Veal

About this time of year, when all appears to have reached its bleakest, you begin looking for signs of new life. Such as a crocus cracking through the earth. Or a new restaurant. Bright, sunny and cheerful, filled with a spring-like promise of bounty. And guess what? I think I found one. It's called Alfio's. It's in Glenside, and it's only a month or so old. The place is named for Alfio Gaglianese, probably no stranger to many of the area's restaurant-goers. He was for nearly two decades the gracious and suave maitre d' of the DaVinci restaurant.

In researching a column on turkeys just before the holidays last year, I talked with some staff people at the Nicholas Turkey breeding farms in Sonoma, Calif. Nicholas is the largest producer of turkey breeding stock in the world, providing 80 percent in this country and 50 percent worldwide. One of the largest importers of turkey breeding stock from this country is Italy. Now Italian cuisine, I know, is not famous for its wonderful ways with turkey - but did you know that many of those marvelous Italian "veal" dishes aren't made with veal at all?

Q. Both my husband and I are watching our cholesterol and would appreciate an answer to this question: As far as cholesterol content is concerned, how does veal rate as compared to beef pork and lamb? - Mary Libkin Chicago, Ill. A. A 3 1/2-ounce serving of roast beef has 65 to 82 mg. of cholesterol; a 3 1/2-ounce serving of lean roast leg of lamb has 88 mg.; a 3 1/2-ounce lean pork chop has 99 mg; and a 3 1/2-ounce serving of veal cutlet has 100 mg. cholesterol. In other words, although there's not that great a difference among them, veal and pork have the most, then lamb, then beef.

Yo, Chefs! Here's a challenge: A new restaurant just opened. Paglia e Fieno, 937 E. Passyunk Ave., serves a dish called cotoletta principessa that is sheer delight. I would appreciate your help in getting the recipe. Theresa Cassello, Philadelphia Dear Theresa, Cotoletta principessa translates to veal cutlet "princess-style. " It's basically a variation of the longtime restaurant favorite, veal Oscar. The chef starts with a lightly breaded veal cutlet, covers it with a seafood stuffing and tops it with crabmeat, asparagus and mozzarella.

Yo, Chefs! What exactly is a "demi-glaze" ? I see many recipes that call for it. Is it used as a thickening agent? Could you please help me? Walter Byrnes, Pottsville, Pa. Dear Walter, Demi-glaze is the English word for demi-glace, a classic French base for meat sauces. Philippe Chin, the chef/owner of Chanterelles Restaurant, describes it as a slowly cooked reduction of of veal stock. As is typical for a grand French sauce, demi-glace requires several stages of preparation.

Business has been going so well at the new Ristorante Gravina in Northeast Philadelphia that a purveyor had to make a late-evening stop the other weekend to bring in more veal. "Everything just went," our server had explained earlier, when we requested the veal scaloppine with lemon. "The only veal we have until our order gets here is the veal chop. " By the time the delivery man arrived, we had made our selections, so we stayed with the 10-ounce veal chop ($18.50). This was a decent cut for the price, although it could have been trimmed better.

I'm generally not on the same wavelength as animal-rights activists, but I must admit they have a point when they object to the conditions under which formula-fed veal is produced. Cramming an animal into a cage the size of a shoe box and feeding it a diet by Du Pont is, at the very least, unnatural. One of the ironies of this system is that it produces very expensive meat that isn't very flavorful. It must be Mother Nature's way of telling us that something is out of kilter. The reason formula-fed veal isn't particularly tasty is that the calves are allowed little or no muscle development.

Six years after opening Augusto's in Warminster, chef Augusto Jalon has ventured into Huntingdon Valley for his second restaurant. Tavolo (2519 Huntingdon Pike, 215-938-8401), also an upper-end BYOB, occupies the onetime dentist's office between Philmont Avenue and Byberry Road last held by Stefano's. While Augusto's cuisine is global, Tavolo's takes advantage of the Ecuadoran-born chef's Italian resumé: Il Cantuccio, La Veranda, and Il Pastaio. "But no veal parm and that sort of stuff," says Jalon, whose menu highlights include housemade pastas (goat cheese ravioli, gnocchi, and the Piemontese staple tajarin, from $16.50 to $19)

Seems as if Punxsutawney Phil was right again. Though it's still early in the month, February has been more like spring than winter - which makes the rear dining room with the skylight at the revamped Cafe Borrelli a perfect place to lunch. This glass-topped room is bright and airy - and the room most in demand as winter evolves into spring. It's separated from the bar by a narrow dining section of tables set under colorful awnings. The menu here is pretty much traditional Italian.

Margaret Plotkin of Cheltenham has not eaten veal since the 1970s. First, she was in college and couldn't afford it. Then she heard animal-welfare activists complain about inhumane treatment of veal calves and didn't want to support that. "I've just gotten out of the habit," she said. "I haven't thought about it for a long time. " Plotkin's attitude has been widespread, helping drive down annual veal consumption in the United States from 3.5 pounds per person in 1975 to just one-half pound in 2004, although consumption in the Northeast is higher.

