The Knife Guy at Zerns – Winter Citrus Salad with Radicchio and Endive

About once a month on Friday afternoons after work and school in the 1970s, my parents would put my brothers and I in the back seat of the car – no seat belts required in the back seat – and drive to a cabin they rented near Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Depending on the route they took from our Philadelphia home, we would sometimes stop at Zerns Farmers Market in Gilbertsville, PA, for supplies.

Zerns was an odd place. Part Pennsylvania Dutch farmer’s market, part cheesy department store, part flea market, part antique store, you could get anything you wanted, and lots that you didn’t need. There were indoor and outdoor sections. You could play pinball and eat. There were three separate auctions, one selling animals, one selling automobiles, and Rick’s, which sold whatever junk people brought in from their homes. My brothers and I would get bags of penny candy and 1970s-style t-shirts with thick iron-on decals, made for us on the spot. We visited the joke store to buy gags and fake vomit to try to fool one another, and I spent a lot of money on 45s at the record stand in the very center of the maze. There was that guy with those glasses – bright yellow lenses and plastic voluptuous women’s legs wrapped around his ears. He was always – really always – sitting on the bench by the barbershop. And I have some vague memory of an old, disheveled man at a stand outside who would bend thick nails, maybe with his teeth or fingers as people watched in amazement.

My favorite part of Zerns was the knife guy; he was a real, live infomercial for the Ginsu knife – it must have been around the same time they aired the commercials on television – but this guy was live. He had a small stand outside near the flea and vegetable markets where he would put on his show. My parents would go off to buy fruits and vegetables and hopefully bacon for breakfast the next day, and I’d watch him in awe with the gathering crowd. He would slice and dice and make fancy shapes out of fruits and vegetables. He’d slam the knife handle with a hammer to show that it was indestructible. At some point during his production he would saw an empty beer can in half with the knife, and immediately after, slice a tomato paper thin, like it was butter on a warm summer day.

To me as a child, the best part was the gift he threw in to seal the deal…a little plastic orange juicer. He would rotate its teeth with ease until it sank a couple of inches right into the bottom of the orange. He then gave the fruit an effortless squeeze. Out came the juice – like he opened a spigot. It was a miracle. Every once in a while he would send a kid off to a farm stand to buy more fruits and vegetables for the next show, and when the lucky one returned, he would tip him with one of those juicers. I so wanted to run that errand.

Eventually, after years of fascination and prodding, we persuaded our parents to buy a Ginsu. It was a good knife, perfect for slicing tomatoes and bread. The juicer, well, not so much. It never inserted into the orange with ease, and it was always difficult to get more than a few drops of juice from the fruit.

My parents still have their Ginsu, which works perfectly well, as sharp as ever. I now own two, one purchased used, at a different flea market, and one from my in-laws, who must have ordered it from the recorded infomercial on late night TV. While it has its place in the kitchen and I still use it for some tasks, today I have better tools in the knife drawer. Nonetheless, my Ginsu knives still make me smile. Every time I open the drawer and see them, I think of the hours I spent as a kid fascinated, watching the knife guy at Zerns. I only wish my knife skills were as good as his.

Winter Citrus Salad with Radicchio and Endive

Citrus is at its prime in winter and its sweet acidity pairs beautifully with bitter radicchio and endive to make this colorful salad. There are many varieties of oranges available this time of year, and you can use as few or as many as you want – despite what I list in the ingredients. However, I like the variation because it makes the salad that much more interesting in terms of both flavor and presentation.

Use your knife – your Ginsu, if you have one – to peel and cut the citrus into different shapes to make it pretty. I use rounds and supremes, and describe how to cut them in the recipe below. You could also search online for a simple video to help.

15 minutes, feeds four as an appetizer

1 small head radicchio, leaves torn into bite-size pieces

1 head Belgian endive, leaves separated and cut into bite-size pieces

1 naval orange

1 blood orange

1 cara cara orange

1 pink grapefruit

¼ cup toasted, chopped pecans

Pomegranate arils (seeds) from one half of a pomegranate

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. white wine or champagne vinegar

½ tsp. Dijon mustard

1 tsp. honey

¼ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 Tbsp. fresh dill, chopped

1. Tear the radicchio into bite-size pieces and arrange on four small plates.
2. Separate the leaves from the head of Belgian endive, cut into bite-size pieces, and arrange with the radicchio on the plates.
3. Cut the top and bottom off one orange to make flat surfaces. Stand the orange on one flat surface and with a sharp knife, slice off the peel from the top, following the contour of the orange, and working to the bottom. Leave as much of the flesh of fruit as possible, while removing the bitter white pith. Rotate the orange and repeat, slicing off all of peel. There should be little to no pith remaining on the orange when finished.
4. Repeat with the remaining oranges and the grapefruit.
5. Cut two of the oranges horizontally into ¼ to ½-inch thick rounds. Arrange on the plates.
6. Over a bowl, cut the other orange into supremes by slicing each section out of the fruit, leaving the membranes behind. Carefully slice into the orange parallel to and right next to a membrane, without slicing into the membrane. Repeat on the opposite side of that section right next to its membrane. This should release the supreme. Rotate around the orange until all sections have been cut into supremes. Arrange the orange pieces on the plates. Squeeze the juice from the remaining membranes into the bowl and reserve to make a dressing. Discard the squeezed out membranes.
7. Supreme the grapefruit, and arrange the sections on the plates. You may or may not want to save the grapefruit juice, depending on whether or not you want it in the dressing.
8. Sprinkle the toasted, chopped pecans and pomegranate arils over the salads.
9. Make salad dressing. Put 2 Tbsp. of the reserved orange (and grapefruit juice, if using) in a small bowl. Add the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper, and whisk together to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings. You may need more vinegar, oil, or salt, depending on how much juice came from the orange and grapefruit, and how sweet it is.
10. Spoon a little dressing over each salad, and sprinkle with chopped dill.

Please like and share this post: