While I’m fairly certain that the human body is not designed to consume eight individual scrapple-based dishes in a row, that’s exactly what I did this Saturday as a judge at the Reading Terminal Market’s ScrappleFest.

The afternoon event, a celebration of the local cornmeal- and piggyparts-based breakfast wonder, brought together a handful of regional scrapple producers to pimp their wares to nibblers who circled and swarmed about RTM’s center court like flesh-starved piranhas. And rightly so — greasy, fresh-griddled scrapple morsels skewered with toothpicks stretched like bite-size landmines for what seemed like miles. And there was also the visual wonderment of Godshall’s Phillies scrapple cake and the Dietz & Watson scrapple truck.

I joined Rx chef/owner Greg Salisbury, Where publisher Laura Burkhardt and chef/author Aliza Green (who lent her expertise to the recent Main Line Foodapalooza) as a judge in the recipe contest, which featured RTM vendors’ scrapple renditions. Some interesting stuff on hand, from two versions of scrapple lasagna to turkey scrapple meatloaf. In the end, though, Mediterranean counter Mezze took top honors for an addictive scrapple and scrambled egg stromboli. In second was the Fair Food Farmstand, which served its popular vegan Vrapple with pan-roasted pumpkin, apples and mascarpone grits. Third place went to Carmen’s Famous Italian Hoagies, who threw hunks of scrapple onto a cheesesteak and called it an amazing day. (You can actually order this at Carmen’s if you ask nice.)

Inquirer food columnist Rick Nichols was in the house — he actually served as ScrappleFest judge in 2007, and told the crowd that he felt it was best to leave massive/ungodly scrapple consumption to  “all these young people.” I ain’t that young anymore, sir, but I will gladly take up that torch and sprint with it until gout renders my toes inoperable.

PREVIOUSLY: Reading Terminal Market’s ScrappleFest this Saturday, March 21

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 am and is filed under Food Events, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.