And Now the Answers

     

     Yesterday I reprinted 10 questions from Epicurious.com's quiz of Italian cuisine.  Here are the answers:

1:C) Tuscany.  Made without salt, the relatively bland bread that traditionally accompanies meals in Tuscany balances out the region's otherwise highly seasoned food.

2:A) Tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil.  As the story goes, Esposito named it in honor of the then queen consort of Italy, using only those three ingredients to represent the colors of the Italian flag.

3:B) Calabria.  Ever heard of Calabrian chiles?  Calabrian sweets also tend to feature honey, another hallmark of that Arabian influence.

4:D) Nero. But let's be honest, all those guys probably loved it.

5:B) Emilia-Romagna.  Bordering the Adriatic Sea on Italy's east coast, this region stretches almost the entire width of the country.  Among its many exports are ragu bolognese, prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano, balsamic vinegar, Sangiovese, and Lambrusco.

6:A) Saving a village woman's baby from the mouth of a hungry wolf.  Apparently, after the woman prayed, the wolf set that baby down as if he has just realized that he'd had enough protein that day.

7:B) An African explorer's journal.  Muhammad al-Idrist, a globe-trotting geographer, includes a survey of Sicily in his Tabula Rogerina--written at least  100 years before Marco Polo supposedly learned about noodles from the Chinese--in which he describes long strands of dough (i.e. pasta noodles) being made from hard wheat.

8:C) Polenta. Before European conquerors brought corn back from the New World, a porridge similar to polenta made with farro, millet, buckwheat, spelt or even chickpeas was served throughout Northern Italy.

9: D) Puglia.  The "Heel of Italy" has the least mountainous terrain and produces at least 40% of all the olive oil in Italy.

10:D) Although the correct phrasing would be spaghetti alla marinara, you're still not likely to find the dish on any Italian menu.  Pizza alla marinara, however, is a basic style of pizza found on many street corners in Italy.  Topped with a sauce made with tomatoes, garlic, oregano, and olive oil, this pizza is likely the origin of the signature Italian-American tomato sauce's name.  Want pasta with tomato sauce?  Ask for pasta al pomodoro instead.

How Much Do You Really Know?

     

Recently Epicurious.com posed the question, "How Much Do you Really Know About Italian Food?"  The article began with this statement:

     "Everyone has an idea about what Italian cuisine is.  But like the United States, Italy has distinct regions, each with its own signature recipes, techniques, and ingredients.  Think you know your caprese from your carbonara?  It's time to find out."

Here are 10 questions to test your knowledge:

1. Which of the following Italian regions is known for its salt-free bread?
          A. Campagnia
          B. Veneto
          C. Tuscany
          D. Piedmont

2. Developed by Neapolitan Pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito in 1889, a classic pizza margherita must contain which three ingredients?
          A. Tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil
          B. Ricotta, Parmigiano-Reggiano,and basil
          C. Romesco, mozzarella, and oregano
          D. Tomatoes, Permigiano-Reggiano, and basil

3. According to Micol Negrin, Italian food expert and author of Rustico: Regional Italian Country Cooking, this region, often referred to as the toe of Italy, has been influenced by Arab and Albanian cooking, resulting in characteristic dishes laced with chiles and sweet-and-sour notes.
          A. Campania
          B. Calabria
          C. Sicily
          D. Sardinia

4. Porchetta, a classic, Roman roasted pork dish, is said to have been a favorite if which Italian political figure?
          A. Julius Caesar
          B. Marcus Aurelius
          C. Mussolini
          D. Nero

5. Which region is hailed as "Italy's Food basket?"
          A. Tuscany
          B. Emilia-Romagna
          C. Friuli-Venezia Giulia
          D. Umbria

6. La Panarda, an annual feast in the region of Abruzzo, is said to have first been celebrated as a thanksgiving to St. Anthony Abate for what act of kindness?
          A. Saving a village woman's baby from the mouth of a hungry wolf
          B. Saving the town of Villavallelonga from a devastating flood
          C. Sending a bountiful harvest after a three-year drought
          D. Saving a fleet of fishermen during a sudden Mediterranean storm

