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Hello!
Lately I have been working on a tv show where I help to find props and various set dress. An upcoming scene in the show calls for some fake candy, so I was dispatched to a very special place on the isle of Manhattan called Economy Candy to source out some ideas. I had heard people say around the office that this place was “crazy” and “oh you have to see it”, so when I was tapped to go, I had some expectations. Let’s say, they were met.
If you love candy, then this is your candy mecca. A place to go and see what man has accomplished both past and present in the world of confectionery delights.
One image can’t really convey the total experience, so here are some images to give you a sense of what they have going on there:
Awesome candy cigarette packages! People who have come over to my house lately have been all “what the fuck are these cigarettes you are smoking Peter?”
And lastly, giant Pez dispensers:
One thing I noticed right away was the amount of old fashioned and obscure candy they had in stock at this place. Me being me, I decided I had to try some of the more interesting products. I picked up a few choice selections and brought them home. When Lisa and Lauren were over, we decided to try them and see if there was a reason these particular candies were so obscure. It turns out because a few of them are truly awful!
Abba Zaba bar
The Abba Zaba bar as it appears in a delightful moment in the movie Half Baked.
The Abba Zaba bar might be Dave Chappelle’s favorite, but this thing is fucked. It’s a bar of white flavorless taffy, that is hard on yer teeth. That’s bad enough. But what lays inside the taffy you ask? PEANUT BUTTER! Folks, I said PEANUT BUTTER! The combination might not be unheard of, but the Abba Zaba sort of fails at it. : (
Next!
The Sky Bar and Joys:
Out of the two the Sky Bar was the best. It is four separate cubes of chocolate with four different centers, Caramel, Fudge, Peanut Butter, and “Vanilla”. The Sky Bar was enjoyed by all who tried it. The vanilla was just like the inside of a Cadbury egg. Good job Sky Bar!
The Joys bar was another story. Some might like thick, cough syrup flavored, jellied candy with chocolate, but I bet even those “some” aren’t gonna like this one. Kind of…sick. It reminded me of some “lavender” candy I once mistakenly ate. Maybe they like this kind of thing in the middle east or something but I say “Stick to the sesame products Joyva brand!”
Next were the Satellite Wafers:
These were apparently popular in the 1950s here in the US. They are flying saucer like discs made of rice with candy beads inside. The proper way to eat them is to simply stick the thing in your mouth. This, however, is where it gets kind of crazy. First you think “Did I just take communion?” The ricey pod starts to disintegrate in your mouth and suddenly the little beads begin to take on more of a roll. Then as you are chewing, the flavor finally kicks in and you are crunching and chewing on a mash that tastes exactly as if you had just eaten a spoonful of Fruity Pebbles. Satellite Wafers…you are strange but tasty!
Last was the Cherry Mash: 
This turned out to be the best tasting of all. Made by the Chase Candy Co. of St. Joseph MO. this seems to be an enduring classic amongst people of the middle west. Specifically the family of Claire Beaufort.
Cherry Mash is chocolate and peanuts covering a delicious chewy cherry flavored center with real cherries and everything. It’s something you can eat alone, or as they suggest on the package, add to vanilla ice cream and milk and make yourself a delicious cherry cordial milk shake! Just go to Economy Candy, or have Claire’s father send you a box of them – and try it yourself!
Fun Fact: The word “candy” comes from Arabic qandi, derived from Persian qand, meaning “sugar.”
Did you know there is an enormous, cosmopolitan city, with a rich heritage, dynamic culture, and distinctive character, two hours south of New York? That this city was actually more important than New York and the epicenter of culture in this country once upon a time? And that, as with any proud city, it has it’s own share of unique culinary wonders as well? Well I speak the truth! It’s Philadelphia folks!
I ventured down through the “Garden State” to the “City of Brotherly Love” this weekend to visit Ms. Lauren Gutierrez, who has taken residence there. I was joined by some other CIA chums as well, and we had a grand ole’ time. We saw the sights, spent some time in the woods at a swimming hole, drank copious amounts of alcohol and most importantly, ATE FOOD.
Philadelphia, like many cities, has it’s share of delights and delicacies that hold a special place in the hearts of it’s citizens. Kansas City has barbeque, Chicago has it’s hot dogs and deep dish, and Baltimore has it’s crab cakes, but this city never seemed to let up on new and exciting local fare. So let me share with you some of the more revered items.
First we will start with the Wawa. Wawa is Philadelphia’s “go to” establishment for something quick and something cheap. It is a convenience store, sandwich shop, sometimes gas station, and always a place to find things a Philadelphian would like. Wawa specializes in the “hoagie” sandwich. Some may call this a “sub” or a “grinder”, but in southeastern Pennsylvania you call it a hoagie damnit. When one orders a hoagie at a Wawa there is no need to rattle off your choice of meats, toppings, and bread to a trained “sandwich artist”. They are busy. So they have provided a computer for you to plug in the specifics for yourself. You have plenty of time and the options are there right in front of you, so you can make sure to make the right choices. Do you want a “shorti” or a “classic”? “Lotta mayo” or just “light on the mayo” Take your time.
