rlibkind

Rick Nichols nailed it in his report on the Reading Terminal Market Merchants’ Association soiree held May 17 ("On the Side: Market's old-timers fill plate with memories,"[/url The Inquirer, May 21, 2009). Centered around the showing of the 11-minute video, part of a larger oral history project, the event was a celebration of the market and its history. The highlight (besides the lamb chops) was Tootsie D’Ambrosio’s singing of Happy Birthday, a la Marilyn Monroe, to Harry Ochs. Tootsie, who operates Salad Express at the market, is one of the Iovine clan, sister to Jimmy, Vinnie and all the rest. A number of former vendors were invited, including Jill Horn, who many may remember as the owner of Jill’s Vorspeise. When I first started shopping at the RTM in 1982, Jill was located against the back wall behind Iovine Brothers Produce, and later moved to the center court spot now occupied by Mezze. In addition to her various salads and appetizer, she made a killer vegetable paté with orange (carrot), green (spinach?) and white (?) layers. Tim Bellew, btw, will be the chef at Meze, the Fairmount Avenue restaurant scheduled to open sometime this fall just two blocks from my house. If he’s got those lamb chops on the menu, I may be a regular. Charles Giunta, who supplied the lamb, and Vinnie Iovine attest to Tim’s culinary skills. Besides the lamb chops, the favorite of many atttendees was dessert, served at Bassett’s counter. In addition to your choice of ice cream, various little cakes and fudge were served. Don Mitchell, who produced the video shown at the party, has about 100 hours of interviews with market merchants and customers, but funding is needed to complete the project. DVDs of the video were for sale at the event to help raise funds for the project, and I suspect they will be made available to the public soon.

We hold block parties on Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day on my urban street in Philadelphia. This year I'm bringing cold noodles in spicy sesame sauce with shredded chicken.

John Yi (Eat Fish, Live Longer) was selling Copper River salmon fillets at $26.99/pound this morning. The fishmonger swore it was Chinook (King) rather than sockeye. I'm not so sure, given that Alaska Fish & Game's Commercial Division reports that for the first two days of the season (May 14 and 18), a total of 116,000 sockeye and fewer than 3,000 Chinook were landed. An additional day was scheduled for this past Thursday. I'll give it the taste test tonight. I like sockeye, too, but the CRS Chinook is awesome.

There were two additional 12-hour windows this week (Monday and Thursday) for the Copper River District. My fishmonger at Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market was selling CRS at $26.99/pound for fillets, and swore it was Chinook (King) rather than sockeye. I'm not so sure, given that Alaska Fish & Game's Commerciaion Division reports that for the first two days of the season (May 14 and 18), a total of 116,000 sockeye and fewer than 3,000 Chinook were landed. I'll give it the taste test tonight. I like sockeye, too, but the CRS Chinook is awesome.

Finally got here for lunch today and was very pleased. I usually shy away from baby backs since I frequently find they lack sufficient quantity of meat. Not these, and the meat fell off the bone easily. Also had the shredded beef (excellent) which I vinegared up with the NC sauce. Slaw was good and the beans supreme. I don't like my cornbread as cakey and sweet as SL's version, but it was excellent example of the style, since it was very corn-y tasting.

Only three vendors made it to the Fairmount Farmers' Market today: Earl Livengood, Marcelle's Bakery and Bill Welllers. Livengood's was out of strawberries by the time I arrived about 4 p.m., just one hour after market opening. Weller, who later this year will offer fruit and vegetables, has a panoply of flower baskets and plants for planting. Marcelle's (formerly Versailles) had its usual stock or French breads and dessert pastries. My purchases today were some hothouse tomatoes from Livengood, and dinner rolls and apple pastries from Marcelle's.

Update on street signs: The PDF version of the market map downloadable from the website does indicate streets and avenues.

Rineer’s strawberries and snow peas were the highlight of my visit to the South & Passyunk Farmers’ Market yesterday. The berries were merely good, but the peas were exceptional, almost as sweet as the berries! I also enjoyed the beef jerky from Rineer’s, processed by Smuckers Meats of Mount Joy. Other vendors at South Street yesterday were Earl Livengood, Davidson’s Exotic Mushrooms, the Amish flower vendor (sorry, forget his name, but I think it’s Dave), and Big Sky Bakery.

