MarketStEl

Quoting Charlie Brown: AAAAUUGGGGGHH!!! Hope y'all don't bail on me...

Obviously, they're a North Jersey thing, as I don't recall the phrase ever being uttered or printed in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and trust me, if anyone in South Jersey knew about it, we'd have heard about it on this side of the Delaware too. I note that Wikipedia is a bit puzzled over the origin of the name. So am I. It appears there is no legend or lore surrounding the creation of this dish the way there is its Canadian cousin, poutine. Might anyone know any source for creation legends concerning disco fries, and how they got their name?

This native Missourian gotta back you up on this, though, being a Missourian--and despite my mom's Jayhawk bona fides--the emotions are a little more mixed, though in my case they rarely go beyond annoyance whenever clueless Easterners make the wrong assumption about which Kansas City I grew up in. I have a very arch reply in such situations, with apologies to moosnsqrl and anyone else from Wyandotte County in advance: "If I were from Kansas City, Kansas, I would have said so." It does, however, have the saving grace of conforming to actual usage in the area. But the state has a rich and colorful history and played a key role in our nation's defining crisis. And the folks on the coasts, who know about it more from pictures of the Rev. Phelps than from the writings of William Least Heat-Moon, get a totally distorted picture of the place. --Sandy, who purchased but has yet to make it all the way through Jane Smiley's The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton

We have to set up a Delaware County stop on the Review Tour anyway, and right now, it consists of Peace a Pizza* and Teresa's Cafe, both in Wayne, and Apollo in Media. (The fourth Delco winner of a PhillyMag "Best Of" is Pizza Hut (1982), which Didn't Deserve the Honor to Begin With.) Since we'd have to caravan for this stop anyway, this might make a good addition to the itinerary. *As this is a regional chain, we run the risk of another Santucci experience if we visit one of their other locations (e.g., Olde Sproul Shopping Village in Springfield). Speaking of Santucci's, comments I've read on the city guide sites lead me to believe that the 4019 O Street location--which appears on neither Santucci Pizza Web site--may still be all that. As there's still a place we haven't hit in the Northeast yet, as well as non-winners that have come highly recommended, I'm willing to risk disappointment again to see if the comments are correct.

My mother (1929-1987; born Omaha, Neb.; raised in Horton, Kan.; KU BSN '54, MSN '70) had her own explanation for why Kansas is what it is: "Back when everyone headed for the West, you never heard anyone saying, 'Let's go to Kansas to make our fortune!' No--they were headed for Oregon, or California. "Kansas was where their wagons broke down en route." Given the state's motto (Ad Astra per Aspera--"To the Stars Through Difficulties"), I wonder whether there wasn't more than a little truth to her tale. Certainly the climate in much of the state is not conducive to growing a wide variety of foods; Northeast Kansas is the notable exception. And I don't believe that even the Kansa knew any ways to prepare prairie grass. But with bison catching on as a leaner alternative to beef, the opportunity arises for Kansans to get creative with what was once and may once again be a food source indigenous to the state.

I agree, but where to start for research?? Hey Truffle, could you ask the diner owner what the heck "disco fries" is about? There must be a reference we're missing... I thought about this for a minute and realized that the enlightenment we seek can probably be found right here... ...over in General Food Topics. My brain tells me the same thing. My right ankle, to name one body part, occasionally reminds me otherwise.

Okay, folks, a few of us over on the Pennsylvania board are scratching our heads over a dish we've never heard of before, and in our efforts to discover its origins, I realized there is probably no better source to turn to than the collective wisdom of eGulleteers everywhere. But especially those from northern New Jersey, for the dish in question appears to originate there. According to whitetrufflechick, who turned to the PhillieGulleteers for advice on where she could take her picky teenage daughter for lunch and dinner on a weekend swing through town, there is something on the menu of some Jersey diners known as "disco fries." She explained them in this post on the thread she started: If you're thinking, "This sounds like poutine," you're not alone--someone drew that parallel a few posts further down. Nonetheless, we are puzzled. Have you heard of disco fries? Have you eaten them? Who first sprung disco fries on an unsuspecting world, and when, and where? Would you eat them if they were served to you? How about in a wrap with mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers? <stocktext type="cliche"> Inquiring minds want to know. </stocktext>

I have a related question: Are there other processed cheese "spread" products out there? The yellow glop Aramark provides at Widener for cheese fries and similar items that call for cheese glop has a strange off-flavor that clashes with the vaguely Cheddarish taste of the sauce. I don't recall genuine Whiz having that flavor.

how can it be wrong when it feels so right? ← Wiseass! (I hope that was said with an appropriate deep baritone nod to Barry White :cue strings:) But seriously. Does three kinds of processed junk in one wrap sound right to you??? And we wonder why we're a nation that's morbidly obese... ← There's a discussion of "KFC Famous Bowls" currently going on in General Food Topics. You want a mélange of incompatible junk thrown together in one dish, this is the genuine article. Going back to whitetrufflechick's first comment, though, yeah, I have a hard time understanding the subtle sophistication and discriminating taste that deems cheese fries or nachos gross and not-quite-poutine okay. I think we need to see if we can discover the origin of "disco fries," though. Obviously it's kind of like hip-hop--something invented to throw us old fuddy-duddies off balance.

