MarketStEl

As if I needed another excuse to drop coin on food. Guess I'll just go barefoot this winter.

Jeez, even the Russian cities are referred to with diminuitives? ← I'm sorry, is this rude to do? When we were there the locals referred to the city as Peter so I thought it was common??? I certainly didn't mean to offend. ← Sorry, I should have added a wink to my post. Alinka was commenting upthread on the widespread use of diminuitives in Russian, and I noticed your use of the word Russians themselves use to refer to the city I grew up calling Leningrad. Nice of them to give it back its original name.

I will note here that Kansas City sauces are sweeter than the other types listed here, but the Kansas City sauces found on supermarket shelves outside the area are sweeter by far than the most popular sauces in Kansas City itself. KC Masterpiece--the first Kansas City-style sauce that achieved nationwide distribution*--seems to have set the bar very high on the sweetness scale, and other national producers of Kansas City-style sauce have followed its lead. The sauces I brought back from my most recent visit--Gates', a longtime favorite whose recipe I posted to RecipeGullet, Cowtown and Fiorella's Jack Stack--are more pungent and smokier than KC Masterpiece. Edited to add: Come to think of it, I think the true signal of the co-opting of Kansas City-style barbecue sauce by the sugar lobby was that Gates' now produces a "Sweet & Mild" barbecue sauce, which I purchased when last in town but have not yet tasted. Gates' has traditionally been among the spicier KC sauces, even in its "Original Classic" version, which the recipe I posted on eGullet approximates. I prefer Extra Hot myself. *Actually, most of the major national brands are closer to Kansas City or Texas style than they are to any other, and some KC sauces would not be out of place at all at a Texas BBQ and vice versa.

Looks like the outline didn't make it: this is a bulletin board rather than an e-mail listserv, and it's not possible to post "attachments" on bulletin boards. That said, it seems to me that the dominant flavor profiles in most good barbecue sauces are sour and sweet, followed by unami, with saltiness and especially bitterness taking a back seat to the first three. Heat or "spiciness" can vary, though once again, most of the good sauces have a touch of it at least--certainly more than is found in most of the major supermarket brands, all of which have sweetness as the dominant note, sometimes overwhelmingly so. I think this has more than a little to do with the most popular sauce bases: tomatoes, vinegar and (in a certain region of North Carolina) mustard. Vinegar, of course, is sour at its base, though some varieties (apple cider, rice, balsamic) add sweetness to the mix. The few vinegar-based sauces I've had are a little more pungent and fiery than the tomato-based sauces (I've yet to try a mustard-based sauce); in these cases, it was probably because hot sauce was another major ingredient. Tomatoes are acidic like vinegar but sweeter, and tomato-based sauces do incorporate salt to balance out that sweetness. Then most of them add sweetness of a different kind through the use of sugar, molasses or brown sugar, which is a mix of refined white sugar and molasses. Tomato-based sauces should also have a noticeable sour element through the use of vinegar or lemon juice, and the really good ones will have a touch of heat from ground peppers of varying types (not from hot sauce). Ultimately, the sauce and the meat should complement each other. Sweeter sauces can go well with some meats, but on the whole, I find sweet sauces somewhat overwhelming compared to the more balanced types. IMO, a really good sauce will have a hint of sweetness but not too much; a balance of savory, sour and salty; and not much bitterness at all. It should have at least a smidgen of heat as well, or maybe more.

Jeez, even the Russian cities are referred to with diminuitives?

Okay--such feedback as I've gotten seems to still run in favor of doing this on a weeknight this time, but I see that the Tuesday evening I proposed conflicts with this month's DDC outing. Therefore, I'm going to suggest we do it on Thursday, Aug. 17. Let me know via PM or e-mail if this works for you, and if I get enough positive responses, I will have this posted on the calendar. And this time, should people find they can't make it after all, I'd like to know the day before so I don't wind up having people show up for an event that was cancelled on the day of the trek.

