rlibkind

i was actually disappointed with the one jurgielewicz duck i bought. the one i bought had an insane amount of fat that rendered off. which isn't a bad thing as i used it all but, it was at least twice if not three times more than what i get from a dartagnan duck. more importantly, i found the flavor was not up to dartagnan quality. have you cooked many of these jurgielewicz ducks and found consistent quality? i'd be willing to try again if your experience has been different than mine. ← Was the D'Artangan duck a Pekin duck? Although they sell Pekins, most of the ducks they offer are either magret or muscovy, which have considerably less fat. Also, I simply don't have a problem with lots a fat on a Pekin duck. That's the way it's supposed to be. I last purchased one about a year ago, using everything except the breast meat (which I froze) for rillettes. I thawed the breasts five months later and pan roasted them; they were meaty, juicy and flavorful. btw, the ducks sold in the Chinese markets I visited (admittedly, only a couple) are Joe Jurgielewicz. Also, keep in mind there are two Jurgielewicz duck producers -- same family, different operations, one in Pennsylvania, the other one of the last remaining Long Island operations.

I can't think of a seafood purveyor with better quality than Browne Trading. You will, of course, pay dearly for the privilege.

It will be the same pretzel. iirc, Miller works for one of the other Amish merchants and is setting off on his own. My guess is it's just a change of location and ownership, and the ovens, recipe (and probably much of the personnel) will remain the same. Fear not, Katie.

By the time Flower Show comes around in early March, the soft pretzel operation at the Reading Terminal Markets will have moved under new ownership. Miller's Twists will be the name of the new business, and it will be located across the aisle from the existing pretzel stand operated by Paul Fisher, occupying some of the space that's now a seating area. Miller's will also add ice cream, another transplant from Fisher. Once Miller's opens, Fishers will expand its candy business from its current tiny alcove into the current pretzel/ice cream space; design work for that expansion is not yet completed. The space formerly occupied by Dutch Country Meats will be shared by two related businesses. One will be a butcher primarily selling pork products, the other will be a lunch vendor selling cooked sausage and related products for both on and off-premises consumption. Absolutely no movement on filling the space vacated by Everyday Gourmet (before that it was Andros), though RTM GM Paul Steinke would love to locate an ethnic grocer there, perhaps a Russian, Polish or Ukrainian food purveyor.

Why Cheese Whiz on Cheese Steaks? Dominic Spataro, who added cheese steaks to his menu at the Reading Terminal Market more than a year ago, told me the tale of how Cheese Whiz came to be used by some cheese steak purveyors. (He's strictly an American or Provolone man). He thinks he heard the story from either Rick Olivieri or saw it on a WHYY-TV show: Seems that Pat Olivieri, being a good businessman, recognized that South Philly had a sigifniciant Jewish population, but many would not/could not consume his steaks, even without cheese, because slices of cheese were placed on the steaks while they were cooking, thereby contaminating the grill by mixing meat and milk product, a definite no-no under the laws of governing what is kosher. Since Cheese Whiz came in a can, he could slather it into the sandwiches after they were removed from the grill. Those kosher-inclined customers who didn't want cheese on their steaks could order them without fear of any contamination from the grill. While the cheese-less steaks offered by Pats were hardly Glatt Kosher, they at least didn't mix milk with meat, thereby opening the Jewish market to his product.

