The Food Almanac: May 24, 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 Escargots Day. Snails were the foie gras of their day, the emblem of a gourmet restaurant. If it served them, it was one; if not, it wasn't. Escargots went out of vogue in the 1980s mainly because fresh snails are almost unavailable and chefs swore to use only fresh products. Even in the heyday of escargots they were always from a can. Now that they're making a comeback, they're still strictly a canned item.
Although you can still buy Burgundy snails that really did grow in French vineyards, most snails we eat are petit gris snails that began their long journey in Turkey or Indonesia. Although some snails are raised in this country (mostly in California, where I was once served snails "with the basil on which they lived their entire lives,") live helix snails are illegal to possess in many places, including Louisiana. That was surprising news to the late Chef Jamie Shannon, who at Commander's Palace once brought them to my table still crawling around on a plate. (He then cooked them.)
The classic way of serving snails is in a baking dish (or the shells, if they can be found) with butter, garlic, and parsley. That accounts for much of the popularity of escargots: we like dipping bread in garlic butter. The comedian Orson Bean told Johnny Carson one night, "I hate snails, but I love the butter they serve them in. So I say, 'Bring me an order of escargots, but hold the slugs.'"
Appetizing Places
Snail Bay is in lower Lafourche Parish in southeast Louisiana, about twenty miles north of Grand Isle, the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The bay is about a mile wide and two miles long, with Snail Bayou passing through from east to west. Just south of Snail Bayou is Barataria Bay, one of the finest estuaries for oysters, shrimp, and fish anywhere in America. While most of this land has been eroding away as a result of rising sea levels and hurricanes, silt coming in from Bayou Lafourche makes the land around there a little more solid. If you find snails in Snail Bay, you won't want to eat them. The nearest restaurant is 15 miles east by boat in Galliano: The Kajun Twist.
Deft Dining Rule #175
You may never need this skill, but if you're a real gourmet you should know how to use snail clamps (they hold the shell while you dig into it) and a snail fork (it has two long tines for extracting the snail from its shell).
Edible Dictionary
bourguignonne, French, adj. — In the style of Burgundy, generally. Since so many dishes come from that part of France, this doesn't specifically identify a style of cooking or sauce. However, two dishes with that name are so famous that they come to mind immediately when this word is mentioned. One is boeuf bourguignonne, the French beef stew — which has its own entry elsewhere in the Edible Dictionary. The other is escargots bourguignonne, the most familiar preparation for snails. For it, snails are baked in butter, shallots or garlic, parsley, and sometimes other herbs. A splash of wine or Pernod is sometimes added too. The sauce is so popular that it's used on other things, notably mussels.
Great Moments In Wine
This is the day in 1976 when a wine tasting in Paris turned the wine world upside down. In a blind tasting by a panel of traditional wine authorities, California wines went up against the best wines of Bordeaux. A chardonnay from Chateau Montelena and a cabernet sauvignon from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars came in first. The experts praised both Napa wines being as obviously French. It was the beginning of a process that continues picking up speed, as the winemaking styles of California set the standards of taste for the rest of the world. A great account of the tasting can be read in George Taber's book, Judgment of Paris.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
The problem with wine tastings is that wine is better with food than with other wines.
Dining Landmarks
The Brooklyn Bridge opened today in 1883. Only pedestrians and horse-drawn carts used it. On one of my most memorable trips to New York — for the first anniversary of 9/11 — I dined in the River Café, on a barge almost underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Locals consider it touristy. But a bunch of New Yorkers with me were impressed mightily by both the food and the scene. They were surprised. Why? Because they'd never been there before. New Yorkers never, ever buck trends.
Annals of One-Hour Meals
Today in 1938, Carl McGee of Oklahoma City patented the parking meter. Thanks, Carl. We're stuck with them forever now. Many dining decisions are made according to the availability of parking meters. If I'm looking for dinner and see an open metered space in front of a good place, I eat there. I always carry a film container full of quarters and dollar coins for that purpose. But now we get to watch our credit cards not work in those new parking machines. Someday, I hope to meet someone who has made one of things work by phone, as signs say they will.
Food In The Movies
The Cocoanuts, the first Marx Brothers film, was released today in 1929.
Food Namesakes
Peaches and Herb had a Number One hit on this date in 1979, Reunited. Rob Baker, the drummer for the major Canadian rock group Red Rider, is 55 today. H. B. Reese, the man for whom the famous peanut-butter-filled chocolate cups were named (because he invented them), was born today in 1879.
Words to Eat By
"I don't like to eat snails. I prefer fast food." — Strange de Jim, San Francisco quipmeister.
Words to Drink By
"I'll stick with gin. Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody." — Hawkeye, in the television show M*A*S*H.