rlibkind

Steamed! Don't laugh. If it's good pastrami made from the navel, steaming is the best way to encourage succulence. Most good delis keep their pastramis (and corned beefs) in a steam cabinet between slicing. If it's just a few slices, and you don't want to bother setting up a steamer or jury-rigging one (oven-proof plate suspended atop empty and endless tuna can placed in large pot with an inch or so of water), you can achieve a similar (though not identical) result in the microwave. Add a tablespoon or two of water to the microwave plate, cover with wax paper, and place on high until hot.

Very close to Chinatown is Solefood, the restaurant in the Loew's Hotel, Market & 11th. I haven't been there, but any restaurant that lists "yesterday's soup" on its menu has, at the very least, a decent sense of humor. This is a hotel restaurant (in a landmark International architecture style building), which means it's no bargain, but the prices aren't outrageous. The exec chef, Tom Harkins, is a South Philly native whose first job was working under Olivier de St. Martin and continues to march in the Comic Division of the Mummer's Parade on New Year's Day. If you go (or if anyone else has been) I'd be interested in your report.

Anyplace that serves good oysters.

We're still five weeks away from the vernal equinox, but another sure sign of spring (besides shad) showed up at the RTM this week: pokeweed. Earl Livengood has it. The poke comes courtesy of Earl's friend and neighbor Sam Conslyman who gathers the poke in the fall then buries them in sand and waits for them to pop. Otherwise this week, Earl's offerings were limited to root vegetables, winter squashes and chestnuts. Hershel's East Side Deli had hoped to be open this weekend but wasn't. Last time I spoke with the proprietor he said he was waiting for final city permits. After Mark Bittman published his article about mackerel, which he called the "Rodney Dangerfield of the fish world" because it doesn't get any respect, it seems there might have been a run on the species. None was to be found at the RTM today, though last week it was plentiful at $2.49-$2.99/pound. However, Spanish mackerel, a closely related variety and which can be treated the same way, was available at $2.99 at John Yi's and Golden. Iovine Brothers has some smallish California navel oranges priced at four for a buck, a relative bargain considering the West Coast freeze. In case you haven't noticed, Iovine's now sells milk; it's organic and located in the refrigerated case next to the Filbert Street checkout. Last month Jim Iovine told me he and his brothers were considering moving their production into the RTM's basement and converting existing "back office" space to additional selling footage. That won't happen anytime soon: Jim says the costs and complexity of installing pumps to dispose of wastewater from the produce washing process make it part of "long term plans" rather than anything in the immediate future. Jim, by the way, is hobbled after tearing his Achilles' tendon while challenging his children in basketball, which required surgery two weeks ago; means he has to give up his winter golf trips to sunnier climes. Not all the meat at the Fair Food Farmstand comes frozen. Check the refrigerator case and you may find Countrytime pork chops or Meadow Run lamb cubes like I did today. What's available fresh varies each week, depending on stock needs and supplier deliveries. Here's my shopping list from today: IOVINE BROTHERS ($6.20) Black seedless grapes ($1.99/pound) Fruit salad (one-quart container) String beans ($1.99/pound) MARTIN'S QUALITY MEATS ($3.20) Pork sausage links EARL LIVENGOOD ($2.15) Fingerling potatoes Parsnips LE BUS BAKERY ($3.50) Brioche bread (one-half loaf) OLD CITY COFFEE ($12.50) (Mocha-French Roast blend) FAIR FOOD FARMSTAND ($11.25) Pork chops (2)

I am truly impressed and humbled by the sacrifices you all made for the advancement of science!

