rlibkind

I believe Herring Festival, which started Monday, has been extended through next week. It's still $27 for lunch, and a great deal. Same menu as previously, every bit as good. The paté with anchovy is also excellent. I accompanied mine with a Carlsberg and a Aalborg Taffel Aquavit (carraway and orange). We got there with a 12 noon reservation in the cafe, and there was no waiting. Marcus Samuelsson even made a few appearances in the room.

All of the above, plus . . . A cupcake or two from Flying Monkey A South Asian fritter or two from Nanee's Kitchen While roast pork/rabe/provolone (aged) is the gold standard at DiNic's, the pulled pork, brisket, and sausages are also quite fine. And as an alternate to rabe or spinach, their sweet roasted peppers are perfection. Tommy will also make you a great cold roast beef, which he'll do up with horseradish and peppers, upon request. Of course what you choose will have a lot to do with what's normally available in your own neighborhood. For example, as good a Hershel's corned beef and pastrami are (and they are very good, corned/cured in-house) if you leave near the Lower East Side of Manhattan and have easy access to Katz's, Herschel's will be almost, but not quite, as good. They do hand-carve their meats, the brisket is wonderful, too. And they've got belly (salty) lox, available for sandwiches either pre-sliced from Marshall's or handsliced from a whole belly; they've also got Nova, but the salty lox, unsmoked, is increasingly hard to find. If you're a licorice lover, stop by Mueller's Chocolates, which has a gazillion varieties, primarily Dutch, including a great selection of double-salts for hard-core licorice lovers. They've also got a lot of old-fashioned candies, as does Sweet As Fudge (across from Miller's Twists). You might also want to try the chocolate-covered potato chips at the Pennsylvania General Store, or buy somne Copes Corn to cook at home. If it's still breakfast time when you arrive, try the scrapple at either the Down Home Diner or the Dutch Eating Place. The latter also has killer apple dumplings. I'd recommend you go for something you like that you can't ordinarily find at home. For a hoagie at Salumeria, be sure to ask for the house dressing, and the marinated artichoke hearts are a fine addition to any sandwich. I generally go for the prosciutto hoagie. I know Chinatown is only a couple blocks away, but I've always found some of the basic items at Sang Kee make a quite nice lunch. I particularly like the roast pork (or duck) platters served with a green vegetable and the lightly sauced white rice; you could also do the meat in a soup bowl. At Bassetts, pick your fav flavor, but I've always been fond of the Raspberry Truffle, plain vanilla and French vanilla. They also make a mean rum raisin. They also have ice cream sandwiches.

If only it were so. People like their bacon nice and crispy, but (except for the BLT and its derivatives), they many have trouble when soft (roast pork) and crisp (pork skin) are together in the same bite.

That would be the aforementioned Labrador Current.

Eh? Fourchu and Cape Breton are in Nova Scotia, not New Brunswick. (Though the folks in Cape Breton hardly recognize Nova Scotia's dominion.) Two very different provinces, even if they share a border. I not sure attributing the perceived culinary superiority of Fourchu lobsters to "the absolute coldest lobster-fishable waters around" holds (excuse the expression) any water. Newfoundland has a substantial lobster fishery as well, and it is slightly more removed than Cape Breton from the warming effect the Gulf Stream, and considerably closer to the cooling effect of the Labrador Current (though, truth be told, the Newfoundland's waters most exposed to the Labrador Current don't have much of a lobster industry). Local conditions, though, could vary. Maybe it's in the feed, i.e., the food chain in the local waters off Fourchu.

