National Margarita Day

This is National Margarita Day. The essential ingredients are tequila, lime juice, a splash of triple-sec, Cointreau, or some other orange-flavored liqueur, and ice. The rim of the glass is coated with salt, but Lu Brow at the Swizzle Stick Lounge came up with an improvement: only dip half the rim of the glass in the salt. That way you can take it or leave it.Nice coincidence: today is also Pan-American Ceviche Day. Ceviche is a cold appetizer of fish (or sometimes shellfish) marinated in lemon or lime juice, with a little salt and sometimes chile peppers and other savory, crisp vegetables. The fish starts out raw, but the acidity of the citrus juice changes the proteins in the fish such that it comes out with the texture and flavor of cooked fish--even though it's still raw. Ceviche was created during the Spanish colonial days in Peru. From there it spread to almost all Latin American countries, each of which added its own flavors and ingredients. So many variations on ceviche can be made that restaurants sometimes serve several kind of ceviche, with different seafoods and marinades. It's a delicious appetizer, the lightness and the acidic marinade giving a lift to the palate as the flavors satisfy at the same time.

Tartar Creek flows two miles down the mountains northeast of the wine country of Mendocino County in California. It begins at a spring at 2800 feet, and rolls down a thousand feet before ending in Pepperwood Gulch Creek. You can drive right to the confluence if you have an ATV and don't mind climbing up a dead-end road called Loser Lane. Or you can turn around and drive six miles to Willits, there to have lunch at the Loose Caboose Cafe.

spudnut, n.--A fried doughnut made from flour and dehydrated potatoes. The name was coined in 1940 by Al and Bob Pelton in Salt Lake City, who launched a chain of shops selling the doughnuts. They became popular quickly, peaked in the 1960s, then faded. There was at least one of them in the Broadmoor section of New Orleans. (It also served roast beef poor boys.) The Spudnut franchiser went out of business in the 1980s, but many Spudnut shops kept going on their own. Spudnuts have a following, but the flavor difference between them and standard doughnuts is subtle at most.

Frank W. Woolworth opened his first store in Utica, New York today in 1879. Woolworth's would become the first chain store of any kind. Despite that, it was treated by locals as part of the fabric of New Orleans. At one time there were at least eight Woolworth's stores around town. A shopping trip to Canal Street would not have been complete without a stop in one of the two big Woolworth's for a grilled cheese sandwich, crinkle-cut fries, and a cherry Coke.

This is the anniversary of the birth of Aline Gremillion Fitzmorris, my mother and the source of my taste for Creole cooking. She was born in 1912 near Cottonport in rural Avoyelles Parish. Her enormous family (she was the fourth-youngest of twelve children) moved to New Orleans in 1918. She grew up in the French Quarter, and was valedictorian of St. Louis Cathedral School in 1927. (That's her graduation picture at right.) Everybody who knew her remembers the goodness of her cooking. I still think of her versions of chicken gumbo and seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, bread pudding, lost bread, and baked chicken as definitive. My favorite description of her talents came from one of her brothers: "Aline can make a meal from nothing."

If you're dining in an Italian restaurant and you learn that a dish is named for the chef's or (even better) the owner's mother, get that dish.

If you and your siblings haven't spent a few afternoons with your mother learning how to cook her best dishes--measuring and timing everything so anyone can use the recipes--you are throwing away her legacy. Shame!

tapioca, n.--A starch from the root of the cassava plant, made into spheres and used mostly as the basis for sweet dishes and beverages. The spheres are called "pearls," and they range in size from small grain to the size of marbles. The most famous use for tapioca is as a pudding, but in recent times the bigger pearls have become more familiar because of their use in Vietnamese fruit drinks called "bubble teas." (The tapioca pearls are the bubbles.) Cassava plants are native to Brazil, and look from a distance like tall schefflera plants. Their starchy roots are known as manioc in Africa and yuca in Central America. In both places, cassava is a staple food, the third most eaten source of carbohydrates in the world human diet.

An old but probably apocryphal story has it that today in 1630, Native Americans introduced British settlers to popcorn. They popped a bunch of it, then sat down at watched The Birth Of A Nation. No. There was nothing new about popcorn. It had been grown and popped for many centuries.

Ernie K-Doe (real name Kador) was born today in 1936. His famous song was Mother-In-Law, but he played all kinds of New Orleans music for decades. The cooking of this mother-in-law is not mentioned, but it's a long-running topic of controversy. K-Doe died in 2001.

Kate Sage, Australian Olympic hockey player, was born today in 1973. . . Samuel Whitbread, who founded the British ale brewery named for him, was born today in 1937. . . Actor Dwight Frye was born today in 1899. . . Isaac L. Rice, a New York businessman and philanthropist, was born today in 1850. . . Robert Weiner Jr., professional polo player, was born today in 1982. . . Bill Baker, an early pro basketball player, was slam-dunked today in 1911.

"Shellfish are the prime cause of the decline of morals and the adaptation of an extravagant lifestyle. Indeed of the whole realm of nature the sea is in many ways the most harmful to the stomach, with its great variety of dishes and tasty fish."--Pliny the Elder.

"And the sooner the tea's out of the way, the sooner we can get out the gin, eh?"--Henry Reed, English writer, born today in 1914.