rlibkind

fwiw, i pick out the meat i want at my fav butcher (usually chuck, but sometimes with something else added to the mix) and he grinds it to order; I cook it later the same day. Easier than my futzing around with the grinder head of the 40+ year old Kitchen-Aid, but not nearly as exposed to air as my butcher's pre-ground stuff, even if it is only ground that morning, too. It's way better than most restaurant burgers.

Headhouse Square vendors didn't outnumber customers this morning, but it was close. Five produce vendors displayed their product: Beechwood Orchards, Blooming Glen Farm, Margerum's, Queen Farm, and Weaver's Way. Among the other vendors present were Mountain View Poultry, Griggstown Quail Farm, and Versailles Bakery, among others. David Garretson of Beechwood Orchards said he'll keep showing up until the last day for Headhouse, scheduled for the Sunday before Christmas, unless foul weather prevents him from making the long drive from Biglerville in York County. Although all but two of the city's other outdoor farmers' markets have closed for the 2008 season (the exceptions being Clark Park and Fitler Square, which are open Saturdays year-round), Versailles Bakery intends to keep showing up at the site of the Fairmount market (Fairmount and 22nd) as long as there are customers. Although that market had its last day the day before Thanksgiving, Versailles was doing a brisk business in brisk weather this past Thursday, setting up just before lunchtime. Versailles had some nice prices this morning at Headhouse, with baguettes selling for $1.75 or two for $3, and most other loaves at $2.75 or two for $5.

Shssssh! Don't tell anyone. The prices will go up!

The Down Home Diner put cheese steaks back on the menu and is touting that fact with their blackboard. Cheese steaks are also on the menu now at the Dutch Eating Place as well as Spataro's, which added them when they relocated to center court more than a year ago. But that's not all. The market recently gave permission to Carmen's and By George to augment their existing menus with cheese steaks, beginning in the New Year. GM Steinke says any number of existing cheese steak sellers from outside the RTM have filed applications to become vendors. He said those application will be considered if a suitable space becomes available. Steinke's point of view is that the demand for cheese steaks is big enough to profitably support multiple vendors. One suitable space could be the vacant stall opposite Tootsie's Salad Express, which formerly housed Everyday Gourmet and, before that, Andros. The space already has a heavy-duty exhaust system installed, which is necessary for any sort of grill operation. In the adjacent space, temporarily being used by Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce, the paperwork is moving along for a new pork purveyor to replace Dutch Country Meats, which gave up the ghost earlier this year. A draft lease is now being reviewed by prospective butcher. New Day Stalls The Reading Terminal Market's day stall space on Saturdays is nearly at capacity, with the addition of two new vendors. Lindendale Farm of Lancaster County, operated by Andrew Mellinger and his family, is selling various goat cheeses and goat cheese cake made from milk provided by their herd. Also new is the "Applesauce Lady" who claims to sell an applesauce that "tastes like apple pie". both are located near Fisher's Pretzels.

Back in September I reported that Reading Terminal Market GM Paul Steinke would like to relocate the Fair Food Farmstand to the space since vacated by Rick's Steaks. It's looking more likely, as the market and the Farmstand are now working on the details of such a move. Steinke said Fair Food could pop up along 12th Street as soon as early 2009. From the RTM's perspective, having a produce purveyor located behind a broad expanse of windows on the market's busiest pedestrian perimeter cements its image as a place to buy food for home preparation and consumption rather than as a mere food court. For the Fair Food Farmstand, the move would further its educational mission by dramatically increasing its visibility while providing needed expansion space. More details can be found here.

Are you seeking fresh or dried figs? The fresh fig season is pretty much over. Iovine's and the Fair Food Farmstand at the Reading Terminal Market carry them in season. The Farmstand has local figs, Iovine's are from California. I didn't notice any fresh figs at Iovine's this morning, though I wasn't looking for them. Dried figs can be found at almost any supermarket or produce store, as well as stores like Whole Foods.

