MarketStEl

Too cool. A holiday that's about shopping. ← I think that in the United States, we call that holiday "Christmas." Except for automobile dealers, who call it "Presidents' Day." I think I like the Dutch version of this ritual way better. I haven't figured out the role the beer plays in it yet. Is it required that you drink while offering your closet or attic for sale on the street? Or is it required that the buyers drink? Does drinking improve the quality of the merchandise offered?

If the old adage, "Tell them they can't have it and they'll want it even more," applies, look for sales of foie gras to skyrocket at restaurants in suburban Cook County. Shortages may develop at fine food purveyors in Evanston. And you won't be able to find a seat at any restaurant in Oak Park that serves it. The papers will be full of stories about shootouts in Cicero as Mob families battle for control of the black market in foie in Chicago proper. If you ask me, this is an exciting time to be a Chicagoan.

I have no doubt about that. I'm sure there are also black people in Iowa too. Mostly in Council Bluffs and Des Moines, I reckon. I'll wager you won't find Green Bean Casserole on their tables. --Sandy "yeah, I can get away with this, 'cause Mom was born in Omaha and raised in Horton, Kan., and I grew up in Kansas City, so between us we've almost got Iowa surrounded" Smith

If you're talking about yellow rice flavored with Goya Sauzon - you are 100% correct! It's widely used in much of the Dominican take-out food that I eat on a weekly basis and also figures prominently in Puerto Rican cusine that I have enjoyed greatly in the past. ← Yup. Theres a ton of it in Goya Sazon, Goya Adobo and any number of latino spice and seasoning blends. ← As I noted in my foodblog, I have encountered MSG-free sazón at a spice merchant in the Italian Market. For those who have problems with MSG, this is probably something good to have on hand. Otherwise, Sazón Goya is what you should use for Caribbean yellow rice.

Maggi, yes. Knorr, no. Knorr GmbH was acquired by Corn Products Company of the USA in 1958. Corn Products Company became CPC International, and more recently Bestfoods. The Anglo/Dutch consumer products giant Unilever acquired Bestfoods in 2000.

Parmigiano-Reggiano contains a ton of glutamates. Just add more of that. ← Yep. Worked perfectly on the leftover lasagna I had for lunch today.

If I didn't know better, I would have said that what you were eating with the omelet was scrapple! But it looks more like either bread or meatloaf. What is it exactly?

Well, I guess that explains why my roomie always asks me to put lots of mushrooms into the meat sauce I make when I fix lasagna. I still think that the cheese mixture I used in last night's batch might have benefited from an extra bit of MSG, a jar of which (generic, not branded, obtained from the Spice Corner in the Italian Market) resides in my spice cabinet. It seemed a little on the bland side and not savory enough.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Steingarten's article titled soemthing along the lines of "Why doesn't everyone in china have a Headache?". It is published in his second essay book, "It must've been something I ate" and it is amusing and very thorough. ← If I'm not mistaken, that is the article that ran in The Observer on 7/10/2005 that was linked from the very first post on this topic: "If MSG is so bad for you, then why doesn't everyone in Asia have a headache?" Love the dry wit of the writing in the article--classic British style: Amidst all this talk about "Chinese restaurant syndrome," this passage in Daniel Rogov's article brought to my mind another "syndrome" -- or, more accurately, "effect": I assume that most of you are familiar with something called "the Hawthorne effect." This takes its name from a series of experiments on worker productivity conducted at the Hawthorne, Ill., plant of Western Electric (the old equipment-manufacturing arm of AT&T). The researchers were trying to determine which improvements to the workplace environment produced the greatest improvement in workers' productivity. They installed brighter lighting, and productivity went up. They installed more comfortable seats, and productivity went up by a similar amount. They instituted more work breaks, and productivity went up. They reduced the lighting level, and productivity went up. They eliminated the work breaks, and productivity rose. Finally, they concluded that the mere fact that the workers were being observed for their productivity made them more productive, regardless what else was happening. A lot of bad science seems to rest on similar effects, and the example Rogov gives above, IMO, falls into this category.

