The Food Almanac: May 18, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and sayings.
Food Calendar
Today is National Cheese Soufflée Day. Cheese soufflées are not all that hard to cook, but they do require a certain amount of thought. The first issue is the cheese. You don't want anything that will throw off a lot of fat — Cheddar, for example, isn't a good choice. Tangy cheeses — like those made with goat's or sheep's milk — make the soufflée more interesting. The assembly and baking require closer attention than most dishes. Although you can get away without either, a water bath and straight-sided soufflée dishes make the baking more foolproof. That instruction you hear about never opening the oven during the process is solid. All of what I just described makes it hard for a restaurant to offer hot soufflées — unless it has a chef who does little else.
Deft Dining Rule #100
A restaurant that routinely serves well-made hot soufflées gets an extra star just for that.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
The best way to keep a high-rising soufflée from falling over in the oven (or when you take it out) is to make a collar of parchment paper around the top of the dish, holding it tight with masking tape.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Rhubarb Pond is at the northeastern most tip of New Hampshire, about 150 feet from the Maine state line and 1400 feet from the Canadian border. The pond itself is only about 200 feet in diameter. It's in an entirely wooded area in the mountains, near the end of a winding gravel road. Wild rhubarb does indeed grow there, but it appears that fish and mushrooms would be the best eating there. To find the nearest restaurant, you'd cross into Canada and travel another nine miles to Notre-Dame-de-Bois, and the Auberge Aux Toits Rouges.
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lychee, [LEE-chee], Chinese, n. — lychee [LEE-chee], n. — A sweet fruit about an inch in diameter, grown and much liked in China for at least two thousand years. It can be found fresh as well as canned. The latter is found in most Chinese restaurants as a dessert. It has a flavor somewhere between that of a pear and a sweet grape. The lychee is the fruit of an evergreen tree native to the southern, semi-tropical parts of China where part of the year is dry. (They're grown in Florida in this country.) Lychees have rough red skins that turn brown shortly after being picked. Although it's often called "lychee nut," it's not a nut, although it does have an inedible seed that might suggest that. (Photo courtesy geishaboy500/flickr)
The Saints
Today in 1920, Karol Jozef Wojtyla — Pope John Paul II — was born in Wadowice, Poland. On his one visit to New Orleans, he dined at Antoine's. (I know there's much more to be said about him, but we have a narrow outlook here.). . . Today is the feast day of St. Theodatus, a patron saint of hoteliers and innkeepers.
Food and Volcanoes
Today in 1980, Mount St. Helens exploded with the force of 500 Hiroshima bombs, removing most of its altitude. I don't think a dish has been named for that volcano, but the names of at least two others have wound up on edibles. Both are Italian, which figures: a lot of famous volcanoes there. A stromboli is a pizza turnover with a hole punched in the top to let the steam out. It's supposed to recall the island volcano Stromboli north of Sicily, which smokes most of the time. Chicken Vesuvio is less obvious a connection, although when served right that collection of chicken, sausage, and potatoes is as hot as lava.
Music to Marry a Cook By
On this date in 1963, Jimmy Soul hit the top of the charts with a song that gave this advice:
If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life,
Never make a pretty woman your wife.
So from my personal point of view,
Get an ugly girl to marry you.
At the end of the song is this exchange:
"Hey, man, I saw your wife the other day. And she's uuugg-leeee!"
"Yeah, she's ugly, but she sure can cook!"
So which would you prefer? A good-looking wife (or husband)? Or one who sure can cook?
Food Namesakes
Movie actor Yun Fat Chow was born today in Hong Kong in 1955. Joseph Beer, who was such a virtuoso on the clarinet that composers wrote pieces especially for him to play, was born today in 1744 in (appropriately) Bavaria. On a related note, Rufus Porter, former Saints linebacker, was born today in 1965. The Strawberries (Darryl and Lisa) filed for divorce today in 1989. This is a reach, but the scientist who theorized the existence of the ionosphere was born today — London, 1850. He sounds like a dedicated eater: Oliver Heaviside. Comedian Dane Cook was born today in 1972. Jean-Louis Roux, Canadian actor, playwright, and politician, stepped onto the Big Stage today in 1923.
Words To Eat By
"Soufflée is more important than you think. If men ate soufflée before meetings, life could be much different." — Jacques Baeyens, French consul general in New York in the 1950s.
Words To Drink By
"It is most absurdly said in popular language of any man, that he is disguised in liquor. On the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety." — Thomas de Quincy, British writer of the mid-1800s.