rlibkind

I hope everyone following this topic has seen today's (Oct. 14) "Piranha Club" comic strip in the Inquirer. Something about a horsehead and scrapple. No surprise that the author of the strip originally hails from Chester. I'd link to it, but the feature syndicate doesn't put it on the web.

Forgot about Caribou Cafe, they certainly have a couple of interesting items on the menu, though at least on their website there's no mention of the flamenkuche. I'll have to get back there, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it "nails the brasserie ouvre very well". They are more of a bistro than a brasserie. Nice beer choices, though, and that's certainly required for a brasserie. But sausage and and pork dishes, as well as choucroute, are missing (at least from the current web menu) and they are essential for a brasserie, to my mind.

You forgot Raymond Sokolov, who predates Bryan Miller. (I am showing my age!)

Johnny Apple's NY Times article Wednesday about Jean Joho reminded me how much I miss true Brasserie fare, i.e., the Alsatian hearty plates like Choucrout and onion tart, all sorts of simple pork and veal dishes and other not so nouvelle foods that go so well with beer, including oysters, hanger steak, etc. Whenever I'm in Chicago or Boston, I try to visit Brasserie Jo. I wish we had a place like it here in Philadelphia. As much restaurant variety as we have here, I'm hard-pressed to think of a Center City and environs spot that fits the bill. While other restaurants offer some of the items some of the time, there seems to be no one that is dedicated to classic Brasserie fare. Am I missing one? The restaurant at the Sofitel made a half-hearted stab at it, but Craig Laban's review must have made them revamp their menu. Brasserie Perrier calls itself a brasserie and probably comes the closest, but the ambiance is all wrong, though the steak frites are on target. In any event, which restaurants do you think do the best job with some of the classic Brasserie dishes?

Alas, I can't make it Saturday. (I'll be back in St. Louis starting tomorrow through the weekend, so it's possible I'll make a return visit to Ted Drewes.) Mike Holahan of the Pennsylvania General Store could answer your questions, in all probability. (My guess, however, is that it is a retail operation, certainly the custard would be.) Better yet, be there and ask Marty directly. Give us a full report. I sense a field trip coming up!

The pomegranate seeds are a great touch, giving it interesting contrast in taste, crunch and color. Quite unexpected and much better than I woulod have thought.

Marty Low of Zwalen's Ice Cream & Chocolate Company, Audubon PA (Montgomery County) will be guest speaker at this week's meeting of the Saturay Morning Breakfast Club, Reading Terminal Market. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. (on Saturday, of course) in the seating area behind the Beer Garden. The Low family manufactures and sells a style of ice cream referred to as "Midwestern Custard". Mike Holahan of the Pennsylvania General Store tells me Marty used to work at Ted Drewes, the famed St. Louis custard purveyor. Marty will be talking about how this style of frozen treat is made and what makes it so good.

My wife favors the traditional English breakfast because of the view. Let me explain... During a visit to the south of England two years ago we stayed overnight at a lovely hotel in the New Forest (the Forest Park), complete with forest ponies hanging about by the front door. The hotel featured a full English breakfast in a very pleasant dining room overlooking the gardens. From the dining room one could see a wing of the hotel, where the rooms included a small balcony. As we breakfasted, one guest in that wing greeted the new morn by strolling onto the balcony in his altogether -- until he noticed the presence of the occupied dining room with picture windows, and my wife enjoying the view. Breakfast back home in Philadelphia has never been as eye-opening.

Macro brews? I think not.

What about the fine home-cooked meals Inspector Maigret relishes. Or Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter" (albeit no mystery, and a short story to boot). Dahl has quite a few stories of an eerie, though not necessary mysterious, nature that revolve around the dinner table. I second "Debt to Pleasure". As for "How To Bake A Tart," I was bored and put it down after only a dozen or so pages.

By all means, climb those Art Museum steps, but make sure to stop by another museum, just a few blocks down the Parkway: The Rodin Museum. For years it's been a small, mostly undiscovered gem, but with its recent refurbishment, it won't be for long. It's small, so you can do a quick walkthrough in 20 minutes, though I'd recommend taking your time. Rodin Museum highlights: the Gates of Hell and the Burghers of Calais, two monumental works. Though I'm partial to the one non-Rodin sculpture in the museum, a parody of Rodin's Monument to Balzac in which the great French writer is portrayed as a seal. (Blubber anyone?) A casting of The Thinker sits astride the parkway in front of the museum.

I concur about Roaring Fork, but it hardly fits iamthestretch's preference for "hole in the wall" ambiance. Not an inexpensive restaurant, by any stretch of the imagination, although good value for what you get. It is a wonderful restaurant. On my last trip to the area I devoured the melt-in-your-mouth short ribs. Happy hour is a treat, though it can get very crowded.

Yuengling is pretty easy to find in theMid-Atlantic, but more difficult elsewhere., though it now has distributors in Virginia, Florida, Alabama and the Carolinas. Here's a link to the distributors page on the Yuenling web site. FWIW, I prefer Yuengling's Lord Chesterfield ale to their Lager.

