rlibkind

Thanks, all. It will probably be Barclay Prime. But has anyone been to Butcher & Singer? Menu looks pretty similar to Barclay Prime, since they're both Starr establishments.

Just to make it clearer than I did, I'm looking for steakhouse recommendations.

I usually cook my own steaks, with varying success. But SWMBO expressed a desire for a steakhouse meal. Suggestions? I'm partial to rib steaks on the bone (oh, for a good old fashioned Jewish Roumainian steak with lotsa garlic), SWMBO goes for filet mignon/tenderloin.

Heading to Wisconsin in a couple week. Can't wait for more Spotted Cow!

Hennepin, accompanying bockwurst steamed atop sauerkraut and onions braised in unpasteurized apple cider. Not an idea combination, but satisfying nonetheless.

When Iovine Brother's Produce expanded its prep area few years back, the walls came tumbling down and, with them, the rustic, primitive farm scenes painted on them opposite L. Halteman Family Country Foods. Maybe I missed it earlier, but one of those painted panels remains. It's located on the aisle behind Halteman's opposite what will soon become Molly Molloy's, formerly The Beer Garden.

The Reading Terminal Market's annual Harvest Festival will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. As usual it will feature hayrides around the block pulled by a farm tractor, caramel apples, freshly made donuts, cider, and a cornucopia of autumnal produce.

More vendors sold their goods at the Headhouse Square Farmers Market today than any other Sunday so far this season. Katy Wich, who manages the market for The Food Trust, said 34 different vendors showed up today, including one new one, PorcSalt, which has been an occasional vendor at the Rittenhouse Saturday market this year. With produce tables groaning under the weight of apples, squashes, potatoes and other harvest goodies, it's my favorite time of year to wander farmers' markets. Because the larder's rather well-stocked at home, my purchases were minimal. The only "must" item on my list was apples. And what a selection! Three Springs, Beechwood and North Star all offered great variety, most priced at $2 to $2.50 a pound -- more than what you'd pay at the supermarket, but all fresh-picked off the tree. My big score was an Espopus Spitzenberg. This apple holds a special place in my heart, but not merely because it tastes so good (definitely on the tart side, but enough sugar to balance it out, plus a crisp, dense flesh). No, it's among my favorites because its named for the creek (Esopus) where I used to swim -- or at least get into the icy cold water -- during family vacations in the northern Catskills, in the Big Indian-Oliveria valley. This apple, great for out-of-hand eating or baking, was available today from North Star. Of all the apples offered by North Star this week, it's the one true antique. It was reputed to be one of Thomas Jefferson's favorite. Over at Beechwood Orchards, Dave Garrettson offered another American antique, the Northern Spy. Although it can be enjoyed as a dessert apple, i.e., eaten out-of-hand, and is an excellent storage variety, it's highest use is in pies. Since my available kitchen time this week is extremely limited, I reluctantly passed these beauties by. Instead, I picked up some Macouns, Winesaps and the latter's even tastier offspring, Stayman, all from Beechwood. Of course, if you're stocking apples for plain eating, you've got to get some cheese as an accompaniment. For that part of the equation I stopped by Sue Miller's Birchrun Hills Farm stall where I picked up her Red Cat. This is a washed-rind cheese, slightly pungent (most washed rind cheeses are stinkier) and creamy. The main course for tonight's dinner also came from Sue: bockwurst, a traditional German sausage traditionally all-veal or mostly veal with a bit of pork. I'll cook it tonight with sauerkraut braised in unpasteurized apple cider mixed with mustard, maybe throwing in some carraway seeds. Which reminds me, gotta put some beer in the fridge. Although mashed potatoes would be the ideal side, I picked up some rye bread from Ric's.

Enjoy the Linie. And drink it like the Norwegians do: room temp. Fuller flavor for sipping.

In South NJ, Aalborg can usually be found, and sometimes Linie, which can always be special ordered. I used to find Julilaens, but no more. I enjoy Aalborg and other unaged aquavits (norway's Simmers) with herring, etc., but Linie and other cask-aged aquavits are best neat. I find a Scotch whiskey glass like Riedel's nicely promotes the nose. With Linie there's a nice orange whiff along with a subdued caraway.