If that's the ugliest street in Amsterdam, then you are truly blessed. I could show you a slew of streets in Philadelphia that look like Dresden after the war--although there are fewer of these now than there were a decade ago, thanks to an accelerated demolition program that the city has undertaken. Now, a lot of these streets have a "Little House on the Prairie" feel to them, with isolated, still-occupied row houses surrounded by cleared land planted in grass with split-rail fences. But I agree that those street lights are weird. I'm rather fond of the pedestal lamps that you saw in a number of photos in my blog. Those went up as part of a major streetscape improvement project in much of Center City three years ago. Passengers who travel by limo or taxi from Philadelphia International Airport to Central Philadelphia travel between a huge oil refinery and an auto salvage yard on their way into downtown. This scene, I assure you, is a far more pleasant entrance to a great city. Oh, goody, goody, a subway station! When did you start channeling me? BTW, you look fabulous in that black dress. What I want to know is where they got the couple kissing on the platform almost right next to you. I imagine I can find out what was in the croquettes by looking at their menu, but I'm lazy. Besides, I need to go over to the student union to find out what my health insurance plan options are for the coming fiscal year.

Oh, before I forget: Happy Birthday! You are indeed fortunate that you have the time and inclination to go farther afield than that supermarket for your provisions. That display of tray after tray of chicken breasts for some strange reason brought a Pink Floyd lyric to mind: "...All in all, they're just another brick in the wall." From your description, their US stores are probably better places to shop than their Dutch ones. (I wouldn't know for sure. There are no Giant stores within the Philadelphia city limits.) Carry on celebrating...that bedtime snack looked good...

Oh, my, my. Pet rats! Gorgeous little balconies (big enough for a grill, I hope?) on which to enjoy beautiful spring days! (I miss the courtyard of the apartment I lived in from 1983 until 2000.) And hunky stroopwafel makers--I wanna date him! Not to mention cool, totally pedestrian market streets. Maybe I need to enroll in Dutch classes, although it looks to me like many words in Dutch are awfully close to their English cognates. (Edited to add: Though it also appears that Dutch is like German in forming new words by stringing several smaller ones together. I note that you do that with English phrases that are actually separate words, like "hoisinsauce," for instance.) I have a friend (I'll be helping him move his stuff from Philly to Florida this weekend) who has promised to fly me to Amsterdam someday. I think I need to help hasten the day somehow. So what was that supermarket like?

I was going to guess either that or a royal jubilee year--Beatrix has been on the throne for a while now, right? So how do you get around the city? Car, bike, or do you keep a Strippenkart in your purse? And forgive me for making a specific request, but if you can make that supermarket one owned by Royal Ahold NV, I'd appreciate it. I'd be interested in seeing how one of the big multinational operators with holdings in the US runs its stores in its home territory. (In the Philadelphia area, Ahold owns the Giant chain. It also owns the separate chain of the same name that does business in the Washington/Baltimore market.)

In 1982, the year the Philadelphia "Best of Philly" editors focused on the 'burbs. One might be inclined to say that this was actually a subtle thumbing of the editors' nose at the 'burbs, except: 1) We all know of places in the 'burbs that serve decent pizza (e.g., Rizzo's in Glenside); 2) there were other categories in which I think anyone could agree with their assessment of the winner as "Best of the 'Burbs"; 3) in their sidebar for diehard city-lovers, the Best Pizza honors went to Pizzeria Uno, which, while admittedly several notches above Pizza Hut, is far from the best pizza in Philly and another possible candidate for the Didn't Deserve the Honor to Begin With rating.

If I lick or chow down too fast, I get a severe brain freeze. Looking back at the categories I've established, I wonder whether we might encounter a pie that would deserve a third rating: Didn't Deserve the Honor to Begin With. I can think of at least one candidate pie for this rating without even having been to the offending establishment yet.

Depends on the city. In Philadelphia, it's nine "squares" to the mile, more or less. (A "square" is the territory bounded by two numbered streets and two tree streets. Especially in the residential precincts and in Old City, many narrow "streets"--in any other city, they'd be alleys--are inserted between the major streets. This isn't hard and fast, for the "squares" do vary a bit in size. West of 22d, the blocks become noticeably shorter until you reach the Schuylkill; the block between Spruce and Pine is longer than the one between Locust and Spruce, and the block between Pine and Lombard shorter.

You know, I'm beginning to feel like Michael Jackson here--I never can say goodbye. Just when I think I have it all wrapped up, someone comes along with a memory like the one above that just begs for followup. There is just too much here for a measly one-week blog to do it justice. Folks, you'll just have to come here to experience it for yourself.

