rlibkind

At left, fishmonger and fish at G. Armstrong in Edinburgh's Stockbridge neighborhood poses with a large specimen before applying his skills. The date: May 20, 2004. That evening, the shop burned down. Armstrong's window display in photo at right.

Price of avocados at Iovines has dropped dramatically, 50 cents each today vs. $1.50 last week. Why? These are from Chile, where the season is just getting underway. They are undercutting the San Diego County growers, who have a monopoloy on Haas avocados during the summer when Mexican imports are restricted. In the last year Chile has become a major exporter of the fruit. As for quality, even though the one I bought today was perfectly ripe, it was relatively low on flavor. For slicing and eating in a salad, so-so. But they'd be fine in guac. Texture of fruit was suitably creamy. Limes are as inexpensive at they get: a dime apiece at Iovine's. Lemons are twice that price, still a decent price. Fair Food Project's Mirai corn was delivered Thursday morning, so I passed it by. Instead, bought some white corn at Earl Livengood's. Delicious. Earl still has blackberries, as well as second crop of raspberries. Benuel Kaufman, as promised, had the long cylindrical beets. $2 for a box of just under a dozen. Each beet is about 1.25" in diameter, 2.5-3.5 inches long. Sweetest beets you'll ever taste. I roasted them in aluminum foil this evening while cooking chicken parts on the Weber Silver B. (That chicken, btw, was marinated in lime juice, scallions, home grown red chili pepper, EVO, black pepper and tequila. When the chicken was done [indirect heat except for final crisping, basting with marinade] boiled the marinade with more chopped chili pepper and a tablespoon of added white sugar, turned off heat, added roughly chopped cilantro and immediately poured over chicken. Served with a salad of shredded iceberg, tomato and avocado slices in simple vinaigrette. Corn on the cob on the side. Chicken came from Harry Ochs at $1.99/pound for a whole "free range" bird, cut into parts to order. Drank a Vinho Verde.) Halteman's Country Store had some white peaches; look and smell good, they're sitting in a paper bag on the kitchen counter for just a tad more ripening. Got a couple more plums, too. Apricots have finally disappeared. Also picked up a small round red watermelon from Benuel Kaufman; I'll try it with some of the feta I picked up at Downtown Cheese; the feta also goes well with sliced beets when you add some walnuts and a bit of orange meat, topped with vinaigrette. Grapes are starting to make an appearance. I think Fair Food had concords. Iovines had muscadines (which I detest), but not local. I greatly miss the wonderful grapes I used to purchase in late summer and well into the fall at the Ithaca Farmers Market. Early apples have been available for the past couple weeks at Kaufman's and Halteman's. Haven't tried them yet -- I'm too occupied with the melons, stone fruit and berries. Caviar Assouline is closing its Reading Terminal Market outpost; Joel decided it wasn't worth the rent. They were also stuck in an out-of-the-way location, even if they were right by Metropolitan Bakery. Today they were clearing out the stock with lots of items on sale -- Valrhona, for example, at 70% off. Alas, caviar was not included among the sale items. Sigh. One could wish. I still don't understand why Profi's Creperie does what appears to be a good business. I tried them once and they were cardboardy. Has anyone had a better experience?

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Great minds (and tummies) think alike -- Bob

