The Farmers' Market

During the summer months, and as far beyond as the weather holds, there's a farmer's market every Friday evening in Pittsburgh's Northside, just a few minutes walk from the baseball park, the football stadium, and, most importantly, my hotel. Here's a sample of this week's haul.

 













For tonight's supper, a quarter rack of ribs from Bad Azz BBQ, who won the People's Choice award last weekend in the Strip District (a local street bazaar). It's Texas-style BBQ, slathered with sweet sauce. BBQ needs corn, of course. This bread-and-butter corn is tender and sweet enough to eat raw, but I like to cover it with cling and zap it for a couple of minutes in the microwave. That makes it warm enough for the butter to melt into all the nooks and crannies.

 













The final accompaniment for the ribs is some mashed potatoes. The onions are "candy onions" - sweet enough to eat raw, "with a little salt", as the vendor advised me. They're certainly sweet, but not to my taste on their own. I prefer them finely chopped, and mixed at the last minute into the mashed potatoes.
















The Amish stand, from Ohio, about a couple of hours west of here, furnished an apple pie and fresh baked bread. The bread is sweet, but in a good way, unlike the usual store bought American white bread. Perfect for bread-and-butter pudding I can make in the microwave. I might also use up a slice to sop up the BBQ sauce!

The green beans will go perfectly with some frozen Coho salmon fillets, which will be lightly seared in butter until the skin is crisp. Or perhaps with some "breakfast links" from a local farm. These are similar to our chipolatas, although nothing I've ever come across compares to British sausages.













For dessert, maybe some plums, or peaches, or apples. The apples are Rambo, which I'd never heard of, even though they are an old variety that date back to colonial times. They're crisp and tart, just the way I like my apples. If the peaches or plums start "going over", I'll render them down with a little sugar to make a perfect topping for ice-cream.







Sure beats going out to eat every night.

Hotel Rules

I spend a lot of time in hotels. People who don't tend to think that because they're paying, almost anything goes. This isn't true - the staff are not your personal slaves, they're trying to make a living as best they can, just like you. Some basic rules that I think need to be observed:

1. If you're a guy, don't come down to breakfast in a sleeveless vest unless you shave your armpits. It's just gross. Come to think of it, this applies to women too.
2. If the elevator door is closing, you've missed it. Don't stick your arm in the door. Quite apart from the obvious risk, your time is not more valuable than mine, no matter what you might think.
3. If you're a kid, don't come down to breakfast in your PJs. You're not at home, or didn't your parents tell you that?
4. Use the tongs to pick up food. Again, you're not at home.
5. If free food is provided, don't pile your plate high. It just makes you look greedy, and poor.
6. There is never a good reason to wear sunglasses or a baseball cap indoors.
7. Everybody finds it hilarious when all the buttons in the elevator are pressed - never miss an opportunity to do it. And tell your kids, so they can share in the fun.
8. Housekeeping's job is to keep the place clean and tidy. That doesn't excuse you from basic rules of hygiene.