7. The earliest indication of spaghetti's supposed origins is found in:
          A. Reports from Marco Polo's Chinese expeditions
          B. An African explorer's journal
          C. A sonnet by Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch
          D. A letter from a Sicilian war general, detailing his company's dwindling rations

8. Which traditional Italian dish is made from a new world crop that wasn't introduced to Italy until the 15th of 16th Century?
          A. Risotto
          B. Farina
          C. Polenta
          D. Gnocchi

9. This region is Italy's greatest producer of olive oil.
          A. Lazio
          B. Lombardy
          C. Veneto
          D. Puglia

10. In Italy, if you order spaghetti marinara, you'll be confronted with:
          A. Confused stares
          B. Gales of laughter
          C. A plate of noodles tossed with random assorted seafood
          D. All of the above

Answers tomorrow
          

Italian "Pickles"

From the pages of Fine Cooking, this recipe for sweet, sour, and spicy pickled melon:

You'll be pleasantly surprised the first time you take a bite of these lightly pickled melon balls.  They're hot, sweet, and tangy but also bursting with the fresh flavor of melon.  Be sure to use melons that are ripe but not too soft, as they will soften slightly during brining.






Ingredients

6 to 8 lb (2 large or 3 medium) firm-ripe melons, 
        such as cantaloupe, honeydew, canary or a mix.
2 cups granulated sugar or vanilla sugar
1 cup spring or filtered water
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 sprigs fresh mint

Directions

     Run 3 pint-size mason jars and their lids through the hottest dishwasher cycle to sanitize.

     Halve and seed the melons.  Using a melon baller, carve out about 6 cups of melon balls, and place them in a bowl.  Reserve any leftover melon for another use.
     
     Combine the sugar, water, vinegar, salt and pepper flakes in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt completely.
     
     While the brine is heating, pack the melon balls into the jars as tightly as you can without crushing them.  Pour the hot brine into the jars, leaving a 1/2 inch headspace and making sure the melon balls are completely submerged.  Insert 1 mint sprig into each jar, pushing them down along the side of the jar with the handle of a spoon to submerge in the brine. Cool to room temperature.
     
     Screw the lids on tightly, and let the melon cure in the refrigerator for 4 days before serving.  The melon will keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 month, though it will continue to soften over time.

Makes about 3 pints

Preserving Summer the Italian Way

     In the August/September issue of Fine Cooking Domenica Marchetti introduces us to agrodolce, a sweet and sour brine that is used to pickle vegetables and fruit.  She says that the colorful preserved garden produce makes a delightful antipasto platter or an accompaniment to a main course.  She writes, "Agro means sour and dolce means sweet, so any Italian dish prepared in this style will exhibit both of these flavors."  

     Peppers can be grilled to soften and sweeten them, then marinated in agrodolce for about an hour, then submerged in extra-virgin olive oil and put in the fridge for abut a week to give the flavors time to mellow.  A simpler process is applied to carrots, fennel and beets.  The vinegar sharpens their flavors and the sugar enhances their natural sweetness.  Fruits like melons also take on a special note as "pickles" in the sweet and sour brine.

     Tomorrow: One of Domenica's favorite pickle recipes.

Promises, Promises

     The Democratic National Convention has rolled into Philadelphia.  In addition to all the delegates who will listen to speeches delivered and promises made, there are also thousands of protesters decrying injustice and seeking to be heard.  Yesterday I was in the City of Brotherly Love and listened to the folks who have come into town to plead their case.  There was a man from Burlington and college students from Massachusetts who are here with the hopes of influencing candidates and leaving with promises of reform and change.  But promises made are easier to obtain than promises kept.