MarketStEl's covered some of this, but let me add my two-cents: Pat's and Geno's are closer than a 20 minute ride, certainly on weekends. As far as these cheesesteak outposts being "tourist traps," they are not. Yes, they are on the tourist map, but lots of locals partake of them and vigorously debate their merits, as this message board attests. There are plenty of other decent cheesesteak places, some better than Pat's and Gino's. Another popular spot that makes a reliable, tasty cheesesteak is Jim's at South and Fourth. Gino's and Pat's are located about four-five blocks south of the Ninth Street (Italian) Market, the heart of which runs along Ninth Street from Washington north to Christian, but spills over to adjacent streets. Must-see stores include DiBruno's and Claudio's for Italian goods (and Claudio's fresh made mozzarella store, perfect right now during the height of the tomato season), and Isgro's for pastry (though in the heat of the summer I generally avoid cannoli, sfogliatelle and the like. As much as the Ninth Street Market offers, for general shopping and eating I prefer the Reading Terminal Market at Arch and 12th. (Closed Sundays, and not open at night.l). Pennsylvania Dutch merchants (selling pretzels, baked goods, candy, cold cuts, etc.) are there Wednesday-Saturday. Lots of other merchants (3 fish mongers, for instance), produce stores (Iovine's is open six days a week and offers the broadest selection, much better than any supermarket, although Thursday-Saturday the Fair Food Project Farmstand is there with lots of excellent produce, and on Saturday's in center court there's Earl Livengood from Lancaster County; Benuel Kaufmann's Pennsylvania Dutch stand is open six days a week, too, if I recall correctly, and he frequently has excellent produce. I'll put in a plug for some friends, Mike and Julie Holahan, whose Pennsylvania General Store offers Pennsyania-made food products (think Copes Dried Corn, etc.) and crafts. Think wider than cheesesteaks. At the Reading Terminal Market you will find Tommy DiNic's. Tommy makes one of the best sandwiches in a city of great sandwiches: roast pork. Get it with greens and aged provolone. He also does veal, beef and, lately, brisket; all are good, but the pork is what to get if you can get only one. There are other purveyors of fine roast pork sandwiches, especially Tony Luke's on Oregon Avenue under I-95, and John's Roast Pork at Snyder just a few blocks west of Columbus Blvd. (formerly Front street).; As anyone who checks this board regularly knows, I'm a big fan of the Reading Terminal Market. There are lots of other places to east there, including breakfast at either the Down Home Diner or the Pennsylvania Dutch Eating Place (try the scrapple at either). Pizza By George makes one of the best pizza-by-the-slice versions around. Hoagies at Salumeria are a treat (good vegetarian opinions; my favorite non-veggie is the prosciutto with everything, including house dressing and marinated artichokes). Nanee's Kitchen for very filling South Asian (Pakistani). Delilah's for fried chicken and ribs and mac 'n cheese And these are just a few of the places to get breakfast, lunch or takeaway. I would avoid Pearl's, where I find the seafood second rate. Likewise, the cheesesteak's at Rick's, while passable, are hardly worth a detour. The crepes at Profi's Creperie aren't to my tastes, either. The "Rocky Steps" are part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. A smaller museum, operated under contract by PMA, is the Rodin Museum at the Parkway & 22nd streets. "The Thinker" is out front. It's a small museum, but well worth a visit. Another museum sometimes bypassed is the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Broad & Cherry. Dedicated to American art. Worth it just to see the Frank Furness designed original building. When you're in the Art Museum neighborhood (which is where I live) you've got some excellent dining choices, most of which offer good vegetarian fare. The most striking in terms of ambiance is Illuminare, Fairmount Ave. between 23d and 24th, maybe three blocks from PMA. Incredibly handsome dining room reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style, and a delightful courtyard for al fresco dining. As far as food goes, if you stick with the simpler fare you will be very well fed. An interesting interior can be found at Jack's Firehouse, Fairmount between 21st and 22nd. It is a converted firehouse, and a rowing scull is suspended over the bar. Burgers and pulled pork and sandwiches on the bar menu, grilled fish and meats in the dining room, with some veggie options. People tend to either loved or hate Jack McDavid's food; I'm in the camp of the former, though I'll be the first to admit consistency is sometimes an issue. Other Art Museum eateries worth a stop include London Grill (23rd and Fairmount, great burgers and an eclectic American menu worth investigating), Rembrandt's (23rd and Aspen just north of Fairmount; stick to the bar menu and pizzas, but it's a great bar); and Zorba's for Greek at Fairmount near 23rd. Back to the issue of parking. You might want to consider using an outlying parking lot, then taking cabs, buses and walking. There's a parking lot at 23rd and Fairmount, where the maximum daily rate is $9; it's pretty safe, since a number of neighbors park their second car there, on-street parking sometimes being rare in the area. The No. 48 bus goes right by there every 10-15 minutes and connects the neighborhood with Center City and the historic district, going down Market Street, and returning up Arch. You can also find free street parking in the neighborhood during the day, when people are at work. It's when you come home at night that the parking spots are scarce.

