JasonZ

I'm assuming that the people involved are willing to take a taxi ride, since you're looking at Susanna Foo's (17 & Walnut) from the Inn at Penn (roughly 35th & Market). You might want to consider any of the steakhouses (Palm, Davio's [my favorite]) or fishouses (McCormack & Schmidt; Sansom St Oysterhouse) or more eclectic choices (eg, !Pasion or Roy's, both on 15th St). Even if they have a prix fixe, I am certain they will let you order off the menu. Do you have a particular cuisine/food type in mind? Any allergies or severe dislikes to worry about? Regards, Jason

I don't know about others, but I have read some (not all) of these studies. You are right -- they are correlative, they were not randomized or blinded, and they did not control for heriditary factors and certain other factors. That is the nature of eipidemiological studies -- they are observational studies (meaning they do not randomize the populations to a given set of treatments) and they assume that by using a large enough population (tens or hundreds of thousands) that factors they have not controlled for (hereditary differences, for example) will "naturally" be randomized between the various groups. Correlation is not causation ... but if you get enough well-designed correlative studies, and long-term longitudinal studies (studies that follow a population over many years), you can reach conclusions which have a reasonable probability of being true. The most famous such example is the Framingham study, started in the late 40's, now studying its 3rd generation of individuals (so they are starting to look at heridity in the real sense), which defined the relationships between high blood pressure and cholesterol to stroke and heart disease. In order to control for other factors, first, you'd have to know what factors to control for (I don't know all the genes I'd want to include in a screen and I've been doing this for 20 years); you'd have to have someone pay for the genetic screening and have potential subjects agree to the testing (and that raises both an ethical issue -- suppose the subject now knows he/she has a risk gene -- do you inform their insurance company, employer, personal physician? -- and what scientists call a "selection bias" issue -- are the people who have signed up no longer representatitve of the population as a whole?) and you'd have to get matched demographics -- so not just as many males as females and as many with gene X and without gene X, but as many males with gene X as males without gene X and as many females with gene X as without ... and by the time you add gene Y and gene Z, and other factors ... you have a population of millions and a cost to match .... In medicine, and in drug development, and in government health policy, we often have to make decisions based on all the data we have, knowing we can't get the perfect studies we'd like ...

Why does any individual need to tell me what to eat? Why? I have no problem with labels, they are there for a reason, but why does another individual need to limit my decisions, because they are convinced it is better for me, even though they do not live my life? Simple question. I am open to anyone who thinks that there is a reason to limit my decisions, or any other human being's decisions, because they are convinced that it is better for me, even though they do not live my life or in my skin. ← Shacke and others, I couldn't agree with you more ... this discussion needs to come off boil and down to simmer, to consider the question and issues originally raised: is goverment action to ban [artificial] trans-fat use in commercially produced foods the right approach? Governments are made up of people with all the same weaknesses we have. Science isn't static -- what was universally acclaimed as right 30 years ago is wrong today and vice versa. All we can do is make our own individual decisions, guided by the information we have. Government should provide that information and regulate (very gently) the limits of what is acceptable, but not place the limits so stringently that personal choices not affecting anyone else are restricted. Ideal, yes, but so long as we live ina society where individual freedom is the highest value, that is the goal. I am reminded of the situation with the "MSG syndrome" in Chinese restaurants in the 70's. The syndrome was described in medical journals (notably the New England Journal of Medicine), trickled down to the newspapers ... and Chinese restaurants either eliminated MSG or gave customers the option to specify no MSG. Voluntarily. No government edicts. No impact on pricing. Yes, some impact on food taste. Adopted by both high-end and low-priced restaurants. In the end, it became a commercial advantage (until everyone did it) to advertise, "no MSG used". Certain restaurants today list on their menu "cooked in vegetable oil -- no animal fat used". Restaurants today offer "Heart Healthy meals", "AHA meals", meals adapted for diabetics -- because it can be a commercial advantage. Can't "no artificial transfats used" become the same? I'm not sure that high-end restaurants use no transfats. Certainly, if you claim to be a "traditional French cuisine" specialty house, you'll use butter (maybe even imported from France, rather than made from Wisconsin milk ), but if you're an American steakhouse, or do eclectic or original cuisine -- will the temptation of "doesn't spoil and better mouthfeel" be enough? What about desserts, in moderate to high end restaurants? How many restaurants, especially those without a pastry chef, buy their desserts from a specialty purveyor? What does that purveyor use? How deep are we willing to dig for answers? Given that trans-fat users may not follow the Chinese restaurant MSG route, perhaps instead of a ban, enforced with "public shame", the remedy should be disclosure of any artificial transfats used by that purveyor to make the item (akin to the "this product was made or packaged in a facility that also makes or packages peanuts" label, ie, a label, but not requiring the detailed analysis that a label requires). Perhaps the remedy should be a tax on trans-fat purchase used to fund a public education campaign re trans-fats, because while we may be knowledgeable on the topic, many people with marginal incomes may not have that knowledge ... or may not know how much trans-fat they are getting in that fast meal. Ultimately, we're faced with two issues that don't really belong in eG: people may not have a choice to make -- economically they're forced to eat whatever is the least expensive at that moment, rather than in the long term ... and ultimately, whether under the current system or any other system, we will all bear whatever long-term health costs are caused by the food we eat. We are all, to a certain degree, our brother's keepers ... we all eat from the same trough and pay taxes for the common good ...