Tattoo Mama's? Next time you're in town and have a hankering for PBR, you need to get yourself over to Bob & Barbara's Lounge in the 1500 block of South Street. Besides being the official religious shrine to Pabst, Bob & Barbara's features great jazz most nights and the best drag show in town on Thursdays. The best office Christmas party I've been to in quite some time was the one Red Tettemer Advertising--the agency behind the current SEPTA ad campaign, BTW; I spent a month there as a freelance proofreader at the end of '05--threw there. Great food--Ron's Ribs catered--great jazz, and a fun crowd.

Whoops! One last detail. I promised you all you would see the Pizza Club launch its "Best of Philly Review Tour." I just posted the writeup of our first stop on the tour to the "PIZZA CLUB 2006" thread on the Pennsylvania board. You're invited to come over and hang out with us there.

Now for the illustrated version. As part of our mission is to determine whether these "Best of Philly" pizza joints still turn out pizza worthy of the honor, I propose that each review end with a general conclusion: Still Worthy or No Longer Worthy. I got off the 23 bus a block ahead of where I needed to, just to make sure that Fiore's--one of the other Best of Philly winners along this stretch of East Passyunk--was well and truly out of business. It was. So on down Passyunk, which wears its faded glory well, but also shows signs of new life: to our first stop. Some things never change, and Marra's is one of them. Present for the kickoff of the 2006 Pizza Club Best of Philly Review Tour were Katie Loeb, Charlie (Mummer), and two newcomers, Amanda and Jason Jones, who came up from Wilmington for the event. As we were a small group, we decided to order only two pizzas--the standard red-sauce-and-cheese "control pie" and a white specialty pie, the Alla Bianca, which was topped with sharp provolone, sausage, broccoli rabe and sun-dried tomatoes. Our waitress delivered the red pie first: Both the cheese and the crust were nicely charred, the crust just lightly: The cheese pie had perfectly balanced flavors--not too much garlic and only a hint of sweetness in the sauce, a crust that was thick but light--not doughy at all, and a cheese blend that played off well against the sauce. But that was only the warmup. The best was yet to come: We were a little confused at first when the Alla Bianca arrived, for we found on evidence at all of the sun-dried tomatoes promised on the menu. Our waitress explained that the guy who created this pizza learned to bury the tomatoes beneath the cheese; otherwise, the tomatoes would burn. Upon closer inspection, we found them, peeking out from under a blanket of sharp Provolone: This was a truly superlative pie. Again, the crust had good char: and the mix of ingredients--all fresh--combined to produce a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. The sharp Provolone was eye-opening, but the broccoli rabe and the sausage--real slices of Italian sausage, not that crumbled pizza stuff--stood up to the cheese. The chef whose creation it was let me see the vintage brick oven from which all Marra's pizzas emerge. I must confess at this point that we are a wimpy bunch. The five of us failed to polish off all of the two large--and we mean large: 18 inches in diameter--pizzas, and we ended up each carrying home slices of each pie. We also concluded that we probably didn't have the stomach to take in three pizza places in this one sitting. So Celebre's--whose white pie was singled out for praise in a couple of the Best of Philly awards it won--will have to await a future trip. The verdict on Marra's? Still Worthy, in spades. Next stop was La Rosa, just a few doors down from Broad and Snyder. I must apologize for the oversight of omitting an exterior shot, but as this place is blink-and-you'll-miss-it small, and has no seating whatsoever, there wasn't much to photograph on the outside. Inside, the five of us nearly took up all the available space, and Katie is convinced--and I'm inclined to agree--that our motley crew probably left them scratching their heads after we left. Comparing La Rosa, which is a square-pie establishment, to Marra's is like comparing apples to oranges, we concluded. We did not order any of the red pies here: but went straight for a variation on the pie that won La Rosa a Best of Philly, their white pie topped with potatoes. We decided that potatoes weren't enough and went for the fully loaded white pizza with vegetables. After a few minutes, our pie went into their turbocharged pizza oven. I'm sure there are other places with convection pizza ovens, but this is the first one I've run across. The constantly circulating air produces a crust that is not charred, but rather evenly browned: Atop this sturdy crust is piled a heap o' veggies--chopped raw tomatoes (they will also slice them if you prefer, sliced onions, sweet peppers and potatoes, all on a mozzarella base. The sweet peppers were an interesting change of pace, as were the potatoes, which came out with the crunch and flavor you might expect from an unsalted potato chip. We decided that this pie was sui generis and judged it Still Worthy. The staff apparently think so too, for they all wore T-shirts with big "#1" ribbons emblazoned on them. While we waited for our pie, we tried to figure out what Mediterranean or Adriatic coastal town the mural was supposed to depict: None of us knew, nor did any of the staff. Do any of you? In place of Celebre's, we finished with water ice at Rita's, one block down at Jackson Street, partly in response to a request from a reader of my foodblog. There were some interesting flavors on the menu today: I decided to go with the passion fruit, and after she tasted it, Katie followed suit. Jason went with the lemon, which was flecked with bits of peel. Herb caught up with us here and ordered chocolate. Cath also came around and chatted with us for a while. After that, we returned to our respective points of origin. Rich: I'm sorry I didn't check out the thread before departing--you were missed and I wasn't aware that you had your hands full of sick children until I got back. Two down, 40-some to go. Edited to add a shot of the LaRosa pie fresh from the oven.