If you're traveling I-94 between Chicago and Milwaukee, Racine WI has to be visited. Since for many years Racine had a larger population of Danes that any city in the world outside Copenhagen, get off the interstate, head into town and go for the Danish pastry, particularly kringle. I favor Bendtsen's Bakery on Washington St. (SR 20 at Grove), which has the best "old time" flavor, probably because they use a lot of butter. Down the block on the other side of the street is Larsen's, which also makes good kringle, though what they really excel at are cakes and all sorts of other pastries; Larsen's has a much wider selection of goods than Bendstens; my wife particularly goes for their poppyseed sweet rolls. The third baker of choice is O&H Danish Bakery on Durant Avenue (SR 11 just west of Lathrop). It's ensconced in what appears at first to be a convenience store, Danish Uncle, but in essence is a wonderland of Danish and other Scandinavian goodies including rollepolse, my favorite cold cut in the world (basically brined, herbed and pressed flanks of pork/lamb and/or veal). I believe O&H has its main bakery on the other side of town, on Douglas. Bendtsen's has an adjacent cafe, so you can pick out your pastry at Bendtsen's and eat it there with some coffee. Bendtsen's and Larson's are just a five or six minute drive of the interstate. O&H is another four or five minutes from them. Whatever you do, DO NOT try Lehman's kringle, or anything marked as coming from "Racine Kringle" bakery (which isn't in Racine). Oh, yes, you may ask what is a kringle. It's the pluperfect Danish pastry, an oval of multitudinous buttery pastry layers (the oval is about 18" long, and the "sides" are about 4" wide and 1/2" to 3/4" thick) and either topped with nuts (pecan is the gold standard) or filled with one of many different fillings, mostly fruit. The raspberry is good, but doesn't travel well, whereas the pecan does. Among the non-traditional flavors, I particularly enjoy the almond macaroon at Bendtsen's. Links: Bendtsen's Bakery Larsen Bakery O&H Bakery

Nedick's: New England style rolls for the franks, great mustard-relish. I frequented the outlet at Penn Station. Bond's: North Jersey ice cream parlours in Elizabeth and Upper Montclair, perhaps other cities; famous for the Awful-Awful thick shake (which Bond's later licensed to Newport Creamery in Rhode Island). Dutch Hutch: Short-lived burger & fries chain in the late 1950s/early 1960s. I went to the Elizabeth NJ outlet. Pathmark Hut: An experimental fast-food operation (burgers and fries) the supermarket chain established on a pilot basis next to its Elmora outpost in Elizabeth. Kewpie's: A once-common burger chain in mid-sized Midwest cities, now limited to Lima, Ohio, and Racine, Wisconsin.

It's not anything new. Been there for at least 20 or 30 years, maybe more.

I love the idea of Mini Coopers barreling through a desert, with meatballs as the meal! Great visual image for a movie script. . . ← The Italian Job redux redux?.

Applegate is a supplier of "natural" deli-style meats to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, etc. They are based in central NJ and purport to use meat from small farms in PA and Canada.

Wow! I missed those when I walked through OKL Thursday. Hope they're juicy! And if the avocados at Iovine's are still relatively inexpensive, you might want to consider some guac to go with those margaritas.

Daniel's photo shows it best. But pork belly is nothing more than fresh bacon. As fresh ham is to cured ham, pork belly is to bacon.

Where are you located, Bonnie? That will help us give you guidance. Certainly if there's anything like a "pork store" in your town, that would be the first place to go. Ethnic meat markets would be another possibility (Chinese and Hispanic are the best bets). And, should an old fashioned butcher shop exist in your community, that would be worth a try, too. Even some supermarkets have been known to carry a fresh belly (though, admittedly, not many). Sometimes it's marked as "city pork" rather than pork belly.

Thanks for the update, James. Do they still have the fish table with oysters, smoked salmon, etc.?

Welcome to eGullet, Townsend. Matthewj just posted a couple days ago about those truffles he sold you here. How are you using them?

Katz's this ain't.