I've seasoned a few woks ... and more than a few cast iron pots and pans!! I also had the chance to discuss wok seasoning with Grace Young, who was the celebrity chef for a dinner we had in Philadelphia 2 years ago. First, the new Lodge pre-seasoned pans are seasoned with a vegetable oil that is sprayed on, baked, and then recycled a few times for additional layers. It's some kind of adaptation of an aerospace technique for coating very thin layers ... and it works beautifully -- there is no evidence of drip marks or any kind of variation on the surface. I don't know if they rotate or vibrate the pans while baking or if the use of many thin layers simply masks any drip trails -- I haven't convinced them to tell me how they do that! I use several modifications -- first, because of religious reasons, I can't use pork fat ... so I use canola oil for seasoning -- high flash point and minimal residual flavor. I cook with either corn oil or canola (I can't use peanut oil because my daughter is severely allergic to peanuts ... and in any case, peanut oil is probably the most highly flavored of the high flash point oils). Second, I do the first couple of rounds of seasoning on the stove top -- this allows me to get a uniform coloration going. I stir fry chives (haven't tried leeks) during this process -- lesson from Grace! I then do a few rounds in the oven ... the drips are not as visible once you have a dark patina started. I clean the wok in between with a slurry of kosher salt and oil, which is very mildly abrasive and gets rid of some of the drip pattern, but also helps the oil penetrate into the metal (this trick comes from Madeline Kamman's "The Making of a Chef", where she talks about how the French season cast iron). This effectively minimizes the one disadvantage of the oven technique. Of course, now that I also have a propane wok burner outside, my next wok can be done "stovetop" only ... although I actually prefer the oven version because it will season inside and outside, which the stove technique won't do. Anyway, FWIW, that's my experience. BTW, Ah Leung, beautiful job, both photographically and technically ... that's a very good looking wok! Regards, Jason

The only thing better than Ah Leung's wonderful pictorials ... is the conversation of friends around how to make them and make them better ... What a wonderful forum ... thank you all! Regards, Jason

For the very special ultra occasion (maybe 3-4 times per year), you may need to buy from Loebel's, if that represents the ne plus ultra for you. You can also buy from Niman Ranch (just like the guys downtown do, only at a different price) ... or from the organic farmers in Lancaster County (doesn't get fresher). I'm more concerned with finding the best raw materials at reasonable prices for the meals I'll have 99% of the time. For that, it's hard to beat local produce, whether it comes from Lancaster County for Philadelphia or from the Central Valley for southern California ...

