rlibkind

A bit off topic, but I combined apricot and sour cherries last week for a sorbet. Very creamy tasting, even though it was just fruit and simple syrup.

If you are talking about the restaurant in the Colony Inn, they only do breakfast on Sundays and it's a brunch buffet. Considering Alaska prices, it's a good deal at $11. Standard stuff, but reasonably well made and lots of choices. The Colony Inn Cafe does lunches on weekdays. It's a different ownership completely from the Colony Inn hotel management, which is handled by the Valley Inn Hotel. ← Well, unless things have changed since I was there five years ago (certainly possible), the place I'm talking about is the Colony Kitchen. It's basically a large diner. We ate breakfast there on a weekday, and it wasn't a buffet. Some Googling indicates it's also known as the Noisy Goose. The Colony Inn brunch buffet sounds like a Sunday breakfast option, especially since Colony Kitchen can have a bit of a wait.

Colony Kitchen does a nice breakfast.

Steve, why didn't you JUST SAY NO!

Expect to see fresh corn at the local markets this weekend. Earl Livengood had Lancaster County ears (not his) at South Street Tuesday. The Food Trusts' markets, including Clark Park and Headhouse, will be open on Independence Day. Last week I picked up two quarts of pie cherries at Headhouse. Used them in pan dowdies (basically apple pie, just made in a small casserole and topped with pie crust) and ice cream. Both were delicious. For tonight I combined some of the cherries with half a dozen apricots purchsed from Beechwood Orchards; they'll become sorbet for dessert.

Expect to see fresh corn at the local farmers' markets and the RTM this week.

The video accompanying the article on the Times' web site includes a superimposed "correction" when Bittman says it can be stored for a month, and another emandation clarifying cooking time.

the Times has corrected the earlier on-line story in Wednesday's food section (and the on-line version), as follows:

The merchants of the Reading Terminal Market took a vote, and they want to celebrate Independence Day with the rest of Philadelphia. So the market will be closed this Saturday, though there will be regular hours Friday and Sunday. In addition, Earl Livengood, who usually appears at the market on Saturdays only, will be there this Friday. Advance warning: the Ultimate Philadelphia Ice Cream Festival at the market is scheduled for Saturday, July 18. The Pennsylvania Dutch Festival will be August 6-8.

Since I haven't done much taste-test with gins as you (I'm a rank amateur, you're a pro!) I defer to your wisdom, Kaite. But, a cucumber, botanically, is a fruit, closely related to melons, though most Americans tend to use it only as a salad additive, as a pickle or, for those with a Middle Eastern or South Asian bent, as an addition to yogurt. Indeed, cucumbers taste like a melon, just less sugary. I once had a white wine augmented with tiny cubes of cuke and strawberry at a now departed Swedish restaurant in Manhattan, Ulrika's. It, too, was a nice summer cooler.