West Philly, thanks to the dominating presence of U of P, has long been Ithaca on the Schuykiill, i.e., a community where political and environmental correctness are firmly rooted. So it only makes sense that the Clark Park Farmers’ Market today would feature fruit smoothies produced in a pedal-powered blender. The smoothie stand was an adjunct to the produce stand operated by University City High School students. Sweet cherries made their first appearance of the season at Clark Park. (Earlier in the day I stopped by Greensgrow, which pubicized they would have cherries. Alas, they either didn’t get the delivery or they were sold out 20 minutes after the market opened.) At Clark Park the cherries were offered by Fahnestock Farms, $3 a pint for the Chelan variety. Alas, they weren’t particularly sweet or flavorful. Through further research on the web I learned that’s characteristic of the variety, which was developed in Washington State because they can be picked 10-14 days ahead of Bings. However, they do tend to retain their flavor in storage better than other cherries. Peas in the hull were also available at Clark Park, including $2/quart baskets from Keystone Farm. Landisdale Farm offered quarts of string beans for $3.95, the first local beans I’ve seen this season. Here’s the Clark Park strawberry report: * Fahnestock, $3 pint/$5.75 quart * Keystone, $3 pint * Eden Garden, $3/$5.50 * Landisdale, $3.95 pint

The strawberry season, which usually extends to late June and even early July, looks like it may be shortened this year. The culprit is the wet weather which is wiping out some of the crop. So get them while you can. Jimmy Iovine of Iovine Brothers Produce says he usually gets local berries from Shady Brook Farm in Bucks County, but this season Shady Brook barely has enough berries to meet its own farmstand and pick-your-own needs.

Given the interest expressed in another topic about adding pork rind to roast pork sandwiches, I thought many of you would like to know that Tommy Nicolosi, proprietor of DiNic’s, has been experimenting with adding pork rind to his roast and pulled pork sandwiches. He’s still working on the recipe, to make sure the cracklings are neither too hard nor too rubbery. If he does decide to offer them, they might be as an “extra”, since he’s concerned most of his customers won’t want to find the tasty bits of pork skin in their sandwich.

To heck with another cheese steak stand. How about some hot beignettes? The former proprietor of Pompano Grill is talking with Reading Terminal Market management about opening up a Louisiana style eatery in the vacant space formery occupied by Andros Gourmet, just across from Tootsie’s Salad Express. The menu would include beignettes (yeah! hot donuts!), seafood etouffé, jambalaya, etc. Work is ready to start this coming week on the adjacent space to be occupied by S&B Meats. A mid-summer opening remains possible for this butcher shop, which will also include a cooked sausage stand.

The summer solstice draws nigh, only two weeks away. So it should not come as a surprise that watermelon was among the featured fruits at Iovine Brothers Produce today. For sure the melon was not local; it will probably be another six or seven weeks until we see that. But the domestic melons (whole and in pre-packaged sections) certainly looked attractive. Maybe it’s time for a watermelon and feta salad. The whole, oblong seeded melons were selling for $2.99 apiece, the smaller but still substantial globes of seedless melons, $1.99. Spring remains firmly evidence from the abundance of strawberries. L. Halteman’s berries were $2.99/pint, $5.49/quart (though the snow peas were also attractive at $2.99/pound). Earl Livengood’s organic strawberries were $3.95/$6.95, Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce was similarly priced, though you could also get two quarts for $13. Fair Food’s chemical-free berries were $4.95/pint, conventionals $3.50/$6.75. Summer squash has made its appearance, with both yellow and green zucchinis selling for $2.49/pound at Kauffman’s, which also featured bunch beets at $2.49, white new potatoes for $2.5o/pint, reds $3.95. Kauffman’s turns on its new rice cake popping machine when the crowds thicken. The Rube Goldberg contraption not only sells the rice cakes, but Ben’s assortment of spreads and nut butters. On the protein front, Giunta’s Prime Shop included at least one cut of meat new to its display, lamb “London broil”, $8.99/pound. Like it’s beef counterpart, it’s cut from the top round. Giunta’s also had lamb shanks for $5.49/pound and ribs at $3.29 (same price as at his brother Martin’s). Whole mackeral would cost you $2.99/pound from either Golden Seafood or John Yi. The latter’s Copper River Salmon (King) came down in price to $22.99. They also had Alaskan sockeye (my guess is it’s either CRS or Bristol Bay) for $12.99, the same price as Arctic char, another member of the salmonid family. Soft shell crabs remained $5.99 apiece or 4/$20. Back at Iovine Brothers, both green and red bell peppers were on sale for 89 cents, with the oranges and yellows commanding $2.99/pound. Garden State asparagus was $1.99/bunch, jumbo limes 5/$1, and Ataulfa mangoes 2/$1.