We were fortunate to be at a Wawa during a special time of year, the great summer solstice celebration called “Hoagiefest“.
Once you have ordered your hoagie of choice, it’s time to compliment your main course. Perhaps you would like a Tastykake for dessert? Or maybe just some Peanut Chews?
Both are local and quite good. Tastykakes come in a variety of flavors and types. I bought a variety, including peach, blueberry, lemon, strawberry, and their famous Butterscoth Krimpets. When we came home drunk and dove into the cakes at 2am, people seemed to like each and every one of them. Great job Tastykake!!
As for the Peanut Chews, it’s peanuts in a chewy dark chocolate and molasses mix. They are quite good.
Need a beverage? Go with the Yuengling.
I should note that this meal would make your stomach ache, so maybe save the candy for later and just eat an apple or some chips on the side. 
So, is Wawa the only place to get local Philly fare? Christ no people! There are plenty of other places!! Ever heard of the Reading Terminal Market?
This market is an enormous public market on the street level of the old Reading Terminal rail station in Center City Philadelphia. The terminal itself has quite an imposing edifice and ginormous train shed that is now part of the Philly’s convention center. But on the ground floor it is all about food! Hoagies, steaks, fish, meats, cheese, confections, produce, breads – you name it. And plenty of lunch counters and take-out shops for the downtown lunch crowd. Lauren directed me to this ice cream counter called Bassetts for a delicious cone of peach ice cream. She chose the raspberry truffle, and they were both quite good. Bassetts has been around since 1861 apparently, which gives it the distinction of being America’s OLDEST ice cream company! COOL! Philadelphia’s other famous, slighty younger ice cream mainstay is of course Breyer’s ice cream. But that shit is made by Unilever now, and they are a soap company. So fuck Breyer’s. Bassetts!!
On our way out we spotted a woman making chocolate covered strawberries and stopped to watch. We then noticed a variety of other chocolate items. Like chocolate noses and chocolate rats!
And of course, chocolate cheesesteaks!!
When we were at last all together and everyone had convened at Lauren’s home, Mr. Chris Duffy began to mix together a number of spirits and fruit juices to make a beverage befitting the history and honor of Philadelphia. He had done his research and found a recipe for a punch named Fish House Punch. I will let this equally poorly written wikipedia entry handle this one:
This most venerable of American flowing bowls is held to have been first concocted in 1732 at Philadelphia’s fishing club, the Schuylkill Fishing Company also known as the “Fish House”. The Fish House was an august gentleman’s society devoted to escaping domestic tribulation, but also to cigars, whiskey and the occasional fishing foray upon the Chesapeake or the Restigouche River in Nove Scotia. Another version states that it was created in 1848 by Shippen Willing of Philadelphia, to celebrate the momentous occasion of women being allowed into the premises of the “Fish House” for the first time in order to enliven the annual Christmas Party . It was supposed to be just something to please the ladies’ palate but get them livelier than is their usual wont.
This punch — containing rum, cognac, and peach brandy— is potent, so to bring it down it is normally diluted with cold black tea, a common mixer for this particular punch, or with seltzer water, for a bit of fizz. Some punch bowls may not be big enough to accommodate the large size ice block called for, and though the block is a classic part of this recipe, it can, of course, be simply served in a pitcher over ice cubes.
There is even a verse!
There’s a little place just out of town,
Where, if you go to lunch,
They’ll make you forget your mother-in-law
With a drink called Fish-House Punch.
The punch was quite tasty with a very tart lemon aftertaste. He put about 15 lemons in it. We all got quite drunk from it. Philadelphia! Will it ever end!?
By now it had become late, and it was time to dine out for dinner. We went to a really great place in Chinatown called “Vietnam“. Yes, like the country. They had quite an extensive food menu and a great cocktail menu as well. We all had our own exotic tropical drinks. I had the Navy Grog.
I had always seen it on the menu of a Chinese restaurant I went to as a kid and figured “what the hell”. Their Navy Grog was a blend of Rum, Campari, Crème De Cassis, Myers’s Rum, Sour Mix and Fruit Juice. Actual “Grog” has quite a history apprently, and you can read about it here! It’s not just a music venue folks!
The Navy Grog was quite good.
Some folks had Mai Tai’s and Erika had a beer which she put a cherry into for some reason, but Chris and Jocelyn shared the FLAMING VOLCANO. This restaurant billed the drink as a “Fantastic Drink for Passion Lovers.” and it contained Rum, Vodka, Gin, Brandy, Grenadine, Bacardi 151 and Fruit Juice. And live flames.
The food was very good as well. I had the crispy duck, and there were a variety of soups and rice dishes eaten. Everyone had a pleasant time.
The next morning we all had to eat again! (ACTUAL fact: In order to sustain life, one must consume food.) Lauren made some delicious scrambled eggs and potatoes. We had a “Box O’ Joe” from Dunkin Donuts, and I fried up another Philly classic: Scrapple.
