rlibkind

Ludja: Yes, they do have potato pancakes and blintzes (cheese and potato on the latter). They aren't available as sides to the platters, but I'm going to order the potcakes next time to accompany the bigos . PS: Have you been back to Phila. for any good concerts lately? TarteTatin: Czerws! I was looking for them but didn't see them. Where on Ricnmond? And DO let us know if another walk is scheduled.

Any bread you put into a wrapper is going to be like that. But this bread did not look at all like the Grossingers, etc., breads, nor was it wrapped the same way. I'm sure it suffers a bit by being placed into wrap, but it definitely looked like the real thing. I'll pick it up my next trip and give it a try.

The 12th St. Cantina at the RTM also offers Cuban sandwiches; if I hadn't just had breakfast I would have tried one!

You really don't have to do much with a shoulder roast, since that wonderful fat flavors it so nicely! Cut some garlic slivers and insert them into the meat. Salt and pepper, then roast in a medium oven to medium-well (shoulder doesn't do well pink). Or do it Moroccan style, which is pretty much the same, except you rub it with lots of butter and roast it in a slow oven for hours, basting it as often as possible with the butter (use more if needed). And in lieu of an oven, you can always use the indirect grill method. The only thing else you'll need is a nice red wine! Really, you don't need to do much at all to make a perfectly scrumptious roast lamb shoulder. PS: I'm not an Aussie, if that matters. Alternative recipe that requires some forethought and modest effort: Marinate the lamb (on the bone or off, your choice) for 24 hours in full-fat yogurt in the refrigerator. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. Crush and mince at least three or four cloves of garlic (six or seven are better) with a tablespoon or so of kosher salt. To this mix in some sage (dried or fresh), crushed coridander seeds and crushed black pepper. Rub all over the lamb and let it sit in the fridge for another 24 hours. After second marination, light your fire: moderate oven or indirect over moderate grill heat. Roast 'til done. If you use a leg reather than a shoulder, you can cook it rare. If it's a shoulder, let it cook to medium-well.

As a North Jersey kid, I was raised on Pechter's rye bread (Harrison Baking Co.) It's the ultimate Jewish Rye. I used to be able to get it at Siegfried's at the Reading Terminal, but when he closed up shop I was left carraway-less. On my regular trip to the Cherry Hill Shop Rite this week, however, I found it in the bread aisle: the rye bread of my youth! Pecther's is back!

Wow! I'll have to check if 12th Street's RTM store does them, since that's where I tend to spend my time.

As Katie said, it's way too small for DDC. And although I very much enjoyed my meal, I tend to think DDC meals should have something exotic about them. And, let me tell you, Syrenka ain't exotic. I mean, it's basically a meatloaf/sauerkraut palace. Well, maybe it's not too small for DDC, because I really don't think you'd have too many takers for meatloaf and sauerkraut. They also close at 7 p.m., and I doubt they'd want to work late. In many ways, it's not a professional restaurant. What it offers is good home cooking (except for those industrial mashed potatoes!) that holds up on a steam table. By all means, go there for lunch or an earlier dinner. Let me know when, I'll join you. The grocery store (Krakus) across the street is as Katie advertises. Kind of a mini Bells Market. The deli is the most interesting part of the store: a dozen or so cold cuts/sausages which look like they are either made in the premises or nearby (I did hear a sausage grinder in the background). I picked up a few slices of the gelatine veal loaf which was tasty (heavy on the gelatine, though); and they do pork loin and chop cold cuts a number of different ways. Various kielbasas, of course: would you believe "wedding kielbasa"? Since this past weekend I cooked my first pork belly -- it was delicious; I'm going to do one every winter -- I was also intrigued by hunks of smoked "pork rib belly" they had in the deli case. Some good looking sweets, too, including a poppy strudel with my name on it. I also picked up some homemade mushroom-kraut pierogies for the freezer. They also have a small section with some tables and a waitress, so it looks like you can get sandwiches or meals there.