David ran a fine dining room if he knew you; if he didn't your treatment by the wait staff could be numbing. Cowan has much improved both the service and quality of food. Under David the food was okay, but it was never anywhere near what you'd find at a good NY or North Jersey deli. Cowan brought the operation up to snuff.Holly, I certainly understand where you're coming from in terms of portion size. I'd rather have a cheaper price and less food. But it seems to have become competitive sport among deli owners to have jaw-busting sandwiches. The Carnegie's, as Matt points out, are even larger. But I think the prize must go to Harold's at the Raritan industrial complex in Piscataway (housed in a Holiday Inn, iirc). The menu claims their sandwiches weigh in at either 13 or 26 ounces; I don't doubt it. And their pancakes are the size of pizzas. Don't even think of ordering an omelet!

All the food seen here (with the exception of the sandwich at the top right) cost $20.50 at the Famous Fourth Street Deli. I hardly made a dent in what I ordered for a late lunch Tuesday, and only somewhat reduced its volume when some of it was reheated for dinner last night. Maybe I'll finish the rest tomorrow night. What you see above is a single order off the menu, with no extras. It's listed on the menu as Stuffed Cabbage, Potato Pancakes and Kishke (a.k.a. stuffed derma). That's what's on the main plate, left to right. It was accompanied by two vegetable choices, as well as gravy. For veggies I ordered more carbohydrates: a huge mound of tzimmes in the bowl (tzimmes is a sweet concoction meant to accompany a savory dish; the ingredients can be variable, but here they included carrots, apple, various dried fruits, and, I think, sweet potatoes), and fried kreplach (Jewish meat-filled dumplings), fried and topped with fried onions. The slaw and pickles come to every table before you even order. It was all quite delicious, including the sweet-sour sauce over the cabbage. The tzimmes was very sweet, the kishke properly fat-drenched, though it could have had more of a peppery taste than it did. The potato pancakes (latke) were also quite oily, as is traditional, though I prefer the thinner version of this classic. They did reheat beautifully in my toaster oven last night. We went to the Famous directly from the airport, where She Who Must Be Obeyed and I picked up a friend from Denver, who was famished after waking up at 3 a.m. local time to get his flight here via DFW. SWMBO selected the tuna salad platter, with potato salad and slaw, as well as tomatoes and cukes. We've still got enough left for at least two meals. Our friend went for the regularly sized pastrami and swiss sandwich (photo below), of which he ate half. (I cringe when I see such beautiful pastrami ruined with the addition of cheese, only mayo could be worse. Our friend, who is Jewish, can only be excused because he was born and raised in Wisconsin and spent most of his adult life in the Far East. He doesn't know any better.) We split the remainder of the meat for breakfast yesterday. The "zaftig' version of the sandwich contains about 50 percent more meat, at least. The Famous Fourth Street Deli is not cheap, but it offers tremendous value, by quality as well as quantity.

It was about 10 years ago at the Ithaca Farmers' Market that I first encountered the Cox Orange Pippin, from Black Diamond Farm, Trumansburg.

Italian Bread Bag? Found this morning on the counter of DiNic's at the Reading Terminal Market: bags full of bread delivered from an Italian bakery, to be filled later in the day with roast pork, veal, sausages, roast beef, brisket, pulled pork, etc., etc., etc.. Not unusual, except for the printing on some of the bags. It's in Hebrew. Hard to explain how they came into the possession of Dante's, the bakery at 8th and Watkins that supplies DiNic's, other than the bag manufacturer had an overrun. Still, the bags are suitable, since they advertise Agadir, small Israeli chain featuring burgers, but also roast beef, sausage (merguez and chorizo) sandwiches and an interesting array of salads and starters. And yes, you can get a cheeseburger: the chain is not kosher.

Andrew, I know that's the price at Godshall's in the Reading Terminal Market, but have you priced them in Chinatown or one of the Asian supermarkets? Since all the other meat products are cheaper there (at least the Spring Garden & 4th supermarket), I'd imagine the feet would be less expensive, too.

Headhouse Square will be open this Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, but closed the following Sunday. The farmers' market resumes Sunday, Dec. 6, continuing through the first Sunday before Christmas.

