Salad Bar

What should be done with the closed stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House? Over the last two months, the National Park Service solicited ideas via the Internet, colleges and publications. Now, the people have spoken. Make a gigantic playground and - wheeeee - even turn the Washington Monument into a slide, one madcap mind suggested. "It needs a swimming pool," someone scribbled. "It needs a salad bar," another scrawled. The 600 responses came as handwritten letters, doodlings on posters and even copyrighted, professional architectural renderings.

The saga of the proposed 1209 Vine St. homeless shelter - mired in politics, zoning conflicts, a bad shelter history and neighborhood opposition - continues. Yesterday, the owner of the building, Mohammad Mizani, who had originally planned to run the shelter, officially withdrew his application for zoning approval. The city is now expected to file a new application on behalf of Sylvestor Outley and the Rev. Henry Wells, the two homeless advocates the city wants to run the shelter in an odd joint venture born of a political deal.

Kale is about as unlikely a food star as you can imagine. It's tough and fibrous. Bite a piece of raw kale and you'll practically end up with splinters between your teeth. Nevertheless, kale has become a green of the moment because, given a little special care, it's not only edible but delicious. You can cook it, of course, the lower and slower the better. But surprisingly, one of the most popular ways to use kale these days is in salads. Though kale leaves have always been found on almost every salad bar, it wasn't for reasons of edibility - it was for decoration, because this was one green so tough it would last forever without wilting.

Now that the official opening of the summer outdoor eating season is upon us, we pose this riddle: When is a cookout not a cookout? When it's a salad bar! The meal-size, serve-yourself salad bar is the ideal alternative to the fuss and mess of the backyard barbecue - particularly if you don't have a barbecue (or a back yard.) You can entertain on the patio or porch, balcony or rooftop, deck or dock, or in the den or dining room when the weather won't cooperate. It's also the ultimate in do-ahead ease, especially important if you're not just the host but the mother of the birthday boy or father of the grad with lots to tend to. Visit your favorite restaurant salad bar to borrow inspiration on how your salad bar/buffet might be set up. Note that the traffic pattern has been carefully thought out: A logical "assembly line" starts with bowls and silverware, moves along to salad greens, then to other vegetables, past meats, poultry and heartier ingredients, and finally arrives at dressings, toppings and garnishes.

If you're looking for exceptional value in seafood, check out The Chowder Pot in Pennsauken, N.J. This spacious restaurant, decorated to the nth degree in a nautical theme, distinguishes itself with an all-you-can-eat salad bar that will make the seafood lover swoon. The standouts: medium (60 to 70 a pound) shrimp, steamed and chilled and served with an excellent cocktail sauce and lemon slices. Also included on the salad bar are the restaurant's namesake soups, two wonderful clam chowders.

Vince Pupillo remembers how he, his father and his brother used to drive to Swedesboro every morning and load the family's pickup truck with vegetables from the farms. They would then drive to an intersection in Conshohocken, where they would sell corn and tomatoes off the back of the truck. That was in 1976. Today, the Blue Route runs through that same intersection. And the Pupillos have gone from being produce hucksters to being proprietors of two companies with combined sales of $12 million and a distribution territory that covers 18 states.

As kids, we learned about the egg. It was a bountiful gift dropped on humanity by the hen. "The perfect food" was the way mothers and nutritionists described eggs when trying to force them into resistant urchins, eggs that made your bones strong and your teeth shiny. Well, you know what happened to the egg. Its reputation plummeted. Now it's merely another in a series of nutritional disillusionments. Consider the salad bar. When it was introduced many years ago, I became an enthusiastic advocate, promoting its cultural advantages.

It won't set the culinary world afire, but Captain Sam's Chowder Pot, a fast-service family restaurant in Pennsauken, is a decent place to take the family for a night out. The Chowder Pot, which opened in November on the site of a Sambo's restaurant, is one of a chain of 11 New Jersey restaurants catering to diners who want huge quantities of reasonably decent food. That is exactly what you get. The centerpiece of the Chowder Pot experience is an extensive salad bar that will quickly quell your hunger pangs.

Philadelphia's Chart House, which recently sailed into its third year on Penn's Landing, continues to do boffo box office. That's an apt choice of words for this dramatically designed, on-the-waterfront enterprise that looks more like a theater than a restaurant. This is the most popular Chart House in the 62-restaurant chain, and because no reservations are taken, two-hour waits are legend. Why do Philadelphians flock here while more intimate, more imaginative restaurants quietly fold their napkins and vanish into the night?

