- of the food production take place well away from the locus of consumption. To an extent, this whole argument is merely one over degrees of separation. Actually, in most of the Northeast, those farms have reverted to forest. If they hadn't, we might have an even bigger global warming problem on our hands. See my comment immediately above. Who pays the "real cost" for our food now? I'd like to thank them. SB ← Look in the mirror, bud. It's the taxpayer! ← IOW, we already pay the "real cost" of food; it's just that we pay part of it indirectly through our taxes. (This resembles how we pay for transportation in many ways.)

i like this idea! i have to point out, though, that there's kind of a price differential between a $1.25 bag of good's and a $27/lb roquefort papillon... but you know, i think we can work something out. ← Let's see: 5 bags of Good's = .25 lb of Roquefort Papillon Or maybe we can substitute Borough Market Stilton instead and send him a whole half pound of it for the same five bags. Oh, yeah, this can definitely be made to work. Perhaps we should try this instead of Moriarty's wings when next you're in Philly, Mike.

I've had a shot of their espresso, and it's not too shabby--potent but not overwhelming. I'd say the folks here know their coffee drinks. I'd also say that the comments of the posters so far on this thread are accurate: the food and beverages here are very good and well made, among the better in town, and when you combine this with the homey, comfy ambience and friendliness of the owner and staff, you have a winner. BTW, it was René's original intent to serve hot sandwiches as well, and for a brief while, he had a selection of them on the menu. That was before he found out that you needed a different sort of permit from L&I than the one he had in order to offer hot foods. At last report, he is in the process of jumping through the requisite hoops. Stay tuned.

You've probably explained the process upthread, but please to be repeating for us slow learners: You boil the scm in the can without opening it? Or do you poke a small hole in it to allow the vapor to escape? If the latter, how big a hole? And in the process of reduction, the stuff caramelizes too? Awaiting your test results....

Myself, I only deal in intuitive appeal, Shalmanese, never with *facts*, for *facts*, factually, are much more contradictory when well-explored and fully gathered than anything intuitive. And I think that *most* people deal in intuitive appeal, then gather the facts they wish to support whatever it is their intuition points to. ← Familiar quotations time: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics." --Mark Twain (attributed) "What a wonderful thing it is that man is a reasonable creature, for it allows him to think of a reason for anything he may want to do." --Benjamin Franklin, from the Autobiography I've been engaged in a (very civil) argument on an e-mail listserv devoted to discussion of transportation policy (!) on the subject of "sprawl" development threatening farmland around major cities (the Philadelphia region's prime candidate for the endangered-farmland list: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania). I had argued that while the loss of this farmland would make no difference in our ability to feed ourselves as a nation, it would have a deleterious effect on the quality and freshness of the foods city-dwellers eat. Frankly, I think those are the only (ahem) sustainable arguments one can make in favor of preferring locally produced foodstuffs. And even then, the strength of the argument varies: grain and foods made from grain generally keep and travel very well, so there's no real advantage to growing grain in the Northeast, say, instead of in the Midwestern breadbasket states. (Actually, from a soil and climate standpoint, the Northeast is less suited to the large-scale production of grain.) And in a similar vein, there are certain foods we enjoy that can only be grown in lands or climates that may be distant relative to where we consume the foods; as my interlocutor so wittily put it in response to my first assertion, "I've been disappointed with the quality of the coffee and oranges grown around Chicago." So on the whole, I'd have to conclude that the benefits of "eating globally" far outweigh the costs. But there are areas -- produce in general is one -- where preferring local products makes some sense, at least from a quality standpoint, and it's not a bad idea at all to identify ways to reduce the costs associated with a global, industrial-scale food production and distribution system.

German soul food...what a concept! And I see the lettering is red, black and green. Was the owner channeling Angela Davis or something? Anyway, belated greetings and have a couple for me, 'cause I'm watching how much alcohol I consume.

