Stan and Andy's Excellent Adventure III
The Italian Market, South Philadelphia
September 20, 2008

At high noon, 9/20/08, Stan and I met up at the Italian market in South
Philadelphia yesterday for lunch at Ralph's,
http://www.ralphsrestaurant.com/ The place is unpretentious, the menu is
complete and probably hasn't changed much since 1900. The family history is
very inspiring!

We both had cacciatore; Stan had chicken, I had veal. Included were bowls
of spaghetti in a marinara sauce and a loaf or two of fresh Italian bread.
The portions were "more than you can eat" oversized! All said and done, the
food was exquisite with no room for desert. So...

We tried to walk it off up and down the Italian market--didn't help! We
peeked into and ducked into a dozen markets to sniff around. The aromas
change as you go past different storefronts, offering fresh and cooked
offerings.

It's not 100% Italian market. The Mexican cuisine is fairly well
represented in the 1/2 dozen or so stores. There are some "dime stores" as
well, selling typical t-shirts and other sundries. The fruit and vegetable
stands don't stand out as Italian, but they're there in good standing, in
the public interest.

Stan and I were seated for a break and I heard a vendor mention "It's
slow!" Perhaps at midday on that Saturday, but I'll bet it's too busy on
weekday mornings when restaurants load up daily. It was crowded with
shoppers and tourists, which were slow moving, except some sharp street-
smart folks who were either thin or quick enough to bypass the hypnotized
crowds, 1:10 ratio was my perceived observation.

So from one end of the Italian market and back, we then walked over to
South Street, the Hollywood Blvd. of Philadelphia and Stan's backyard for
many years. He again gave an expert guided tour of "where and what and
what was" on South Street. He even showed me where he lived at one time.

Two things about both the Italian market and South street, if you're one
block away from either, you won't know the activity going on just down the
block!!!

We dropped into Fantés midway in the Italian market, since I can't be at
the Italian market and not drop in to buy something useful (or NOT) and so
I bought a shiny, new, useless jigger/shot measure.

We parted company at about 3:15pm and agreed to do it again. It was way
more fun than Stan and Andy's Excellent Adventures I and II at the Reading
Terminal Market. It was a perfect day, clear blue sky and maybe 75. What a
way to close out the summer!

So when you visit Philadelphia, feel free to call on Stan and Andy to show
you the best time!

Thanks again Stan!

Best,

Andy
http://i35.tinypic.com/5es7xj.jpg
Picture this for maybe 6 blocks on both sides of the street.