Definitely not shoestring. These handcut fries are a slightly thick cut at about 3/8-to-1/2" wide (that's a guess), which puts it as larger than a shoestring or your typical fast-food fry, but still significantly smaller than a steak fry. Ranges up to maybe three inches in length, some about half that. Perfectly crisp (with the smaller ones more crunchy in a nice way), great potato flavor.

The first time I went to Sketch, about two months ago, the burger was good, although not nearly cooked to order: I asked for rare, it arrived well. The hand-cut fries, however, were exceptionally good, so I made myself a promise to return and give the burgers a second try. I got back today for lunch and the burger, with a ton of sauteed onions atop, came back as ordered. Maybe not as rare as I would cook it (which would be Pittsburgh rare, i.e., charred on the outside and raw in the very center) but rarer than medium rare. As before, it was huge (at least six ounces, cooked, maybe more) and chock fully of beefy flavor. I tackled it with knife and fork, since lifting it seemed to be a problem in quantum mechanics. The fries remain the best I've had in the city since the Belgian-style friture on South Street closed some time ago after a brief run. The garlicky aoili was a perfect accompaniment. Put these frites in a paper cone and one could imagine being back on Boulevard Anspach, even if the cut wasn't quite the same and the potato a different variety from the ones used in Brussels. They are that good.

Forgot about Beiler's. They're certainly OK, but just that.

In honor of National Donut Day, what's your favorite non-chain donut in town? So, I'm excluding Dunkin and Krispie. Although those donuts are okay, the best donuts come from smaller little shops. The donut ideal of my childhood was made by a World War II vet who outfitted an old school bus as his donut shop and parked it on the side of the road. All he made were plain and sugar-coated (confectioners sugar, not a glaze) cake donuts, fried in lard. Yum! Whether cake or raised, where do you go for donuts (again, besides the chains). btw, National Donut Day, on the first Friday in June, which is today, commemorates the Salvation Army female volunteers known as “lassies” wo prepared thousands of fresh donuts to the homesick soldiers that served in France during World War I. National Donut Day was officially established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds during the Great Depression.

An expanded palette of vegetables was evident at today’s Fairmount Farmers’ Market, where Sam Stolfus offered not just strawberries, asparagus and sugar snaps, but broccoli, cauliflower, and beets. Lettuces, rhubarb, spring onions and cooking greens were also available. Sam also sells mushrooms and Amish sweet baked goods. Sam’s cruciferous veggies were selling for $2 a head. Beets, radishes and collards were $1.50/bunch, asparagus $2.25. Heads of lettuce were $1.50 also. Sam’s strawberries were $3/pint or $5/quart. Nearby Earl Livengood’ stand offered strawberries for $3.95/$7.50, as well as pristine collards and kale, along with potatoes, spring onions, spinach, lettuces and a few other veggies. Marcelle’s Bakery was among the missing this week (I don’t know whether that’s permanent or not), but Wild Flour Bakery was there in its stead. A colorful selection of plants for the patio could be found from Weller’s or Dave.

