As you can guess, I liked our visit last week to Ithaca. We added two days to summer holidays there in a few weeks to do some more exploring and that is going to include a return trip to the Farmer's Market as well as Ralph's Ribs.
The photos are pretty self-descriptive but suffice it to say, fresh sugar snap peas and sweet cherries make a great breakfast. I had a movie of the guy playing the pipes above but it broke the unwritten privacy standards around here so didn't pass muster. I would like to know how to edit an MPG. I know I likely have the tools right in front of me.
The view behind the market
The setting of the Ithaca Farmer's Market is one of the best things about it. It sits at the south end of Cayuga Lake in woods next to a marina. A tour boat offers trips from a small wharf.
One thing I will go on about is Ralph's Ribs (aka Ralphs Ribs) which has a stall in the Farmer's Market and a restaurant on #13 to the south of town between the Wegmans and Little Buttermilk Falls. Careful readers will know that I have a thing for ribs - even giving posts about ribs their own category. I can say the very rib I have photographed here was the single best rib I have ever had in my life. Yet its outsides were crispy and caramelized. The sauce sweet. The cut of meat was profound. It was as soft and meaty plump as that small smoked ham I bought off a grannie in a market in Poland which I figured had a relationship to smoking which consisited only of her looking at the ham and thinking about smoke. Owned by Ralph Moss and Robert Wright, Chef Ralph (in the chili pants) uses his mom's own recipe and by the time I took the photo of him my hands were shaking from the emotion of the moment. See below for six pics about Ralph's.
Comments
portland - July 11, 2005 5:44 PM
is that kid wearing an expos cap? bless him.
Dave Jacobs - June 12, 2006 9:15 PM
What has happended to Ralph's Ribs??????????
Alan - June 12, 2006 9:32 PM
Is it gone?
gr - June 13, 2006 8:16 AM
Wait, I thought I saw it there last month. I will look for it on the way to the dump and Wegman's this am. (insert 'Mission Impossible' music here)
Alan - June 13, 2006 8:26 AM
That would be so sad. Root around back for some memorabilia if it is in fact shut. Glad I got a cool hat from them. More Ralph's goodness here. As far as I understand, Ralph's is/was western North Carolinian style BBQ: sweet tomato vinegar smokey.
Alan - June 13, 2006 8:52 AM
Hey - I knew I had a picture of the cheese display at the Ithaca Wegmans with Chimay wheels:<p><center><a href="images/2006b/chimay.JPG"><img src="images/2006b/chimay1.JPG" vspace="20"></a></center><p>Best of all it is clickable so the cheese gets bigger. I am suggesting use as a screen saver but I leave it to you.
gr - June 13, 2006 3:27 PM
Alan, the news is bad, as Dave Jacobs suggests. Ralph's is fortunately next to the county dump (close, anyway) and I was able to view the mess myself. Fresh paint has been sprayed around, all the tables and chairs were on the sidewalk. Worst of all, the final nail in the coffin, 'Garcia's Mexican restaurant Opening Soon'. There are still one or two Ralph's signs around. It is possible that he has simply moved, I dunno (no sign mentioned this possibility). of course, this particular vegetarian is indifferent to ribs.
As it turns out, Alan, cheese was on sale at Wegman's, as things oftentimes are, and I got 4 different blocks. I suppose that sounds restrained, but the budget and apetite do have limitations. I can get more next week.
Alan - June 13, 2006 4:35 PM
I am glad, then, to have created this record of the enterprise.
gr - June 13, 2006 7:33 PM
But Alan, we'll always have Purity Ice Cream.
Alan - June 13, 2006 7:43 PM
Coconut at Purity is the best.