Valentine’s Day!
Friday February 14th, 2020
Valentine. Marc P. Chef Felix. Cream-Filled Chocolates. Candy Town. Truffle.
It's Valentine's Day. The celebration predates its namesake by centuries. February 14 was a Roman pagan holiday honoring Juno. The next day, young men and women would hook up for the duration of the festival of Lupercalia. Many pairings continued beyond that, and so the love lore attached to the date. The historic St. Valentine was a third-century Roman priest who rebelled against the Emperor Claudius II, who banned marriages because he was running low on soldiers. Valentine married couples in secret until he was caught and executed on the day that became his.
St. Valentine, in addition to being the patron saint of people in love, is also the patron of beekeepers. Honey. Let's also remember that we would be bereft of many of the fruits and vegetables we eat were it not for the busyness of bees.
Nowadays, romances are more stressed than formed on Valentine's Day. Men have a propensity to take it too lightly, while women have the opposite tendency. Despite that, it remains one of the busiest days of the year for restaurants, which fill up with people who only dine out a few days of the year. The solution is to make the Valentine's dinner some other night. But that advice comes from me, a guy, and so should not be considered to have any currency with the ladies. (We dilate on this under Matters Of Taste.)
Restaurateur Anniversaries
Today is the birthday of Marc Preuss, who for many years ran the day-to-day management of Broussard's with his father, Chef Gunter Preuss, and his mother Evelyn.
On this day in 1972, Chef Felix Gallerani arrived in America from his native Tyrol in Italy. He first came to New Orleans as chef for the newly-opened Riverfront Hilton's flagship restaurant, Winston's. He later worked for a long time as the maitre d' at Begue's and then Broussard's, before taking over Cafe Volage in the Riverbend in the 1990s. He retired in 2007 and sold the restaurant.
Food Calendar
It is National Cream-Filled Chocolate Day, says the Web. The explanation is obvious. In the course of looking up background on this, I found out why it's nearly impossible to fill chocolates with cream or liqueur or any other liquid at home. But the explanation itself is too complex for laymen like me and you.
Delicious-Sounding Places
Candy Town, Ohio is a campsite in the woods about sixty-two miles southeast of Columbus, off US 33. Nothing appears on the aerial shot but a small loop on a road leading to an old dump. Somehow, this all adds up to a place where lovers could find some privacy, but I'm only guessing. Perhaps before you head to Candy Town, you might have a nice dinner at the Rhapsody Restaurant, a mile away in Nelsonville.
Edible Dictionary
chocolate truffle, n.--A light, rich combination of chocolate and cream, whipped until light. The mixture is made into spheres about an inch in diameter, then dusted with cocoa powder. The flavor is at first bite even more intense than pure chocolate, because of the richness added by the cream's fat. Either light or dark chocolate can be used, and other flavors and ingredients (hazelnuts, for example) can be included. Chocolate truffles are so named because of their resemblance to true truffles--the underground fruiting bodies of a family of mushrooms.
Wine Around The World
This is Trifon Zarezan day in Bulgaria. That's an ancient festival marking the end of the dead months of winter and the coming of the first signs of spring. It has particular significance in the vineyards, where a ritual of pruning takes place. There's also a sexual and intoxicating aspect to the day.
Food Through History
In 1889 today, the first load of fresh fruit shipped by rail from the West Coast to the East Coast left Los Angeles. The cargo was oranges, which were almost an exotic fruit back then and much prized. . . Speaking of fruit, on this day in 1803 one Moses Coats won a patent for a gizmo that peeled apples. . . Today in 1859, Oregon joined the Union as the thirty-third state. It makes first-class wines, particularly Pinot Noir. But it also the country's biggest producer of hazelnuts. They also pull a lot of salmon from their streams, notably the state fish, the Chinook salmon. . . This is also the anniversary of statehood (in 1912) for Arizona. The cuisine there is interesting, blending Mexican and West Coast cooking.
Food Namesakes
Derrick Witherspoon, a pro football running back, grabbed the ball of life and ran with it on this date in 1971. . . Actress Florence Rice first appeared today in 1911. . . Captain James Cook, who turns up often in this department, was murdered in Hawaii (he called them the Sandwich Islands) today in 1779. He was making his third visit there.
Words To Eat By
"Honey comes out of the air. At early dawn the leaves of trees are found bedewed with honey. Whether this is the perspiration of the sky or a sort of saliva of the stars, or the moisture of the air purging itself, nevertheless it brings with it the great pleasure of its heavenly nature. It is always of the best quality when it is stored in the best flowers."--Pliny The Elder.
"I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love, and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them."--Nora Ephron.