When Charles Giunta opened his Giunta's Prime Shop at the Reading Terminal Market his goal was to offer strictly organic or hormone-free meats. Though his signage suggested he'd be carrying USDA prime grade meats, he did not. Now, Charles' products happen to be of excellent quality; I think his wet-aged beef, particularly the steaks, are about the best value you can find in red meat protein. But the signs are misleading, and only a portion of the beef he carries is hormone-free, let alone organic. You have to ask whether a particular cut is hormone-free before you buy it, and the staff is not uniformly informed. Although I prefer hormone-free meats, I don't have hard-and-fast rules about it – if the beef tastes good. But I don't think he signs should suggest otherwise. As for the "Prime" moniker, while that is also deceiving, I don't have as much of a problem. When USDA changed its grading standards more than 20 years ago, the difference between Prime and Choice became a lot fuzzier, as far as I am concerned. There's plenty of Prime out there that isn't, and, likewise, it's not that difficult to find Choice that tastes like Prime. And I won't even get into how most of the prime rib roasts (more properly called standing rib roasts) sold in this country are not Prime grade beef. Likewise, only some of Charles' poultry products are hormone-free organic. He initially carried a lot of Eberle product, but now he focuses on Bell & Evans, which is a natural bird, i.e., no additives, non-therapeutic antibiotics or growth hormones. The all-natural ducks from Joe Jurgielewicz & Son of Shartlesville, about half an hour north of Reading, are superb. When I recently asked Charles about this issue, he observed that he simply couldn't have survived on just organic and natural meats because they are more expensive; his customers just didn't purchase them in high enough quantities to justify basing the business on them. While there are a few customers who will pay $18 or $23 for a steak, the vast majority of shoppers, including those at the Reading Terminal Market, look for the least expensive product that still offers reasonable quality. A tip of the hat to blogger Gaetano of Philly Market Cafe for refocusing my attention on the signage discrepancy.

Maybe just an incredibly light touch of good old black pepper? I'd be careful with replacements for the white sugar. I've never heard of a sorbet done with honey, for example, perhaps because of its extreme hydroscopic nature. But I'll leave that for the more scientifically inclined among us to comment upon. I have seen sorbet recipes that call for invert syrup (trimoline) because it is less likely to cause crystallization. But, let's face it, sucrose is sucrose, even when it's broken down to fructose and glucose, as it is in invert.

Rather than a sorbet to accompany the lamb, how about a sorbet as palate-cleanser. That's a traditional use, and one that I think highly appropriate when serving such an intensely flavored main course as lamb leg seasoned with curry. No reason why you can't use a gentle herb here. But one of the nicest palate-cleansing sorbets I've ever had was celery-flavored. Which, I guess, counts as an herb if you start out with the leaves. (Or a spice if you start with the seeds.) Think of it as a Dr. Brown's Slushee.

Case Histories Top photo shows the new cases at Golden Fish at the Reading Terminal Market. Makes their product much more attractive looking. Bottom photo is the recalcitrant freezer at the Fair Food Farmstand (that's co-manager Sarah Cain at right). For the second time in about a year the freezer went kaput and had to be repaired. It happened on a Friday, so that day and Saturday all frozen items (primarily meats) went on sale at half-price, to the delight of shoppers. The few items that didn't sell were donated to food banks. When the Fair Food Farmstand moves to its new location within the market, probably in the spring, new cases will be obtained.

Visited the winter market at Clark Park Saturday. The Food Trust has managed to attract 8-10 vendors each week to this year-round venue. This past Saturday vendors were: Forest View Baking Keystone Farm (root veggies, beef, pork, apples) Slow Rise Baking Eden Garden (apple syrup, apples, root veggies) Margerum's (preserves, root veggies, herbs and spices) Earl Livengood (root veggies, greens) Betty's Buttons (fudge) Two other vendors who usually make the market, but didn't last week, were Landisvale Farm and Mountain View Poultry. The most interesting product I found was pointed out to me by Jon Glynn, who manages the Clark Park market for the Food Trust. It was the apple syrup from Eden Garden. It's definitely apple-y fruity and sweet, but with a bit of a tannic bite like molasses. Might be interesting to use in a cocktail, as well as on pancakes. Earl Livengood is considering shifting his winter presence strictly to Clark Park, since he had found his Saturday business at the Reading Terminal Market drops off considerably at and after lunch. Also, he can no longer be two places at once, since son Dwain is spending a year in Honduras.

