rlibkind

Earl Livengood offered paw paws this week. I got them Thursday at the Fairmount market, but he also had them today at the RTM. The season is very short, so whether or not he'll have them this coming week may be iffy, though perhaps he will on Tuesday at South Street. If you find them, pick out a soft one, preferably with at least some browning on the skin. Inside you'll find maybe a dozen and a half very large pits in the midst of the flesh. You can simply scoop out the flesh and eat it, or strain it to create pies, custards, puddings, ice cream, sorbet, muffins, cake, etc. Google paw paw and you'll find the recipes. This weekend, btw, is the annual Paw Paw Festival in Albany, Ohio, near Athens. You know the season is changing when local radishes reappear at some of the stands (Livengood's, Kaufman's) and others (Haltemans) no longer offer peaches. Earl's radish was what he called an "Italian" variety; it was red, but long and vaguely in the shape of a svelte parsnip; he didn't know what it tasted like because it came from Sam Consylman's garden. Benuel Kaufman had Macoun apples today! Green Valley Dairy is back at the RTM directly selling to customers (you can also get their cheeses at the Fair Food Farmstand). The proprietor is now offering "Christiana Brie" which he says is the only artisinal made raw milk brie in the country. I have difficulty believing that, but I believe his cheese: I tasted it and it's quite good. (Note: Brie doesn't have to be runny to be good.) To go with the apples, though, I brought back his Noble, a full-flavored but not intensely sharp cheddar. Lots of limas at Livengoods . . . perfect for succotash with late season corn. Speaking of succotash, last week I picked up the green peanuts at Iovines and boiled them, per mrbigjas's suggestion. Well, I wasn't enamored with the soft mushy peanuts by themselves (my wife says they're best when you buy them by the roadside from two guys named Billy), but I had some corn that had sat around the fridge for two days uncooked. So I grilled the corn, then took the kernels off the cob (placing the cob on top of the middle part of a bundt pan, thereby keeping most of the kernels contained rather than all over the kitchen). I added some chopped hot pepper from our container garden, a plain vinaigrette, chopped coridander, lime juice and the cooked peanuts. Vóila! Spicy Thai-style Nut-a-Tash! The brandywine tomatoes from Livengood's are great! Only another week or two to go. Plums at Haltemans (satsuma? and some other small reddish variety) and Kaufman's (prune plums).

At the Reading Terminal Market, Downtown Cheese has those items, too.

Taken this past Sunday, Sept. 11, at Nathan's flagship location in Coney Island: (Photo © Neal Ulevich 2005) Hot dogs, arguable. Cheesesteaks? Never.

Your recollection is correct, Andrew. I just got back from that Super Fresh and they have a small selection from the UK and Ireland: Not in photo, but to the right of the peas, are baked beans. Yes, that's marmite on the left, as well as two types of HP sauces (regular and fruit), Branston pickles and canned mushy peas.

Been there, and Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin, is worth a detour to see the mustard museum, home of Poupon U. When you visit, bring pretzels.

Opps. It's dijon I use in the carbonnade, not brown. Ditto the guava chicken. Another Belgian recipe I picked up was to use dijon over roast chicken, with olive oil drizzled on to help keep it from charring since it roasts at a reasonably high temperature.

Even cheap yellow mustard has its place in my cooking world. For example, I add it in equal parts to currant jelly as a sauce for cocktail franks. It stinks when it first starts cooking but it winds up to be a wonderfully mellow sauce. I slather decent brown mustard on bread when making carbonnade flammande, and use a mustard-guava jelly combination to enliven plain old chicken cutlets. How do you use mustard in cooking?

If you really want to get weird, add chopped beets for a really rosy red tuna salad. (Works better with ham salad than tuna!)

Tuna salad is one of those foods that everyone likes a certain way. David Rosengarten, for example, likes what he termed the deli style, which is basically solid white in water into which a whole lot of very finely minced celery has been added, along with mayo. I've tried it, and he's right, it is very similar to the tuna you get in many delis, and it certainly is tasty. (I've also made this -- once -- with grated celeriac; the flavor was right, but the result was way too watery.) As I noted earlier, my preference is for Italian style (usually it's canned in Morocco) light in olive oil, drained. To that I add homemade garlic gherkins and/or commercial sweet gherkins, celery if I have it, sweet red pepper, maybe parsley, capers, scallions (including the green) or chives, all as finely minced as possible. And lots of mayo; I like mayo. A great topping (not mixed in with the tuna) are the supermarket jars of pimento-stuffed green olives, or just the olive salad made from same, drained and roughly chopped; years ago a sandwich shop in Princeton (long since gone, as I recall it's name started with a 'V') served a tuna sandwich made this way and I've always remembered and tried to replicate it. The ultimate tuna sandwich, though, is the French version in which you combine tuna, olives niçoise, drained diced chopped tomatoes, capers, parsley, and whatever you have handy which vaguely resembles what might be found in Province with olive oil and seasonings, stuff it into a hollowed out baguette, wrap it tightly and let it sit for a few hours, or even overnight. Alas, no melted cheese is involved so . . . never mind!

