Potato Skins

Dear Polly: Is there any way to bake a potato with a crisp skin in the microwave? - J.P.L. Microwave-baked potatoes characteristically have soft skins. The flavor and texture are, to my mind, actually more like boiled or steamed potatoes than potatoes baked at high heat in a conventional oven. However, it can't be denied that for a quick baked potato, the microwave is very useful. If you want a potato with a crisp skin, bake the potato fully in the microwave, then bake it an additional 10 minutes or so at 450 degrees in a regular oven.

Generations of doting mothers will be disappointed to learn that, according to new research, potato skins, alas, aren't especially good for you after all. Despite a long-cherished idea that the potato's skin is where the good stuff is, including vitamins, toxicologists Barry Gosselin and Nell Mondy warn that the skin is actually where the poisons are. According to the two researchers from Cornell University, potato skins contain natural chemical...

Tangier, the saloon across from Graduate Hospital, is in spirit more bar than restaurant. There always seems to be a sporting event on the TV; the TV volume is turned down and the loud-sound-system jazz encourages even louder conversations. The wooden booths are hard and the beer varieties are many. But Tangier's kitchen has always done more than just sandwiches to go with the beers - more being duck with plum sauce, or chicken with crabmeat in a Parmesan cream sauce. Because a change of command is under way in the kitchen, it seemed time for a return visit.

I must confess up front that the prospect of a 24-ounce steak for $9.95 did not dispatch me to Montana with high expectations. I was certain that a steak that size, at that price, would give a restaurant critic plenty to chew on. The new steakhouse on Front Street proved me half wrong. Montana turns out a respectable, beefy-tasting charcoal-grilled steak for the price, along with a decent baked potato. Another surprise was the charcoal-grilled swordfish ($8.95) - a hefty serving, 2 inches thick, and succulent throughout.

One of the most popular restaurant types these days is the saloon - typically a comfortable place of polished brass railings, etched windows, blond furniture, lots of hanging plants and a menu of simple but pleasant dishes. The West End Saloon, opened a year ago by the Pompeii family, which also owns Riddle Ale House out on Route 1, is perfectly in synch with the genre. The saloon has two dining rooms: one adjoining a noisy, active bar, and the other a sunken haven of smoked mirrored walls affixed with modern sconces that provide subdued lighting.

Although it hasn't been open long, the Walnut Hill Tavern in Germantown already has a solid sense of self. The simple menu is a model of sandwich-or-entree variety and low prices; the staff is exceptionally pleasant; the place is equally comfortable for family dining or a drink with friends; there's takeout for those who live nearby. A pianist plays in the handsome bar after 9:30 on Friday and Saturday nights. Once word gets out, crowds are sure to pile in. The three wood-paneled dining rooms have an obvious labor-of-love look.

After spending a long, hard night dancing and cavorting at clubs and bars, one sure can work up an appetite. Luckily, there are a number of Shore places that offer snacks until the wee hours, spots such as C.J.'s Key West Bar and Grill, Bay Avenue and Shore Road, Somers Point. Somers Point's newest hotspot, C.J's also features dancing, and offers a smorgasbord of stick-to-your-ribs fare until 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. Prices range from $5.95 to $11.95 for such goodies as gourmet pizzas, wings, sandwiches and ribeye steaks for the recession-busting price of $9.95.

Dear Anne and Nan: I have just spent weeks polishing my antique brass bed. How do I keep it "sparkling" and prevent it from tarnishing again? Are there any products on the market that will retard the tarnish? - M.L. The only way to keep your brass bed from tarnishing is to protect the surface of the brass from contact with air. The product that will accomplish this is plain-and-simple clear lacquer, available at paint and hardware stores. Lacquer only a small area first: If you decide you don't like the way it looks, remove the lacquer by rubbing with a soft cloth dipped in denatured alcohol.

Comparisons between Marbles and the Central Bar and Grille in Bryn Mawr are inevitable. Both are casual places with jazzy interiors, moderately-priced menus, and plenty of booster seats. Both opened last fall within a couple of weeks of each other; they're located within two blocks of each other. The Central is flashier - a valet parks the steady stream of Mercedes Benzes, Jaguars and BMWs - and is somewhat calmer because its dining area is divided into sections, whereas Marbles has one cavernous dining room.

When a Bucks County buddy moved to town recently, I lost a country restaurant scout but gained a lookout in the Society Hill area. "Mako's," she said, when I asked where she and her husband and their sons had been eating their early weeks here. "Mako's? As in the car painters?" "No. Shark! Try it!" Her tip led to the corner of Front and Chestnut Streets, a location that has changed restaurant concepts with dizzying frequency in recent years. (There's another Mako's at Third and South, but I didn't know that at the time of my review meals, both of which were at the Front Steet location.