The little bits of white stuff that appear after cooking is coagulated protein, not fat. Nothing wrong with it, but it indicates the fish might have been overcooked a tad. Another eGulleter has posted a wonderful low temp roast salmon recipe that, so long as you remove the salmon from the oven soon enough, avoids the visible coagulation and, more importantly, produces one of the most succulent salmons you'll ever taste. It's not in RecipeGullet, and I'm having troubling finding the thread where Vadouvan posts the recipe. Nonetheless, I have it in my files, so here it is: Mix together. 1/4 cup of Kosher or Maldon salt 1/4 cup Superfine Sugar not powdered 10x......superfine. The zest of 2 large lemons, removed with a microplane, no other tool. Rub your boneless salmon filets with this mixture. About 1 tablespoon for every 8 oz of fish. Top with one fresh bay leaf and wrap tight in plastic. Refrigerate for 2hrs max. Rinse of fish, dry well with lint free cotton or food grade paper towel. Rub lightly with high quality EVOO. Bake in a 225 degree oven till it just flakes and no white liquid (coagulated proteins) are oozing out of it yet. I think using Maldon salt in this would be a waste of money, since what makes Maldon salt unique is not it's flavor, but it's flake/texture. Good old Diamond Brand kosher salt is my standard. For a one-pound filet the cooking should only take about 20 minutes if fish is at room temp, about five minutes more if it's still cold from the fridge. Although Vadouvan's preference is to use only Chinook (king) it works great with sockeye (red).

She Who Must Be Obeyed and I enjoyed Greg, Katie and Sam's hospitality at the first test service Monday, and it turned out to be a wonderful meal and early dinner. First of all, Katie truly is a wizard of waterless wetting agents. SWMBO, a sucker for anything with apricot brandy, totally adored that punch, finishing every last drop, which is a rare occurence these days in her usual light consumption of alcohol. I did the same with the Blonde Caesar which tasted both fresh and briny, thanks to the tomatoes and clams, respectively. On every table is a welcome throwback to Kelly's of Mole Street and every other Philadelphia fish house of the past: Old Trenton Crackers filling a giant goblet with a horseradish container on the side. The goblets, I'm sure, are from the same stock as at the original Oyster house. The oyster stew wasn't on the menu Monday, but a nice range of oysters was. I went for one of my favs, Daramiscotta Pemaquids, cold, briny and minerally. They were expertly shucked and brought to table with little or no loss of liquor. Five of the six seemed to have their full complement of juicy stuff, and the sixth still had some, too. Absolutely no sign of broken shell in the oyster. I could have had a dozen and a half. I consumed half the oysters unadorned, the rest with just a touch of the classic mignoette. I didnt try the cocktail sauce, though I should have tested it with one of the OTCs. Next I ordered the grilled Portuguese sardines served with extraordinarily good pre-season tomatoes aboard two slices of baguette. The boneless butterflied sardines came through with flying flavors intact. SWMBO, saving room for dessert and not being a total seafood fanatic like me, skipped the starter and ordered the grilled sea bream (filet) for her main. She enjoyed the fish, but the skordalia upon which the porgy sat arrived cold: not room temperature, cold. I'm sure that has been rectified. I was hard pressed to choose between the roasted halibut with mussels and the soft shell crab, but went for the latter to test the kitchen's pan frying skills. It was expertly done, was accompanied by a New American succotash: corn, peas and some unidentified member of the onion family. It all worked very well together. We also had an order of the shoestring fries. Shoestrings aren't my favorite variety, I prefer them thicker. They were tasty if just a tad less crisp than we like. Everything, btw, was beautifully but straightforwardly-plated, with little in the way of frou-frou. Our server kept us informed of the progress of one course (dessert) that was, pardon the pun, a trifle delayed. He also let us know when he'd be bringing out SWMBO's food, since she didn't order any starters, to make sure that would be okay. We both thoroughly enjoyed our desserts. My rhubarb strawberry compote was a simple but satisfying seasonal sweet au gratin topped with vanilla ice cream, with just enough sugar to balance the tartness. SWMBO was ecstatic over her slightly overbaked lemon curd cupcake, topped with a poppyseed cream of some sort. Lemon and poppyseed is one of the few combinations that can divert her attention from chocolate. The curd in the center was bright and fresh. It made her think Twinkies should be filled with the stuff. The room is as Holly described, and the plates were one of the first thing I noticed after the stunning bar. The wall between the two old dining rooms has been removed to create a more open space, but the wainscotting has been retained, albeit repainted to a lighter color to avoid a musty, clubby feel. And, there's now a WC on the main floor, so you don't have to descend the stairs to the basement (unless you want to). My only curmudgeonly critique of the ambiance is the noise levels, even with the space only half-filled. I look forward to trying the full menu, eating more oysters. Based on the limited menu Monday, the fish seems to be updated in the New American style, while Greg and his kitchen staff retain respect for the star ingredient. I love that approach, but also hope the menu will include a few traditional classics, like snapper soup, maybe fried Ipswich clams. Certainly even a simple but exceedingly fresh grilled or fried flounder would be appreciated. I would have been pleased with the food, drinks, service and decor if the place had been operating for a year. I'm astounded by how well the entire staff did given it was their first service under the gun.

