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Andrew Fenton

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Posts posted by Andrew Fenton

  1. 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.

  2. Looks like Capogiro has some competition now as a new gelato place just opened yesterday at 5th & Chestnut.  I peeked in but was too early to get a sample. 

    (still a DQ fan)

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

  3. I found a mess of menus from a pizza and kebob place on first avenue scattered all over the stoop.  An idea struck, an inspiration.  I called the restaurant, told them about the mess of menus and asked if they wouldn't  mind sending someone over to clean the mess up.  They were reluctant, I was polite but persistent, and now someone has come and removed the menus.  I think this is an excellent solution that should be adopted by as many of the delivered delivery menu afflicted as possible.

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

  4. where is it that i said the "poor were responsible for being poor?"

    i don' t even think that is part of this thread.

    "personal responsibility" as used here involves eating habits and choosing what to eat.

    in fact--my point has always been that there are irresponsible people regardless of income levels. (and responsible people regardless of income levels).

    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.

  5. Some other things I'd like to try sometime were the 'Phosphates' (not sure what this is), floats, milkshakes, and Egg Creams (not sure of this either).  Maybe someone can help me choose for my next visit?  Thanks  :biggrin:

    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...

  6. 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?

  7. Not sure how well soup-in-a-box will go down there, maybe? I could never find the pureed tomatoes in a box from Italy when I was in the US (not shopping at the right place, probably).

    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?

  8. But--I think the focus on recently "bombed" out neighborhoods (Detroit) is misleading.

    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:

    This isn't a poor and rich issue--it is about education and taking responsibility for our kids and ourselves. The choices issue is secondary at best.

    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.

  9. I would love to see those studies you refer to.

    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:

    Results. Distance to the nearest supermarket was similar among the least impoverished neighborhoods, regardless of racial composition. Among the most impoverished neighborhoods, however, neighborhoods in which African Americans resided were, on average, 1.1 miles further from the nearest supermarket than were White neighborhoods.

    Conclusions. Racial residential segregation disproportionately places African Americans in more-impoverished neighborhoods in Detroit and consequently reduces access to supermarkets. However, supermarkets have opened or remained open close to middle-income neighborhoods that have transitioned from White to African American. Development of economically disadvantaged African American neighborhoods is critical to effectively prevent diet-related diseases among this population.

    "Neighborhood characteristics associated with the location of food stores and food service places" Am J of Prev Med, Jan 2002. Again, from the abstract:

    RESULTS: Compared to the poorest neighborhoods, large numbers of supermarkets and gas stations with convenience stores are located in wealthier neighborhoods. There are 3 times fewer places to consume alcoholic beverages in the wealthiest compared to the poorest neighborhoods... Regarding neighborhood segregation, there are 4 times more supermarkets located in white neighborhoods compared to black neighborhoods. CONCLUSIONS: Without access to supermarkets, which offer a wide variety of foods at lower prices, poor and minority communities may not have equal access to the variety of healthy food choices available to nonminority and wealthy communities.
  10. as for the stuff about poor neighborhoods and food selection--here in NYC the hoods have some of the freshest and  most interesting food products around! cuchifritos for all!!!!

    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.

  11. I can happily eat anmd enjoy a bag of cheese doodles with the rest of them, and am a big fan of freedom to eat whatever I like. But this org is still pure evil. This isn't about "freedom": crap food is always available, all the time. But try finding something fresh and nutritious in a poor neighbourhood, along the highway or in most North American public spaces.

    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.

  12. 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.

    gallery_7432_1362_502516.jpg

    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.

  13. 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.

  14. I like Satellite Sushi, too. Not only for the reasons Andrew mentioned, but because it has nice assonance.

    Assonance? or alliteration?

    Hey, how about Shinkansen Sushi? Too long?

    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.

  15. The Yard's Philly Pale Ale is always a good choice.

    In fact, that's my #1 choice. A terrific, easy-drinking summer beer.

    You should definitely look around and see what your budget buys you, though.  There's a LOT of good beer to be had in this town, and since I know you to be the adventurous and analytical sort, I can't imagine you not researching this thoroughly before arriving at a conclusion...

    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,

  16. 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.

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