Robert's Market Report

Spataro's To Move This Week

2012-02-14T11:14:00.000-05:00

Spataro's, the oldest sandwich business within the Reading Terminal Market, could move to its new Center Court location as early as Thursday.

When Spataro's moves across the aisle to the spot formerly home to Dinic's, that clears the way for Flying Monkey Bakery to take over the Spataro's stall, all part of the Avenue D renovation project at the market.

Spataro's, whose pater familia Dominic Spataro died at the age of 94 last month, remains the home of the bargain lunch at the market, even though pricier cheese steaks and hoagies are also available. Still on the menu are two sandwiches priced at $4.50: liverwurst & onion, and egg & tomato. The closest competition is the Hatville Deli in the Pennsylvania Dutch section of the market, where a plain cheese or liverwurst sandwich also sells for $4.50.

RTM's Leasing Strategy Works Against Rick's Return

2012-02-09T13:32:00.000-05:00

With the market's renovation program centered along Avenue D opening up space for four new merchants, General Manager Paul Steinke's emphasis has been to fill those slots with "purveyors" who primarily sell foods for cooking or eating at home. That's why the chances of any new pure lunch vendor of getting one of the two remaining stalls is slim at best and why Rick Olivieri's attempt to reenter the market with his Rick's Steaks business will fail.

It's certainly possible, though, that a vendor selling for both on- and off-premises consumption could get that nod. I think the only chance for a new vendor to primarily sell for on-premises consumption would be to offer something not now available from other lunch counters. Hot donuts, anyone?

Only one of the three new vendors announced so far will sell food for eating within the market, but it will also offer groceries and other food products to take home: Wursthaus Schmitz would carry German groceries and cold cuts as well as hot foods for eating either within the market or at home.

The second new vendor would be artisinal cheese maker Valley Shepherd Creamery, which is expected to sign a letter of intent within a few weeks. The latter's product would be overwhelmingly for off-premises consumption, though there's no reason why someone couldn't have a sheep milk yogurt for lunch in center court. A third new vendor, The Head Nut will essentially replicate the offerings of The Spice Terminal, which declined to renew its lease.

That leaves two remaining spaces for new vendors: one along the Avenue D wall, another in a small space on center court adjacent to where Wursthaus Schmitz will be located.

The market's operating policy guidelines require that no more than the greater of one-third of the number of vendors or one-third of the floor space go to businesses "which offer food intended primarily or exclusively for consumption within the Market."

While Steinke is comfortable that the current breakdown of merchants is well within that restriction, by my subjective count 36 of the 77 existing merchants exclusively or primarily fall into the "on-premises consumption" category.

Let me emphasize the subjective nature of determining whose "primary" business is for off-premises consumption or not. As an example, take 12th Street Cantina, which I consider among those who "primarily" sell for on-premises conception but Steinke does not. Steinke says this business a "two-sided" purveyor that doesn't count against the operating policy ratios because of the many take-home Mexican groceries and prepared foods they sell. My opinion is influenced by the fact that 12th Street Cantina has a seating area for diners. (I've got to admit, though, nearly all of my purchases there have been for ingredients to use at home.)

The same debate could be held about any number of other vendors, from Kamal's Middle Eastern Specialties to By George! Pizza, Pasta and Cheeseteaks, both of which also sell plenty of items for consumption and/or cooking at home, but also earn money as lunch vendors. (Indeed, the line for cheese steaks at By George! at lunchtime frequently blocks the aisle.) The key metric in making any such determination as to whether a business is "primarily" engaged in sales for off-premises consumption would be to know the revenue breakdowns, but neither Steinke nor I have access to that proprietary information.

Getting back to Olivieri, another factor why he has little chance of reestablishing his cheese-steakerie in the market are the three existing vendors who depend upon cheese steak sales, and two others who find it a highly profitable sideline. Although Steinke said he couldn't give a "blanket answer" to a hypothetical question about allowing a new merchant to compete with the same product of five existing merchants, it's hard to imagine him adding another tourist-centric cheese steak stall. He acknowledged to Dan Gross of the Daily News, who broke the Olivieri story Wednesday, that cheese steaks were not the market's "highest priority".

When Olivieri's lease was not renewed in 2008, the market allowed two additional vendors to sell cheese steaks: Carmen's Famous and By George! (Spataro's earlier had been permitted to add cheese steaks when they moved to a new center court location.) Today all three businesses incorporate "cheese steaks" into their formal names. In addition, the Down Home Diner sells cheese steaks, as does the new Molly Molloy's.

Rick's Steaks loss of its lease in 2008 followed Olivieri's vociferious leadership of the Reading Terminal Market Merchants Association when the market was restructuring lease agreements and fee structure. You can find earlier stories about the Olivieri-RTM clash here and here.

A Man Dedicated To Piggies: Drew Shattuck

2012-02-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

Drew Shattuck, who until yesterday served as butcher at Dinic's roast pork emporium at the Reading Terminal Market, shows off his pig and fry pan tatoos. Drew, who managed the stall when Tom and Joe Nicolosi took days off at the same time, is moving back to the formal restaurant scene, taking a line job at The Capital Grille. Before joining Dinics about two years ago Drew shucked oysters at the late Oceanaire and worked in other high-end restaurant kitchens.

John Yi, RTM Fishmonger, Dies

2012-02-08T18:07:00.000-05:00

John Yi, who with wife Susie Kim owned John Yi Fish Market at the Reading Terminal Market, died over the weekend of injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident last month. Mr. Yi was 80 years old.

Until the accident he could been seen almost every day behind the counter of the fish stall on center court. Because of the businesses' bright neon sign -- "John Yi Fish Market | Eat Fish Live Longer" -- his was one of the most visible names in the market.

To the best of anyone's recollection, he established the business in the mid 1980s.

Head Nut To Supply RTM Shoppers With Bulk Spices, Nuts, Coffee

2012-02-07T15:55:00.000-05:00

Narrow aisle at The Head Nut devoted to condiments

The Head Nut of Ardmore, which traces its history to 1945 with the founding of Temp Tee Nuts, will succeed The Spice Terminal as vendor of spices, herbs, nuts, baking ingredients and other bulk goods at the Reading Terminal Market. The shop plans to open in late spring or early summer in space underneath the market's administrative offices.

RTM General Manager Paul Steinke confirmed that The Head Nut signed a letter of intent today; the actual lease agreement is still subject to negotiation.

In visiting the Ardmore store on Haverford Avenue today I was impressed by the breadth of stock in its meandering warrens of shelves, everything from G-strings made of candy to Norwegian cod liver oil. Bigger sellers, no doubt, are the store's spices and herbs, baking and cooking ingredients (flours, dried fruits, vinegars, oils, condiments), teas and coffees, nuts and snacks, candies and jams.

In addition to the main store in Ardmore, The Head Nut sells at the Wayne Farmers Market. The website also lists locations in Swarthmore and West Chester.

The Riehl Deli Deal: L. Halteman Stall Name, Location Change

2012-02-05T14:29:00.000-05:00

Sign is up preparing for move and renaming of L Halteman

For nearly 70 years, a stall has operated under the Reading Terminal Market under the Halteman name. At one time, there were even two Halteman's: A.A. Halteman, selling meat and eggs, and L. Halteman, specializing in game and poultry.

A.A. closed in 2006, but L. Halteman Country Store continued, though since the 1980s its offerings changed, with the game and specialized poultry receding in favor of more popular varieties of bird, deli meats and cheeses, especially with Lester Halteman's retirement and the subsequent sale of the business to the Riehl family.

Although the Riehls have operated the stall for a number of years, they're finally getting around to slowly renaming at least the deli and cheese part of the business, concurrent with a location shift to Avenue C, part of the market's current renovation program. The deli offerings will be expanded with the move about 15 feet west to make room for a relocated Avenue D, but they will continue to sell fresh cuts of beef and pork along with the poultry, too. They move isn't expected to be complete until mid-spring.

I always check out the top of the meat case, because that's where they display various preserved meats that can enliven winter meals. I've used their smoked short ribs to add depth to chili, and last week some dices of country ham (Smithfield) along with wood-smoked kielbasa completed baked beans.They also offer a great, reasonably priced thick-cut, deeply smoky and porky bacon.

Beck's Beignets

2012-02-05T13:40:00.000-05:00

Beck's Cajun Cafe at the Reading Terminal Market continues to offer fresh, hot beignets on Wednesdays and Sundays as long as they last.

When Bill Beck first offered beignets soon after opening his mecca to Louisiana foods their quality was hit-and-miss. But I've had them thrice over the past month or so, and they've hit the mark each time: crispy exterior, light interior, exactly what fried dough should be. Get a cup of chickory-inflected Community Coffee to go with an order of six of these large rectangular doughnuts doused in confectioners' sugar.

If I don't make it up to Haegele's Bakery in Tacony for Fastnachts on Fat Tuesday, I hope Beck makes the beignets a day early that week.

Newton Pippins Redux, and other Winter Fruit Tales

2012-02-05T13:14:00.000-05:00

It's been nearly three months since I purchased my Newtown Pippin apples from North Star Orchards at the Headhouse Square farmers's market, and I'm down to my last four apples.

These great storage apples have gotten better with the time spent in the crisper drawer. Their skins are still shiny and waxy with little sign of age, and the flesh is a deep sweet-tart flavor, just juicy enough. I'm amazed I paced my consumption to still have a handful left, but glad to have this taste of autumn in mid-winter. Man cannot live by oranges alone.

Speaking of which, Iovine Brothers' Produce at the Reading Terminal Market has a wide selection of Chilean fruit. The bagged seedless green grapes I picked up last week were worth it at $2 for a bag weighing about a pound and a half. This week I selected two blemish-free Bartlett pears, a nectarine and a black plum. They're all sitting in a paper bag ripening on the counter, we'll see how they taste in a couple of days.

I also picked up some Temple oranges, which have come down in price to 4/$1, down from 3/$1. Very juicy, easy to peel but a tad more difficult to section than the last batch I bought. Limes eased in price to 4/$1, and avocados, which usually see their price increase dramatically for Superbowl Sunday, were a reasonable 2/$1.49 -- anytime they're less than a buck apiece I consider a bargain.

Vendors Lining Up For RTM: Wursthaus Schmitz, Nut Vendor

2012-02-04T13:21:00.001-05:00

New temporary seating to become Wursthaus Schmitz

With work on additional leaseable vendor space at the Reading Terminal Market scheduled to wrap up by early April as part of the Avenue D project, General Manager Paul Steinke is busy lining up vendors to fill the new spots.

The latest announcement is that the owners of Brauhus Schmitz will open a German food shop -- Wursthaus Schmitz -- in the general area of where the Spice Terminal had been located, at the intersection of Center Court and Avenue D, opposite the new La Cuchina at the Market. They'll sell prepared food for consumption at the market and take-away, deli meats, as well as imported products, including mustards.

The market has been without wide-ranging German food products (beyond the limited Pennsylvania Dutch merchant offerings) since Siegfried's departed in 1990. Steinke has sought to fill that niche for years (Rieker's of Fox Chase declined the opportunity shortly after Siegfried closed).

Owners Kelly Schmitz-Hager and Doug Hager are hot to trot and hope to be open by Memorial Day.

(I heartily welcome the renewal of a German food purveyor at the market, but it raises a question about the sudden mushrooming of German restaurants in center city. Once upon a time the only German restaurant around was Ludwig's Garten on Sansom. When it closed we were Gemütlichkeit-less. Now, however, we've got Brauhaus Schmitz, Frankford Hall, and the newly opened Bierstube in Old City. Even Jose Garces and has threatened to get into the act with a Wurstmacher in the old Letti Deli on 13th Street.)

Spice Terminal Successor Nears Dotted Line

Although negotiations are not completed, Steinke is optimistic to sign a new bulk spice vendor, who would occupy space beneath the market's administrative offices one aisle north of center court. The prospect is a long-standing suburban vendor of nuts, spices, herbs, coffee, grains, and condiments -- the same lines carried by the Spice Terminal. Looking at the potential vendor's existing website, it appears this outfit has greater depth of stock than Spice Terminal's.

Steinke said he decided to go after the suburban vendor because of its 30 years of experience, which trumped an otherwise attractive offer from employees of the Spice Terminal. He acknowledged that part of his decision mix was the tens of thousands of dollars it would cost the market to move the Spice Terminal to a new location, as required by the Avenue D Project. Extensive carpentry for the shelving would have accounted for much of that cost; a new vendor under a new lease is responsible for those costs.

Steinke also expects to sign Valley Shepherd Creamery within the next few week. In addition to selling its great artisinal cheeses (primarily sheep, but some cow and goat and mixed milk cheeses), Valley Shepherd plans to make fresh cheese on-premises.

With Spice Terminal's closing last Sunday, Steinke made quick work to turn it into additional seating, if only on a temporary basis, just in time for the last two days of the auto show. The extra seating will stay in place for the flower show in early March, than give way for Wursthaus Schmitz.

Name That Fish!

2012-02-04T12:31:00.000-05:00

Fish display at John Yi, Reading Terminal Market

You can't tell a fish by its name. Sea trout is not a trout, it's weakfish, a type of croaker or drum.
But silver trout is whiting, which is really hake, part of the cod family. I haven't the foggiest idea about mountain trout, though it certainly isn't a trout and it certainly doesn't come from a mountain stream or lake. Striped bass and rockfish? They're the same, except when they're not.

Confused yet?

You'll find all these items at the fish mongers at the Reading Terminal Market, but it's hard to know what the actual species is. More than any other food, fishes tend to have very local names.

The weakfish, for example, has been called bastard trout, squwteague, sea trout, grey trout, sand trout, shecutts, silver sea trout, squeteague and squit.

In culinary terms, however, nomenclature is secondary. Just pick the broad type of fish you're hungry for (white flesh or oily, large or thin) and buy the freshest you can find. Most recipes for cod work just as well with whiting or haddock. Fluke or flounder? Doesn't matter! Mackerel or Spanish mackerel? There's a bit of a size difference, and while you might be able to distinguish their flavors, it's not that big a difference.

Rockfish and striped bass are the same, delicious, meaty fish, it's just that rockfish is the name in the Chesapeake and striped bass on the Hudson River northwards (New Jersey seems to be the dividing line between the names). With one big caveat. Some striped bass are true striped bass, caught in the wild. Others, under either name, may be a factory or farm raised hybrid of striped bass and white bass. The former is anadronmous, living most of its life at sea but spawning in fresh or brackish rivers; the latter is strictly a fresh water variety. Whether wild or hybrid, both have a good, meaty taste. You can usually tell the difference because the wild striped bass has a blue tag affixed to its jaw; also, the "stripes" on the hybrid tend to be jagged, and the fish are frequently smaller than the striped bass.

If you're as fascinated by culinary fish as I and would like to learn more about the denizens of the sea off Mid-Atlantic waters, I highly recommend Alan Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood. This British diplomat's tome covers fish on both sides of the Atlantic, is chock full of great stories, local recipes from Denmark to South Carolina, and entries for each North Atlantic food fish with discussions of range, best cooking methods, and names in various languages; before he died in 2003 he wrote similar books about the fish of the Mediterranean and South-East Asia, and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to Food.

Auto Show Crowds

2012-02-02T14:47:00.001-05:00

Dinic's (in accompanying photo), Carmen's, Herschel's and all the other lunch vendors at the Reading Terminal Market have welcomed the auto show crowds this week. Joe Nicolosi of DiNic's says auto show week and flower show week are the two busiest of the year. So expect big crowds all day long for Saturday and Sunday's auto show finale.

Spataro's Founder Dies, 94

2012-01-26T12:05:00.000-05:00

Original 'Buttermilk' sign at old Spataro's

Domenic C. Spataro, who started the eponymous sandwich stall in the Reading Terminal Market in 1947, died overnight at the age of 94.

Mr. Spataro was "a legend of longevity at the Market, having worked here continuously since 1930 except for a military stint during World War II," wrote Paul Steinke, the market's general manager, in an email this morning to market followers. He opened his own sandwich shop in the Market in 1947, which continues in business to this day. "Up until the end, he had a near photographic memory of the Market and its people from the past 80+ years. His passion was his family and his work at the Market," wrote Steinke.

My first purchase at Spataro's -- in the early 1980s when they occupied a stall now housing Terralyn's Bath Body Spirit -- was lekvar, the Eastern European prune butter which they sold in bulk. But their specialty, loudly proclaimed on a sign that still stands at the original location, was buttermilk.

Spataro's had always been the home of an inexpensive lunch sandwich, simple stuff like cream cheese and jelly, priced for the lowly store clerk, not foodie. In more recent years the menu expanded, especially with the move about two years ago to center court and the addition of a grill for cheese steaks. The stall. operated by son Domenic, will soon move to the former Dinic's spot across Avenue C.

Valentine to the Market

2012-01-24T15:33:00.001-05:00

This year's version of the Valentine to the Market will be held Saturday, Feb. 25, and if it's up to last year's standards another great evening is in store for party-goers. The shindig benefits the Reading Terminal Market Preservation Fund.

