MarketStEl
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I worry about equating food with love. It's led to many an eating disorder. "I worked hard all day and I brought you this food and you must eat it!". Oy. No thanks. My kids graze on fresh veggies and fruit and yoghurt and nuts, free range. Those are available to them if whatever I've cooked is not to their taste. I hope I can inspire good eating habits in my kids, not anxiety and pressure, which is what *I* feel when people get emotionally wrapped up in what they are presenting.
Preparing a tasty meal for one you love is an act of love. I can recall my partner saying to me one morning many years ago, "Every time I get up and see you packing lunches for work, I know you love me." I pack only my own lunch in the morning now, though I did put some of the deviled eggs I made for Easter dinner in a container for him to take to work this morning. This dealing-with-a-dying-relationship stuff is tricky.
I would never presume to guilt-trip anyone into eating food I cooked in that melodramatic fashion. I have no problem drilling the notion that leftovers are perfectly fine to eat into my roomate's brain, however, and I think it may be slowly taking.
Cooking for others is also a form of performance, at least when guests are involved, and I love applause.
I'm very territorial in my kitchen, however, and am glad we have a dishwasher.
As for kids, you do try to get them to eat a balanced diet, right? I would hope you would encourage them to try unfamiliar foods and develop adventurous palates.
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Beijing is changing SO quickly - I've been coming here on and off for about ten years. Shanghai too! It's really crazy here, but really enjoyable. Everything is a bit of a challenge - but exciting!
Please show us some of those signs of change about you in Beijing as you take us on your cook's tour. I suspect that many of us following along will not have the occasion to see the changes up close and personal-like soon, Olympics or no.
But if your opening photo is any guide, this will be a most delicious trip!
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Fantastic blog, Linda! Love your form-follows-function style and approach to life.
Of course, Ernie wants fruitcake, too. Notice that he is stepping over a slice of apple to get to it.
Now I know where to send the next fruitcake someone gives me at Christmastime.
Your tale of how Ernie says goodnight to you is touching. It won't make me run out and sign up for PETA, but it does demonstrate yet again that we underestimate the animals we share this planet with.
I'll see what I can find out and report back on the Shank's sandwich.
Do it on a Saturday afternoon and I may join you, with a granny cart or perhaps another PGMC member in tow.
Shank's and Evelyn's is another Philadelphia Sandwich Legend in a legendary sandwich town.
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Okay, Linda, here's one more Philadelphian you need to look up the next time you drive down to catch a blockbuster exhibit at the PMA. Here you were, tromping through my stomping grounds, and you didn't even say hello! Look me up when you're next in town and I'll show you a wonderful cafe at the 9th Street market's south end that's a little piece of the French Riviera plopped down in South Philly. As I trust you've picked up from Mr. Moore, Ms. Loeb and my own foodblogs, this is a great city for food lovers. As the editor of Food & Wine discovered, the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.
However: I gotta complain about your fellow New Yorkers coming down here in search of bargains and driving up the house prices to crazy expensive levels.
It's not clear to me whether you have forsworn all meat or only certain types. The ground beef I understand, but if others, on what grounds, and if not all meat, why not all meat? (FTR, I remain a carnivore but toss in tofu every now and then.)
Loved the Girl Scout Cookie tasting! It was interesting -- and amusing -- to read an educated palate concerning baked goods pass judgment on these all-American staples.
BTW, I think the differing names for the same cookies emerged when Burry Baking Company (now part of French biscuit maker Lefevre-Utile [LU]) lost the exclusive nationwide contract to produce cookies for the Girl Scouts. There are IIRC three different companies now that can bake Girl Scout Cookies, and while all produce Thin Mints and the shortbread and peanut butter cookies, I think there are some varieties that are baked by one or two of the bakers but not by the others.
Historical trivia: The Girl Scouts' annual cookie sale originated in Philadelphia in the 1930s. There's a state historical marker somewhere in Center City (I want to say near the Municipal Services Building across from City Hall but am not sure) commemorating the first cookie sale.
Finally: Where are the fridges? Did I miss them as I scanned the pictures?
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Everything combined, Dock Street is a place that definitely has a "there" to it. IMO as brewpubs go, it's definitely world class.
That's pretty high praise, coming as it does from you.
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So I admit to being attracted to a guy who likes to cook. Question is (for me at least), do they think the same about women? and I hope it's not inappropriate to point out that the conversation thus far seems skewed towards male-female dynamics--what's the deal in the gay and lesbian community?
