Cheese at the Reading Terminal Market

Fair Food always has an enticing display of artisinal cheeses

With the opening earlier this year of Valley Shepherd Creamery it's easy to forget other vendors also offer fine examples of this basic foodstuff at the Reading Terminal Market.

Longtime vendors Ed Sciamanna of Salumeria and Jack Morgan of Downtown Cheese are the go-to stalls when your tastebuds crave a fine brie, traditional geitost, genuine Swiss emmentaler or many of the world's other great cheeses. Fair Food concentrates on cheeses made within a half-day's drive of Philadelphia which you would otherwise have to obtain by visiting the farm or seeking out at one of the city farmers' markets. (Before Valley Shepherd opened its RTM shop Fair Food frequently carried one or two of that North Jersey producers varieties.)

Sometimes, however, it's not the fancy, $26 a pound cheese you crave, but that flavored spread for crackers, or just some sliced domestic Swiss for your sandwich. If that's the case, head over to either Hatville Deli or Riehl Deli (L. Halteman Family), two Pennsylvania Dutch vendors. The pimento spread at Riehl's makes a fine, easy and cheap accompaniment to a bottle of beer while watching the game.

A more limited but specialized selection can be found at Wursthaus Schmitz, with a few German dairy products, like Quark.

Another spot for specialized ethnic cheeses is 12th Street Cantina, with a strong inventory of essential Mexican cheeses if you plan on making queso fundida or other South of the Border dinners.

And Hershel's East Side Deli will cut you a hunk of creamy cheese to bring home to accompany their smoked fish.

Life intervenes

Culton's Leaning Tower of Pumpkins

Life has intervened in my blogging pasttime since late September, but I'm back, at least for this pre-Thanksgiving missive.

It's hard to pass up taking a photo of Tom Culton's produce displays at the Headhouse Square Farmers Market. Today he featured a Leaning Tower of Pumpkins. However, Tom actually asked me to take a picture of his nuts . . . that is, his English walnuts.

Culton's produce will be around all winter long this season, since he plans to participate in the year-round Tuesday market at Rittenhouse Square.

North Star Orchards made their last appearance of the season at Headhouse today (the market continues on Sundays until just before Christmas, plus it will be open this Wednesday). Among the apples available was Caville Blanc d'Hiver, a French dessert apple: definitely on the tart side, but tasty and best eaten fresh out-if-hand. Expect Beechwood Orchards, however, to stick around until the market closes for the season; they had a great variety of apples today, including some Newtown Pippins. I had five pounds of Winesaps in the fridge from last week' market visit that I had planned to turn into pie; I was too lazy, however, and made applesauce instead. Three Springs had a "crate" offer today: fill up a crate with the apples of your choice (except Honeycrisp) for $25.

Reading Terminal Market News 

Work in progress: Valley Shepherd Creamery

Lots has transpired at the RTM since I last wrote, including the opening of Wursthaus Schmitz. Plenty of brats to choose from, most made by Rieker's of Northeast Philadelphia, except for the solitary hausgemacht (home-made) brat. You'll have to bring them home to cook, however, since the stall's exhaust system isn't complete yet. When it is, they'll be selling them hot and ready to eat. Nice, if limited, selection of salads, cold cuts, and German grocerty items. (I've got to pick up a bottle or curry ketchup to use on my tater tots.) Although some of the Pennsylvania Dutch delis and butchers have had some traditional German items over the years, I've sorely missed the selection that had been offered by Siegfried's when he was in business at the RTM. Wursthaus Schmitz doesn't have quite the selection that Siegfried offered, but it comes close.

Valley Shepherd Creamery hopes to be open for business by Christmas, but it will be close. Tiling of the cheese-making room is scheduled to start this week.

The great publicity continues to roll in for DiNic's. In addition to being featured in a recent Inquirer article on meatballs, the Cooking Channel will bring in its HD cameras in a few weeks to feature the sandwicherie at the Reading Terminal.

Hershel's East Side Deli has been doing boffo breakfast business. This past Saturday, at least in the early morning hours, the line was longer there than at DiNic's! I like the French toast, but Andy Wash makes an attractive omelet, too, and the potato pancakes are solid (they are the thick variety, rather than the lacy style).

Fresh chick peas at Iovine's

How many truckloads of collard greens will Iovine Brother's Produce sell before Thanksgiving? To use a fine accounting term: lots. Come Wednesday they'll have a 5 a.m. delivery from the produce center, then get another in mid-morning.

A non-traditional Thankgiving food would be fresh chick peas, which are back in stock at Iovine's. At $3.99/pound, however, a bit dear.

The annual holiday model railroad exhibit at the Reading Terminal Market opens Friday, which means Steve Bowes and his organic produce will be displaced to center court for the duration.