In addition to two bars, two stages with entertainment and great food from the market's merchants Philadelphia Brewing Company will present a special beer in honor of the market's 120th anniversary. (The RTM opened its doors in 1892, the successor to two earlier markets at 12th and Market.)

The event runs from 8 to 11 p.m. with tickets at $125 apiece. The pre-party VIP event, with a celebrity chef cook-off, cocktails and hors d'oeurves, begins at 7 p.m. ($300 tickets).

Tickets and more info here.

Monkey's Buttercake

2012-01-24T15:19:00.000-05:00

I couldn't resist trying Flying Monkey Bakery's buttercake. It's not your German Großmutter's buttercake, but it's darned good.

The big difference, to me, is that this cake is practically candy. Same flavor, same sugar and butter intensity. But it's set atop a shortbread-like base and creates an instant sugar high. Take a break from a cupcake or brownie and try this treat. Do enjoy it with a cup of Flying Monkey's coffee; I forget the roaster's name, but it's the tastiest coffee at the RTM.

If you want a comparison with a traditional German style buttercake, take a trip to Tacony, where Haegele's bakery offers the classic version.

First Sign of Spring

2012-01-24T14:57:00.001-05:00

So what if it comes from way down south. The appearance of shad at the Reading Terminal Market is a surer sign that spring will eventually reach Philadelphia than any western Pennsylvania groundhog. The local spring run won't hit the Delaware (Lambertville is the center of local action, though Fishtown also holds a festival dedicated to the fish) in late April.

The first of the species could be found at John Yi's "Eat Fish Live Longer" stall off center court. As always, the roe-laden females are a buck pricier than the bucks. I've got to admit I'm not a big fan of this herring-family variety due to its exceedingly complicated and fine bone structure; but when it comes to shad, it's all about the roe.

All three fishmongers at the market still have sardines in their display cases. Prices range from $1.99 to $5.99, with the cleaned fish commanding a higher price (though the whole fish really aren't that difficult to clean at home). Golden Fish Market (the one closest to Arch Street) also has some salt herring and mackerel available, the latter in filets. I've cooked the salt mackerels (after many changes of water to leach out the excess sodium) and enjoyed them immensely. They can be broiled, baked or pan-fried (sauté meunière).

La Cuchina Next RTM Move

2012-01-14T16:12:00.000-05:00

New La Cuchina, with view toward center court

La Cuchina at the Market, the cooking school and event venue operated by Anna Florio at the Reading Terminal Market, has just a few finishes touches and health department inspection to go before it can open at its new spot, perhaps as early as later next week.

Although plenty more works needs to be done on the market's Avenue D project, the opening of La Cuchina provides a preview of the new look for this end of center court, which will also include the Rick Nichols Room, a multi-purpose venue, adjacent to La Cuchina. The Nichols Room and La Cuchina will be separated by a removal wall so that large scale cooking demonstrations can be held.

Spataro's Starts Construction

2012-01-14T16:02:00.000-05:00

Work begins on new Spataro's stall

Sign at old Spataro's stall when they used to specialize
in buttermilk and lekvar (prune butter)

Dinic's move to its new home in the Reading Terminal Market cleared the way for Spataro's to begin construction in the former's stall.

This will be at least the fourth location within the market for Spataro's. Once upon a time it was located where Terralyn's Bath Body Spirit shop now stands. Then it moved to center court where Hershel's East Side Deli now holds down the fort before shifting a few years ago to a different center court stall.

Once Spataro's moves to its new spot Flying Monkey Bakery shifts to where Spataro has been.

First Day at Dinics

2012-01-09T08:42:00.001-05:00

Joe and Tom Nicolosi pose with meat they're prepping for first day at new location

Nothing is easy or goes without bumps.

In moving from old to new location within the Reading Terminal Market last night, the staff at Dinic's found that one of the ovens simply wouldn't fit through the opening in the old counter. So out came the sledgehammer to create a suitable opening.

"I almost cried," said Tom Nicolosi, proprietor of Dinic's.

But that wasn't the end of the oven problems. Because of electrical box issues, the electric ovens wouldn't work at all, and the gas oven needs electricity to drive its fan. Undaunted -- and with assurances from the electrician that all would be well soon -- Nicolosi, son Joe and the rest of the crew still planned to be serving their pork and beef sandwiches for lunch.

DiNics Makes Move

2012-01-08T18:01:00.001-05:00

DiNic's got its Health Department okay today and, as I write, is moving equipment over to its new location within the Reading Terminal Market.

2012-01-08T13:08:00.003-05:00

More About Those Meat Hooks

I've still to photographically document the Moyers' Pork signage over Benuel Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce stall, but here are a few other original signposts/meat hook apparatus spotted at the Reading Terminal Market yesterday.

The meat hooks are largely gone but Kamal Barouki has kept the signboards
above Kamal's Middle Eastern Specialties as an integral part of the stall.
Note the stall numbers.

Over at L. Halteman Family the otherwise unadorned signboards are
painted baby pink and baby blue, but the hooks are put to good use as
shopping bag dispensers and apron hooks. They also serve to store spare
fluorescent light bulbs.

Hershel's East Side Deli uses the old meat hooks for hanging up cooking equipment.

2012-01-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

Dinic's Remembers Market's Butchers

When Dinic's moves into its new stall at the Reading Terminal Market (perhaps as early as later this week, if the city's Health Department can schedule its inspection), it will be adorned with signs remembering the stall's predecessors in vending meats at this spot. Though Tom Nicolosi is a purveyor of cooked meats, he knows it all starts with the butcher.

Most folks know that Dinic's will occupy space vacated last year by Harry G. Ochs & Son Prime Butchers. But that's only half the story. Until the early 1970s, while one side of the stall was occupied by Ochs, the other was home to another market butcher, G.M. Yerger. When Yerger went out of business, Ochs expanded to span the entire space along Avenue B between the market's Fifth and Sixth Avenues (aisles) .

The signs, by the way, date back to the market's beginnings under the Reading Railroad's train shed. Wander and you'll see a number of them over what had originally been hooks to hang meat and other vittles. At Kaufman's Lancaster County Produce, for example, you'll see a sign for Eugene M. Moyers & Son, which left the market in the mid-1980s (but still makes killer ham under its Blooming Glen brand in the village of the same name between Doylestown and Quakertown).

Before yesterday, the soon-to-be-home of roast pork, beef, brisket, pulled pork and pork cutlet sandwiches was shrouded in plastic, looking as if the artist Christo had arisen from the dead and moved into the Reading Terminal Market.

With Dinic's move, Spataro's will begin work to move across the aisle. When that work is done, Flying Monkey will take over Spataro's space.

Avenue D Project Running Late

The musical chairs involving the sandwich makers and baker is just one aspect of the Avenue D Project, which will create additional leaseable space for more vendors and a multi-purpose room for meetings and other gatherings (as well as additional seating during lunch hour). The entire project was originally envisioned to be completed by late February, just in time for the Flower Show when hordes from across the Northeast and Mid Atlantic descend for an early fix of springtime.

Like most construction projects, however, this one fell of its initial schedule. Although the revamped rest rooms should be open by late February, the rest of the construction won't be completed until late April.

2012-01-04T12:50:00.000-05:00

Cardoons at Iovine's

If it's winter, then Iovine Brothers Produce has cardoons for sale at its Reading Terminal Market fruit and vegetable emporium. Cardoons may look like extra-large bunches of celery, but they are more closely related to to tdhe artichoke. You can find them in the same bin at Iovine's, along with beets, parsnips, turnips and black radishes.

2012-01-03T16:45:00.000-05:00

Giunta's Prime Shop

At least one reader of this blog complained in the past about the name of this butcher shop at the Reading Terminal Market, objecting to the use of "Prime" for a shop that doesn't sell prime beef. Technically, the critique is on-target: Charles Giunta does not sell USDA prime grade beef.

But I don't care. His beef may be "only" USDA Choice, but his eye in picking out primals and his hereditary butchering skills have won my regular patronage. For what it's worth, overall his meats are far better than that sold by Ochs in its last few years at the market.

For the holidays I picked up a small prime standing rib roast (prime as in the definition of the cut, not the USDA grade). Even though he was exceedingly busy on the Friday before Christmas he took the time to get a new full rib from his walk-in refrigerator and asked me how many ribs and from which end, i.e., chuck end or loin end. When I asked for his recommendation, he suggested the chuck end, which he thought more flavorful than the loin end though it can be a slightly tougher part of the full seven-rib cut. He did a great job of a trimming my two-rib roast, leaving just the right amount of fat, semi-separating the bones for easy carving and expertly tying it all together, ready for the oven.

It made a superb meal on Christmas Day. No doubt it was helped by the fact that it sat it in the fridge for two days, unwrapped except for some wax paper loosely placed over the top, a do-it-yourself aging technique which will improve almost any piece of beef. I took the meat out of the fridge a few hours before cooking so it would lose some of its refrigerator cool, then seared all sides of the meat stovetop in a roasting pan (no need for additional fat). After about 10-12 minutes of browning I simply salted and peppered before placing the standing rib in a 200F oven. It cooked on a rack in the roasting pan at this low temperature until my digital probe registered 135F (this took about 150 minutes). After resting half an hour while I prepped the rest of our meal I carved the meat, and it was perfectly medium rare (quite rosy, but not red) through and through, from just below the outer crust to the deepest part of the interior. Best of all, it tasted absolutely yummy with plenty of beef flavor, with the tenderness one would expect from USDA Prime. The five-pound roast priced at $10.95/pound could be considered dear, but I thought it great value for a superior hunk of protein.

Steaks cut from the same primal are a favorite of mine and I've always been satisfied by Giunta's rib steaks on the bone. But I've also cooked his filet mignon, flank steak and hanger steak and never been disappointed. Ditto for pieces of chuck I've braised in a variety of fashions, as well as short ribs.

In recent weeks I've cooked up two ground meat dishes from Giunta. I used his pre-ground (on premises, not from a wholesaler) meatloaf mix -- beef, veal and and pork -- to make meatballs. Last week I asked him to grind chuck to my order, which went into an all-beef meatloaf (it was assisted by my addition of half a teaspoon of unflavored gelatin to mimic the collagen veal would have provided). We enjoyed both.

Lamb is one of those meats that's pretty good no matter where you buy it, so sometimes I obtain it from Giunta's and other times from his brother Martin. (Both learned their trade in the family butcher shop in the Italian Market.) Giunta's ducks are superb, offering the classic Long Island style duckling raised and packed by Joe Jurgielewicz & Son of Berks County. (For Muscovy duck visit Godshall's Poultry.)

Best of all, Giunta's prices are competitive -- rarely more expensive than what you'd pay in a supermarket, and frequently much better value.

2011-12-25T16:10:00.000-05:00

Vendors Interested in Spice Terminal

Spice Terminal adjacent to Center Court

It seems there are a few potential entrepreneurs interested in taking over the Spice Terminal.

Paul Steinke, the Reading Terminal Market's general manager, reports there are three existing vendors and two outsiders who have expressed interest.

In the meantime, Jonathan Best is widening its spice and herb selection.

2011-12-25T16:06:00.000-05:00

WiFi Back Up at RTM

WiFi service, suspended since early fall when work on the Avenue D project displaced the market's office, came back on line last week. Good coverage in center court and the piano court (where the holiday train display has temporarily displaced seating), but spotty around the market's perimeter.

2011-12-25T16:03:00.002-05:00

Cheeses On Parade

The Fair Food Farmstand at the Reading Terminal Market added

a new display case just for cheese last week, much to the

delight of cheesemonger Paul Lawler.

2011-12-25T15:44:00.000-05:00

Seven Fishes

The cases at John Yi ('Eat Fish Live Longer') at the Reading Terminal Market
were chock full of piscatorian delights for the Feast of the Seven Fishes
before Christmas, including these sardines, a.k.a. herring

2011-12-22T16:32:00.000-05:00

Spice Terminal To Close

Rendering of what would have been
the Spice Terminal's new stall

The cupboards are getting barer and barer at the Spice Terminal, and not just because bakers are grabbing spices for their Christmas cookies and cakes.

The long-time proprietor of the Spice Terminal, Al Starzi, died about a year and a half ago. With the stall scheduled to move to a space under the market office later this winter as part of the Avenue D redesign project Starzi's family decided to shut down at the end of next month. Once the decision to close was made they stopped restocking the shelves.

The Spice Terminal has been my go-to vendor for all sorts of seasonings, nuts, condiments and other special items for the nearly 30 years I've been a market regular. If I recall correctly, it was originally located on the Filbert Street side of the market before moving to center court with the mid-1980s renovation completed in connection with construction of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

With the closing of the business the only vendor with a reasonable selection of similar merchandise in one space will be Jonathan Best, though some selected items are available at Salumeria, Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce, Iovine Brothers Produce and other stalls. It's possible these and other merchants may expand their offerings to take up the slack. The Spice Terminal also offered a decent selection of whole bean coffees as a competitor to Old City Coffee.

RTM GM Paul Steinke would love to see someone continue the business, but that appears unlikely.

Some of the Spice Terminal space will accommodate the relocated Flying Monkey Bakery, which will also take over Spataro's space when they move across the aisle where DiNic's now holds the fort. DiNic's hopes to open in mid to late-January in the former Harry Ochs stall. The remainder of the Spice Terminal space off center court is scheduled to be occupied by an as yet undetermined new merchant.

Talks are continuing with Valley Shepherd Creamery to occupy space along the back wall of Avenue D. The New Jersey cheese-maker recently opened its new store in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood concurrent with the closing of its outlet in Manhattan.

In the past Steinke said he has a waiting list of potential vendors waiting to open businesses at the RTM. A major reason for the Avenue D project is to create more leaseable space.

2011-12-22T15:29:00.000-05:00

Citrus Season!

Tangerines at Iovine Brothers now selling at 5/$1

Now that we're officially into winter, it's time to shift our fruity focus from pomes to citrus. Although I've got my full stock of Newtown Pippin apples in cold storage to get through January and, perhaps, February if I hoard my hoard, my fresh fruit purchases have turned to oranges and their close relations. (Alas, my statin regimen prevents indulging in grapefruits and other pomelos.)

Right now I'm working my way through Temple oranges I purchased at Iovine Brother's Produce in the Reading Terminal Market for a quarter apiece. Small navels tend to sell for the same price, as do tangerines (though this week they're featuring them at 20 cents). Large navels are 50 cents, but the gargantuan Jumanjis for over-stuffing a stocking call for a 99-cent investment.

Just eating them plain is a joy, especially the easy-to-peel temples, tangerines and other mandarins. The perfumes they exude upon peeling is right up there with good whiskey, bacon and vanilla in my olfactory Hall of Fame. After eating a spicy or rich entree, the sweet bite of citrus is a great palate-cleanser. No wonder so many Asian restaurants slip a few chunks of orange on the parting plate along with a fortune cookie.

Still, I think I'm game this season for doing a bit more than taking my oranges straight. Although I usually only make sorbets in warmer weather, the great looking juice oranges (usually the Hamlin variety) may prompt me to get out the juicer and make an icy winter treat.

Another option may be a composed salad where oranges and beets take center stage, perhaps with a sprinkling of walnuts and little bits of chevre in a plain vinaigrette (or, alternatively, using orange juice as the base of a vinaigrette to top the other ingredients).

If I'm more ambitious, there's the orange flan from Jose Garce's mom. But since I'm less ambitious there may be an orange chiffon cake in my future.

Besides orange-flavored beef, a staple at some Chinese restaurants, I'm hard-pressed to think of other meat-centric dishes incorporating oranges. If anyone has some ideas, please comment on this post.

For fish I might try Norwegian chef Andreas Viestad's variation on a sauté meunière wherein both the fish filets and orange sauce are spiked with ginger and cloves.

2011-12-04T16:00:00.001-05:00

Pigs Outside!

As winter nears the number of vendors dwindle at the Headhouse Square Farmers' Market operated by the Food Trust. But that negative can be a positive: producers who can't get in during the height of the season can get a space.

That was the case today for Stryker Farm of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, which raises heritage breed pigs and meat goats. Young farmer Nolan Thevenet is new to farming, but he's enthusiastic. Because I had picked up enough meat for the week at the Reading Terminal yesterday, I abstained from indulging in pure pigmeat from Nolan, but couldn't resist picking up some scrapple.

Stryker Farms' scrapple, Nolan says, isn't made from innards like liver and heart, as is traditional, but from scrap meat, including jowls. Now, I have no objection to the innards in my scrapple, indeed, if you're going to keep it historic that's the way to go, adding a bit of livery savoriness. Still, I can't wait to fry up a couple slices tomorrow morning.

The farm raises their pigs out of doors and lets them forage in the fields and woods, supplementing their diet in winter with barley and grass feed, not corn. Like many heritage pig farmers Stryker Farm uses a Tamworth cross (in this case with Hereford), though Nolan said he'd like to get some Berkshire into his piggies' bloodlines.