I think he meant that you could get a case of beer from a distributor for a little more than he paid for that six-pack, which is correct. Bella Vista Beer, the closest good distributor to me, sells most of its good microbrews for $24-$28 a case. But his point holds: if you want to experiment with new varieties, the Foodery's build-your-own-sixpack option is the way to go. If Pennsylvania had a more rational system of selling alcoholic beverages, there's a good chance that the Foodery's six-packs wouldn't cost so much. But it doesn't, so we take what we can get. And we can't get better than this.

That was my guess, too! I hope it is - her photos are sooooo beautiful. ← She's off to a great start, isn't she, with that gorgeous bowl of borscht?

I never learned Russian, but I did subscribe to Soviet Life when I was in high school, and I did learn what the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet were through collecting Soviet postage stamps, among others, at about the same time. I'm guessing that the menu you shot at that McDonald's was their "Happy Meals" based on that limited knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet. (Looks like an attempt to transliterate the English words into Russian.) That borscht looked fabulous!

What's the difference between a university and a college in Canadian English? ← University would be where you go to geta Bachelors or Masters or Phd. College is where you go to become a plumber, early childhood educator, accountant, Chef. One is much more academic and the other provides a lot of hands on training. I did my training to be a chef and a Food service supervisor at a College. My Husband is taking Accounting at the College here in town. College is also about half the price! ← Translating this into American: A Canadian "College" combines what Americans would call a "trade school" and a "community college" (formerly "junior college"). The latter is also a place where someone who wants to go on to "university" but needs to bone up on the basics can do remedial and introductory-level work before getting the four-year degree. In a number of fields (nursing, hospitality management, corporate training), community colleges have supplanted trade schools as the training site of choice. Canadian "universities" are like their American counterparts, but there appears to be no Canadian equivalent to the American "college"--an institution that is academic in nature but offers only four-year undergraduate degrees. As with Canadian bacon, apparently, there are slight differences between the American and Canadian versions of the same thing. (Actually, one of the major meat packers in the Philadelphia area now calls its product "Canadian Brand Ham".) Sorry to hijack this blog with trivia, but I can't help myself. That 'cuefest looked mighty good, even though Tony Roma was part of the action. Thanks for both of your efforts this week--they were mighty enjoyable!

Now this sounds like a real treat--a (sort-of-)insider's guide to Moscow! I'd like to hear from you just how the city has changed in the decade or so since you last lived there. I'm sure the experience of shopping for food has changed dramatically from what it was like in Soviet days, and I'd like to see and hear how. How is food produced and distributed now that the days of the collective farm are past? What's gotten better, and what (if anything) has gotten worse? And what does the menu at the local McDonald's look like? Also, you must do us weary Stateside commuters a favor and post one photo of the interior of a Moscow Metro station. The more ornate, the better. You got the kitchen shot out of the way quickly, but what's inside that fridge?

Thank you for putting everything in proper perspective, Holly. This discussion was getting just a little queer.

Guess I'll play too, although my photographic talents are a good bit short of the rest of yours, judging from what I see here: Good for college dorm rooms, newsrooms and call centers!

That thread comes from the Pennsylvania forum. It's a Center City Philadelphia restaurant we're talking about. Pace what the editors of Philadelphia Style think, this is not a city that goes for showiness for showiness' sake or places where how you look determines how worthy you are (aside from the usual dress codes for certain places). There was something about the tone of that announcement that was, well, un-Philadelphian. Especially the open solicitation of Beautiful People on philadelphia.craigslist.org. Oh, I'm sure it's happened before, but not so visibly. Given the speculation about what restaurant issued the call, they'd have to attract money--the rest of us could only afford to eat there on special occasions.

I'd meant to say something about London after seeing the view from your balcony, Pookie. For a city of only 350,000, it seems to have a lot of high-rise apartments. Is it particularly compact or dense?

Well, there's a package with Cyrillic lettering in one of the pictures, so I'm going to guess Russia for starters...

Unfortunately (so to speak), all they were passing around by the time I got there was the pizza. Well, I did have one of the potato chips, but I missed everything else. No matter. I did catch up with Katie and her friend. The crowd at Davio's is the preppiest I've run across in quite some time. Lotsa WASPs buzzing about the place.