Hmmmm. Now that you mention this: I wonder whether the "overwhelming preference for Herr's" I mentioned in my foodblog might not be because they have a hammerlock on the convenience-store distribution channels in this area? I'm fortunate enough to live just down the block from a convenience store that does carry Utz. Certainly when there's a special on Utz chips at either of the supermarkets I shop, they can't keep 'em on the shelves. you know what utz makes in a blue bag that rocks? 'carolina bbq' flavor. one of my favorite flavored chips. i love utz. they're my favorite (non lard) chips. ← Second your overall opinion of Utz, James, and of the Carolina Bar-B-Q chips with their vinegary kick. A bonus for those watching their sodium intake: Utz regular chips are pretty low in sodium -- 95 mg per one-ounce serving, the same as for Herr's "Lightly Salted" and lower than any other major brand's regular chips. (No need to reprise the bit of false modesty that is the statement on the back of the bag explaining why their chips are so low in sodium.)

Some peoples just ain't got no taste, Mike.

Actually, I'm not sure I need to visit Assi Plaza, depending on the answer to the following question: When you shopped for Asian groceries in Philly, did you shop in Chinatown or on Washington Avenue? Hung Vuong is on Washington Avenue -- one of three Asian supermarkets along this wide thoroughfare. Each is about the size of a 1950s city supermarket. And as I suggested above, they have lots of items -- deeper rather than broader, but a good selection nonetheless. I suspect that Assi Plaza and Hung Vuong might be comparable.

One of our fellow PhillieGulleteers had sought to start a discussion about locally produced potato chips by referencing three brands that you can find in many convenience stores in certain parts of Philadelphia: "Homegirls," "Chumpies" and "Rap Stars." The first two brands feature packaging that depicts young African-American girls (on Homegirls) and boys (on Chumpies) in current street fashions. On the back of the bags are printed messages aimed at promoting responsible behavior and positive attitudes. I don't know what's on the back of the Rap Stars bags, as I've never seen them up close and personal. The poster also stated that s/he liked Herr's and Snyder's of Hanover chips as well. In response to the initial call for discussion, I had posted the following: "My recollection about the varieties you display here is that they're as much about marketing as they are about flavor. "Chumpies and Homegirls have been around for some time now. I have this vague recollection that the Inquirer's Business section ran a feature on the fellow who came up with these lines back when they were first launched, and that one of the things he wanted to do with these brands was send positive messages to inner-city African-American youth. (And sure enough, I see you had highlighted the positive messages on the back of the Homegirls bag.) "Though, to be fair, they do produce some really distinctive flavors, and have from the git-go. Those "Hot Honey BBQ" Chumpies chips are an example. I believe that Chumpies also had a jalapeno chip before jalapeno became all the rage as a chip flavor. "But I don't think that the guy who owns the company that produces these lines makes the chips directly. I think he contracts with an established chip maker. "As for Herr's, I refer you to the aside I put in my second foodblog about how the overwhelming local preference for Herr's mystifies me when Utz chips are also made right around here (Hanover is close enough, folks; that's where Snyder's is from, after all). "There are some other, smaller regional brands (as the #4 selling brand in the country, I don't think we can call Utz "small" any more) that I recall make kickin' chips. Maybe mrbigjas can help jog my memory." So now I'm throwing this back to you all to chew over, perhaps with some onion dip. Edited to fix style.

With this kind of feedback, why wouldn't you? As it seems that the Food Network has an inexplicable affinity for my original hometown, I imagine that it's only a matter of time before you do a Kansas City episode.

To answer your original question......The place rocks, its the Sagami of Korean food. They have lots besides soft tofu, short ribs rice bowls ect ect.......and dirt cheap. ← Speaking of tofu: On Tuesday night, I was roused from my routine around 11 p.m. by Greg Ling and a bunch of his culinary-professional friends and hustled up to a Korean barbecue restaurant and karaoke club called Music Town, at Front and Godfrey in Olney. Among the many wonderful dishes I ate on this late-night run--which also included Katie Loeb among the guests--was a platter consisting of firm tofu and kimchi. The tofu and the kimchi harmonized beautifully, offering yet another example of how racheld was right when she said in her foodblog that "tofu is like a teenager in search of a peer group -- it takes on the persona of its surroundings." The tofu was also milder than the varieties I'm used to buying. I didn't think that it was possible to have variations in something that pretty much has no taste of its own, but apparently that's not the case. For this, I gladly belted out tunes from a songbook appallingly lacking in Motown and classic R&B.