10 medium white button  mushrooms 1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted 5 sprigs fresh rosemary 10 ounces large pimiento-stuffed green olives Zest of 2 oranges Zest of 2 small lemons 2 (3 pounds each) veal roasts, netted and tied Fine sea salt Freshly ground black pepper 4 tablespoons olive oil 4 tablespoons honey 12 tablespoons apricot preserves 4 teaspoons imitation (kosher-for-Passover) mustard 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

The city's modest repertoire of German specialties was getting something of a booster shot one night last week at the new Hop Angel Brauhaus, successor to the venerable (which is not to say universally applauded) old Blue Ox Brauhaus, which poured its last Bavarian beer more than four years ago. In the intervening time, a short-lived bistro inhabited the bones of the old, stone-faced hall, whose lineage can be traced to 1683. But it wasn't a good fit, and never really caught fire.

Catelli Bros. Inc., a Collingswood lamb and veal processor, has merged its operations with a new holding company that also owns two Midwest calf farms, a Wisconsin feed producer, and a processing plant near Los Angeles, Catelli Bros. said yesterday. Anthony P. Catelli Jr., chief executive officer and cofounder of Catelli Bros., said that what drove the deal was the need to control his company's products from the farm to delivery to a store or restaurant. "My family has been in the veal business since 1946.

Six years after opening Augusto's in Warminster, chef Augusto Jalon has ventured into Huntingdon Valley for his second restaurant. Tavolo (2519 Huntingdon Pike, 215-938-8401), also an upper-end BYOB, occupies the onetime dentist's office between Philmont Avenue and Byberry Road last held by Stefano's. While Augusto's cuisine is global, Tavolo's takes advantage of the Ecuadoran-born chef's Italian resumé: Il Cantuccio, La Veranda, and Il Pastaio. "But no veal parm and that sort of stuff," says Jalon, whose menu highlights include housemade pastas (goat cheese ravioli, gnocchi, and the Piemontese staple tajarin, from $16.50 to $19)

Things got off to a mildly alarming start along Paper Mill Run one morning last week; Walter Staib inadvertently added blood to the copious sweat he was giving to the production of his A Taste of History public television series. Paper Mill Run is the didactically named tributary of Wissahickon Creek along which still stand the structures of RittenhouseTown, where the colonies' first paper mill was erected in 1690, currently the lower reaches of Mount Airy. It was in its original bake house, dating to about 30 years later, that Staib, the bearish chef-owner of Old City's historic City Tavern, was demonstrating cookery, circa 300 years ago: "You didn't just go in the kitchen," he noted, "and turn a knob.

It has been less than two weeks since Chris Scarduzio quit the city's steak-house rat race, pulling his Table 31 - once and for all - out of the searingly overheated competition. It was the first entrant, last spring, in the new wave (tsunami?) of Center City steak houses. Now the words "steak house/bistro," are being explicitly chiseled off the latest menus. Henceforth it is Table 31, period. But with a decided Italian accent. (We shall hear from Scarduzio in a moment as to why "Italian" is considered a less crowded field than "steak.

When it comes to a versatile ingredient for dinner on a budget, sausage is king. For starters, a little goes a long way. You can easily feed four to six people with the creative use of a single pound. It's a perfect vehicle for delivering flavor, a toothsome combination of ground meat, fat, and spices available raw and stuffed into casings, as well as cured and salt dried, ready to eat. As for its global cachet, sausage is an international star of the culinary world, represented by bratwurst and knockwurst in Germany, kielbasa in Poland, saucisson in France, and chorizo in Spain, to name a few. And its historical roots run deep: Sausage-making is an age-old method of preserving meat and utilizing trimmings, dating to ancient Babylon, Greece, and Rome.

I didn't notice the music when dinner was going well. And it was a pleasant first meal, after all, that had brought us back for an encore at Da Vinci Ristorante. I was eager to check out the new Italian BYOB that had landed in the space once occupied by the good flavors of Tre Scalini, which last year had moved a few blocks south. And as I sat that first night in the window of Da Vinci's dining room across the piazza from East Passyunk Avenue's singing fountain, my early impressions were bright.

Q. I'm having a holiday party in a few weeks and my husband requested that I serve osso buco. My only problem is that I have never made it before. Can you please send me a recipe and also give some advice about shopping for the ingredients? I enjoy trying your recipes! It sounds to me like Old Hubby needs to roll up his sleeves and don an apron. He who requests should offer to help. On the other hand, you may be better off if he avoids the kitchen before the party. We will give him credit in that osso buco is a very good dish for entertaining because it is something that can easily be made ahead of time (even a day ahead)

Margaret Plotkin of Cheltenham has not eaten veal since the 1970s. First, she was in college and couldn't afford it. Then she heard animal-welfare activists complain about inhumane treatment of veal calves and didn't want to support that. "I've just gotten out of the habit," she said. "I haven't thought about it for a long time. " Plotkin's attitude has been widespread, helping drive down annual veal consumption in the United States from 3.5 pounds per person in 1975 to just one-half pound in 2004, although consumption in the Northeast is higher.