Wow! All these blackberry ideas are stupendous! I've been buying them since mid-July at Philly's Reading Terminal Market, and they're still going strong. It's been a great year for blackberries, as well as all types of stone fruit, which is why I'm partial to blackberry-peach (or nectarine) combinations. Question: I just got an ice-cream maker (the 1.5 quart Cuisinart) and am a neophyte. Anything to making a blackberry sorbet other than puree, strain, sugar and maybe a touch of lemon?

If you can't believe The Jerusalem Post and Acme Smoked Fish on the difference between lox and nova, who can you believe? Acme is one of the two major suppliers of nova, lox and other cured and/or smoked seafood products. This article from Sam Cooks tackles the nomenclature confusion head-on, starting off with a definitive statement from one of the top honchos at Marshall (Acme's competitor). Some other citations: Smart Mouth, Cincinnati Enquirer Horton's (from Google cache) - scroll down the page. Horton's was a premiered Maine smoked salmon house; looks like they've been aquiared by an aquaculture company. To be honest, I've also come across any number of web references that insist lox is smoked. Which just goes to show that you can't trust anything you read on the web just because it's on the web. Know your source. For me, I'll go with Acme and Marshalls.

Dick, I absolutely agree on the hot smoke point you make. In an appy store, that would be closer to "kippered" salmon, which, of course, is not at all like a British "kipper" (a herring, not a salmon).I guess I'm a purist on NOT calling cold smoked salmon lox. I'll grant you that many people do, and I'm sure the folks at R&D told you want they told you. But their web site is very careful not to confuse the issue. Lox is lox and smoked salmon is smoked salmon. Yes, it's the same fish, but the different nomenclature reflects different processes. A prune is a plum, but a plum is not a prune. (The analogy isn't perfect, but you get the idea.) I went to one of the few remaining "appy" stores in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago, and when I asked for "lox" they double-checked to make sure I meant belly lox rather than nova. In other words, when you say "lox" their first interpretation is "belly lox", but they are aware that many people don't make the distinction, so they make an effort to assure that both parties mean the same thing. That's why I'm a bit of a curmudgeon on this issue: words have meaning, and distinction of meaning is important.

Any appy (appetizer store, which is an endangered species) 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. (We're not getting into the Scandinavian language roots of "lax" or "lachs" since that will confuse this topic even more. What we're discussing here is the proper nomenclature as applied by NYC Jewish appy store fish slicers. Also, don't trust what a "deli" man tells you. He may know salami, but a "deli" deals in cured and processed meats, not smoked fish, except as a sideline.) You may wish to consult the "Smoked and Cured 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", "grav lox" and "pickled lox," none of which are smoked. Other do tend to use the word "lox" loosely (including the "Louvre of lox" quote from the Sunday Times of London, but what the hell do they know?) to refer to salmon, but that doesn't make it correct, unless you are misspelling the word for salmon (laks) in one of the Scandinavian languages.

What's remoulade other than a refined (and the original) version of Thousand Island (or, as we called it when I was a kid, Russian, to which we added Tabasco rather than pickle relish)? And does anyone remember Milan's 1890 salad dressing? I think it's still available.

Linda's technique sounds perfect. I don't use a smoker, but a Weber kettle works just fine so long as you watch the heat. I just did some parts last week (my brine has just a tad of sugar), but the temp was in the same range as Linda's, never crossing the 250 mark, and usually at 225. The thigh/drumstick quarters came out incredible. The boneless cutlet (For She Who Must Be Obeyed who ONLY eats meat within "ook", i.e., fat, collagen, etc.) was quite tolerable and not at all dried out, since it was both brined and spent less time in the kettle. An instant read thermometer is exceedingly helpful in keeping everything in hand. Use a rub to taste, or just nicely peppered.

Ha! My brain went exactly the same way, and I was pretty perplexed for a while. But I think i got it, chardonnay, don't marinate the cukes with chardonnay! Right? ← ooooooooooooh i get it now. i was really confused for a second there. ← Yeooow! And I wasn't even trying!

