BARGAIN FISH, TASTY DEWS

Great deal on mackerel at John Yi's today, $1.99/pound for either Spanish or Boston varieties. And the quality looked very good. Until this week, the Boston mackerel has been on a scrawny side, with Spanish mackerel being more attractive. This week, the Bostons were nicer sized (not huge, just not tiny like they have been) and both fish were pleasingly plump and healthy-looking. Also at Yi's, soft shell crabs came down in a price to a more normal two for $10.

Over at Iovine Brothers, Vinnie was passing out samples of some honeydew melon, $1.99 each. Unexpectedly tasty for an out-of-season (here) melon. Vinnie said he got to the Food Center and saw some ugly melons and figured they had to taste good. They did.

Also at Iovine's this week, red peppers either 99 cents or $2.99, depending on size, yellows at 99 cents, greens at $1.49, orange peppers at $4.99. Bags of last of the season clementines (taste more like tangerines) $4.99; I bought a bag, and unpeeled three once I got one -- two were perfectly fine, one was a tad dessicated. Still, a reasonably good deal.

The price of ramps went up to $3.99 a bunch this week. But avocadoes fell to a buck apiece.

Next Saturday, April 21, is Scrapplefest at the RTM. Alas, I'll be foraging at the Dane County Farmers Market around Capitol Square in Madison, WI, seeking morels and cheese, so I won''t be able to pay homage to one of my favorite pig products. But I hope to post about what I find in Wisconsin!

Here's this week's abbreviated shopping list:

Iovine Brothers ($8.42)
Clementines
Red bell pepper
Prepared fruit salad

Harry Ochs ($4.42)
Turkey bacon

Fair Food ($11.29)
Angusburger

Hatville Deli ($0.75)
Eggs (half-dozen)

Hershel's Deli ($4.60)
Lox

If ever there were signs of spring at the Reading Terminal Market, two of them reappeared Saturday: Earl Livengood's farmstand and ramps at Iovine Brothers.

Earl's offerings are necessarily limited. Overwintered spinach (not the greenhouse variety) may have the occasional white spot on the leaves, but Earl's crinkly spinach is the real thing. (Benuel Kaufman also has fresh local spinach, and it certainly looks more picture perfect: that's because it's greenhouse spinach.) Earl also is selling a variety of root vegetables. I picked up some German butterball potatoes and parsnips; they were great pureed together for dinner tonight.

Over at Iovine Brothers big bunches of ramps (photo at right) were selling for $2.95, enough to serve four. I chopped and sauteed them in just a tiny bit of chicken fat (I didn't have bacon fat, which would have been preferred) then served them atop sauteed scallops (about $13/pound for the dry scallops at John Yi, iirc).

Dutch Country Meats is "closed for renovations". It's been sold to a new owner and should open in a few weeks. I hope they keep selling the German style wursts and loafs which they added to their lineup after Siegfried's closed.

Another sign of the change of seasons was the reappearance of soft shell crabs at John Yi's. Always pricey, they were particularly dear at $6 apiece today.

Jim Iovine says he expects to have fiddleheads in about 10 days. He's working with his contract farmer to add new crops this year and expand production. If the weather doesn't deteriorate he expects fine crops of strawberries and raspberries, along with all the other staples. This week he was selling Florida strawberries for $1.49 for a one-pound clamshell (O.K. Lee had them for 99 cents). Key limes were $1.99 for a one-pound bag, kumquats $2.99 for a small box. Another sign of spring: morels, $74.99/pound (porcinis were $49.99). String beans 99 cents, avocados $1.99 each ($1.29 at O.K. Lee). Limes were 3 for a buck, vs. 4 at the competition.

Opposite the seating area behind the Beer Garden the RTM has updated its display of photos and artifacts (photo at left). The added archival photos include a poster depicting individual merchants circa 1984. Check out the mustache on Charles Giunta!

This week's shopping list:

IOVINE BROTHERS ($7.95)
Scallions
Carrots
Crimini mushrooms
Grapes, green seedless
Onion
Ramps
Celery

JOHN YI ($6.75)
Dry scallops

12th STREET CANTINA ($1.50)
Flour tortillas

EARL LIVENGOOD ($6.30)
Pussywillow branches
German butterball potatoes
Parsnips

GIUNTA'S PRIME SHOP ($13.91)
Hanger steak

HERSHEL'S DELI ($4.15)
Lox

More merchant changes: the Pet Lady (pet toys) is gone. Bee Natural will extend its stall into that space, on the opposite side of the seating area nearest Arch Street. As reported last week, Andros has also give up its stall.

