Sandwiches

You can obviously take Shank's out of the Italian Market - though the cramped new Center City edition of this luncheonette will never have the old neighborhood feeling of the Carpenter Street original. But as long as the founding Perri family's women are still cooking, you can't take the Italian Market soul out of Shank's menu. Bringing along the heart of this kitchen was the plan when new owner Marcello Ciurlino moved the popular lunch spot north this summer, and it's payed off with sandwiches that exude a genuine South Philly savor.

A couple hundred years ago, a Brit named Earl - actually, his name was John and he was an earl - had a gambling problem. He loved gambling so much he refused to stop playing cards to eat lunch. So, a clever cook came up with a complete meal that John could consume quickly, and without getting his hands - or his cards - dirty. The cook slapped some cold meat between two slices of bread and served it to his boss. Nobody remembers the name of John's cook. But we all know John as the Earl of Sandwich.

When winter winds howl and you need to get lunch on the table fast, why not a hot microwaved sandwich? It will be ready in minutes, and you need only add a soup or salad, a glass of milk and fruit for dessert to round out the meal. You should know, however, that not all sandwiches are candidates for the microwave. Open-faced meat or poultry sandwiches, cheese melts, stuffed rolls and heroes all microwave superbly. But grilled sandwiches fare better on the stovetop, and filled croissants do better in a regular oven because microwaving makes them soggy.

It's a list to make Philly sandwich lovers drool. Or is it a half-dozen lists rolled up into one chewer-friendly guide? WIP midday cohost Glen Macnow has finished his Hot Specialty Sandwich Safari - his sixth annual great-food hunt - and declared the top six that will face a panel of slobbering celebrity judges next Thursday. The public is invited to attend the event - and try free samples, starting about 11 a.m. - at the Fieldhouse, 11th and Filbert Streets, next to Reading Terminal Market.

IN THE FOOD business, there's not much that's trendier than a food truck. Maybe gluten-free pastry. Or garlic scapes. Or waiters with mustaches. That's about it. Breakfast through dinner, mobile culinary units have in recent years multiplied nationwide. In our town, the campuses of Temple, Drexel and Penn have long been home to falafel, kielbasa and soul-food vendors. Today, they also host trucks and carts serving gourmet grilled cheeses, breakfast tacos, pork bulgogi and vegan banh mi. Last year, LOVE Park became a temporary residence to a mess of mostly newbie trucks proffering wood-grilled pizza, custom burgers, Trinidadian doubles, single-origin coffee, red velvet cupcakes and "Iron Chef"-approved tacos.

It was poetry reading night at the recently opened Cafe Flix on North Church Street in West Chester. A man with long brown hair squeezed his way through the crowd up to the old wooden bar, where countless draft beers and shots of whiskey used to be served. He ordered a six-pack to go. "We don't serve alcohol," Dave Shur, owner of the cafe, informed the patron from behind the bar. The man seemed momentarily stunned. He stared into the glass-front refrigerator that for years had been stocked with assorted beers.

For a few hours Sunday, they agreed to miss the Flyers playoff game and held off on those "Honey-do" lists of household chores. Instead, the South Jersey Men's Club made nearly 400 peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for a group of eaters they'll never meet - men and women with outstanding bench warrants for alleged nonviolent offenses. The sandwiches were just one slice of the rewards for hundreds of wanted people expected to turn themselves in over the next few days at an Atlantic City church as part of New Jersey's Fugitive Safe Surrender program.

Despite Philadelphia's bad national reputation, a new wind is wafting a positive aroma in our direction from the most effete of circles: food snobs. My wife subscribes to Saveur, a magazine for gourmands published in New York City. So I am knocking down a Frank's Black Cherry Wishniak at the kitchen table, and I see this enormous mass of glossy paper next to her elbow. I pick it up, and, lo and behold, the entire April issue is devoted to sandwiches. (Really.) And the city that is the indisputable king of this food category is Philly.

Tea sandwiches are as many and varied as the baked goods that crowd the table for Afternoon Tea. At a minimum, there are fingers of bread lacquered with sweet butter and a pot of jelly or honey nearby. But there might also be cucumber sandwiches made of thin disks of bread primed with a glaze of butter and shingles of cucumber laid on top. Potted shrimp or ham might be spread on toast, or slices of tomato and grated cheese on a length of french bread. There is likely a pile of buns filled with sausage, cheese or deviled meats, and tiny squares of white bread spread with herb butter and smoked fish.

Natalie Braunstein Folkman, 92, who at age 86 moved out of her large home in Reading into a small high-rise apartment in Philadelphia and got around Center City on a small, collapsible bicycle, died Saturday at her residence. Mrs. Folkman was born and raised in Coatesville. Her parents sent her to Philadelphia every Sunday to attend Sunday school at Congregation Keneseth Israel on North Broad Street. In her later years, when she lived in the city, she used to go on walks and give out sandwiches to homeless people.

