Andrew Fenton

This thread inspired me to buy an Eberly chicken at Giunta's last week, which I roasted last night following the Zuni Cafe method. It was good; both juicy and flavorful. I look forward to polishing off the leftovers tonight. That said, it wasn't noticeably better than the last two supermarket chickens I roasted the same way. I doubt that I could have told the difference in a blind tasting. Chickens I've bought from Meadow Run Farms (at the South & Passyunk farmers' market) remain the best I've gotten in Philadelphia-- unfortunately, they haven't come to that market for a couple of years, and I don't know if they're still available in the city. Vadouvan, I think I need to get in touch with you about one of those French-Canadian birds. Sacre bleu!

Lord, I hope so. I've been trying for years to find a wine to pair with Moons Over My Hammy.

IRON LAW OF eGULLET #1: when chain restaurants are mentioned in a thread, the discussion must devolve into a squabble about (a) whether the Olive Garden sucks, and (b) whether the people who think it does suck are a buncha elitist snobs. IRON LAW OF eGULLET #2: when foie gras and/or trans fat bans are mentioned, there must be running around screaming that oh noes! next, the gummint is gonna take away our TastyKakes and wooder ice! Please note that Law #2 includes even those cases when, apparently, the law in question is blatant posturing, without enforcement provisions beyond "public shaming". (Because in America's Fattest City, that's going to work really well, right?)

Maybe some sort of pureed white bean soup with a nice drizzle of oil?

This is very interesting. While I've seen Nation of Islam members selling pies on the side of the street for years, I always assumed they were sweet potato pies; the bean pies look the same. Anyway, a few bean pie links I came across: a San Francisco couple selling bean pies Wikipedia on bean pie a bean pie recipe at "Muhammad Speaks" great picture of a Philadelphia man filling a bean pie order and the scriptural basis for eating bean pie, from Elijah Muhammad's How to Eat to Live:

Very interesting! I always assumed that the pies NOI members were selling were sweet potato; never would have thought of bean. ... and lo and behold, there's already a thread on bean pie.

Hey now, I won't stand for anybody ripping on Houston like that...

Indeed! It could be a real revolution for the culture of Philadelphia! Smash the Running-Dog Trans Fats for the Glory of the Proletariat

Ooh yeah, now that's a law with some teeth to it.

Welcome, Mel! I don't know if this is quite what you're looking for, but many cookie doughs (including chocolate chip) freeze well. You can make the dough and freeze it into balls, then bake them at will. They won't be quite as good as made-on-the-spot, but you could easily turn out a batch within your 30-minute time frame. And they're still hot, freshly made cookies; nothing wrong with those...

Absolutely gorgeous; you have a lucky family. Kudos!

That would be interesting. I know that nationally, wine consumption has been rising. If wine consumption (or better, amount spent per consumer) in PA has been rising faster than the national average during that time, we might be able to point to a Newman Effect on the state economy. (And if not, well, then... not.)

Gelatin salads are salads in the same way that potato salad or pasta salad are salads. They're served cold, as a side or separate dish, and they incorporate fruits or vegetables. I'll grant you, it requires an expansive definition of "salad". Purists might refer to this sort of semi-salad as a salaud.

Definitely a cool idea! I hope to see the detailed results published in a reputable journal. Or on eGullet; whatever...

I'll see that, and raise you a "fish ball soup." (Do you have any idea how many fish it takes to make one bowl of that soup?)

Not to mention that we're coming close to the ten-year anniversary of the University City Food Truck Massacre of 1998. As much as the Philadelphia dining scene has improved over the last decade or so, the cheap food scene near Penn has gone downhill since then...

indeed-- and I remember EXACTLY when you introduced me to it! It really is a lovely wine.