This was the year of the potato. In the wake of rising food prices around the world, the United Nations proclaimed the spud one super-nutritious value. To hammer the point home, the U.S. Potato Board has begun the "Potatoes: Goodness Unearthed" campaign to remind consumers that despite the contempt of the Atkins era for the starchy vegetable, a medium spud has only 110 calories, is naturally fat-free, high in vitamin C and - when eaten with the skin on - packs more potassium than a banana.

Dear Anne and Nan: I have just spent weeks polishing my antique brass bed. How do I keep it "sparkling" and prevent it from tarnishing again? Are there any products on the market that will retard the tarnish? - M.L. The only way to keep your brass bed from tarnishing is to protect the surface of the brass from contact with air. The product that will accomplish this is plain-and-simple clear lacquer, available at paint and hardware stores. Lacquer only a small area first: If you decide you don't like the way it looks, remove the lacquer by rubbing with a soft cloth dipped in denatured alcohol.

Nobody disputes the value of increasing the fiber in diets. As an issue of the University of California at Berkeley Wellness Letter reported last year, "Scientists recognize that fiber may play a role in reducing the risk of leading chronic diseases. " According to the National Potato Board, a potato has 10 times as much fiber per calorie as pasta or rice. And the Wellness Letter added that a potato with its skin has twice as much fiber as one without the skin. Another health benefit is the potassium content of a large baked potato: 850 grams, 235 grams of which are found in the skin.

After spending a long, hard night dancing and cavorting at clubs and bars, one sure can work up an appetite. Luckily, there are a number of Shore places that offer snacks until the wee hours, spots such as C.J.'s Key West Bar and Grill, Bay Avenue and Shore Road, Somers Point. Somers Point's newest hotspot, C.J's also features dancing, and offers a smorgasbord of stick-to-your-ribs fare until 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays. Prices range from $5.95 to $11.95 for such goodies as gourmet pizzas, wings, sandwiches and ribeye steaks for the recession-busting price of $9.95.

The new Philly Rock Bar & Grill is not only good news for the wallet, but promises to be another jewel in the city's expanding riverfront- entertainment setting. Philly Rock, which opened in December, is a nifty music-themed restaurant featuring economically priced dishes from wings to sizzling fajitas. Every item is less than $5. The restaurant is next door to the new Riverview Plaza movie complex, just south of Washington Avenue along Delaware Avenue. Which means lots of free, off-street parking.

There's a new place in town that advertises giant steaks, faded jeans, barbecued ribs, cold beer and live music. Indeed, all of those things are there. Even the faded jeans - only the jeans belong to the clientele. It's Montana, a new and different food-and-drink complex at Front and Market Streets. It blends the casualness of a sports bar with super-low food prices, live music and gregarious comfort. In the past, this place - formerly P.T.'s and then Metro - was known as a spot for singles.

I must confess up front that the prospect of a 24-ounce steak for $9.95 did not dispatch me to Montana with high expectations. I was certain that a steak that size, at that price, would give a restaurant critic plenty to chew on. The new steakhouse on Front Street proved me half wrong. Montana turns out a respectable, beefy-tasting charcoal-grilled steak for the price, along with a decent baked potato. Another surprise was the charcoal-grilled swordfish ($8.95) - a hefty serving, 2 inches thick, and succulent throughout.

It's been nearly 11 years since the 94th Aero Squadron landed in Northeast Philadelphia. In the beginning, just trying to get into this aviation-themed restaurant was a mission impossible. The wait for a table could be two to three hours. Those days have faded into the past like echos of distant cannon fire. But the 94th Aero Squadron is still unique, its colorful World War I motif a quiet and interesting caricature of another time. For those not familiar with the 94th, it is a re-creation of what a French farmhouse might have looked like after a squadron of American aviators had gotten hold of it. The entranceway is filled with small sandbags similar to those that lined the trenches, and there are enough other artifacts to give the place a studiolike authenticity.

Dear Polly: Is there any way to bake a potato with a crisp skin in the microwave? - J.P.L. Microwave-baked potatoes characteristically have soft skins. The flavor and texture are, to my mind, actually more like boiled or steamed potatoes than potatoes baked at high heat in a conventional oven. However, it can't be denied that for a quick baked potato, the microwave is very useful. If you want a potato with a crisp skin, bake the potato fully in the microwave, then bake it an additional 10 minutes or so at 450 degrees in a regular oven.

Comparisons between Marbles and the Central Bar and Grille in Bryn Mawr are inevitable. Both are casual places with jazzy interiors, moderately-priced menus, and plenty of booster seats. Both opened last fall within a couple of weeks of each other; they're located within two blocks of each other. The Central is flashier - a valet parks the steady stream of Mercedes Benzes, Jaguars and BMWs - and is somewhat calmer because its dining area is divided into sections, whereas Marbles has one cavernous dining room.