Found myself in Port Richmond around noontime, so I stopped by Syrenka Restaurant, 3173 Richmond St. What a hearty meal! After an "appetizer" of kraut pierogies with a dollop of sour cream, I enjoyed a golombka (stuffed cabbage) with just enough meat to call it "protein", but tasty nonetheless. As sides, I chose the beets and the mashed potatoes. The beets were marvelous; they might have come from a can, but canned beets are a wonderful thing. It seems like they chopped the beets very fine, then heated them up with some butter; a very good veggie side. Unfortuantely, and maybe I'm wrong, but the potatoes had the taste and texture that I associate with coming from a box. Next time I'm going to try the bigos (Polish choucroute).

With that statement I couldn't agree more! There is an awful lot of awful stuff out there. The first rule is to avoid anything from NYS named chardonnay or merlot. (I suppose someone out there in New York State might make an okay chard, but I haven't found it yet; then again, I'm not a chard fan, so my vote doesn't count.) You might also want to try Standing Stone; if not up to Frank's or Wiemer's standards, still pretty good, at least on the basis of a Viennese-style Heuriger I tried there one crisp fall afternoon -- A simple, straightforward, very young white, a wine destined to be the victim of infanticide. Goes well with country pates and cold cuts.

Katie, methinks your statement about terroir and climate may be a tad extreme. The ideal terroir and climate varies with the particular grape you wish to grow and vinify. The Finger Lakes can, and do, produce superlative rieslings, as philadeining notes in regard to Dr. Frank, and to which I will add Hermann Wiemer. Land prices for well-sloped tracts along the Finger Lakes (particularly Seneca and Keuka) have been heading upward as California buyers have started stockpiling potential vineyard sites. I've yet to find a Finger Lake red I can enjoy, but there's plenty to like among the whites, from very modestly priced table whites to a number of exceptional rieslings and dessert wines. The problem is that most American wine drinkers simply haven't given rieslings (dry and semi) and dessert wines a chance, and these are wine types in which the Finger Lakes excel.

John: I was wondering how long it would take you to appear here! Try this: take a bag of all-beef cocktail franks and let them simmer for an hour in equal parts cheap yellow mustard and store-brand currant jelly. The smell will be awful for the first 20 minutes, but then it either (1) gets better or (2) you get used to it. Serve these in a chafing dish over a warmer with toothpicks; only the snobbiest guest will pass them by.

I'm always in search of fine wine to accompany my Chef Boyardi spaghetti or beans & weenies, so when my neighborhood Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board outlet offered $12 3-liter bag boxes of an Aussie shiraz (Stonehaven) I was ready. I opened the bag Saturday night, and the first tastes were awful. She Who Must Be Obeyed thought it "bitter"; all I could think of was dead yeast. After sitting in our jelly jars for a few minutes, it became barely drinkable (I was desperate). Tonight, two nights later, the wine seems totally different. It won't be mistaken for McLaren Vale's finest, or even Chateau Sydney, but the bitterness and off flavors had vanished, and it actually tasted of fruit. I'm perplexed: if the bag system is supposed to keep the wine as stable and unchanging as possible, and the wine was awful upon opening, why did letting it sit for a few days after opening change (improve) the taste? Any ideas?

IMHO, gouching on drinks will make more money for Starr at Barclay Prime than four bells from Mr. Laban. Barclay Prime, like most steak houses in downtown business districts, is more geared to the expense account crowd than the local diner.

Indeed. Southwark Cathedral is adjacent to Borough Market.

Those are a Philly-South Jersey oyster cracker, known as OTC's, for Old Trenton Crackers, the brand name. I hope you put a dab of horseradish on each one!

If anyone might serve them, it should be Big Stash's Restaurant. 1020 S Wood Ave. Linden. I don't know that they do, but it just seems a likely place.

In addition to the Park Hyatt (the old Bellevue) there's a Hyatt Regency at Penn's Landing.