The Scrapplefest is set for Saturday, April 21. So far, the RTM has lined up Hatfield as a major sponsor. In his monthly newsletter to merchants RTM General Manager Paul Steinke is asking the merchants to come up with prepared foods featuring scrapple. Like, scrapple ice cream. (Hey, if an ice cream shop in Bar Harbor can do lobster, Bassett's can do scrapple!)

Customer counts through March 4 are running better than five percent ahead of 2006, according to Steinke's newsletter. This year the RTM counted 875,706 vs. 832,500 for the same period last year. Both years represent counts prior to the opening of the Flower Show, but do include other big convention center shows, including the wholesale crafts exhibition which is a large draw.

As of Friday, Iovine no longer offered those one-pound clamshells of Florida strawberries for a buck, though they do have one-pint containers for a dollar. However, O.K. Lee was selling the one-pound packs for only 99 cents.

It's the end of the clementine season. If you find them at all they are likely to be expensive. However, Iovine had a reasonable deal on Spanish mandarins (tangerines): a five-pound box for $4.99. Mexican Altaulfo mangoes are a buck each.

Still a couple of weeks away from seeing ramps. No fiddleheads yet, either, though in some years they appear as soon as early March.

Here's my shopping list from Friday:

HATVILLE DELI ($0.75)
Eggs (half dozen)

LANCASTER COUNTY DAIRY ($3.30)
Milk

MARTIN'S QUALITY MEATS ($3.45)
Turkey bacon

FAIR FOOD FARMSTAND ($6.26)
Ground beef

GIUNTA'S PRIME SHOP ($3.64)
Chicken, boneless, skinless breast

12th STREET CANTINA ($5.75)
Enchilada sauce

IOVINE BROTHERS ($8.58)
Mandarin oranges
Spring mix salad
Baking potatoes

SALUMERIA ($15.80)
Olives
Torrone

HERSHEL'S EAST SIDE DELI ($5.50)
Lox

Another vendor has closed shop at the Reading Terminal Market: Andros. I'm told the owner of the prepared food outlet, whose education and background is in financial services, simply got an offer in that industry he could not refuse.

If smoke got in your eyes Saturday at the RTM, it wasn't because of the strains of an old song wafting through the air. A mishap with the roaster at Old City Coffee sent the unappetizing aroma of burnt coffee, along with a lot of smoke, through the market at noontime. It even set off the smoke alarms. I only got furrowed brows and mean stares when I asked one of the OC workers if I could have some extra drark roast.

Still waiting for more definitive signs of spring. The closest I could come was the $1 one-pound clamshells of Florida strawberries at Iovine Brothers. This batch was much more flavorful and sweet than the ones in late January and early February.

Foster's Gourmet Cookware will be closing shop this summer. Ken Foster told me he'll be combining his the RTM shop with his Third Street store (Foster's Urban Homewares) at a new location, Fourth & Market. The 12,000-square foot, single-floor facility will have four times the combined footage of the two stores it replaces. Ken said he'll also have truck bays for his growing web store business.

Here's my shopping list from Saturday:

IOVINE BROTHERS ($7.54)
Strawberries
Shallots
Fruit cup (medium)
Black seedless grapes

LANCASTER COUNTY DAIRY ($3.39)
Milk

FAIR FOOD FARMSTAND ($6.54)
Raw milk cheddar
Blue cheese
Sweet potato

GIUNTA'S PRIME SHOP ($7.26)
Ham steak

HERSHEL'S EAST SIDE DELI ($5.60)
Salty belly lox

MARTIN'S QUALITY MEATS & SAUSAGE ($3.30)
Turkey bacon

We're still five weeks away from the vernal equinox, but another sure sign of spring (besides shad) showed up at the RTM this week: pokeweed. Earl Livengood has it. The poke comes courtesy of Earl's friend and neighbor Sam Conslyman who gathers the poke in the fall then buries them in sand and waits for them to pop. Otherwise this week, Earl's offerings were limited to root vegetables, winter squashes and chestnuts.

Hershel's East Side Deli had hoped to be open this weekend but wasn't. Last time I spoke with the proprietor he said he was waiting for final city permits.

