Messy and Picky

This past Saturday was ScrappleFest 2009 at Reading Terminal Market. I was working from 11a – 7p (at Fair Food Farmstand) and it was absolutely bonkers all day. If you don't know what scrapple is, here's a primer: wiki Scrapple. In my nearly 6 years in Philly, I had never had scrapple. It intrigued me quite a bit, but I just never got around to it. I was determined to have my first bite(s) of scrapple at ScrappleFest. ScrappleFest had the market's merchants sampling up their scrapple and a final judging of prepared dishes. Above is a shot of RTM GM Paul Steinke guiding the möbius strip of onlookers who were standing around the center court through the dishes.

But before I get to the whole shindig, I gotta backtrack a day to Friday night, which was the 6th Philly Foodblogger Potluck at Mark and Audrey's house (formerly Leah's). Messy and I were sitting and eating some cheese Marisa brought along when we started talking about scrapple. I forget how it came up, but it did. And Karina states how she had just made scrapple from scratch after never having had it ever. Crazy, I know.

I pulled my Blackberry Curve out of my pocket and fired up the browser to her blog and sure enough, there it was, a play by play of how she and a friend made themselves some freshly made scrapple: snout, trotters shoulders and all! Amazing. I would later run into Karina at ScrappleFest for a second as we were both running around the mob. Peep her take on ScrappleFest here. Back to the day of ScrappleFest…

I took my lunchbreak to go around and take photos of the action – flickr set up here. Not only were the vendors handing out samples of scrapple, they had other paraphernalia. Deitz & Watson had a scale model of a 1954 Chevy refrigerated deliver truck made of scrapple. Leah Mackin (different Leah) was selling her scrappleware – scrapple themed t-shirts, magnets, buttons and books! Godshall's brought out a double-layer scrapple sheetcake cheering on the hometown Phils.

So I made my way around the center court gaggle. I ran into the Inky's Rick Nichols to whom I confessed my scrappleless palate. He admonished me right in front of my friend Vince – the nerve! I kid, I kid. It's somewhat shameful that I had never chomped down a piece of homeslice before. I circled the displays and, for no particular reason, picked Deitz & Watson's sample to be my first ever taste of scrapple. Please notice that after only a few seconds of sitting on the napkin, about a centimeter of oil had already been osmosed from the scrapple slice. I took a nibble. I took a bite. I gobbled the whole damn thing up. I liked it. I'm not sure I'd order it at a restaurant, but I wouldn't turn down scrapple in the future.

But it wasn't all fun and games. There was judging to be done and a winner to be announced! I had to run back to work, but I'll quote from CityPaper's food editor Drew Lazor's ScrappleFest post:

I joined Rx chef/owner Greg Salisbury, Where publisher Laura Burkhardt and chef/author Aliza Green (who lent her expertise to the recent Main Line Foodapalooza) as a judge in the recipe contest, which featured RTM vendors' scrapple renditions. Some interesting stuff on hand, from two versions of scrapple lasagna to turkey scrapple meatloaf. In the end, though, Mediterranean counter Mezze took top honors for an addictive scrapple and scrambled egg stromboli. In second was the Fair Food Farmstand, which served its popular vegan Vrapple with pan-roasted pumpkin, apples and mascarpone grits. Third place went to Carmen's Famous Italian Hoagies, who threw hunks of scrapple onto a cheesesteak and called it an amazing day. (You can actually order this at Carmen's if you ask nice.)

Drew also posted some photos, but mine are better

That's right folks, Farmstand co-manager Sarah Cain's vegan Vrapple beat out 7 true pork scrapple dishes for second prize. I'll just amend Drew's description from above to add that the pumpkin was maple-glazed (and DELICIOUS). Apparently the voting was close too. I can only imagine the anger at the market had an impostor taken home top billing. Above is a shot of the beautifully plated Vrapple dish prepared by Chef John Blanchet who spends his days and nights toiling away all over town at private events and behind the kitchen doors at Fork Restaurant. He also finds time to spend a few hours each Saturday afternoon volunteering at the Farmstand. I've learned tons of stuff from him in the few months I've known him.

Check out another account of ScrappleFest from another Farmstand volunteer, and friend, Nicole at Farm to Philly. She's featured in this month's grid Philly magazine!

And once again, a link to a photoset of ScrappleFest on flickr.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 9:46 am and is filed under American, Events, Reading Terminal Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.