Since my guests were not into Asian today, we tried George's. The on-line menu for lunch showed prices that weren't out-of-sight and offerings that, if not adventurous, seemed likely to please. This being a summer Saturday in June, no more than three tables were occupied at any time, except for what looked to be a birthday or shower in the Garden room. I ate much too much fried food. I considered a cup of the melon soup as a starter, but couldn't resist a half-sized salad ($6) surrounded by beautiful little bits of fried calamari. The squid was perfectly and lightly fried, crunchy and tender. For a main I went with the Grilled Cheese BLT ($13, I think), accompanied by lots of big onion rings. The rings were just a tad greasy and while not the best I've had, they were far superior to what you'll find in most places. The sandwich would have been perfect . . . if . . . . it hadn't been a big soggy on one side. This is not something I expect at Perrier establishment, even a very casual bistro like this one, with wide-screen TVs on two or three of the walls of the lounge room where we ate. Whenever I make a sandwich involving toasting or grilling, once I pull it from the heat I don't immediately put it on a plate and let it sit there. When still hot condensation will form on the bottom if you do. It should have either cooled slightly on a rack, or after quickly cutting for service, the sandwich placed vertically on its crusts. Hell, even a lot of Jersey diners do that with their BLTs! Our out-of-town friends opted for salads with chicken slices (which they enjoyed) because they were facing a long and rather rich wedding meal that evening; iirc, they were priced at about $10-12. She Who Must Be Obeyed ordered steak and frites ($19). The steak (she thinks it was hanger) was cooked to order and served sliced in a tasty sauce and a dollop of herbed butter. A large portion of frites came in an open-top paper bag. Unlike the onion rings, they were practically grease-less (the bag sopped up any excess); they were among the best french fries I've had in a long time. Put them in a cone and top with mayonnaise and you've got a french fry that could compete with the best in Brussels. (The mayonnaise accompanying the sandwich was a great dipping medium for the fries.) For dessert, one of the out-of-towners went for the cherry sorbet, which was creamy like a sorbetto and nicely flavored. SWMBO couldn't resist a lemon meringue-like concoction with a light pistachio toasted crust on top. It was yummy. I had an interesting variation on a gin and tonic which was quite a summer cooler. It was Bluecoat gin, muddled cucumber, a squirt of lemon juice topped by ginger ale in a highball glass. The service was okay: no errors of any significance, just not as smooth as I expect at a Perrier establishment. My guess is that the lowest servers on the totem pole draw summer Saturday lunches, and ours just might have been a college student on summer break. Would I go back? Yes. I thought the lunch menu perfect for a casual meal and, except for the soggy bread bottom, well-executed. And it was reasonably priced. Starters and sandwiches, for example, were just a few bucks more than they would have been at Tango and, based on an on-line menu check, the lunch entrees priced pretty mucy the same.

I thought about using TenderQuik, but decided to stick to the recipe given. As a consequence, I knew the meat wouldn't turn red with curing. Also, it won't last as long with just a salt-sugar cure. (But that's no problem; I put one finished breast in the freezer, and the one I'm keeping in the fridge is almost gone after just five days -- in any event, it should last at least 10 days without the nitrates properly stored. I think to be considered "bacon" in the formal sense, curing and smoking are more important that use of nitrates. Nitrates is one way to cure meat. Salt is another. Historically, I would imagine salt-cured bacon emerged either before or concomitantly with salt/nitrite cured product. Salt was a tad easier to find naturally than saltpeter. For years I've been able to purchase nitrite-free bacon from one of the Pennsylvania Dutch butchers at the Reading Terminal Market here in Philadelphia. Of course, today Whole Foods and similiar retails offer "uncured" bacon, though frequently nitrates are surreptitiously introduced through the addition of celery extracts. I guess in some ways what I made is more akin to pancetta than bacon, since it isn't smoked. I'm sure smoking would be even better. But even without smoking it's a deep-flavored, bacon-y product, strongly tasting of lamb. I ate some last night (as in the photo) on a baguette with lettuce and mayo and the strong flavor came through. Can't wait to try a BLT using this stuff when real tomatoes arrive next month. I gave some slices to Tommy Nicolosi, proprietor of Tommy DiNic's roast pork stand at the Reading Terminal. He thought it would be a great addition to lentil soup, which he frequently makes with bits of lamb. I'll try that when the cool weather returns in the fall.

I'm no expert on lamb butchery, but I don't consider this cut from the saddle. A saddle of lamb, I believe, is the entire part of the animal from which rib chops are derived, i.e., the two facing sides of the rib chops. Maybe what I used, breast of lamb, is the fatty, less meaty ends of the saddle, but all the illustrations and photos I've seen of saddle of lamb are quite meaty. This, as you can see, is not. It's basically the same cut from which "riblets" are butchered, less the bones. btw, I only slow roasted these before frying. My guess is they'd be even better if they were slow smoked. But even without smoking, they are exceptionally tasty. But only for those who truly enjoy lamby goodness. You won't win over anyone who says they don't like the gamey flavor of lamb.

Photos of the finished lamb bacon can be found here. The meat came from Giunta's Prime Shop.

