The Food Almanac: April 28, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and sayings.
Eating Calendar
The celebration of the best part of crawfish season here in Louisiana continues. Today is Crawfish Pie Day. Crawfish pie became famous outside the precincts where it's most enjoyed through the agency of Hank Williams's hit song Jambalaya. That song created a three-way combo that Cajun restaurants offer to this day: jambalaya, crawfish pie, and filé gumbo. Crawfish pie starts with the same ensemble of ingredients you'd use to make crawfish étouffée, but with no tomato and less liquid. It's also enriched with a little cream and thickened with a touch of egg. Although the classic crawfish pie is made in a standard (but small) pie shell, my preference is to make it as a turnover, baked or fried.
It is also National Blueberry Pie Day. Blueberries aren't in season yet — our bushes here at the ranch have nothing yet, and this is as far south as it gets — save, of course, for Chile, from which almost all blue- and blackberries come this time of year. In any case, blueberry pie sounds better than it is. For the blueberries to hold a berry texture, they must float in a thick matrix, which is too often made super-sweet. Blueberries are so marvelous in their fresh state that this comes across to our palates as a parody. But then, I like blueberry jam on my toast.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Blueberry, Minnesota is in the north central part of the state, about 183 miles from Minneapolis. It's in a glacier-scraped landscape with as many lakes as the license plates claim. Blueberry Lake is right there, and there's a Blueberry Pines Golf Club nearby, where you can get a bite to eat.
Celebrity Chefs Today
Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, was born today in 1944. Her inspiration was in tirelessly searching for the best possible ingredients, and encouraging farmers to raise better quality foodstuffs, with as few artificial additives and techniques as possible. She led the movement toward organic foods in restaurants, and in doing so became one of the three or four most influential figures in the modern American restaurant industry. Here's a good site that tells about her and her ideas.
Annals of Food Research
We don't think of sugar beets often, but in fact a great deal of sugar is extracted from them, particularly in Eastern Europe. The man who developed the method for extracting the sucrose, Franz Karl Achard, was born today in 1753. As far as I know, sugar beets are rarely eaten as is.
Edible Dictionary
piccata, adj. — A pan-seared preparation of thin slices of veal, chicken, or other protein, served with a pan sauce of butter or olive oil with white wine and lemon juice. An almost universally-served dish in American-Italian restaurants. Very similar to veal francesca. The word "piccata" is a reference to the old practice of jabbing the meat to work fat into it, to tenderize the often-tough veal.
Turning Points in Dining
W.H. Carrier patented the modern air conditioner on this date in 1914. This was an incomparable for restaurants in places like New Orleans. Try to imagine dining on a 95-degree day in August with 85 percent humidity with nothing more than ceiling fans to keep patrons cool. (If you can't, go to Southern Italy in July and dine anywhere.) Thank you, Mr. Carrier!
Annals of School Lunches
Remember the student who was apprehended at his grammar school and had his pack searched, because he appeared to be carrying a gun? And that it turned out to be a very large burrito wrapped in aluminum foil? It was in Clovis, New Mexico, today in 2006.
Music to Do Shots By
Today in 1958, the mostly-instrumental song Tequila, by The Champs, hit Number One on the pop charts. The only word spoken (not really sung) in the number is the title.
Deft Dining Rule #838
You can have fun picking and eating wild berries, but no matter how many you find and eat, you will still need lunch afterwards.
Food Namesakes
Appropriate for today, Canadian singer Dorothee Berryman was picked today in 1948. Today is the birthday, in 1930, of James Baker III, cabinet member in the Reagan and Bush I administrations.
Words to Eat By
"A person who can get a good table at Chez Panisse at the last minute is a very important person indeed. Royalty begins with Alice Waters." — Willard Spiegelman.
"I've got a lot of ham in me." — Actor Lionel Barrymore, born today in 1878.
Words to Drink By
"I drink no more than a sponge" — Francois Rabelais, French author.