Farm To City has added another Center City market to its list. This one is located in the bowels of Suburban Station in the 16th Street corridor between Market and JFK from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Farm to City also operates the City Hall Market on the northwest corner of the plaza at 15th and JFK on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and, under the sponsorship of Jefferson University Hospital, at 10th and Chestnut on Thursdays, starting next week, from 11 to 3:30 p.m.

“I ate ‘em”. That’s the explanation offered by Sam Consylman for the lack of morels when I caught up with him at Earl Livengood’s stand at the South & Passyunk market Tuesday. Sam’s foraging treasures are also sold, when available, at Livengood’s stalls at the Reading Terminal Market and the Fairmount farmers’ markets. Sam, forager extraordinaire, said he only collected five pounds of the fabulous fungi this spring. And a couple of his regular South & Passyunk market shoppers, under his guidance, went out foraging in Lancaster County and came back with three pounds. But that was it. Sam still expects to have poke for another week, from the roots he dug up in the fall and placed in his cold cellar for sprouting. This spring Sam planted another South American tuber, Oca, which he expects to harvest in October or November. Livengood at Bryn Mawr Livengood’s will be among the vendors opening day this Saturday for the Bryn Mawr Farmers’ Market. Others will include Birchrun Hills Farm (cow cheese, pork and veal), Shellbark Hollow Farm (goat cheese), Spice of Life (gluten-free baked goods), Vital Force Farm (produce) and Wild Flour Bakery. The Bryn Mawr Market will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the municipal parking lot between the train staiton and the Ludington Library.

Staff and merchants know that the aisles of the Reading Terminal Market have names. But few others do. That may change with the reinstallation of street signs. The broad north-south aisles between Arch and Filbert are the letter-demarcated “avenues”, the east-west aisles running from 12th Street to the market’s loading alley are the “streets”. Until the early 1990s wooden signs marked each intersections. The sign have been rescued fromn the market’s basement and cleaned up and are now being installed at the intersections, like the one pictured above. The market started the reinstallation just in time for the annual dinner this past Saturday held by the Reading Terminal Market Merchants Association, which included an 11-minute video which included photos of the signs in days past. Now, if only the map of the aisles on the market’s web site included the street and avenue designations.

Iovine Brothers Produce recent rearrangement of shelves and cases includes a more prominent presence for some items you’d normally pick up at other stores: dairy and juices. Milk, butter and a small range of other popular dairy items, along with eggs and juices, are now located by the checkout closest to Filbert Street, a.k.a. Harry Ochs Way. Iovine’s has had dairy products for a couple of years, but they’ve been in the far corner of the store. With the move, the vendor figures to move more milk. A few checkout aisles over is where mushrooms and a few other refrigerated produce items have been moved.

Ugh! Super-cold aquavit is a sin. When I was first introduced to the spirit I, too, thought icy cold was best. But I've sinced discovered that it totally overwhelms the taste. Classic aquavits are flavored with herbs, and they don't stand up to major chilling. A little cool, perhaps, but room temp is best. btw, I've long enjoyed the Scandinavian book from the Time Life series (and especially that photo series); many of the recipes are, as my Norwegian father-in-law might have said, "not so bad".

The last U.S. beer I recall seeing in smaller bottles was Rolling Rock's 7-ounce ponies. I doubt Anheuser-Busch InBev has continued that tradition, though I'd love to be proved wrong.

The hardest part in duplicating this at home would be to find aquavit. Most liquor stores will, at best, have only one brand here in the U.S., and its likely to be Danish, not Swedish. Some might have Norway's Linie, which gets its name from crossing the equator (twice) in the cask on a the deck of a cargo ship during a roundtrip sea voyage from Norway to (usually) Australia; during the journey it picks up its characteristic color and wood flavors to join the herbals. What's off in the photo series is the lack of beer. A glass of good lager usually accompanies the aquavit. Here's a photo of the selection of aquavits at Fryet at Youngstorget in Oslo, along with the winsome barmaid.

