The Food Almanac: May 11, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and sayings.
Eating Around The World
On this day in 1949, the kingdom of Siam renamed itself Thailand. Thai people are rightly proud of two things: that they were never dominated by another country, and that their food is uniquely delicious.
By coincidence, this is the birthday of history's most famous Siamese twins, Chang and Eng. They were indeed born in what was Siam then, and they were never separated.
Eating Calendar
Today is National Thai Food Day. Thai food is clearly Asian: cut into bite-sized morsels, dominated by vegetables with smaller amounts of protein. Its sauces make Thai food distinctive. They're made with lots of fresh, up-front herbs like cilantro, lemongrass, and galangal (a relative of ginger). Thai cooking includes many varieties of curry, none of which are much like Indian curry. The standard varieties are red curry, green curry (usually blended with coconut milk), musaman curry, which is mild and sweet with raisins and nuts, and Panang curry, which tends to the yellow side and makes the mildest statement.
The curries are juicy stews, but there are other kinds of dishes. Probably the most famous is pad thai, a combination of rice noodles, chicken, shrimp, peanuts, bean shoots, carrots, and hot red pepper with a bit of chicken stock. This is a dish about which we can truly say that we've never had a bad version. It tastes better and better as you eat it until, getting up the last little bits, you're hungry for more, no matter how much there was to begin with.
Thai cuisine goes well beyond those major dishes to include some great soups, spring rolls with peanut-based dipping sauces, fried rice with pineapple, and many more specialties. One advisory you find on almost every Thai menu is that they'll cook it to any degree of hotness. The choices are usually mild, hot, extra hot, and Thai hot — the latter being on the delicious threshold of pain.
Appetizing Places
Curry, Idaho is 132 miles southeast of Boise, about a third of the way to Salt Lake City. It's a small unincorporated suburb of Twin Falls, about two miles east. This is high plains country, with extensive fields of dry farms and ranching. They grow a lot of potatoes. The town was originally a stop on a branch line of the Union Pacific Railroad. The Snake River runs to the Pacific Ocean a few miles north of town. For food, you have a choice of driving three miles in either direction: west to Perky's Pizza in Filer, or east to The Cove in Twin Falls.
Edible Dictionary
pad woon sen, Thai, n. — A Thai noodle dish made with clear noodles — also known as cellophane noodles or bean thread noodles. The noodles, after being soaked in warm water until soft, are stir-fried with shrimp, green onions, mushrooms, carrots, and sometimes other vegetables. Like most Thai dishes, the pepper component can range from mild to fiery, according to the taste of the eater. Pad woon sen is a softer, mellower dish than pad thai, and had less textural and flavor contrast, with a distinct flavor of onion throughout.
Deft Dining Rule #881
If you've never had a dish made "Thai hot," tonight is not the night to try it. Order your curry "extra hot" and see if that doesn't do it for you.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
The combination of Thai curry paste (any color) and coconut milk is so appealing that you can use it for a vast range of dishes. Anything involving seafood or chicken, for example. Take a leap of faith on this.
Music to Eat Cake By
On this date in 1968 McArthur Park, written by Jimmy Webb and sung by Richard Harris, was released. Nobody knows what the lyrics mean. My daughter once asked me why somebody would leave a cake with green frosting out in the rain, especially if it took a long time to bake, and the baker lost the recipe. And, more important, why someone would write a six-minute song about it.
Annals of Cocktails
Carlos Herrera, the inventor of the margarita, died on this date in 1992. He assembled the concoction of tequila, lime juice, triple sec, and ice, with a salt rim, at his restaurant, Rancho La Gloria, near Tijuana, in 1947. The story goes that he named it after an actress who called herself Marjorie King, a regular customer who preferred tequila shooters.
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The name Spam was registered as a trademark by the Hormel Company today in 1937. It's short for "spiced ham." That's what it is: ham and pork shoulder, in a can. Not horrible, but not good, either. (Photo courtesy Flickr/dok1)
Food in Show Biz
Foster Brooks, whose comedy routines were built around his allegedly being intoxicated all the time, was born today in 1912. We don't consider drunkenness funny anymore, so his act seems appalling in retrospect. He died in 2002. . . Today in 1994, the Broadway musical Grease opened for what would be the first of 1503 performances.
Food Namesakes
The dancer and choreographer Martha Graham was born in 1894. Margaret Brewer, the first U.S. Marine Corps General of her sex, got the promotion today in 1978. Ex-Mafia boss Joe "Bananas" Bonanno died today in 2002. Faith Popcorn, a management consultant known for predicting trends, predicted on this day in 1947 that she would be born later the same day.
Words to Eat By
"How pleasant is the day when we give up striving to be young—or slender." — William James, 19th-century American philosopher, born today in 1842.
Words to Drink By
"Reagan promised everyone a seven-course dinner. Ours turned out to be a possum and a six-pack." — Jim Hightower, Texas populist politician, born today in 1943.