I couldn't find a topic dedicated to lamb bacon in a quick search, so here goes . . . I ordered two lamb breasts from one of my Reading Terminal Market butchers in Philadelphia, and for less than $16 got two breasts with the bones removed (reserved for scotch broth or grilled riblets for nibbling - there's still a little meat left). I followed the simple recipe from Mark Bittman's blog (contributed by Danny Meyer, from a recipe from his colleague Brian Mayer; you can find it here). It's two cups salt, one cup sugar, coat the meat, wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 2-4 days until firm. (Mine took four.) Then roast at 250F until you hit internal temp of 140F. I failed to correct for my inaccurate oven, so I overcooked a bit and didn't pull the breasts until they hit 180F. But they were still delicious. Here are the before and after cooking photos:

Playboy also doesn't know from pastrami. The article says Katz's makes pastrami from brisket! Corned beef, yes. But pastrami is from navel! The writer probably ordered his on white bread with mayo.

Oslo's new airport has great hot dogs. And the fixing are, shall we say, different from what we get here? For instance, shrimp salad. But you can get chili, cheese, onion, mustard, ketchup, etc., too.

The Food Trust’s farmers’ market at South and Broad today featured four vendors along the wide sidewalk astride a subway stop and a community garden. The vendors today were Triple Tree Flowers, Hilltop Produce, Pretty Sweet Bakery, and Nuts for Nature. Hilltop offered a full range of early summer produce, and a hint of goodies to come: hothouse tomatoes, $2.50 a pound for the loose heirlooms and $2.00 a pint for miniatures. I bought cherries ($3 pint, $6.50 quart) and two 12-ounce bottles of J&E homemade root beer, $2 apiece. Among the other offerings, kirby cucumbers at $2/pint and red potatoes, $1.75/pint, $2.75/quart. Needing some quality bread for leftover grilled pork and roasted peppers, I picked up a $2.50 baguette from Pretty Sweet Bakery, which made the trek to Broad & South from Haddonfield, NJ. Based on the items on the table and prduct list at its web site, Pretty Sweet’s name says it all: they are much more into cakes, cupcakes and cookies than breads. But I needed bread. Nuts for Nature is strictly a purveyor of nut butters — hazelnut and pisctachio among those you more commonly see — but the table also offered free samples of Medjool dates rolled in nut butter. Pretty tasty.

Friends are coming in from upstate NY for a wedding in Villanova, and we'll be meeting them for lunch this Saturday. Since I rarely get out to that neck of the woods from my in-town abode, I'm totally clueless as to where to go. The meal shouldn't be too heavy, since they'll be going to the wedding that evening. They aren't foodies, so I'm not looking for anything esoteric. Perhaps slightly upmarket Asian (if Japanese, they've got to have yakitori, katsu, etc., something other than sushi to accommodate all palates). I was thinking Fuji Mountain. A decent brunch establishment would be fine, too. Ideas, people?

My supply of homemade Kosher-style sour pickles is dwindling, but the kirby cucumber crop is arriving just in time. Most of the produce vendors, at both the farmers’ markets and the Reading Terminal, are offering them and regular salad cukes. Over at the Reading Terminal Market, the Fair Food Farmstand’s blueberries were $3.50/pint. You could also obtain North Carolinas for $2/pint at Iovine Brothers Produce. You could find West Coast red cherries at Iovine’s for $3.99/pound, which is slightly less than a pint, so there wasn’t any savings compared to the less-travel locals. O.K. Lee had bags of red cherries for $1.99/pound, but there was a reason for the low price: they were soft and not nearly as flavorful as the locals. Ben Kauffman’s red cherries, $4.95/pint, were firm and flavorful. A notable bargain at Iovine’s this week were the Italian style frying peppers, 50-cents a pound. I roasted them in the oven with some olive oil and will be adding them to sandwiches all week long, or maybe frying up some onions and tossing them together with pasta. Vidalias, which I’d rather use raw than cooked, were also 50-cents a pound recently.

