Andrew Fenton

trippa & lampredotto, oh my! What I love about the Florentines is that they have TWO kinds of tripe sandwich. God bless 'em. Good call. Even better if there are some artichokes to keep that tuna company. Oh my, yes. I'm also a big fan of the Roman-style sandwich made of pizza bianca sliced in half and filled with mortadella or prosciutto.

Interesting. The recipe I followed called for browning and either red or white wine. Next time I'll make it your way. I imagine that white wine would highlight the greens better. And I definitely like the idea of making it with meatballs... I just had some leftover stew for lunch; it will surprise nobody to learn that it tasted even better today. And the dandelion greens are really growing on me. Have a good trip, Franci! I look forward to seeing your fish...

Totally. I would love to hear the results... Anyway, I tend to go to Philadelphia Java Co. It's in my neighborhood, it's friendly, it's not usually too crowded and I can sit there for a while, it has free wireless, and I think the coffee is pretty good.

I've had it at Scarpone in the Monteverde Vecchio neighborhood (and it was pretty great).

Be sure to pour it through The Wine Clip. Its rare-earth magnets will perk that old wine right up!

You may believe that, but the first time an editor tried that to me, they'd be fired on the spot. Singular subject, singular verb, singular object. I don't understand. You wrote "modus operandum". There's no finite verb there, no subject and no object. "Operandum" is either an accusative gerund, with nothing in the phrase to make it accusative, or a gerundive that lacks an antecedent. In either case, it's not Latin.

I was all set to make some polpette ai capperi tonight. But when I was shopping, I noticed that the supermarket had dandelion greens for sale. I've never noticed those there before now, and took it as a sign. Quickly retooling my plans, I made the lamb stew with greens mentioned above: It's hard to take a great picture of stew-- it's just kind of brown, you know? But this tasted really good. I'd never cooked with dandelion greens before; they're very bitter, maybe a little too bitter. While cooking them for a long time killed some of the bitterness, I might use Swiss chard next time. Served the stew with bread and some marinated roasted red peppers as a contorno. Good stuff for a chilly (ha!) evening. (edited to add: the stew reminds me of an Italian version of one of my favorite Persian dishes, ghormeh sabzi. Yum.) On another front: Franci, I see lots of references in Pugliese cooking to lampasciuoli (or lampascioni or lamponi). They seem to be a kind of wild onion-- this site has a description of them. Can one substitute onions for them? I have a recipe for lampasciuoli fritti dorati, and am tempted to serve onion rings under the guise of a Pugliese dish...

Are the frogs you find in Asian markets caught wild, or farmed? If the latter, then I don't think endangerment is a problem. But I just don't know.

What's the cliche? Put the frog in cold water, then slowly turn up the heat... Sorry. I got nothin'...

Sure it's censorship, and a federal judged ruled that eliminating potty language is illegal, for re-selling movies anyway. ← That case is about copyright violation, not censorship.

Actually, school kids use profanity to sound like adults. Adults who use kiddie terms all the time haven't grown up. Yeah, Aristophanes, Chaucer, Joyce... a bunch of children, no doubt about it...

That's not necessarily true. However, quoting people verbatim is a fantastic way to let them air their inner genius, or stupidity. That's why it is my modus operandum. See, an editor would change that to "modus operandi"-- or, I suppose, add a (sic). Neither of which is censorship, either.

Just to be clear: if it's an editor, rather than the government, that changes the language in a piece, it isn't censorship, it's editing. I don't think anybody has provided an example of actual censorship of food writing.

De rien. I suppose I ought to add "French snob" to the list-- or is that a tautology?

I am completely on board with anybody who wants to ban fois gras. Production of fois gras is cruel and causes needless suffering. It's just plain wrong to inflict such an atrocity on the innocent French language. Foie gras, on the other hand, is just plain delicious.

Excellent, thanks for finding that article. Oh man, Cacia's has roast pork sandwiches? I think I have a new destination for my Sundays this fall...