Business at DiNic's has certainly benefitted from the Man vs. Food show (portions of which have been recycled into other Travel Channel shows). The increased congestion at Center court is one of the reasons why the market sought to relocate the stall to Ochs' spot. I'm not convinced it will work, but it's worth a shot. Since the line can be be long at Hershel's across from the new spot (though not nearly as long as DiNic's), a traffic cop might be necessary. (As it is Market security often has to shape the Dinic's line.)

It was Beechwood for throws paws. Btw, Lisa of North Star saw my blog entry about apples and said what I bought was the Adam's Pearmain.

The USDA's My Plate nutritional guide provides reliable info on this subject. Some folks may gave quibbles over particular aspects of it, but it's the starting point for any discussion. http://www.choosemyplate.gov/index.html

It will probably be another week or so before DiNic's begins construction on its new Reading Terminal Market home, the former Harry Ochs stall. With all permits and designs in hand, the work will begin once a contractor is selected from from the bids received. This past Saturday Jimmy Iovine was sweeping up inside the now vacant Beer Garden space which is tentatively scheduled to reopen in mid-October as Molly Molloy's. This week a new floor is due to be installed. Along Avenue D in back of the Beer Garden temporary construction walls are up as crews work in that area. The storage and prep areas there have been permanently relocated to the basement. Meanwhile, work continues above Tootsie's Salad Express on the expanded market office.

Once upon a time, the roast pork sandwich at DiNic's at the Reading Terminal Market could be had with only one green: spinach. Tom and Joe Nicolosi, the father-son team which operates the Center Court stall, tried adding broccoli rabe, but no one wanted it. That changed a couple years ago when DiNic's reintroduced the bitter green. Tastes change and now it's a hit. This Saturday Joe was tending to five trays of rabe for cooking with oil and garlic, vs. two of spinach; considering that the spinach weighs less than the rabe per volume of measurement and has a lower yield, the rabe probably outsells spinach by a ratio of nearly 10-to-1. Although you could hardly go wrong my ordering a sandwich with aged provolone and spinach, I go for the rabe, which offers a clear balance between the sweetness of the pork and bitterness of the green. Lately I've been indulging in breakfast sandwiches from The Grill at Smucker's. Moses Smucker and his crew offer a meaty start to the morning, piling on plenty of ham, bacon, sausage of pork roll atop a roll also filled with egg and/or cheese. The pork roll comes from John F. Martin in the Lancaster/Berks area; it's good, though lacks the spicy punch of the original Jersey variety from either Taylor or Case. The sausage breakfast sandwich comes with two patties which are both the size of a hamburger; the sausage seems to be flavored with a bit of onion rather than sage, but that's no sacrifice to my taste.

Thanks to North Star Orchards at Headhouse Square today, I tried an apple new to me, a Pearmain. There are a number of varieties of Pearmans, and I failed to ask Ike which one this was. Perhaps it was the American Summer variety. Mostly green (with plenty of red tinge) this apple has an appealing tart-sweet balance and pleasing crunch (though certainly not as hard as a Granny Smith). I'm adding to my list of sought after apples. After undertaking some web research, it's no surprise I enjoyed the Pearmain: it's a cultivar of my all-time favorite, the Cox Orange Pippin. In other Headhouse observations, Matt Yoder went back to Maine earlier this summer, so this field-bean growing enthusiast has split from his short-lived partnership with Tom Culton of Culton Organics. It's left to Culton to sell all those beans: he had plenty of dried cowpeas today, which make a great succotash with the last of the summer's corn should you find any. Although the corn is fading fast, it's that wonderful time of year when fall produce is offered side-by-side with the last of summer. Tomatoes and peaches will probably be the next to disppear, but eggplants and cucumbers are among the summer produce items still around, as is the late season raspberry. Crisp-tender root veggies like celeriac (celery root), winter squashes, and fall fruits (grapes, apples, pears) help ease the kitchen transition. This is also the time to get paw paws with which you can make a variation on banana bread, cookies, cream or custard pie, cake or ice cream. And with the disappearance of extreme heat, local lettuces are back, like the red-tinged bibb variety I picked up from Earl Livengood at Fairmount's farmers' market .

