National Bratwurst Day

National Bratwurst Day today. We don't do brats much around New Orleans, although the coarser, more authentic kind is becoming popular due to the homogenized buying practices of national chain grocery stores. What they call a brat in Chicago and Milwaukee looks like a fat albino hot dog. Like many favorites from other places, that's never caught on here, although some restaurants have tried.

knockwurst, German, n.--It's not too much of an oversimplification to call a knockwurst a short, fat hot dog. It's made with very finely chopped pork or veal or both, flavored with garlic, stuffed into a thin casing, and smoked. Because the only people who buy knockwurst are serious about their sausages, it tends to be of better quality than a typical frankfurter. The name is actually knackwurst, a reference in German to the way its skin cracks when is sizzles over an open fire. Again, a lot like a hot dog does. A 1970s sandwich shop near Jesuit High School (called Dagwood's until the owners of the comic strip told them to change the name) had a great hot knockwurst poor boy with sauerkraut and provolone cheese. They called it the Elmer special.

Pheasant Hill is in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, seventy-two miles northeast of Tulsa. It rises 840 feet above sea level, about 150 feet above the bed of Big Cabin Creek, which runs along its western flank. Two cemeteries are on the broad top of Pheasant Hill. This is an oil drilling area, with numerous wells nearby. It's unlikely that you'll dine of pheasant nearby (unless you shoot and cook it yourself). But a hunger can be sated five miles south the Pheasant Hill at the Hornets Corner Diner in Vinita.

Today in 1498, on his third voyage, Christopher Columbus landed on the beach of the island of Margarita, off the coast of what is now Venezuela. He was met on the beach by Jimmy Buffett, who, in 1948. . .oh, wait. I transposed two numbers and now. . . well, never mind.However, it's also National Rum Day. Until the storm, New Orleans had the only rum distillery in the United States, making N.O. Rum. Logically enough, this is also Baba au Rhum Day. Rum baba--a cake soaked with rum mixed with syrup--was once a popular dessert in New Orleans restaurants. The old Chris Steak House made an especially good one. But I don't think any restaurant serves it anymore.

Gioacchino Rossini was one of the great composers of opera, a dedicated gourmet, and the man for whom the foie-gras-topped dish filet de boeuf Rossini is named. He didn't just like it: he created it. Today in 1846, he got married. He never composed another opera. "Why do you waste all that time writing all that stuff for big women to howl?" his wife probably told him.

Grand Central Station began construction in New York City today in 1904. It's the last of the Apple's great train stations, and also the home of the fabulous old Oyster Bar and Restaurant (that's it's official name). In a unique space with its arching tile ceilings, they serve not only great oysters from all over the world, but a lengthy list of daily fish specials. The oyster bar was a New York creation that we adopted, as much as we think of the institution as our own.

Today is the birthday of Fess Parker, who was a hero to many guys my age who were little boys in the 1950s, when he played Davy Crockett. After his acting career ended, he did well in many other ventures, including the excellent winery that bears his name in Southern California. The label features a small coonskin cap in gold. It was one of the biggest thrills of my radio career to have him as a guest on my show about ten years ago. I was sorry to hear that he passed away early this year at 86. He'll always be the king of the wild frontier to me.

Today is the feast day of St. Roch, a well-known name in New Orleans food history. The St. Roch Market, on the street with the same name at the corner of St. Claude, was one of the last neighborhood public markets. Like all the rest was made obsolete by the advent of supermarkets. In recent decades, it was the home of a seafood restaurant, which later opened branches in New Orleans East and Covington. Roch (pronounced "rock") was a French nobleman, alleged to have been born with a birthmark in the shape of a cross. He lived in the 1300s, when plague was running rampant. He caught it himself, and while waiting to die in the woods outside Montpelier, he was kept alive by a dog who brought him food every day. He is much revered in Italy, where he's called St. Rocco.

Singer Eydie Gorme was born today in 1932. . . Bill Spooner, who was a member of the rock group The Tubes, was born today in 1949. . . Ebenezer Sage, a Congressman from New York in the early 1800s, was born today in 1765.

"Let us candidly admit that there are shameful blemishes on the American past, of which the worst by far is rum. Nevertheless, we have improved man's lot and enriched his civilization with rye, bourbon and the Martini cocktail. In all history has any other nation done so much?"--Bernard De Voto, American novelist. "Beer is not a good cocktail party drink, especially in a home where you don't know where the bathroom is."-- Billy Carter.

"If the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should be as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu and seaweed slime."--Edward Abbey.