Over at the Reading Terminal Market, extra checkouts have been added at Iovine Brothers Produce for the holiday rush in an effort to keep those long lines moving. Many of the Pennsylvania Dutch merchants, who are usually closed on Mondays and Tuesday, will be open on those days (as well as Wednesday) before Thanksgiving. Those planning to be open both Monday and Tuesday are AJ Pickle Patch, Beiler's Bakery, Hatville Deli, L. Halteman Country F0ods, and Lancaster County Dairy. In addition, the Dutch Eating Place, Dienner's BBQ Chicken, and the Rib Stand will be open Tuesday. On the day before Thanksgiving, shoppers lined up waiting for the doors to open at 8 a.m. will be treated to free sample cups of coffee, courtesy of Old City Coffee. But it won't be at all the doors: just the 12th & Filbert entrance. This morning 12 servers were working at Godshalls to push out those Thanksgiving birds, with a lineup of customers as soon as the market opened at 8 a.m. Expected even longer lines Wednesday. Temporarily, at least, the Fair Food Farmstand has some extra display space, though no sales space. It's in the vacant stall formerly occupied by Everyday Gourmet and, before that, Andros. Squashes and other colorful items point the way to the the farmstand. The paperwork is moving along for a new pork purveyor who will move into the space formerly occupied by Dutch Country Meats. The stall has a long history of pork vendors dating back to Moyers and Charles Giunta (who now operates Giunta's Prime Shop). The butcher will sell the Stoltzfus Meats' product line, including scrapple and sausages as well as fresh pork. Not determined whether he'd handle deli products. In addition to its store in Intercourse, Stoltzfus sells at the Ardmore Farmers' Market, the New Castle Farmers' Market, and Beechwood Deli at the Fairgrounds Farmers' market, Allentown. The Philadelphia Daily News' has selected the Reading Terminal Market as recipient of two of its People's Choice Awards: Best Farmers Market and Best Produce.

I don't recall noticing the citrus flavor when I was a kid enjoying this cake from a local Elizabeth bakery (long since departed), since the main attraction was the chocolate filling and frosting. But as an adult, I now notice the lemon. I don't recall orange, but why not, so long as it's not overpowering?

On my infrequent trips back to North Jersey I'd almost always stop for hot dogs at Syd's and pick up baked goods at its Millburn Mall neighbor, Sonny Amster's. That's been impossible for about two years now, since they lost their leases (and Amster's death this past summer). The Syd's hot dogs, I can buy for myself from Best on Avon Avenue and cook at home. But I'm no baker. So it was with delight, on a purposefully detoured ride back to Philly from Morris County, that I remembered there was a Jewish bakery on St. George Avenue in Linden, not far from the Elizabeth line and Warinanco Park. It's Village Bakery, a.k.a. Beinstein Baking. 1742 East St. George Ave., Linden, 908 486-9600 or 486-1636. It's been around, in one form or another, since 1935. Its business card states "Kosher Parve and Dairy". They do a wholesale business as well as the retail operation. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach: I bought way too much: Seven-layer cake. It wasn't quite ready when I asked if they had it, but I waited maybe five or six minutes, since they cakes had been baked but not yet constructed. It was worth the wait for this simplified version of the Dobosh torte. Yellow cake with a faint lemony taste, and rich chocolate ganache filling and frosting. Salt sticks. These caraway and salt encrusted rolls benefitted tremendously from a quick reheat in the toaster oven. They also had crescents made from the same dough, both plain and poppy. Hamentaschen. These were the best hamentaschen I've ever had. I bought one each of the poppy and lekvar and while the fillings were perfect, what really elevated this pastry was the dough. It was clearly a classic hamentaschen dough, but was much less dense then every other one I've tried. Mohn strudel. Also known as poppyseed strudel. I haven't tasted it yet (bringing it over to a cousin's this afternoon), but it looks right. Sugar buns. I've seen these square, sugar-topped, golden raisin inflected buns baked in a pan go by various names. Whatever. Yeasty, sweet, soft and delicious. My wife, who is of Scandinavian heritage, insists they're better with butter. Not a bad idea. Lots of other items to try next trip, including the challahs, various rye and pumpernickels (I forgot to to ask if they have "corn" bread, which is really a type of rye), rugelachs, bialys (which looked especially goods), all types of rolls (the onion-poppy looked good), cookies and cakes.