Nolan plans to be at the final two Headhouse markets this season (the next two Sundays) and hopes to get a spot next season as well.

2011-12-04T15:44:00.001-05:00

Black Radishes

With the season winding down, the offerings at Blooming Glen Farm's stall at the Headhouse Square Farmers' Market were slim today, but what they did have was choice, including these black radishes.

When you find them in supermarkets, black radishes tend to be the size of bocci balls. They're good, but the smaller, freshly dug versions are superior.

You can roast them like a turnip, but they're probably at their best raw. I like to grate mine and mix into soft sweet butter, then spread it on good pumpernickel or rye bread. But I've seen some salad recipes that look like they're worth trying. Most call for the radishes to be thinly sliced (a mandoline comes in handy), then tossed with apples or oranges, placed atop a bed of escarole or similar green, dressed with a simple vinaigrette. And the green tops can be treated like any other cooking green

2011-12-04T15:33:00.001-05:00

Persimmon Season

We're at the tail end of the season for local persimmons, like these found at Culton Organics at today's Headhouse Square Farmers' Market.

The Fuyu variety can be eaten while still firm, but the Hachiya, which I prefer, must be allowed to ripen -- just shy of becoming rotten -- to be best enjoyed. I just lop off the stem end and dig in with a spoon, eating the gelatinous flesh like pudding.

2011-12-04T15:21:00.001-05:00

Pepper Prep at DiNic's

Before those sweet bell peppers top your roast pork sandwich at DiNic's in the Reading Terminal Market, they've got to be prepped. Every morning Jun snaps out the cores before the peppers go into the oven with a light dressing of olive oil.

Earlier this week I had a hankering for one of Tommy's sandwiches and managed to order something other than the roast pork. Instead I opted for the brisket, which you should try. Tender and flavorful it's like beef done as pulled pork -- but even more succulent. I kept it simply topped with roasted hot peppers.

Tommy's partner and son, Joe Nicolosi, says they won't be rushing to open their new location in the former Harry Ochs stall, because they want to make sure they do it right. They're aiming for mid-January, so they can have some shake-down time before the auto show crowds descend.

2011-12-04T15:16:00.001-05:00

Shane Confectionery Opens Tomorrow

The official grand opening is tomorrow, Monday, Dec. 5, for Shane Confectionery, the revitalized candy emporium from the Berley Brothers of Franklin Fountain. Except for the past year or so, the building at 110 Market Street has housed candy makers. Just in time for Christmas!

2011-11-14T13:40:00.001-05:00

Pippins and Winesaps

Newtown Pippins from North Star Orchards

There were apple varieties galore at the Headhouse Square farrmer's market yesterday at the three primary apple vendors: Three Springs Fruit Farm, Beechwood Orchards, and North Star Orchards.

When it comes to antique (a.k.a. heirloom) varieties, North Star always has a few surprises. This week I picked up an apple I've been waiting for: the Newtown Pippin. This is a green but sweet-tart apple native to the Mid-Atlantic region (it's named after Newtown, which is a neighborhood deep in the heart of Queens: perhaps you've crossed Newtown Creek while snailing along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway en route to a Phillies-Mets game.

The beauty of the Newtown Pippin is its storage quality, indeed, this apple improves with age. North Star's Ike Kerschner said he picked his crop a month ago, but is only now bringing them to market because they weren't ready to eat then. But they'll get even better in a few months. Kept loosely bagged in the refrigerator these will make especially fine eating come January and February when most other apples will be well-passed peak flavor.

Another interesting variety from North Star this week was the Reinette Simerenko, a tart Eastern European variety for a welcome change of taste. North Star has a fine web site that includes spot-on descriptions of their apple varieties.

Golden Russet is yet another variety you are unlikely to find at the Acme, or even Wegman's. I bought some more this week from North Star. They are far from the classic red apple, but well worth seeking out, with a pear-like flavor and texture. Great with a good cheese, like Birchrun Hill's Fat Cat washed rind comestible.

Over at Beechwood Orchards (they also have a website with apple descriptions worth consulting) Stayman Winesap and Northern Spy were my apples of choice. Both are older commercial varieties (19th century). Although either can be eaten either raw or cooked, I find the former tops for consuming fresh, the latter best for pies, tarts and other applications involving heat.

Beechwood also had the original Winesap, which is a tad tarter than its Stayman offspring. I like it better for cooking than eating though it can be used either way. It's also a good "keeper" for two or three months. If you're into drying your own fruit, sliced Winesaps are ideal for schnitz.

Three Springs Fruit Farm isn't into the antiques, but Ben Wenk and family still offer a nice selection of commercial varieties. I'm not a big fan of Honeycrisp (too one-dimensionally sweet to me taste), but it's a favorite among a lot of apple shoppers, and Three Springs has them as well as Staymans and other popular varieties. (And if you want a taste of summer through the winter, buy some of their canned peaches: delicious.)

About apple storage: As mentioned earlier, I keep my Newtown Pippins in the fridge, along with all other apples. While some fruits improve with room temperature storage to come to proper ripeness, apples don't and will deteriorate. Keep them in the crisper either loose or very loosely bagged, allowing them to breath. If you like to eat your apple at room temperature, take them out no more than a day before you intend to consume them.

2011-11-14T11:56:00.001-05:00

Molly Molloy's: Quick Take

It's shakedown time for Molly Molloy's, the Iovine Brothers' production that replaced The Beer Garden off center court of the Reading Terminal Market. With the understanding that any new restaurant will have kinks to work out, and that I've only tried two breakfast items and one lunch dish, here are some early impressions.

It seems that all restaurants are noisy these days -- one wishes Craig Laban's well-intentioned decibel critiques had more influence on interior designers -- and Molly Molloy's is no exception. It's louder at a table here, even when it's only one-third full, than the tables in center court.

Both breakfast items I tried (taken out for enjoying in center court) were superb.

The French Toast was cooked perfectly from good quality bread with a very slight background vanilla flavor (which of course was mostly overpowered by the maple syrup I ordered). Just as good was the scrapple: crispy exterior, creamy interior with the proper pork liver-y (but not overpowering) flavor.

A few days later I ordered the Pumpkin Pancakes with fresh cheese, and here's where one of the kinks kicked in, though by no means impacting the quality and flavor of the food. It was about 15 minutes after the 8 a.m. opening and chef Bobby Fisher had yet to prepare the batter. Jim Iovine, who knows me, noticed this and came over to distract me from what would be less than lickety-split service. (To no avail; I had already spotted Bobby making batter and surmised there would be a delay.) Still, it only took about 15 minutes or so until my order was ready, and it was perfectly enjoyable, though the traditional pumpkin pie spice flavors were a bit too subtle; in the words of that New England Portuguese-Québécois chef transplanted to New Orleans, it could have been taken up a notch. Given the lack of spice the fresh cheese seemed unnecessary, though it would be more welcome if the pancakes had greater kick. I selected sausages as my accompanying meat and found them very banger-ish, which is a good thing.

She Who Must Be Obeyed and I stopped by for lunch a week after opening, and we both agreed the starter we shared -- Butternut Squash Croquettes -- was the big hit. Although pricey (four golf balls for $4.50) they were perfectly fried, greaseless, crackly exterior and squashy interior. The plate could have used a bit more of the spiced pear butter, though.

SWMBO ordered the hamburger ($10) which arrived as a substantial piece of meat and an even more substantial brioche bun. (I wish rolls served with burgers were more appropriately sized; I think London Grill has it right in using English muffins for their excellent burgers). She enjoyed it very much, and it had a great charcoal grill flavor. (I'm not sure if they have a charcoal grill, though the rib eye steak sandwich says it's "char-grilled".) Since she likes her burgers medium, and I'm a Pittsburgh-rare kind of guy, it was too well-done for me. The burger also seemed tightly packed; I think the grind should be more loosely packed for best flavor and mouth-feel. Still, a quality burger if not up there on the first level. We both thought the French fries were very good.

I ordered the Braised Short Rib Pie ($6.50), but I didn't pay enough attention to the menu description: I thought I was going to get a pot pie. Instead what appeared on my plate, otherwise barren except for a Guinness reduction, were two empandas. Once I got over my misunderstanding of pie type, I was impressed by the quality of the pastry wrapper itself: thin, crunchy and greaseless: it was baked prior to service to cook through, then quickly deep-fried upon ordering. My only complaint (and others would consider this a merit) was all I could find was the shredded meat, but no carrots or onions. When I noted this to one of the managers he responded that he had another customer who complained of too many veggies and not enough meat. There was not a huge amount of meat inside, even considering the paucity of vegetables, but it was flavorful. The Guinness reduction as sauce (which prompted me to order a Guinness as my quaff) was a nice touch. The platter could have used some sort of vegetable side, though.

While I went with the Guinness, SWMBO read the bar menu and immediately pounced upon the Juicy Pear ($10) among the specialty cocktail offerings: Blue Coat gin, pear nectar, ginger ale and lemon. Alas, though listed on the menu Molly Molloy's had yet to have any available after more than a week after opening; seems they hadn't made the necessary pear nectar, which they insist be made on premises rather than purchased. Good intensions. No execution. If they don't have it, it shouldn't be on the menu.

I've yet to work my way through the extensive list of draft (24) and bottled (24) beers, but so long as they actually have them it's impressive. Perhaps Molly Molloy's will never be a destination beer bar (especially since it closes when the market does, 6 p.m. weekdays and Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday) like Monk's or any number of other tappies, but hop-heads won't be disappointed with offerings like Dogfish 60 Minute IPA, Stoudt's Scarlet Lady, Spaten Oktoberfest, Weyerbacher Winter Ale, Harpoon UFO, Ithaca Apricot Wheat, or Great Lakes Elliot Ness as well as the pedestrian macro-brews. Still, they could do better than O'Doul's for a non-alcohol offering (SWMBO suggested Kaliber from Guinness).

All-in-all, Molly Molloy's offers plenty worth trying right now, and I expect that under the Iovine's management and Chef Fisher's talents it will only get better. I intend to work my way through the entire menu over time.

2011-10-27T15:40:00.001-04:00

Molly Molloy's Menus

Now online. Here are the links:

Breakfast
Lunch/Dinner
Bar menu

Full website link

2011-10-26T16:18:00.000-04:00

Market Renovations Update

L. Halteman added new cases in preparation for move

Plastic sheeting and temporary construction walls adorn the east end of the Reading Terminal Market as its renovation program builds steam.

All cold storage has moved to the basement as work begins on two family bathrooms under the market's mezzanine management office. Once the new lavs are ready, temporary access changes to the men's room will be made so that work can begin on the new home for La Cucina at the Market.

Meanwhile work is underway at DiNic 's new center court location in the former Harry Ochs space; owner Tom Nicolosi hopes for a late November opening. L. Halteman, which will shift west to take over the former flower vendor space, has positioned a new refrigerated display case there in anticipation of its move later this fall.

One casualty of the renovations has been the market's free wi-fi service, which had to be temporarily shut when work started on its remodeled mezzanine offices. When the new office opens about mid-November a new and improved wi-fi system will be installed.

2011-10-26T15:52:00.000-04:00

Molly Molloy's Opens
Will seek Market's okay on beer for center court

Plenty of taps await beer lovers at Molly Molloy's

The Iovine's opened gastropub Molly Molloy's at the Reading Terminal Market this morning. Named after brothers Jim and Vinnie Iovine's mother, the pub replaces the considerably more downscale Beer Garden.

The only detail to be resolved is whether customers can take beer into center court to enjoy with items bought from other market vendors. Jim Iovine told me their license allows them to sell beer for consumption in market seating areas, but they have yet to present their request to market management, which must also approve any such plan.

Paul Steinke, the RTM's general manager, told me today that when the Iovines get around to making a formal request "it's a policy matter we have to deal with." Beyond operational issues, liability will be a key question, i.e., who's the responsible party for an alcohol-related incident outside of Molly Molloy's but within the market? Until that's resolved, you'll have to enjoy the craft beers offered by Molly Molloy's within the confines of the gastropub.

Although beer sales are strictly on-premises for now, there is a take-out counter for food. I tried it for a late breakfast this morning and found chef Bobby Fisher's French toast with berry sauce quite good, accompanied by a sagey scrapple. While I was enjoying that at a center court table, Tom Nicolosi of DiNic's had an early lunch of something else with French in its name: onion soup; he noted with approval that it was made from homemade stock, not an institutional salt-based broth.

No menu has been posted at the restaurant's website yet, but Menupages has one, even if they misspell its name. Hot sandwiches include braised oxtail, pork belly, rib eye, pulled chicken, and burgers. Irish beef stew, fish and chips, short ribs and chicken pot pies are among the entrees. And since the bar's focus is beer, there are wings.

There isn't a lot of overlap on the menu with what's offered by other RTM lunch vendors, but of all the others the one most likely to be concerned would be the Down Home Diner, which also offers a large seating area independent of center court and similar foodie aspirations. My guess is that Molly Molloy's won't so much take away business from the Down Home Diner as grow its own volume. And if it gets permission to sell beer in plastic cups for travel to center court, it can only help other sandwich vendors (though their profitable soft drink sales may suffer).

2011-10-26T14:29:00.001-04:00

O.K. Lee Upgrades Fixtures

Produce vendor O.K. Lee has gotten into the spirit of the Reading Terminal Market's renovations by replacing its display tables. The finished wood displays are a significant visual improvement over the more rustic displays they replaced.

2011-10-23T11:09:00.001-04:00

Back in Dane County

The stars are shining bright when I arrive shortly after the official 6 a.m. Saturday opening of the Dane County Farrmers Market in Madison, Wisconsin. This is America's Dairyland (the auto license plates say so), even under the state capitol dome, as the Chula Vista cheese truck attests.

After my initial walk around Capitol Square, where about a hundred vendors are setting up shop, and a leisurely cup of coffee in the Starbucks, dawn breaks and I repeat my farmers market circuit, this time going counter-clockwise around the big block, which is the required direction; go clockwise and you'll get polite stares from the other early shoppers.

All my previous visits to this market (probably the nation's largest true farmers market; you can't sell here unless you grow, raise or make it yourself) have been in early spring when meats, cheeses and baked goods predominate with only a scatteing of early spring crops. Today, however, boasted the last of summer and hearty fall fare. Four or five vendors offered late season raspberries, many others had tomatoes (some, though, finished under hoop houses), but there were plenty of winter squashes and apples, too.

The grower pictured above was selling a great variety of tomatoes, including heirlooms, all grown in the field without benefit of hoop houses. At less than a dollar a pound these beauties were bargains.

Apples, however were my main area of interest, since they were one of the few products I could bring back to the hotel and maybe even back home to Philadelphia.

Suncrisps from Pleasant Valley Orchard

Although more than half a dozen vendors sold apples, only half of them offered antiques. Taking the prize for variety was Pleasant Springs Orchard: Hubbardston Nonesuch, Tolman, Black Gilliflower, Hoople's Antique Gold, Richard's Red Delicious, Calville Blanc d'Hiver (a classic French dessert apple which I first tasted in upstate New York abut a dozen years ago), Wolf River (a Wisconsin native and widely grown here), Arkansas Black, Northwestern Greening, Court Pendu Plat, Ashmead's Kernel, Show, Cortland, Golden Russet, Spitzenburg (better known as Esopus Spitzenburg), and Cornish Gilliflower.

Another vendor claimed 30 varieties, including some lesser known commercial cultivars: Haralson, Regent, Sonata, Suncrisp (a yellow Cox Orange Pippin-Golden Delicious cross popular in the Midwest), Keepsake, Swiss Gourmet, Northern Spy, Blushing Golden, and Melrose.

For those with any interest in learning about these or any other variety, I commend the Cox Orange Pippin website, which hardly limits itself to my favorite variety.

My words can hardly do justice to the variety of produce I discovered this morning, so pictures (annotated with a just a little verbiage) follow. As always, click on a photo for an enlarged version.

The harvest of winter squashes just peaked

Mums, of course, dominated the flower stalls

Only one vendor offered still offered sweet corn, but a few more had plenty of popcorn

Beauty Heart radishes look like what is labeled a watermelon radish in Philadelphia

Celeriac and chiogga beets

Urban pumpkin patch

Want some winter squashes?

More winter squashes, and some winter greens

This season's garlic is nicely dried

Lots of peppers

If you eat like a bird...

Berkshire pork is hard to find, especially at these (relative) bargin prices

Local potatoes and radicchio, among other veggies

Cruciferous vegetables weren't lacking

One-stop shopping for vegetable soup

String beans, parsnips, carrots, daikon radishes

2011-10-09T16:35:00.000-04:00

PorcSalt's Nitrate-Nitrite Screed
A welcome riposte to the food police

For centuries, according to Matthew Ridgway of PorcSalt (Headhouse Square's newest vendor, selling some awesome, though necessarily pricey, charcuterie), meats were cured with salt and saltpeter, a.k.a. sodium nitrate, which when in contact with natural bacteria in meats is converted to nitrite. Today, pure nitrite, or in combination with nitrite, is used in exceedingly small quantities by commercial bacon, ham and other commercial cured meat manufacturers.

