The Food Almanac: Wednesday, August 24, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and saying.
Annals of Popular Cuisine
Chef George Crum invented potato chips today in 1853. He worked in a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. The chips were meant as an insult to a customer who complained that Crum's fried potatoes were too thick. The chef sliced them paper-thin, fried them, and sent them out. The customer loved them, and so did the chef. And they took off in popularity from there. Few restaurants serve freshly-fried potato chips locally. More ought to.
Appetizing Places
Three streams in Idaho are all named Dip Creek. Coming from different directions the water from all three winds up in the Snake, the major tributary of the Columbia. What are the chances of that? The first is in the southeast corner of the state, hard on the Wyoming state line, in the ski areas of the Rockies near Soda Springs and Jackson Hole. It runs five miles and drops about a 1,000 feet before its water enters Dry Creek. The second Dip Creek is up in some more serious mountains, a 158-mile drive east from Boise. This one drops about 1,500 feet through a canyon into the Big Wood River. The third Dip Creek is in the Idaho Panhandle, 134 miles east of Spokane, Was. It begins on the slope of Crescendo Mountain (what a great name!) and drops 2,200 feet through a rough, tree-filled wilderness canyon. It goes six miles to the Foehl River, a tributary of the Clearwater River and then the Snake. None of these are near any known restaurants, so pack the potato chips.
Deft Dining Rule #125
A fish and chips vendor without malt vinegar is like an oyster bar without Tabasco, an Italian restaurant without Parmigiana, or a sushi bar without wasabi.
Today's Flavor
It is National Gyros Day — but only in the United States. Gyros, pronounced any way you like but most commonly "ghee-rho," is a staple of American Greek restaurants. It may have been invented in this country, although that's not certain. It is uncommon in Greece, except where American tourists congregate. No classical Greek dish is like it, although Lebanese shawarma is similar. It's certainly not old; no mention of it has been found earlier than the 1970s.
Gyros are a processed blend of finely-chopped lamb and sometimes beef with seasonings, pressed into a tapering cylinder which is then mounted on a vertical rotisserie. Assuming the stuff is sold at a reasonable pace, the outside of this cylinder gets a little crust from the flame it passes on every rotation. The chef slices it off from top to bottom.
Gyros are serves as either a platter or a sandwich. In either case, they're accompanied by pita bread, tzatziki sauce (a white sauce of yogurt, cucumber, and dill) lettuce, and tomatoes. If it's a sandwich, sometimes it's stuffed into the pocket of the pita, and sometimes the pita is wrapped around it like a taco shell. Despite its processed, fast-food aspect, gyros are pretty good. They're certainly a great change of pace from the hamburger, which it resembles in enough ways to become popular.
Edible Dictionary
pita, n. — A flatbread baked in such a way that a pocket forms in the center. The pocket can be filled with a wide variety of foods, but the most common is the spit-roasted processed meat called gyros. Pita bread is by far the most common form of bread in the Middle East. In fact, in Aramaic the word means "bread." It's served with every dish and used to scoop up almost any scoopable food. It's related to the naan of India, and in fact was at one time baked in a similar oven to an Indian tandoor. Pitas are baked at very high temperatures — at least 450 degrees. As the exterior becomes firm it traps steam inside, which separates the top and bottom into the pocket. In the United States, pita has become popular as a crust for a quick pizza.
Disastrous Interruptions of Dinner
Mount Vesuvius's most famous eruption — the one that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum — occurred on this date in 79 AD. From the excavations in the lava we've been able to learn much about the lifestyles of the Romans at that especially rich time in their history. Pompeii is an astonishing place to see, but go on a cool day — the heat there is unbearable in summer. Those rich Romans must have dressed lightly.
Annals of Breakfast
Today in 1869, Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, N.Y., patented a waffle iron. Although waffles existed for hundreds of years, and Thomas Jefferson brought a patterned waffle iron back from the Netherlands (where they have long been popular), Swarthout's breakthrough was in creating the grid pattern we now identify with waffles. In those days before electricity, the iron was heated over an open fire or in an oven.
Movie Restaurants
Alice's Restaurant, a movie about the place where "you can get anything you want, excepting Alice," premiered today in 1969. It grew out of a long, folky, humorous song performed by the movie's star, Arlo Guthrie. The recording was better than the movie, a prime piece of pop culture of the late 1960s.
The Saints
This is the feast day of St. Bartholemew, one of the Apostles. He is much revered in Italy, and in Florence he is the patron saint of cheesemakers and salt merchants.
Food Namesakes
Baseball outfielder Tim Salmon was born today in 1968. . . British comedian Stephen Fry was born today in 1957. . . John Cipollina, guitarist with Quicksilver Messenger Service, a major band in the Summer of Love in San Francisco, was born today in 1943. . . Max Beerbohm, a British artist of caricatures, was born today in 1872. . . . Kenny Baker, who played R2D2 in the Star Wars movies, hit the Big Stage today in 1934.
Words to Eat By
"Lyon is full of temperamental gourmets, eternally engaged in a never-ending search for that imaginary, perfect, unknown little back-street bistro, where one can dine in the style of Louis XIV for the price of a pack of peanuts." — Roy Andries de Groot, American food writer.
Words to Drink By
"A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
Their shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
— Alexander Pope.