I'm a sauerkraut fan, so I picked up a jar of Wills Valley Farm's fermented red cabbage at the Reading Terminal Market's Fair Food Farmstand a couple of weeks ago. Straight out of the jar, I did not care for it. But when cooked . . . WOW! I came to this conclusion after gently braising some German-style hot dogs in the red cabbage kraut. First I gently sautéed a medium onion in canola oil (butter would work, too) until just barely starting to turn golden, then added the red cabbage, allowing it to cook covered for about 10-15 minutes at which point, since I had an old Asian pear, slightly shriveled, sitting in the crisper, I peeled it and grated the pulp into the cabbage. (An apple is the usual addition, but none were in the larder.) Then I added maybe a quarter cup of water (if I had an open bottle of white wine, I would have used that), a couple of the foot-long franks, covered again and simmered low for another 10-15 minutes. Delicious, especially when served with a German-style mustard. Most of Wills Valley's products are unpasteurized and sold refrigerated in glass jars. Others are available canned, which means they've been cooked. Products include regular white sauerkraut, the red cabbage, gingered carrots, kim chee and red beets. The kraut, red cabbage and carrots can be found in the refrigerator case at the Fair Food Farmstand in the Reading Terminal Market.

Another vote for Snockeys Oyster & Crab House. I've gone by it for years but never stopped . . . until yesterday, prompted by this thread. I've been craving oysters, so after running a few lunchtime errands I found a parking space nearby. Upon entering everything felt right: the tubs of iced oysters, the bottles of Genny Cream in the refrigerator case, the bowls of OTCs with horseradish on the side, the chalkboard selection of bivalves. Yesterday the prices ranged from $7.50 a half dozen for the New Jersey Bennies (from the restored Bennies Sand oyster bed in Delaware Bay) to $13.75 for Lons Island Salts. I counted 10 varieties from Maritime Canada, Massachusetts, Long Island, New Jersey, Virginia, Washington and British Columbia. Since I've got a predilection for cold water oysters it didn't take me long to split my half dozen between two New Brunswick oysters: Peacock Cove and Little Shemogue, both $10.75. Both were briny fresh and deeply-flavored, not too metallic and medium-sized. The Shemogue might have been just a wee saltier, but otherwise they had similar tastes, though iirc the Peacock Coves may have been slightly plumper. I skipped the house sauce and didn't even add lemon to these beauties. It's only the past year that I've tried to shuck oysters, using the oyster knife to pry open the hinge and then release the meat. Not at Snockey's. Instead, they use an oyster cracker and a stone: the oyster is placed on the stone vertically (hinge at bottom), than the cracker is tapped on the lip, forcing it apart. A knife then finishes the work of taking off the top shell and releasing the meat. In skilled hands it works beautifully: the oysters came to my plate full of their liquor and without any stray pieces of shell chips. It's a much faster and safer technique than prying open the hinge with an oyster knife. Lunchtime sandwiches come with slaw, pickle and either French fries or soup. The snapper soup (they also offer a Manhattan chowder and a crab soup) was spicy and beefy-rich, and avoided being cornstarch-thick. Not much in the way of snapper meat, but it had the flavor. The fish on my fried flounder sandwich ($7.95, served on hoagie roll) was fresh. The breading was a good example of the cornmeal variety, though on a thin fish like flounder I thought the bread-flesh ratio was a little high; probably wouldn't be a problem with a thicker filet like a haddock, though it's not on the menu. The slaw was slightly creamy with hardly any liquid to drip: a perfect counterpoint to the fried fish. I'm going to have to make Snockey's a regular habit this winter.

That's Best Provisions of Newark (NJ), not Best of Chicago. Alas, Best Provisions' dogs can only be found in the skinless variety in supermarkets. For the NC dog (either five-to-a-pound "Syd's" version or the smaller but still delicious eight-to-a-pound variety), you've got to take a trip to Avon Avenue in Newark.

