Pungent and hairy and promising

I grew this from seed picked up at the Philadelphia Flower Show. It's called a potato leaf tomato. I have no experience at all growing tomatoes so I'm excited to see how she delivers. The leaves have a powerful fragrance that I hope translates into a powerful tasty tomato.

Philly : BUY LOCAL!

Wow ....... Whole Foods Market had local cherries for $2.99/# YA ... Unbelievable

At the buy local spot in Reading Terminal Market they had scapes and this fantastic galactic lettuce!

Down Home Deck Dining

Louisiana jumbo lump ws $21/# at the Cape May Lobster House. We made a crab pizza. Also, there was tilefish for $8.99/#. Wrapped up in a foil pouch with sriracha, lime and butter, cooked just a few moments on the grill.

Laaaaaamb Loin at WFM

New Zealand lamb loin at WholeFoods $9.99/# bone in, roasted and plated with orzo, l/o peas and the scapes.

HeadHouse Cherry Market

Great looking local cherries.

Gray Tilefish from WholeFoods as appetizer.


Scapes from Headhouse market.

Solstice Supper

Farm raised (LI Sound) blue points WholeFoods Market were terrific. They were as excellent as the Cape May Salts we've had a few times this spring. A glass of even the low budget French Chablis is a perfect match.

My little lady went to Ashcombe Farms with her Mom and returned with a basket of picked peas. The dish is creamed peas with scallops and bacon. There is fresh marjoram and buttermilk with the peas also utilized yesterdays leftover Asian greens .

From Radar Magazine

Philadelphia Style

The legendary Anne d'Harnoncourt of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“Magnanimity without match”

Photo from AP Photo by Matt Rourke

Junihitoe

Fathers Day

Kept it simple last sunday.

From WFM: dough and shrimp -- asparagus from Washington state- nice. Used the rest of the goat cheese from Headhouse and 365 marinara. Tasty pie.


WFM had these porterhouse on sale $10.99/#. Steaks with chili and garlic served with potato salad.

The pizza got grafted onto the dinner because my Veg friend was over.

More Korean

Chores brought me back to the 69th St. area. Perfect, I was ready to get back to H mart for more Korean BBQ stuff. I grabbed a few more kimchi and extra pork, beef and ribs. I had a bunch of red leaf courtesy of the Graiff folks from Sunday. homemade Korean BBQ astoundingly tasty and super fast, inexpensive and fun!!!

Chestnut Hill Style Philly Cheese Steak at Cake

Cake "a unique cafe and bakery" is located in the rear of Robertsons on Germantown Ave in Chestnut Hill. The space is a greenhouse / conservatory. Inside it's very green and fresh with lots of plants, light and windows.

This was my first visit. It was just past 2 on a weekday and there were just a few tables taken. The menu had a croque and a "philly cheese steak". I took a seat. My server was very heads-up. I asked about the cheesesteak or the croque he said either way it's good. I got the cheese steak it was tasty. "Black angus steak with caramelized onions, marsala, roasted wild mushrooms, Vermont cheddar and baby arugula on a home made roll--$12". Yes that sounds very busy but it was a nicely focussed cheese steak. A bit too much bread for me. There was a choice of sides, I picked cole slaw, it was crispy and light.

They served a potent brew of coffee (la colombe) and a cold pelegrino.
Very decent cooking in a great setting on the 'hill'. I'd not hesitate to return.

Azul Cantina

This spot on the corner of 10th & Spruce caught my attention with their Happy Hour poster out front. We popped in on our way back from RTM and avoided cooking for ourselves on a steamy night.

HeadHouse Sunday

It's a great time of year for PA and NJ produce. Prime looking stuff at the market and a good crowd.

Taqueria exiled onto 2nd St.

First Jersey Blueberries

Iovine 4 for a dollar cucumbers.













The first NJ blueberries I've seen. Got these at the Dan Graiff tent outside WholeFoods Mkt. Semi-tart and firm, bright but light flavor. about $4/pt.

Luxe Leftovers II

Leftovers: lobster shells and 6 -8oz meat, a fine remoulade from yesterday, the scallops I picked up Wednesday, needed to use ---WholeFoods had fava beans 2.99/#, thought I had orzo (jasmine rice)......I did make lobster stock (yesterday), made the rice with stock and leeks, stirred in the beans and lobster at the end. Grilled scallops with some lobster stock / remoulade, tasty leftover.

Summer ahead of schedule

Those strawbs from Headhouse became heat wave margaritas.

The Cape May Lobster House had LG, firm, sweet and full bodied beauties for 8.99/lb.

The chilly sea is an ultimate cooler.

Headhouse Market buys

At Headhouse today there were very nice ingredients at market. I picked up some strawberries from Buzby (slightly past prime) full flavored and delicious and these asparagus which carried the tag of a different NJ farm outstanding.

At the Patch of Star stand I bought a small goat cheese with roasted pepper. It was completely outstanding. excellent clean, clear tangy flavor with the finest light texture. It was fantastic on this pizza as it was spread across the leftover crusts.

There was an amazing show of sports car assembled on the lombard-south block of 2nd. Vintage ferrari's. lambo's, lancia, mg's showing off $$ and elan. A treat to see all those elegant old school sports cars in Philly.


That pizza was perfection. WFM dough, polly-o mozz and the goat cheese, shrimp also from WFM and the asparagus from headhouse farmer Buzby. The t sauce was the leftovers from Rea's west cape may farm with a touch of olive oil.

Reading Terminal Today -- Rick's Philly Steaks

It was cool in the market today, not super busy, very comfortable. 20 years ago there was no aircon and on hot days customers sometimes exited the market on stretchers, passed out from the heat.

Olivieri had lines back in those days and he had lines today. I was walking around RTM wondering if anyone else had a different take on the lease fiasco. I checked in with another vendor who's been there more than 20 yrs. Someone who I haven't spoken with in a few years. His take was greed, vengeance, cronyism, intimidation etc all the same stuff I've been hearing for a while. He was disgusted and astonished that this injustice was business as usual and that no one was able to confront the blatant abuse

On the positive side I heard that Jill Porters article may have ignited some investigation.

An absurd note: I was talking to Rick when Steinke approached him and handed him a note. He said you may want to contact this person. It was a referral for a real estate contact. WTF? Completely tactless, A-hole behavior.

Lastly, in terms of integrity, why would any high quality vendor trust RTM mgt after the Olivieri debacle? What protects a successful merchant from the rule of greedy fools?