IN THE FOOD business, there's not much that's trendier than a food truck. Maybe gluten-free pastry. Or garlic scapes. Or waiters with mustaches. That's about it. Breakfast through dinner, mobile culinary units have in recent years multiplied nationwide. In our town, the campuses of Temple, Drexel and Penn have long been home to falafel, kielbasa and soul-food vendors. Today, they also host trucks and carts serving gourmet grilled cheeses, breakfast tacos, pork bulgogi and vegan banh mi. Last year, LOVE Park became a temporary residence to a mess of mostly newbie trucks proffering wood-grilled pizza, custom burgers, Trinidadian doubles, single-origin coffee, red velvet cupcakes and "Iron Chef"-approved tacos.

For a few hours Sunday, they agreed to miss some of the Flyers playoff game and held off on those "Honey-do" lists of household chores. Instead, the South Jersey Men's Club made nearly 400 peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches for a group of eaters they'll never meet - men and women wanted on outstanding bench warrants for nonviolent offenses. The sandwiches were just one slice of the rewards for hundreds of fugitives expected to turn themselves in over the next few days at an Atlantic City church as part of New Jersey's Fugitive Safe Surrender program.

For a few hours Sunday, they agreed to miss the Flyers playoff game and held off on those "Honey-do" lists of household chores. Instead, the South Jersey Men's Club made nearly 400 peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for a group of eaters they'll never meet - men and women with outstanding bench warrants for alleged nonviolent offenses. The sandwiches were just one slice of the rewards for hundreds of wanted people expected to turn themselves in over the next few days at an Atlantic City church as part of New Jersey's Fugitive Safe Surrender program.

Try this Guinness-marinated steak sandwich for St. Paddy's Day, a refreshing change from stew or corned beef and cabbage.   Guinness Marinated Flank Steak Sandwiches With Grilled Onions and Boursin Cheese Makes 4 servings 2-pound flank steak or London broil, at least 1-inch thick 14.9-ounce can Guinness beer 2 large red onions, cut into 1/2-inch slices 1 small container Boursin...

The which-came-first question is a tough one, but we can agree that eggs tend to produce chickens and other things. And thanks to one imperious state cabinet official, a few eggs from Harrisburg are still hatching - long after they were supposed to have ended their life cycle in the form of a sandwich. The eggs at issue are the ones that Pennsylvania Health Secretary Eli Avila deemed insufficiently fresh after he ordered them up with all haste at a diner near the Capitol a year ago. Their progeny now includes a lawsuit by the diner's owner, who charges that Avila abused his rather limited authority in a quest to exact revenge over the impudent sandwich.

Domenic C. Spataro, 94, of Buckingham, Bucks County, patriarch of Spataro's, a decades-old sandwich shop at Reading Terminal Market, died Thursday, Jan. 26, of congestive heart failure at Doylestown Hospital. "He epitomized our independent merchant community," Paul Steinke, general manager of the market, said Tuesday. "He became a legend in longevity, having worked in the market since 1930. " Steinke recalled that "occasionally someone comes to our office and says, 'My great-grandfather had some kind of store here . . . and I'm trying to figure out where it was.' "And I would march them down to Mr. Spataro, and almost to the end he would know who they were, where their stand was located, and approximately when they were here.

HARRISBURG - The owner of a popular diner near the Capitol is suing state Health Secretary Eli Avila, claiming that the secretary tried to block him from receiving a lucrative state contract in retaliation for a dispute over an egg sandwich. Richard Hanna, owner of Roxy's Café, said Avila attempted to block him from being awarded the contract to run the cafeteria - this shortly after he and Avila had an argument one morning over the freshness of the eggs in a sandwich that Hanna had served him. In the suit, Hanna says he believes Avila "abused his power as a public official in a personal vendetta based upon personal animus.

HE RULED over an empire of Subway franchises, serving up $5 footlongs and Veggie Delites in the Philadelphia suburbs. His wife drove a big, white Mercedes from her home in a swanky section of Abington to her job as a cashier at Sam's Club. But when Paul Ravi Vangore suspected that his wife was cheating on him, that he couldn't satisfy or stop her hunger for something different, authorities say that he allegedly tried to serve her alleged lover and a few of his friends something not on the menu: a $7,500 hit to stuff them full of lead.

Tables across the country will be overflowing with myriad traditions on Thanksgiving Day. Most will have turkeys, some will have ethnic eats such as ravioli, collard greens, or kugel. But there's one thing all the holiday revelers will have in common: Scouring the fridge the next day and gorging on leftovers. "I actually look forward to the leftovers more than the dinner itself," says Peter McAndrews, chef and owner of Philadelphia's Modo Mio, Monsù, and Paesano's. It's a sentiment many hosts would repeat.

A trip to the United Kingdom, where fast - but fresh and light - sandwich shops rule, inspired Capogiro owner Stephanie Reitano to create this new line for her gelateria. Ingredients are high-quality (eggs from Green Meadow Farm, ham from Lancaster), the packaging is sleek, and all the sandwiches are about 400 calories and made fresh daily. Pick one up with your morning coffee and score a meal deal. There's BLT, egg salad, ham or turkey with cheese, and tuna.   - Ashley Primis $5-$5.45, available at the 20th St., University of Pennsylvania, and 13th St. Capogiro locations, capogirogelato.com .