After New Year's you can expect work to start on the move of two stalls within the market. Downtown Cheese will shift its operations to the piano court, across from Golden Seafood and Metropolitan Bakery. And Nanee's, the South Asian samosa emporium, will move to the spot formery occupied by Coastal Cave. Taste of Norway, selling smoked salmon, temporarily occupies that spot now as a day stall; co-owner Erik Torp is mulling whether not to seek a permanent location at the market or simply close after the holidays.

The Downtown Cheese and Nanee moves promoted RTM General Manager Paul Steinke to pass up his initial plan to lease what is now a small seating area off center court between Wursthaus Schmitz and La Cucina at the Market. With seating to be sacrified at the Piano Court due to the Downtown Cheese move, now's not the time to cut back seating capacity further.

No word yet on when KeVen Parker of Miss Tootsie's will begin work on his soul food eatery to replace Delilah's. He still has to come up with a new name, since Marion Iovine uses Tootsie's for her salad bar/cafeteria.

Reading Terminal Market Nears Avenue D Finish Line

The new, improved Avenue D looking south
toward Filbert Street (Harry Ochs Way)

The Reading Terminal Market will celebrate its Avenue D improvement program with a ribbon cutting Monday and programs and panels for every foodie's taste through the following Saturday.

The $3.4 million program not only eliminated the zig-zag of the market's Avenue D corridor and replaced it with a straight-line vista (see photo at left), but created additional leaseable space for new merchants, and a new multi-purpose room which, when not used for general seating, can handle special programs and group meetings. The market's infrastructure was improved with the addition of a second freight elevator to the basement, where new dry, refrigerated and freezer storage was created.

The ceremonies kick off Monday, June 18, with Mayor Michael Nutter snipping the official opening ribbon at 10 a.m. That ceremony will also dedicate the multi-purpose room named after Rick Nichols, food columnist emeritus for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the market history exhibit which adorns the room's walls. Nichols helped prepare the exhibit with the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent.

Foodie programs will be held at 12 noon and 5 p.m. each day through Friday, with another noontime program on Saturday. On Wednesday at 5 p.m. a panel chaired by Michael Klein of the Inquirer and philly.com will feature local food bloggers: Claire Batten of phillyfoodlovers.com, Kaitlin Lunny of icancookthat.org, and yours truly. The full schedule of programs follows at the end of this blog entry.

Although next week marks the official dedication, none of the four new vendors announced so far will be open for business. The first to open is expected to be The Head Nut, in space formerly used as refrigerated storage under the market's mezzanine-level office. The purveyor of nuts, candy, general bulk dry goods, coffee and tea could be open as early as the end of June. Valley Shepherd Creamery and Wursthaus Schmitz are working on their zoning and building permits and their Health Department plan review process.  The Tubby Olive is finalizing its store design.

The Head Nut under construction

That still leaves unfilled one of the newly-created spaces (a small stall across Avenue D from La Cucina), in addition to finding a vendor to take over the larger Coastal Cave spot, vacated this spring when the owner retired. Another large, prime space to be filled was created earlier this year when Delilah Winder's eponymous soul food emporium entered bankruptcy.

The addition of The Head Nut has already trimmed a temporary surge in the market's seating capacity. When construction starts on Wursthaus Schmitz seating will shrink even more. Because of the earlier move of Flying Monkey and creation of the Rick Nichols Room, however, the market will have more seating than before the Avenue D project began. Still, it will be musical chairs for peak lunch hour seats.

Avenue D Dedication Week Programs

Monday, June 18:

12 noon -- Pennsylvania is for Chocolate Lovers, Michael Holahan of Pennsylvania  General Store; Philly Meets the Bayou with Bill Beck of Beck’s Cajun Café.
5 p.m., At Home with Steve Poses

Tuesday, June 19:

12 noon -- Cooking with Sal, Sal Vetri and Brad Spence of Amis Restaurant
5 p.m. -- How the Local Food Movement Got its Start, with Ann Karlen of Fair Food, Bob Pierson of Farm to City, Nicky Uy of The Food Trust, and Judy Wicks of the White Dog Foundation.

Wednesday, June 20:

12 noon -- Dipping into Philly’s Ice Cream Roots, Bassetts Ice Cream and the Berley Brothers of Franklin Fountain.
5 p.m. -- Food Bloggers panel.

Thursday, June 21:

12 noon -- What a Friend We Have in Cheeses, with Eran Wajswol, Valley Shepherd Creamery.
5 p.m. -- Making Serious Dough, with Wendy Born and James Barrett of Metropolitan Bakery

Friday, June 22:

12 noon -- Seafood Made Easy, with Ellen Yin and Terence Feury of Fork Restaurant.
5 p.m. -- Made in Germany, with Doug Hager and Jeremy Nolen of Wursthaus Schmitz

Saturday, June 23:

12 Noon -- From the Market Aisles to Your Plate with cookbook author Aliza Green La Cuchina at the Market's Anna Florio.

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.