The Food Almanac: June 8, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and sayings.
Eating Calendar
This is National Alfresco Dining Day. "Alfresco," literally, "in the fresh style," is the fancy name for outdoor dining. Tables in the courtyard or on the beach, or even on a sidewalk are considered by many to be the most desirable. Everywhere on the West Coast, for example. Up in the mountains. On the beach. I've had memorable outdoor meals all over the place.
In hot places like where I live (New Orleans), we like the idea of patio dining more than the reality. Especially in the fine-dining category. Even with the tremendous easing of dress codes in the past decade, you're still unlikely to be clad in a bathing suit — the only cool attire in mid-summer — when you step out for a big evening.
Dining in courtyards here has other drawbacks. Things fall out of trees. First come the live oak catkins. Then the stinging buck moth caterpillars. The French Quarter, which has the best courtyards, also has rodents and termites. Even the best-kept, cleanest, most pest-controlled restaurants cannot control all its neighbors. Who but the most dedicated lover of the outdoors would put up with these things?
Today is also National Jelly Doughnut Day. Do you know what flavor jelly that is? I mean the brilliant red stuff? Apparently it's made only for doughnut-stuffing. I'm getting queasy just writing about it.
Appetizing Places
Doughnut Lake is in Rocky Mountain National Park, 90 miles northwest of Denver, Colo. It is one of the Gorge Lakes, in a rocky valley at about 11,000 feet surrounded on three sides by craggy mountains towering about 1,600 feet higher. They are covered with snow in the winter, hiding the reason for Doughnut Lake's name: there's a small peak sticking up in the center of it. The doughnut looks as if a few bites have been taken out of it. If that makes you hungry, descend to the town of Grand Lake, a nine-mile hike, and have lunch and the amusingly named Pancho and Lefty's.
Annals of Food Marketing
On this date in 1786, the first known advertisement for ice cream ran in New York City. The ice cream maker's name was Hall, but that's all that is known. This is the day in 1965 when Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola merged to become PepsiCo. Later, after the company bought Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, it became the world's largest restaurant operator. (It has since spun the restaurant unit off to Yum! Brands.)
Edible Dictionary
eclair, French, n. — eclair, French, n. — A dessert or breakfast pastry shaped something like a thin hot dog bun. In its traditional form, it's made with choux pastry dough — the kind from which cream puffs are made. This forms a stiff, smooth exterior while leaving large empty areas inside. The interior is filled with pastry cream, usually flavored with chocolate. A chocolate icing (fondant, in the best examples) covers the top. The éclair became popular in the middle 1800s. A 100 years later, it was well enough known that American doughnut shops began making their version of it, with fried doughnut dough, a filling of Bavarian crème, and a chocolate icing.
Dining Through History
Today in 1954, the Supreme Court declared that restaurants could not refuse service to customers on account of their race.
Music to Eat What By?
Today in 1958, the novelty song Purple People Eater made it to number one. It was sung (and we use the word loosely here) by Sheb Wooley.
Food in the Movies
Today in 2001, the movie Swordfish premiered, with John Travolta and Halle Berry. The plot was not about seafood, but computer hacking. What a disappointment!
Celebrity Chefs of Yesterday
Marie-Antoine Carême was born today in 1784. He, more than anyone else, gave French cuisine the complexity and structure that led to its becoming the leading Western style of cookery. He worked for kings and emperors, who could afford his elaborate dishes and were gratified by them. Carême wrote the first modern cookbooks of French cuisine, mostly for the consumption of court kitchens. He introduced the "brigade" organization of cooks that modern restaurants still use today.
The Saints
This is the feast day of St. Medard, who lived in France in the Fifth Century. He is the patron saint of brewers (one of many), and his intercession is asked in times of too little or too much rain.
Food Namesakes
Luisa Tetrazzini, the opera singer for whom the fake Italian dish turkey tetrazzini was named, was born today in 1871. She was, like many singers of the period, quite ample. Here's a recipe. Tommy Roe, a singer of bubblegum-music hits in the 1960s, was born today in 1942. And here's a rare double food name note: today in 1985, Eddie Maple rode a horse named Creme Fraiche to win the Belmont Stakes. Television and movie actress Kathy Baker stepped onto the Big Set today in 1950. British actor Colin Baker, one of the people who portrayed Dr. Who, appeared today in 1943. Bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice expressed his distress for the first time today in 1951.
Words to Eat By
"Is she fat? Her favorite food is seconds." — Joan Rivers, born today in 1933, talking about Elizabeth Taylor.
"The breakfast slimes, angel food cake, doughnuts and coffee, white bread and gravy cannot build an enduring nation." — Martin H. Fischer.
Words to Drink By
"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called Everybody, and they meet at the bar." — Drew Carey.