Hot Sauce

The city has recently been engaged in a National Conversation on Race, otherwise known as "Who's black enough?" It's not easy: Black is not a color. It's a state of mind. That's why Tom Jones is blacker than Clarence Thomas. It's why Mario Von Peebles is just as black as Jesse Jackson. It's why we hailed Bill Clinton as the first black president, and laughed those corny parts right off Vanilla Ice's head. Blackness is not in the way you walk, either. You can stroll like Rollo from "Sanford and Son" and still not be black enough.

Like most customers who walk into the Suzie Hot Sauce shop, David Karasik knew what he wanted. Sort of. Something smoky that stings of vinegar. Preferably green. He issued the challenge to Debbie Tusman, the face most often behind the counter of hot-sauce samples that are dispensed like medicine. Tusman scanned the inventory in her head and came up with three options. After selling him on two light sauces, Tusman, 25, got serious. She turned the air conditioner up a notch and measured out a tiny teaspoon of a peppery elixir known as Molten Lava.

I wasn't surprised to hear that the hot sauce that people in Louisiana eat on raw oysters is effective in killing a wicked bacterium called vibrio vulnificus. As my Uncle Harry often says, it stands to reason. It stands to reason because when you eat that hot sauce you know something is going on. This is a different experience from eating, say, a bowl of cereal or a cheese sandwich or an apple. You can feel Louisiana hot sauce begin its work. You're aware that a process is taking place.

Who says we all can't get along? Not the worldly folks at the Abbaye, the latest Northern Liberties restaurant at 3rd Street and Fairmount Avenue. Specializing in Belgian beers, this place makes the classic New Orleans sandwich with Pacific coast oysters dredged in Japanese breadcrumbs and served on Italian bread. Chef Tom Lax tops it off with a Vietnamese hot sauce that he calls "the kickin' chicken" because of the bird on the bottle. OYSTER PO-BOY FROM THE ABBAYE For the mayonnaise: 1 quart mayonnaise 1 small bunch chives 2 tablespoons lemon juice 2 cloves garlic, minced fine 1 teaspoon white pepper 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 6 eggs 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 tablespoon cayenne 1 tablespoon dried thyme Dash salt and pepper For the sandwich: 15 medium-sized Pacific oysters 5 cups flour Panko (rice)

For 14 years, Maccabeam restaurant at 128 S. 12th St. has been an oasis of glatt kosher cuisine. On any given weekday, customers, many wearing traditional yarmulkes, crowd the small eatery between Walnut and Sansom streets to share platters of barbecued turkey shawarma, creamy hummus, char-broiled kebobs, and the "Maccabeam special": eggplant layered with fried onions, chickpeas and tomatoes. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner only (closed for Shabbat, the sabbath, from 3 p.m. Friday through Saturday)

America is about to be deluged with the flavors of the world conveniently packaged in jars and bottles, preferably without sugar, salt, preservatives and fat (with the exception of olive oil, which, as everyone knows, is a good fat, as far as wicked fat goes). Salsas, sauces, dressings, marinades, relishes, glazes, dips, herb-flavored oils, fruit-flavored vinegars and mustards flavored with everything under the sun were the star products of this year's International Fancy Food and Confection Show, held at the Javits Convention Center last week.

When the league championship series moves to Atlanta on Saturday, the Bandwagoneers, who used to open for Lawrence Welk, will sing the national anthem and Braves fans will affront the rest of the world with the tomahawk chop and the inane war chant that goes with it. In more developed regions of the country, this strange behavior has been taken as a gratuitous and appallingly offensive insult to Native Americans by the yuppie-come-lately rabble...

EDITOR'S NOTE: After years of yo-yo dieting, Kathy Manweiler discovered ways to cook and eat healthier without giving up the foods she loved. Those recipes helped her lose 100 pounds and keep the weight off. Now she's sharing healthy cooking tips with readers through her weekly "Don't Say Diet" column, which debuts today in YO! Food. WHEN YOU place an order for boneless buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing, more than 1,200 calories and about 90 fat grams could land on your table.

Discovered in a popular watering hole in Buffalo, N.Y., the dangerously addictive Buffalo wing - obviously named after the place, not the animal - is a crisp, disjointed fried chicken wing coated with a fiery hot sauce and served with a blue cheese dip and celery sticks. Variations on Buffalo wings are popping up on menus in the most unlikely spots, and with some very imaginative adaptations. Mickey's, a comfortable dining spot in a Brooklyn neighborhood, serves a mean Buffalo "Burgher.

MELINDA'S ORIGINAL HABANERO PEPPER SAUCE. Hot sauce, extra hot sauce and XXXtra hot sauce. $2.29 to $2.65 per 5-ounce bottle. BONNIE: Melinda's pepper sauce, like other hot pepper sauces, adds a zip to Buffalo chicken wings, bloody Marys, and creole and Cajun foods. Melinda's, Durkee's Red Hot and Tabasco are all made without preservatives and are all natural. What makes this hot sauce different is the type of peppers used and the three different varieties, based on degrees of "heat.

