The Food Almanac: May 26, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and sayings.
Eating Calendar
Today is National Blueberry Cheesecake Day. What a terrible thing to do with both blueberries and cheesecake. It's also National Cherry Dessert Day. My favorite of those is the ancient flaming dessert, cherries jubilee. The cherries are cooked down in a syrup made right there in the pan, then flamed with kirsch, and served over ice cream. It is believed to have been created by no less than Auguste Escoffier, the arbiter of classic French cooking, on the occasion of Queen Victoria' s 50th jubilee. Escoffier's original recipe didn't have ice cream, but that was such a natural addition that it's now universal. Most restaurants that make it (Antoine's is the most famous locally) use canned cherries, but it's much better with fresh cherries. Problem: we rarely see fresh cherries until July. Another cherry-full dessert is Black Forest Cake, a light chocolate cake with white icing and cherries between the layers.
Deft Dining Rule #112
A restaurant that specializes in flaming desserts served tableside these days is likely to have an exceptionally good service staff, but unimaginative food.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Cherrytown is a little over a mile south of the Mason-Dixon Line, in north central Maryland. It's 45 miles northwest of Baltimore. It's in a mix of open fields and woods in rolling terrain, with farmhouses and country homes of people who work in the city. It's a pretty area. There's even a white tablecloth restaurant a mile away: Bud's at Silver Run, with good crab cakes and prime rib.
Edible Dictionary
Rainier cherry, n. — A variety of cherry grown mostly in Washington State, the Rainier was developed in 1952 by one Harold Vogel. It's pale red and yellow, and is known for its sweetness. It's one of the sweetest cherries in the market, but it doesn't travel especially well. We will be seeing it in markets in June — if they get here. It's well enough liked that it has its own day of celebration: July 11. They are much loved in Japan, where it's said they can sell for a dollar each.
Music to Eat On the Levee By
On this date in 1971, Don McLean recorded the song American Pie. It wasn't about pie at all! Instead, it stirred up nostalgia (among those who could figure out what it meant) for the late 1950s. That was long before the gourmet era began.
Celebrity Chefs Today
TV's third Japanese Iron Chef, Masaharu Morimoto, was born today in 1955, in Hiroshima, Japan. After working in New York at Nobu and some other high-profile establishments, he opened a restaurant under his own name in Philadelphia. We've never been there, but wonder whether its kitchen runs by the rules of the Iron Chef TV foolishness.
Food In the Wild
Today in 1950, the first whooping crane hatched in captivity was born. It was delicious, I hear. Such a joke must be made whenever bringing up an endangered species in a fluffy medium like this one, but it's a long-standing tradition through history. An alarming number of last examples of species were killed to be eaten or added to a collection of taxidermy. I don't get it.
Food Namesakes
Ernst Bacon was born today in 1898. He was an excellent composer of classical music, particularly songs, with a distinctly and intentional American quality. He is well enough revered to have a website. Stephen Rice, born today in 1971, is a professional hockey player. Pro-golfer Stephen Robert Pate was born today in 1961.
Words to Eat By
"The jelly — the jam and the marmalade,
And the cherry-and quince preserves she made!
And the sweet-sour pickles of peach and pear,
With cinnamon in 'em, and all things rare!
And the more we ate was the more to spare,
Out to old Aunt Mary's! Ah!" — James Whitcomb Riley.
"No man is lonely while eating spaghetti." — Robert Morley, movie actor, born today in 1908.
Words To Drink By
"No poems can please for long or live that are written by water-drinkers." — Horace.