At his Headhouse stall today, amid the bacon, guanciale, and foie gras, Matthew had copies of a "white paper" on his table entitled "The Truth About the Dreaded Nitrate..." In it, Matthew recounts the misleading nitrate cancer-scare of the 1970s and exposes the sham of the "no-added nitrate" products sold by Whole Foods and other purveyors.

By using dried celery juice in the cures, these "no-added nitrate" products have considerably more nitrate-nitrite than commercial products. The fact that these nitrates are derived from vegetables rather than natural minerals is irrelevant: nitrate is nitrate, nitrite is nitrite, no matter the source -- it's the same molecule.

Now, this doesn't mean that the added dried celery juice (or mineral nitrate) is a bad thing. It's made "natural" hot dogs and hams much more palatable (the truly nitrate/nitrite-free versions are awful) and considerably safer than they would be without them.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture prohibits meats cured with pure nitrate or nitrate from being labelled "organic" or "natural", Matthew writes. So the marketers go out of their way to use the vegetable-based nitrates, even though celery has 400 times the nitrites of a slice of commercial bacon, according to the cured meat maven. You'd get considerably more nitrites from a serving of spinach than commercial bacon.

As Matthew concludes, "Numerous scientific panels have evaluated sodium nitrite safety and the conclusions have essentially been the same: sodium nitrite is not only safe, it's an essential public health tool because it has a proven track record of preventing botulism."

No wonder Dr. Brown's Cel-ray Tonic (my favorite quaff with a pastrami sandwich, cured with nitrate/nitrite) was originally marketed as a health food.

Stop by Matthew's PorcSalt stall at either Headhouse or the Saturday Rittenhouse market to pick up the white paper slong with some of his tasty charcuterie.

2011-10-09T15:23:00.000-04:00

Vendors Crowd Headhouse

More vendors sold their goods at the Headhouse Square Farmers Market today than any other Sunday so far this season. Katy Wich, who manages the market for The Food Trust, said 34 different vendors showed up today, including one new one, PorcSalt, which has been an occasional vendor at the Rittenhouse Saturday market this year.

With produce tables groaning under the weight of apples, squashes, potatoes and other harvest goodies, it's my favorite time of year to wander farmers' markets.

Because the larder's rather well-stocked at home, my purchases were minimal. The only "must" item on my list was apples.

And what a selection! Three Springs, Beechwood and North Star all offered great variety, most priced at $2 to $2.50 a pound -- more than what you'd pay at the supermarket, but all fresh-picked off the tree.

Esopus Spitzenberg apple

My big score was an Espopus Spitzenberg. This apple holds a special place in my heart, but not merely because it tastes so good (definitely on the tart side, but enough sugar to balance it out, plus a crisp, dense flesh). No, it's among my favorites because its named for the creek (Esopus) where I used to swim -- or at least get into the icy cold water -- during family vacations in the northern Catskills, in the Big Indian-Oliveria valley. This apple, great for out-of-hand eating or baking, was available today from North Star. Of all the apples offered by North Star this week, it's the one true antique. It was reputed to be one of Thomas Jefferson's favorite.

Over at Beechwood Orchards, Dave Garrettson offered another American antique, the Northern Spy. Although it can be enjoyed as a dessert apple, i.e., eaten out-of-hand, and is an excellent storage variety, it's highest use is in pies. Since my available kitchen time this week is extremely limited, I reluctantly passed these beauties by.

Instead, I picked up some Macouns, Winesaps and the latter's even tastier offspring, Stayman, all from Beechwood.

Of course, if you're stocking apples for plain eating, you've got to get some cheese as an accompaniment. For that part of the equation I stopped by Sue Miller's Birchrun Hills Farm stall where I picked up her Red Cat. This is a washed-rind cheese, slightly pungent (most washed rind cheeses are stinkier) and creamy.

The main course for tonight's dinner also came from Sue: bockwurst, a traditional German sausage traditionally all-veal or mostly veal with a bit of pork. I'll cook it tonight with sauerkraut braised in unpasteurized apple cider mixed with mustard, maybe throwing in some carraway seeds. Which reminds me, gotta put some beer in the fridge. Although mashed potatoes would be the ideal side, I picked up some rye bread from Ric's.

2011-10-09T13:58:00.000-04:00

Harvest Festival Saturday

The Reading Terminal Market's annual Harvest Festival will be held Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. As usual it will feature hayrides around the block pulled by a farm tractor, caramel apples, freshly made donuts, cider, and a cornucopia of autumnal produce.

2011-10-09T13:47:00.000-04:00

Halteman's
Art Work

When Iovine Brother's Produce expanded its prep area few years back, the walls came tumbling down and, with them, the rustic, primitive farm scenes painted on them opposite L. Halteman Family Country Foods.

Maybe I missed it earlier, but one of those painted panels remains (pictured here). It's located on the aisle behind Halteman's opposite what will soon become Molly Molloy's, formerly The Beer Garden.

2011-09-18T16:15:00.000-04:00

RTM Construction Update

It will probably be another week or so before DiNic's begins construction on its new Reading Terminal Market home, the former Harry Ochs stall. With all permits and designs in hand, the work will begin once a contractor is selected from from the bids received.

This past Saturday Jimmy Iovine was sweeping up inside the now vacant Beer Garden space which is tentatively scheduled to reopen in mid-October as Molly Molloy's. This week a new floor is due to be installed.

Along Avenue D in back of the Beer Garden temporary construction walls are up as crews work in that area. The storage and prep areas there have been permanently relocated to the basement. Meanwhile, work continues above Tootsie's Salad Express on the expanded market office.

2011-09-18T16:06:00.000-04:00

Of Pork, Rabe and Spinach

Once upon a time, the roast pork sandwich at DiNic's at the Reading Terminal Market could be had with only one green: spinach. Tom and Joe Nicolosi, the father-son team which operates the Center Court stall, tried adding broccoli rabe, but no one wanted it.

That changed a couple years ago when DiNic's reintroduced the bitter green. Tastes change and now it's a hit. This Saturday Joe was tending to five trays of rabe for cooking with oil and garlic, vs. two of spinach; considering that the spinach weighs less than the rabe per volume of measurement and has a lower yield, the rabe probably outsells spinach by a ratio of nearly 10-to-1. Although you could hardly go wrong my ordering a sandwich with aged provolone and spinach, I go for the rabe, which offers a clear balance between the sweetness of the pork and bitterness of the green.

Lately I've been indulging in breakfast sandwiches from The Grill at Smucker's. Moses Smucker and his crew offer a meaty start to the morning, piling on plenty of ham, bacon, sausage of pork roll atop a roll also filled with egg and/or cheese. The pork roll comes from John F. Martin in the Lancaster/Berks area; it's good, though lacks the spicy punch of the original Jersey variety from either Taylor or Case. The sausage breakfast sandwich comes with two patties which are both the size of a hamburger; the sausage seems to be flavored with a bit of onion rather than sage, but that's no sacrifice to my taste.

2011-09-18T15:41:00.000-04:00

It's Apple Eating Time

Thanks to North Star Orchards at Headhouse Square today, I tried an apple new to me, a Pearmain. There are a number of varieties of Pearmans, and I failed to ask Ike which one this was. Perhaps it was the American Summer variety.

Mostly green (with plenty of red tinge) this apple has an appealing tart-sweet balance and pleasing crunch (though certainly not as hard as a Granny Smith). I'm adding to my list of sought after apples. After undertaking some web research, it's no surprise I enjoyed the Pearmain: it's a cultivar of my all-time favorite, the Cox Orange Pippin.

In other Headhouse observations, Matt Yoder went back to Maine earlier this summer, so this field-bean growing enthusiast has split from his short-lived partnership with Tom Culton of Culton Organics. It's left to Culton to sell all those beans: he had plenty of dried cowpeas today, which make a great succotash with the last of the summer's corn should you find any.

Although the corn is fading fast, it's that wonderful time of year when fall produce is offered side-by-side with the last of summer. Tomatoes and peaches will probably be the next to disppear, but eggplants and cucumbers are among the summer produce items still around, as is the late season raspberry. Crisp-tender root veggies like celeriac (celery root), winter squashes, and fall fruits (grapes, apples, pears) help ease the kitchen transition. This is also the time to get paw paws with which you can make a variation on banana bread, cookies, cream or custard pie, cake or ice cream. And with the disappearance of extreme heat, local lettuces are back, like the red-tinged bibb variety I picked up from Earl Livengood at Fairmount's farmers' market .

2011-09-13T18:03:00.000-04:00

BAAH! Cheesemaker Plans RTM Outpost
Fresh Cheeses To Be Made On Site

Some of the more than 600 sheep
in Valley Shepherd's flock

Valley Shepherd Creamery is expected to be the first new vendor to occupy space along the Reading Terminal Market's Avenue D.

Earlier this month the RTM and cheesemaker Eran Wajswol signed off on a proposal to occupy about 700 square feet across Avenue D from what will soon be Molly Molloy's gastropub.

The shop will be located along the RTM's back wall, where it will be easiest to pipe in fresh milk from delivery trucks. That's necessary because Wajswol plans to make fresh cheese on premises for market shoppers. At Valley Shepherd's farm store in Long Valley, N.J., his fresh offerings include cream cheeses (no gums or additives) and ricotta.

As its name implies, Valley Shepherd specializes in sheep milk cheeses, although some of its products are cow-sheep mixes.

Although Valley Shepherd plans to make fresh cheese at the RTM, its cave-aged product earned the creamery its stellar reputation. Wajswol went so far as to blast an aging cave into a hillside on his farm. One of his cheeses, a Gouda-like product, spends two years in the cave.

If you haven't had a chance to try Wajswol's cheeses, you're missing one of the best artisinal products available. At least one variety is usually in stock at the Fair Food Farmstand at the RTM, often Shepherd's Basket, a Basque style aged for four to five months. With the exception of the fresh cheeses and yogurts, everything else is made from unpasteurized raw milk. You can get an idea of the offerings at Valley Shepherd Creamery's website.

In addition to the store at the northwest New Jersey creamery. Valley Shepherd operates a small store on Sullivan Street in Manhattan's SoHo district, and soon will be opening another in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood. The RTM store will be its third owned and operated retail outlet. In addition to restaurants, like New York City's Le Bernardin, Wajswol sells at various farmers' markets in New York and New Jersey.

If all goes according to plan, you might see Valley Shepherd at the RTM by late spring, according to Paul Steinke, the RTM's general manager.

2011-09-13T17:53:00.001-04:00

Shut and Open Case at Tootsie's
Over Labor Day weekend, Tootsie's Salad Express shut down while workers began extended the Reading Terminal Market's mezzanine office, which is located above the eater, owned by Marion "Tootsie Iovine" D'Ambrosio. By this past Monday, it was back in business. The work is part of the RTM's Avenue D expansion program.

2011-09-13T17:53:00.000-04:00

Market Marketers Extraordinaire
Never let it be said that Iovine Brothers Produce doesn't know how to market their market business.

For a few months now they've been creating videos extolling their produce, which often serves as a primary education in fruits and vegetables. Earlier this summer Jimmy Iovine led a tour of the new wholesale produce market.

More recently their blog has featured recipes from Bobby Fisher, a chef who has long served Iovine's off-premises catering operations and will be top chef at Molly Molloy's, the gastropub the Iovine's will open next month where the Beer Garden once stood. The Iovine's web page is also regularly updated and is the most extensive one offered by market merchants. They've also got an active email list.

Butch Dougherty, the Iovine's operations manager, is the guy behind most of the digital activity, which also includes Facebook and Twitter postings.

Links:

Website: http://www.iovine.com/
Twitter: @IovineBrothers
Facebook: Iovine Brothers Produce
Blog: http://wp.iovine.com/

2011-08-26T14:24:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Closings

The Food Trust has already announced that its Headhouse Square farmers' market will close Sunday because of Hurricane Irene. The Reading Terminal Market will hold off its decision until Saturday morning, but assuming Irene sticks to anywhere near the projected track, it too will close Sunday.

2011-08-26T14:13:00.000-04:00

Tootsie's, Market Office
Next Up for RTM Renovation

From Tuesday, Sept. 6 through Sunday, Sept. 11, Tootsie's Salad Express will be closed due to renovations to the Market office. The Market office on the mezzanine above Tootsie's will be temporarily relocated to a storefront within the Convention Center along 11th Street. They'll be there for one or two months, starting the day after Labor Day.

2011-08-25T11:10:00.000-04:00

DiNic's Starts Rehab of Ochs' Stall

DiNic's has completed a rebuild of the walk-in refrigerator at the former Harry Ochs' stall, where it will relocate its roast pork and beef emporium sometime this fall (probably late October or November). Tommy Nicolosi and son Joe said they're already using it. Yesterday they met with the architects as the design nears completion. Expect to see work on the former butcher stall to begin sometime after Labor Day.

2011-08-25T11:05:00.000-04:00

Beer Garden Shuts Monday,
Reopens on "Molly's" Birthday

The renovation of The Beer Garden will start next week, with the projected grand re-opening scheduled for Oct. 11, which just happens to be the birthday of the owners' mother. With the reopening, it will be renamed for her, Molly Molloy's.

In addition to more beer taps Molly Molloy's will feature food by chef Bobby Fisher, who's worked for owners Vinnie and Jimmy Iovine at a number of their catering venues. The new entrance to the Beer Garden will be from Center Count.

The Iovines had hoped to close off the entrance from the aisle between Franks A Lot and Coastal Cave, but the Philadelphia Historical Commission nixed that idea, which necessitated a modest redesign.

2011-08-04T13:03:00.000-04:00

Avenue D Project Moving Along

Works Aims For Completion By Flower Show

The new DiNic's will feature many more counter seats

The RTM is moving forward with its $4.5 million Avenue D improvement and expansion project first reported here more than a year ago. Last week GM Paul Steinke held a series of briefings for market merchants to update them on the sequence of construction and design updates.

If all goes according to schedule, the work will be complete and ready for use before next year's flower show, which opens to the public March 4.

For the market, the central benefit is creating more leaseable space for added vendors.

The biggest benefit as far as the market's customers are concerned is expanded and improved rest room facilities.

But the most visible change will be the addition of a multi-purpose room and new demonstration kitchen at the east end of an expanded Center Court. The room -- to be called the Rick Nichols Room in honor of the Inquirer's former food columnist -- will be used as a seating area when not in use for kitchen demonstrations and private functions.

Rendering of new La Cucina and multi-purpose room

A newly-added feature for the Rick Nichols Room will be a historical exhibit on the market's history adornning the facility's walls. Funded by a William Penn Foundation grant, the exhibit will be prepared by the Philadelphia History Museum (formerly the Atwater Kent) and include contributions from Nichols.

Much of the improvement work has already begun in the bowels of the market, in its giant basement where some of the merchants have storage and prep space. Earlier this year a second elevator went into service to improve basement access. New dry storage space is basically finished, and soon work will begin on adding cooler and freezer units so that the existing cold storage lockers under the mezzanine can be cleared for the rest room and additional vendor space.

The most visible work will begin after Labor Day when both The Beer Garden and DiNic's start construction.

The Beer Garden, purchased by the Iovine brothers earlier this year, will be shut down while a kitchen is added and the seating area and bar renovated and expanded.

DiNic's will be moving to the space last occupied by Harry Ochs & Sons. With twice its current space and lots of additional counter seating, the market hopes lunchtime congestion around the popular lunch stall can be reduced.

When DiNic's moves, Spataro's will take over that space. Flying Monkey will move into Spataro's spot, as well as additional space from what is now the Spice Terminal, which will relocate under the mezzanine. Other vendor alterations include a shift in L. Halteman's footprint to front on Avenue C (where Market Blooms had its second stall), Miscellania Libri and The Shoe Doctor to a new location further north along the renovated Avenue D, and the move of La Cucina to the new demonstration kitchen and multi-purpose room.

2011-08-04T12:57:00.000-04:00

Back for Summer's Bounty

With trips to St. Louis and Maine over the past month, I've been necessarily neglectful in updating this blog, and more importantly of indulging in the bounty of summer fruits and vegetables now before us.

This week I aim to remedy the situation.

Maybe by this weekend (or even this afternoon, when I intend to hit the Fairmount farmers' market) I'll be impressed with local tomatoes. So far, I have not. The Lancaster County beefsteak tomato I picked up yesterday at Ben Kauffman's RTM stall was quite disappointing. Clearly, this wasn't a winter tomato: it was red all the way through with plenty of meat. But the taste failed to live up to its promise. Although I didn't buy them, the heirlooms at both Ben's and Fair Food looked lackluster.

Could it have been July's excessive heat that accounted for the wan flavor? I know extreme and prolonged heat can toughen the skin, among other problems, but does it impact flavor?