There is no such thing as sashimi grade tuna, it's either fresh or being sold cheaper because it's going bad. The japanese only use fresh tuna. ← I stand corrected ... there is no FDA or USDA "sashimi" grade designation ... what is implied is very fresh fish ... As for bacteria, or at least higher multicellular organisms, whether parasitic or non-parasitic, the fish doesn't have to be dead -- you can find them in and on flopping live fish. Bacterial counts can help you determine the likely "time of death" ... but if anyone is expecting their food to be sterile ... forget it. If that makes you turn away from sushi, just remember -- anything in your digestive tract isn't inside your body ... the gut is a tube with the only openings going to the outside ... and we've spent millenia making sure we can defend our insides from what's in our gut. Anyway, our gut has billions of little helpers to help us digest our food ... so why shouldn't the fish have them too?

I volunteer at one of the PHL cooking schools, where most of the instructors are chefs from the better restaurants in the area ... their fish comes from Samuels, so I would guess Ippolito's is pretty good. I buy my fish from Anastasi's at 9th and Washington. If you need something special, just call or speak with Janet Anastasi ... she gets me sashimi grade tuna, fresh pike and white fish when I make gefilte fish, fresh sardines when I'm doing a Portuguese menu. She will go to her distributors and do what's needed ... For meat, I use both Esposito's and Cappucio's both on 9th St between Washington and Christian. Cappucio's will custom cut steaks for you, any thickness, and if you become a regular, they will hang and dry age small amounts of meat you have paid for in their refrigerator -- your risk, but if you want 40 day aged steaks 1 1/2" thick, it's the only way I know to do it locally. Esposito's handles both wholesale and retail, so if you ask for something unusual, they will have it.

I lived in the UK for 2 years and ate regularly at my local pub, which had a regional reputation for the excellence of its beer and its food ... at reasonable prices ... it had been there since 1278, so it had developed a local following ... it was a responsible member of the community (sponosred a soccer team in the local league; sponsored an antique car show in the summer). It was inexpensive enough that you could afford to stop in regularly. If there's something like this in PHL, where you can stop in and meet your neighbors for a meal and/or a beer ... I have yet to find it. The BYOBs don't do it and the big-name restuarants certainly don't do it ...

There are, indeed! I've gone out of my way to different parts of the UK and France, as well as Japan and the US, purely for the food ... and I've clearly scheduled business meetings based on the cuisine that might make the discussions and negotiations go more smoothly. No question ...

Well, if as citizens we have no voice in our state, we should vote the only way we can ... buy our alcohol in NJ and DE. Perhaps when the Commonwealth sees the loss of profit, it may reconsider its actions. As to that being illegal ... if the state police have nothing better to do than chase down people buying fine wine, it will make a wonderful story for the newspapers, CNN, etc. The state may have a monopoly but they can't ride roughshod over interstate commerce, especially when their monopoly stocks less and less of the quality wines some of us will want ... First, the Tea Revolution; then the Whiskey Revolution ... today, the Wine Revolution!!!

Interesting article ... and even more interesting discussion. But, if I could point out, this year, for the first time in 26 years, there will be no Book and Cook Festival in the Feb/March time frame. Apparently, too many chefs had to choose between Philadelphia and South Beach ... and headed for the fun and sun of Miami. There will be a B&C Festival ... in July ... see The Book and the Cook -- Summer ... far more regional and far quieter than ever before. So far as the national chef community is concerned, they've made their votes clear. Perhaps instead of rehashing "old threads", we need to ask what we want to be -- great food for the locals; or to being a national presence as a recurring a recurring cuisine and culture destination ... and then what we need to do to get there. I'd point to the Aspen Food & Wine Festival; Boston's Beer and Wine Festival; Milwaukee's month-long SummerFest, and, sadly, the South Beach Food & Wine Festival to counter the argument that food destinations attract few people, don't generate income and site recognition, and don't enhance a city's reputation. Few travel to a city for a great meal ... but they'll gladly come to a city that has great culture, history, natural beauty AND great cuisine to boot. April was right -- we are at a fork in the road -- and we need to select which path or tine we want to follow.