Last Saturday I picked up two breasts of lamb at Giunta’s Prime Shop in the Reading Terminal Market, a cut I’ve used many times before in various cooking methods (braise, braise-and-broil, indirect grilling, broiling, etc.). If you don’t like strongly-flavorecd lamb, the dish is definitely one you should avoid. But if, like me, you crave fatty flavor it’s ideal. It’s priced right at about $3.89 or less a pound on the bone at Giunta’s and Martin’s. The two pieces cost me $15, and I kept the bones, which can be used to make Scotch broth or lightly broiled/indirectly grilled for nibbling, since a little meat clings to them. I’ve been hankering to try lamb bacon for a while, so I asked Charles to bone them out. When boned, many restaurants serve this as lamb belly, usually slow-roasted. I turned my two pieces into lamb bacon, using a recipe from Bryan Mayer, butcher at Greene Grape Provisions in Brooklyn, as reported by his colleague, Danny Meyer of restaurant fame. It’s a simple recipe: coat the boned breasts with a mix of two cups kosher salt to one cup sugar, wrap it in plastic and let it sit in the fridge until the meat firms up, anywhere from two to four days. (Mine took four). Then slow roast them in the oven at 250F to an internal temp of 140, though you could also smoke them to that temperature for even more flavor. It should take about two and a half hours. My oven temp was bit off, so after a little more than two hours the internal temp and gone to 180F. But with all the fat, lamb breast is a rather forgiving cut so long as you don’t carbonize it on the grill. I took one of the pieces and sliced off five rashers, no more than a quarter-inch thick (if you can do it thinner, that’s better), then fried them like bacon in a big pan over medium-high heat. Lots of fat sizzles around in the pan so use a splatter screen if you have it, otherwise you face a big counter cleanup. I cooked it for a few minutes on each side to get it good and crispy. It was delish, even with the over-cooking in the oven. The other slab is in the freezer, where it should keep for at least a couple of months. The recipe was published in Mark Bittman's blog on the New York Times website.

Spanish mackerel made a brief appearance at John Yi’s stall in the Reading Terminal Market last week, and disappeared just as quickly. The fish that was selling at $1.99/pound whole Thursday were not to be found on Saturday. No doubt these members of the mackerel family, which tend to be found on warmer waters than the Boston mackerel, will make a reappearance. They are also slightly larger and meatier than the Boston variety, but similar in flavor. Cook them the same way, though I find they do best baked. The price of Copper River salmon drops with the size of the catch. At John Yi’s this past week filets were selling at $19.99/pound. Althogh unmarked as to variety, they are undoubtedly sockeyes. Sockeyes from other areas were selling for $15.99/pound. (Through June 17, Alaska Fish and Game reports a total of more than 600,000 sockeyes (reds) landed in the Copper River District, vs., 8,000 Chinook (king).The Copper River district accounted for most of the table-quality salmon (chinook, sockeye and coho) landed in Alaska’s Prince William Sound area of the Central Region so far this season. The Cook Inlet and Bristol Bay areas within the Central Region also scored well, with more than 100,000 each so far. Another big area for sockeyes, the “Westward” region from Kodiak Islands to the Aleutian peninsula and islands, landed just under 600,000 reds so far this season. Hardly any fish have been landed so far in the Yukon-Arctic Region.) Also at John Yi’s last week whole wild striped bass was selling for $5.99, filets $11.99. Haddock looked to be the best value among the cold-water finish at $7.00/pound, with scrod (who knows what it really is, other than some member of the cod family) was $8.99. cod $9.99. From warmer waters, flounder was $8.99 for filets. Soft shell crabs remain dear at $5.99 apiece or four for $20.