The nectarines purchased at Fair Food yesterday, however, were wonderful. These beauties, from Beechwood Orchards (which also sells at Headhouse, Rittenhouse, South & Passyunk and other farmers' markets) featured chin-bathing juiciness and full flavor. I've yet to bite into the peach sitting on the kitchen counter.

Local musk melons, a.k.a. cantelopes, are also in season. The one I picked up a couple weeks ago from Bill Weller's Orchard Hill stand at the Fairmount market was decent enough. Perhaps by now the lopes have developed more sweetness and flavor.

Blueberries have pretty much disappeared (though I did buy some wild lowbush berries in Maine a week ago that were superb) but we've got blackberries galore, which I also adore; those I've had have been delicious. Red raspberries are also plentiful and big, if pricey.

The corn I've sampled so far has also been disappointing, but maybe that's because I've not tried enough. The Silver King from Ben Kaufman yesterday had nice kernels, but it should have been sweeter and cornier. Again, could excessive heat been a culprit? We'll keep trying.

Here's the price rundown on what I spied yesterday at the RTM:

At Kauffman's corn was 50 cents an ear for Silver King, with a slight discount for larger quantities. Bi-color was half the price. Beefstake tomatoes $2.49/pound, heirlooms $4.99. Yellow peaches $1.99, whites $2.99. Blackberries $3 a half-pint, red raspberries $5.95.

Fair Food was selling Beechwood's tree fruit: nectarines $2, donut peaches $3.50, plums $3.50, yellow cling and white peaches $2. Fair Food's organic tomatoes were $4, heirlooms $5. I bought a couple of poblano peppers at a pricey $7.50/pound. Green bell peppers were thrift 90 cents. New to me in the refrigerator case were sausages from Southwark restaurant, but I wouldn't try one priced at about $37 a pound!

Iovine Brothers Produce, of course, offers the cheapest quality produce at the market, though O.K. Lee can sometimes given them a run for their money. Pennsylvania-grown (Bloomsburg) tomatoes at Iovine's were $1.49. Jersey white peaches $1.49, California donuts 79 cents. Bloomsburg cantalopes were $1 apiece. Among the peppers, local green bells were 99 cents, while commercial peppers were $1.49 for yellows and reds. Banana peppers were 99 cents, fryers $1.49. Although not as tasty as the locals were a month ago, the West Coast sweet red cherries were worth it at $2.99.

L. Halteman also has relative bargains in summer produce. Corn was 55 cents an ear (3 for $1.19, six for $2.85, a dozen for $5.29). Heirloom tomatoes $2.99, slicers $2.29. Nectarines and peaches (yellow and white) $1.99. Huge cantelopes were $2.99 apiece.

Since it's grilling season now may be the time to make some ribs.

Over at Martin's Quality Meats, spare ribs sere $2.69, baby backs $4.89, beef back $2.39 and lamb $4.29. Giunta's Prime Shop had short ribs for $4.99, lamb for $3.89, baby backs for $4.59. L. Halteman's spare ribs were $2.99.

Short ribs are demanding to cook directly on the grill, but if you're willing to braise them first and finish them out-of-doors you're in for a treat. I made them a couple weeks ago using superb beef from Charlie Giunta. I asked for long cut rather than cross-cut, then braised two or three pounds' worth for about three hours in a slow oven after browning. The braise was simple, with some gently sautéd onions, salt and pepper, whole garlic cloves added to the dutch oven with plain old tap water. After cooking I let them cool in the pot, then before serving charred them over a very hot fire on the gas grill. They were tender and flavorful, among the best short ribs I've had either made at home or ordered in a restaurant. I give most of the credit to the quality of the beef.

2011-08-04T11:01:00.000-04:00

'Market Money' To Go Electronic

The Reading Terminal Market's gift certificate program, Market Money, will go from paper to stored value cards -- the ubiquitous "gift cards" issued by credit card companies -- in the near future.

Paul Steinke, the RTM's general manager, said the biggest class of users of Market Money are convention and meeting sponsors, not individuals giving gifts. In May 2010, for example, the International Society of Autism Research purchased $75,000 in Market Money . . . but asked that it be issued in $5 denominations. That work out to 15,000 individual $5 chits market staffers had to count out and package for the meeting sponsors. Going to plastic will save considerable time and money for the market in the future.

Timing of the conversion awaits a decision on which payment system (VISA, Mastercard, etc.) offers the market the best deal.

2011-07-09T15:41:00.005-04:00

One of the ads from the current campaign

Face of the Market

For about a year, one aspect of the Reading Terminal Market's advertising and marketing campaign has focused on photos of regular market shoppers. This year, the market is seeking your photos to determine who will be featured in the next campaign.

It's called Face of the Market, and requires you to submit a photo of yourself at the market along with a brief explanation of why you love the market. Winners must be available to pose for a professional photographer August 20.

Details can be found here.

2011-07-09T15:29:00.000-04:00

RTM Festivals

Two festivals are coming up at the Reading Terminal Market this summer, one a relative newcomer, the other one that's been going strong for more than two decades.

The relative newcomer (it's only been held for three or four years, iirc) is the Ultimate Philadelphia Ice Cream Festival. This year it will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Bassetts Ice Cream, one of the market's original tenants. It will be held in Center Court next Saturday,

In addition to Bassetts, Philadelphia's finest ice creams will be represented by Miller's Twist (which features Kreider Farm's product), Franklin Fountain, Uncle Dave's, Capogiro and Bredenbeck's Bakery and Ice Cream Parlor of Chestnut Hill. Uncle Dave's is based at Shady Brook Farm in Bucks County, which supplies some of the local fruits and vegetables (including corn) sold at Iovine Brothers Produce. The Berley Brothers of Franklin Fountain, located on Market Street between Front and Second, were prominently featured in an article about ice cream sodas in last Wednesday's New York Times.

The event also features arts and crafts for the kids, live music, games, and more.

For 22 years (with a one-year hiatus) the Reading Terminal Market has celebrated the commonwealth's food heritage with its annual Pennsylvania Dutch Festival. This year it will be held August 11, 12, and 13 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

The three-day festival will take place in the Center Court seating area and will feature handmade crafts and traditional foods. On Saturday, the festival also moves outdoors on Arch Street to create a country fair in the city. Amish buggy rides and horse drawn wagon rides around the market, a farm animal petting zoo, and live bluegrass music round out the entertainment.

2011-07-08T13:24:00.000-04:00

Tower Grove Farmers' Market, St. Louis

Once upon a time, say 20 years ago, there were few farmers' markets in large cities, including St. Louis from where I just returned after a week's stay.

When I first visited the city nearly 30 years ago there was only Soulard Market, the public market on the fringe of downtown, and a small farmers' market in "The Loop", where a trolley line once terminated in the close-in suburb of University City (named for its proximity to Washington University). Although the number of farmers markets in St. Louis today pale besides those of Philadelphia, they are much more plentiful than they once were.

Last Saturday I stopped by one of the larger ones, located in the center of Tower Grove Park, a classic urban park in the Olmstead tradition, though not desired by him or his firm. The farmers market featured about two dozen vendors with hardly any artsy-crafts vendors, thankfully, though there were a grilled cheese vendor and a breakfast taco stall. A couple meat vendors (no poultry, though), dairy/cheese vendors and produce vendors filled most of the stalls (two of the produce vendors were Amish: a touch of home). All in all, a well-rounded farmers' market.

My purchases: a pound of bratwurst, four fresh spring onions, half-pint new red potatoes, half-pint sungold tomatoes (hoop house grown), half-pint blackberries, one musk melon (cantaloupe). The only price recall is $3 for the blackberries. The tomatoes were deliciously sweet and real. I sauteed the onions and potatoes to go with the brats this evening, all were yummy.

2011-07-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

St. Louis Sojourn:
Land of the Gooey Butter Cake

Back from a one-week visit to St. Louis, one of a number I've made since my sister moved there almost 30 years ago.

I managed to consume only one of the city's three iconic foods. That would be toasted ravioli, which is not toasted but deep fried. When not overly greasy from poorly executed deep-frying, these morsels make a fun appetizer when dipped in the accompanying tomato sauce.

The populace of St. Louis having a gigantic collective sweet tooth, the remaining food icons are the Ted Drewes "concrete", a super thick shake made from real custard at the Ted Drewes custard stand, and Gooey Butter Cake. The latter is descended from German butter cake, a fine example of which is produced by Haegele's in Mayfair in Northeast Philadelphia. St. Louisans muck it up, however, by putting super gooety, corn-syrupy, fruit and/or nut toppings over it. A dentist's dream.

You can, however, skip the toppings by ordering Deep Butter Cake, which skips the gloppy, gooey topping. Although not quite as rich as Haegel's version, this is a fine cake, at least the version I picked up at Federhofer's Bakery in South St. Louis, home to much of the region's remaining German population. Their Deep Butter Cake was finely crumbed and tasted like a lighter version of a pound cake. A very nice cake, indeed, perfect with coffee. Federhofer's was a complete bakery, with breads and rolls in addition to a nice variety of cakes, pastries and cookies. We took home a rye bread, softer than a Jewish rye but with clear rye flavor and maintaining a nice chew.

Earlier in the week in search of Deep Butter Cake I visited The Hill, St. Louis's Italian neighborhood, where two of baseball's great catchers grew up together: Yogi Berra and Joe Gargiaola. There I stopped by Missouri Baking Company; alas, no Deep Butter Cake because they were using only their small oven last week, having taking down the big oven which is being replaced by a new one this week. Instead I purchased some excellent assorted cookies, light and crumbly, biscotti (which was a tad moist rather than dry) some small, round seeded sandwich rolls which tasted not unlike Sarcone's, and sfogliatelle, slightly cakier than Isgro's or Termini's and dusted with confectioner's sugar, but tasty and with the absolutely necessary crackly clamshell exterior.

Down the block I was drawn to Volpi's, a mid-sized business whose salamis, mortadelli, and other cured meat products can be found nationwide. At least a few Philadelphia establishments use and/or sell their products, including DiBruno's and Salumeria.

The Hill has a couple other bakeries and grocery stores full of Italian imports, as well a bocce club and numerous restaurants, good, bad and middling, and coffee houses. There was also a nice restaurant/kitchen supply store. What I didn't spy, however, was an Italian ice establishment. Gelato, yes. Lemon ice, no. Seem like a business opportunity, especially during the city's hot, humid summers.

2011-06-19T14:39:00.000-04:00

Beechwood Orchards at Headhouse

Berries and Cherries

Summer's bounty of berries and cherries could be found at most markets this weekend.

Over at Beechwood Orchards at Headhouse I purchased $5/quart pie cherries, which I'll transfom into sherbet and/or cobbler. Beechwood also had them at Rittenhouse yesterday. Another stone fruit also made a Beechwood appearance, apricots, at $3.75/pint. Dave Garretson didn't have many, but expects more in coming weeks.

Beechwood's sweet cherries (red or the yellow-pink Rainiers) were $7/quart, compared to Three Springs Fruit Farm's $8 (two pint price) for reds. Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce sold reds Saturday for $6.99/pound, which translate to about $9/quart. His Queen Annes were pricier, at $7.99/pound.

(Garretson said he sells Rainiers rather than Queen Anne's because the latter are easy to "fingerprint," i.e., they bruise as soon as you pick them with your fingers.)

Blueberries from local growers are also in season, whether they come from the commercial (but nonetheless quite tasty) South Jersey growers ($3.75/pint, iirc) or farmers market vendors (about $5/pint).

Raspberries, both red and black, could also be purchased. Beechwood's cost $5 for a half-pint box. Some vendors still feature strawberries for $6-$7/quart.

Asparagus has disappeared for all practical puposes, but there are lots of other veggies to replace them. Summer squashes are abundant, and eggplant is now available, too -- $1 apiece for Sicilian or regular at A.T. Buzby's Headhouse stall today. Green and yellow string beans, sugar snap peas, sweet or English peas (shelled or still in the pod), garlic scapes, cucumbers (regular "garden" cukes, kirby cukes for pickling and "seedless" varieties. The last type makes fantastic "quick" Scandinavian style pickles to serve alongside cold salmon. Boiled new potatoes (also abundant at local markets) makes another excellent accompaniment to that salmon. And you've got lots of choice in greens for both cooking and salads. Beets and turnips are also widely available.

Leafy herbs -- parsley and cilantro among them -- are also easy to find now, as are spring onions.

If you can't wait another month, corn is available but you'll pay dearly. Buzby had white ears today priced at 75-cents apiece. I'll wait for peak season when even Tom Culton will occasionally sell his (including the mirai variety) at less than half that price.

2011-06-19T13:54:00.000-04:00

Culton Beauty Shots

Although I only occasionally purchase produce from Tom Culton at Headhouse, it's hard to beat his seemingly random (but in truth, carefully composed) display of heirloom fruits and veggies. Herewith, some photos. As always, click on photo to see an enlarged version.

Persian, a.k.a. Israeli, cucumbers

Green and wax string beans

Blueberries and red currants

Patty pan squash

Half-pint boxes of shelled peas

Mixed potatoes

Culton and the rear of his stall last week

2011-06-19T13:33:00.000-04:00

Another Market, Another Controversy

Borough Market, during my 2002 visit when it
boasted only a few dozen vendors

It's hard to have a public market without an occasional kertuffle. But the current brou-ha-ha at London's Borough Market is a doozy.

The market evicted eight of its 120 "traders" for disloyalty in making disparaging remarks about Borough Market, according to Peter Wilkinson, the trust's chairman. The dispute appears to be centered upon by the decision of a handful of vendors to open what they claim are primarily storage and production facilities about a mile away under railway viaducts in Maltby Street.

If you're interested in the blow-by-blow, you can read these articles and commentaries (for as long as they are accessible) from The Guardian:

June 12
June 16
June 18

2011-06-19T13:11:00.004-04:00

Market Makes 'Secret' Official

Calling it one of the "worst kept 'secrets' in the market" RTM General Manager Paul Steinke put out his regular market newsletter to merchants yesterday confirming the moves reported here a week ago: Dinic's to Ochs' vacant space, Spataro's to Dinic's, and Flying Monkey to Spataro's.

The only change is Spice Terminal's location. Instead of moving slightly to the east so Flying Monkey can get the larger space it needs, it will move to where Steinke originally intended for the cupcakerie: on Avenue D in the space now occupied by refrigerators, behind the wall displaying photos of markets from around the world. One or two new vendors will be located to Spice Terminal's space and the seating area to the east, which will disappear. (Replacement seating will be available in the new multi-purpose space on the back side of Avenue D).

Steinke's newsletter also reported that market traffic -- the number of visitors entering its doors -- for the first five months of 2011 is four percent head of last year. The May numbers were 6.3 percent ahead: 533,680.

Expect big crowds beginning next weekend when 20,000 teachers descend upon the Convention Center for the June 26-29 meeting of the International Society for Technology in Education.
.

2011-06-15T17:23:00.000-04:00

The less crowded side of Headhouse, home of Otolith
(shown here), Happy Cat,

Yogi-ism at Headhouse

No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded -- Yogi Berra

Enter the Sunday Headhouse Square farmers' market from the Lombard Street side and find yourself enveloped in an over-populated mass of humanity, squeezed between Blooming Glen's pristine display of greens, squashes and radishes on the left and Wild Flour Bakery's baguettes and brioche rolls on the right.

Wander just a little further down and join the line where they must be giving produce away. Oops. No, it's Tom Culton and Matt Yoder's lengthy stall, filled with exotic produce you never knew existed. And they are definitely not giving it away.

In manoeuvering through the Times-Square-on-New-Year's-Eve conglomeration you've also got to contend with double-wide prams and dogs on leashes threatening to trip passersby flat on their derrières.

But keep on walking. As you draw nearer to Pine Street the crowd thins, making shopping at Headhouse almost pleasurable.

Happy Cat Organics

Root Mass Farm

Savoie Organic Farm

Vendors at the far end of the Headhouse market suffer from their location. Just ask Dave Garrettson of Beechwood Orchards, who saw his sales increase when he obtained a slot nearer the center of the Shambles.

So if you want to insure a variety of producers at Headhouse, be sure to patronize vendors near the Lombard Street end for more than tacos, lemonade or a sausage sandwich. You'll find great purveyors of produce and protein.

Like Otolith Sustainable Seafood, the peripatetic Alaskan seafood purveyor. Their blast-frozen frozen vacuum-packed seafood is usually no more expensive or within a couple of dollars per pound of the price you'd pay at retail fish stores. And if you buy prawns, rockfish, pacific cod, or sablefish (a.k.a. black cod) from Otolith, you'll be making your purchase from the same people who caught it: Amanda Bossard, Otolith's owner, and her husband, Murat Aritan, who fish Alaskan waters for those species on their 65-foot long-liner. The other fish they sell, primarily salmon and halibut, are purchased from other harvesters who "share our commitment to sustainability," says Bossard

Also closer to the Pine Street end is Happy Cat Organics of Kennett Square. You won't find the masses of produce that some other vendors offer, but what you will find is choice. This week Tim had lots of different onions and plenty of radishes, among other items.

