Picnic

This is National Picnic Week. It's a wonderful day for a picnic in South Louisiana, the only place in the world where a picnic might well include boiled crawfish. Perhaps even boiled there in the park, now that everybody seems to have one of those gas-fired rigs. The word "picnic" comes from the French expression "pique nique," which roughly translates as "picking at little things." That's what you do, of course. The funny thing about picnics is that you wind up eating more than you would at a formal dinner, especially if ribs or burgers are in the offing. That potato salad will come and get you, too.

Blueberry Hill is fifteen miles north of McComb, Mississippi, about a mile east of Interstate 55. It's marked on maps as a town, but there's only one house there. The people raise dairy cattle in open fields intersersed with larger wooded tracts. Blueberry Hill is an actual hill, topping out at 480 feet, overlooking the valley of the Bogue Chitto River, which runs about a quarter-mile west of Blueberry Hill. Whether this is where Fats Domino (and numerous other singers) found his thrill is an open question. The nearest restaurant is two and a half miles north in the town of Bogue Chitto. Unless you count the dining cars on the City of New Orleans, which pass twice a day on the Illinois Central tracks, a mile west of town.

leek, n.--One of the mildest members of the onion family, leeks straddle the divide between garlic and onions. Its closest common relatives are chives and elephant garlic. The leaves of the leek are much larger in proportion to the bulbs than those of most other onions. They can grow as much as a foot high, with bases two inches or more in diameter. They were probably first cultivated by the ancient Egyptians; by Roman times, they were widely used and much appreciated throughout Europe. The Penguin Guide To Food says that Emperor Nero loved them so much that one of his nicknames was "leek-breath." Leeks are sometimes served on their own as a braised vegetable, but more often they wind up as one of many contributors to a stack or a soup. The word "leek" is Saxon; you also see it in the second syllable of "garlic."

Today is the feast day of St. George, a Roman soldier of the late Third Century. His legend is that he slew a sheep-eating dragon, a feat significant enough that he became the patron saint of England. Because of that, a grand bronze statue of him stands in the courtyard of the Windsor Court Hotel, which has always hewn to British themes. You can see the statue easily from the windows of the Grill Room.

Another of the most revered figures in British history was not only born on this date (in 1564) but died too (1616). William Shakespeare was not a culinarian, but his influence was so wide that thousands of restaurants and dishes have been named for characters he made famous in his plays. As the most quotable author in the history of the English language, he also gave us more than a few lines for our Words To Eat By department. A few of them therewith.

New Coke, one of the most embarrassing flops in the history of beverage marketing, premiered today in 1985. Cola-Cola claimed that everyone who tasted the new formula preferred it to the old. Maybe so, but they didn't like the idea of having the classic flavor denied them--which it was for awhile. Coca-Cola ultimately had to backpedal, but this is less well known: New Coke is the flavor you get in most of the rest of the world. And the taste of Diet Coke is really that of New Coke. So it lives on.Speaking of soft drinks, today is the birthday (in 1928) of Shirley Temple, child actress and later U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Her name lives on as the call for a non-alcoholic drink for kids, consisting of 7-Up with a dash of cherry juice. It's a training cocktail--a weird idea, I always thought.

In Bermuda today, it's Peppercorn Day. That's when the rent for the old State House in St. George is collected: one peppercorn. . . Today 1992, the first McDonald's opened in Beijing.

The temptation to eat at McDonald's when you're traveling in a foreign country, "just to see what it's like," is a terrible idea.

Today in 1864, the Battle of Cane River took place near Natchitoches. Not intended to recall that bloody match, but coming to mind anyway, is the delicious Cane River Country shrimp and grits at the Upperline. Proving once again that everything reminds us of food.

Mashed Potato Time, a dance record sung by Dee Dee Sharp, reached Number Two on the pop charts today in 1962, the peak of its popularity. When doing the dance, you put the front half of your foot on the floor in front of you and rotated it, as if you were smashing something.

Actor and Olympic swimmer Buster Crabbe died today in 1983. . . Former Washington, DC mayor Marion Berry got out of jail today in 1992. . . Brent Muscat, who played in a band called Faster Pussycat, was born today in 1967. (Muscat is a grape variety used mostly for sweet wines.). . . Today in 1961, the Broadway musical Tenderloin closed after 216 performances.

All these are from the pen of William Shakespeare, born today in 1564:

"'Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers."--Romeo and Juliet.

"Let the sky rain potatoes."--The Merry Wives of Windsor.

"Give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils."--Henry V.

"Mine eyes smell onions: I shall weep anon."--All's Well That Ends Well.

"And do as adversaries do in law, strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends."--The Taming of the Shrew.

"The last taste of sweets is sweetest last."--Richard II.

"Drunkards are doomed to hell, so men declare, Believe it not, 'tis but a foolish scare; Heaven will be empty as this hand of mine, If none who love good drink find entrance there."-- Omar Khayyam.