The sandwich place was probably Steak City (at least, that was what it was called when I arrived in town in 1979, also working at 17th & Market). For breakfast regulars, you'd go to the end of the long line, they'd see you and start your order (mine was bacon and cheese on bagel), and you'd have it by the time you'd reach the cash register. The owner, George, bought the building just a few months before Rouse announced the One Liberty Place project; he retired to a second career in real estate when he wasn't enjoying the beaches back home in Greece. One of Steak City's alumni (Gus) runs the food cart (no grill, but breakfast breads, pastries and cold sandwiches, hot dogs) on the southwest corner of 20th & Market. I don't remember Onasis, but there was a Greek restaurant on Chestnut right near 17th. First place where I tried grilled octopus. The owner went on to run a restaurant at 2nd and South, and took over the New City Tavern on 20th for a few years, where he was denied a permit to put some tables on the sidewalk. Dewey's, of course, was a wonderful place for alcoholics, which I think was its sole reason for being. In addition to the Commissary, I also frequented Salad Alley, which also had decent soups. All these places added up to a whole lot more than the food court at One Liberty.

First of all, congratulations, Greg. I look forward to re-visiting the re-newed Oyster House. When I first moved to Philadelphia in 1979, I frequented Kelly's of Mole Street (which by the time I arrived in town had moved to Ranstead Street, or was it Ludlow?) which was the original establishment of the Mink family. A very fine fish house, indeed, whose tradition continued when the construction of One Liberty Place forced a relocation, and a new name, the SSOH. I'm also glad to hear the Minks intend to continue to display that fabulous collection of oyster plates!

It's been rumored for weeks, but now Rick has made it official: he intends to re-open in the food court at the Bellevue. Rick's plans became public today when he told The Metro, which ran the story on page two. According to that story Rick "said he is meeting Friday [today] with officials at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue to discuss a location in the building's food court." That doesn't mean it's signed, sealed and delivered, but from all accounts that I've heard, it's as good as done. The food court at the Bellevue hasn't exactly been knocking people's socks off, given its subterranean location. Management of the food court have been planning a re-do, and signing Rick's gives them an extra publicity push. I've heard that management had been hoping to hold off on the news a bit so as to include the news in announcing a revamp of the food court, thereby making a bigger splash, but it appears as if Rick couldn't wait. Rick gives the food court more visibility that it would otherwise have. Rick has always made a decent, representative cheese steak and he should do reasonably at the Bellevue in an area that's starved for a bona fide rendition of the beast. But the Bellevue palls in comparison to the RTM in terms of foot traffic. At the RTM, you not only have the office crowd, but the regular coterie of food shoppers, conventioneers and tourists. At the Bellevue, you're pretty much limited to the white collar drudges. Not many folks go for a cheese steak before a night at the opera or theater.

Not anymore :-) ← WHAT HAPPENED?Eileen ← Click here.

Look at this: Monk's On-Tap Beers. iirc, there are similar, if sometimes shorter, descriptions of the bottled offerings on the printed list.

Sounds like it's bigger, though not necessarily as interesting as when I last visited in 2002. Can you still get bacon sandwiches on Saturday morning? (Correct the idoim, but isn't it called "bacon on a batt"?)

