rlibkind

It's a new year, so it's time to start a new message string for this topic. Clark Park is continuing to go strong this winter. About nine vendors attracted a moderate but steady stream of customers this morning. Since I had already visited the RTM and was bound for Greensgrow in Kensington/Port Richmond (more about that in my next post), I limited my purchases to four small storage winesaps, from Keystone Farm at $1.29/pound. They had good flavor, were relatively unblemished but, like almost all storage apples, had lost their crunch. Lots of good looking root vegetables and, especially, winter greens at the various produce vendors. Also some spring greens, like dandelions, courtesy of some growers' greenhouses and high tunnels.

If you'd like to dip your tastebuds into the more peated Islay malts, I concur with db_campbell's recommendation for Caol Ila, though the 10-year-old is more easily attainable. It's an excellent introduction to the style, from which it's easy to "graduate" to the peatier malts.

The "mystery pizza" will go on sale Monday. The baker is Danny DiGiampietro, and the bakery is located in South Philly at 8th and Watkins (1712 S. 8th). Pizza will be available from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., I think seven days a week. Right now the sign in front says "Coppola Bakery", which was the name before Danny took over the shop nearly a year and a half ago. It might be changed to "Giampietro" by Monday. Maybe not. The actual name of the business, though this will probably change, too, is Danti's Bread Company. Danny's main business is baking sandwich rolls for steak and hoagie shops, including Tommy DiNic's at the Reading Terminal Market. So, as I noted earlier, his entry into the pizza world is not to turn it upside down, but to simply add a profitable line to his base business. At the same time, he wants to make sure the quality of the pizza is as good as his commercial bread. (And it is good, as anyone who has enjoyed DiNic's sandwiches knows. I've tried Danny's regular Italian bread; it's not very dense, but it's got a little more chew to it than, say, Sarcone's.) Danny has no pretention of making a "destination" pizza, so he hasn't invested in an expensive wood-burning oven or plans on an artisinal approach. Just a good, solid pie that is, amazingly, not easy to find in Philadelphia: good, crisp crust, straight-ahead sauce, high quality cheese. I think his availability of other toppings will probably be limited, so don't expect to order a clam pie or pineapple and ham. He does have a big brick oven in the basement, which probaby dates back 80 or 100 years, since he figures the building was built as a bakery. It's restorable, but would take a major investment, one he's not planning to make in the foreseeable future. Here's a photo of the bakery, with a contractor checking the sign before replacement (and Danny, hidden, buttressing the chair). BTW, none of the non-bread items touted by the Coppola sign are available at Danny's. Although he offers some cinnamon raisin rolls, he's basically a bread baker and, starting Monday, a pizzeria.

The cheese might have been overdone a tad, even before I reheated at home. I discussed the pizza with one of the baker's sandwich roll customers, and we both agreed that it was a better-than-average pie that would be our go-to pizza if it was in our neighborhood. But that led to a further discussion about what makes a "wow" pizza, which this wasn't. I've had only a few pizzas that fit that category, and in each instance it's been a simple pizza margherita from a wood-fired oven: charred dough with a little sauce, a little fresh mozzarella and some basil. (Maybe a couple anchovies for me.) As much as I enjoyed the fine version of the pizza this "mystery" effort represented, it won't "wow" anyone. But I fully intend, when the baker goes on stream, to ask for it again, underbaked for finishing at home.