I have to say that I don't understand this. When you say something "more interesting", are you talking about the organoleptic experience of eating it, or the preparation of it? I do think that organoleptically the experience of eating a piece of fantastically high quality steak is pretty "interesting". In particular the dry aged funkiness overlaid on the more familiar beefy flavors, and the sublimely tender texture that beef usually doesn't have. Again, maybe the difference of opinion is due to the fact that you've never had a steak of the quality under discussion? Since I made a similar statement earlier, I'll respond. In my case, I tend to enjoy the experience of ingredients, even (or maybe especially) non-premium ingredients, that have been transformed through cooking into something better than what they were before. That is to say, I tend to be more interested in the sort of cooking that turns a tough piece of brisket into a melting delight than in the sort that takes a top-shelf piece of steak and turns it into a fine grilled steak. That's not a hard-and-fast rule, there are any number of exceptions, and it's also personal preference, not something worth arguing over. But it's where I'm coming from. And to be honest-- I know it runs the risk of getting me lynched, but I'm not wild about Japanese food. There's nothing wrong with it; I just prefer other cuisines.

The NYT article I cited addresses that very issue:

I've had the entrecote at Pif. It's perfectly good. I think that the time I had it, I was really in the mood for something meaty, and it fit the bill. But to my taste, it's not as good as some of their other dishes. Melograno... no. But it would be interesting to try. The steaks I've enjoyed the most have been fiorentinas. But not having done any sort of rigorous testing, I don't know whether my enjoyment of them was because of the chianina beef, the Tuscan style of grilling, or other, less tangible factors (dinner under an arbor in the Roman springtime, etc.) But I haven't been to Melograno in ages, so I'd be up for giving their steak a go. If you're interested in a taste-test, let's do it one of these days...

So very true. And in return, if I've learned anything in my post-college years, it's never to put a kitchen in the basement. Unless you like the heady rush of inhaling the smoking wreckage of burnt pizza or deep-frying experiments gone awry. Still, I think that we can all agree that if these stovetop smokers can really turn out a good product, then Sacrifices Must Be Made.

This has been a very informative topic to read. I think we all agree that it's not cool to suggest, even inadvertently, that somebody should pay one price and then charge them another. Still, as a member of the general public, it's hard for me to get all misty-eyed at the injustice of somebody having to pay full price for dinner. Like philadining, I thought that the menu described sounded pretty good. Obviously if it's not well-prepared, the best menu in the world will be lousy. But the original post had a strong odor of sour grapes wafting from it: that's a flavor that tends to ruin the experience of a meal.

There's an article in today's New York Times about indoor smoking. I've never used one of these stovetop smokers. I have a lust for some smoked duck and pulled pork, but I worry-- not only am I an apartment dweller, but also my kitchen has terrible ventilation. Any significant amount of smoke causes the fire alarm to go off, the cats to freak out, the neighbors to come a'running with a bucket brigade. I have enough problems using the broiler; is it worth it to try smoking. The answer, of course, is "hell yes."

By sheer coincidence, I was recently reading Jeffrey Steingarten's essay "High Steaks" (reprinted in It Must've Been Something I Ate, and worth checking out). Steingarten goes through the history of the USDA's relabling of grades of beef (with special mention of 1950, "a year that will live in infamy", when the categories of Prime and Choice were lumped together). He makes a couple of points that are relevant to your question: - there is an objective grading system for beef, based on marbling. (He doesn't mention it, but there are of course also objective gradings based on color, firmness and so on. Here is a PDF link to a brief description of the Japanese grading system, with pictures.) Marbling has twelve grades, running from "extremely abundant" to "devoid". - there has been pretty serious grade inflation, even for the category of Prime, which has led to the creation of unofficial sub-categories: *** This thread has me thinking-- I've never much cared for steak. Not that it's awful, but I find it boring. I'd much rather have a good piece of brisket or short ribs than a steak any day. The follow-up question is of course, is that because I don't like steak, or because I've never had a good enough steak? I've been to some pretty decent steakhouses, and have always been underwhelmed. I suppose it might be worthwhile to shell out the $$$ on dinner at Peter Luger's or a comparable place, to see if I've just been missing the point. But I suspect I'd be better off spending the same amount of money on a flight to Texas for some BBQ brisket...

Quoting bad authors who incorrectly use language still doesnt make your point. Any bar that smells like vomit clearly isnt catering to a high end clientele or offering a high end experience. "A place where old men drink up thier social security checks in the afternoon" I don't think that this is incorrect usage. Rather, it's ironic. The "high-end crowd" isn't actually high-class, nor are they looking for quality; they're just a slightly higher class of wino. (That said, an ironic usage of the term isn't particularly useful in the context of this discussion.)