Savoie Organic Farm is the place to go for potatoes, though that's hardly all Barry and Carol Savoie offer. This past week they had plenty of fresh greens and radishes, but the new potato harvest is getting underway, too. They typically produce 10 different varieties of specialty potatoes, including Onaway, Red Cloud, Rose Gold, Carola, All Blue, Cranberry Red, Butte Russet, and Rose Finn Apple fingerlings on their South Jersey farm.

Root Mass Farm in Oley offers all the good produce we expect this time of year: garlic scapes, salad and cooking greens, radishes, green onions, snap peas, asparagus, etc. But if you want to learn something about farming, check out Lindsey's and Landon's video, all about how to use a broad fork to disrupt hardpan.

2011-06-12T15:45:00.000-04:00

RTM Musical Chairs: Continued

Flying Monkey will move to Spataro's spot

Since Michael Klein in his The Insider blog today picked up and added to my report yesterday on DiNic's forthcoming move to the vacated Ochs' location, here's the rest of the story (much of it also reported by Michael):

The prime reason for all the musical chairs is Flying Monkey's lease for its center court spot. Originally the market wanted to move Flying Monkey to a new spot where coolers are now located (behind the wall displaying photos from pubic markets around the globe), but that wouldn't be on center court. Flying Monkey proprietor Elizabeth Halen would have been put at a locational handicap, so with the opening of the Ochs' spot, the musical chairs began.

Getting the cupcakerie on center court will be accomplished by moving to the Spataro's spot once they move into DiNic's space. Flying Monkey will get some additional space from The Spice Terminal, which will extend a bit into the current seating area astride the existing Flying Monkey location.

Paul Steinke hopes that the move of DiNic's will reduce congestion at the nexus of center court, which long lines waiting for roast pork sandwiches create a traffic jam from for one or two hours every lunch time. DiNic's additional seating may help as well.

Beer Garden Progress

Vinnie Iovine reports he and brother Jim received Philadelphia Historical Commission approval for their design on Friday. They still have some minor tweaks and approvals to obtain, but none that they see standing in the way. Once everything is in hand, expect a shut down of the Beer Garden after the Independence Day holiday for a month of renovations. When they reopen as Molly Molloy's, the entrance will be from center court and feature a gastro-pub menu from Bobby Fisher, who has long served as chef of the Iovines' catering operations.

2011-06-11T14:30:00.001-04:00

Vacant Ochs stall

DiNic's Will Move
To Ochs'Location

Merchants will be playing musical chairs for the rest of the year as the Reading Terminal Market begins its major reconstruction project. One of the first moves will be by DiNic's to the center court stall vacated by Harry G. Ochs & Sons.

Before it's over, expect at least three more center court merchants either to move to new spots along center court or alter their footprint, according to sources who did not wish to be identified because details are not yet settled for any except the DiNic's move, which still awaits signatures. All the subsequent moves, as currently proposed, rely upon the DiNic's relocation.

As we reported in February (see original story here) the market will move Flying Monkey out of its current center court location to create a demonstration kitchen and meeting space along the Avenue D rear wall, and create additional retail space which will require adjustments to existing merchant footprints.

Additional moves of merchants along Center Court could be firmed up and announced as early as next week.

DiNic's current Center Court space

Alert shoppers may have noticed a sign at the now vacant Market Blooms spot on Avenue C, between Giunta's and Coastal Cave, announcing that L. Halteman's will shift its footprint to take over that space, since they will lose part of their existing footage to the Avenue D project. Preliminary plans call for Halteman's deli counter to front on Avenue C. Market Blooms continues to operate its Avenue A space along the 12th Street side of the market.

Paul Steinke, the RTM's general manager, emphasized that the market will retain the existing ratios of purveyors to food court businesses, although the locations within the market are subject to change.

Steinke said he is evaluating applications from a large number of potential vendors encompassing all four categories of merchants: Purveyors, Food Basket, Mercantile and Food Court. (For a more detailed description of those categories, see my article on RTM Lease Structure here.)

The market's mission statement calls for it to provide a wide variety of produce, meat, fish, bakery and dairy products, and other raw and prepared food. Its Operating Policy Guidelines specify that in filling vacancies general preference be given to growers and purveyors of local and regional produce, and that businesses offering food intended primarily or exclusively for consumption within the market be limited to no more that the greater of one-third of the total businesses in the market, or one-third of the total leasable area of the Market.

DiNic's move will make its operations much more efficient, since Ochs is a considerably larger space and also features a walk-in refrigerator, which will eliminate the need to haul meats from storage areas elsewhere in the market. They will also be able to double seating capacity. A probable addition to the menu will be meatballs.

2011-06-11T13:38:00.001-04:00


Sweet and Queen Anne cherries at Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce

Cherries Arrive, Priced Dearly

As Benuel Kauffman told me a couple days ago, he did, indeed, have cherries at his Reading Terminal stall today. But they didn't come cheaply.

In previous seasons, Ben priced his berries by the pint or quart. At least for the start of the season, he's pricing them per pound. The red cherries today were $5.99, the Queen Anne variety $6.99. Since a pint weighs out at about three-quarters of a pound, the pint price for the reds works out to about $4.50, a buck more than last year's $3.50. Since this year's crop is expected to be decent, figure the price should come down as more vendors offer the first of the season's stone fruits. Last year, West Coast cherries sold for as little as 59-cents a pound at Iovine Brothers.

Earlier this week I reported that Iovine's red bell peppers were unexpectedly cheaper than the frying peppers, $1.99 a pound vs. $2.49. Today the price of the latter came down $1.99. Meanwhile Vinnie Iovine was touting his Georgia peaches (he joked is staff mis-spelled the price card, as "Spothern" rather than "Southern" peaches. He says although rock hard, they are considerably sweeter than the California's he sent back to his wholesaler.

Back at Ben Kauffman's he had a full complement of spring veggies today, including a number of different onions. Here are the photos:

Local lettuces

Asparagus, snow peas, new red potatoes and what may be the last of the strawberries

White and red scallions, string beans, two colors of new potatoes and red onions

Green and yellow squash, more spring onions, sweet peas in the pod, cucumbers

2011-06-09T17:19:00.001-04:00

Strawberry Season Fades in Heat Wave
But Cherries May Make It To Market This Weekend

Shopper at Beechwood Orchard's stall
at Rittenhouse Square last Saturday.

While May weather created some of the sweetest, most flavorful and juiciest strawberries I've sampled in recent years, the extreme temperatures of June are making it a short season.

The normal peak of the local strawberry season is early to mid-June, with late season berries continuing until the Fourth of July. But it looks like we'll only have another week of berries from most growers.

But fear not: sweet cherries from local orchards should appear this weekend, according to Benuel Kauffman, who operates Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce at the Reading Terminal Market. Ben says sour cherries for baking should be available by the end of the month.

Iovine Brothers' Produce at the Reading Terminal Market only sold berries from Bucks County's Shady Brook Farm for a few weeks; their season is done with now.

Prices at the RTM and local farmers' markets have ranged from $5 to $8/quart for strawberries, with most vendors at about $7. It's possible that if a vendor has a bunch of heat-softened, less than pristine looking (but incredibly flavorful) berries, you might be able to cut a deal. They'd be great for preserves or ice cream. I'm planning to turn the quart I bought from Ben today into sherbet (which is nothing more than a sorbet with some milk added).

Snow peas and new red potatoes at Kauffman's.

Don't expect to see local asparagus for much longer either, or the more tender lettuces, like Bibb. The latter does particularly poorly when Mother Nature raises the thermostat setting.

Beets, however, have started to turn up at farmers' markets. Some red baby beets I roasted last week (purchased from Blooming Glen at Headhouse) were sweet as could be.

Local cucumbers have also started to make their appearance. Fair Food at the RTM and A.T. Buzby at Headhouse were selling them at three for a buck; Iovine's had South Jersey beauties at five for a buck. I made some great kosher pickles (just a salt brine with pickling spices, no vinegar) this week. Iovines was also selling salad cucumbers at two for a buck.

The hot weather means it's a fine time for potato salad. All the local markets have baby red potatoes which are ideal. I used Mark Bittman's recipe last week, which calls for some onion and radish (I also added a little celery). When the potatoes are still hot, toss them in a mustard vinaigrette.

Boiled red potatoes were a traditional accompaniment to local salmon in New England, back when local streams still had vibrant Atlantic salmon runs. Those days are long gone, but John Yi at the RTM had a price break on wild Alaskan king salmon today: $19.99/pound; last week it was $21.99. Sockeye was, iirc, $15.99. The king filet I slow roasted a week or so ago was superb.

Queens Farm offered favas, sweet peas, sugar
snaps and snow peas Sunday at Headhouse.

Legumes are also making their seasonal debut, as seen at Queens Farm at Headhouse last Sunday. They were selling favas at $2.50/pound, sweet peas at $2 a pint, both in the pod.

Those peas, the last of the asparagus and some carrots would make a great pasta primavera.

It's too hot to make Chile Relenos, but Iovine's had some fantastic looking, large poblanos today. They and the jalapenos were priced at 99-cents a pound. Red bells were $1.99, half a buck cheaper than the frying peppers.

2011-05-24T18:14:00.001-04:00

Tuesday Markets Open

Note: A tip of the hat to Joanna Pernick of Farm to City for pointing out these are Tuesday markets, not Thursday markets, as initially reported in this space. My apologies to all for sloppy writing/editing in the first instance.

Among the markets beginning their 2011 season this week are the Tuesday venues at Rittenhouse Square (10 a.m. - 1 p.m.) and South & Passyunk (3-7 p.m.)

I visited the latter location this afternoon, where Livengood Family Farm, Big Sky Bakery and Taproot Farm held court. Expect a couple more vendors, including Beechwood Orchards, to put up stakes there as the season progresses.

Greens predominated at both produce stalls, though Livengood also had strawberries ($4.50 or so a pint, iirc) and asparagus. At Taproot I couldn't resist a bag of pea shoots, which only appear briefly in the spring, for $3. They also had snow white hakurei turnips.

This past Sunday, of course, meant another trip to Headhouse Square. Tom Culton and Matt Yoder had fully ripe, large strawberries, $4/pint, along with asparagus, radishes, and greens. Blooming Glen, A.T. Buzby, Three Springs, Savoie, Queens, and Weaver's Way were among the produce growers there, and the rest of the lineup didn't vary much from the previous Sunday.

2011-05-23T16:58:00.001-04:00

July 16: Ice Cream and Crème Glacée

Bassetts Ice Cream has been selling its product in Philadelphia "only" since 1885, but Lewis Debois Bassett first churned his ice cream maker in 1861 in Salem, New Jersey, which makes this year the 150th anniversary of the enterprise.

So it should not come as a surprise that this year's Ultimate Philadelphia Ice Cream Festival at the Reading Terminal Market will make special observance of the anniversary. The event will be held Saturday, July 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. While Bassetts will hold most of the attention, other fine area ice cream makers will participate.

When you're done gorging yourself on ice cream you can head over to Fairmount's Eastern State Penitentiary where Bastille Day will be celebrated and you can taste some alimentaire de la révolution from neighborhood restaurants, including, perhaps, more crème glacée.

Coincidentally, Bassetts produced its ice cream just a block from the penitentiary for much of the 1970s and 1980s.

Learn more about Bassett's history here.

2011-05-17T16:24:00.002-04:00

Local Grower, Local Buyer
Cheese makers rule at Fair Food's annual showcase

Crowds line up for samples

I thought I was still in Wisconsin.

Cheese curds and brats were all that was missing at last night's Local Grower / Local Buyer, an annual event organized by Fair Food to bring together buyers and sellers in center court at the Reading Terminal Market.

I counted eight cheese makers among the couple of dozen farmers and producers showcasing their goods for local restauranteurs and institutional food buyers .

Among them were a few well-established cheese-makers, including Cherry Grove Farm and Sue Miller of Birchrun Hills.

Some of the others, however, while they may be "artisan" in the sense that they are small scale producers using traditional methods, brought competent but undistinguished samples: cheddars, Emmenthal wannabes, goudas, etc. Even the blues at one of these cheese-makers, Farm Fromage, seemed so-so: they offered one designed for folks who say they don't like blues (yes, it was mild) and another for true blue-a-holics (it was sharper, but hardly up there in the pantheon of stinky cheesedom).

And then there were the excellent cheese-makers whose products I would be reluctant to purchase simply on account of price. That would be the case for Doe Run Dairy's tasty Hummingbird. It's a creamy, herbal brie-like cow/sheep mixed milk cheese that can hold its own on any cheese plate. But priced north of $50 a pound at the Fair Food Farmstand, I''ll pass it by. (Cheese maker Kristian Holbrook operates the dairy on the farm owned by Richard Hayne, chairman and co-founder, with former wife Judy Wicks of Urban Outfitters; local foodies know Wicks as the creator the White Dog Cafe and, through its foundation, the Fair Food project.)

Other cheese-makers at the event included Hidden Hills Dairy, Clover Creek Cheese Cellar, Shellbark Hollow Farm, and Your Family Cow.

The predominance of cheese-makers makes one wonder if curdled milk product is the next sun-dried tomato. Are they entering the cheese business because producer milk prices haven't kept pace with the costs of operating a dairy farm? How many of these new producers will be around in four or five years?

2011-05-17T15:02:00.000-04:00

Full of Beans, and Scrumpy-licious

Tom Culton and Matt Yoder nabbed a prime spot at last night's Local Grower/Local Buyer event sponsored by Fair Food at the Reading Terminal Market. Local chefs, including Marcie Turney and Shola Olunloyo, flocked to see what he was offering.

Plenty of beans, since that's one of Yoder's passions. (Look for his fresh cow peas at Headhouse in late summer). Since Matt read my post about fresh chick peas last January he let me know he's got some planted.

Culton brought along a small supply of some hard cider he made, primarily from Granny Smiths but also other apples. He touted it as Normandy-ish, I compared it to scrumpy, the infamous English cider which is much more cost-effective for getting a buzz on than beer or whiskey. The clear and exceedingly dry cider clocks in at about seven percent alcohol, Tom said. No plans to offer it at the Headhouse Square farmers' market, where Tom and Matt regularly appear, but their CSA members may get a surprise at some point down the road.

2011-05-17T10:08:00.001-04:00

Jersey Spinach Sale

Once again, Iovine Brothers Produce has got a good deal on baby spinach: $4.99 for a 2.5 pound bag. This time it's local spinach from Flaim Farms in Vineland, New Jersey, one of the greengrocer's major suppliers of local, seasonal vegetables.

Not quite as good as in early April, when they sold the same size bag sold for $3.99, but still a deal worth noting.

When this photo was taken about 5:30 p.m., only a few bags were left. Store manager
Lily Winoto hoped to have more in today.

2011-05-15T20:13:00.000-04:00

Pulled Lamb Breast

That lamb breast purchased from Livengood Thursday turned into a Saturday night pulled lamb fest. Because it was well-trimmed and much leaner than expected, the piece (a tad less than a pound) yielded three servings. Keep in mind the rib bones are not at all dense, so they don't make up much of the weight.

With the oven set at a temperature 275 F they cooked directly in an open roasting pan (no need for a rack when there's so little fat) for two hours before I added salt and pepper and covered the pan with foil. (Some recipes would add chopped onion at this point, which is good idea, except this lamb was so lean the onions would have burned.) After about an hour and a half more they were removed from the oven and allowed to cool.

While the lamb was in its last lap in the oven I made a Carolina style mustard-based barbecue sauce, figuring it would provide a nice counterpoint to the rich lamb which a tomato-based sauce would not. When the lamb cooled enough to handle I pulled it off the bone and shredded it with hand and fork, then tossed the warm sauce and lamb together. Served with cornbread and a beer (Victory's high octane 9.5 percent triple, Golden Monkey) it made a tasty dinner. All that was missing was the slaw.

2011-05-15T14:24:00.001-04:00

More Markets Open This Week

Additional farmers' markets begin seasonal operation this week, beginning Tuesday in Mt. Airy. That market, under the auspices of Farm to City, runs from 3 to 7 p.m. in the William Allen plaza of Lutheran Theological Seminary, on the 7200 block of Germantown Avenue.

On Wednesday, the Food Trust opens Schuylkill River Park (25th & Spruce, 3-7 p.m.) and Broad & South (2-7 p.m.) and Farm to City debuts at East Passyunk at 11th and Tasker (3-7 p.m.), Oakmont in Havertown (Oakmont Municipal Parking Lot, Darby Road just west of Eagle Road, 3-7 p.m.). Earlier this month, Farm to City opened University Square Farmers' Market (36th and Walnut, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.)

This full schedules can be found at these links:

Food Trust markets
Farm To City markets

The Food Trust page includes a cool Google map locator; click on each market mark for location, days and hours. Another Google map pinpoints where the farmers grow their goodies.

2011-05-15T13:32:00.003-04:00

Summer Squash? But It's Still Spring!