In fact, if you look at Lidia Bastianich, she comes from Friuli, and her early cookbooks were really focused on that region ... but her restaurants, although they have a Friulian emphasis, contain many dishes that we would recognize as being from other regions. In fact, her restaurant in Pittsburgh, is less Friulian than her NYC venues. The same is true in Chinese cuisine ... how many of us know that "hot and sour soup", available in almost every Chinese restaurant, is Sichuanese; same for "General Tso's Chicken" (Hunanese). ... most restaurants can't stay true to a given region.

I'm probably late coming to this discussion, but having lived in SE Kent for a few years (that's the corner of the UK closest to France), I had the opportunity to sample rural British food (in 2002-2004), while the renaissance of traditional UK food was going on 70 km away in London (and, yes, I sampled that too, regularly) ... and went shopping for wine, cheese, fresh fish and veggies in Calais, Boulogne, and Lille every other weekend or so. Modern British rural food is based on the same excellence as French: fresh local ingredients, prepared simply and served quickly. Yes, you can choose to order "tradional" food (bangers and mash, fish and chips), but you can also sample some incredible pub food (in France, you'd call it "bistro" cuisine), far better than what our American pubs (TGIF, Chili's, Hulihan's, Applebees) serve ... not to mention the beer is incredibly better. And, yes, there are now high-end British restaurants that serve incredible fresh fish/seafood dishes, with all the tradition that a seafaring island has for marine dishes... There is a dark side ... while I was there, curry houses abounded, to the point where "curry" was declared a traditional British cuisine ... an outright theft, IMHO. So why is French food so adored in the UK ... and the USA? Because it is associated with the customs and values of old money, and is generally not designed for formal banquet cuisine, not simple home cooking (unlike Italian, which is designed for nonna to do at home for everyone). As much as we are a democratic nation, we hanker unconsciously for a royalty (just go visit the mansions of Newport, RI or see the modern meritocracy in action in lots of places in the US and UK) ... in wealth and in cuisine. Most French food here isn't of the peasant variety or the simple bistro ... it's the complex formal cuisine based on L'Escoffier. Britain doesn't do that well ... but they do bistro very well. They simply have to recognize the quality of what they have, not denigrate it. ...

I couldn't give you an answer until I knew more about your cooking style and the things you get from your cookbooks (after all, if all you REALLY want to do is fill 3 inches of shelf space, either one will do -- they're both "nice to have" in a library). You say you get most of your recipes online ... so when do you turn to your culinary library? What kinds of questions, issues are you usually looking to solve? Is it historical (go for Larousse) or chemical/scientific (OFAC, hands down). Are you looking for something that's a good read (IMHO, OFAC over Larousse, then)? Or do you want to explore an area that's completely new to you (might then want to consider others, eg, H This' Molecular Gastronomy) ... You'll have to help us help you in this one I have OFAC and This -- they apply to all cooking styles and cultures ... I don't have Larousse (French focused, Euro-centric) ... but I have Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients, as well as his book on Big Bowl Noodles, a combination which is the Asian equivalent of Larousse. Fits my needs perfectly ... may not be your cup of tea ... Regards and good luck choosing!!

Hi Ah Leung: I have been trying to improve my diet, thinking more vegetables and fish ... so as soon as I saw this, I started thinking, instead of pork, "broccoli + peppers", "cauliflower + tomatoes", almost modeling the Italian vegetable sauces to this Chinese rice pasta... Are there any recipes from the Chinese vegetarian tradition that might go well in this way? Regards, Jason

Maggie, only your recipes were prose ... the rest was sheer poetry! ... and the comments from others were equally eloquent ... you helped open a font of memories. Thanks all for sharing and joyeaux Noel to all! Regards, JasonZ

I thought it was a steak dry aged for 5-6 years ...