I wouldn't even presume to answer for lesbians, though the lesbian potluck is something of a cliche, but it does seem to me that among many gay men -- despite what I said above -- there is a sort of division of labor in which one half of the couple does most of the cooking. (I haven't figured out yet how the cleaning is handled. Given another cliche -- that of the gay male couple with lots of disposable income, which gets poured into a fabulous condo or house with kitchen to match -- the answer among that subset of gay men, a smaller subset than many might think, may well be Merry Maids. The instances I've run across of gay male couples caught in the act of cleaning do suggest to me that the split-down-the-middle idea may actually be followed.)
Now, I'm sure that someone, somewhere, may have actually fixed dinner the way the couple portrayed in this groundbreaking 1994 TV ad for the Danish newspaper Politiken did, but I suspect no one was around to capture it on video. I do know that cooking can be a more participatory activity among gay men, given several men with an interest in or passion for cooking and a kitchen that can handle the crowd. (You may recall something like this happening in my second foodblog when a friend came down to my apartment to fix me dinner for my birthday.) There are certainly no issues of gender stereotyping that have to be gotten out of the way.
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Haven't been hanging around the foodblogs lately -- I've been busy penning the occasional essay and singing in front of audiences while holding down the usual job and arguments -- and I see I completely missed a good one from the Far East. I'm glad I caught this one at the beginning, and am looking forward to hearing a voice new to me, as I don't frequent the baking forums on eG at all.
Of course, we are going to see the inside of the Irish police bar, right? You mean to tell me cops in Brooklyn don't go for donut shops?
What Brooklyn neighborhood do you live in exactly? I trust we'll get a tour later in the week?
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Except at Salumeria, where they have a very good sauce of their own making. Said sauce, however, is mayo-based, so I'm not sure I'd sign on to this particular purist distinction even if I didn't request mustard.
You sure about being mayo-based, Sandy? I always thought the house dressing was a vinaigrette-based concoction. I'll ask next time I'm there.
I wouldn't stake my life on this, but I swear I saw the sauce being applied with a spreader.
I don't think you'd need one of those to apply a vinaigrette sauce -- that would require the same sorts of bottles most places use to hold the oil and vinegar.
A spreader would be needed for a thicker sauce, such as one based on an emulsified sauce like mayonnaise. There are, however, creamy salad dressings that are basically oil, vinegar and some emulsifier, and those can also be spread instead of shaken or poured, so you may still be right.
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This looks like:
--an opportunity to broaden my cultural horizons,
--an excuse to ride the 15 trolley, which I haven't had since it went into service.
So I finally got around to fulfilling this desire on Saturday. I had planned to go on Friday, after the funeral of a dear friend, but I got sidetracked. Unfortunately, what I feared was the case was the case: SEPTA runs buses on Route 15 on the weekends.
But the point was to get there. I rode past Krakus Market, which I will save for my next trip, which will be much sooner than I would have imagined, because:
There's also a kielbasa factory up there where one can purchase freshly smoked sausages. Anyone remember the name and address for that? I've always wanted to check that place out...Czerw's Kielbasy (pronounced "Crews," as close as I can tell)
3370 Tilton Street (one block north of Westmoreland)
215-423-1707
Tuesday-Thursday 8 am-4 pm; Friday 7 am-5 pm; Saturday 7 am-2 pm
Nearest SEPTA service: Trolley Route 15 (Haddington to Port Richmond via Girard Avenue and Richmond Street) or Bus Route 60 (East Falls to Port Richmond via Allegheny Avenue) -- both routes connect with both the Market-Frankford Line and Broad Street Line at Girard and Allegheny stations on each, respectively -- to the end of the line at Richmond and Westmoreland streets. Turn left on Westmoreland, then right at the next corner, which is Tilton. Czerw's is on the left almost all the way to the end of the block.
You. Must. Go. There.
The kielbasa is that good, and it comes both fresh and smoked, in several varieties. They were out of the regular kielbasa when I went, so I took home some of just about every other smoked variety they had: a pound of the Cajun smoked kielbasa, a pound of the smoked turkey kielbasa, a half pound of the "Hotter than Hell" smoked hot sausage, a half pound of kabanosa to snack on (which I polished off on the walk back to the bus loop from the store), and -- on the recommendation of a friend who gave me a lift back from the funeral -- a pound of their pork breakfast sausage. The turkey kielbasa was not as firm as I'm used to, but it would be hard to tell it apart from the traditional beef-and-pork variety, and the smoked hot sausage lives up to its billing.