Well, I made it up to the Northeast this past Thursday and didn't come close to exploring its culinary depths. As it was, the only time we had was for Bell's Market and lunch at Mediterranean 2000. I've posted separately in a new topic about Bell's, which was an overwhelming experience. As foir Mediterranean 2000, even though it was a late lunch, the bar was filled with men smoking, eating and talking. She Who Must Be Obeyed and I sat in the dining room (only one other table was occupied). A salad and a light Portuguese white bread were promptly brought to the table. SWMBO isn't much for the many Portoguese specialities, so she got a sirloin steak, which, for $13, was quite tasty and fairly priced; the frozen french fries, however, were a disappointment. I started with a vegetable soup, which seemed to be a chicken stock sweetened with a copious amount of pureed carrot, then enhanced with onion, potato, chick peas and bits of sausage. A wondefuly warming winter dish. I followed with the "appetizer" flaming sausage. A huge, thick, foot-plus long hunk of sausage served in a shallow casserole which, as promised, arrived at the table flaming. Great piece of sausace. With gargantuan effort, I managed to eat two-thirds of it. I took the rest home which, today, I'll be turning into soup, too. The fish and seafood menu looks good, so Mediterranean 2000 looks like it's worth a return visit. Again, many thanks for all the suggestions. I'll be making regular trips to check out many of them. Edited to fix typos

Good list, Herb! The cheesesteak place in the RTM, btw, is Rick's (not Steve's). It's okay and is not a bad representative of the Philadelphia cheesesteak, although there are better in town.

I forgot Ludwig's Garden on Sansom, just a block or two east of Broad. In the midst of a cold winter, some hearty German food (and beer, lots of good imported German brews) are wonderously filling and tasty. The Jaegerschnitzel is the ultimate in comfort food.

Aramark Tower is practically sitting atop the Reading Terminal Market and just a couple of blocks from Chinatown. You will definitely not die of starvation for lack of good food. Standard Tap is probably a $7-8 cab ride away. Lots of other great places within easy walking distance: Lolita, Sansom Street Oyster House, Capogiro for gelato, Happy Hour at McCormick & Schmick (it may be a chain, but it's got great Happy Hour deals, as does SSOH),and tons more. And don't discount the Stephen Starr establishments; although most are too glitzy and expensive, Jones and the original Continental offer tasty food at a reasonable price. Aramark sits atop one of the city's transit hubs (Market East commuter rail station, Market-Frankford El [subway], lots of city buses) so you can get to other locations by public transit pretty easily, i.e., South Philly for lots of good Italian (many of the places are walkable if the weather isn't horrid). You will be overwhelmed by all the choices available to you from that location. I'm sure lots of other regulars to this board will offer many more good suggestions. BTW, which hotel? At the Reading Terminal Market, with the exception of the Down Home Diner, everything closes at 5:30 p.m., and it's totally closed on Sundays. But for breakfast and lunch, it's ideal. For breakfast, be sure to try scrapple with your eggs or pancakes at the Down Home Diner or the Pennsylvania Dutch Eating Place. For lunch, it's hard to do better than a roast pork with sharp provolone and greens at Tommy DiNic's, though the hoagies at Salumeria give him a run for the money (make sure to get house dressing and pay a little bit extra for the marinated artichokes). Excellent pizza at Pizza by George, and there's a Pakistani/Indian stall that's pretty good. Don't forget Bassetts ice cream; there's a reason why they've been in business for 144 years. In fact, you can't go wrong at any of the eateries at the RTM, with just one exception: the new creperie is awful. And you might want to avoid Pearl's Oyster Bar; not awful, but uninspired fried seafood; you'll be much better off walking six or seven blocks to Sansom Street.

Stuffy's got it right. See my earlier post (only the delis I frequented in Elizabeth and Union called the triple deckers "combos").

Cary's got to have a sense of humor -- he put a copy of the ad on the SSOH web site .

Sansom Street Oyster House. Oysters. Beer. OTCs with horseradish. More beer. Maybe fried calamari or steamed or fried Ipswich clams. Then more beer.

I've never seen this sandwich offered anywhere in Northern NJ or New York City-- perhaps this is indigenous to South Jersey-Philly area? ← No, it's a North-Central Jersey thing. Very similar in concept to what a number of delis would call a "Number 5 combo" or 7 or 3 or whatever, though cheese was never involved in the Sloppy Joe's I remember from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Usually, combinations would involve. corned beef, pastrami, tongue with Russian and cole slaw (what in Philadelphia would be called a corned beef or pastrami "special". The "Number Whatever" combo at a deli like Goodman's of Elmora in Elizabeth would be a full sandwich cut in half, while the "Sloppy Joe" would be mini-versions for catering in which the sandwich was quartered, stuck with fancy toothpicks and arranged on a platter; it was actually less "sloppy" (less slaw) than the full-size combo so it could be eaten without massive amounts of napkins.