After Mark Bittman published his article about mackerel, which he called the "Rodney Dangerfield of the fish world" because it doesn't get any respect, it seems there might have been a run on the species. None was to be found at the RTM today, though last week it was plentiful at $2.49-$2.99/pound. However, Spanish mackerel, a closely related variety and which can be treated the same way, was available at $2.99 at John Yi's and Golden.

Iovine Brothers has some smallish California navel oranges priced at four for a buck, a relative bargain considering the West Coast freeze. In case you haven't noticed, Iovine's now sells milk; it's organic and located in the refrigerated case next to the Filbert Street checkout.

Last month Jim Iovine told me he and his brothers were considering moving their production into the RTM's basement and converting existing "back office" space to additional selling footage. That won't happen anytime soon: Jim says the costs and complexity of installing pumps to dispose of wastewater from the produce washing process make it part of "long term plans" rather than anything in the immediate future. Jim, by the way, is hobbled after tearing his Achilles' tendon while challenging his children in basketball, which required surgery two weeks ago; means he has to give up his winter golf trips to sunnier climes.

Not all the meat at the Fair Food Farmstand comes frozen. Check the refrigerator case and you may find Countrytime pork chops or Meadow Run lamb cubes like I did today. What's available fresh varies each week, depending on stock needs and supplier deliveries.

Here's my shopping list from today:

IOVINE BROTHERS ($6.20)
Black seedless grapes ($1.99/pound)
Fruit salad (one-quart container)
String beans ($1.99/pound)

MARTIN'S QUALITY MEATS ($3.20)
Pork sausage links

EARL LIVENGOOD ($2.15)
Fingerling potatoes
Parsnips

LE BUS BAKERY ($3.50)
Brioche bread (one-half loaf)

OLD CITY COFFEE ($12.50)
(Mocha-French Roast blend)

FAIR FOOD FARMSTAND ($11.25)
Pork chops (2)

Foster's is leaving the Reading Terminal Market. Proprietor Ken Foster intends to devote all his entrepreneurial energies to expanding his successful presence in Old City. No timing announced other than "later this year" according to the newsletter distributed to merchants.

Foster left bookselling to open the RTM kitchenware store. It soon outgrew its old location (now Blue Mountain Vineyards) and expanded to today's store.

The history of Foster's current space is interesting. When I first started shopping at the RTM in the early 1980s it was the home of the Market Diner, a stainless-steel sided structure within the RTM that, if placed on a roadside, would have been the pluperfect diner. In the mid-1980s the Market Diner was taken over by Jack McDavid and renamed the Down Home Diner. (The illuminated clock from the Market Diner still hangs in today's Down Home Diner on the opposite side of the market; some of the booths and other furnishings, including stainless steel, were transferred there from the original.)

When the Down Home Diner moved the market turned the space into a seating area. Later (about 10 or 12 years ago, iirc) under then RTM Manager Marcy Rogovin a show kitchen was built. Frequent cooking demonstrations and special events centered around the kitchen drew hundreds of spectators at a time, including a series of all-day cook-a-thons in which chefs from local restaurants would rotate throughout the day preparing a wide range of dishes.

Since Foster's expansion into the space the kitchen has been significantly under-utilized. Today it is used only for a modest schedule of cooking classes. As part of a store the kitchen is totally unsuitable for attention-getting events. Now when a demonstration needs to be held with room for more than a half dozen spectators (like the recent Bobby Flay-Delilah Winder mac 'n cheese cookoff), a temporary kitchen must be set up in center court.

Foster's impending move out of the market presents an opportunity to revitalize the kitchen and redevelop it as a traffic-generating facility, which would be good for all merchants at the RTM. Certainly a kitchenware vendor needs to be found to replace Foster's, a project Market Manager Paul Steinke plans to pursue, but there's no need for that vendor to locate in the same space as Foster's.

Instead, the existing kitchen should be returned to its original importance, with a seating area reintroduced. To compensate for the loss of rentable space, the RTM could take the existing seating adjacent to the Fair Food Farmstand and return it to vendor space (which it was until about three or four years ago).

With a restored seating area, the kitchen can once again become the center of culinary celebration and education it was meant to be and serve as traffic-building tool for all the RTM's merchants.

Not too many people noticed (and that's the problem), but the Reading Terminal Market skipped its monthly "Third Thursday / Meet The Producer" event last month.

In fact, the merchants and RTM managers decided to "suspend" the program and instead focus on adding couple of additional special events to the market's calendar, according to Kelly Novak, RTM's Marketing Coordinator.