Franci, I'm really overwhelmed by all the amazing food photos you've been posting. I love those eggplants. I've been too busy to do much interesting cooking in August, but I aim to change that this weekend. Like mrbigjas, I just got Boni's book in the mail this morning. Gotta put it to good use! Public ovens, as Pontormo mentioned, go way back in Italy. They're in evidence at Pompeii and Ostia, for example. The combination of fire risk from cooking in wooden high-rise buildings and the expense of running a wood- or charcoal-fired oven for just one family meant that it made a lot more sense to do one's baking at the local oven. Most people would cook their cooking over a brazier, or (as likely as not) buy their food from their corner popina or thermopolium- the Roman equivalents of the tavola calda. It's my understanding that until pretty recently, South Philadelphians would take their Thanksgiving turkeys to their local bakeries, leaving their home ovens free for baking other stuff. It's a great example of cultural continuity, but I don't know whether people still do it: mrbigjas, do you know anything about that?

We finally made it to Horizons this weekend. We didn't have reservations, so sat downstairs and had some small plates. The bar was mellow and friendly, and they had Yard's Philly Pale Ale-- my favorite local beer-- on tap, so I was happy. Of the dishes we ordered, the jerk seitan was definitely the star. The texture is really interesting: there's a crispy skin and sort of a soft interior. It's not at all like chicken, more like Peking duck, where you get the skin and that layer of fat underneath. Good stuff. Yellow tomato gazpacho was good, and would have been better if they'd had a lighter hand with the vinegar, or if the tomatoes had been sweeter: it was a little sour. A piquillo pepper stuffed was my second favorite dish-- actually, better than the pepper was the tomato/avocado terrine that accompanied it. The wild mushroom cazuela-- basically a mushroom and garlic sautee-- wasn't bad, if not all that exciting. If you like mushrooms (as I do) you'll like it. The one real miss was the tortilla "pierogies". Those are just a bad idea, in terms of flavor (bland) and texture (unpleasantly chewy). We skipped dessert-- guests in town who hadn't yet tried wooder ice-- but I'll be back. I like the bar menu, and it seems like a nice place to sit, have a drink and a bite.

Indulging in this topic drift for a moment, I'll add that you can also pop amaranth seeds. It looks like little bitty baby popcorn: adorable!

True; I checked and Dahlak was charging $20, which I think is still more than a typical meal costs there. Good to know about Rx's midweek prix fixe. And good to know that, unlike some other restaurants, they're able to maintain their standards even when they're mobbed during high-volume times like Restaurant Week.

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. OK, that makes sense. The Wurst House (or whatever it's called now) has-- or at least had, I haven't been there in years-- a similar build-a-six policy. Not as good a selection as the Foodery, but much more convenient for those in University City.

As Katbert pointed out, it depends on the place and the price, and it's worthwhile to do a little research first. For instance, during UC Dining Days a couple of weeks back, I had a great dinner at Rx. At $25 for three courses, it was a little cheaper than usual, and the food was just as good as it always is over there. A good deal. But I noticed that Dahlak also had a $25 special: while I like Dahlak fine, I don't think I've ever spent $25 on food there. Not such a good deal. And welcome, HD73!

Rich, I'll second the recommendation for Allen & Son. It's great. Really great. Make sure that, in addition to the barbecue (which is great) you save room for their great desserts. Especially the banana pudding. Which, I might add, is pretty great.

A case of beer at a distributor is $80? I admit that I haven't bought a case of beer in over a year (gotta change that soon); when I did, it was a case of Yard's, and I think it was around $30. Maybe a case of Belgian beer is $80? Anyway, I've been shopping at the Pine St. store for years, and it is indeed great. Not cheap, but great.

As GG said, there is a ton of web material on Roman cooking. If you read Latin, you can find a text of Apicius at the Latin Library (not complete) or download it at Project Gutenberg. There is also a Yahoo! group dedicated to Roman cooking. And as I'm sure you already know, there are about a billion cookbooks in English that adapt Roman recipes. If you haven't, you might look at Andrew Dalby's; he's a first-rate scholar of ancient food, and while I haven't used this book, I imagine it's good.