Made it back to Bell's again today. The produce section is quite decent and has some good prices. For example, huge Jumanji-sized oranges for 79 cents apiece. I picked up a bag of Mineola oranges (I tried one as soon as I got home: very nice), contained six large ones for $2.19. (They're 50-cents apiece loose. IIRC, they were 75 cents each at Iovine Bros. at the RTM last week.) Sweet red peppers were $1.29, yellows $2.49. If I was in pickle-making mode, they had unblemished medium kirbies for 99 cents. The olives remain a bargain when compared to most stores, with most priced at $4.99 or thereabouts. There were also plastic container-packed pickles, including cornichons at $1.99/pound. A great variety of eggplant and sweet-pepper based salad spreads (usually called by their nation of origin, i.e., Uzbek, Georgian, Armenian, etc.) were also available by the pound from the olive lady, along with stuffed grape leaves (and not just with your Mediterranean rice stuffing; the Georgian stuffed leaves looked like it was the eggplant-based salad spread). The salads also included some to cater to Asian customers: Korean carrot salad and a couple of Japanese-style seaweed salads, among them. From a self-serve case I picked up eight ounces of Kronos taramasalata for $2.49. (They also have a "lite" version; why bother!) The breads are near the olive and prepared salad spreads and range around the world. In addition to the expected Eastern European ryes and other loafs, there was a nice selection of Italian breads, lots of Portuguese breads, even some packaged Naan. In addition to picking up some cold cuts (rolled veal breast, pork role, i.e., rolled bacon) I bought some mushroom, mushroom-chicken, blueberry and cherry-cheese blintzes from the prepared foods counter near the smoked fish. The counter featured some new additions since my last visit last summer: samsas. These are Uzbek stuffed pastries. The pastry looked nice and flaky, with chicken, beef-lamb combo and pumpkin stuffings. Maybe next time. The expanded dairy cases hold a nice selection of butters, so I purchased an "extra butter" from Poland, $2.59 for seven ounces (200 grams). Not cheap, but less expensive than other high butterfat butters (13 grams per tablespoon vs. 11). Once again, I had to restrain my purchases because there's only so much room back home. Why do I only manage the trip to the Northeast only twice a year! Purim is only a month away, so I've definitely got to make a Northeast bakery run for hamentashen, and I might as well revisit Bell's Crossing then. (BTW, the mohn hamentashen at the Famous on 4th Street are superb, the best I've had in a long time: not too big, with a shiny egg wash and loaded with filling; I can't imagine the lekvar hamentashen are any less good.)

It's not meant to be a destination pizza, Sam. The guy who made it runs a small Philadelphia Italian bread bakery and the main part of his business is supplying steak and hoagie rolls to cheese steak and hoagie makers. He's trying to add a little more profit to what is a thin-margin business (especially with the rise in flour prices), but he's got pride in what he produces, so he's been experimenting with making pizza and asking for comments. It's definitely on the thin crust side, though not papery. Avoiding toughness in the dough is a concern. When I tried a cold slice at the store (he does do a little retail bread business) I thought it was too tough. But when I took home a whole pie and reheated it on a bakery's stone in a 500F oven for a couple of minutes, the samples I tasted weren't tough at all. It's definitely not over-sauced. She Who Must Be Obeyed doesn't like much sauce at all and appreciated the light hand. It's also a straightforward sauce, with just bare hints of seasoning. There might have been just a tad more cheese than needed, though I think most folks like to see more cheese rather than less. I know that after taking it out of my home oven, I felt the burn on the roof of my mouth for the next two days. The cheese, btw, is high quality, from Grande. No need to top this stuff with oil to prevent it from burning. As I noted up top in response to Sam, it's not a destination pizza, but rather, based on my taste of one sample so, far, a very good example of the type of pie I enjoyed in my North Jersey homeland, which is hard to find in Philadelphia. It's a very well-executed neighborhood pie. I'll let you everyone know when he's ready to go public.

Nicely charred.

An acquaintenance, an experienced commercial and retail baker, is considering branching out into pizza, so he's making test pizzas for friends. Just on looks alone, whaddya think?

Iovine's was $2.39/pound, so as suspected, and Katie confirms, the Asian markets are worth the detour if you're buying anything more than a couple of hands.

We were at Lacroix in October and it's still exceptional. $56 plus drinks and tip.

The actual quality of "choice" beef falls within a range, and it's really geared to the individual animal. I've had some choice that tastes more like prime, and some prime that comes close to choice. The standards for grading are objective, but the net result (flavor) is subjective. As for antibiotics in beef, what you want to avoid is cattle which have been treated with sub-therapeutic levels, i.e. given to the animals on a constant bnasis when they don't need it to treat disease. If an animal has been given antibiotics to treat a particular malady and it's cured, I don't have a problem with that, because that antibiotic isn't going to become systemic and, should I eat the meat, affect me. On general principals (and I'm only marginally conversant with health issues) I'd rather avoid meats that receive hormones for muscle-gain or sub-therapeutic antibiotics. But I've had supermarket beef that undoubtedly was raised on sub-therapeutic antibiotics and hormones, and it's tasted delicious. Flavor is my top priority!