Hershel's East Side Deli is nearing completion, as seen in this photo. They hope to be in business in time for the weekend of February 10. The menu will be pretty basic. Corned beef, pastrami, brisket, turkey, chopped liver, chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad and whitefish salads in various sandwich and platter permutations, hot dogs (Hebrew National; I wish they would have used a more interesting kosher style dog, like Best Provisions or Sabrett); soups; latkes, kugel, and kasha varnishke (buckwheat groats and bow tie pasta); and knishes. They also will serve breakfast, including challah French toast. Lox will also be available. On the beverage front, egg creams and various Dr. Brown's sodas, including Cel-Ray. I'm going to have to try lunch at one of the fish vendors. Golden offers oysters and clams on the halfshell, at $5.50 and $3.50 for a half dozen, respectively, served with lemon and sauce (that's cocktail sauce; no mignonette sauce, alas). At least for the oysters that's just about the best price in town, save the happy hour oysters at Sansom Street. Another market purveyor, Coastal Cave has oysters at $6.95 and clams at $3.75 per half dozen. This seems to be the time of the year when fish is at its most expensive. Prices for halibut ranged as high as $17, and cod fillets were nearly $9. The best deals were in whole fish, mackeral ($1.99-$2.49) and spanish mackeral ($2.99); buck shad could also be had for $2.99 if you like to deal with its intricate bone structure. Golden is still selling whole sardines (herring) at $2.99/pound. The least expensive mild white fillets from wild-caught fish were for scrod at $6.99 at John Yi's. Super Bowl Sunday is coming up, and one traditional food serve to is guacamole. Today at Iovine Brothers Hass avocadoes were selling at the very low price of two for a buck; however, they were drop dead ripe and need to be prepared and eaten today or tomorrow at the latest. If they are still offering avocados at this price Friday or Saturday, and they haven't gone over the hill into battery acid territory, buy them. Signs of that California freeze are clear in the citrus section: three smallish navel oranges for $1, lemons also three for a buck. Clementines, no matter what their source, are up to $7.99/box. Best buy in citrus are Florida tangelos and temples; the latter were posted at 25-cents apiece today. The one-pound clamshell packed Florida strawberries, $1.99, smelled good. Green seedless grapes from Chile, 99-cents; black seedless $3.49. Red and green bagged peppers, $1. The South American peach crop is in; I've never found them to my liking for in-hand eating, but I suppose they'd be fine cooked or baked in some fashion. Spotted a new item in Iovine's refrigerator case near the Filbert Street checkout aisle: pre-cooked, prepared French chestnuts, $4.99 for two 200-gram (two seven-ounce) vacuum packs, suitable for quick reheating in water or microwave.

Twenty21 I haven't been here in a while but it's certainly "business person friendly". Not far from Penn (Market between 20th & 21st, hence the name) in the Commerce Square twin towers). And if you want to talk about "top shelf" booze, I can't think of another bar in town with a higher top shelf. Formerly Cutter's when it was owned by a small Seattle-based fine dining group, but locally owned, iirc.

It was a wonderful dinner, with wonderful wines and company. Now Bob, when's that onion tart coming? ← Ludwig's Garten does a pretty good version.

iirc, the wines were: Barmes-Buecher Sept-Grains (aperatif) Barmes-Buecher Pinot D'Alsace (mousseline) Keller Riesling Trocken (rec. for traditional, seafood choucroute) A pino noir I don't recall (rec. for duck, seafood choucroute) Barmes-Buecher Cremant D'Alsace (apple tart) I've enjoyed both the Sept-Grains (formerly called Racine) and the Cremant D'Alsace before, courtesy of Moore Brothers. So much so that the dinner wines reminded me how much I enjoyed them, so I made a quick trip over to Pennsauken yesterday morning. Let me add my thanks to Jim for organizing the dinner. While I certainly enjoyed the mousseline and dessert, to me the dinner was all about the choucroute. I am huge lover of almost all fermented foods (and beverages), and fermented cabbage is high on my list. Chef St. Martin and staff did a great job to take the chilly out of a nippy evening. Now, how about some Alsatian onion tart? With lots of butter and bacon!

Quoting bad authors who incorrectly use language still doesnt make your point. Any bar that smells like vomit clearly isnt catering to a high end clientele or offering a high end experience.... It describes to a tee the "Pen and pencil" in Philadelphia and not the "Pegu Club" in Soho. Just because it's in a "novel" is irrelevant and meaningless. ← I didn't put this forth as an example of fine literature to be emulated. I just found it amusing and, more to the point, demonstrative of common usage of "high-end". As Il Professore pointed out, it's an ironic usage, but in my experience the term "high-end" is frequently used ironically, particularly in regard to class/status distinctions.. As for using the term "high-end" as a class/status descriptor, that's just what you did, V, in saying "any bar that smells like vomit clearly isnt catering to a high end clientele..." btw, I stumbled across the quote last night while reading "The Bobby Gold Stories" by "bad author" bourdain. It's a quick, funny, entertaining read, though certainly not to be confused with great literature.