If the kielbasa is better than anything you've had so far, which it is, the breakfast sausage is better than any pork breakfast sausage you are likely to get anywhere else in the future--fresh and flavorful with a hint of sage. Bob Evans, eat your heart out; step to the end of the line, Jimmy Dean. After eating this, I don't even want more Parks' sausages, Mom. Now the only thing they need to do is come out with a spicy version of this, and I'd be in Sunday breakfast Heaven.
They're happy to give out samples too.
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Is it a hoagie if you use mayo, and not oil/vinegar? I say not--it's a sandwich on a hoagie roll.
Well, then.
What would you say about the only person in the entire Philadelphia metropolitan area who always asks for mustard as well as mayo on his hoagies?
Except at Salumeria, where they have a very good sauce of their own making. Said sauce, however, is mayo-based, so I'm not sure I'd sign on to this particular purist distinction even if I didn't request mustard.
--Sandy, whose last excursion to Salumeria was an unfortunate bad hoagie trip
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Went out there for a Phillyblog Happy Hour back in the fall; we got a tour of the brewery courtesy owner Rosemarie Certo, who I met and interviewed when she was running Pizza Rustica on the street floor of the building where I worked at Penn. (I forgot to take my camera to that event, and I see from a post on the Sweet Lucy's thread that I never managed to post pix from that trip either. I'm getting sloppy in my old age...)
My friend Vince liked the pizza on his recent visit too.
I rated the pies 15-milers; he agreed.
The place is 100% University City; it wouldn't work anywhere else around here. But it works just fine where it is in Cedar Park.
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College Avenue where?
If we knew where this place was, we might eat there.
All I can say is that it's not Yardley; I know what's on College Avenue here.
--Sandy, whose office halfway up the hill is 19 West College Avenue
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Uh-oh.
They're getting wise in the hinterlands.
After this, the deluge.
Worse still, they'll all be asking where the nearest "sub shop" is.
Psst, Tim: There are NO "sub shops" in Philadelphia or environs. Maybe in Slower Delaware, where Washingtonians can be spotted summering alongside Gayborhooders in Rehoboth, but not on this side of the C&D Canal.
In any event, brace yourselves, folks. Go to DiNic's or Tony Luke's now, while there's still room.
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Sour cream:
Given the non-ordinariness of everything else you caught on camera in this photo essay, those containers of Daisy Brand in this photo stick out like a sore thumb.
But: "Kanadskaya" sour cream?
Russian-style sour cream from Canada, I assume?
How does the Russian variety differ from what I find at the local Akame?
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Thanks, Diva, for tipping me off to this and reminding me yet again why about the only things I watch on the Food Network are Iron Chef America and Good Eats -- if I remember to do so. I've probably watched more food-related programming on The History Channel in the past three months. However...
It's really part of a phenomenon often referred to as "the new Black minstrel show" where today some Black athletes, entertainers, and in this case, hosts of a cooking show are willing to do anything to be on tv or get paid. That it may reflect poorly on all Black people is of little consequence them. How refreshing and dignified it would have been if they had just said no thanks.I was wondering when you were going to invoke Bamboozled.
Funny, though: I hadn't considered Paula Deen a caricature of a Southerner. Maybe I couldn't recognize the exaggerations beyond the accent.
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I think all of you know my connections and affiliations, especially my support for and fondness of the Market's current General Manager.
That said, I think Holly may have a point: The Market management has made its point, and even Rick understands now, or so I hope, so what is gained by continuing this?
As far as landlord-tenant law -- or what I understand of it -- is concerned, I see no way Rick could win his case in court. A landlord pretty much has the right to do as he pleases with his property. If a landlord decides not to renew a tenant's lease because he woke up and had a bad hair day, the tenant has little recourse unless he can prove that the landlord failed to provide those things the law says he must.
Most landlords, of course, don't behave so capriciously. Something obviously led the management to conclude that the Market would run better without Rick there than with him. But even though it would have been more honest for them to have said this, what sort of public reaction do you think a Market spokesman would have gotten by saying "We're getting rid of a royal PITA so this Market we all love can run more harmoniously in the future"? (I know that some months ago, I said that this is exactly what RTM management should have said. It still is. But can you deny that it would have also played out negatively?)
And so we come to this untenable pass for both parties. The problem with the simple solution is that in a power struggle, it can be read as a sign of weakness -- a troublesome person can still get what he wants by holding out until the other side caves. And I will wager that some on the Market board see things exactly this way, though I cannot prove that anyone does. But until that person can be persuaded that holding firm will do more long-term damage to the Market than giving in, things will remain headed on their current course, and the Market management may well win the battle and lose the war.