Scrapple is “traditionally a mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour and spices” It is fried in slices in a pan, and served with breakfast in place of sausage or bacon. It is distinctive to the southeast PA region and Maryland, and parts of Virginia. I hail from Cincinnati, and we have a local dish that is similar in composition to Scrapple called Goetta. I think Goetta is quite tasty, but I cannot say the same for Scrapple. I had some at a diner the day before with Lauren and was not really taken with it. It was too mushy, and pasty, and the flavor was lacking on many fronts. I figured, maybe they just didn’t do it right! They cooked it too little! The slice was too thick! I can improve on this! So when we stopped at the ACME grocery store I picked up a package to make myself. I made sure to cut thinner slices this time, and cook it up homemade. Ryan, Lauren and I tried it all over again, and….it still sucked! Scrapple: not that good!
We spent the day at the swimming hole in the woods jumping from high ledges into freezing cold water. Ryan and some teenage boys oversaw the construction of a dam that was meant to plug the constant jet of water flowing down the creek. The project was a mixed success.
When we got home we were all hungry again. Can you fucking believe that shit? Honestly. We needed something hot, delicious, quick, and PURE PHILADELPHIA. What oh what could we eat?
CHEESESTEAK
Now, cheesesteaks are famous around the world as a Philadelphia specialty. Most tourists who visit Philly in order to sample this dish head straight down past the Italian Market (which is America’s oldest outdoor market) in South Philly to either Pat’s King of Steaks or Geno’s Steaks. Here they can get a steak slathered with the infamous “whiz“. Like the ubiquitous chili parlor in Cincinnati, or hot dog joint in Chicago, so Philadelphia goes with the steak joints. The town has plenty of lesser known, but locally revered steak places where the tourists and the blazing neon are not there to distract and diminish. Lauren lived just down the street from one such place, and it is called Dalessandros. The first thing you learn in ordering is that they are just called “steaks” by Philadelphians, no need to say “cheese”. Why? Because there are plenty of ways to eat one! Maybe you don’t want cheese! In fact, the idea that the only way to eat a steak is with cheez whiz is total bullshit. It’s just sick sick propaganda from the Pat’s and Geno’s people, whose “rivalry” I liken to a mutual agreement that it’s great business for both parties. Just UNbelievable.
I had my steak with provolone because it’s actually cheese and it’s better. I had onions, mayo and steak, with hot peppers on the side. Erika had mushrooms. I think Lauren had banana peppers? And nobody had American cheese or “whiz”. They were deliciouso!
Everyone seemed to have a really nice weekend in Philadelphia, and Lauren was a wonderful host. Thanks Lauren! As for local food, there are a few other local specialties I will have to try upon visiting Philadelphia the next time. Frank’s Soda, and Water Ice are two. But fear not Philly, we will meet again.
People have been pickling food for thousands of years. Archaeologists and anthropologists note the Ancient Mesopotamians pickling food as early as 2400 B.C. and Aristotle praised the healing effects of cured cucumbers as early as 850 B.C. But as common as the cucumber pickle is, it is only one of the dozens of foods people continue to pickle today in countries all over the world.
People in Europe and Asia have been pickling vegetables, fruits, meat and fish for centuries because it provided a safe and easy way to preserve your food during the winter months, if the growing season was short, or if it was simply the culinary norm. The word pickle comes from the Dutch word “pekel” which referred to a solution of spiced brine used for preserving food. Brine is usually vinegar based with various herbs and spices, and can vary according to what and where someone is pickling.
THIS brings us to a visit I paid to the 7th annual Pickle Festival in the Lower East Side this last Sunday. The Lower East Side has a rich pickling history that dates to the impoverished immigrant cultures that lived in the area for centuries before gentrification. Push carts selling pickles and barrels at storefronts were a common site for people back then, and pickled foods were a cheap and easy way to eat.
Today the heritage of pickled foods is carried on in this festival, held in honor of everything from the ubiquitous cucumber pickle, to pickled green beans, fish or kimchee.
The last institution of pickle heritage that still thrives on the Lower East Side is Guss’s Pickles on Orchard Street. You can stop there on your way to the Lower East Side tenement museum, which is a six story tenement preserved by the National Park Service. The building housed some 7000 people between 1863 and 1935, and celebrates the area’s immigrant history and its cultural significance to the history of America. Anyhow, Guss’s remains and the pickles are quite good.
There were actually ALOT of people who came to try the various pickled foods, so we were careful to wait in line only for what seemed worth trying. This woman was so hungry from waiting in line, she decided to eat a large paper mache pickle:
The kimchee was delicious, and who doesn’t like pickled green beans, but there were sadly no pickled eggs in site. I have always wanted to try one, although I imagine they taste like an egg that has been sitting in cider vinegar or something for three years.
We were a little dissappointed in the decorations for the fair. They apparently had live music, and there were kids getting their faces painted green. But this inflatable pickle was literally the only decoration on the entire street:
We waited in line for about 15 minutes to get a pickle or two from a local New York pickle maker. They came in half sour, full sour and hot. The half sour retained much of its snap and cucumber green, but lacked in the flavor department. The full sour was more in line with what you would get at a lunch counter- only better.
We figured that there would have to be someone dressed as a pickle (right?) and were dismayed at having seen none. But then, right as we received our free pickles we spotted the idiot in the pickle costume, and our trip was deemed a success.
