offthemenu

by Carolyn Wyman

The French Revolution was partly about food, or, to be more precise, the lack of it. And for years, the highlight of Eastern State Penitentiary's Bastille Day re-enactment has been the moment when insensitive monarch Marie Antoinette says her breadless subjects should "eat Tastykake," before showering them with about 2,000 of the Philadelphia baker's popular Butterscotch Krimpets. At least it was until last July, when Marie (played by Terry McNally of London Grill) had the even greater gall to feed them Kansas City-produced Twinkies — as she will again this Saturday.

What gives?

"It's partly a public-safety issue," explains event organizer Sean Kelley, partly in jest, citing Twinkies' more aerodynamic design and lighter weight over the standard Krimpet twin pack.

Twinkies are also a little cheaper — a big consideration for a nonprofit — and, despite years of begging, Kelley has never been able to get Tasty Baking Company to donate Krimpets to the cause.

"Their leaders are indifferent to the demands of the people. Sound familiar?" asks Kelley. In addition to wearing French peasants' clothes, Kelley says, Bastille Day revelers should bring "protest signs against the Twinkies or suggesting the heads of the Tastykake executives should roll. This is a revolution, after all."
Sat., July 16, 5:30 p.m., free, Eastern State Penitentiary, 22nd St. and Fairmount Ave., 215-236-3300, www.easternstate.org/events/bastille.html.

In Short
To hear Drew Keegan of The Book and the Cook tell it, local foodies were sitting around talking about all the summer food activity in town — the summer Book and the Cook, the farm markets, Buy Local Day — when someone wondered aloud, "Hey! Why not collaborate and schedule this stuff together?"

Why not? Because anyone who planned their shore vacation for early to mid-July is going to miss the bulk of this city's summer food fun. Fortunately, Buy Fresh, Buy Local Week/Book and the Cook Summer spans two weekends. If you're reading this, you're in town in time for about half of the author-restaurant dinners, the Reading Terminal Market's Buy-Local-Palooza Saturday street fest and the beer and food events at World Café Live (Friday, 7-10 p.m.) and Headhouse Square (scheduled for 5:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday but since it benefits Slow Food, who knows?).

Details at www.thebookandthecook.com/ specialevents/index.php?article_id=88 and www.whitedogcafefoundation.org/events.html.

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