Archive for the ‘Reading Terminal Market’ Category

SCRAPPLEFEST 2009

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

ScrappleFest
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.

ScrappleFest
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 ;)

ScrappleFest vrapple
That's right folks, Farmstand co-manager Sara 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.

PEACHES AND CREAM

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

peaches and cream
Two things I love: peaches and whipped cream. Even better when the whipped cream is freshly homemade and the peaches are nice, soft and juicy. Luckily for me, I work at Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market which has both of the items mentioned and peaches are in full production at the orchards around Philly. It's hot out today. Reward yourself from all of your hard work with a nice treat, eh?

The heavy cream we use to make the whipped cream is from Dutch Way Dairy out in Myerstown, PA - a little northwest of Reading. It's sold in quart containers for $6.50 at FFF. At 38% milkfat, it's at the higher end of cream. According to the Wiki cream article, this places the Dutch Way Dairy cream as 'extra-heavy' or 'manufacturer's' cream. It's magical. We usually whip up a pint of cream at a time with anywhere from a teaspoon to a Tablespoon or so of sugar depending on who's making it (more if it's Picky) and what we're making it for (we used less when making cream for the super sweet vegan chocolate pie). Whip up your cream for a few minutes on a low setting on your mixer. In our case, it's a hand mixer with whisk attachment.

As for the peaches, ours come from Beechwood Orchards in Bigglerville, PA - due west from York. Picky prefers yellow peaches with their tangier and juicier flesh. We usually chunkily dice up one medium to large peach each. Add in some wild huckleberries from Paradise Hill Farm (Vincetown, NJ - just past Mt. Holly) and you've really got a winner. Wild huckleberries are smaller than blueberries and have larger seeds. I like the crunch they give when chomping down on a few and they add some body to this delightfully cool snack. Unfortunately, it's just about the end of huckleberry season so the farmstand might be out of stock of them. At $2 a pack, they were selling quickly all this week. Peaches (and nectarines) are all $2.25/lbs. and will be around for another month and change, so make sure to gorge now!

BEILER'S BAKERY

Monday, August 25th, 2008

beiler's bakery @ Reading Terminal Market
Taking up the northwest corner of Reading Terminal Market is Beiler's Bakery, described on the Reading Terminal website as an "Amish bakery selling homemade baked goods." They bake breads, pies, cookies, sticky buns, donuts and other treats daily and they also sell an assortment of conventional bread on their easternmost endcap. This corner of the market is usually pretty packed when the Dutch Market is open, but your time waiting will be well rewarded with reasonably-priced delicious treats.

beiler's bakery @ Reading Terminal Market
There was a huge Dutch festival a couple weeks ago at Reading Terminal Market, where Picky happened to be working at the time. He noticed that Beiler's was set up in the main seating area frying up fresh donuts. Without any cash on him, he didn't get a chance to sample the gigantic fresh donuts. He didn't recall seeing the donuts at the bakery in the past either. After the festival ended, he ventured over to the stand and sure enough, there were donuts (and buns)! Armed with some cash, he plunked down 75¢ for a vanilla creme donut and bit into soft and flaky dough oozing with fresh creme. Sure that Messy would also be a fan, Picky decided that the next tag team visit to Reading Terminal would definitely include a stop off for more treats.

beiler's bakery @ Reading Terminal Market
Above is Messy's pick from the rack: a chocolate covered donut. While the donut was certainly fresh, Messy is not a huge donut fan and will probably go for a different treat next time. This didn't hurt Messy's perception of Beiler's — she is a big fan of their bread and has her eye on some of their other simple-but-hearty looking treats.

beiler's bakery @ Reading Terminal Market
Picky's second sampling was a strawberry jelly and creme filled donut, a double whammy encased in powdered sugar. Life doesn't get much better than a good donut.With Beiler's being a walk up the aisle from Picky's day job, it would be easy to have too much of a good thing so he's limited himself (so far) to one return for a frosted blueberry donut. The only other blueberry donut he's had was a sad excuse of one from Dunkin' Donuts. In contrast, Beiler's blueberry donut burst with flavor. And the texture of a fresh small batch donut is to die for.

Aside from the donuts, we've also taken a liking to their fresh sandwich loaves. Their white and wheat breads run about $2.50/loaf and come in a bag that seems to be coated with oil or butter on the inside. We're not sure exactly what it is, but it's not hurting the flavor.

While the Dutch Market hours are only Wednesday through Saturday you can benefit from this bakery making everything fresh. Get there Saturday towards closing and you'll find treats marked down to $1.50 because they'll be closed until Wednesday.

Messy ***1/2
Picky ***1/2

The final word: Fresh, homemade inexpensive baked goods.

Beiler's Bakery
Wed: 8am - 3pm
Thu - Sat: 8am - 5:30pm
Sun - Tu: Closed
215.351.0735

LITTLE SWEETIE CANTALOUPE

Monday, August 11th, 2008

little sweetie cantaloupe
Not even 6" in diameter, the "Little Sweetie" cantaloupe is one flavorful little melon. Since Picky started working at Fair Food Farmstand several weeks ago, he's been bringing home great fresh produce on a daily basis. To share some thoughts on some of the interesting things we're trying at home, we've started the "Fresh from the Farmstand" category. Stay tuned as entries fill up the pages of that category. So, back to the melon. As you can guess by the name, it's a small cantaloupe. It tastes just like a bigger cantaloupe, but it's just smaller, about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of a nice big cantaloupe. It's a local, certified organic fruit coming from Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op in Quarryville, PA.

little sweetie cantaloupe
As you can see above, it's got a nice and thin rind meaning that there's tons of fleshy goodness inside. The juciest and most flavorful bites come from sections closest to the center of the fruit. Not to say the parts closer to the ends of the melon aren't good, just that it's that much sweeter in the middle. But how to tell you've got a ripe Little Sweetie? Same as a normal sized cantaloupe: you sniff it. If it smells nice and sweet, you've got a winner. The stronger the scent, the riper/sweeter it is.

The small size lets you enjoy the melon without committing to several pounds of fruit you may or may not get to eat before it goes bad. Perfect for an individual who is totally crazy for cantaloupe or easily shared between a couple friends in a sitting. Wedge it, cube it, ball it - just get your hands on one.

These fun fruits can be had for $2.50/lb at the Farmstand and they're between 1.5 lbs - 3 lbs.

Fair Food Farmstand
Tu - Sat: 8am - 6pm
Su: 9am - 4p
Mon: Closed
Reading Terminal Market
11th & Arch Sts


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