Saturday’s visit to the Reading Terminal Market saw the produce stands starting to bulge with spring produce, and even a bit of fruit! Benuel Kauffman’s Lancaster County Produce was selling pints strawerries for $4.95, or two for $9. Ben said they were grown in the field, not under hoop houses. Meanwile, Iovine Brothers Produce had California berries at $1 for a one-pound pack, which looked to be the equivalent of about a quart. I bought a pint of Ben’s and they were intensively flavored, sweet and of medium size. The berries at all the markets will only get better over the next few weeks. Break out at the whipped cream and pantry ingredients for short bread! Earl Livengood lacked strawberries, but his greens were overflowing: endive ($2.50/bunch), Napa cabbage ($2.95), kale, collards and chard ($1.95), lettuces ($3.25), and spinach ($2.95). Rhubarb was $3.95, and small bunches of Lily of the Valley were $2.95; he also had peonies. Earl’s Asparagus was $3.50 a bunch. The Fair Food Farmstand had its usual broad selection from the region’s small farmers. The fiddleheads were dear but pristine at $19.50, though they still insist on calling them wild-crafted. What’s wrong with wild-harvested? Asparagus was $3.85 for chemical-free, $3.00 for IPM (integrated pest management). Rhubarb was $5.50/pound for chemical-free, $3.00 for conventional. Over at Iovine Brothers limes were a bargain at 10 for a buck; it seems that one of the wholesalers was stuck with many cases of 200-size limes, which are just a tad on the small side, but shoppers at Iovine reaped a bounty; these little guys still had plenty of juice. White grapes from Chile, where it’s the end of the season, were 89-cents for packs of about a pound each. And let’s not forget the pepper report, which I’ve skipped lately: green bells 79-cents a pound, orange and yellows $2.49, reds $2.99, and hot and frying peppers, 99 cents. Two days earlier at Iovine I priced juice oranges at 5/$1, and bags of California clementines (three pounds each, I believe) at $5.99). The clementines’ meat is loose in the skin, but they’ve got great taste. Mangoes are showing up in abundance; Champagne mangoes from Mexico were 2 for $1.50, regular “tropicals” from Guatemala $1 apiece. Hawaiin Ataulfo’s were $1.99. Boston mackerels are plentiful, $2.99/pound at John Yi. Soft shell crabs could be obtained $5.99, or four for $20. Over at Giunta’s Prime Shop, Charles is selling duck legs from Pennsylvania’s Joe Jurgielewicz & Son for $5.99. Giunta’s organic chickens are from Coleman, $2.99/pound for whole birds.

I visited opening day (May 9) of the Saturday Headhouse Square farmers’ market sponsored by The Food Trust and found the east side of Second Street alive with vendors: Los Taquitos de la Puebla for taco al pastor; Earl Livengood for his usual spring selection of fresh, pristine produce; Davidson Exotic Mushrooms for shitake and oyster fungi; Two Ganders Farm for honey and biodyamic produce (whatever that means); John and Kira’s Chocolates (I couldn’t resist a 9-piece pack of ladybugs and bees); Young’s Garden for herb seedlings and flowers; Spice of Life for gluten-free baked goods; La Colombe Torrefaction for coffee; and Henry Fisher’s Lancaster County produce, eggs and cheese. More vendors are expected to join the Saturday roster in coming weeks. Yesterday at Headhouse the Sunday market was in full swing. Do you want white radishes (Weaver’s Way) or white turnips (Blooming Glen), which might have been switched at birth? The young cooking greens were seductive at all the produce stands, as were the young garlic bunches at Blooming Glen and the scallions (green onions) at Weaver’s Way. You want exotic mushrooms or greens? Try Queen Farm. And I love the baguettes from Marcelle’s Bakery (formerly Versailles); they aren’t as crusty and light as you’d get from Metropolitan or Le Bus, but much more like the everyday baguette you get in Toulouse or Paris: a bit breadier and more substantial, full of flavor. Berry season has finally arrived. Tom Culton’s organic pints sold at $5/pint, while across the aisle A.T. Buzby offered conventionally-grown quarts of South Jersey berries for4 $5.50, or two for $10. The outlook for summer fruit is looking good. Ben of Three Springs Fruit Farm said they’ve got lots of fruit set and plan to thin them out this week, so we can look forward (weather permitting) to great harvests of stone and pome fruits as we get into summer and then to the fall. He also said that for the coming season, they plan to pack more peaches in water than they did last season; although their peaches in light syrup hardly have more calories than the water-packed version, so long as you drain the liquid, a lot of folks were disappointed when the sugar-free variety sold out.