Thanks for the tips. Alas, wasn't able to take advantage of them, though I did stop at Wegman's in Cherry Hill en route home to pick up some Gerrish Island oysters for opening at home for dinner. Delish.

Any recommendations for an establishment that serves lunchtime oysters in the Newark-Morristown-New Brunswick triangle or close thereunto?

My sister has entrusted the task to me to utilize the power of eGullet to divine the availability of good, interesting food in Battle Creek, since she'll be spending a bit of time there over the next few weeks as a business traveler. Obviously, thanks to Mark Rose's postings, good chocolate is available. But my sister, much as she loves chocolate, is looking for a better-balanced diet. Is there, for example, a good old-fashioned Midwestern steak house to be found in the immediate vicinity. (She'd rather not drive to Kalamazoo.) Or what in Wisconsin they call a "supper club"? Or just a place that makes pleasing, satisfying food, or produces a good example of any local specialties. A liquor license wouldn't hurt, but isn't absolutely necessary. In her home city of St. Louis she's got access to much better than average Asian, Italian and other ethnic cuisines, so I think most of the more common ethnic styles would not be compelling.

Jonathan Best opened last week in the spot formerly held down by Margerum's and the Natural Connection. The high-end grocer is a welcome addition to the Reading Terminal Market. The homemade soup selection looked inviting, the flavored spreads appetizing, and the chocolate bar selection downright sinful. That's the good news. The bad news: it's not Margerum's. The beauty of the old Margerum's store, which closed in 2001, was that if you needed a jar of Hellman's mayonnaise or a bottle of Heinz ketchup for a recipe, you could get it. You'd pay a bit more than at a supermarket, but not unreasonably so. That was in addition to all the wonderful variety of dried legumes Noelle Margerum stocked. You can still buy mayonnaise or ketchup at Jonathan Best. But the mayo won't be Hellman's and the ketchup won't be Heinz's. The mayo will be some organic, high-end variety priced at $6.59 for a 16-ounce jar. The ketchup will be an $8.99, 11-ounce bottle of from Wilkins & Son of the U.K. The problem, of course, is that a merchant can't make a living selling Heinz ketchup and Hellman's mayonnaise at the RTM: the margins aren't great, the volume too low. To make the rent (which is lower for grocers and purveyors than it is for the lunch stand vendors), a grocer has to do something more. That appears to be where Jonathan Best succeeds. I haven't tried the soups yet, though they look good and plenty of market visitors this week were trying the free samples being ladled out. I did taste one of the spreads (pumpkin), and it would be a perfect nibble with cocktails for the fall season. The chocolate bars (expensive, the cassis-flavored dark bar I purchased was selling at the equivalent of $37/pound) are excellent. If you prefer to buy your spices jarred rather than in bulk, as at the Spice Terminal, Jonathan Best is for you. They've also got a larger selection of dried pastas than Salumeria. And the selection of fruit jams and preserves expands upon that available at the Spice Terminal. Still, it would be nice to be able to buy some non-gourmet mayo for my tuna salad or ketchup for my burgers at the market. Maybe even a box of corn flakes I can used for oven-fried chicken! Following Linus Pauling's advise . . . Just in time for the flu and cold season a plethora of citrus fruit has arrived, including at Iovine Brothers Produce at the Reading Terminal market. Florida juice oranges, Valencias and small navels were selling for 20 cents apiece. Sunburst tangerines continue to be eight for a buck. Among the grapefruits, larger pink and white grapefruits were two for a buck, small ruby three for a buck, larger Star ruby 99 cents apiece. Lemons and limes were both selling for 25 cents each, though O.K. Lee offered bags of limes (8 to a bag) for about half that price. In buying citrus, don't go by looks alone; instead, go for the fruit that's heaviest in the hand for its size. Iovine's is also pushing imported berries. Half-pint clamshells of Argentine blueberries and Mexican raspberries could be had for a buck apiece. More attractive, to me, were the California brown figs, $1.99 for a box of about eight. With Thanksgiving approaching, string beans are in demand, and Iovines featured bins of crisp fresh ones for 89-cents a pound. Even though it's still autumn, John Yi must think it's spring. You could buy small whole shad there for $2.99/pound. In a few weeks we should start to see a wider variety of fish as Yi and the RTM's other fishmongers stock up for the holidays. Ikea at the market Ikea showed off holiday food treats Thursday at La Cucina, the demonstration kitchen and cooking school at the Reading Terminal Market. Ikea staffers outfitted in blue-striped frocks lured customers in with Pepparkoker, a ginger snap-like cookie. I tasted the gravlax, with various cheeses, meetballs and sweets also available to sample. Alas, I was disappointed in my search for, as Ulla would say, "many different herrings": not a single tidbit of Culpea harengus, the Atlantic herring species that finds its way into so many excellent Scandinavian buffets.

