October 9, 2017
Days Until. . .
Halloween: 22 Thanksgiving (Nov. 23): 45
Today's Flavor
It's Poor Boy Day in New Orleans. It's well documented who invented the poor boy sandwich: Bennie and Clovis Martin. It happened during the famous streetcar strike of the late 1920s. The idea was to provide the "poor boys" out on the picket lines with a big, filling sandwich containing only scraps of meat for a low price—originally a nickel. The day it happened is not known, but the now-defunct Council for the Preservation of the Poor Boy Sandwich (it disbanded in 1973, when it became clear the danger of extinction had past) declared today as the official day of celebration.
The Martins persuaded their baker--John Gendusa, a couple of blocks up Touro--to make a special extra-long loaf of French bread that was the same thickness from end to end. That was an adaptation from the standard New Orleans French bread, which was shorter and had a wide middle and tapering ends.
Most New Orleanians agree that a well-made roast beef poor boy is one of the most delicious eats in this great eating town. We all remember our first one. For me, it came from Clarence and Lefty's, an old joint on Almonaster at N. Tonti. It was so good I ate two of them. That taste still stands as my benchmark: homemade beef and gravy, fresh hot French bread. It's the gravy that makes the sandwich unique. That caused a myth to grow that the sloppier the sandwich, the better. I do not subscribe to that theory. I have encountered some poor boys with so much gravy that they were impossible to eat. There's a golden mean here, and only the really good shops get it right.
The best poor boy shops have many other kinds of poor boys, including unusual meats like liver cheese and hogshead cheese (together?) Of them all, I think the most underrated is the ham poor boy and its variants--especially the grilled ones. Then we have all the fried seafood poor boys. Those differ in being better without the lettuce and tomatoes found on their meatier brethren. The toasted bread should just be slathered with melted butter, the seafood doused with hot sauce, and a bunch of pickles thrown in for acidity and textural contrast.
The poor boy universe is a unique and essential part of the dining scene in New Orleans. Any place with a good poor boy gets a star on my mental culinary map.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Mushroom Creek is a small, usually dry, three-mile-long tributary of the Powder River in the southwest corner of Montana. Although the surrounding area is hilly desert, the Powder River brings enough water down to allow for a lot of farming along its banks. A lot of cattle are ranched here, too. Mushroom Creek gets enough flow to support trees, and that's where the mushrooms are. It's eighteen miles to the nearest restaurant, Hawk Alley in Broadus on US 212.
Edible Dictionary
kumquat, n.--A small, orange citrus fruit, usually eaten whole, including the peel. The typical kumquat is oval in shape, about an inch wide and an inch and a half long. Some varieties are round, however. They all seem to come from Southeast Asian. Records of their cultivation go back to the 1100s, and they've been popular throughout the Far East for at least seven hundred years. They grow on bushes that resemble other citrus trees in the shape of their leaves and flowers. They are less sensitive to freezing than almost any other citrus, surviving temperatures of 15 degrees. The skin is sweeter and the pulp more bitter than most citrus. The oils are particularly fragrant, so they're good in cocktails. Other than eating them whole, kumquats can also be preserved. It's a friendly little fruit that lacks a large fan club.
Deft Dining Rule #654:
The thickness of the meat, cheese, and dressings on a poor boy sandwich should equal or exceed that of the top layer of bread.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
The perfect poor boy will, after being completely assembled, be warmed in a 400-degree oven for no less than three minutes, then served immediately.
Food In Science
You know those tendrils of liquid that climb up the side of your wine glass or brandy snifter? We call them "legs," but Johann Andreas von Segner, a German physicist who was born today in 1704, called the effect a meniscus, caused by surface tension in the liquid. Surface tension allows a bug to walk on water, and for little beads of water to roll across the surface of a bowl of water when dribbled. It can force many liquids to climb solid barriers. Far up, in the case of some of our alcoholic beverages. The length of the legs in wine, by the way, has almost no meaning in terms of quality. Emile Fischer, who won the Nobel Price for Chemistry in 1902, was born today in 1852. Most of his work involved the chemicals in food. Most notably, he greatly expanded our understanding of what happens when sugars ferment (a critical step in winemaking, among other things).
Music To Eat Beignets By
The calliope was patented today by Joshua Stoddard. Live steam blows across tuned (if we're lucky) pipes and generates a tremendous amount of sound, as anyone who's ever been in the neighborhood of a calliope-equipped steamboat knows. Although its sound is associated with the 1800s, modern passenger riverboats usually have them, to create atmosphere. Hearing a calliope is now part of the experience of having cafe au lait and beignets in the French Market or oysters at the Crescent City Brewpub.
Annals Of Drugstore Soda Fountains
Charles Rudolph Walgreen, who founded the drugstore chain that bears his name, was born today in 1873. The soda fountain was already common in pharmacies when Walgreen got into the business. They remained so until the 1970s. A decade later, they were almost all gone. Walgreen has a dessert named for him (informally; the name isn't on the menu) at Antoine's. It's a ring of baked meringue with ice cream, nuts, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream. Must be because it resembled the kind of sundaes you once could get at Walgreen's (and every other drugstore's) soda fountain.
Food Around The World
Today is independence day for Valencia, now part of Spain. In 1237 on this day James I drove the Moors out its the capital city. Valencia (city and state) is the homeland of paella, the delicious dish of rice, vegetables, seafoods and meats which has become more common around New Orleans in recent years. It also indirectly gave its name to the Uptown social center for teenagers, which was once described as "a club for overprivileged children."
Celebrity Chefs Today
Today is the birthday, in 1964, of abrasive television chef, restaurateur, and grilling specialist Bobby Flay. He doesn't understand or like New Orleans food, so here's a special salute to his birthday.
The Saints
It's the feast day of St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris, who lived in the Third Century. There used to be an egg dish named for him at Antoine's--it had a sauce made with chicken livers, ham, and sherry--but it's been gone a long time.
Food Namesakes
Strawberry Fields, in New York's Central Park, was christened today in 1985, on the late John Lennon's birthday. . . Dutch actor Paul Beers was born today in 1935. . . Former North Carolina Governor and Congressman William Kitchin was born today in 1866.
Words To Eat By
"Peace is a good thing, and so is salmon when it's smoked."--Sean Ono Lennon, son of John and Yoko, born today in 1975. It's also the anniversary of his father's birth, in 1940.
"A hippo sandwich is easy to make. All you do is simply take one slice of bread, one slice of cake, some mayonnaise, one onion ring, one hippopotamus, one piece of string, a dash of pepper. That ought to do it. And now comes the problem: biting into it!"--Shel Silverstein, writer of children's books and artist in Playboy Magazine.
Words To Drink By
“Drinking beer doesn't make you fat, It makes you lean. Against bars, tables, chairs, and poles.”--Unknown.
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You'd Better Have Someone Watch Over Your Cooking.
It's amazing that any of us old-timers manages to have recipes that come out even close to correct.Click here for the cartoon.
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