Melons have been exceptional this season! Benuel Kaufman says he's never had better watermelon. I had some two weeks from Halteman's and it was sweet as could be. Ditto last week's canteloupe from Halteman's and this week's canteloupe and honeydew from Benuel. The mirai corn from the Fair Food Farmstand is sweet and tender. I've been grilling it, then serving it with a squeeze of lime and some grains of cayenne to taste. Butter and salt works, too. Also from FFF, picked up pork chops (Country Time Farm); they had been delivered Thursday and not yet frozen. I'd love to see some fattier, heritage pig, but after brining and two-stage grilling these succulent babies satisfied. Served with the mirai corn, some slices of heirloom tomatoes (don't know the variety, but they were yellow and red, from Benuel Kaufman) and nectarine chutney (made from purposely picked hard nectarines from Kaufman and a "kung pao" pepper just turned red from our patio garden. Also served a quick cucumber pickle, made from "English" cukes the FFF unexpected got from one of their farmers. Although seedier than the commercial English cukes, the seeds it did have were still marginal, and the fresh taste was as summery as it gets. For a refreshing apperitif, dice a teaspoon's worth of cuke and add to a glass of chilled light, cheap summer white wine (Portuguese 'green' wine works well) with a thin slice of lime. Warning: Do not do this with chard. Benuel expects to have his second (and main) crop of the long red beets during the coming week. I find them sweeter and "beet-ier" than the fancier varieties. They have the added advantage of a more uniform thickness, which means you can cook them (roasting is my preferred method) and all parts will be equally cooked. With bigger round beets, sometimes the outside is too soft or the center too hard.

Holly, IIRC, the Italian dogs are beef dogs, and they are deep fried. (John, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Tommy uses Best, or am I confusing him with Jerry's down the block?). Certainly there are some good pork and pork/beef dogs that deep fry well, but all-beef can work, too.

Beans are a tremendously useful food if you have diabetes. It's pretty well established that the carbohydrates found in beans/legumes do not have the same impact on blood glucose as most other carbohydrate-laden foods. Obviously, each person is different, but assuming you're not eating baked beans with lots of added sugars, beans and legumes simply don't raise b.g. levels to the extent that potatoes or bread or white rice do. Some thoughts on using beans: Make them from dry beans. Although canned beans are fine, they tend to have a bit more salt and be mushy. Cooking your own beans is easy. Make a lot, then freeze them in portion-sized containers with the cooking liquid. Garbanzos (chick peas) work particularly well. For a snack, roast chick peas coated in a little olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Or make them spicier with some cayenne or other chile pepper concoction. Roast in a single layer in 400-F oven, shaking pan occasionally, until nicely browned and crisp. Let them cool, then pack in an airtight container. (Alas, this is a particularly good snack with beer, which is not a recommended quaff from a diabetic perspective, though an occasional indulgence -- but not for a nine-year-old!) Chicken parts of your choice (preferably on the bone, but skin can be removed) braised with Indian spices and herbs to your taste, onions, then rice and chick peas. Yum. Can be frozen into portios and reheated. Wow! I'm out of beans. Gotta make some more!

gaf, at risk of placing you in jeopardy within earshot of any El, isn't DiNic's pork sandwich (or John's or Tony Luke's) an improvement upon Chicago's Italian Beef? I've yet to have one of the latter (as good as some of them are) that matches up to a Philly pork sandwich. Tommy DiNic, btw, also does a beef sandwich in the same style as his pork one.

Stop by Halteman's Country Foods at the Reading Terminal Market and check out their fresh produce. I got shiro plums there a week or so ago, and they've got others than are just as good, i.e., not hybridized, picked green, etc.

Friday I went to Claudio's in Philadelphia's Ninth Street Market where I purchased half a pound of salt-cured anchovies out of the big 5 kg tin. I also picked up fresh mozzarella made just an hour or so earlier next door at Claudio's little factory. Back home, the anchovies got rinsed and filleted, then marinated for five or six hours in oil with some garlic and previously charred and skinned sweet red peppers. That was dinner later in the evening with a fat, juicy Brandywine tomato, some good dense bread grilled into brushetta (more garlic rubbed all over), and by a glass and a half of cheap but decent bag wine. Dessert: a dead-ripe Lancaster County nectarine purchased the previous weekend at the Reading Terminal Market.