That's exactly what happened. But I'm a curmudgeon and believe meaning has meaning. But even your definition of "cured, non-smoked salmon" isn't quite as precise as this curmudgeon would like. Belly lox is brined, which is a type of cure. Gravlax is also cured, but it's a dry cure. The "lox" of the mid-20th century Jewish appy was strictly the brine cured item. So what makes pickled lox different? The pickle, of course. Pickled lox starts out as belly lox, which is cut into chunks and then pickled in water, vinegar, sugar and pickling spices with slices of onion for added enjoyment. The recipe found here is typical. Now, all of my vociferous defense of the definition of lox doesn't mean I don't enjoy smoked salmon. Far from it. As noted above, I love a salad made of kippered salmon. And as an appetizer, I'd rather have a strongly smoked slice of cold-smoked salmon on the plate then a slice of lox, though I enjoy more delicately smoked fish, too. The biggest sin in serving lox, nova and cold-smoked salmon is slicing atrocities. I firmly believe that thinner is better. Alas, it's hard to find properly cut lox these days. Forget about the slicing of the packaged product, thin slices just won't ship. And even when you find an appy, or a deli-appy that looks like the real thing, not every one behind the counter has the right touch. (Most delis, at any rate, don't hand-slice and instead buy the pre-sliced sides from Acme or Marshall.) One exception to my thin slice rule is gravlax, which I think tastes best when cut thicker. More on our nomenclature discussion. The Acme Smoked Fish website's salmon products page has informative descriptions of the various cures and smoking styles. The cured, unsmoked lox is listed under "Smoked Salmon" simply because they've got umpteen versions of smoked salmon and only one of lox. It clearly indicates that lox is "brine cured" and makes no mention of smoking, unlike all the other products featured on that page. Alas, the Sea Specialties Inc. website (parent to Marshall's, Homarus and Florida Smoked Fish brands) doesn't even include belly lox among its products, though it is mentioned elsewhere on the site. I don't know whether it's accessible to non-subscribers, but there's an excellent article about various lox and smoked salmon, including some historical info from the late James Shenton of Columbia University, in this New York Times article.

