mrbigjas

hendricks farms is now at the headhouse square farmer's market, for you philadelphians who can't make the trek to telford.

i have one as well, that i can bring.

no need, i have a car. but let's worry about that when the time comes. as an aside, i asked the dudes from griggstown if they'd sell me a whole duck, and they said maybe they might have a couple in a couple weeks. i said, how about duck legs? he said, no, they keep them and make confit from them to sell. dang.

griggstown is a little over an hour away, near princeton junction. maybe you can organize a purchasing expedition up there...

great mussels, although if they're making them with italian sausage instead of chorizo like they did last time i was there, they're not quite as good. i like their steak frites. fried smelts are good too.

i learned one way from shola at studiokitchen: cut off both ends, and use a pair of needlenose pliers to pull the two little bones out.

aw, that's too bad. i enjoyed the meals i had there..

what a coincidence, just the other day my wife's coworker gave her a business card from michoacan, saying if we ever find ourselves in norristown, we just have to go there.

scatter them by a river. they got rivers in ardmore? i saw a dude there today who got a huge bag of them. one after another after another, expertly feeling each one. cleaned out the basket, practically. i was going to ask him what he was going to do with that many, but i didn't want to intrude. at fair foods they had a few as well, but they were completely green and THREE DOLLARS EACH. it's not often that livengoods looks like a bargain, but at $2.95 a pound they were about eight times cheaper than fair foods. plus they were all green at fair foods. everyone knows pawpaws aren't any good till there's plenty of black all over them. someone gotta learn them folks somethin.

Major kudos to anyone who comes up with a successful pairing for this course. ← right here.

yeah that's what i mean -- i have no delusions about the goings-on in the kitchens and back rooms of the restaurant world. i just want people to look like they're trying, is all.

This is the sort of food writing I can support, macho or not. I've had my fill of the Michael Bauer 'fantastic beet and goat cheese salad' bullshit already. Food writing needs to move beyond the sycophantic nonsense that serves no purpose... ← that's not so much macho as just bad writing--someone sitting around with a thesaurus stringing a bunch of random clauses together, who needs to learn to put together a coherent sentence.

here's my problem with nanee's kitchen: several times i've been there, and she's making samosas, and someone wants to pay, and she stops making samosas, takes the money, gives the change, and goes right back to it. no handwashing, no gloves or anything. and really i'm not someone who stresses about those things that much, but it's like, come on, at least make a half-assed attempt to follow some of the standard health codes. that's kinda gross.

he had some there this past saturday; i bought two. they're such a weird fruit, so rich they're kind of exhausting to eat. of course i threw the seeds out down by the river in case they take. they won't, but i like to do it anyways.

ok i have a question: where are you guys getting bottles for these things? time is running short and i don't have any. edited to add: i have more money than time right now, so purchasing rather than scouting antique shops or something is a better option. i was thinking something like this nice 250ml one, but maybe it's too boring.

i like this. it makes sense to me.

yes, but usually during the week. they often have a buy-2-get-1-free on all fresh sausages. i saw the deal this week but when they've had things like that before, it's often on smoked/cured sausages, and i can't eat that many so i don't bother. guess i shoulda looked closer this week!

TT, funny you bring this thread back up, because we were just there a couple weeks ago for the first time in a good while as well. I repeat what i said before about the tom zap -- that is HOT. but really good. also the appetizer of various little chunks of stuff in pepper leaves shouldn't be missed. it's strange to eat little cubes of lime with skin, and ginger, and dried shrimp, and peanuts, and coconut, all at once. but it's ... right somehow. the recipe, such as it is, is in hot sour salty sweet, and i mean to serve it up one of these days. anyway, i'm going back, and sooner rather than later this time.

nah, south square is fine. it's run by the same folks who run rittenhouse market at 18th & spruce. i mean, it's kind of overpriced and doesn't have that great a selection, but there's nothing actually WRONG with it.

what i know is this: i heard that it was opening and was related. then after a while, at mama's they put a sign in the window saying MAMA'S VEGETARIAN IS NOT RELATED TO MAMA'S GRILL. then they took the sign down, but the logo is the same. last time i was at mama's grill, the fries really sucked and in general it seemed half-assed. but it was a sunday at like noon, south street was pretty much deserted, and we were the only people there, so i can't say i consider it really representative of whether they suck or rule.

It's not quite the same, but you know you can buy their pickles at Whole Foods, right? The amazing hummus that's sold at the farmers' market is also available at Whole Foods. you mean bobbi's? that's good stuff. they used to make a black bean habanero dip that was awesome, but they don't make it anymore. it was really really hot, but had lots of flavor -- it wasn't just a chili bomb.

goji's still there? i thought it had closed.

now this is the kind of reviewing i like. let's go out sometime.

could they be christmas limas? click here just a thought -- i know rancho gordo used to sell them, and i considered buying them because they were so pretty, but then i remembered i don't like limas.

cool thanks y'all. it turned out we went to cafe de laos, where we were the only people in the dining room. granted it was like 6:45 and this is a slow week in general, but still. the food there is too good for it to be that empty.