Local Food

Farm Aid is coming to the Garden State. The annual all-star fund- raising concert, which was founded in 1985 by Willie Nelson after Bob Dylan made remarks in support of American farmers at Live Aid in Philadelphia that year, will take place at the Tweeter Center in Camden on Sept. 30. The 19th Farm Aid - the concert took three years off in the late '80s and early '90s, but has been an annual event since 1992 - will feature Nelson and his three fellow Farm Aid board members - Neil Young, Dave Matthews and John Mellencamp.

Sitting comfortably in the middle of the cool Hanapepe River, Helen Dotimas scraped her knife over the scales of a fish as her great-grandchildren splashed nearby. Devastated by Hurricane Iniki like everyone else, she was nevertheless planning a good dinner - without government help. "We were supposed to pick up supplies, but I think we have enough," said Dotimas, 67. "Usually, I don't do this, but since the hurricane came . . . ," she shrugged, pointing to a plastic bag full of opi fish that her son had speared.

FOR THOSE OF US who don't have a prahok -slinging Phnom Penh grandma on standby, real Cambodian food is a little hard to find here, especially in comparison to the Vietnamese, Thai and Laotian options available to hungry fans of Southeast Asian cooking. Luckily, that's starting to change, with sit-downs like South Philly's Khmer Kitchen and Lawncrest's Angkor spreading the charms of the cuisine beyond the city's strong Cambodian population. While those restaurants build followings, a new venture - a little sweeter, but still fluent in Khmer - is taking shape.

JOSH KIM'S movements are precise as he hovers over his burners, and it's not just because he champions economy of movement. The SPOT Burgers cart is minute, a receiverless phone booth fortified with mustard-yellow and ketchup-red aluminum armor. His bandanna'd head is obscured by order tickets - 60 to 80 an hour during the lunch rush - as he hand-forms patties and puts them on a griddle that facilitates many lunch breaks but never takes its own. A hungry throng dawdles around the bike racks at 33rd and Arch streets, shuffling forward, eyes wide as bottom buns as Kim dings the bell suspended from his window and breaks the always brief silence.

A few local food trucks that do catering: Sweet Box Serves: Cupcakes Owner: Gretchen Fantini Phone: 215-237-4647 Facebook: Iheartsweetphilly Lil' Dan's Serves: Italian cuisine, sandwiches Co-owner: Daniel Pennachietti Phone: 215-252-1677 Facebook:LildansFood Little Baby's Ice Cream Serves: Ice cream, including vegan Owners: Pete Angevine, Martin Brown,...

What is it? Cheese curds in Philly? Yes, whey! The classic, Midwest county-fair staple has come to the big city. Bite-sized chunks of fresh cheddar shipped in from Wisconsin are deep fried in a light crust for a gooey, crunchy finger food not unlike a miniature mozzarella stick. Unlike your average stick, though, these morsels are bursting with flavor. Go East, young man: The Cow and the Curd was the brainchild of Rob Mitchell, a former English teacher from Shenandoah, Schuylkill County (home of Mrs. T's Pierogies)

Letter carriers will collect nonperishable food Saturday as part of a nationwide initiative to fight hunger. The annual initiative, the largest one-day food drive in the nation, is sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers and the U.S. Postal Service. Residents should place food items near their mailboxes before mail delivery Saturday. Letter carriers will deliver the donations to a local food bank or pantry. - Kristin E. Holmes

THE SOUTH Jersey suburb where David Miscavige grew up was utopian by design, a prefab paradise where footballs and fireflies floated over lush, green lawns and parents played pinochle long after the ice cubes melted in their cocktails. Miscavige's middle-class Catholic upbringing in Willingboro, N.J., abruptly changed four decades ago when his childhood asthma led the family to another utopian vision - that of L. Ron Hubbard. Miscavige, 51, a high-school dropout, today is the worldwide leader of the Church of Scientology, which Hubbard founded.

OF ALL THE topics that diners tend to fuss over, "authenticity" is the fussiest to understand. Just listen to one of the food scene's more talented over-thinkers run a restaurant through his or her analytical atom smasher and you might agree. The quantitative critiques - service, prices, vibe - are all there, but things get weird once culinary credibility undergoes cross-examination. Is it "authentic" to use this sauce? In that soup, is marjoram an "authentic" garnish? Was the pot used to braise tonight's pork wrapped in indigenous leaves, buried beneath loose earth and gently attended by a pitmaster with Taíno ancestry?

THE INDUSTRY'S Pat Szoke is a chef, but if he ever decides to hang up his apron, he's got a future in diplomacy. That much became clear last month when he adroitly responded to a question I likely pose more than I should: Do you like Spam? "I wouldn't say it's my number one choice," replied Szoke, who was seeking ideas for a limited-time menu inspired by the tastes of local food and drink writers. He'd never sampled Hormel's tinned wonder meat, a high point of American ingenuity that's somehow become "one of the most reviled foodstuffs known to man," according to Philly-based author Carolyn Wyman's 1999 book, Spam: A Biography . But he knew enough to approach the product with a healthy helping of skepticism.