It's been a while since anyone posted to this topic, and since She Who Must Be Obeyed and I stopped by this afternoon, and it's definitely the hot chocolate season (this weekend's temperature forecasts notwithstanding), it's time to bump the topic and remind everyone just how good the hot chocolates are at the Naked Chocolate Cafe. We both ordered our beverages "European" style, i.e., undiluted with steamed milk upon serving. Very rich that way. Eat with spoon, do not sip. Think chocolate soup. Mine, in the foreground, is the "Indulgence" sized Aztec, flavored with cinnamon, cloves, and a few other spices. The spice flavors were forward, but not overwhelming and highly complimentary. SWMBO's petite Hawaiian hot chocolate featured Hawaiian lava salt, rounded out with caramel. The salt was clearly present in the taste, but it did intensify the chocolate flavor. The caramel smoothed out the whole package. For consumption later at home, we purchased one small box of cordial cherries (I love chocolate covered cherries, even the cheapie chemically-flavored ones) and a box of assorted chocolates. Their price for the French-style chocolates is a bargain, about $22 a pound. I'll report later when we've had a chance to evaluate as to whether it's a real bargain when it comes to consumption. With Valentine's Day approaching, now seems a great time to visit this establishment. It's one of the things that reminds me just how much fun it is to live in or near Center City.

Whole hands of ginger are certainly available: both Iovine Bros. Produce and O.K. Lee Produce sell them. I don't recall the price, however. If youre planning on purchasing a lot and price is an issue, you'd probably save a few shekels by walking two or three blocks to Chinatown. Better still, if you're buying in case lots, head to the regional produce terminal in South Philly.

I concur. Keep it cheesy and simple. If you want other flavors, serve other dishes.

Thanks for the update. While I enjoyed PP the couple of times I went there, there's no dearth of decent falafel joints.

SWMBO and I made our way to Ansill a week ago: it was my pick for my birthday dinner, not having been there before. Because we were there early on a Tuesday evening, we encountered none of the service issues Mano survived on a Saturday. SWMBO had tomato bread and grilled chicken, highly seasoned with lemon and pepper (seemed like a mix of different peppercorns ground up), plated with a spear of broccoli rabe. The chicken was so small, I suspect it was a rock cornish hen (which is, after all, merely a very young chicken). Though there wasn't much of it, what there was, as Spencer Tracy would say, was "cheerce". She also ordered a side of potatoes boulanger, potatoes with caramelized onions and bacon; very bacon-fatty, very delicious. The tomato bread was very high quality slices of bread accompanied by slightly cooked cherry tomatoes and roasted garlic, which you spread to taste. I started out with bone marrow atop the same bread as Jean Sue, less the tomato and garlic, accompanied by parsley salad. This is a riff on a dish pioneered at St. John Restaurant in London, which truly does specialize in "head-to-tail" eating. There, however, the marrow is served still in the bone, bread on the side for spreading. Here, the marrow was disappointing, lacking full flavor and dried out, perhaps from being cooked outside the bone. It should be unctuously oily; it wasn't. I followed that with the chef's pasta of the day, spaetzel with de-boned beef short rib, butternut squash and spinach. A beautifully balanced dish, absolutely delish. I ordered a cheese course (Epoisses), served with some bread and homemade spicy apple preserve; to make it truly festive I accompanied it with a sweet dessert wine. All the food, with a glass of wine for SWMBO, a beer and the dessert wine for me, totaled $80 before tip. The menu was not nearly as full of "offal" as thought it would be. Regrettably, that's probably responding to the marketplace. It's not offal, but I hungered for pork belly, sadly missing from the menu. Despite the disappointment with the marrow, definitely worth a trip back.

Re: Alyans. Haven't been there for five or six years. Do they still have those incredible french fries fried with the hot peppers (and onions, iirc)? Re: 20th Street. And he sings! I was a regular of his until I stopped working across the street eight years ago, and he'd feed you falafel while you waited for your chicken. In the late 1980s (or perhaps it was the early 1990s, the mind tends to go) in addition to the cart he cooked at night at a now defunct greek restaurant on South Street (might have been called Mykynos, somewhere around 6th?), where I enjoyed wonderful grilled quail. Pita Pocket, 16th btw Walnut & Locust. Like eating in a Jerusalem fast-food joint: hummus, falafel, schwarma (mostly chicken), schnitzel, kabobs, etc., and a self-serve bar with all the fixings you'd find in an Israeli joint: pickled carrots, eggplant, beets, olives, pickles, cabbage, etc.

