May Day

Jazz Festival--1Mother's Day--11

Greek Fest--25

It's May Day, which has various meanings around the world. In Europe, it's the equivalent of Labor Day here. In most places, it's a celebration of springtime. In normal weather years, you might be able to argue that summer starts today around New Orleans. Or that this is the peak of the crawfish season.

May is alleged to be all of the following: National Asparagus Month, National Barbecue Month, National Egg Month, National Hamburger Month, National Salad Month, National Salsa Month, and National Strawberry Month. And some silly ones: National Chocolate Custard Month and National Gazpacho Aficionado Month. The first week of May is supposed to be National Raisin Week.Let's go back to National Asparagus Month. This is the time of year when the best asparagus--the big ones that sprout from the "crown" that good asparagus plants (bushes, really)--come up and into the markets. The thin ones are a secondary growth and don't have as interesting a flavor. We have two favorite ways of eating asparagus. The first is to steam them and serve them with an extra-thick hollandaise with more lemon than usual. The second is to poach them a little, then arrange them parallel on a baking pan. You sprinkle them first with olive oil, then grated Grana Padano cheese. Run them under the broiler just till the cheese melts, take them out, let the cheese cool a minute, then serve them.

Amtrak was born today in 1971. The federally-subsidized National Railroad Passenger Corporation took over the operation of almost all long-distance passenger trains across America that day. The first thing it did was permanently cancel about half of them. Passenger rail was a very sick service, squeezed by improved highways and better automobiles in the short-distance market and the much faster airlines for longer trips. Amtrak coordinated what was left into a national system, pulling together the best equipment from the participating railroads. A few of those railcars are still operating.Amtrak's dining cars operate much as diners had for decades, with small kitchens performing actual cooking of substantial menus, served by waiters who at least attempted to follow the Pullman rulebook. All of that has been was diluted. Many of the kitchens were replaced by banks of freezers and microwave ovens. China, glassware, and silverware went away in favor of plastic everything. Occasionally. Amtrak has spates of upgrading its diners, with better serviceware, regional menus, and more real cooking. But inevitable budgetary problems usually made those improvements temporary. I ride the train often enough to report that the food is edible and occasionally very good in the dining cars, but nothing to write home about. Although you certainly have the time to do so if you're on a train.A new development comes from a few companies that have renovated old passenger rail cars and gone back to the best service from the golden years. They tack their beautiful cars onto the Amtrak trains and go all over the country. The most prominent is Pullman, which has no connection with the Pullman company of old. I keep hoping that this service will become more widespread.

If you will be having more than two meals in the dining car of a train, give the waiter an extra-large tip at the first repast, to assure your getting a good table for the remainder of the trip.

When on a long-distance train, find out whether it will be passing through any long stretches where alcoholic drink sales are prohibited. (For example, the entire state of Georgia on Sunday.) Stock up before you get to those places.

Orange is a small farming center in eastern North Carolina, fifty-three miles south of Raleigh. It's tobacco country, and drying sheds are the biggest buildings in Orange. A good bit of cotton comes up, too. It's too far north to grow oranges . For a bite to eat, one meanders four miles northwest on back roads to the bright lights of Godwin. There we find Fann's Restaurant, whose proprietor Nancy will be happy to feed you.

The first meals cooked in an airplane for service to passengers were concocted today in 1927 aboard a flight from London to Paris. The airline was Imperial Airways, a predecessor of British Airways. The food was neither fish nor fowl, it was rumored.

Today in 2005, what is believed to be the biggest freshwater fish ever caught was taken in the Mekong River by some Thai fishermen. It was a catfish, and weighed 646 pounds. Nine feet long. Let's just hope it wasn't shipped to some restaurant around here, because it was three cents a pound cheaper than Des Allemands catfish.

yam, n.--In Louisiana and other parts of America, "yam" means the sweet potato we grow here and eat with holiday dinners. But that's not strictly correct. The sweet potato is not related even distantly to a true yam. That's a root vegetable, genus Dioscorea, that originally grew from Africa through Asia. Its roots are much thicker, yellower, and less sweet than the sweet potato. It also contains bitter elements that need to be cooked out. The roots burrow deep into the soil, and they're hard to harvest. People usually ate them only when there was nothing else. The Africans brought them to the Caribbean, where they remain popular. If you ever encounter true yams, they'll probably be involved in a dish with Caribbean roots (no pun intended).

The Kingston Trio got together on this date in 1957. Scotch and soda, mud in your eye. . . Dry martini, jigger of gin. . . oh what a spell you've got me in. Oh, my. Now I'll be thinking of that song all day.

Cheerios were introduced today in 1941. General Mills originally called them Cheerioats, which tells what they're made of. They taste pretty good as highly-processed cereals go. . . Today in 2001, a lawsuit on behalf of Hindus was filed against McDonald's for the chain's failure to state that its French fries contained beef flavoring. But really, what could you expect from such a place?

Buffalo Bill Cody put in his first Wild West show in this date in 1883. . . Peaches and Herb--a rare double food name!--hit Number Two on the pop charts with Reunited today in 1979. . . Mr. Potato Head was born today in 1952. In its original version, you used an actual potato as the head. The toy is all plastic now. . . We have another double food name: Frank W. Fries, which sounds like an order in a drive-through fast-food place. He was a Congressman from Illinois, and born today in 1893.

"In the nineteenth century, it was traditional to serve three courses of asparagus--thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac--to a French groom on the night before the wedding. The modern French gentleman has discarded the noble asparagus for the more romantic passion prompter--Champagne."--Food author Sharon Tyler Herbst.

"Drinking will make a man quaff,Quaffing will make a man sing,Singing will make a man laugh,And laughing long life doth bring,Says old Simon the King."--Simon Wadloe, tavern-keeper at the "Devil," London, seventeenth century.