Predictably, I will second, third and fourth the Reading Terminal Market suggestions. The best items to get there, which are either not to be found in Manhattan or different in construction, quality or style: Roast Pork sandwich, with greens (either rabe or spinach) and aged provolone at Tommy DiNic's. Salumeria's hoagie. You can find a good sub in NYC, too, but if you order Salumeria's with house dressing and marinated artichokes, along with the more traditional fixings, you have a unique sandwich. I go for the proscuitto, but anything with Italian style cold cuts works. Pretzels from Miller's Twists. Sure, NY has pretzels, and when I was a kid living in North Jersey and we took the St. George Ferry to Brooklyn or Manhattan, I loved what I called "pretzel bagels" from the vendors. But the hot pretzels slathered with butter at Miller's are beyond compare. Check out the Pennsylvania Dutch cold cuts at L. Halteman's or Hatville Deli. You'll have to search hard to find souse in Yorkville these days. You might be able to find Lebanon bologna somewhere in NY, but it's easy here. Same goes for jellied tongue. As a general rule I prefer the quality at Halteman's, but Hatfield has a couple of worthwhile items. Also as noted earlier, scrapple. Enjoy it for breakfast at either the Dutch Eating Place or the Down Home Diner. You can get excellent ice cream in New York. But you'd have trouble finding Bassetts. What can be better than a dish of rum raisin from an outfit that's been in business continuously since 1861? I'm not a big fan of the Pennsylvania Dutch style of sweet baked goods, but you can try for yourself at Beiler's. Some other Philadelphia treats: Tripe sandwich from George's in the 9th Street Italian market. I suspect you can get an Italian-style tripe sandwich somewhere in Manhattan, more likely Brooklyn or Queens, but you sure don't hear about that much. (Speaking of tripe, is there anywhere in town that still serves true pepperpot soup? The one at City Tavern is beef-based.) Snapper soup. I hope the new version of the Oyster House on Sansom Street has it. In the meantime, Snockey's does. Of course there are oysters and assorted plain fried fish and seafood at Snockey's, which you can also find in NY. But you won't find a place with the old-time fish house feel of Snockeys. There hasn't been any place like that in Manhattan since they gentrified Sweets and Whites out of business at South Street.

It's not charcuterie in the French sense, but a trip to Bell's Crossing supermarket will unveil an incredible array of uncommon salads, cold meats and prepared foods. Of course, that's available in Brooklyn, too.

Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce has added a new gizmo to its counter at the Reading Terminal Market, the rice cake popper pictured above. When operating, a cake pops out of the machine (with a muffled pop) about every 10 or 12 seconds; the plexiglass prevents the finished cakes from hitting customers. The cakes aren’t pure rice, instead they are a mix of wheat, rice, corn with some salt. A bag of 15 sells for $3.49. They are pretty tasty, at least when fresh out of the machine. Note that the staff enjoys munching on them, too.