ALANBF: Where do you live/work? What's plentiful and good there, so we don't send you to lesser versions here? It's highly unlikely you can't get decent Italian red gravy cuisine back home, but it may still be worth a trip to one of Philadelphia's emporiums. Ralph's and Villa di Roma, both in or adjacent to the Ninth Street open air market, are fine examples (only open for dinner). A daytime visit to Ninth Street's market is a trip. Stop by DiBruno's and Claudio's and salivate at the cheeses. At DiBruno's Pronto you can get sandwiches. Though if you're adventurous, I'd recommend the tripe sandwich at George's Sandwich Shop, which also does roast pork, etc. Isgro's is around the corner on Christian for cannoli and other Italian pastries. You could also visit DiBruno's Center City emporium (Chestnut between 17th and 18th), which has food service and seating upstairs. If Asian food is on your agenda, plenty of choices in Chinatown. Ocean Harbor is probably the best for dim sum, but I don't understand why folks trash talk Joy Tsin Lau across the street; maybe not quite as extensive, but still plenty of variety and well prepared. Chung King Garden and Szechuan Tasty House are favs for the hot and spicy crowd. For something completely different, there's Burmese cuisine at Rangoon. As for the Reading Terminal Market, I've got lots of favs, overlapping with those mentioned earlier, but I'll reinforce those selections anyway as well as my own. DiNic's. Best known for the roast pork (order it with provolone and either spinach or broccoli rabe), but also good is the roast beef, brisket and pulled pork, though you won't confuse the brisket with Jewish style or the pulled pork with barbecue. Hershel's East Side Deli. For the Jewish style brisket, as well as in-house cured corned beef and pastrami. Can't go wrong with any of these. And they've got Cel-ray! Down Home Diner. A lot of folks poo-poo the diner, but imho they serve a wonderful breakfast (great biscuits). And be brave: try the scrapple as a side with your eggs or pancakes. The lunch and dinner plates are pretty good, too. Of the non-breakfast fare, all I've had lately is the fried chicken, and it is good. Dutch Eating Place. Cheaper than Down Home Diner, not quite as fine, but still remarkably tasty and excellent value. You can get that scrapple here, too, as well as baked apple dumplings. Salumeria. Carmen's makes a classic, excellent Philadelphia hoagie. But, to my taste, Salumeria is tops. It's not in the classic style, but incredibly tasty when you order either the Italian or (my fav) Prosciutto, making sure to ask for the house dressing and paying extra for marinated artichokes. Pasta By George. When I want to go for a low carb meal but don't want salad, I order the eggplant parmgiana platter. Just about as good as you'd get at any of the classic South Philly red gravy establishments, without the cab ride. By George also has some very good pizza by the slice. Delilah's. If you can't get to North or West Philadelphia, a convenient and rewarding spot for very good soul food. Nanee's Kitchen. Pakistani-South Asian fare. The best stuff is carb-laden, like all the various fritters. Bassett's. This ice cream emporium has been in business since 1861 and has been an RTM stalwart since the building opened. I love the Rum Raisin and French vanilla, my wife the Raspberry Truffle and, lately, the "WHYY Experience," a promotional flavor for the local public broadcaster which includes chocolate covered pretzels. Fisher's. Speaking of pretzels, this is the place to get them. Handmade, fresh from the oven, slathered in butter. Your option to add mustard (which most of us do). As info, the Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish) merchants are only open Wedesdays until 3 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays until 5 p.m. The Dutch Eating Place and Fisher's keep to these hours. All other merchants are supposed to stay open until 6 p.m., but only a handful do. Among the restaurant/sandwich stalls, DiNic's stays open until then. The Down Home Diner, which also has a direct entrance off Filbert Street, is open until 7 p.m. six days a week, and til 4 p.m. Sunday. A little more than half the non-Amish merchants are open on Sundays, when the RTM's hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I agree with Holly. A Chicago hot dog is something to be admired as a piece of art, but it should not be eaten. Not with all that neon green sweet relish! And I've never been impressed with Vienna Beef dogs; they're not bad, just not up there on the top tier,

"Mit Schlag" is colloquial for "with [whipped] cream". No special recipe of which I'm aware. Sweeten and flavor it, you wish, but any flavoring and sweetening is probably better placed in the drink itself. What's probably most important for a great whipped cream is not to use the "ultra pasteurized" version found in most supermarkets. Seek out plain pasteurized. The taste difference is overwhelming.

