The Food Almanac: June 1, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and sayings.
Restaurant Anniversaries
Today in 1998, Emeril Lagasse reopened Delmonico in New Orleans. He bought the restaurant shortly
after its 100th anniversary — and after spending $4 million on renovations. At first, the new Delmonico was an elaborate, old-school, formal restaurant. Tableside preparations and flaming dishes dotted a high Creole menu. It didn't work. Chef David McCelvey reconceived the menu, toning it down a bit but keeping it mostly traditional. It became one of the best of Emeril's restaurants. Hurricane Katrina put a dent in Delmonico, both figuratively and actually. Repairing it cost more than Emeril's first restoration. Delmonico now is a steak specialist with a widely-varied menu and an emphasis on small plates.
Eating Calendar (for National)
Summer for a lot of people is June, July, and August. For them, summer begins today. Just in time for them, it's National Sno-Ball Day — known in some parts of the country as National Sno-Cone Day. The idea of shaving ice and then flavoring it with a sweet liquid is ancient. The Romans did it; it's possible that the Egyptians, who knew how to make ice, may have made something like sno-balls even earlier. Now the treat is found worldwide.
The best sno-balls are ground from ice kept at a temperature of zero degrees or lower, using a machine along the lines of the Sno-Wizard, one of the largest makers of ice shavers. The Sno-Wizard is a square box inside of which is a ratcheted panel pushes a block of ice against a spinning disc fitted with blades. The ice shoots out of a chute into a waiting cup. The maker (or his assistant, in busy shops) douses it with the flavor or flavors specified by the customer. If the ice is properly fine, this will have to be done at least twice, because the flavorings can't filter all the way to the bottom. It's served with both a spoon and a straw. In places where it's popular (the Deep South), summer wouldn't be tolerable without sno-balls.
Today is also the beginning of National Dairy Month. Also National Candy Month, National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month, National Iced Tea Month, National Papaya Month, and National Seafood Month. We'd better get to work on all that.
Deft Dining Rule #435
Any sno-ball will taste better with one-third less syrup than the pimply kid making it will probably want to flood it with.
Appetizing Places
Grape, Arkansas is 31 miles east of Little Rock, halfway to Hot Springs. This is working up into the hills of the Ozarks, where grapes for wine and juice have been grown since the 1870s. Substantial vineyards surround the fork in the road that is Grape. The town is in the valley of the Moccasin Creek; Stillhouse Hollow is nearby. So some of that juice was made into white lightning, like as not. All the restaurants are in Benton, five miles away on I-30. I like the sound of Ed & Kay's.
Edible Dictionary
bubble tea, n. — A semi-frozen drink made in a wide variety of flavors, usually with dark-colored, spherical "pearls" of tapioca added for texture. While the earliest forms of the drink were made with actual tea, more of them these days have no tea at all. Bubble teas resemble smoothies in some ways. The tapioca pearls are large enough that bubble teas are served with oversized straws so the pearls can be sucked up. The name probably derives from the word "boba," for the pearls. Or it might be the other way around. The drink seems to have emerged in Taiwan in the 1980s. It spread throughout Asia, and made the jump to America by way of Vietnam. Bubble teas are very common in Vietnamese restaurants. The tapioca pearls give little or no flavor, but most people get them to enhance the exotic nature of the drink. A line of specialized equipment is used to dispense bubble tea.
Tirophilia Today
The International Convention on the Use of Designations of Origin and Names for Cheeses was signed in Paris (where else?) on this date in 1951. It took awhile to take force, but its result was that Roquefort cheese has to come from Roquefort, France. As do all other place-named cheeses. I guess American cheese must come from America, but who cares?
Food Inventions
Today in 1875, one A.P. Ashbourne patented a method of preparing raw coconut for use and storage in a home kitchen. This is more difficult than it sounds. The first pop-up toaster went on sale today in 1926, manufactured by McGraw Electric Company.
Annals of Whisky
Today in 1495, whisky was reported to exist for the first time in writing. It was in the Exchequer rolls in Scotland as having been distilled by Friar John Cor.
Food Namesakes
Edgar "Cookie" Fairchild, who wrote scores and conducted orchestras for the movies and on radio in the 1940s, was born today in 1898. On this date in 1967, the Beatles released what is considered by many of my generation to be the greatest album of all time, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I still have my original copy. Listening to it still brings back the consciousness I had in those days, but the last few times it's sounded very dated and clumsily produced to me. My favorite song from it remains Fixing A Hole. John Lemmon, British philosopher, had his first thought today in 1930. Canadian hockey pro Paul Coffey took his first slap shot today in 1961. Actor and comedian Mark Curry began the Big Joke today in 1964.
Words to Eat By
"Isn't there any other part of the matzo you can eat?" — Marilyn Monroe, born today in 1926.
Words to Drink By
"No animal ever invented anything so bad as drunkenness, or so good as drink." — Lord Chesterton.