Interesting. Does it make the tuna salad more flavorful and less bland? ← Yes! Try it, you'll like it. Also, I see there's an Italian belly tuna topic going. I've never had that, and I'm guessing it's the highest quality version of what I'm recommending, but probably too expensive to use.

I'm going to be a contrarian here, Glenn. White tuna in water may be what the vast majority of Americans want (and, because of that, probably what you should use), but it is far from the best tasting and best quality canned tuna. For that, I'd go with the imported "light" Italian-style in olive oil. My second choice would be the same imported light tuna in water.

To paraphrase the old Yip Harburg lyric: When I'm not near the cheese I love, I love the cheese I'm near. The beauty of cheese is not the superiority of any one kind of cheese, but in its infinite variety. Find yourself a good cheesemonger, get to know him or her, and let yourself go, tasting whatever you can afford. Of course I have personal favorites, but they are quite dependent upon time and place. For example, right after I come back from an orchard with fresh picked Cox Orange Pippins, I want to cut one up and serve it with what I call "rat" cheese, a good, sharp, salty Canadian cheddar. But with those roasted beets I sliced up and adorned with walnuts, orange sections and vinaigrette, I'd prefer a feta or a creamy fresh chevre. With cocktails or a dry sherry, a rich, stinky sheep cheese, blue or not, works for me, with some olives and nuts to nibble, too. That's just scratching the surface. Find that cheesemonger and explore!

At Iovine's the price of avocados has finally crept up to $1 each from 50 cents. Still, it's a bargain compared to the price at Whole Foods. Fair Food still has those ribeye steaks at less than $10/pound. They were delish, so I bought some more today. Ann Karlen, who manges the Fair Food Farmstand, hints she may be carrying Jamison lamb in the future. Can anyone tell me what to do with fresh turmeric? Iovine's had packages of the root (it is a root, isn't it?) priced at $7.99/pound. Other than shaking it out of a spice tin or bottle to add color to Indian dishes and other fare, is the root itself good for anything? (I did find a rather involved recipe for slow roasted salmon from Susannah Foo which called for fresh grated tumeric, along with a number of other similarly exotic herbs and spices.) As of today Iovines still had those fresh green peanuts mrbigjas boiled. I bought and boiled a handful today and enjoyed them, although She Who Must Be Obeyed (who spent a few years in Georgia) was disappointed they didn't turn the water purple. The Bartlett pears I purchased last weekend at Haltemans ripened nicely; sweet and just enough juice. Haltemans also had Italian purple plums this week. Apples found at Haltemans, Fair Food and Kauffman's included Ginger Gold and Sansa. Melons are starting to fade. Although watermelons can still be found, I saw no local canteloupes or honeydews today. Maybe Earl Livengood still has them.

If a business is located in the midst of an single-language ethnic enclave, then there is at least a tiny reason for the customer to make an effort to communicate in the business operator's tongue. But when a business, by virtue of its location, is clearly going after a broader demograhic of customers (as Ô has by purposely locating right next to one of the busiest food corners in the city), the obligation falls exclusively on the business operator. At least if the operator wants a profitable operation.

Thanks for the report, Ed. and glad you and your GF enjoyed the visit. Come back soon! (And definitely try Tommy DiNic's or Tony Lukes, but this time, don't wrap the pork sammy.)

Didn't know which forum to place this photo, which is marginally about food because what is pictured below greeted me this afternoon upon entering the Whole Foods on 20th Street in Philadelphia: Contrary to their corporate policy, I suspect Whole Foods is adding an unnatural additive to this plant to create a 'Huge Bonsai'.

