Andrew Fenton

It's baaaaaack. On Wednesdays this year, which has always struck me as the drinkin'est of the school nights, so I can't complain. Any thoughts as to what's the best bet? I'm thinking I'll head over to Alma de Cuba this week...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the muffaletta is the King of All Sandwiches. But who has time to make one of those? Today I'm having a hard salami and avocado on whole grain bread. Man, is that ever gonna be good.

Charlie, I never woulda picked you as a soda jerk! Did you wear the little paper cap?

Thank goodness it's not an either/or situation! I loves me some Oreo Blizzard...

A solution that's absolutely elegant in its simplicity. Good work, Ned.

And yet, the fact is that poor people in the US are, on average, fatter than rich people. If, as you say, poor people have as much access to healthy food as rich people do; poor and rich alike have sufficient education to make decisions about eating habits; and, therefore, obesity is wholly a matter of personal choice, then it stands to reason that you are indeed saying that poor people are less responsible than rich people.

Phosphates are syrup + soda water, I believe. Egg cream is milk + chocolate syrup + soda water. Good stuff. Why it's called "egg cream" when it contains neither is a mystery on the same scale as "who's buried in Grant's Tomb." Anyway, thanks for the recommendation. I oughta give them a try one of these days...

I'll just add my voice to the chorus: that ceviche looks fantastic. And I definitely need some new friends. A question: what is scallop coral? Can somebody point me to a photo of scallop innards?

Yah, you can get those in the US: my local supermarket has them. But it's definitely true that there are way fewer boxed liquid foods in the US than elsewhere in the world. Why is that, I wonder?

I'm not sure what you mean by "recently bombed out": the Detroit riots were over thirty years ago. Anyway, the second study seems to cover a pretty wide range of places: Mississippi, North Carolina, Maryland, and Minnesota. But I'm more interested in this statement of yours: Which means, therefore, that the correlation between poverty and obesity in this country is caused by poor people's irresponsibility. Nice. Anyway, of course education is important. Nobody is arguing against that. As I said earlier, it's a complicated situation. Without taking the wider context into account, the "consumer freedom" that hacks like Berman invoke is useless: like the "freedom" that we all have to buy a Gulfstream jet or a Caribbean island.

Here are two recent ones: "Neighborhood Racial Composition, Neighborhood Poverty, and the Spatial Accessibility of Supermarkets in Metropolitan Detroit" American Journal of Public Health, April 2005. From the abstract: "Neighborhood characteristics associated with the location of food stores and food service places" Am J of Prev Med, Jan 2002. Again, from the abstract:

New York is a big place, and I'll concede it's possible that in the time I've spent there, I've managed to miss the mountains of farm-fresh vegetables for sale on every corner of poor neighborhoods. But for any other city in America, this is transparent bullshit. Decades of research have demonstrated that poorer sections of cities are underserved by supermarkets: people who live there have less access to fresh foods, and hence don't have the chance to make healthy choices. Come to Philadelphia; I'll give you a tour of North Philly and you can see just what choices are available for people who live there. Again, I'm not saying that demonizing food companies is the solution. But neither is living in a fantasyland about the limitless choices available to poor folks.

Bingo. That's where the CCF's shibboleths of "freedom" and "personal responsibility" break down: poor folks don't have the same freedom to exercise responsibility that more well-off folks do. Though that's not necessarily an endorsement of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. And I don't see leaning on fast- and processed-food companies as a real solution to a very complex problem.

Glad you enjoyed it, Greg. I have to confess that I haven't been back in years (don't make it out to Kennett Square very often), and I'm happy to hear that Moroleone is still good.

Now if only somebody would start selling apples soaked in grappa. You could use the same name, and it'd be way, way better, I think.

Since, as it appears, all the cool kids are road trippin' out to Hendricks Farm, we decided to make the trip this afternoon as well. While we're no cooler than we were before, we did managed to score some terrific cheeses. First (pre-cheese) stop was at the Head House Square farmers market, for the berries and bread you see arranged so artfully around our pic-a-nic spread. The cheeses, though, were the star of the show. From left to right, we have: Soudertoma: a firm goat cheese, a little salty, a little sweet, a little bit country, a little bit rock-n-roll. B's favorite. Aged Gouda: We'd tried the regular gouda, and it was okay- mild and kind of boring, i.e., par for the gouda ourse. This has been aged for a year, I think, and there's definitely an improvement. It's starting to dry out and develop a nice nuttiness around the rind. It'd be interesting to see what these cheeses would be like if aged for three, four or more years. Goadacious: This rocked my little world. Pungent, oozing, awesome. You know how a good goat cheese will have multiple textures: sort of chalky in the middle, but liquid on the outside? I freaking love that, and this cheese has it in spades. You can't really tell from the picture, unfortunately, but you can see how the rind is sort of collapsing into a cheesy spill of liquid deliciousness. Aw yeah. It is indeed very rustic, and as others have said, les artistes de fromage are super-nice and filled us up with lots of samples: they've got a great variety. Prices, I thought, were very reasonable: we bought a lot of cheese for not much money at all.

It helps to have a subject line like "MAKE MONEY FAST!!!!!!!!" or "CH3AP V1AGRA!!!!!!!" Everybody always responds to those, right quick. No?

Here's a recent CA cheese anecdote. I was at a party; didn't know many people there, but they were serving lots of good food, including a beautiful, gigantic hunk of Humboldt Fog. It was one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen: probably $40 worth of oozing, ashy goodness. I was all ready to dive in when I noticed... no crackers. It was terrible: like being stuck in an O. Henry story or something. Didn't stop me from eating it, though. Yum.

Assonance? or alliteration? I like it! Only I had to google "shinkansen". You wouldn't want to alienate or confuse the ignorant. By which I mean "my peeps." And jas: monkeys make everything better. Also, ninjas.

I doubt it, given the source and the easy availability of good soups in my kitchen. Plus, I suspect that Campbell's upscale soups will have just as much sodium as the regular variety; I'd just as soon stay away.

True, true. Also the Italian tuna hoagie. Oh my, it's good.

In fact, that's my #1 choice. A terrific, easy-drinking summer beer. You forget, though, I'm also the lazy sort. (Why else would I post here other than to get other people to do my research for me?) Anyway, thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I like the idea of going straight to Yard's... EXCEPT that I was also hoping that I could have the keg delivered. (As I said, lazy.) Okay, time to make some calls,

Have them make mozzarella. It's easy, quick and blends the familiar (who doesn't like mozzarella?) with the exotic (who thinks of making it?) Serve it as a Capri salad or whatever: it'll blow the summer associates' minds.

Welcome, Mike! I'd say, try the Ricci's hoagie, but don't expect it to be a muffaletta. It's a good sandwich, and it's more like a muff than most hoagies, but it isn't a muffaletta qua muffaletta (wrong bread, wrong meats, etc.) I'm told that Matyson makes a muffaletta at lunch. No idea about the authenticity or whatever, but I bet it's good.

From the Citizen Information Service website of the great state of Massachusetts: Who knew? Not I, that's who.