Fair Food Move Advances Much of the funding is in place for the Fair Food Farmstand's move to the 12th Street side of the Reading Terminal Market, according to RTM GM Paul Steinke. In addition to the previously reported grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the SVF Foundation of Newport, R.I., is kicking in a substantial proportion of the needed funds. The SVF foundation is largely the creation of Campbell Soup heiress Dodo Hamilton. Its primary mission is to help protect the world's food supply by preserving rare and endangered breeds of livestock, and it sees Fair Food's mission as complementing its goals. The SVF Foundation has a history of supporting efforts of the White Dog Foundation (Fair Food's parent organization) furthering the marketing of heritage breed farm animals. SVF is based at Swiss Village Farm in Newport, where Hamilton maintains a home. Much of SVF's breed preservation work is done in conjunction with the Tufts University veterinary medicine school. Steinke said about 75 percent of Fair Food's moving costs appear to be covered through these and other grants. Much of the remainder will probably come in the form of a low-interest loan from the Reading Terminal Market Corporation, the non-profit organization which runs the market. Similar loans have been made to other vendors at the market for improvements. Christmas Fish John Yi, the center court fishmonger at the Reading Terminal Market, has added a fine array of swimmable food for Feast of the Seven Fishes celebrations. Although baccala could not be found, there was plenty of fresh cod, octopus, squid (whole as well as cleaned and separated), as well as herrings ($3.99/pound for either large for smaller sardine-sized specimens), smelt ($4.99) and spearling ($3.99). Giant oranges are traditional holiday fare, too. The Fair Food Farmstand was selling organic varieties from Florida for $1.50 apiece; the prices for similar conventionally-grown large oranges were only slightly less dear at Iovine Brothers where tangelos seemed the best deal in orange-type fruits, at six for $1. Juice oranges and small navels were twice that price. Also at Iovine, Hass avocados from Mexico were down to 89-cents apiece; alas, if you want to make guacamole, the limes (and lemons) remain pricey at three for a buck. Iovines was selling organic Granny Smith applies for 99-cents a pound, the same as for many conventional varieties, including Grannies, Staymans, Red Delicious, etc. Back at Fair Food, a split open sample of watermelon radish was drawing attention from passersby who had never seen them before. As always there was an interesting collection of winter squashes, varyingly priced about $1.50-$2.00 a pound, including Blue Hubbard and Turban. Dwain Livengood was back at his family's Saturday stall helping out before he and his wife Audrey leave for a year in Honduras volunteering at a Christian home for children. They spent this past week in Florida at a training course, where Dwain learned the wonders of the Moringa tree, which can grow in subtropical climates with poor soils and can be used as food (its leaves offer complete protein), animal feed and fuel; its powdered seeds (in the form of defatted meal) can be placed into a container of turbid water and will remove 99 percent of the sediment and organic impurities. Alas, it can't withstand Lancaster County winters, so don't expect to see Moringa tree products at the Livengood farm stand.

Generally, I find that U.S. lamb has a less lamb-y taste than the imports. And since I like strong lamb, I favor the imports, especially, when it's in season, the Icelandic lamb, which Whole Foods sells at an occasionally reasonable price in the fall. Not in season right now, however. If your guests don't like lamb-y lamb, go for American meat. In Philadelphia, I can recommend most of the butchers at the Reading Terminal Market (Guinta's Prime Shop, Harry Ochs, and Martin's; Halteman doesn't sell lamb), though they pretty much just have American lamb. In addition, the Fair Food Farmstand at the RTM sells both Jamison and Meadow Run product, though for a rack you'd have to special order in advance; most of the FFF's meats come frozen, so factor in defrosting time. Among all the major meats, lamb is probably the least industrialized, so I'd have no qualms buying through Costco or BJ's. In fact, the racks at BJ's were certainly less than $20/pound when I looked last week (they might even have been closer to $10, but I don't recall precisely). Unsure if they were American or imported, but they looked fine and it was a good deal.

When I ask my butcher to grind to order, if I'm going to add something besides chuck, it's always short rib from the plate. And he uses smallish grinder, not a massive supermarket version; to quote Tom Lehrer, "what you get out of it depends upon what you put into it."