Sounds like you encountered an example of the South Philly Pathmark Syndrome. I've shopped at both Hung Vuong (11th and Washington) and the H-Mart at 7050 Terminal Square (on my way home if I take the 109 bus all the way to 69th Street). I would not use the blanket characterization you used above to describe Hung Vuong; however, I would note that, while H-Mart is very ecumenical in its variety of Asian foodstuffs--while Korean foods may have pride of place, befitting the chain's owners, they stock a wide variety of Japanese, Chinese and Southeast Asian products too--Hung Vuong offers a much deeper selection of a more geographically specific selection of products, with Chinese and Southeast Asian items overwhelmingly dominant. (I note many varieites of sauces produced in Malaysia, for instance, on the shelves of Hung Vuong. I haven't seen any yet at H-Mart, and I suspect that what the do carry is more limited in scope than what Hung Vuong has because H-Mart wants to make room for the rest of East Asia as well on its shelves.) Which brings me to why I refer to this as "South Philly Pathmark Syndrome." One time, in order to stock up on huge quantities of ground beef at an incredibly low price for an upcoming cookout, I hopped on the 47 bus and rode all the way down to the Pathmark in Whitman Plaza at 3d and Oregon. I immediately noticed two things about this supermarket relative to the Super Fresh at 10th and South: --The store was about three times the size of the Super Fresh; --The variety of products on the shelves was about half that of the Super Fresh. Space that might have been devoted to more brands, product categories or variety within product lines was instead devoted to a wider range of sizes of a more limited variety of products. Supermarkets, catering as they do usually to a localized customer base, tend to reflect their trading areas in what you see on the shelves. Asian supermarkets may draw customers from a wider geographic territory because they specialize in products that appeal to a highly defined clientele that is dispersed over a wider area, but even there, differences in composition of the customer base matter. H-Mart also carries standard American products that you will never see at Hung Vuong because its owners have deliberately decided to go after a multicultural customer base, which probably also helps explain the wider geographical variety of foods you will find there.

how about that--i didn't know that. i'm there all the time (it's on my way home from work) and will ask if i can remember to do so. i have lots of speculations about the state of dibrunos, but since they're only based on my observations, i'm hesitant to post them. ← Your observations are what they are, and you really shouldn't hesitate to share them for fear that they might not jibe with majority sentiment on this board. Obviously, DiBruno's is doing lots of things right when it comes to offering specialty grocery items, and that Specialty Food Retailer of the Year award the store won this year should serve as proof of that. But that doesn't mean that everyone will have the same opinion about what they're doing. Recall that my post that started this thread was at once an acknowledgement that the original 9th Street store had dramatically improved the quality of the cheeses it offered and a lament over the disappearance of the bargain-hunter's-paradise aspect of the operation. Lisa, in her initial response, offered a good explanation of why those days of cheese bargains were gone for good, and I'm sure she's big enough to take--and even respond to--any critical comments you may have about the place.

Nice way to get in the hands -- and you didn't even have to make meatloaf to do it! I have absolutely enjoyed your warm, wonderful, well-written blog. If my blogs are the Convention and Visitors Bureau crossed with the Chamber of Commerce, singing the praises of the places I love, yours are the Welcome Wagon, the kind neighbor who invites you to the neighborhood, shares stories and fond memories with you, and invites you over for a delicious dinner and a little tea afterwards. Should I ever again contemplate driving back to my actual hometown from my adopted one, I will make sure to stop off at some of the places you've highlighted off I-465 to sample their wares. Keep the prose and poetry flowing as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you ever so much.

Sounds like... Tofutti? ← Worse. "Polynesian Meatlike Balls" made from tofu. Wrong in so many ways, I couldn't begin to list them.

The pleasure, dear Rachel, is ours entirely. Oh, I do now. How could I not help but be convinced by this charming tale and lovely poem? And the illustrations are just as beautiful. I assume this has been published? If it hasn't, what are you waiting for?