After reading philadining's message, I reminded myself that I have yet to try a Vietnamese hoagie, so en route to various errands in South Philly this afternoon I rectified that omission. Here's the "special" sandwich I ordered, with pate, ham and all the regular fixings, at Ô Sandwich: The sandwich itself was quite yummy, as philadining describes. My baguette was suitably crispy, helped along by what appeared to be a light wash prior to baking. The jalapeno just happened to fall out of the sandwich but, rest assured, I reinserted the slices to their proper positions prior to consumption. A most attractive sandwich, especially at $2.75. PS to philadining: To get the circumflex (at least on my Mac G-5), press Option + i, then the letter O (including shift key).

mrbigjas, those peanuts certainly sound good. Nothing like fresh boiled legumes, even if I'm not from Georgia. Blackberries: My prediction of their annual demise was slightly premature. At today's South Street market, Earl Livengood had them ($4.95/pint) and they are delicious. Very high fruit to pit ratio, since these are late summer berries that have been growing most of the season. But as I cautioned before, don't wait to eat them; they must be consumed the same day you bring them home, or mix them in yogurt, where they will safely keep for a few days, for a quick and easy breakfast or midday snack. Tomorrow there will be guest lecturer at Swarthmore: Sam Consylman, pictured here at today's South Street Market working Earl Livengood's stand: You might have read Rick Nichols piece about Sam a few weeks ago, and that led to a Swarthmore prof inviting Sam to talk about foraging for food. Sam says the paws paws should be available in a couple of weeks. Young celeriac can be had at Livengood's. I also found some decent celeriac last Saturday at Iovine's. If I did have a taste for okra, I'd certainly try those offered by Livengood, as seen in the photo above.

TAPrice is right: don't write the obituary, at least not quite yet. Here's Brad Brennan saying something completely different in today's NY Times: Here's the full story from Sept. 6 NY Times.

Excellent suggestion, and even more appropriate with Alsatian Rieslings.

Early September is a great time to shop for produce: most summer fruits and veggies are available, and fall produce makes an appearance. To wit: ]Peaches and pears, side-by-side, at L. Halteman's Country Store. The peaches, like all the stone fruit this season, have been superb. I've got some of these Bartlett pears ripening in a paper bag; they are pretty hard, so it will take a couple of days. Fair Food Project Farmstand also displayed summer and fall produce side-by-side. Okra makes an apperance, alongside cherry tomatoes, limas, blackberries and raspberries at Fair Food. This is pretty much the last gasp for blackberries. Earl Livengood didn't have any Thursday afternoon at the Fairmount market. The blackberries are tending to develop that common thread-like mold or fungus quickly right now, so if you buy them, use them immediately. With the exception of the onions, this photo shows some fruits we treat as vegetables: peppers, cucumber, eggplant, tomatoes. This produce was on display at Benuel Kauffman's stand, where I picked up corn, tomatoes and watermelon. He still has those luscious cylindrical red beets at $2 a box. Other observations from my visit today: Iovine's still has those Chilean avocados at 2 for $1, but not many; perhaps they'll put out more at that price for Saturday shoppers. I passed them by, but Iovine's had incredibly good looking Hen-of-the-Woods mushrooms; If I was in a deep-frying mood, I'd batter those babies and feast. I picked up the rib eye steaks at Fair Food that are offered at 20% off (still not cheap at $10 a pound. They look good and decently marbled; I'll report back. Also on the menu for this weekend: spare ribs, courtesy of Harry Ochs; I'll put 'em on the Weber kettle with chips and slow smoke. Happy Labor Day weekend to all, and to Katie, Mummer, Herb and the rest of the crew heading south for Varmint's Pig Pickin', drive safely, and don't forget to rob a bank for gas money.

Gingersnaps sounds interesting, but it also sounds more like sauerbraten. The bacon and vinegar are good suggestions. To that, I'd add a touch of nutmeg. I don't know the UK beers well enough, but in the States I second (and third) Ommergang; I've used it regularly in my carbonnade and love it.

Technically a New Jersey item, but of interest to Philadelphians like me who find themselves on the other side of the river: Stopped by Miel's Patisserie at Village Walk, Cherry Hill this afternoon, and found that their chocolates are on sale at 50% off. Although I've had finer French style flavored chocolates, these are still darned good chocolates. And at $19 a pound rather than $38, a very good value, indeed, a downright bargain. I believe the sale lasts through the weekend, but they are closed on Labor Day. Lots of interesting flavors, including a dark ganache with fleur de sel.

Huh? Here's his review. (You might have to register [free] to read the review.)

Glad to see they are back in business at that location. Armstrong was among the purveyors you had recommended in response to a May 2004 inquiry I had posted seeking recommendations for Edinburgh purveyors. The fact that the shop burned to the ground the evening after I visited had NOTHING to do with the fact that I asked for a kipper, but when I unwrapped it the next day it was a fresh herring.