Don't let me stop you! More fresh blood here is good. As I suspect that everyone who wants to say "Thanks and farewell" has now done so, let me say once again that I thoroughly enjoyed trekking around Philly for all of you--even if some of those treks were just around the block--and hope you had as much fun following my escapades as I had engaging in them. I know I'll see all of you on these boards, but I hope you'll all be here to join me when the urge to blog once again strikes me. Warm regards, Sandy

Now that might make me try making Chicken Fried Steak again...

Sign me up for the next Gut Pride demonstration! And as for black women, well, I guess they no longer agree with Sir Mix-a-Lot: You may drive in your Honda playin' workout tapes by Fonda But Fonda ain't got no motor in the back of her Honda My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hon! --From "Baby Got Back"

Postscript: Since I guess I can still get a little more food in, this morning I had a piece of leftover Popeye's chicken. I had brought a 10-piece box home for the rest of the brood. And remember the "Pasta Jambalaya" I said I packed in my partner's lunch at the beginning of the blog? Well, there is still some of this stuff in the fridge, so I packed it into my lunch this morning: And remember what I said about Upper Darby becoming "more urban" back on Thursday? Well, I was catching up with reading the Daily Times this morning, and there is a reason that the phrase "inner ring suburb" has entered the language, carrying with it a connotation similar to that of "inner city neighborhood." 69th Street may still hum with life, and Upper Darby High may be a multiethnic educational model, but not all is well in the township: Speaking of Upper Darby, didn't one of you mention going to the Tower Theater when you lived here? It's still a hot concert venue--rock, mainly. As far as attending concerts at suburban theaters is concerned, my own tastes in music lean towards the Keswick Theater in Glenside. (Edited to add: Yet one of my favorite pop musicians is Upper Darby's own pride and joy, Todd Rundgren.) Since I've not touched on the northern 'burbs at all, that could be a subject for a future report.

The Center City outpost of Maggiano's Little Italy is right across 12th from the RTM. As chain Italian restaurants go, it's pretty good, and the portions are indeed family-sized. As for what it's called: Philadelphia is divided into seven broad geographic regions: Center City, South Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, Southwest Philadelphia, Northwest Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia. All of these terms save "Northwest Philadelphia" are commonly and frequently used. Within each broad region are scores of separate neighborhoods, and within some of those, sub-neighborhoods. For example, the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Mount Airy is in turn subdivided into East Mount Airy and West Mount Airy. "Center City" refers to the area within the original 1682 boundaries of the City of Philadelphia, bounded on the east by the Delaware, the west by the Schuylkill, the north by Spring Garden Street and the south by South Street. Real estate promoters have annexed South Philadelphia's northwest corner to this and refer to the area as "Southwest Center City." There are a few neighborhoods, such as Grays Ferry, that are not associated with any particular broad geographic region in the public mind. (Based on the lay of the land, it should be part of South Philadelphia.) The neighborhoods within Center City are Old City (roughly everything east of 7th Street and north of Walnut), Society Hill (east of 8th, south of Walnut), Chinatown (8th to 11th streets, Arch to Callowhill), Washington Square West (8th to Broad, south of Walnut), Rittenhouse Square (Broad to 21st, Walnut to Pine), the "Graduate Hospital area" (Broad to 21st, south of Pine), Fitler Square (21st to the Schuylkill, south of Walnut), Logan Circle (15th to 23d, JFK Boulevard to Callowhill) and the "Art Museum area" (20th to the Schuylkill, north of Callowhill). All of these boundaries are approximate, except for those of Society Hill and Wash West. The "gayborhood" is a subdistrict within Wash West. Dividing the rest of the city into its component neighborhoods is the subject of a Ph.D. dissertation.