At this point in time, the RTM is considering a revival of "Maple Daze" for March when Pennsylvania gets sappy, and a "Meet the Producer / Taste the Harvest" event for September. These would be in addition to established special events, like this month's Roots Festival, the Pennsylvania Dutch Festival, and the Sidewalk Sizzle.

Hershel's East Side Deli is nearing completion at the RTM, as seen in this photo.

They hope to be in business in time for the weekend of February 10. The menu will be pretty basic. Corned beef, pastrami, brisket, turkey, chopped liver, chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad and whitefish salads in various sandwich and platter permutations, hot dogs (Hebrew National; I wish they would have used a more interesting kosher style dog, like Best Provisions or Sabrett); soups; latkes, kugel, and kasha varnishke (buckwheat groats and bow tie pasta); and knishes. They also will serve breakfast, including challah French toast. Lox will also be available. On the beverage front, egg creams and various Dr. Brown's sodas, including Cel-Ray.

I'm going to have to try lunch at one of the fish vendors. Golden offers oysters and clams on the halfshell, at $5.50 and $3.50 for a half dozen, respectively, served with lemon and sauce (that's cocktail sauce; no mignonette sauce, alas). At least for the oysters that's just about the best price in town, save the happy hour oysters at Sansom Street. Another market purveyor, Coastal Cave has oysters at $6.95 and clams at $3.75 per half dozen.

This seems to be the time of the year when fish is at its most expensive. Prices for halibut ranged as high as $17, and cod fillets were nearly $9. The best deals were in whole fish, mackeral ($1.99-$2.49) and spanish mackeral ($2.99); buck shad could also be had for $2.99 if you like to deal with its intricate bone structure. Golden is still selling whole sardines (herring) at $2.99/pound. The least expensive mild white fillets from wild-caught fish were for scrod at $6.99 at John Yi's.

Super Bowl Sunday is coming up, and one traditional food serve to is guacamole. Today at Iovine Brothers Hass avocadoes were selling at the very low price of two for a buck; however, they were drop dead ripe and need to be prepared and eaten today or tomorrow at the latest. If they are still offering avocados at this price Friday or Saturday, and they haven't gone over the hill into battery acid territory, buy them.

Signs of that California freeze are clear in the citrus section: three smallish navel oranges for $1, lemons also three for a buck. Clementines, no matter what their source, are up to $7.99/box. Best buy in citrus are Florida tangelos and temples; the latter were posted at 25-cents apiece today. The one-pound clamshell packed Florida strawberries, $1.99, smelled good. Green seedless grapes from Chile, 99-cents; black seedless $3.49. Red and green bagged peppers, $1. The South American peach crop is in; I've never found them to my liking for in-hand eating, but I suppose they'd be fine cooked or baked in some fashion.

Spotted a new item in Iovine's refrigerator case near the Filbert Street checkout aisle: pre-cooked, prepared French chestnuts, $4.99 for two 200-gram (two seven-ounce) vacuum packs, suitable for quick reheating in water or microwave.

Jimmy Iovine says the brothers are contemplating moving all their prep and packaging operations to the RTM's basement. That would open up a fair amount of additional spelling space they would devote to a wider range of items, expanding Iovine's into more of a grocery store, according to Jimmy.

Seems to me this would build on the success of Sunday openings in making the RTM more attractive for residents of Center City and nearby areas who actually shop there. Such an Iovine's expansion no doubt will help them compete when Whole Foods eventually moves closer to the RTM when it opens the 16th & Vine location.

Some musical chairs in vendor locations noticed this weekend. Terralynn has abandoned the center court cart. Instead, Terralyn's soaps and skin care products will be sold in the stand where Young's Flowers has been recently. That stand actually had been Spataro's prior to the RTM's mid-1980s renovation and you can still see the Spataro's "Drink Buttermilk" signs atop the stand. Young's moves to a cart in center court opposite Mezze.

Right across from the Young's cart work is proceeding apace for Hershel's Deli. Counter tops were due to be delivered today (Monday, Jan. 22), and the store could be open in two or three weeks.

Earl Livengood was selling potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, winter squashes, carrots, kale, and the last of his leeks and scallions Saturday. Earl will make occasional appearances on Saturdays when has produce to sell, but otherwise he won't be making regular appearances until early spring when the first green things start to pop out of the ground. For the time being, it's almost exclusively root vegetables.

