Eat Away From Home

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Hurricane Katrina--one of the two or three most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in history--swept across New Orleans this morning in 2005. It changed everything, in ways we're still discovering. Everyone who was here then, will talk about that event the rest of our lives. And take pride that, even in our sometimes raucous way, we lived through it and kept our identity.As unlikely as it may seem to people who have never been here, our eating culture was one of the strongest forces that pulled us back together into a coherent city. We saw that in the very earliest recovery, when the first thing most returnees wanted to do was to eat some real New Orleans food. It started with red beans and poor boys and gumbo, but we were very quickly back to oysters Bienville, soft shell crabs, slow-roasted duck, and all the rest of it. If all that and the restaurants that served them hadn't come back as quickly as they did, many people who came back would have wondered why they did, and left again.The day that New Orleans becomes Anywhere, USA is the day she dies.

On the other hand, some wonderful things happened this date. It's the birthday, in 1960, of Ti Adelaide Martin. She and her cousin Lally Brennan own and manage Commander's Palace and Cafe Adelaide. Ti is the daughter of Ella Brennan, one of the most accomplished of American restaurateurs. Ti clearly learned a lot from her mom. But even her mom learned a few new lessons in their struggles to reopen Commander's Palace after Katrina. It took a year and a half--much longer than anyone ever imagined. But when it open, it resumed its position as the city's top restaurant.

By coincidence, Today is Eating Away From Home Day. That's what most of us in the New Orleans area had to do on this distressing day in 2005. And it's what an increasing number of people across America do every day. Just before the 2008 recession, more meals in this country were eaten out of the home than in it. That reverted to the opposite statistic during the slack years. But dining out is once again edging towards a majority of U.S. meals.It is also More Herbs, Less Salt Day; Lemon Juice Day; Chop Suey Day (see below), and Swiss Winegrowers Day (the Swiss drink almost all of their wine themselves, so to hell with that).

oysters Bienville, n.--Baked oysters--usually on their shells, but sometimes in a small casserole--topped with the thick sauce made with mushrooms, shrimp, bacon, green onions, a light roux and bread crumbs. The sauce usually makes up two-thirds or more of the dish. Named for the founder of New Orleans, the dish was first introduced at Arnaud's, There is some controversy as to where it was invented, however. Antoine's claims that its chef came up with the idea, but felt there was no room for the dish on the enormous menu, and so passed it along to Count Arnaud. (Arnaud's denies this.) Other restaurants have made it a specialty, notable Commander's Palace, Pascal's Manale, and Delmonico. No small number of New Orleans eaters consider oysters Bienville the best of the many baked oyster dishes found on local menus.

Shoulderbone is a rural crossroads in south central Georgia, ninety-eight miles southeast of Atlanta. A historic plantation house--originally built in 1850--is kept in fine conditions for weddings, parties, and meetings. An organized hunting program goes on all year long. They also raise cattle nearby. Large orchards of peach and pecan trees are all around. Perhaps the wood is used to smoke pork shoulders, in the unique style of barbecue found in that part of the country. The most likely place to get this is Mary's Kuntry Kitchen, seven miles away in Sparta.

Dr. Nathan Pritikin was born today in 1915. The diet plan that bears his name posited that a high-carbohydrate, low-fat regimen would not only result in weight loss, but also prevent heart disease, from which he believed he was suffering. The thinking these days is that the opposite is true, but dieting vogues swing as often and popular style of cooking. But in the 1970s it was all the rage, enough that some restaurants opened with menus the kept to the Pritikin Plan. I went to one such, and found it among the worst I ever reviewed. Losing weight is a laudable goal. Eating with pleasure is also important. Tricky to achieve both goals with the same meal.

Today in 1896, Li Hung Chang, ambassador and military hero from China, visited New York City. Things Chinese were very much in vogue, as that country's opening to the West for the first time revealed a fascinating world. Chang was feted with grand dinners, but he rejected all that, insisting that his own chefs cook for him. This was allegedly the moment when and where chop suey was invented, but that's unlikely. "Chop suey" translates idiomatically into "mixed food in small pieces," which describes a great deal of Chinese food. So it was probably pretty generic when Americans first encountered it when Chinese people began appearing in large numbers. That was in California in the 1860s, during the building of the Central Pacific Railroad. Now, think about this: when was the last time you saw the words "chop suey" on a menu?

Never eat in a Chinese restaurant that specializes in chop suey, unless the place is over fifty years old.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., the father of the Supreme Court Chief Justice, was born today in 1809. He wrote The Autocrat Of The Breakfast Table, the first in a series of novels with the words "breakfast table" in their titles. They were about life in New England.

Actress Rebecca de Mornay was born today in 1962. (Mornay sauce is a bechamel with cheese added). . . Edward Denny Bacon was born today in 1860. He was a British author and the curator of the King's stamp collection. . . Kyle Cook, lead guitarist of the American rock band Matchbox Twenty, was born today in 1975.

"You don't get ulcers from what you eat. You get them from what's eating you."--Vicki Baum, Austrian-American writer, who died today in 1960.

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."--Rev. William A. Spooner, for whom the expression "spoonerism" is named. He died today in 1930.