The Food Almanac: August 18, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and saying.
Eating Calendar
Today is National Ice Cream Pie Day. The ice cream pie was most celebrated at the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans, whose Caribbean Room restaurant served a classic version. Mile-High Ice Cream Pie, as they called it, had layers of vanilla, chocolate, and peppermint, topped with a thick layer of meringue, then a flow of warm chocolate sauce. When I was in my early twenties I ate a whole piece once. The waiter registered astonishment and said, "It's the policy of the house that when you finish a mile-high pie, you can have another slice free!"
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
Birthday dinners with chills and flames
Call forth cheap thrills and easy games.
Ice cream mounds are simple to make
Open freezer, whipped cream shake,
Light the candles, sing the ditty.
Nothing to it! The smiles are pretty.
Annals of Seafood
This is the day on which, according to local lore, the soft-shell shrimp appear in the nets of the shrimp fishermen. We know soft-shell crabs well enough, and soft-shell crawfish appear now and then. But soft-shell shrimp are almost unheard of. The probable reason: fishermen save them for themselves. Who could blame them? Although even regular shrimp shells are moderately edible (I pull the heads and legs off, but eat the rest shell and all), you can completely devour these. All you need to do is cut off the eye stalks and the beak-like rostrum and, with care, the rest is edible. Soft-shell shrimp are particularly appealing as barbecue shrimp. I have no leads for suppliers, but keep your eyes open for them.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Is Oleopolis a city of margarine? Almost. "Oleopolis" is a Greek way of saying "oil city." And, in fact, there is an Oil City five miles downstream on the Allegheny River. Oleopolis is at the bottom of a 400-foot gorge dug out by the river, right on the banks. There's nothing extra-virgin or even edible about the oil in the name. This is the area where the world's first successful oil wells were drilled. All the restaurants nearby are in Oil City. The Yellow Dog Lantern sounds interesting.
Edible Dictionary
margarine, n. — A spread made by emulsifying vegetable oil in water. It was created as a substitute for butter. Emperor Louis Napoleon III called for its invention. The winner was Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, who created and named the stuff "oleomargarine" in 1869. The word comes from the Greek for palm tree, where the fatty acids used to make margarine originally were obtained. Almost everywhere margarine was introduced, it triggered strong opposition from dairy farmers, largely because it was so much cheaper than butter. In the United States for a long time, it couldn't be colored yellow (its natural color was a sickly white). In Canada, it was banned outright for decades. It became widely accepted in World War II, and even became popular in the years after the war. Restaurants that opened in those years often still use margarine in their recipes, where any other restaurant would used butter.
Food Namesakes
The Spitfire Grill won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival today in 1996. . . Dan Quayle was nominated as George Bush I's running mate, right here in New Orleans, on this date in 1988. . . Comic actress Elayne Boosler was born today in 1952. . . In the Athens Olympics in 2004, Paul Hamm won the men's gymnastics all-around gold medal by the closest margin in history. . . Former basketball pro Fat Lever had the Big Tipoff today in 1960.
Words to Eat By
"Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better." — Robert Redford, born today in 1937.
Words to Drink By
"Drink today, and drown all sorrow;
You shall perhaps not do it tomorrow;
Best, while you have it, use your breath;
There is no drinking after death."— Ben Jonson.