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If you want to have good brews and good pub fare one last time here, have one of those meals at the Grey Lodge in almost-Mayfair. I recommend the mussels in curry sauce, but just about everything on this pub's menu is first-rate and a great value for the price. Tell Scoats (the owner) I sent you if you go; he knows me from Phillyblog, here, and a few f2f encounters at the pub and at Mozaic in Frankford.
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Funny I didn't spy you at the Souper Bowl, Bob -- I happened upon it just as the winners were being announced. I did say hi to Paul and Laura (I had applied for an editorial position at Where a couple of years back). Paul had mentioned this event to me the last time our paths crossed, but I had done a mental F&F on it.
Unfortunately, only about half the soups were still available by the time I got there, the snapper not among them. But the bisque was delish, and I also enjoyed Herschel's matzo ball soup.
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I dunno...in the United States at least, beef may be "what's for dinner", but in the realm of politics and household economics, pork is indeed the default meat.
In the former, pork is what you want your own Congresscritter to deliver to your district or pet cause and at the same time what the Congresscritter the next district over wastes your tax dollars on. In the latter, it's what the breadwinner brings home -- okay, I'm talkin' bacon here specifically, but that's pork all the same.
But at the dinner table, bless our omnivorous souls, all meat is created equal -- but everything tastes better with bacon.
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Fun? You wouldn't say that if you ever had sausage that looked like this:
That isn't what the English call...?
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Glad to see that in the domestic sphere (as opposed to the professional, where men have called the shots for years and still do more than women do), we all now agree that Real Men Cook.
But I thought the point of feminism was to eliminate the idea that certain functions, roles, or what-have-you are inherently male and certain others inherently female. Human beings being the creatures we are, we often correct imbalances by heading to the opposite extreme, and thus it was that some women took the stance that it was somehow wrong for women to enjoy any of the activities that had been traditionally considered feminine.
Now that we've pretty much gotten over all that, we can restore balance by allowing women and men to pursue whatever activities they enjoy. If one is a woman and that activity happens to be cooking, more power to her. And I can't imagine anyone enjoying domestic chores, so that issue should be moot -- and split down the middle in a heterosexual couple.
Edited because I guess I should share my own personal background: Both my parents, and both my grandparents, worked; I think you might find that black families by and large never really did fit the 1950s mold the feminists railed against. (In more than a few cases, that was because one of them -- like my grandfather -- worked as domestic help for a well-off white family -- maybe the parents or grandparents of some of you reading this, if you are white.) Grandma Smith cooked -- as did Dad. I take after my father, not my mother, in that regard -- though after the divorce, Mom did occasionally prepare big Sunday brunches and cook for guests.
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Wonder whether this is a special event or a trial balloon?
The RTM will be staying open one hour later every day during the Flower Show.
You cannot imagine how glad I am to hear this. Nothing could be more convenient than hopping off the R3, heading upstairs, and buying that evening's meal on the way home.
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I must keep better track of my calendar and my finances.
I had planned on participating, and this fell right off my radar screen.
Phillyblog Happy Hours I make almost religiously. DDC dinners I have yet to enjoy.
Should have made this one of my culinary New Year's resolutions for 2008.
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I've noticed of late that I'm better able to pick out fruity notes in various coffees since I went from drinking one or two cups a day to nearly mainlining the stuff. I now understand why people prize Hawaiian Kona, Kenya AA and Jamaica Blue Mountain beans so much.
As for the person who didn't see the point about "trying something that made you throw up ten times before": I will grant that there are probably people out there who can't -- or perhaps more accurately, won't -- acquire a taste for things no matter how much they try (I think either Fabby's hubby or a participant on the Cheese thread has this problem with blue-veined cheeses), but the point was that in most cases, after the third or fourth try, you will stop throwing up, and by the tenth, you will find it palatable and maybe even enjoy it.
I refused to eat beets for years until I had pickled beets once. Now they're part of my menu rotation, albeit not a frequent part.
I still refuse to eat turnips or chitlins. In the case of the latter, I just can't get past the smell of them cooking. I suspect that somewhere out there, though, is a turnip recipe with my name on it.
Just about everything else I'll eat, most of it gladly, even German food.
Edited to add: One thing probably hinders me from being able to develop my palate fully for things like wine: My sense of smell is dull for some reason.
eG Foodblog: fengyi - Win(e)ing and Dining in Beijing
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
I think that's the first time I've seen raw sliced duck breast! That meat makes old-fashioned pork look lean.
Now I see why some people complain that duck tastes greasy.