Strawberries, red potatoes, yellow squash and more at Kauffman's If you haven’t bought strawberries yet, don’t wait. This week has got to be the peak of the season. The pint I purchased from Livengood’s, at Thursday’s Fairmount Farmer’ Market, was the sweetest and most flavorful yet. They simply don’t get any better. Today at the Reading Terminal Market the prize for lowest priced berries goes to Benuel Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce, with two quarts for $11, the equivalent of $2.75/pint. A single quart was $5.95, pints $3.95. L. Halteman had the best price for a pint, $3.29, with quarts at $5.99. Fair Food’s conventional berries were $3.50/pint, but chemical-free berries from Rineer’s were $5.50. Earl Livengood’s were $4.25/pint or $8.25/quart. Livengood’s had some beautiful, thin red scallions (spring onions), for $1.75 bunch. Kauffman’s added yellow summer squash to its offerings today, $2.49/pound. Over at Iovine Brothers Produce the price of limes went up to four for a buck, after a couple weeks at 10 for a buck. Although loose lemons remained 3/$1, you could bag a bag of six large lemons for the same price. Green seedless grapes in clamshells went up to $1.99 this week, but the tray-wrapped grapes were $1.49. Stone fruits from California and other southern climes are in abundance, including apricots at 99-cents a pound. Sandwiches at Bassett's? Yes, ice cream sandwiches. I noticed the vanilla ice cream sandwiches for the first time today at Bassett’s Reading Terminal market counter, though the server said they’ve occasionally had them for about a year. They go for $1.25 apiece. The Guardian, one of the UK’s leading daily rags, looked at Philadelphia’s food scene today, with writer Joshua Stein spending an inordinante amount of time at the Reading Terminal market, where he enjoyed Tommy DiNic’s roast pork so much he had two! Stein also declared the pretzels at Miller’s Twists “perhaps the best pretzels in the world”. Read all about it here. The New York Post made a trip to Philadelphia recently with an obligatory stop at the RTM, which it called “Philadelphia’s town square”. Read about it here.

It's moderately surprising that such a sandwich does not appear to exist in Chicago, given that city's love of the Italian beef sandwich which very much resembles our beloved Italian pork sandwich. When well made (alas, not too often in my limited experience) the Chicago Italian Beef is a very nice sandwich. But I've never seen it with greens. Roasted sweet peppers, yes, but not greens. Nor aged provolone.

Better deals on strawberries could be found at Sunday's Headhouse Square market than at the RTM the day before, where pints ranged from $4.25 to $5.50. At Sunday’s Headhouse Square, where A.T. Buzby offered quarts for $5.50, or two for $10. Blooming Glen’s pints were $3.50. Yoder Heirloom’s quarts were $7. Tom Culton’s heavily-laden table included “picked today” berries at $9/quart. Tom said his crew was out at 12:30 a.m. to start the picking. He slept in ’til 2:30 a.m. Birchrun Hills Farm, best known for its cheeses, also sells meat. Sunday they featured veal in a variety of cuts, all humanely raised. Chops were $15/pound, scallopine $18, cubes (my guess is it was cut from the shoulder clod) were $11, and osso bucco $13.99. They also had ground veal for $6 and liver for $9. Blooming Glen featured the colorful chard pictured below.

A week ago, local strawberries were just starting to appear. This weekend they were in their full grandeur at the Reading Terminal Market and all the neighborhood farmers’ markets. At the RTM, Benuel Kauffman’s $4.95 pints were being undersold by Halteman’s $4.29 pints and Earl Livengood’s $4.25 pints. Fair Food, selling Rineer’s output, was at the high end at $5.50. Better buys could be found at Sunday’s Headhouse Square.

Vinnie Iovine is big on Panther Farm in Vineland. Because of the quality of their vegetables, you’ll see lots of their output at Iovine Brothers Produce this season. In fact, Iovine’s has a larger poster declaring Panther Farm their featured supplier. Also known by the family name, Flaim Farm, it produces romaine, kohlrabi, spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, swiss chard (green, red) ,rainbow kale, turnips, napa cabbage, squash, eggplant (four varieties), peppers, escarole, endive. tomatillos and scallions on 450 acres. Recently they’ve added “value added” eggplant “fries” and cutlets to their offerings, and have marketed them to school lunch programs in the Garden State. The farm was established in 1934 and is now operated by brothers Kevin and Bob Flaim. They also sell at the Collingswood Farmers’ Market.