Speaking of root vegetables, the RTM will host it's annual Roots Festival Feb. 17. You can have your photo taken with one of the strolling costumed root vegetables, so mark your calendar.

Rather than roots, the RTM goes to the heart of the matter three days earlier, on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14. That's when Judge Jeffrey P. Mineheart will marry six couples in Center Court at 11 a.m.

Valentine's Day brings to mind chocolate, of course. The Pennsylvania General Store has been selling John & Kira's chocolates for six or seven months, but you wouldn't know it unless you asked. Now proprietor Mike Holahan has put up a sign to let you know about them.

Over at Fair Food Farmstand you can get white spelt hot dog buns to go with your uncured frankfurters.

Even though spring is still two months away, it's been imported from Florida: shad. John Yi is selling whole buck shad for $2.99; they are also packaging shad row and red snapper filets together in a single package. Mackeral is available as either whole fish ($1.99) or filet ($2.99). Wild striped bass (a.k.a. rockfish) is selling for $4.99 whole.

More new fishies for the season today, including octopus. Also, over at John Yi's there were fillets marked "Black Cod (Pollock)" for $3.99/pound. Now, if this were truly black cod, a.k.a. sablefish, that would be a bargain, since sable goes for three or four times that price. But this wasn't Black Cod, which isn't a cod at all. It might have been one of two cod-type fishes, however: Alaskan Cod or Alaskan Pollock, the latter being a different variety from North Atlantic Pollack. In any event, the price was hard to resist, so it will be dinner tonight, broiled with a brush of soy (as if it were sable) and served with sauteed bell peppers (a bag of five medium sized mixed colored peppers from O.K. Lee purchased for the grand sum of ninety-nine cents) and tiny sauteed fingerling potatoes from Earl Livengood.

Discount parking rates will go up on or about Jan. 15 at the Parkway garage across 12th street from the market. Instead of $2 for two hours, it will be $3. As noted here in my Oct. 15 post, the fee per car charged to the RTM Merchants Association by Parkway will increase to $5.50 from $5.25; the merchants decided they couldn't eat the increase and wanted to cut the size of their subsidy somewhat. Market Manager Paul Steinke, looking to the bright side, observed that other than the RTM there isn't a single other multi-vendor shopping venue in the city that offers discount parking. Even with the increase, though, the parking discount is substantial versus what lot/garage rates usually are in Center City. However, it's no longer at a par with street meters. As I've cautioned before, don't overstay the two-hours or you'll face the normal exorbitant fees.

On Friday I made a round of some of the many old-fashioned neighborhood bakeries in The Great Northeast (of Philadelphia). First stop: Haegele's in the heart of a Mayfair residential area:

A classic corner spot

Close-up of bakery's side window

The staff is proud of the gingerbread house

Jean Erikson and June Haegele

If I lived in Haegele's neighborhood, my blood sugars would be even higher! I restrained myself (knowing I was going to hit a number of other bakeries), however, and departed Haegele's with merely a pound of Christmas cookies and a small bag of springerle. The springerle (to be found in all of the German bakeries I visited) were intensely anise; hard to eat one of these without a strong cup of coffee in hand.

Next stop was Mayfair Bakery on Frankford. Okay place, but not among the winners.

Geiger's, a few blocks up Frankford and across the street, was very much into cakes with illustrations (as is Mayfair). Picked up another pound of Christmas butter cookies.

Now I cut over to Castor and the first of two stops at kosher bakeries. At Weiss I went bananas. Well, no bananas, but good looking challah (I picked up a small raisin challah for french toast later this weekend). And seven layer cake! My favorite! I bought slices of both the yellow and mocha versions. Taste tests later tonight. Strictly in the name of science.

Further up Frankford is Hesh's Eclair Bake Shoppe. More of the same as at Weiss, but they also had onion board. A big piece of this poppy-encrusted, oniony flatbread became my lunch. And a very good lunch indeed. At both Hesh's and Weiss I also restrained myself by not picking up any sweet munn (poppyseed) pastry rolls.

Onward toward Fox Chase. First stop there was Shenk's Family Bakery on Verree Road just south of Rhawn. Limited myself to half a pound of cookies. The hammentaschen looked good here, too.

Past Oxford Avenue I hit Danish Bakers, which is a bit of a misnomer. It's not owned by Danes and I didn't spy any of the real Danish baked goods you'd find in Aarhus or, for that matter, Racine, Wisconsin (the clerk didn't know what kringle was!), but they had a nice selection of various cakes and pastries nonetheless. I left with a cylinder of cinnamon bread (sliced).