After a check of all the Reading Terminal Market butchers yesterday, only two handle Pekin (Long Island) ducks. The first, as discussed upthread, is Giunta's Prime Shop. The price is $3.89/pound. The other is the Fair Food Farmstand, selling pasture-raised ducks at $8.75/pound from Friendly Farm (I don't know anything about Friendly Farm), supplied via Lancaster Farm Fresh in Quarryville, an organic coop of Amish and Mennonite farmers. Godshall's has whole muscovy ducks, $4.99, magret (moulard) parts -- plain and seasoned -- from D'Artagnan at $14.99, and confit, but never handles Pekin duck. You can find some game birds from Eberly. L. Halteman sells whole muscovy ducks as well as parts. Neither Harry Ochs nor Martin's regularly handle ducks. Eberly, btw, is not owned by D'Artagnan, but is a major supplier of poultry to that distributor. D'Artagnan is primarily a distributor of other producers' output. Eberly also supplies certain varieties of bird to Bell & Evans.

I haven't tried it, but others profess you can create a soy "buttermilk". It's the same technique I use to create "buttermilk" from real milk when I don't have any of the former. Let a cup of soy milk come to room temperature (or heat cold soy milk for no more than a minute in the microwave, so it just barely comes above room temperature). To the barely warmed cup of soy milk, add one tablespoon of plain distilled white vinegar (do not use a flavored vinegar, i.e., cider, balsamic, sherry, wine, etc.). Let sit for 10 minutes and you'll find it thickens (clabbers). Use in any recipe that calls for buttermilk or yogurt. Sounds reasonable to me, and worth a try. It should provide the necessary tang.

If only as an occasional item, shrimp and grits made a reappearance as a breakfast blackboard special at the Down Home Diner in the Reading Terminal Market this morning. It's the first time I recall seeing them since Jack McDavid left active management to Jordan Shapiro. For $7.95, you get shrimp and grits and two eggs, any style. I have no idea whether it will be on the menu tomorrow morning or on any regular schedule.

I don't recall seeing D'Artagnan birds at the RTM, then again, I never looked for them in particular. I'm not sure that Ochs or Martin's handles duck; Godshall's, however, does, at least the Muscovy variety, which is, for all practical purposes, a different animal. I'll peel my eyes for them tomorrow. I'll also check the price on the JJ birds, though they I don't think weren't less expensive than $2.99/pound. In fact, a year ago I paid about $3.50/pound. As far as species goes, the Long Island and Berks County birds are both Pekin ducks. And they are raised in similar fashion, though obviously differences in feeds, conditions, etc., could make a difference. I haven't done a taste test. Virtually all ducks available commercially in this country are "natural". Hormone use in poultry is prohibited by federal regulation, and none of the major producers allow antibiotics in feed. As info, on its website D'Artagnan offers whole Pekin ducks at $26.99 for a bird of five to five-and-a-half pounds; that's about $5/pound. Website sales are where they charge the most, but I find it hard to believe a retail butcher or supermarket could charge only half that price. Their "Long Island" ducks come from Indiana, which probably means either Culver or Maple Leaf Farm.