Getting one of these shirts would be a highlight of my LIFE. ← Those are sold at the Down Home Diner. They also have a T-shirt with a scrapple recipe on the front; the recipe contains no animal products or byproducts at all, and on the back, there's the legend "But where are the SCRAPS?" and an explanation why there aren't any.

At least you can take comfort knowing that members of the General Assembly weren't blowing your hard-earned money on lavish meals at fancy restaurants while conducting the people's business. If you were sending that money to Harrisburg instead, I could offer you no such assurances. (And if they weren't blowing it on lavish meals, the members of the Pennsylvania legislature could have just as easily dropped it on craptacular food at one of the innumerable chain eateries that surround the Pennsylvania capital, or lobbyist-sponsored family junkets to Hershey, about 45 minutes away.)

Yeah, Jan, we will have to check out that kielbasa pizza sometime soon. In the meantime, here's advance warning: Since I talked up this project to the owner last night, I think our next foray will have to include NYPD Pizza (2005 Philadelphia County winner and the second-best thin crust pizza I've had here, #1 being Tacconelli's). The owner, Guy Parente, told me he had no idea he had won a "Best of Philly"--or even what Philadelphia magazine was, as he is a recent transplant from Bensonhurst--until people started coming into his shop and saying, "You got the best pizza in Philly!" He said, "I'd say 'Thank you, I appreciate that.' I had no idea what they were talking about." Eventually, a customer clued him in. The award has been good for his business--it took off after the magazine hit the newsstands. (Edited to add: He had been in business for about six months when the winners were announced. The editors must have heard about the place from their friends.)

They have a restaurant in Jeff City now?

I don't associate Kansas with corn, either--and I grew up right next door! I also note that Kansas license plates have boasted bison, and the capital building in Topeka, and stalks of wheat--but no corn. Now the truth is, wheat is central and western Kansas. Eastern Kansas, especially the northeast, is corn. I find it more than a little amusing to read all these posts about the rising tide of ethnic eating in Wichita. Yes, it's the state's biggest city, but it's not the state's metropolis. That, unfortunately for both, it shares with next-door neighbor Missouri. (In his 1947 classic Inside U.S.A., in the chapter "On the Extreme Particularity of Kansas," John Guinther referred to Kansas City, Mo., as "the capital of a state in which it is not even located.") Kansas City, Kansas, had Mexican restaurants when I grew up on the other side of the state line--most of them in Argentine (there's the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe influence again: the district got its name and its ethnicity from all the Hispanics who settled there after they came up on the Santa Fe, having helped build it). And you could find a little Eastern European fare on Strawberry Hill, which has (or is it now had?) a Russian Orthodox church at its summit. As for bbqboy's assertion: I'm not completely convinced of this. Yes, the city-dwellers--at least those in my forever hometown--went to great lengths to downplay or even downright deny their cowtown roots, in part in a vain hope of gaining the favor of the snooty coastal denizens. (East Coast residents were the snootier, maybe because they knew little about the region, but you could find snooty Californians too, which is inexcusable, at least among Southern Californians, most of whom have relatives in the Midwest.) I was pleased to see that Kansas City had matured to the point where it could embrace that part of its history and heritage, BTW. But the small-town folk seemed proud of what they did. Except for their kids, who left as soon as they could.

Word salad with Klein bottled salad dressing.

I think this is also the first time I've run across parody (or was this full-on sarcasm?) in an eG foodblog. I think you posted the wrong photo by accident upthread.

Here's what was left of the raw milk Colby I was telling you about. I took this photo last night as I was surfing eG: About 25 minutes later, all traces of this cheese had disappeared. This Colby was softer and creamier than the pasteurized milk version and had a lot more character--a slight sharpness and tang I don't associate with this cheese. I picked it up at the seasonal farmers' market in Fitler Square one Friday when I happened past it. I'm going to have to make an effort to go there again to find out what area farm it comes from.