All Norwegian akavits must have caraway, though other flavors can be used and sometimes predominate.

That's's Loitens, not Koitens!

Linie and Aalborg aquavits are readily available in US. I can get them at almost any South Jersey shop, tho sometimes I may have to place a special order; it's usually filled the next business day. I'd live to get others. Gilde is nice as is Simmers Taffel, Aalborg's Jubilens., Koitens, and Gamel Opland. Some of the regional Norway aquavits from Arcus (which produces almost all Nowegian spirits), including the Bergens variety. Arcus is Swedish owned but I'm unfamiliar with that output. I prefer aged varieties with the exception of Simmers which is great with herring and other cured fish. Here's a link to PDF of spirits list at my fav Oslo bar which lists dozens. http://www.fyretmatogdrikke.no/Download/FyretDrikke.pdf

I've made ice cream, custard pie and bread (think zucchini bread) with them. The Kentucky State University website has recipes. http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/Recipes.htm

Valley Shepherd Creamery is expected to be the first new vendor to occupy space along the Reading Terminal Market's Avenue D. Earlier this month the RTM and cheesemaker Eran Wajswol signed off on a proposal to occupy about 700 square feet across Avenue D from what will soon be Molly Molloy's gastropub. The shop will be located along the RTM's back wall, where it will be easiest to pipe in fresh milk from delivery trucks. That's necessary because Wajswol plans to make fresh cheese on premises for market shoppers. At Valley Shepherd's farm store in Long Valley, N.J., his fresh offerings include cream cheeses (no gums or additives) and ricotta. As its name implies, Valley Shepherd specializes in sheep milk cheeses, although some of its products are cow-sheep mixes. Although the RTM will make fresh cheese, Valley Shepherd earned its stellar reputation with its aged cheeses. If you're interested in more details, see my blog at http://bit.ly/ogTd7M.

Wound up at Han Dynasty. Despite lusting on "special" menu, they didn't have them.

For tonight, what restaurants are serving ss crabs? Any cuisine will do: basic seafood, Asian, whatever.

Rye is my usual, bit iirc from childhood in the 50's, "club rolls" were quite an acceptable alternative.

News about aspects of the renovation project: The Beer Garden Work on The Beer Garden will start next week, with the projected grand re-opening scheduled for Oct. 11, which just happens to be the birthday of the owners' mother. With the reopening, it will be renamed for her, Molly Molloy's. In the meantime, no beer or other alcohol, which means Jack Morgan (Downtown Cheese) and Dom Spataro will have to find another spot for their morning pick-me-up. In addition to more beer taps Molly Molloy's will feature food by chef Bobby Fisher, who's worked for owners Vinnie and Jimmy Iovine at a number of their catering venues. The new entrance to the Beer Garden will be from Center Count. The Iovines had hoped to close off the entrance from the aisle between Franks A Lot and Coastal Cave, but the Philadelphia Historical Commission nixed that idea, which necessitated a modest redesign. Dinic's DiNic's has completed a rebuild of the walk-in refrigerator at the former Harry Ochs' stall, where it will relocate its roast pork and beef emporium sometime this fall (probably late October or November). Tommy Nicolosi and son Joe said they're already using it. Wednesday they met with the architects as the design nears completion. Expect to see work on the former butcher stall to begin sometime after Labor Day. Tootsie's Salad Express From Tuesday, Sept. 6 through Sunday, Sept. 11, Tootsie's Salad Express will be closed due to renovations to the Market office. Market Office The Market office on the mezzanine above Tootsie will be temporarily relocated to a storefront within the Convention Center along 11th Street. They'll be there for one or two months, starting the day after Labor Day.