Any list like this is going to enrage, validate and amuse. Keep in mind, though, that its main function is to fill the space between the rapidly diminishing volume of advertisements.

It means what it says: fish born and raised in a hatchery located within the named watershed (Copper River), then released into the wild. As you can see, this is a very small proportion of the total sockeye population. Additionally, keep in mind that "hatchery released" is totally different than "farmed". Farmed fish spend their entire lives on the fish farm, and are fed manufactured feed by the "farmers" (aquaculturists), and are frequently administed supplements, including antibiotics. Once hatchery fish are released (which happens as the same age as wild fish would normally leave their home streams for the open seas), they feed and live the same as wild fish, then return to their home waters to spawn. The hatchery program is more akin to "ranching" than "farming". The Alaskan program was introduced in the 1970s when wild salmon stocks were exceedingly low. The wild stocks have since rebounded dramatically and much care has been taken by Alaska to reduce risks to wild salmon fitness.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Commercial Fisheries Division, announced there will be a 12-hour window for Copper River salmon starting at 7 a.m. May 12. You can find the full news release, issued yesterday, here. If Alaska Airlines' cargo division does its usual good job, the Chinook (King) should hit West Coast restaurants/stores the following day. However, all varieties may be harvested during the widow. To give you an idea of how rare the Chinook is, here are the Copper River harvest totals from last year, by number of fish: 299,000 Sockeye (wild) 21,700 Sockeye (hatchery released) 11,500 Chinook 202,000 Coho Pink and chum salmon were under 1,500 fish apiece. The language in the news release is a bit imprecise as to whether or not there will be an additional window the following week. It reads that regulations "stipulates that there will be no more than one fishing period in waters inside of the barrier islands as described in 5 AAC 24.350(1)(B) during statistical weeks 20 (May 10-16) and 21 (May 17-23)."

Curiouser and curiouser. So much for the rogue vegetable theory. Definitely a subject for Dr. McGee to tackle! I've forwarded a note to him, so let's see if he has the time/inclination to investigate.

That is too funny! How about a Sunday drive to New Glarus? Do a beer-tasting -- $3.50 a person at the brewery, plus you keep the glasses -- then follow with a meal at Glarner Stube. We enjoyed lunch at Glarner Stube in mid-April during our annual trip to Madison and found it quite nice (and filling). Hearty, homey food. I forget the prices, and they aren't lised on the website menu, but they were well within your budget. Six could easily share the fondue for an appetizer. Then move on to sandwiches or entrees; the later include various wursts, schnitzels, chicken, fish, etc. If you do the tasting at the brewery, you can get a coupon (or is it a receipt?) that entitles you to a small beer at the restaurant. Afterwards you could walk it off visiting the touristy-shops of town. New Glarus is just under 30 miles from downtown Madison, a 45-minute drive. Again, it's Mother's Day and you'll have a long wait (if you get in at all) if you don't have a reservation. Here's Glarner Stube's website. .

The Avenue Bar, 1128 East Washington. Nothing fancy, straight-forward food, reliably executed. Excellent value. A menu like a diner's (well, not as extensive as a Jersey diner, but fairly broad). Something for everyone, including a kids' menu: hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken strips, PB sandwich. Definitely within your budget, so long as you don't order the porterhouse. Sunday dinner specials: Baked Chicken ($10.95) Roast Beef ($10.95) Roast Pork ($10.95) Baked Ham ($10.95) They come with soup or salad, potato and veg. Lots of other choices (mostly fried fish/shrimp) but mostly in the $12-$17 range. You can get an $18.95 top sirloin or ribeye steak. Menu also has burgers and sandwiches. Link to menu and website. I would urge you to make a reservation for Mother's Day if you intend on going there. It will be busy.

That's a stumper! Only thing I can think of is maybe the carrot and parnsip were particularly woody (petrified?). Acid reaction with legumes I can fathom, but not carrots and parsnips. I mean, half-inch slices get tender in a 10-15-minute simmer! By all rights, after three hours, they should have been baby food mush. When I've braised carrots and parsnips in a butter-wine concoction (maybe not quite as acidic as tomato sauce, but still acidic) they've become pleasantly crisp-tender in that short an amount of time. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced ('til proved otherwise) that you started out with some rogue veggies.

I've always liked Ocean Harbor. And although some folks hold different opinions, I also like Joy Tsin Lau for dim sum.