OK, I'm confused here. It looks like the current contest is a recycling of a golden oldie. What is the current competition and when is the deadline?

The owner of Geno's wears his sentiments on his sleeve, no doubt about that, but I have it on good authority (including a successful publicity stunt) that the order-in-English admonition is not enforced. FWIW, Mumia Abu-Jamal has not yet been executed, and there are better cheesesteaks in town anyway.

Okay, folks, ignore that last post. As of now (1 p.m. ET, 8-3-06), some of the people who tentatively signed up have told me they can't make it tonight. That leaves me with three confirmed participants--not enough, IMO, to justify having this event tonight. Looks like weeknights are harder to schedule than we thought! In any event, this means rescheduling this tour date. How do you all feel about any of the following dates? --Saturday, Aug. 12 --Sunday, Aug. 13 --Tuesday, Aug. 15

Great article. Given how the folks at Mars have promoted Snickers from time to time, I found his comment suggesting that Snickers was an energy bar quite apropos. (Right now, SEPTA buses are zipping across Philly with big brown ads on their sides bearing familiar-looking white trapezoidal shapes on them. Inside the trapezoids are nonce words: "Peanutopolis," "Nougaticity," "Hungerectomy," "Satisfectellent." Looks to me like variations on a long-running theme.) --Sandy, not going anywhere for a while

Korean barbecue? Karaoke? Can I tag along? --Sandy, Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus second tenor, was with Katie and Holly for that trip to Porky & Porkie

Gawd, Boston/Philly comparisons again! Not to feed our inferiority complex further, but I see your staff posted photos of the Boston swing but none of Philly. Katie: There is no appropriate dress for this weather. Not even a towel, except to wipe the sweat off your body.

Aw, shoot! Wasn't thinking last Saturday when I stopped into Ricci's for an old fashioned Italian hoagie. I think that was the sandwich that was compared to a muffaletta on another thread. If it wasn't, it was damn good anyway. Thick chunks of fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, sopressata, roasted peppers, plus the other accoutrements. The mozz slid out from in between the meats a little too easily, but otherwise, this was a wonderful sandwich. I got a late lunch Saturday (followed by cheesesteaks at Steve's that night!) and lunch Monday out of it. Equally mind-blowing IMO was the menu from 1954 on the front wall of the place. 75c bought a lot in those days! Of course, back then, $10,000 a year also put you on Easy Street or pretty close to it.

I think it is fair to say, as you suggested, that the LCBO was set up to control alchohol consumption, and prevent it from being freely available. Every few years the discussion comes up about selling off the LCBO and going to a system more like the states, where liquor can be bought in grocery stores, etc, but it's a huge money maker for the province and they aren't about to give it up without a fight. They have made concessions, like being open more reasonable hours, to counteract the arguments that their monopoly is unreasonable. Unfriendly and depressing? Oh yeah!!! When I was a teenager, you went into the store, looked at the empty bottles on the wall, figured out the number on the item, put it on a order form, handed it to the guy behind the counter and waited for them to bring out your bottle. It's taken me years to get over the feeling that I am somehow criminal if I want to buy a bottle. I recall how thrilling it was the first time I went into a self serve LCBO. The sheer number of bottles of Baby Duck and Ruby Rouge was amazing. I remember as a child going to the states with my parent when dad wanted to buy nice bottles like Chateau d'Yquem and being amazed that stores had bottles out where you could see them, and you could go from store to store and 'shop' for liquor. ← My God, the LCBO and the PLCB (Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board) are spawn of the same demon seed! I wrote the following in my foodblog post describing the evolution of Pennsylvania's State Store system: I assume that "Baby Duck" and "Ruby Rouge" are analogous to "Wild Irish Rose" and "Mad Dog" (MD 20/20 from Mogen David) here in the States? (Wild Irish Rose and MD 20/20 are "fortified wines"--cheap wine with extra alcohol added. The only reason you drink this stuff is to get drunk as quickly as possible.)