Radishes at Blooming Glen's stall, Headhouse

Radishes? Check.
Asparagus? Absolutely.
Rhubarb? Of course.
Strawberries? Pushing it.
Zucchini? Get outta here!

Still, in making its 2011 Headhouse Farmers' Market debut Sunday, Blooming Glen Farm featured little summer squashes, a.k.a. zucchini, at $3 a pound. I think I'll wait until my neighbors are giving them away in August.

In the meantime, one can be perfectly happy with the profusion of asparagus, early lettuces and other greens of all sorts, the ravishingly red radishes and fresh, green varieties of allium -- green garlics, green onions, chives -- which could be found not only at Headhouse Sunday, but at Rittenhouse and Clark Park yesterday, Fairmount Thursday and all the produce stalls at the Reading Terminal Market.

Another sign of the season being pushed just a tad (besides the grown-under-plastic strawberries offered by A.T. Buzby at Headhouse) were snow peas Noelle Margerum displayed at Clark Park. She returned from a brief vacation to find them ready to pick, so to market they came.

Tom Culton's radishes were a tad larger than last week, of course, but they looked just as fresh and the greens just as tender. He and co-farmer Matt Yoder also had what they labelled as "framps," in actuality a wild garlic. Asparagus, salad greens, rhubarb and parsnips helped fill out the stall. Tom's foie gras production has started, though his limited quanity was sold out yesterday, with most of his output marked for restaurant customers, I presume. He hopes to have some at tomorrow evening's "for the trade" Local Growers/Local Buyers event at the RTM sponsored by Fair Food.

Queens Farm yellow oyster mushrooms

Queens Farm was back with its pristine and colorful mushrooms, as well as greens, spring green onions and garlic, and flowers.

Blooming Glen's offerings, besides the summer squashes, included cilantro, parsley, tatsoi, green onion, thyme, oregano, garlic chives, bok choi and various lettuces.

If you've got your own garden in need of feeding, you could have stopped by a stall that's new this year, Bennett Compost.

Although not all available spaces at Headhouse were filed today, it's getting close. Vendors at today's Headhouse market included: Root Mass Farm, Savoie Organic Farm, Rics Bread, Garces Trading Company, Hurley's Nursery, Honest Tom's Tacos, Renaissance Sausage, Made in Shade Lemonade, Three Springs Fruit Farm, Patches of Star Goat Dairy, Hillacres Pride Farm, Busy Bee Farm, John + Kira's, Happy Cat Organics, Griggstown Quail & Farm Market, Market Day Canele, Philadelphia Fair Trade Coffee, Mountain View Poultry, Weaver's Way, Talula's Table, Longview Flowers, Birchrun Hills Farm and, Young's Garden. Among the missing was Wild Flour Bakery.

So, how to use some of those veggies? Pasta is always a no-brainer, and it shows up the vivacity of early produce wonderfully.

Earlier this week I used Culton's asparagus in penne. While the pasta water came to a boil I started warming up maybe a cup of homemade broth (I used beef, but no reason not to use chicken or veggie), to which I added cut up asparagus and thyme (fresh would be best, but I only had dried) when the pasta was nearly done. Drain the penne or other cut pasta when done, swirl as large a knob as butter as you can in good conscience consume into the asparagus and broth, and toss everything together with an obscene amount of freshly grated parmesan and maybe a grind or two of black pepper.

It's an infinitely variable recipe. Had I felt like doing a bit more prep work, carrot juliennes would have been a welcome addition, as would some of Noelle Margerum's snow peas. Just add the veggies to the broth in order as required for timing purposes. Voila! Pasta Primavera.

You could also sauté veggies rather than simmer. That's what Mark Bittman does in his New York Times Magazine recipes today.

2011-05-13T16:55:00.000-04:00

Ochs Mural Photo Gone from Market Wall

Photo mural of the Pierce and Schurr meat stall
comes from same era as the missing Ochs photo

The 1940s photo mural of Harry Ochs and his father, which adorned the wall alongside the butcher stall, was among the items take by Nick "Ochs" Finocchio when he decamped in the dead of night May 2 from the Reading Terminal Market. It now awaits hanging at Nick's new digs, the Main Street Market in Manayunk.

The large historic print, like others scattered throughout the market, was made in the 1980s under the auspices of David K. O'Neil, general manager of the market when it was still owned by The Reading Company. So when Nick took the physical print, he was taking something that didn't belong to him.

At the same time, the original photo probably came from the Ochs family, so if that's true, when Nick told me "It's my photo" he would be correct, in the sense that it's his intellectual property. Of course, when the Ochses permitted the market to reproduce the photo, they were essentially granting permission to the market to use the photograph in public. And while I imagine a lawyer would say the family has the right to prohibit the market from publicly displaying the photo, they don't have the right to walk off with a print that the market paid to make and mount.

All these legal niceties aside, it's too bad that the only physical remnant of the Ochs business left behind is the lettering signage on the meat hook posts. It's almost as sad as the fact that Nick and market management couldn't find a way to keep the business going within the historic market.

2011-05-13T16:35:00.000-04:00

Iovines Clean Up Beer Garden

The Beer Garden, with latticework removed, is now more open to the rest of the market.
That's Jack Morgan, proprietor, stopping by, at far right

As anticipated Jimmy and Vinnie Iovine took over ownership of the Beer Garden at the Reading Terminal Market earlier this week, and they quickly made changes, though more will come in the months ahead.

The most visible change is the removal of the latticework that isolated the pub from the rest of the market. Now, with only a half wall around three quarters of its borders, The Beer Garden opens up invitingly to market shoppers.

In addition to a general quick cleanup of the space, the Iovines also introduced craft brews, both on tap and in bottles. The taps now feature Guinness and Stoudt's Scarlet Lady, along with Yuengling and a couple mass market brews.

For the moment, they are promoting it as "The Beer Garden (by iovine brothers)", but when major reconstruction takes place, including installation of a kitchen, it will be a gastropub called "Molly Molloy's," in honor of the brother's Irish mother.

2011-05-13T15:14:00.003-04:00

Headhouse, Fairmount Markets

Asparagus, carrots from Tom Culton at Headhouse

Joseph Mack of Sunny Side Goat

Asparagus abounded at the two farmers' markets I visited this week: Headhouse on Sunday and Fairmount yesterday.

But even strawberries could be found, at least at A.T. Buzby's Headhouse stall. I demurred from purchasing a quart ($6) since they were grown under plastic. I'll wait a few weeks more 'til the true sun-drenched beauties appear, though Buzby's certainly looked worthwhile if you wanted to rush the season a tad.

My biggest find at Headhouse were the small bouquets of lilacs sold along with mushrooms and greens by Queen Farm. I miss the huge display of regular and French lilacs that Earl Livengood sold when he was a the Reading Terminal Market. Dwain Livengood explained that they didn't sell lilacs anymore because they are only at outdoor markets, where the wind does a number on the delicate petals. Dwain did have Lily of the Valley plants, with their altogether different but just as pleasureable scent, at Fairmount yesterday.

Although I've enjoyed chevre many times in the past, I had never tasted its source milk before yesterday. Thanks to Sunny Side Goat Dairy, operated by Joseph and Joanna Mack, I sampled some raw goat milk, and found it fresh and delightful with no "goaty" flavor at all (nor should it have any). In addition to various chevres and the milk, the Macks also sell goat meat (lovely in curries) and yogurt.

Last week Dwain told me he's now selling lamb raised by a neighbor, and plans to run his own flock. Among the cuts Dwain had yesterday was lamb breast, either in whole or riblet form; I bought the former and plan to indirectly grill it this weekend.

2011-05-13T15:08:00.001-04:00

Weaver's Way Greens

Plenty of greens, including rainbow chard, at Weaver's Way stall at Headhouse last Sunday

2011-05-07T15:12:00.000-04:00

Spring Bursts Out

Strawberries can only be a few weeks away, based on the profusion of asparagus, rhubarb, radishes, green onions` and spinach at local farmers' markets and the Reading Terminal Market. Above are this week's offerings from Benuel Kauffman at his Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce in the Reading Terminal Market.

The ramps I purchased from Earl Livengood at the Fairmount market Thursday were sauteed in bacon fat and mixed with the bacon bits to enhance corn frozen from last summer's crop. I adorned the veggies with three beautiful dry scallops from John Yi.

2011-05-07T15:01:00.001-04:00

More and Better Beer on Tuesday!

The Iovine brothers, Jim and Vinnie, are expected to take over the Beer Garden on Tuesday, following the scheduled settlement Monday.

They will operate the business under the name Molly Malloy's.

Although renovation work will delayed because of some design nits of the Philadelphia Historical Commission, they plan to open Tuesday with 10 beers on tap, including local craft brews. In addition to some products of big brewers, the taps will offer Guiness (another big brewer, but one who puts out a unique product), Victory's Hop Devil, Yards' Philadelphia Pale Ale, and Troegs' Sunshine Pils. The beer list Jim provided me today also shows Sly Fox's Scarlet Lady, but that must be a typo: Scarlet Lady is made by Stoudt's.

Eventually they'll add some great bottled beers to go along with the standards. Among them will be products by Appalachian, Bells, Boddingtons, Dock Street, Dogfish Head, Flying Fish, Lancaster Brewing, Hagic Hat, Original Sin Cider, Penn Brewing, Philadelphia Brewing, Rougew, Sly Fox, Stoudts, Straub, Troegs, Victory, Wyerbacher and Yards.

Until the new kitchen is constructed the only food offered will be the same as under current management: chili dogs. But the chili, currently out of a can, will be made by Bobby Fisher, the Iovine's chef who works for their catering business and was chef at local golf and swim clubs where the Iovines operated the kitchen.

Fisher has a considerably more ambitious menu planned when the renovations and kitchen are completed.

The french fries will be hand-cut on premises and served with a roasted garlic mayo. Among the starters: wings in a bourbon bbq sauce, salt and pepper baby back ribs, homemade bbq potato chips and fried eggplant "fingers" with tomato jam. Three soups -- creamy potato, roasted tomato bisque, and veggie -- are on the menu. Eight salads are listed to take advantage of the Iovine's excellent produce sources.

Molly Malloy's will offer a steak sandwich, but it won't be your typical Philly cheese steak. Instead, Fisher will serve a char-grilled rib eye in a brioche roll with roasted bell peppers, caramelized onions and provolone. Two other hot sandwiches I'm eager to try (both of whose fillings will also serve as the basis of more extensive platters) include a braised oxtail on ciabatta with gtrilled onions and carrot ketchup and a roasted pork bell with apple-onion compote and fried leaf spinach on a French roll. There will also be a burger, BLT with avocado, sausage and potato, braised chicken thigh and a grilled cheese with goat cheese on brioche.

Cold sandwiches include sweet glazed turkey, lime scened chicken salad on tortilla with avocado, a veggie cream cheese, and open-faced tuna salad.

Besides the pork belly, other plates will include the ribs, fish and chips, fried chicken tenderloins and a braised short rib pie in a Guinness reduction. The small dessert menu will include a grilled peach shortbread with fresh berries.

There is also a breakfast menu with egg platters and sandwiches, vanilla and cinnamon scented French toast, and baked frittata.

I'm getting hungry.

2011-05-07T14:23:00.001-04:00

Harry G. Ochs & Sons, 1906-2011

Nick "Ochs" Finocchio

Harry G. Ochs & Sons, a fixture at the Reading Terminal Market for more than 100 years, closed its counter for good last Monday evening, just days ahead of when the business would have been evicted for being $21,000 in arrears on rent.

I was out of state Monday when Nick "Ochs" Finocchio closed the shop, unannounced to employees, market management and fellow merchants. Since then I've had a chance to chat with some fellow market denizens and merchants, including its general manager, Paul Steinke.

In addition to the rent, two separate banks held judgments valued at more than $200,000 against the business. One merchant told me he was owned $8,000 which Nick never paid back for services rendered.

The problems started long before Harry "Ochs" Finocchio Sr. died in December 2009. Even when Harry owned the business, it was in trouble.

In an email to me and another market follower, Steinke said he worked hard to help the Ochs business succeed. "In fact, we have devoted more time to them than to any other merchant here," according to Steinke. "We met with them countless times. We arranged free consulting services for them with the Wharton Small Business Development Center. We offered them tenant improvement financing. We agreed to rent discounts that no other tenant was privy to. We offered numerous, generous payment plans (all of them broken)."

All this did little good, he admitted.

"As their account got further and further behind, we held off legal action for years in deference to the Ochs name and what they contributed to the Market, and later, because Harry was sick," Steinke said. Given the business's unlikely success, Steinke suggested that they call it quits, offering to host a large farewell party so they could exit the market in dignity, which Harry and Nick declined. "Once Harry died, however, we felt that it was time for the Ochs stand to carry its weight in the Market along with the other merchants. So we gave them one more chance," wrote Steinke.

The market and Nick negotiated and signed a new lease last summer but, according to Steinke, "he started falling behind almost immediately. So, after years of holding back, we finally had no choice but to initiate the legal process to enforce the lease. Nick filed for Chapter 11 protection in early April." When, two weeks later the court dismissed the filing, the writing was on the wall.

It was wrenching for Steinke and the market to lose the Ochs business, which moved there only 14 years after the market opened its doors in 1892. Nick's grandfather joined the business in the first half of the century and adopted the Ochs name when he took it over. Indeed, his son Harry was better known as Harry Ochs than as Harry Finocchio. When the market's future was threatened by the proposed construction of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, it was Harry Finocchio who was a key player in preserving the market and pressuring the center to renovate the then-dilapidated structure. Today, the block of Filbert Street astride the market is known as Harry Ochs Way.

"We are saddened by the loss of the Ochs name," wrote Steinke, "but I take solace in knowing we did all we could to help them and to maintain an environment conducive to their success. I also take solace in the general prosperity of the great majority of the rest of the Market’s merchants, who work hard, serve their customers well and pay their bills."

(The Finocchio family, like all of us, were not immune to tragedy. Nick's brother Harry died a few years ago, preceded in death by his young son Tim, who also worked at the store. When Harry Senior died he lost a two-year battle with cancer.)

There's no reason a butcher can't thrive in the market, as Charles Giunta has shown with his relatively new shop. Where Giunta's is strictly a butcher (having given up on his rotisserie chicken experiment), Ochs had tried to move into deli and prepared food -- at least half of the cases were filled with either items for reheating at home or Boar's Head cold cuts -- with little success.

Nick did less and less cutting meats to order in the last few years. I continued to shop there for chuck ground to my order for burgers, even as little as a pound which Nick and his staff happily provided. I would also occasionally buy a chicken breast or piece of lamb there, but Giunta (and to a lesser extent his brother Martin who operates his namesake stall as well as a wholesale sausage business) had won over a good hunk of my meat-buying loyalty. In addition, those who have more knowledge about the subject than I say that Nick's butchering skills, while good, just weren't up to the level of his father and late brother.

That move to prepared and deli items undoubtedly was an attempt to keep the business viable, since few people were prepared to pay the prices Ochs had to charge for his excellent prime, dry aged beef. And those who were willing to consider meat as an investment vehicle spent most of their dollars at Whole Foods -- my market sources tell me Ochs took a big hit in revenue when Whole Foods opened at Callowhill and 20th Street and never recovered.

There are neither heroes nor villains in this story. Just changing times that exempt no individual or institution from its demands.

What's next for the premium space Ochs vacated?

Steinke has yet to make a decision, but says he has plenty of businesses that want to locate in the market, which is currently 100 percent leased other than the Ochs stall. (More will become available when the market's renovation is completed late this year.)

One possibility I broached with Steinke would be for an existing lunch vendor to take over the space, which fronts on center court, and put a new purveyor of food to cook at home in that business's spot. Steine said that might be particularly attractive in light of the renovation of the market now underway and which will become more visible to shoppers this summer.

What you can be sure of is that no chain businesses will be allowed, nor will the market's ratio of purveyors (butchers, fish mongers, greengrocers, etc.) to other businesses be reduced.

* * *

Note: This version edited to correct earlier error to correct Finocchio family history in joining the business and adopted Ochs name.

2011-05-05T17:59:00.000-04:00

Fairmount Market Opens

Today is the first day of the 2011 season for my local farmers' market, every Thursday from now until the end of the season at 22nd and Fairmount.

On-hand this week: Livengood Family Produce, Orchard Hill Farm, Countryside Bakery, Wild Flour Bakery and Sunny Side Goat Dairy, Renaissance Sausage, Market Day Canele and My Better Butter (which sells nut butters, not dairy butter).

Ramps gathered by Earl Livengood's neighbor, Sam Consylman, quickly caught my attention. Pristine leaves, large, firm bulbs, these alliums will find a place on the dinner table tonight, somehow. Asparagus also had price of place in Livengood's display today.

Dwain Livengood is also selling meats at the stall, including lamb from a neighbor. He hopes to start a small flock of his own soon.

Sam Stolfus's Orchard Hill Farm had bibb and buttercrunch lettuce, asparagus, two types of radishes, greens and beats.