Any appy (appetizer store) fish slicer will tell you that lox is not smoked salmon. Lox is only brined, not smoked. Nova is smoked, but Nova isn't Lox, even if some improperly call it "Nova Lox", including some outlander delis. Lox is sometimes called "belly lox" or "salty lox". But it's lox. Everything else is a pretender. "Nova" is short for "Nova Scotia Smoked Salmon" which means it's smoked in a manner used in Nova Scotia, at least originally, since most "Nova" sold and consumed today is manufactured far from that Atlantic province, and much desirable "Nova" actually is wild fish from Pacific waters. We also could discuss the Scandinavian language roots of "lax" or "lachs", which comes from the Old Norse word for salmon. But that's a whole 'nuther topic. You may wish to consult the Cured/Smoked Salmon page of Russ & Daughters for confirmation. Note that nowhere on this page do they call smoked salmon "lox"; that term is reserved for "belly lox" and "pickled lox," neither of which are smoked. Other do tend to use the word "lox" loosely to refer to salmon, but that doesn't make it correct. And then there's gravlax, a.k.a. gravad lachs, the Scandinavian salmon dish which is cured, but neither smoked nor cooked. (Gravad, btw, derives from the Old Norse root word "to bury".) More on the appetizer store, which is an endangered species. This type of store served observant Jewish communities in eastern cities by selling only kosher products that could be consumed with dairy, i.e., fish, dairy products and salads. The "deli" specializes in meat products, and therefore could not sell dairy products and remain kosher, though it could sell fish products. Much of the distinction has been lost as separate refrigerated cases and storage areas were installed under the approval of rabbinic supervisors, so many of today's "kosher" delis also sell dairy products, though they are maintained separately from meat products. Another wonderful product, but quite different from lox or nova, is kippered salmon (not to be confused with the kippers of the British isles, which are herrings). Kippered salmon is a hot smoked product, and is essentially the type of salmon produced by the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. It's fine on its own, or turned into a salad with mayo, much as you would make whitefish salad. Note: edited to directly address the question in this topic, rather than the earlier referenced topic, which was only indirectly concerned with this issue.

This is the Italian pulled pork from DiNic's. Hard to go for anything but the roast pork, but I forced myself. And I do not regret it! The meat was as tender as any barbeque I've had, yet the flavoring was distinctly Italian. I ordered it unadorned, just the meat in its tomato-inflected, garlicky sauce.

As Thanksgiving nears, local celery begins to hit area farmers' markets. Here are meter-long samples of red celery found Sunday at Tom Culton's Headhouse Square stall. Soon we'll see blanched celery, which is grown (mostly) under dirt to prevent the stalks from turning green. Don't limit yourself to raw celery. This red celery, with thin, tough stalks and coarse leaves, is much more suitable for cooking, with a more intense flavor than the common celery. Braised celery (especially the blanched variety) makes an interesting veggie alternative; you can up the interest even more by finishing with some cream. I used the red celery as the major component in a vegetable stock (along with leek, carrrots and a whole head of garlic). Most of that stock is waiting in the freezer, but I used some last night to create an ersatz caldo verde, adding diced carrots, shredded kale and chorizo, but skipping the potato. Culton recently returned from Slow Food's Salone del Gusto 2008 in Turin, where he was bowled over by everything, but especially the prosciutto produced from a southern Italian breed of goat. Culton hopes to begin raising the breed here. (No doubt Marc Vetri, who travelled to Turin with Tom, would be interested in Culton's animal husbandry.) Because Culton's pulled out his field crops to concentrate on vegetables, he's got the acreage to create room for ruminants to ruminate. Also impressing him was Eataly, the Turin warehouse food emporium inspired by and associated with the Slow Food movement. Culton said the display of various artichokes (a crop he grows here) was as long as the Headhouse shambles.

The Reading Terminal Market's web site says Jonathan Best, the grocer and soup purveyor, opened this morning.

Colorful chard from Earl Livengood attracted lots of attention at the market Saturday. Benuel Kauffman also had a multitudinous spectrum of brassica specimens. Visit Robert's Market Report for more photos. A number of merchants, including Iovine Brothers Produce, are making alterations to their stalls. At Iovine's, the first two rows of produce (mostly fruit) are now in low bins, opening up the vista to the standard veggie display cases and, beyond them, to the racks of dried fruits and nuts against the Filbert Street windows. The refrigerated mushrooms have been added to the coolers next to the checkout on the Filbert Street side. Harry Ochs added a new refrigerated case dedicated to prepared items, such as stuffed flank steak and pork chops, patés, etc. Alas, the big hunks of subprimal roasts are now invisible, sheltered in the walk-in refrigerator. All the cases and shelving appear to be in place at the yet-to-open (as of last Saturday) Jonathan's Best grocery and soup emporium. All that's missing is the stock. I figure they'll work hard to open in advance of Thanksgiving. With Rick's Steaks departed, most of that space is now being used as a seating area.