The Food Almanac: August 4, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and saying.
Music to Eat Red Beans and Rice By
It's Louis Armstrong's birthday, in 1901. He claimed to have been born on the Fourth of July, but records say otherwise. After all these years, it's mostly jazz buffs who understand just what a sweeping effect he had on the music of America. And the music of rest of the world, for that matter. You can learn fast enough: listen to the jazz Satchmo made in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and it all becomes clear. Another way: Terry Teachout's terrific biography, Pops. That was one of his other nicknames. He signed his letters with the ultimate New Orleans valediction: "Red Beans and Ricely Yours."
Eating Calendar
In honor of Louis Armstrong's birthday, today is Red Beans and Rice Day. It's lucky that we eat lots of red beans in New Orleans. Of all the beans, red beans (also called kidney beans, but by nobody I know) may be the most salubrious. Loaded with soluble fiber, they have the ability to absorb and remove fat from your digestive tract — perhaps even from your blood. We counteract those good effects by cooking beans with ham fat and eating them with sausage. But they're still among the healthiest meals we eat.
Like many New Orleanians, I have a lifelong habit of eating red beans on Mondays. My mother cooked them every week, sure as the sunrise. I don't eat red beans every Monday, but they're always on my mind then. The lore is that it was laundry day, and the homemaker didn't have time to cook anything that required a lot of attention. Red beans simmer for hours. (It has been pointed out that in most homes every day is laundry day, but nevermind.) Red beans are also inexpensive enough that the longshoremen in the family could eat enormous servings of them and be both satisfied and well-nourished. Beans and rice together provide a complete protein, and make a fine meatless diet.
The major culinary issue surrounding red beans is how thick the sauce between them should be. My mother's beans were firm and discrete, in a sauce that would be runny by today's standards. I still prefer them that way. Others like the liquid component to be much thicker. Some have no whole beans at all. Eat 'em your way.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Beantown was originally a small farming town in south central Maryland, 18 miles north of Washington, D.C. It has long since been transformed by the spreading of the nation's capital into an industrial park, just east of Rockville, Md. Just east is the Redgate Golf Course with rolling hills and woods — very pretty area. There's a restaurant called Tex's Place in the center of what used to be Beanville. Sandwiches, breakfasts, but alas — no beans.
Annals of Snack Food
Today is also National Chocolate Chip Day. Every day is chocolate chip day in our house. My wife's idea of a proper breakfast is a dish of chocolate chips and a glass of milk. My daughter bakes a big, soft chocolate chip cookie every chance she gets. I note that in recent years dessert chefs have shown too great an interest in chocolate chips, shoving them into all kinds of desserts where they don't belong. Two particularly inappropriate places: bread pudding and cheesecake.
Annals of Wine Marketing
By tradition, this is the day in 1693 when Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk, tasted a bottle of Champagne wine that had gone through a second fermentation, thereby giving it bubbles, and said, "Come quick! I am tasting stars!" This is supposed to have been the creation of bubbly Champagne as we know it. The tale seems to be more legend than fact, but it has such a memorable ring to it that the makers of Champagne Dom Perignon do nothing to gainsay it.
Annals of Popular Cuisine
This day in 1970, Poppin' Fresh — a.k.a. the Pillsbury Doughboy — was registered as a trademark in the U.S. Patent Office. He was created by adman and novelist Robert Ross. Originally, the Doughboy's squeaky voice was performed by deep-voiced radio and cartoon actor Paul Frees. A few years ago, a funny obituary of Poppin' Fresh ran in the Miami Herald, and has been circulated widely on the Web. Here it is. Next time you're with someone eating beignets who gets a little too much powdered sugar around the mouth, ask whether he or she has been making out (or worse) with Poppin' Fresh.
Edible Dictionary
garbanzo, n. — Also known as the chickpea. A round, dense, pale tan bean, grown and eaten since prehistoric times in the Middle East. It remains one of the most common ingredients in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking. Ground up, it's the principal ingredient in hummus and falafel. Most garbanzos are sold dried or canned, although there is such a thing as fresh. They grow in pods of two bright green beans, looking like peas. Since they dry quickly, these pods are almost never seen. The hardness of the bean must be addressed in any recipe using them. Even after being soaked or cooked for a long time, they remain very firm. Food processors have made them much more commonly used.
Food and Drink Namesakes
Composer Arthur Butterworth was born today in 1923. . . Poet and multicultural writer Allison Hedge Coke expressed her first though today in 1958.
Words to Eat By
"But since he stood for England
And knew what England means,
Unless you give him bacon
You must not give him beans." — G.K. Chesterton.
Words to Drink By
"brandy, n. A cordial composed of one part thunder-and-lightning, one part remorse, two parts bloody murder, one part death-hell-and-the-grave and four parts clarified Satan. — Ambrose Bierce, in his satirical The Devil's Dictionary.