What it is: Merion Square Gourmet Foods, Gladwyne. What we like about it: For hungry diners looking for takeout variety, Merion Square Gourmet Foods offers a wealth of choices with its hot and cold buffet menu and sandwiches. Menu items are made fresh by owners James and Kun Ji, who opened the takeout-only restaurant 11 years ago after moving from South Korea in 1989. Daughter Debbie Choi is the manager. The salad bar and hot buffet are open for business from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Kale is about as unlikely a food star as you can imagine. It's tough and fibrous. Bite a piece of raw kale and you'll practically end up with splinters between your teeth. Nevertheless, kale has become a green of the moment because, given a little special care, it's not only edible but delicious. You can cook it, of course, the lower and slower the better. But surprisingly, one of the most popular ways to use kale these days is in salads. Though kale leaves have always been found on almost every salad bar, it wasn't for reasons of edibility - it was for decoration, because this was one green so tough it would last forever without wilting.

Have a sandwich, Twiggy. In fact, go ahead and down a 6-foot sub. With cheese. Fat is suddenly fabulous, at least on TV, a realm once thought to be the exclusive playground for stick figures. Drop Dead Diva , a dramedy about a rail-thin model reincarnated as a plump lawyer, is scoring the highest ratings for a new Lifetime series since Army Wives debuted in 2007. Dance Your Ass Off , in which contestants shake their girth thing to wild applause, is the heftiest hit in Oxygen's history Ruby , which chronicles the adventures of 500-pound Ruby Gettinger, is responsible for the Style Network's highest numbers.

In hazy sunshine yesterday morning, dozens of East Germantown residents stood in front of the new, green-and-white Fresh Grocer store, waiting for the doors to finally open. "I'm so glad," said Gertrude Heath, 69, her empty cart nearby. Soon, it would be filled with cases of soda, paper towels, and other necessities for a family barbecue. For years, Heath said, she has traveled 20 minutes by bus to a ShopRite on Fifth Street. Now, she can walk to the Fresh Grocer, on Chew Avenue between Church Lane and Wister Street, which she said was "going to do a lot for the community.

The past few years, we've seen an explosion in restaurants offering small plates with global flavors. Our tastes include sushi, tapas and even Peruvian Chinese. Now, with national attention on Zahav and a loyal local following for the BYOB Kanella, we've landed squarely on pan-Middle Eastern fare. If you want to try Israeli and Turkish cuisine in a more casual setting without the white tablecloth, try Hamifgash, on Sansom Street near 8th. Hamifgash means "meeting place.

The past few years, we've seen an explosion in restaurants offering small plates with global flavors. Our tastes include sushi, tapas and even Peruvian Chinese. Now, with national attention on Zahav and a loyal local following for the BYOB Kanella, we've landed squarely on pan-Middle Eastern fare. If you want to try Israeli and Turkish cuisine in a more casual setting without the white tablecloth, try Hamifgash, on Sansom Street near 8th. Hamifgash means "meeting place.

Fresh salad greens deserve equally fresh dressing. And a simple vinaigrette - a quick blend of oil and vinegar with seasonings - is the freshest and purest of them. But vinaigrette, that most basic of dressings, the perfect complement to salads, can be so much more. It can serve as a marinade or full-fledged sauce with entrees as well. At Marigold in West Philadelphia, executive chef Erin O'Shea has come up with some innovative vinaigrettes. Inspired by the flavor of smoked salmon, which led to thoughts of fried green tomatoes, O'Shea came up with a buttermilk vinaigrette that ties together those two favorite foods on the plate.

Tender yet crispy fried chicken cutlets are enough to turn even the simplest salad into a main dish. Serve them on a seasonal salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots now, or shredded red cabbage, red onions, apples or avocado come fall. Crispy Chicken Salad (Makes 4 to 5 servings) 1. For the chicken , remove the tenderloin of each breast half. Butterfly each half for 8 cutlets and 4 tenderloins. Season with salt and pepper. 2. Set up the flour and egg. Mix the panko and Parmesan.

What it is: Merion Square Gourmet Foods, Gladwyne. What we like about it: For hungry diners looking for takeout variety, Merion Square Gourmet Foods offers a wealth of choices with its hot and cold buffet menu and sandwiches. Menu items are made fresh by owners James and Kun Ji, who opened the takeout-only restaurant 11 years ago after moving from South Korea in 1989. Daughter Debbie Choi is the manager. The salad bar and hot buffet are open for business from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Early one lovely morning this spring, I peered through the kitchen window to see a surprise in my backyard. Quiet as church mice, six deer were meandering through it. You always know they are out there somewhere, but it's still surreal to be a stone's throw away from wild creatures. I was entranced - until I realized the deer were munching on the tender shoots of our prized daylilies. It was deja vu all over again. My husband and I moved out into the country in 1993 and have lived in relatively peaceful coexistence with all our woodland neighbors.

Mobster or prosecutor, TV reporter or defense attorney, consigliere's brother or police commissioner - aren't we really all the same when we're sitting in front of nice chicken parm with a little rigatoni on the side? We are. Especially if that cutlet is breaded just right - light, golden - and the gravy tastes like grandmom's and the cheese isn't 9 inches thick and the rigatoni is al dente. This is how they make it at Pagano's Market, an eatery that has become the lunchtime home for players of the Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino mob racketeering trial.