Market Canele is going beyond that heavenly treat this season. Baker Gil is adding tarts and ia starting the season with the savory variety. This week asparagus was featured. Once the berry season gets underway expect to see sweet tarts. His pastry crust uses a mix of leaf lard and butter.

2011-05-05T17:45:00.000-04:00

Milwaukee Public Market

On Tuesday, the last full day of our Wisconsin sojourn, I briefly stopped at the Milwaukee Public Market, whose huge sign I spotted from the interstate en route to meet friends atthe nearby Milwaukee Art Museum.

Alas, there's not much market at the Milwaukee Public Market. One fish monger, one cheese monger, one butcher, two bakers. With the exception of the Mexican restaurant, which sold a few items, no fresh fruits and vegetables. There are also vendors for spices, coffee, chocolate, wine and flowers, but most of the vendors, including the fish monger who had an oyster bar, look to make most of their money from lunch and take-away prepared items. There's also a sushi bar, soup seller, and a handful of other lunch vendors.

It's too bad that the local demographics won't support a more cook-it-at-home public market. It's located pretty much what had been the gritty city's traditional market area.

This market is a fraction the size of the Reading Terminal Market, with only 20 full-time vendors, so even the presence of one butcher and one fish monger should be considered a plus. A weekly indoor/outdoor Saturday market accents crafts.

The market is located in Milwaukee's "Historic Third Ward", the city's self-proclaimed "Arts and Fashion District" just south of downtown, with most residences limited to office building and loft conversions.

The market is about a dozen blocks away from what is one of Milwaukee's food meccas: the Usingers sausage store.

2011-04-30T16:01:00.000-04:00

Meeting Mustard Royalty


Eric Rygg (left) wears his three medals after the presentation by Barry Levenson, founder of the National Mustard Museum

Eric Rygg of Kelchner's Horseradish Products, based in the Philly suburb of Dublin, is mustard royalty.

That honor was certified Friday night by none other than the Clown Prince of Mustard-dom, Barry Levenson, founder and Grand Poobah of the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin, just outside Madison.

The event celebrated the winners of the 2011 World Wide Mustard Competition and also featured the First Annual Iron Mustard Chefs Challenge. And no, I'm not kidding, though Levenson frequently does.

At the event Rygg accepted medals for three mustards produced by his family-owned business, which includes Kelchner's and Silver Spring Farms of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Within the Horseradish/Wasabi Mustard competition Kelchener's Hot Mustard with Horseradish took the bronze medal, while gold went to Silver Spring's Beer 'n Brat Horseradish Mustard. (Brats, keep in mind, are almost as identified with Wisconsin as cheese curds and the Green Bay Packers.) Silver Spring's Organic Deli Mustard took the silver medal in the Organic Mustards category.

Rygg is president of Kelchner's, a firm which has another Philadelphia area connection since it markets condiments under the Bookbinder's brand, which it acquired a few years back. Kelchner's also has a substantial distribution business of products from other manufacturers, so they handle the oyster crackers you find filling the bowls at the Oyster House on Sansom Street, as well as providing the horseradish. (Rygg is trying to convince Sam Mink, owner of the Oyster House, to ice the tableside horseradish because the product rapidly loses pungency once opened and allowed to reach room temperature.)

It's horseradish, rather than mustard, however, that flows through Rygg's veins. In 1929 his great grand-father Ellis Huntsinger started Huntsinger Farms in Eau Claire. Today Huntsinger is the world's largest grower and processor of horseradish, so it was no accident that when Kelchner's was put up for sale a year or so ago the Wisconsin family firm acquired it.

Iron Mustard Chefs Challenge

As a string quartet serenaded visitors to the two-floor museum in beautiful downtown Middleton, attendees at the Evening of Mustard Royalty could sample the dishes cooked up by the chefs using some of the award-winnng condiments (ketchup was verbotten).

Culver's Pretzel Lobster with sweet potato
fries; Deviled Egg from The Cooper's
Tavern graces table also

My favorite entry, and the winner, was created by the Corporate Chef for Culver's, a Wisconsin-based hamburg and custard chain (and very good fast-food type burgers they are, with good custard, too). Jim Doak wowed the crowd and the judges with his Pretzel Lobsters. Even if he used slippery lobsters, a South Seas crustacean which is not a true lobster, it was nonetheless extremely delicious. Doak took the tail meat and dipped it into a batter with Aldrich Farms Sweet & Hot Mustard (the gold medal winner in the Pepper Hot Mustards division) which included finely ground pretzel, with crunchier pretzel pieces added. It was then deep fried and served with sweet potato fries and accompanying mustard-enhanced sauce. For a second dish, and a glorious dessert, Doak served Culver's custard spiked with more mustard (just enough for a back bite after a few spoonfulls) and crushed pretzels. Neither dish, he admits, will appear on the chain's menu anytime soon, but he had great fun putting it together.

Another standout from the chefs was a pulled pork dish created by David Heide of Liliana's Restaurant in the Madison suburb of Fitchburg. The meat filled a crepe topped with sour cream and Terrapin Ridge's Blueberry Honey Mustard, the gold medalist among the Fruit Mustards.

Rod Ladson of Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in Middleton forwent red meat in favor of chicken. He prepared parts bathed in a combination of mustard-infused black beans served with orzo (sorry, I didn't note the mustard used).

Two restaurants whipped up deviled egg dishes. Alas, I'm not an egg eater, so I can't comment on anything other than the artistic, colorful beauty of the finger food, especially the pastel-hued eggs created by Tim Larsen, executive chef at one of my favorite Madison restaurants, The Cooper's Tavern, where there's a dish of of pork belly and mac 'n cheese with my name on it for dinner tonight. (Tim also does an out of sight marrow bone dish at this detour-worthy gastro pub on Capitol Square.)

About the Museum

I first visited the museum with SWMBO, a Wisconsin native, about 10 years ago when it was located in Mount Horeb, some 20 miles outside Madison. Two years ago Barry Levenson moved the mustard mecca to Middleton. Levenson founded the museum while serving as an assistant attorney general for the state; he now devotes his full-time energies to this one-of-a-kind shrine to the seed and its offspring.

Friday night's event was a kick-off fund-raiser to convert the museum into a registered non-profit, since Levenson will quickly note that it's a passion from which you cannot make money. Going non-profit will allow Levenson, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, who retains his New England accent in the face of all the Wisconsin-ese talkers surrounding him, to go after grant money as well as public donations.

Crack commemorating 1939 visit
by King George VI to Canada

While the main floor of the museum offers plenty of mustard and mustard-related tschochkas for sale as well as exhibits, the lower floor is crammed with thousands of mustard jars and paraphernalia Levenson has collected in his life-long obsession. One wall is covered with glass cases filled with mustards arranged by state and nation of origin. He's also got a collection of ceramic mustard pots, and during the ceremony made special note, given the morning's royal wedding, of a crock commemorating King George VI's 1939 visit to Canada.

More than 5,600 jars of mustard fill the museum, and I have no doubt Levenson has tasted them all. About 500 mustards can be purchased at the museum. Since the Madison area is dominated by the University of Wisconsin, you can also purchase a "Poupon U" t-shirt, which gives some indication of Levenson's standard of humor.

During his legal tenure Levenson had the occasion to argue before the nation's highest court on behalf of the state. “I argued a case before the Supreme Court with a mustard jar in my left pocket,” he says. “We won.”

There's no lack of levity in Levenson's approach to mustard. If you like low humor, by all means subscribe to The Proper Mustard Newsletter, where sharp wit and bad puns spice up mustard lore.

2011-04-30T12:13:00.000-04:00

Ramps at the Dane County Farmers Market
(Click on photo for enlarged version)

Back To Madison
I wake up early for the Dane County Farmers Market

This weekend marks my annual trip to Madison, and that means Saturday morning at the Dane County Farmers' Market.

A few weeks ago, visitors to the market site would have had to deal with thousands of protestors, since the market is located on the square surrounding the Wisconsin state capitol building. With the protestors (mostly) gone, the Saturday morning market takes center stage.

Of course, with Wisconsin being almost three weeks behind Philadelphia in terms of growing season, not much in the way of fresh produce could be found. The queen of those items, at least for me, were the ramps, which only one of the roughly 100 vendors featured. These, as you can see in the photo, were near-pristine, with broad, clean leaves and healthy bulbs. To bad I don't have a kitchen available during my stay. They were priced at $3/bunch, but given that a bunch was about 50-70 percent larger than a bunch I'd pay $1.99 for at Iovine's, it was at least comparable in price, maybe better.

The same stall also featured black radishes, Jerusalem artichokes, burdick and other winter roots.

Over-wintered Spinach and green onions, with an occasional appearance of rhubarb, predominated at the produce stands, especially the Asian farmers, whose presence I failed to not in my previous visits; this year there were at least half a dozen. At other stalls you could purchase hothouse lettuces, greens, parsnips and hydroponic tomatoes and cucumbers. One farmer specialized in potatoes.

At 7 a.m., an hour after the market
opens, shoppers seek the best produce

One counter-culturist produce grower specialized in herbs and roots for tea, including fresh dug comfrey, and nettle leaves.

Otherwise, bakeries, cheese-makers, meat-sellers and horticultural stalls filled up the sidewalks along the capital building.

2011-04-20T13:45:00.000-04:00

Asparagus Arrives

Two vendors at the Reading Terminal Market offered locally-grown asparagus last weekend.

Ben Kauffman of Lancaster County Produce was selling his for $3.99 pound, but he only brought about two pounds to market and was sold out before 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. He had a more plentiful supply today, as shown in the photo.

Steve Bowes, the farmer who sets up his stall Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the piano court, offered his priced by the bunch, the price worked out to nearly double Kauffman's.

Expect to see more asparagus this weekend at the same stalls, as well as at the Rittenhouse Square and Clark Park farmers markets on Saturday. Maybe Fair Food will have some at the RTM as well. And, of course, Headhouse Square when that farmer market begins the 2011 season on Sunday, May 1.

2011-04-20T10:56:00.000-04:00

LCB Glitch Delays Booze at Markets

A purported computer glitch at the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is holding up two transactions related to Philadelphia markets.

The LCB has temporarily "lost" applications of Blue Mountain Vineyards and Molloy Molloy's. The former is seeking to sell its wine at the Rittenhouse Square farmers' market. The latter, as previously reported here, is a venture of the Iovine brothers to take over the Beer Garden at the Reading Terminal Market and recast it as a gastro pub. The computer glitch is expected to delay each of the endeavors by a couple of weeks.

2011-04-05T12:40:00.000-04:00

Ramps are Back! Spinach Deal!

Clockwise from top left: spring
onions, leeks, ramps

Ramps and morels are sure signs that spring is here -- even if they have to be "imported" from other states.

Iovine Brother's Produce had them Saturday. The ramps, as you can see from this photo, were thin on the leaves, but the bulbs were nice. Great to add to home fries made in bacon fat. I used the morels (along with hedgehogs and chanterelles) to surround a de-ramekened portion of crustless quiche; I topped the fungi with a shallot-inflected beurre blanc. That and a good baguette welcomed spring to my kitchen. The ramps were priced at $1.99 for a small bunch, which, IIRC, is a better deal than last season.

Bagged flat leaf spinach at Iovines was a big seller last week at the Reading Terminal Market. Given how much spinach cooks down, if you had a hankering for creamed spinach to accompany some steak this deal would have been hard to resist. Other good deals at Iovine's over the weekend included Texas sweet onions, 69 cents (pretty good while you're waiting for Vidalia season), both lemons and limes at a more reasonable 25 cents apiece, and two heads of Iceberg lettuce for a buck.

The Chilean grapes have yet to reach bargain levels so far this winter, but with the season peaking south of the Equator, maybe they will soon. The best price I've seen for seedless whites has been $1.49, but they're usually $1.99; reds and blacks are $2.49 and up. I actually found a better deal for bigger seedless whites at Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago: that's a rare occurence given than Iovines usually beats WF on both quality and price for just about everything.

Spinach deal at Iovine's last weekend

2011-04-05T12:20:00.000-04:00

Farmers Markets: May 1 Start

City farmers market organizers are gearing up for the 2011 season, which starts Sunday, May 1, at Headhouse Square, followed on Thursday, May 5 with the Fairmount market

All winter long you could have taken advantage of the Saturday markets at Rittenhouse Square (operated by Farm to City) and Clark Park (operated by the Food Trust).

Root vegetables, of course, are prime fare at the winter and early spring markets. Rineer's Family Farm had some exceptionally sweet over-wintered parsnips and carrots when I stopped by Rittenhouse in late March. (The latter I consumed raw, the former as a parsnip rösti.) I also picked up some frozen Alaskan shrimp from Otolith ($16 a pound, shell on, IIRC). Although the roster changes each week at Rittenhouse, you can usually find a couple of produce stalls, a baker or two and some "value added" sellers.

This past Saturday at Clark Park included two bakers, Noel Margerum (produce and her delectable preserves, as well as a dry bean selection), and a couple of other produce vendors, including one with hoop house salad greens.

2011-04-05T12:15:00.000-04:00

Not Old Order

This Amish Country Microwave Popcorn, found last weekend at Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce, wouldn't be too useful in an Old Order Amish home. Last time I checked, microwaves required electricity.

2011-04-05T12:03:00.000-04:00

Cherry Grove Cheese at Salumeria

One of the region's better artisinal cheesemakers is Cherry Grove, located between Princeton and Trenton. The Fair Food Farmstand was the only stall where you could find Cherry Grove at the RTM, but now Salumeria has added their product. Cherry Grove also sells at a couple of the farmers markets, including Rittenhouse, which has been going strong all winter long.

2011-04-05T11:59:00.000-04:00

Another Cheese Steak

Over at Passyunk and 23rd , not far from some big box stores, stands one of Philadelphia's myriad cheese steak joints.

Philip's is certainly worth a try before you head to BJ's, Home Depot, Staples or Shop Rite. I didn't try any of the other sandwiches, but the cheese steak, available with Whiz or sliced cheeses, was right up there.

The meat had a beefier flavor than lesser steaks. The portion of meat was generous enough, though certainly not overstuffed, providing the right ratio of meat to onions to bread. I ordered with sliced American instead of my usual Whiz last week and the dairy flavor was there but very subdued; in the past I've had the Whiz and prefer the sauce it makes, especially when you ladle hot sauce from the counter container onto your sandwich.

2011-03-11T10:22:00.000-05:00

Post-Floral Repast

After wearing out my legs strolling through the Philadelphia Flower show late yesterday afternoon and early evening I visited the Down Home Diner for sustenance. There I found this chicken.

It shows on the menu as "Cast Iron Chicken", i.e., pan fried. Since it came to table within five minutes of ordering, no way was it cooked to order. Yet, it tasted as if it had. I don't know how they do it, but somehow Jack McDavid and his staff have found a way to hold the chicken and refresh it so it comes out perfectly.

This is no extra-spicy bird. The skin is delicately thin-crusted, but crisp. And it perfectly manages to hold in the juices. Ever piece -- thigh, drumstick, breast -- was plenty juicy. One strange note: I think of drumsticks as all dark meat, and thighs as half-dark, half-white; but through some fluke of nature, they all appeared white to my eye; maybe it was the lighting.

The accompaniments match the succulence of the bird. The collards had both acid tang and sweetness (lemon juice and raisins?), and the sweet potato fries were among the better examples of these I've had. While the interior of the fries were soft, the exteriors were crunchy (at least until they cooled off; I have them first).

For $8.99, a nice dinner plate.

The Down Home Diner, on the Filbert Street side of the Reading Terminal Market, is open until 10 p.m. When the market is closed, enter via Filbert Street, a.k.a. Harry Ochs Way.

2011-03-09T10:46:00.000-05:00

Truth in Advertising

Golden Fish Market's sign makes it clear, if only by implication: it's all farmed salmon right now. Also spied today at Golden, skate at $6.99/pound. Previously, only Wan's Seafood handled skate.

2011-03-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

Down Home Diner Adding Booze

Jack McDavid

Jack McDavid hopes to be serving alcoholic beverages in a few weeks at the Down Home Diner. With his restaurant now open until 10 p.m., that's got to be good for business. Although he won't have a bar serving freshly mixed drinks, do expect wine and and beer along with some bottled mixes.

McDavid reopened a rehabbed Down Home Diner last fall, giving up some seating in return for a larger kitchen and a take-out counter. The take-out business has been growing, though not as fast as McDavid would like. Although much of what he sells at the counter is for bringing back home, he also does a lunch business for those who would prefer to eat in center court (or bring back to the office). Among the items added are cheese steaks, which he has cut by Charles Giunta of Giunta's Prime Shop from top round.

Much of what Jack buys comes from market vendors. You can frequently see him chatting his produce suppliers, Vinnie and Jimmy Iovine. He's also been buying some meat from L. Halteman. And he's used Giunta's brother Martin for sausage since he opened the original Down Home Diner where Amy's Kitchen and La Cucina now stand.