My final stop had nothing to do with sweet baked goods, but it was a pantheon to pork: Rieker's, the German butcher-deli. Here I let loose a bit, purchasing a bunch of different sausages to cook in their wine kraut tonight, a smoked pork butt for Saturday or Sunday, and a buckling, a style of smoked herring.

All in all, a most rewarding visit to the Great Northeast, with lots more to cover in the future. It's a polyglot area with cuisines to match. Lots more to explore, including the Russian, Brazilian and Asian neighborhoods, among others.

The Reading Terminal Market Corporation board yesterday voted to extend the trial of Sunday openings through the end of the first quarter 2007, according to Paul Steinke, market manager.

This will definitely be a test, since the first quarter is a slow time at the market: few "feasting" holidays, little in the way of local produce, bad weather. Results from this fall, however, have been very encouraging.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the RTM's fish stores. This past weekend Golden offered whole sardines at $3.99, John Yi spearlings at $1.99. Expect to see greater variety as we approach Christmas.

The capon I purchased from Giunta's Prime Shop ($3.79/pound iirc) was absolutely delicious: this big bird, which tipped the scale at over 10 pounds, cooked up incredibly juicy after a less than two hour visit to the oven (first 20 or 30 minutes breast down at 450, remaining time breast up at 375; basically you roast until internal temp at thickest part of the thigh hits 165). Minimal basting with olive oil, thyme, black pepper, salt mix over first 30-40 minutes; after that the bird renders plenty of its own fat to keep it moist. It was an Eberly-branded bird. Served with a potato-celeriac puree from veggies sourced at Earl Livengood's.

Glad to see Fair Food has added Valley Shepherd Creamy cheeses from Long Valley NJ. I've been meaning to get up there to buy some; now I don't have to.

Surveys of merchants show overwhelming support for the Sunday hours. Here are a few of the results from the survey of merchants who have been open one or more Sundays during this evaluation period:

49% say their Sunday sales have exceeded expectations; 40 percent say they have met expectations. Fewer than 11 percent say sales have been below expectations.

Asked whether or not it's been worth it to be open on Sundays, nearly 92% of the merchants said yes.

When asked their druthers on continuing Sunday openings, more than 60 percent responded with an unqualified yes; 27 percent wanted only a limited extension of Sunday hours; the remainder opposed Sunday hours.

The results of shoppers surveyed were also overwhelmingly positive.

Ted Qualli, deputy communications director on the mayor's staff, finally responded today to my inquiry regarding the rumors that Mayor Street is opposed to continuation of Sunday hours at the Reading Terminal Market. Here's what he said:

"The mayor supports the Sunday hours."

End of story (I hope). Of course, the Sunday hours were established as a "test", so it's yet to be determined if they will be made permanent by market management.

Le Bus moved into its new quarters last week, opposite Bassett's Ice Cream.

Work progressing on Hershel's East Side Deli, but as of this past weekend opening is still a bit off. It would be nice to see it in business before New Year's.

Cactus (prickly) pears were back at OK Lee; deep, dark purple specimens which made great margaritas. Figure one fruit (79 cents) yields enough pulp/juice for two margaritas if you don't skimp on the booze.

Benuel Kaufman had Arkansas Black apples in stock last weekend. This hybrid is a great storage keeper.

After one message and three telephone conversations with underlings since last weekend, I've yet to hear from the mayor's communications director about the reports regarding the mayor's position on Sunday openings at the Reading Terminal Market.

As noted earlier, some merchants report Mayor Street is opposed to continuation of Sunday hours at the Reading Terminal Market, which were introduced earlier this fall as a "test" through the end of the year.

There could be any number of different reasons for the failure of the mayor's office to respond, not all of them nefarious:

• It simply could have slipped through the cracks. (Unlikely, given my four phone calls since last weekend, but still possible.)

• The communications director hasn't been able to discuss it with the mayor or other appropriate source in the office. (Also unlikely; if a political/government press officer isn't conferring with his/her client daily, he/she isn't doing their job.)

• They want to blow me off simply because my blog and eGullet aren't considered significant. (More likely than the previous two possibilities -- and who's to say such an assumption isn't correct )

• The mayor doesn't have a position. (Certainly possible, but there's no reason not to communicate that. If he wanted to hedge, the mayor's spokesperson could simply say: "As RTM management indicated, this is an experiment, so we'll let the experiment run its course and allow RTM management to assess the experiment rather than prejudge it.")