The hint of cherries last week has developed into a rush. And rush you should, too. The rains have played havoc with this first of the stone fruits, causing cracks. Ben Wenk of Three Springs Fruit Farm, which sells at the Headhouse Square Market, told me today he lost one-third of his crop to the innundations. The rain, however, didn’t hurt the cherries he brought to market. I tried his Queen Anne white cherries (well, rosy yellow, actually) shown in the photo and they were firm and tasty. The sweet red cherries from Beechwood Orchards were deep dark all the way through and just as tasty. None of these were perfect specimens, with occasional cherries showing some cracks, but if you don’t let them sit around for more than a couple days they still make fine eating. Three Springs’ priced the Queen Anne’s at $5/pint, the reds at $4. Beechwood was $3.50/pint and $6.50/quart. (BTW, the early Chalen cherries I picked up a week earlier at the Clark Park Farmers’ Market from Fahnestock Farm improved from a few days’ storage in the fridge.) Ben says to expect sour cherries for pie (montmorency will be the first variety of to appear) next week. He also had some red raspberries, $4 for a half pint. Blueberries are also available. A.T. Buzby was selling South Jersey blues for $4/pint. Beechwood’s blues were priced similarly. Beechwood was one of the few vendors at Headhouse which still had strawberries $3.50/pint, $5.50/quart). Like the cherries, rain has taken its toll on this year’s crop, so you won’t be seeing them much longer, if at all. Beechwood also offered a couple pints of apricots; expect to see more in coming weeks. Owner David Garretson said so far his apricots, peaches and apples are holding up through the rain, but that could change. Ben Wenk of Three Springs is seeing some skin-deep scarring, which should only be cosmetic and not impact flavor and flesh quality. The prior week at Headhouse, Savoie Farms offered a small supply of mulberries, a blackberry-like fruit. You can’t separate the stems from the fruit, but they tend to disintegrate in cooking. Since they are a bit less sweet than their cousins, should you find any (unlikely, since the season is pretty much done) be sure to add sugar. They tasted fine in some irregularly-shaped hamentashen I made with refrigerated pie dough. My supply of homemade Kosher-style sour pickles is dwindling, but the kirby cucumber crop is arriving just in time. Most of the produce vendors, at both the farmers’ markets and the Reading Terminal, are offering them and regular salad cuke. Tom Culton’s kirbies looked particularly attractive this week. Cahbage is cabbage, though the arrowhead variety found at Blooming Glen at Headhouse this week looked particularly attractive. Here’s the photo:

Unless I missed it, while a number of posters have discussed the importance of controlling depth-of-field via aperature, no one has stated how the relationship works. Here goes... At smaller aperatures, the depth of field is deeper, i.e., more of the image, front-to-back will be in focus. At wider aperatures, the depth of field is narrower, i.e., only the plane you focus on will be sharp, with everything to the rear (and, depending upon the particulars, to the front) will be more or less out-of-focus. The usefulness of the narrow depth of field is that it concentrates the viewer's attention on the portion of the photo in focus, i.e., the subject. As information, the higher the f/stop number, the smaller the aperature; the lower the f/stop number, the wider the aperature. As a consequence or using a wider aperature for narrower depth of field, you will have to compensate for the increased light level by increasing shutter speed; in available light hand-held photography this, as Martha would say, is a good thing, since it helps reduce the impact of shaky hands. So does a built-in image stabilization system. btw, the beauty of small aperatures is what makes pinhole and old "Brownie" type cameras capable of taking relatively sharp photos. For snapshot purposes, that's what you want. But, generally, you'll want the narrower depth of field in food photography. I've been using a Canon G9, an advanced point-and-shoot, because for my purposes I don't want to haul around a heavy camera to restaurants and on my visits to farmers' markets. To me losing the depth of field control is a reasonable sacrifice to get the ease of portability. With very few exceptions, SLRs, whether film or digital, are weighty affairs. That's because the larger sensors demand larger lenses, and because of the mirror-prism system. Mirrorless SLR-like cameras, which show an electronic image in the viewfinder rather than an optical image, are starting to appear, with a commensurate reduction in weight but retaining the benefits of interchangeable lenses and aperature-controlled depth of field; as these models are more fully developed, they will tempt me, since they will be lighter in weight than today's digital SLRs. In the meantime, if I want really great quality photos, I'll get out one of my 35-year-old Canon SLRs and load it with Kodachrome 64 (yes, you can still get it, though there's only one lab in the world that still processes it), or my Mamiya C330 with Fujichrome Velvia 100, both with tripod whenever possible.

The Blue Danube offers plenty of Gemuchlichkeit. But better in winter than warm weather.