I'm not saying Lobel's steak isn't necessarily better -- a lot better -- than what I could buy at the RTM or anyplace else in Philadelphia. But whether it is worth the premium is going to be in the perception of the one who both pays for and consumes it. It's obviously worth it to some people. And just as obviously it's not worth it to others. For dagordon's New Year's Eve dinner, it was worth it. As for why an establishment such as Lobels exists in NYC and not in Philadelphia, just take a look at the bonus checks passed out by Wall Street a few weeks ago. Even the NY Times felt obliged to run multiple articles (only some tongue-in-check) lamenting the difficulty the pin-stripers have in spending those bonuses ("So Much Money, Too Few Ferraris" was the headline on one story). The density and intensity of free cash flow in Manhattan in the vicinity of Madison & 82nd geometrically surpasses that of 18th & Rittenhouse. And I still contend the phrase "high end" is used at least as often as a descriptor of class and/or status as it is of quality. I found this use of the phrase in a recent novel, depicting a bar, amusing: Back to Lobel's. Lobel's did do relatively well in that Cooks Illustrated tasting, but its $34 strip loin placed behind those of Niman Ranch ($22), Coleman ($14) and Peter Luger ($29) in the blind test. Lobel's wagyu strip (from an Austrailian producer) far outpaced the non-wagyu beef, but Lobel's non-wagyu beef was placed in a lower category than the others. The Niman, Coleman and Luger boneless strips were categorized as "highly recommended" along with the Lobel's wagyu. Lobel's non-wagyu strip was categorized by the blind tasters as "recommended", along with Stop 'N Shop's choice boneless at $10 a pound. What I found even more interesting in that blind test is that the second most expensive steak (after the $68 Lobel's wagyu) was the $45 Omaha Private Reserve strip, which finished dead last and "not recommended" in the blind tasting. So price, at least when it comes to the mail order steaks sampled in this blind tasting, is not an indicator of quality.

This whole discussion brings to mind a Jim Quinn article from the Inky magazine about 25 years ago. Quinn was writing about why people would spent so much money on a sweet red bell pepper. He quoted one retail food purveyor in the Fairmount neighborhood (who is still in food-related ventures in Philadelphia, btw). This merchant, paraphrasing H.L. Mencken, told Quinn: "No one ever went broke overcharging the American public."

The taste and "beefy-ness" of beef has as much to do with cut, imho, as it has to do with grading. To wit: the steak I purchased from Giunta's Prime Shop Saturday. It was a hanger steak, a.k.a. butcher's tenderloin, hanging steak, etc. Giunta's charges $5.99/pound. Lobel's $18.99 (plus shipping). It was one of the richest, most flavorful pieces of beef it has ever been my privilege to eat. It was tender, too. All of this is not because it is "high end" but because of the nature of this particular cut. Quite simply, its flavor was superior to any porterhouse or loin strip or rib steak (one of my favs). It's not particularly attractive to look at, and its shape suggests anything but steak, but it is the steakiest steak you will ever eat. Which brings me to dagordon's original post for this topic, or more specifically, the headline: "High end meat and fish..." With all due respect to dagordon's taste buds, the "high end" moniker sets this curmudgeon's teeth on edge. Superior-tasting, yes. High quality, yes. I'll accept those terms. But "high end" is marketer's nomenclature, and is, indeed, "snooty". "High end" is all about how high a price you can charge or how much you can afford to pay; it's not about how something tastes.

Jimmy Iovine says the brothers are contemplating moving all their prep and packaging operations to the RTM's basement. That would open up a fair amount of additional spelling space they would devote to a wider range of items, expanding Iovine's into more of a grocery store, according to Jimmy. Seems to me this would build on the success of Sunday openings in making the RTM more attractive for residents of Center City and nearby areas who actually shop there. Such an Iovine's expansion no doubt will help them compete when Whole Foods eventually moves closer to the RTM when it opens the 16th & Vine location.