The device you describe is an insulin pump, which provides a steady "basal" flow of insulin and, as needed, a user-adjusted "bolus" for every meal. It is not a monito, which is a separate, palm-sized device. When if both of these functions successfully are combined into a single, practical, implantable device, you will have invented the artificial pancreas. Indeed, that is the subject of much research today. Researchers and medical device engineers are getting closer every day. From Suzi's description of her care at Kaiser Permanente, it sounds like they know exactly what they're doing. The pump is something that may be very useful at some point in the future, but right now, they are wisely just trying to determine her basic rates/responses during the course of normal day-to-day life and activity; this way, her diabetic team and the family can develop a workable plan. In diabetes management, one size does not fit all. Suzi, from what you've written here I have no doubt you, your daughter and husband will not merely cope with the situation, but thrive. Best wishes to all. (And as an aside, when friends and relatives seem surprised at my testing my blood glucose four times a day, I simply respond: "Hey, it's a disease made to order for someone as detail-crazed as me.)

Here's what Fredric Klees wrote in The Pennsylvania Dutch (New York: Macmillan, 1961): Hence the occasional confusion about Amish surnames.

Anyone thinking of flying to this event should at least consider using Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, NY, rather than Newark. Stewart is about half an hour closer to Bobolink than Newark. Although it's a smaller airport offering fewer flights, it does have non-stop service from some hubs: Chicago (American Eagle), Detroit (Northwest), Philadelphia (US Airways Express), DC-Dulles (Independence), and Cincinnati (Delta Connection). From Akron/Canton, US Airways offers a $170 fare (including fees, taxes), with a change in Philadelphia. It gets you to Stewart at 1 p.m. Sunday (or Saturday if you want to fly out earlier) and there's an early evening return flight. Since there are no non-stops from Akron/Canton to either Newark or Stewart, and the fares to Stewart are actually a little less expensive, it may be worth golng to Newburgh rather than Newark. The fares out of Cleveland, rather than Akron, aren't any better, though there are Cleveland-Newark non-stops.

I've had succeess adding 1-1/2 tbs. kosher salt to about four pounds of tomatoes, then processing to a puree.

Percyn, The risotto looks delicious! And letting a little pulp fall into the tomato water makes no difference in that preparation, I imagine. But next time you make tomato water, use it in a cold soup. In this instance, you should try to avoid letting the pulp get into the tomato water, it clouds the finished product. Add some complementary herbs or spices (perhaps cilantro, or lemon grass or cumin -- separately, not in the same recipe -- chill and serve with a few small to medium shrimp or perhaps a few thin slices from a barely cooked diver scallop. Very refreshing. (If you use lemon grass, steep in the soup over a simmer for 10 minutes, then sieve before chilling.) What really sets this soup apart is the visual clarity which seems so antithetical to the intense, sweet flavor.

The hard part is restraining yourself from helping it along by squeezing and/or pressing the cheesecloth. Doing so gets pulp into the tomato water, which you want as clear and un-red as humanly possible (a very faint rose is fine). Done properly, you wind up with a light sugar water with pronounced tomato flavor.

← Based on my single experience, I disagree; our service was quite prompt. We were there for a weekday lunch at 12:30 p.m. with the place threee-quarters full; I counted five servers/buspersons. Sundays, I imagine, can be a lot busier. Nonetheless, even if they were having a normally busy Sunday, they should still be able to provide prompt service. Did they appear to be short-staffed or otherwise handicapped, or simply not paying attention? ← That sounds like the "zaftig" sandwich which, I concur, is way too big. The "normal" sandwich, though, is probably 4-inches tall, and that's still more than my jaw can open. But I urge you to visit Harold's in Edison to see what a really, really tall sandwich looks like. It would have trouble making the clearance in the Holland Tunnel. I can understand why a substandard cup of coffee would set you off; no restaurant should get that wrong. Still, other than sandwich dimensions and your preference for a wider rather than taller sandwich (and the lack of kaiser roll), I have trouble understanding how you can state the food is "definitely worse". Was the whitefish salad rancid or have too much/too little mayo? Was in improperly prepared/seasoned? As for the chocolate chip cookies, my guess is they are buying them from David Auspitz, the deli's previous owner who kept that business. So if they were greasy and salty before, well, they're probably still greasy and salty. We brought home a piece of the blackout cake, and it was just what we wanted and expected: very chocolatey while remaining a cake, not a piece of fudge, though it would have been nice if the almonds had been toasted. I also brought home some belly (salty) lox; tasted perfectly fine, but the slicing was amateurish: some almost as thin as they should be, other slices way too thick. In my considered opinion, no one under the age of 55 should be permitted to slice smoked fish.