Rotisserie

Thanks to fast-food chains, supermarkets and other food sources that tout the flavor of simple rotisserie-cooked chicken, people can enjoy a bird that hasn't been in the deep fryer. However, home cooks aren't likely to prepare rotisserie chicken because of the equipment involved (although the makers of the Farberware Smokeless Indoor Grill and Rotisserie report that its sales are up). But since grills are a part of the summer landscape, grilling is another delicious and easy alternative to frying chicken.

Man's first kitchen was the great outdoors, and his first cooking utensil was probably the forerunner of today's rotisserie. Skewer some meat, turn it over a fire, and behold: dinner. The food would be evenly cooked, highly flavorful and self-basted, with its fat melted away and its juices sealed in. Some things have not really changed that much, a point worth remembering as the nation's chicken manufacturers argue in a spate of new advertising the question of whose chicken is leaner.

In the beginning - the beginning being the early days of the Philadelphia restaurant renaissance - there were few places such as Harvest, located at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. This small rotisserie-cafe, with its cosmopolitan atmosphere, was in a sense the tip of the food-business iceberg that was to come, something akin to fast food for grown-ups - a place where the busy and discriminating Center City worker could stop for such delectables as game birds, venison, lamb and rabbit.

Like the rest of us, CBS football analyst Randy Cross shook his head in dismay when he saw Houston defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan punch Oilers offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride on the sideline during the Oilers-Jets game Jan. 2. "I don't think it hurts (Ryan's) chances of getting a head-coaching job (because his chances were) slim to none," Cross said. Cross, a former All-Pro guard, had seen Ryan in action before. "In the Pro Bowl in 1985," Cross recalled, "(Mike)

The trend of top chefs leaving Center City restaurants to open their own place in the suburbs is well under way, but seldom has a chef gone as far as Jacques Colmaire. Colmaire left Le Bec-Fin several years ago to open La Coquille St. Jacques in Jenkintown. He closed that restaurant earlier this year and in July opened Cafe Arielle, a gorgeous country French dining place in the renovated Agricultural Works Building in Doylestown. Jenkintown's loss is Doylestown's gain. Most of the menu is either grilled over mesquite or spit-roasted in an open kitchen on an elegant French rotisserie, then bathed in unforgettable, delicately balanced sauces.

I hate myself at times like these, but one must report the news, however grisly. This is to put readers on notice that an esoteric male singer has again appeared in our midst. He trades under the name of Thacher "Big Boy" Longstreth, and lest anyone be misled, this is the real article and not another of those Engelbert Humperdinck deals. Big Boy will be performing on Sunday at the 4:30 p.m. jazz vespers of the Gladwyne Presbyterian Church and, in keeping with the theme of the service, which is "Love & Peace," will be limiting his repertoire to songs appropriate to the circumstances.

Some burning questions on the much-talked-about new Babe's have found answers - of sorts - after three recent review visits to the place. This Babe's, is it a real steakhouse? Yes, in that it serves up some of the biggest and best steaks around, including a hefty, 24-ounce aged porterhouse that I'd have thought only a starving lion could polish off. But a real steakhouse would stick to steaks and chops, and Babe's gets a little fancy at times, occasionally with disappointing results.

When Pollo Rosso, a new restaurant in Chestnut Hill, says children are welcome, it means it. The reasonably priced Italian trattoria-type menu not only includes a section for youngsters, but lets kids 10 and under dine free from 5 to 6 p.m. The accommodation doesn't stop there: The restaurant even offers complimentary baby food. Yet if you didn't know this, you'd never think of Pollo Rosso (Red Chicken) as a "family restaurant. " The food is excellent and features an interesting mix of well-thought-out dishes in a congenial and relaxing setting.

The name is new and the concept has changed somewhat, but where it really counts - good eats and drinks - things are pretty much the same. I'm talking here about Isola, which until two weeks ago was called Harvest. Along with the new moniker, the restaurant at 19th and Market Streets has undergone a modest face lift. A regular customer probably would be in tune with all of the changes. A casual patron might know that something had taken place, but be hard-pressed to say exactly what.

HOWE ON THE FENCE: Move over, Lenny Dykstra. The union now can take aim at Yankees reliever Steve Howe, who told the New York Daily News he is thinking about crossing the imaginary picket line. "Right now, I'm looking at it, and trying to be very well-informed as to what's going on in these talks," said Howe, citing his ongoing battle with drug addiction and need for a structured lifestyle. "If and when I have to make that decision, no matter what, the union will know, the Yankees will know, my teammates will know.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars went to develop Speck, a sleek space in the Piazza at Schmidt's in Northern Liberties that imploded in a clash of will and ego just before it opened. And in walked restaurateur Tony Rim to lease it as Raw at the Piazza (1050 N. Hancock St., 215-351-5850). Rim, who owns Raw Sushi & Sake Bar at 1225 Sansom St. and the Corner at 13th and Chancellor Streets (with another on the way at 1710 Sansom St.), says he's using only a fraction of Speck's never-used high-tech equipment.