I counted more than a dozen varieties of citrus fruit at Iovine Brothers Produce Saturday morning. Here they are, along with prices: * Temple oranges 5/$1 * Jumanji oranges 2/$1.49 * Blood oranges 4/$1 * Tangelos 5/$1 * Tangelos (3-pound bag of about 11) $2.99 * Tangerines 10/$1 * Ruby grapefruit (medium) 3/$1 * Red grapefruit ( large) 2/$1.49 * Navel oranges (California) 2/$1.49 * White grapefruit (medium) $2/1 * Honeybells 2/$1 * Cara Cara red oranges 2/$1.49 * Navel oranges (Sunkist medium) 3/$1 * Juice oranges (Florida) 4/$1 * Red navel oranges (Florida) 4/$1 No guarantee the prices and varieties will be identical this weekend, but they'll probbly be close. Among those varieties I've tried in the last couple of weeks, the red navels from Florida were interesting, but I don't think they hold universal appeal. The sweetness and juice levels were well below those of regular navels, and the taste was more akin to grapefruit. I've been unable in web searches to pin down this variety's ancestry, and wonder if it's a cross or derivative of grapefruit. Not a bad orange at all, and a nice change of pace. But not a knock-your-socks-off variety. If organic and small grower citrus from Florida is one of your requirements, you might consider stopping by the Fair Food Farmstand and paying a premium. Navels and Cara Cara red oranges were selling for $1.50 apiece, Sunburst tangerines 95 cents each. A premier juice variety, Hamlin, priced at 60 cents apiece. Red grapefruit were $2.75.

More on Miller's Twists. The proprietory-to-be, Roger Miller, has worked at the Dutch Eating Place for the the past nine years, as the store manager.

A steaming bowl of chili or cauldron of soup seems essentially in cold weather. Fish chowder also satisfies that craving for me. I went with a piece of haddock from John Yi's last Saturday. Since I'm the only one in the house who enjoys this New England classic, I only used about a quarter pound of filet. A lot of folks think New England chowders have be creamy and thick. They don't. IMHO, whole milk allows the flavor of the fish to come through best. I start out by gently sautéing in bacon fat a small onion, a stalk of celery, and half a carrot, all diced to about one-quarter inch. Once they turn translucent I add a medium diced potato, and gently sauté for about 10 minutes. Next comes about a cup of stock (I used vegetable stock made primarily from last fall's red celery from Tom Culton of Headhouse Square, though either fish or chicken stock would work very well) and a cup of whole milk, which simmers the veggies for another 10 minutes. By this time the potatoes are just about done, so it's time to add the fish (cut up into spoon-sized pieces), salt and pepper to taste, and thyme, dried or fresh, maintaining the pot at a simmer. After five minutes add a tablespoon of butter -- don't stir, just let it melt atop the liquid. By the time the butter adds its yellow sheen, the fish is probably cooked through. Once in the bowl, I top the chowder with fresh chopped parsley. To accompany, I used the last of my precious stock of Crown Royal crackers, a Maine favorite which has been discontinued by Nabisco, but OTCs would work well, too. Saltines and oyster crackers just don't have the necessary heft for this soup. If you don't like plain white fish, no reason why you can't use shrimp, lobster, scallops or clams. That filet of haddock at John Yi's in the Reading Terminal Market set me back $7.99/pound, which was also the price of the flounder. Fluke was $9.99. It was also one of those weeks where wild striped bass cost less than its farmed-raised cousin (a striped bass-white bass cross), $4.99 vs. $6.99 for whole fish. Boston mackeral has made an early appearance (it's strongest runs start in the spring), with prices ranging from $1.49 to $2.59, depending upon size. Medium-sized porgies were $2.99, cod filet (which would be an other good choice for chowder) $9.99, black sea bass $5.99. A Wan's Seafood, the haddock would have set me back $11.99/pound. Whole striped bass as $3.99 (though the quality didn't look quite as good as at Yi's), though the filets were appealing at $9.99. Wan's was the only RTM fishmonger still selling sardines, $3.99. Golden Fish's new cases displayed wild striped bass at $4.99, whole black sea bass at $4.99, Bronzino (another sea bass, farm-raised in Europe) for $7.99 on the bone, and particularly good looking, fat mackeral at $2.99. btw, I only used about half the haddock I purchased in the chowder. I wrapped the remains of the raw fish well and placed it in the coldest part of my fridge. Four days later it still looked and smelled very fresh. I cooked it via sauté meuniere, finishing the sauce with capers, anchovy and sliced olives. It reminded me of just how good a decent piece of easily cooked a simply sauced fish can taste.

At least since the beginning of 2008 the only Pekin duck I've seen at Giunta's is the Joe Jurgielewicz bird. To me, yielding that much fat is, as Martha says, a good thing. Especially considerably how much D'Artangnan charges for it! It keeps perfectly in the freezer and will make all your fried potatoes taste wonderful. If you really don't like that much fat, I'll be glad to take it off your hands!