The Food Almanac, March 28
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and sayings.
Great American Brewers
Now here's an odd coincidence: August Anheuser Busch Jr., the long-time boss of Budweiser, was born today in 1899. And Frederick Pabst, for whom that brand of American beer is named, was also born on this date, in 1836.
Food Inventions
Victor Mills was born today in 1897. He lived to be 101, which gave him time to achieve several major advances in the food world. His method of milling flour for cake mix made Duncan Hines into the country's dominant cake mix brand. He figured out a way of keeping the oil in peanut butter from separating out — and Jif was born. Then he devised the method of stacking potato chips that led to Pringles. He also worked on the other end: he created Pampers.
Deft Dining Rule #7
All other things being equal, a new pleasure beats the repetition of an old one.
Eating Around The World
Today in 1930, Turkish authorities changed the name of Constantinople to Istanbul. In the same stroke, they changed the name of bean dip to hummus.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
Add what seems like the right amount of lemon juice to your hummus recipe, then add that much again. It strikes flavor-heightening battle with the bitterness of the garlic and the chickpeas.
Today is Black Forest Cake Day. Its German name is Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, which tells us (if you understand German) that it's made with black cherries and kirsch, a cherry brandy. That's sandwiched between layers of light (in both texture and flavor) chocolate cake. The layers are separated and topped with whipped cream with a bit of kirsch, sliced fresh cherries, and lots of chocolate shavings. Black Forest Cake is most commonly found in hotels with large pastry departments full of Europeans. And German restaurants, of course.
Music To Dine By
Be My Love, the biggest hit recorded by Mario Lanza, reached the top of the charts today in 1951. It is heard frequently in Italian restaurants everywhere. On this date in 1899, William Fleming received a patent for an electrically operated player piano. Many restaurants have grand pianos, but few have matching pianists. The gizmos now available to play the piano electronically are amazingly good. But you can't ask them to play your song.
Edible Dictionary
snow peas, n. — A crunchy, flat pod containing immature peas, eaten whole. Snow peas were once the exclusive property of Chinese restaurants, but now many people buy them for side dishes or salads. They're a variety of the standard pea that's picked when the peas inside them are so small that they barely make a bulge in the pod. There are two common explanations of the name. The first is that since they're planted late in winter and soon harvested, in some places there may actually be snow on the ground when they're picked. The other is that the pods give a whitish reflection from sun's rays. Some recipes call for removing the strings from the pods, but that's not necessary.
Gourmet Geography
Four places in Alabama are called Pea Ridge. The most populous (but not very) is in a hollow just beyond the easternmost ridge of the Appalachians, about forty miles south of Birmingham. Some two hundred miles south is a second Pea Ridge, just outside Brewton (where you can eat at the Ritz), just north of the Florida state line. A third is a clear spot in the woods along Pea Ridge Road, in a very hilly and pretty part of the state, forty-three miles north of Tuscaloosa. Finally, some thirty-four miles north of there is a fourth Pea Ridge, at the intersection of Marion County Roads 42 and 45, deep in farming country. You have to drive six miles to Carolyn's Restaurant in Brilliant if you're hungry there. Far more kudzu than peas cover the fields along the roads between the four Pea Ridges.
Food Namesakes
The Raspberries, the 1970s rock group, broke up today in 1974. Cheryl James, "Salt" of the hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa, was born today in 1969.
Words To Eat By
"It is part of the novelist's convention not to mention soup, and salmon, and ducklings, as if soup, and salmon, and ducklings were of no importance." — Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself today in 1941.
Words To Drink By
"Drink to the point of hilarity." — St. Thomas Aquinas.