Usually, when newspapers run multiple letters to the editor on a single topic, the letters chosen are supposed to represent the distribution of opinions received on the subject. IOW, if it's an issue where there is a "pro" and a "con" position, and the paper receives three times as many letters from readers taking the "pro" side, then the ratio of "pro" to "con" letters that run should also be 3:1 if they run more than one or two letters. Based on that fact, I'd have to say that the responses that ran on today's editorial page to the article about waiting to dine at suburban restaurants are encouraging and disappointing at the same time. Encouraging, because five of the nine responses received were from readers who said that no restaurant was worth waiting two hours for a table, and four of the five argued either that this was especially true for the chain places or that the chains must be taking us for suckers. Disappointing, because it appears that these letter-writers are in the minority judging from the actual behavior of diners who flock to these places, then--like the three people who suggested coping strategies--do something else while waiting (or go early, which is at least a self-respecting solution) rather than dine somewhere else.

Huh? I'm probably about to get myself drummed out of the cheese lovers' fellowship for confessing this, but I love sharp Cheddar spread with peanut butter. And I've been to enough places that had chunks of Cheddar with Dijon mustard for dipping to know that some folks aren't shy about combining things with cheese. The soft cheeses also lend themselves well to toppings and accompaniments. So what do you top yours with (depending on the variety, of course)?

I can eat a whole can of Pringles in one sitting. But I probably shouldn't admit that. They recently had a limited edition Grilled Cheese flavour, but I didn't much care for it. It wasn't as cheesy and the White Cheddar or Cheezums ones. A lot of my friends love the French Consomme flavour, but I've not been daring enough to buy an entire can to try them. I wish I lived in Germany--they seem to have pretty amazing flavours! ← Consomme flavor? Available only in France, I assume? And if not, where in the States can these be found? And what flavors do they have in Germany? You should dig up that thread on unusual chip flavors and post them there as well.

No "Hello Kitty"? You need to educate your kids about what constitutes good barbecue sauce. Even though you are at present about 600 miles away from it, it is possible to do so thanks to the miracle of the Internet and a recipe that Ollie Gates gave up to Martha Stewart on an ancient episode of "From Martha's Kitchen." If you don't want to order the genuine article, you can make your own. I posted the recipe to RecipeGullet back in April. Just search on "Ollie Gates."

First things first: Have I stepped into some weird parallel universe where no one eats fried pork rinds? Yummy and crunchy in a way no other dry salty snack is. Of course, being a barbecue fiend as well, my preference is for Utz Bar-B-Q rinds. (Edited to add: Speaking of yummy and crunchy, I have some advice for Joseph Foy, the owner of Bridget Foy's restaurant on South Street: You should give serious consideration to bagging the cracklin' off that gorgeous roast pig you served at yesterday's Slow Food fundraiser on Head House Square and selling it as a snack.) I actually find Wheat Thins an interesting mix of sweet and salty. I generally buy Triscuits to satisfy this craving. I think it does! One of my favorite salty snacks is thin slivers of very very old Dutch cheese.. with those lovely crunchy salt crystals. another, less dignified one is anchovies, straight from the jar. Fortunately, I only get salt-cravings like that once a month ← Anchovies from the jar? I'll have to try that sometime. Sardines I do on occasion, but those are nowhere near as salty, if indeed they're salty at all. As for the old Dutch cheese: the reason I like aged (clears throat) How-da is because it tastes almost like toffee. But if cheese counts as a salty snack, then I'm all in, being a big cheesehead. Utz is one of the biggest-selling chip brands in the country (#4, last I looked), so I doubt they'll go out of business anytime soon. But if you are jonesin' for Dark Specials, just move to Pennsylvania and you're all set. A Pringles aficionado comes out of the closet! Yes, they're totally artificial, but they're strangely addictive. Occasionally I have to have them instead of Utz.

Cleveland! I can't wait to see what you and the local eGers dish up for us. I hear the city has acquired a modicum of cool of late, since the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame opened. Any chance we can see some of the cool parts?

This has been a wonderful blog, and you live in absolutely gorgeous country. I recall reading a while back that if the United States had been settled from west to east, and not vice versa, we would regard the Pacific Northwest much the way we do New England. (Of course, I assume many of you know that Portland, Oregon, got its name because the people who settled it thought the area reminded them of the area around the Maine city of the same name, which is a very picturesque, charming little city.) Thanks for sharing all this with us and giving us an excuse to expand our cooking horizons, as if we needed one...

I sense another "Dinner!" thread in the making. Now I have an excuse to post a photo of a fantastic raw milk Colby (never thought I'd write those four words together) I got at a local farmers' market a couple of weeks back. First I need to get the camera.