November 7, 2017
Days Until. . .
Thanksgiving (Nov. 23): 16 Christmas: 42 New Year's Eve: 49.
Today's Flavors
It's National Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day. My wife is tuned into that big-time; that might be her favorite kind of chocolate.
It's also International Bearnaise Day. A strong case can be made that bearnaise is the world's most delicious sauce. Maybe that's because it's the first serious French sauce many of us encounter. If bearnaise shows up at the table, you'll consume every bit of it.
Bearnaise is a child of the mother sauce hollandaise, a rich emulsion of egg yolks and butter with a little lemon juice or vinegar. It becomes bearnaise when the aromatic herbs tarragon, chervil, and chives--usually simmered in a little wine or tarragon vinegar if dried herbs are used--are stirred in. What emerges is a magnificent mingling of richness, thickness, aroma, and mellow herbaceousness.
Restaurants serve either a lot of bearnaise or none at all. It's not a sauce that can be made in quantity and then refrigerated for later use. It has to be kept just warm and frequently stirred, or else it falls apart. The best bearnaise is made immediately before it's served, and that's tricky enough that most restaurants avoid the commitment.
The best place to look for bearnaise is a restaurant that specializes in steaks and lamb chops. While bearnaise goes well with many dishes (I actually think the ultimate partner for it is roast chicken), red-meat roasts really lend themselves to it. French or French-inspired restaurants also usually make it well, strictly as a point of honor.
Food Advertising
Today in 1965, Poppin' Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy, was born. He is still alive, despite the obituary that you've seen a few hundred times on the internet. (If you haven't, here it is.) I once heard someone at the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans remark that his dining partner--who'd just taken a bite from a well-powdered-sugared beignet--looked as if she'd just had a heavy necking session with the Doughboy. Woo-hoo!
Food Through History
Christopher Columbus returned to Spain today in 1504 after his fourth and last voyage to America. He still believed he'd encountered some unknown strand of Asia. That was wrong, but he was right about many other things--among them the potential of chocolate. He brought cocoa beans with him, along with the instructions for turning them into a drink--which is what chocolate exclusively was for a long time after its European introduction. It was a big hit among the wealthy, and the Era Of Chocolate began.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Chili Creek flows through oak woods three miles in south central Oklahoma, about two-thirds the distance from Dallas to Oklahoma City. The creek is a tributary of Buckhorn Creek, which widens into Lake of the Arbuckles, a reservoir built in the 1960s. It's loaded with fish like sac-a-lait, catfish, and largemouth bass. It's otherwise a recreational area. The most intriguing restaurant nearby is Le Cajun, six miles north of Chili Creek.
Edible Dictionary
paglia e fieno, [PAHL-yah-ee-fee-AY-noh], Italian, n.--"Straw and hay," literally. Using both white and green noodles (usually fettuccine or tagliatelle), but you can get away with spaghetti gives the appearance of a bird's nest made with green and not-so-green materials. In fact, there is little difference between the flavors of regular pasta and spinach pasta. So it's a fun thing. A cream sauce including green peas is almost universal. A little meat is in most recipes--prosciutto, ribbons of beef, or morsels of Italian sausage are popular, particularly if this is serves as an entree.
Deft Dining Rule #111
No food exists that is not at least pretty good when panneed.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
The trick to keeping the crust on pannee meats is to pound the meat thin, dust it lightly with flour, pass it through an egg wash, and then dredge it in the bread crumbs. If the meat can sit in the refrigerator a little while before being fried, so much the better.
Booze In Broadcasting
Today in 1996, the American liquor industry decided to give its blessing to broadcast advertising of its products. Spirits had never been promoted that way; now, ten years later, ads for whiskey, vodka, gin, rum and the rest of it are still rare. Wine advertising on radio and television has become common, however.
Music In Restaurants
Al Hirt was born today in 1922. The bearded trumpet virtuoso began his career as on the old Dawnbusters show on WWL radio, then started performing and recording solo. He sold millions of record albums over the years, and his club on the corner of Bourbon and and St. Louis was one of the classiest places on the strip. Jumbo (as he was called by other musicians) was famous for doing extraordinarily long sets--over an hour and a half at times. He once had a restaurant in the French Market, a steak house along the lines of Ruth's Chris, around back of where the Morning Call used to be and the Gazebo is now.
Food Namesakes
"The Ultimate Disaster Movie" (but not for the reason you're thinking) was the subtitle of Bean, released on this date in 1997. Brit humor. . . Joe Cobb was born today in 1916. He was in the Our Gang movies as Joe. . . Billy Graham, America's most famous preacher, was born today in 1918. . . Jean Shrimpton, the sophisticated, beautiful British model who was Mick Jagger's girlfriend in the 1960s, was born today in 1942.
Words To Eat By
"Bearnaise sauce is simply an egg yolk, a shallot, a little tarragon vinegar, and butter, but it takes years of practice for the result to be perfect."--Fernand Point, influential French chef of the first half of the 1900s.
Words To Lose Your Lunch By
"It's all right, the white wine came up with the fish."--Herman J. Mankiewicz, Hollywood movie producer, born today in 1897. He said this after getting sick at a banquet.
