September 22, 2017
Days Until. . .
Summer ends 1
Fall begins in New Orleans at 3:02 p.m New Orleans time. Good-bye to the long summer doldrums in the restaurant business, which do seem to last right to the astronomical end of the season. This summer seems to have been a little worse than usual, depending on whom I speaking with. Many of the places that closed down for good were large establishments that only recently opened. But their places have almost all been filled by new restaurants.
Today's Flavor
Today is White Chocolate Day. White chocolate enjoyed a vogue in the 1980s, largely by dint of the then-new idea of white chocolate mousse. The strawberry inevitably served on top was the big payoff, I always thought. White chocolate is not chocolate at all, lacking as it does the chocolate liquor that is the essence of the flavor. It's cocoa butter blended with the other ingredients used to make milk chocolate. Really, it would be better called white vanilla. Because of that vanilla aspect, white chocolate got another boost in 1991, when the Palace Cafe created white chocolate bread pudding. It is extremely rich--a bit too rich for my palate. Perhaps because of that, the idea has been widely imitated in other restaurants around town. But the Palace Cafe is the undisputed originator of the idea.
Food Inventions
In 1903 on this date, one Italo Marchiony applied for a patent on a mold that would make ice cream cones. He had been making waffles and rolling them up to hold ice cream, but the combination was so popular that he wanted to make the cones faster. His invention made ten at a time, using a two-piece mold. The same basic concept is used today.
Food Through History
Today in 1699, the citizens of Rotterdam--the largest port in the Netherlands at the time--went on strike because their cattle-raising countrymen inland raised the price of butter too much. Which proved once again that when you mess with people's food, you really make them angry.
Edible Dictionary
Parmentier, [pahr-monh-tee-YAY], adj., French.Antoine-Augustine Parmentier was a pharmacist and progressive thinker in France in the early 1800s. He is best remembered for his championing of potatoes as a food. Potatoes--a recent introductee from the New World, was not nearly as widely eaten in the later 1700s as it would soon be. Because he was the potato's most ardent admirer, dishes containing a lot of potatoes were named for him. Most famous of these is potage Parmentier, a hot leek-and-potato soup that became a staple in French kitchen. The soup is not only good as is, but is also the base for many other kinds of soups.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Turtle Creek is an incorporated suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the eastern side of that city. About 6000 people live there, down from a peak of about 10,000 in the 1940s, when it had a major Westinghouse plant. It was the hometown for a soft-rock group called the Vogues, who I thought were pretty good. (Five O'Clock World was their best song.) The town is named for a ten-mile-long tributary of the Monongahela River, which not far downstream joins the Allegheny to form the Ohio River. The most intriguing restaurant in Turtle Creek is the Electric Avenue Cafe, in the center of town.
Deft Dining Rule #132
When the only finfish on a menu is tilapia or orange roughy, order a steak or a chicken dish.
World Food Records
Today in 2010, the world's record for the largest sweet bread ever baked was set when a king cake was built big enough to encircle the plaza level of the Superdome in New Orleans. Baked and strung together by Haydel's Bakery--a major producer of the Carnival season confection, it weighed over 4,000 pounds. Big pieces of it were sold to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The whole cake was sold, as well as a second, slightly smaller one built at the same time.
Worst New Flavor
Today in 2000, there was stir when it was discovered that a batch of taco shells made by Kraft Foods had been made using a biologically engineered variety of corn that had not yet been approved for human consumption.
The Saints
Today is the feast day of St. Maurice, who lived in the third century in what is now Switzerland. He is the patron saint to call on if you have cramps. He is also the patron saint of knife sharpeners. In his honor, here is one important datum about sharpening your knives: you do not have to do it often. Every couple of years will do it if it's a good knife, and you run it over a steel once in awhile.
Food Namesakes
Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Lemon was born today in 1920. . . General Hospital actress Lynn Herring was born today in 1957. . . Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte woke up and smelled the coffee today in 1952. . . Choreographer and director of music videos Toni Basil moved her feet for the first time today in 1943. . . Eric Baker, one of the founders of Amnesty International, was born today in 1920.
Words To Eat By
"Do not arouse disdainful mind when you prepare a broth of wild grasses; do not arouse joyful mind when you prepare a fine cream soup."--Dogen, a religious leader in Japan in the twelfth century, who died on this date in 1200.
Words To Drink By
"A house where neither wine nor welcome is served to friends, soon will have none."--Rob Hutchison, Canadian politician.