Of course, there is at least one other possibility, one that, at this point in time, I think the most likely: the mayor does have a position, but wishes not to communicate it at this time.

As further update to my initial report, two different sources at the RTM have told me they have heard the reports of the mayor's opposition to continued Sunday openings. One source was at a loss to pin down the origin of the rumor; the other thought it originated with a member of the Reading Terminal Market Corporation's board.

FWIW, when the Sunday opening proposal was presented to the RTMC board, the one representative directly appointed by the mayor as his representative, Peter Iacovoni, voted in favor of the experiment.

The Reading Terminal Market merchants who have been open on Sundays are, by and large, pleased with the results. Some are grateful, because the additional sales are helping to overcome the rent increases under the new leases.

But now, some merchants fear the Sunday experiment is threatened. They hear that Mayor Street does not like the idea of Sunday openings and may act, through his representatives on the Reading Terminal Market Corporation Board, to prevent making Sunday openings permanent.

I've got a call into the mayor's office to confirm these reports and will report once they get back to me.

More than half of the non-Amish merchants have been participating in the Sunday openings, and traffic has been growing. Last Sunday more than 15,000 visited, less than a normal Saturday but pretty close to the weekday average.

Although the overwhelming sentiment of non-Amish merchants is supportive of Sunday hours, it would be disingenuous to suggest that view is universal. A number of merchants understandably enjoy having their Sundays free for church, family or other non-mercantile endeavors. The issue, though, is this point of view may be forced upon those who do not share it. Market management has made it clear Sunday openings are strictly voluntary.

A tower of collard greens reaching toward the rafters, lovingly built by the staff at Iovine Brothers Produce prior to opening today, was decimated by mid-morning into a pile of rubble. Collards are popular for Thanksgiving, and these exemplary greens were snatched up fast. But don't worry, there are plenty of crates weighing down the pallets in storage, so there will be plenty if you show up any day prior to Thanksgiving.

Hormone-free, natural turkeys are very poplar this season. Even Martin's Quality Meats & Sausage had a case filled with the au naturel birds.

Martin's brother, Charles Giunta of Giunta's Prime Shop appears to be doing just fine with his new store. Last week I picked up some veal loin chops and broiled them simply. Delicious flavor, though if you prefer the unnaturally-raised "white veal" you'd be disappointed since the natural, humanely-raised product comes from slightly older animals which have been allowed to roam, hence, their muscles are more developed and meat is firmer, though tastier.

A new pie maker appeared today: Wooden Spoon Bakery. She's a home baker. I tasted a sample of the apple and it was very nice with a buttery crust.

One of the better fish bargains today over at John Yi's was the haddock filets, at $5.99/pound. Once home I took some fish stock out of the freezer, put some of Cope's Dried Corn (available at Pennsylvania General Store, Benuel Kaufman's and most local supermarkets) in milk, and later today plan to make some fish chowder. Black sea bass looked good and nicely priced at $3.99/pound for whole fish. Dry scallops also a relative bargain at $11.99/pound (they were two bucks more at Wegman's yesterday).

Didn't spy any cactus pears at OK Lee's today. I'm going to keep checking.

L. Halteman continues to have the largest variety of apples. Local Barlett pears starting to look a little long in the tooth. Benuel Kaufman says he'll start selling Arkansas Blacks next week. This variety is one of the best storage apples available; buy them now, put them in your fridge's crisper and you'll still have sweet, crispy apples in February. Benuel continues to be well stocked with preservative-free cider.

Outside of the apple-smoked bacon I bought two weeks ago (excellent), I made my first major meat purchase at Giunta's Prime Shop today: a chuck roast, just under three pounds, which I'm going to slice and use in a carbonnades flammandes. I'll let you know the results. (I picked up some unsmoked salt pork belly from Dutch Country Meats to use as a fat source and flavor it.)

Le Bus begins its move to the new location (opposite Bassett's Ice Cream) next weekend and figures on opening for business there sometime the following week. Work to convert the former Spataro's space to Hershel's East Side Deli should pick up this week, once the tile arrives to place on the newly-installed walls.

Add L. Halteman to the purveyor's who will be offering non-factory farm turkey this season. Also, Giunta's has Eberly's capons, which are surgically rather than chemically castrated; it's a perfect roasting bird, especially for those who favor the juicy white meat these big-breasted birds produce.