June 10, 2015
Days Until. . .
Father's Day 8 Eat Club Dinner @ Lakehouse, June 16 6
Eating Around The World
This is Portugal Day. The reason is unusual: it's the anniversary of the 1580 death of national hero, poet and adventurer Luís de Camões. (Nobody knows when he was born.) Even stranger, Portugal lost its independence to Spain that year, and remained part of Spain for sixty years. But they and we celebrate, especially on the culinary front. Portugal's cuisine, although uncommon in American restaurants, is influential. It followed the peripatetic Portuguese sailors around the world. The most popular dishes are those made with beans and sausages, but the best involve seafood--Portugal being a country of fishermen. The most famous Portuguese-American chef is Emeril Lagasse, who grew up in a Portuguese community in New England. So let's toast Portugal with a glass of port--among the world's greatest wines, and the unique property of Portuguese vineyards.
Music To Drink Caipirinhas By
João Gilberto, Brazilian singer (in Portuguese and English) and guitarist, was born today in 1931. His is the male voice at the beginning of The Girl From Ipanema. The short radio version of the song cut his part out and goes straight to the sexy voice of his wife (at the time) Astrud.
Edible Dictionary
yellowfin tuna, n.; also known by its Japanese name ahi--Also known as "ahi" tuna, this is the most common variety of tuna from the Gulf of Mexico sold in restaurants or stores. In the fish display case, it's often marked with the meaningless accolade "sushi grade." Yellowfin tuna is, however, the most popular fish in the sushi repertoire in this country. Its red flesh fades to pink or even almost white in some specimens. The dark parts near the blood lines are (or should be) cut away. The typical yellowfin (an accurate name) weighs around 75 pounds, but they can grow to a few hundred pounds in their long lives. Like other tunas, yellowfins are lightning-fast swimmers and incomparably efficient predators of other fish. This accounts for one of their negatives: they concentrate mercury picked up from the fish it eats. Tuna is excellent raw. When cooked, it's almost always grilled or seared in a pan.
Today's Flavor
Today is National Iced Tea Day. Well, we certainly drink enough of that. Although there are times when iced tea hits the spot, in gourmet restaurants you're taking a chance by ordering it, especially when everyone at your table does so. Waiters register iced-tea drinkers as penny-pinchers and low tippers, and give less good service. Not all of them do, but the effect is widespread enough that we wouldn't recommend it. The restaurant doesn't care: nothing a restaurant sells carries a profit margin that can match that of iced tea.
The greatest improvement to iced tea in my memory was when classy restaurants began to served simple syrup with iced tea. It obviates the need for long, clanky stirring of slow-dissolving sugar.
Deft Dining Rule #615:
Bottled iced tea in restaurants is primarily a scheme to get you to pay for additional glasses, instead of getting unlimited free refills. The tea itself is not as good as freshly brewed.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Eight Fish Hills are found across America, enough for a series in this department. Part One takes us twenty-five miles west of Boston. Fish Hill here is covered by a cul-de-sac street full of recently-built houses. It rises about 100 feet from the bank of the Sudbury River just south and reaches an altitude of 122 feet. The Trackside Grill is a half-mile away in Ashland, for the slaking of one's hunger.
Moving Food Around
Today in 1869, a shipment of frozen beef from Texas arrived in New Orleans. It was the first long-distance shipment of frozen food in the world. It was a big deal, and occasioned celebration in the streets. If only they had known where that would lead!
Annals Of Popular Cuisine
On this date in 1965, the first Subway sandwich shop opened in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Fred DeLuca, a seventeen-year-old, had the idea of selling sandwiches to earn money for college. There are now 32,996 Subway restaurants serving their mediocre sandwiches in eighty-six countries. I congratulate the outfit on its success, and scratch my head wondering why anyone would eat a Subway when they could have a poor boy.
The Saints
This is the feast day of St. Brigid of Ireland. She lived in the fifth century, long enough ago that she heard St. Patrick preach. She is the patron saint of poultry farmers, cows, and milkmaids.
Annals Of Teetotaling
This is the birthday, in 1935, of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Robert Smith started it by laying off the bottle for a full day. He and his friend Bill Wilson, who also had a problem, talked through the idea and launched it with zeal. I have several friends whose lives were saved by AA. I like the organization for that reason, and also because its only goal is sobriety for its members. AA turns up where it's needed. Every cruise ship, for example, has a scheduled AA meeting daily, under the name "Friends of Bill W." I hope neither you nor I will ever need to attend, but it's good that the help is there
Food And Drink Namesakes
Frederick A. Cook was born today in 1865. He was an arctic explorer who claimed to be the first person to reach the North Pole. His claim is not generally accepted as valid, but a society named for him says it was legitimate. It's still a controversy among those who care. . . Another explorer named Cook--Captain James Cook, a frequent visitor to this department--ran aground on Australia's Great Barrier Reef today in 1770. . . Movie actor Russell Waters was born today in 1908. . . Fairfield Porter, an American painter, made his first strokes today in 1907.
Words To Eat By
"Portuguese, n.pl.--A species of geese indigenous to Portugal. They are mostly without feathers and imperfectly edible, even when stuffed with garlic."--Ambrose Bierce.
Words To Drink By
"A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning."--Samuel Johnson. "If you are cold, tea will warm you--if you are too heated, it will cool you--if you are depressed, it will cheer you--if you are excited, it will calm you."--William Gladstone.