Whether we grow it, cook it, or eat it (or any combination of those), we're all part of the food chain ... and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Not valuing the contribution of the farmer is not just a failure of appreciation; it demonstrates ignorance of how much we owe them ... I'm reminded of that every time I read Devotay's signature block, quoting Harry Truman ...

Grew up in Boston, seafaring town by the sea ... never heard of this tradition, but now that I know ... BTW, the North Shore of Massachusetts now has very many Portuguese and Vietnamese fisherman, so I assume the tradition is spreading in the community as a whole. Is there any truth to the rumor that the captain of the Titanic had fish and ...

Welcome to eGullet!! For smoked turkey, I'd second the recommendation of Giordano's, as well as Esposito's on 9th between Washington & Christian and D'Ambrosio Brothers, also on 9th between Washington & Christian. For salt cod (bacala; stock fish), if you need that, DiBruno's, also on 9th between Washington and Christian. I know First Oriental Grocery on Washington between 4th and 5th carries Palm sugar and Palm oil, but I've never seen Palm butter. I was able to find a site listingAfrican local & Mail order / Web markets (here). The only local markets they list are in Harrisburg and State College, PA. they list 3 in NJ, including one in Newark (Calabash; 45 Edison Place; Newark, NJ 07102; phone (973) 643-7828), where "You can get just about any West African foods ..., including daddawa!" If you need to go wholesale, there are a number listed in Chicago and NYC, and one in Newark, NJ (Quality African Foods, Inc.). If you need to go online, you may be interested in one in Lagos (Importers' Cooperative) and one in Ghana (Mensah Alimentari & Farms). If none of these work ... beats me!! Regards, Jason

Well, unless your chef's jacket's long sleeves are subtly hiding a layer of Dupont Nomex heat/fire-resistant cloth, I doubt you'll get that much protection from a spill or a hot stove/pot from a layer of cotton ... and I suppose FDA/USDA/NY Food ispectors might care what sleeve length you choose if you have hairy arms .... ... and I'm sure now that the NYT has pointed it out, discerning NYers will inquire, before they ask to see the menu, or know what the specials are, or even whether the restaurant even takes credit cards, "does the chef wear a Ramsey?" ... the sine qua non for whether the food is any good. If Gordon Ramsey eats the NY restaurant scene's lunch (and dinner), it will be because of the quality of his food, not what's on the "runway" in the back of the house. Paris knows enough to separate couture from cuisine ... maybe Manhattan should learn ... ... so, inquiring minds want to know ... does he wear boxers or briefs ... V neck or ... "nothing at all"

When the government abandons the public interest, we have to do it ourselves ... and sometimes that takes priority over the nicer, more important but less urgent things we'd like to do ... ... and I don't know what life would be like without Tabasco -- I buy it by the gallon!!!

I had the misfortune, early in my career, of having to commute to Tokyo for a week a month for 3 years. Unless you fly coach and book well in advance, $1050 is probably at least what you'll pay for the ticket. I had Kobe beef once ... because the Japanese colleagues I was with wanted it ... and frankly while it was good, the performance of watching the staff (a senior chef at the Tokyo Hilton) trim and butcher the meat was far more exciting and fascinating than the meal itself. Japanese cuisine isn't about a eating a huge hunk of meat ... As for Paris Hilton, do I really care what she eats, puts in her nose, or anything else?

Just the point I was going to make ... in Pennsylvania, selling alcoholic beverages is a state monopoly, so oriental grocery stores carry "cooking wine" and the State Liquor Control Board stores carry the "fine wine" ... whether Sherry or Shaoxing.