For about a dozen years I've occassionally varied my gravlax recipe by sprinkling some Tequila over the fish instead of Aquavit. It works wonders!

Had some scrapple at breakfast yesterday at the Riverview Cafe in the strip mall at Delaware (Columbus) & Washington. It's a fairly reliable breakfast spot, nothing fancy but acceptable. Except the scrapple. Deep-fried and tasting of oil that had seen too many frozen french fries. Yecch!

As another Philadelphia food entrepreneur once remarked: That paraphrase of Mencken came from Joel Marachek (I'm probably misspelling Joel's name), former proprietor of Foodstuffs in the Art Museum area and later Miss Phoebe's BBQ. He was referring to what he charged at Foodstuff's for a sweet red bell pepper. Now, if you can't overcharge for that Starr steak sandwich, my Lord!, what can one overcharge for?

Perhaps we have a semantical difference. To me, fruits are fruits and nuts are nuts. If someone says they're on an all-fruit diet, to me that excludes nuts, legumes, etc.; it would even exclude root vegetables, like carrots and potatoes, but not eggplants/aubergines, tomatoes, which are botanically classified as fruits.

Cheers for the mis en place crowd?

Fruits can certainly (and should be) incorporated into diet by diabetics, and they offer many health benefits. However, a diet exclusively of fruits will be DANGEROUS, because it would lead to exceedingly high blood glucose levels. Now, if you only had one or two or even three medium pieces of fruit a day, that wouldn't cause a problem with blood glucose, but you will be sorely under the minimum caloric intake you need to sustain good health if that is all you eat. And if you reach that minimum caloric level strictly with fruit, your carbohydrate (fruit sugar) intake will be much too high. Yes, fructose (the sugar found in most fruits) is metabolized more slowly than most other sugars, but when eaten in quantity it will still preciptiously increase blood glucose, which would be the result if fruit is the only food group in your diet. So, go for balance and moderation. Your appetite will be much better satisfied, and your body will thank you. If you eat a diet made solely of fruit, or solely of meat or solely of dairy, your body will punish you. You can undertake a vegetarian diet, so long as it has a good balance of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. But an all-fruit diet is asking for trouble. Add vegetables, nuts, legumes, oils and/or dairy products in appropriate quantities and you'll be fine.

This discussion of appetizing stores brings back strong memories. We would traipse from our Elizabeth NJ home to the Second Avenue Ratners, then afterwardes walk a few blocks south to a wonderful appetizing store, filled with delicious smells. For some reason, what I remember most was the loose apricot shoe leather! I never thought of an appetizing store as the place to buy bagels, although they all had them. We always went directly to the bagel bakery.

Some recent research indicates cinnamon cassia has a highly beneficial on blood glucose levels, as well as cholesterol and triglicerides. Only one small (60 people) human study has been conducted so far, but it is highly suggestive of broader results. And one doesn't need a whole lot of cinnamon, either: as little as 1 gram daily appears to have impact. Here's the abstract of the research.

For an Islay, Caol Ila tends to the lighter side, relatively speaking, but clearly, still an Islay.

Is your cousin on insulin? If so, I hope his physician or diabetic educator has filled him in on the need to always have available an emergency supply of quick-acting carbohydrates (glucose tablets are the preferred form) in case his blood glucose level goes abnormally low. Overall, one does need to restrict (not eliminate) carbohydrate foods as a diabetic, and try to eat complex rather than simple carbohydrates, because complex carbohydrates are metabolized more gradually and therefore have less influence on rapid blood glucose moves, which you want to avoid. So, whole grains are preferred to refined grains. Likewise, what carbohydrates you do consume you want to offer additional nuitritional value, rather than being "empty" carbs. For that reason, friut is preferred to pastry. That doesn't mean he can't indulge in favored foods, he just have to be careful about portion size and frequency of consumption of these foods. For example, a piece of sweet pastry with 30 grams of carbohydrates has no more impact on blood glucose level than a large banana. It probably has a lot more fat, however, which brings up other issues. Although carbohydrates are the primary actor on blood glucose levels, fat and alcohol also influence it. Both actually tend to depress blood glucose levels immediately after consumption, and then raise it abnormally a few hours later. So, fat and alcohol consumption should be low to moderate. Again, no need to totally eliminate, just to understand their effects and act accordingly. Beans and other legumes, by the way, are an excellent food for diabetics. Although carbohydrates, they are metabolized into blood glucose comparatively slowly, and also offer protein.

I'm confused (a not unnatural state for me ). Where is the XYZ you ate in located? Across from the Manset town pier, which is the old location? Or elsewhere, in which case, do you know what's in the old location now?

Loved your report, Lala. It made me sad that I didn't get to Mount Desert this year, but glad you enjoyed it so! Next year for me! The big surprise was your report on XYZ. I had heared that the owner had sold it and that it was unlikely to open again. Even if Janet sold it, it sure sounds like they've kept the menu and cooking intact. That ancho rubbed pork has been on the menu pretty much since they opened and is a winner. I stopped by Primo about three or four years ago and enjoyed it, though I did a meal of appetizers, starting out with some local oysters which were astonishingly good.