Consider offering something that is richly savory, but won't weigh down the party this holiday season. We started with a beautiful side of salmon, roasted it with butter and garlic, then dressed it with a warm lentil salad spiked with citrus and pomegranate. The result is a beautiful dish that will make a statement. If you can't find creme fraiche, substitute sour cream or Greek-style yogurt.   Roasted Salmon With Warm Lentil Salad Makes 10 servings 2 cups green lentils 4-pound side of salmon, skin on 1 clove garlic, finely minced 2 tablespoons butter Salt and ground black pepper Zest and juice of 1 lemon Segments of 3 oranges Seeds of 1/2 pomegranate 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro Splash of hot sauce 8-ounce tub creme fraiche Juice of 1 orange 1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

RE THE UNSIGNED Oct. 1 op-ed "10 Ways to Know If You're Black Enough": So your resident "Black Man" couldn't put his name on his article? Who is he to say what being "black enough" is, or isn't? I found this article hilarious at best, tragic at worst. There was only one good thing about it: It clearly showed you can't paint all of us black people with the same brush. Whoever wrote it doesn't even put a dent into explaining who is or is not black enough! And he cheated by giving only 10 ways - the many ways would fill a book.

The city has recently been engaged in a National Conversation on Race, otherwise known as "Who's black enough?" It's not easy: Black is not a color. It's a state of mind. That's why Tom Jones is blacker than Clarence Thomas. It's why Mario Von Peebles is just as black as Jesse Jackson. It's why we hailed Bill Clinton as the first black president, and laughed those corny parts right off Vanilla Ice's head. Blackness is not in the way you walk, either. You can stroll like Rollo from "Sanford and Son" and still not be black enough.

You will hear, on occasion, expats from Trinidad pine for a lost land - for beaches that are gone, and trails paved over, for the slower boat to Tobago (now it's a two-hour trip, not an overnight), and island architecture washed away by a wave of Americanized design. Last week one of them named Clarence Drakes, an architect himself, happened by Calypso, the homey Trinidadian stand in the Chestnut Hill Farmers Market, and he soon fell into a deep, misty-eyed reverie. Ah, but the food, reminded his friend Ayanna Osbourne, who has family ties on the island, that's another matter: No one has torn that page from Trinidad's story.

EDITOR'S NOTE: After years of yo-yo dieting, Kathy Manweiler discovered ways to cook and eat healthier without giving up the foods she loved. Those recipes helped her lose 100 pounds and keep the weight off. Now she's sharing healthy cooking tips with readers through her weekly "Don't Say Diet" column, which debuts today in YO! Food. WHEN YOU place an order for boneless buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing, more than 1,200 calories and about 90 fat grams could land on your table.

James Chan was up out of his seat before I got within 10 paces of his table at a dim sum place on Washington Avenue. He wanted to tell me about a favorite recipe of his, peanut vinegar chicken. A friend was making a YouTube video of it. (To see it, go to http://go.philly.com/chan .) Chan is a business consultant, and a more than merely avid Chinese home cook. He is something of an evangelist on the subject: When he has a winner, he wants to share it with the world. So, yes, I said, please e-mail me the peanut vinegar chicken recipe.

I need to downsize. I'm not talking about just my car and my home but also my pantry. Don't misunderstand me, I still enjoy experimenting with new recipes and ingredients, but I have too many things I don't use. Now that it's almost the new year, I've been thinking about the ingredients that I must have. Here's a list of some of them: Dried red pepper flakes: I admit it. I carry individual packets of these with me at all times in case I need an emergency endorphin rush when traveling.

LET'S JUST get something up front. I like to eat. I do not like to drive. So when eating involves driving first, the food had better be good. This is never more true than when eating involves driving to the Great Northeast and the route careens along Roosevelt Boulevard. Just because the Great Northeast considers itself almost sovereign and has its own airport doesn't give it license to turn the Boulevard into another runway. But, I'm here to critique the food, not the engineering involved in crossovers - which may be the worst idea since we started calling processed cheese a food item.

In the latest sign that capitalism inexorably marches on, founders of the Black Panther party plan to market a hot sauce called Burn Baby Burn. Once upon a time, this phrase conjured images of deadly inner-city riots and calls for revolution. Now it will promote a spicy condiment. Nothing reminds you of the passage of time more than seeing an infamous protest slogan on the shelf in Aisle 4, next to the ketchup. The Huey P. Newton Foundation, named for the cofounder of the militant Panthers, has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the 1960s slogan.

Editor's note: Over the years, a number of people have worked with and for Zack Stalberg. On this, his last day as editor of the Daily News, some of them share their thoughts: When the legendary Gil Spencer left the Daily News, I was the poor soul charged with choosing a successor. Gil himself thought his young managing editor, Zack Stalberg, was the guy. I wasn't sure Zack was ready, but I sat down with him for several hours - and he was so convincing I didn't interview anybody else.