From: Gonzalez, John To: Ford, Bob; Sheridan, Phil Subject: Fantasy I debated whether to tell the two of you this, but I'm going to take a chance: I have my fantasy draft this evening. So, wondering if either of you have sleeper picks for me. Also, we have room for a couple of extra teams if either of you want in. As I re-read this e-mail, asking you guys for "fantasy advice" is probably one of the dumber ideas I've had in a while - which, considering I recently took a newspaper job as the industry crumbles, is saying something.

In the 1950s, a New York sportswriter named Jimmy Cannon produced, every few weeks or so, a column that began, "Nobody asked me, but . . . . " He'd delight readers with 20 or so nuggets - mostly his opinion on sports but occasionally on other topics as well. So, with respect and reverence to the memory of Jimmy Cannon, nobody asked me, but . . . In the interest of truth, shouldn't all those "reality shows" on television be renamed "alleged reality shows"? Why can't I pay attention to what a television newscaster is saying while the ticker crawls across the bottom of the screen?

Grandpa Larry really knew good fried chicken when he had it. Every year, on the way down to Florida from Detroit on the new interstate, my grandparents would make a point of stopping at this great place in Corbin, Ky. And then one year Grandpa met the owner, an ebullient white-haired man who in the 1950s was selling franchises at a nickel for every chicken the restaurants sold. Secret spices sealed the deal. And so, Larry LaBan, the dry-cleaning man, went into the bird business with Colonel Harland D. Sanders, becoming Michigan's first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee.

HOWE ON THE FENCE: Move over, Lenny Dykstra. The union now can take aim at Yankees reliever Steve Howe, who told the New York Daily News he is thinking about crossing the imaginary picket line. "Right now, I'm looking at it, and trying to be very well-informed as to what's going on in these talks," said Howe, citing his ongoing battle with drug addiction and need for a structured lifestyle. "If and when I have to make that decision, no matter what, the union will know, the Yankees will know, my teammates will know.

Thanks to fast-food chains, supermarkets and other food sources that tout the flavor of simple rotisserie-cooked chicken, people can enjoy a bird that hasn't been in the deep fryer. However, home cooks aren't likely to prepare rotisserie chicken because of the equipment involved (although the makers of the Farberware Smokeless Indoor Grill and Rotisserie report that its sales are up). But since grills are a part of the summer landscape, grilling is another delicious and easy alternative to frying chicken.

From the United Nations to Haverford Square - that's the route Javad "Jay" Vafa and his wife, Simeen, pursued to find success as proprietors of three gourmet shops featuring ethnic favorites, breads, soups, coffees, cheeses and deli items. The career change, from rubbing elbows with some of the world's diplomats to waiting on nameless customers, might be seen as a step down in status. But for Vafa, 71, and his wife, 61, the change has been rewarding. "After my term as an adviser with the U.N.," Jay Vafa said, "we were thinking of what we wanted to do. At our ages then, no companies were going to hire us. It was in the 1980s and there was a recession on and we had to start a business that required little capital and a product in demand by the public.

Every day, KFC sells $2 million worth of chicken that bears Col. Harland D. Sanders' name, but not his recipe. The product is a three-pound spit-roasted bird called Colonel's Rotisserie Gold; the man behind it is John Marsella, a stubborn KFC franchisee who spent two years trying to convince corporate executives they would strike gold with his version of unfried chicken. The Churchville, Bucks County, resident doesn't have the name recognition Sanders does. But in seven months' time, Marsella has made KFC - best known for fried chicken - a major player in the rotisserie chicken league.

Like the rest of us, CBS football analyst Randy Cross shook his head in dismay when he saw Houston defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan punch Oilers offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride on the sideline during the Oilers-Jets game Jan. 2. "I don't think it hurts (Ryan's) chances of getting a head-coaching job (because his chances were) slim to none," Cross said. Cross, a former All-Pro guard, had seen Ryan in action before. "In the Pro Bowl in 1985," Cross recalled, "(Mike)

When Pollo Rosso, a new restaurant in Chestnut Hill, says children are welcome, it means it. The reasonably priced Italian trattoria-type menu not only includes a section for youngsters, but lets kids 10 and under dine free from 5 to 6 p.m. The accommodation doesn't stop there: The restaurant even offers complimentary baby food. Yet if you didn't know this, you'd never think of Pollo Rosso (Red Chicken) as a "family restaurant. " The food is excellent and features an interesting mix of well-thought-out dishes in a congenial and relaxing setting.