The Food Almanac: Thursday, August 25, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu, notes food facts and saying.
Roots Of American Regional Cooking
On this date in 1718, several hundred French colonists showed up in Louisiana to secure the French claim to the territory. Many settled in what was soon to become New Orleans. They wanted to eat food like what they had in France, but had to make do with the local vegetables and animals. A new cuisine was born.
People We'd Like to Drink With
Sean Connery was born today in 1930. His order of a "vodka martini, shaken, not stirred" in the James Bond movies altered the classic martini recipe forever. Gin was the original spirit component of the drink. The "shaken, not stirred" aspect may seem like pure perfectionism on the part of the Bond character, but it recognizes a decline in the quality of ice. If you have good, really cold, pure, hand-cut ice, a martini should definitely be stirred.
Food Calendar
Today is National Martini Day. Martinis went out of vogue in the 1970s, when everybody started drinking wine. But they're too good to be kept down, and a new appreciation formed in the 1990s. In New Orleans, the Bombay Club kept the flame alive and continued to glorify the drink, putting some real effort into making them well.
Martinis are so popular that the name has become a synonym for cocktail. Anything served in a slant-sided martini glass is now called a martini. Some of these aren't even drinks. Seafood martinis — shrimp, crabmeat, lobster, or crawfish in a martini glass with some kind of cold sauce — are especially popular.
The original martini, according to a number of sources, consisted of gin and white vermouth, stirred with chunks of ice, strained into the famous glass, then garnished with an olive. The proportion of gin to vermouth was between 50—50 and 75—25. The large presence of vermouth in the early martini is confirmed by something obvious: vermouth is the primary product of the Martini & Rossi company, for which the drink is named.
The vogue now is for dry martinis, the vermouth component approaching zero. I've seen menus that say their dry martinis are made with gin shaken with ice in front of a bottle of vermouth, or some such joke. But I think the taste of vermouth is essential to the drink — more so than the olive.
Deft Dining Rule #854
If you don't know what brand of gin makes the best martinis for your palate and why, you're just drinking them for the aftereffects.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
A martini without vermouth is like gumbo without filé, fish and chips without malt vinegar, smoked salmon without capers, Champagne without bubbles, barbecue without dry rub, escargots without garlic butter. . . [This might go on for hours.]
Food on the Air
This is the birthday of television cook Rachael Ray, born today in 1968. If she can just get out there a little more, her career would really take off.
The Saints
Today is the feast day of St. Louis IX, the king of France from age 11 (1226) until he died on this date in 1270. He was in the thick of the Eighth Crusade, was captured, and had to be ransomed. St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and the city of St. Louis, Mo., are both named for him. He's the patron saint of that city and of New Orleans. He is also the patron saint of distillers, which strikes me as very appropriate, given his New Orleans connection.
Kitchen Accidents Through History
Today in 1857, a Chinese cook was blamed for burning down the Gold Rush town of Columbia. Chinese immigrants had already established their cuisine in California, but this was a setback, because the town banned all Chinese after the incident. Too bad. The guy made an unforgettable moo goo gai pan.
Food and Drink in the Movies
Today in 2006, a movie premiered with the name How To Eat Fried Worms. The same day, another film called Beerfest hit the screen for the first time. How interesting. Paired food and beverage movies.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Chip, North Carolina is an isolated place in the wooded hills of central part of the state, about 65 miles east of Charlotte. It's on Chip Road, itself just a local highway, near a dam and reservoir on a tributary of the Pee Dee River. The nearest restaurants are in Troy, about six miles away. Zeno's Italian Restaurant sounds good, but don't try to drive just halfway there, then half the remaining distance, then half the remaining distance after that, or you'll never get there. (Anybody get this reference?) A more promising destination may be Hometown Bar-B-Q, because this is barbecue country — open pit, the sauce likely to be vinegar-based.
Edible Dictionary
raclette, n. — This is the name of a cheese made in Switzerland, as well as a method of serving it (or other cheeses). The name means "scraped," and that tell the story. The small wheel of cheese is place in a spot where a candle or even a wood fire makes the cheese begin to melt. You then scrape it off and spread it on bread or right onto a plate, and eat it warm. Sometimes it's served with potatoes or relishes, and you combine all the elements. So it's sort of a halfway fondue. I don't think anyone has ever served it in New Orleans, but you may well find it in places where a roaring fireplace seems right.
Food Namesakes
Hal Fishman, a television news anchor for many years in Los Angeles, made his very first appearance today in 1931. . . Lise Bacon, who held a number of high offices in Quebec and nationally in Canada, was elected to life today in 1932. . . Janet Chow, who came in second in the Miss Hong Kong contest in 2006, was born in Canada today in 1983. . . Captain James Cook sailed from London on his first expedition today in 1768. Read this department daily and learn where he went on this and other voyages. He's the most-mentioned person here.
Words to Eat By
"Happiness is finding three olives in your martini when you're hungry." — Johnny Carson.
Words to Drink By
"All the charming and beautiful things, from the Song of Songs, to bouillabaisse, and from the nine Beethoven symphonies to the martini cocktail, have been given to humanity by men who, when the hour came, turned from tap water to something with color in it, and more in it than mere oxygen and hydrogen." — H.L. Mencken.