     I wasn't there to observe the political process, but to enjoy  what was billed as a "Crab Pickin' Pop-Up" at The Oyster House on Sansom Street.  Earlier in the month I received an e-mail advertising a family-style spread of Maryland Blue Crabs.  In addition to "Cornbread, Slaw, a fresh Summer Tomato Salad, Warm Potato Salad and a sweet Berry Cobbler with Peppercorn Ice Cream," I was supposed to get "7 jumbo crabs...and as much drawn butter as you can drink."  That was the promise they made.

     Well imagine my dismay when the tray of crabs arrived at my table.  They weren't jumbos as promised.  Some of them weren't even the legal minimum size.  For the record, a crab is measured from point to point on the carapace.  The minimum is 5 inches across: jumbos should measure between 6 1/2 to 7 inches.  I brought that to the attention of one of the managers.  But being an oyster house it seems they aren't familiar with the sizes of crabs.

     I will say that the rest of the meal was exceptional.  But I am still disappointed that a promise made for jumbo crabs was not a promise kept.  I'm hoping that when I return the management can make good on their promise with more than empty rhetoric and playing politics.

Tasteful Reminders

     Isn't it interesting how certain tastes can take you back to a different time and place?  For example, having cantaloupe with a sprinkle of salt recalls a time in my pre-teen years having that as a weekend morning appetizer before breakfast at the kitchen table.  Cold pizza crusts have the same effect, bringing back memories of those morning-after meals in the Conshohocken apartment that I shared with 2 other college buddies the year after we all graduated.

     But there is a singular meal I enjoy that brings to mind a vacation along the South Carolina coast.  It's something called Frogmore Stew, a classic low country dish.  Sometimes referred to as Low Country Boil or Beaufort Stew, it's actually not a stew, nor does it contain frogs.  The name is derived from a small coastal town on St. Helena Island, SC.  Although the USPS abolished Frogmore in the 1980s, the town lives on in the name of this meal.


     In their book, The Lexicon of Real American Food, Jane and Michael Stern describe it as, "A gallimaufry of shrimp, sausage, new potatoes, onions, and chunks of corn on the cob that all get boiled in the same pot with a hail of crab-boil seasonings..."  One story alleges the origins of the stew came from Richard Gay, whose family runs the Gay Seafood Company on St.Helena Island.  While he was serving with his National Guard unit one weekend he made the stew in an effort to serve over 100 of his fellow guardsmen with whatever he had available or could procure.  Shrimp and the corn on the cob were naturals.  The sausage, onions, potatoes he appropriated also went into the giant pot.  Variations can include crabs, crawfish and celery, in fact, anything that's good to boil.


     Once a dish known only to the locals it hit the big time after it was featured on the cover of Gourmet Magazine in the 1980s.  And it is still a hit with me after I prepared it for our travel group as we vacationed on Kiawah Island over a decade ago. 

     Here is the basic recipe for you to try and make a memory of your own:

FROGMORE STEW

Ingredients

4 lbs red potatoes

3 lbs shrimp, unshelled

1 lb smoked sausage, such as Kielbasa,sliced into pieces

6 ears of sweet corn, husked and cut into thirds

1 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning.

Directions

Bring about a gallon of water to a boil in a large pot.  Add the potatoes and Old Bay and cook 5 minutes.  Add the sausage and boil for 5 minutes more.  Then add the corn and boil for an additional 5 minutes.  Lastly, add the shrimp and boil 3 more minutes.  Drain and serve on a table top covered with newspaper.

Some people add in crabs, crawfish or clams and cook the stew in beer.  Others add onions, lemons and/or celery to the stew.

All in the Family

     Members of the Allium family include cooking onions, red onions, sweet onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, ramps and chives.  Here's a recipe that incorporates three of them.  Take this dip along to your next party with some healthful baked tortilla chips!

Sweet Onion, Scallion & Chive Dip

Ingredients

2 Tbsp salted butter

1 lb sweet onions, such as Vidalia or Peruvian, cut into 1/4" to 1/2" dice

1/2 cup finely chopped scallions, white and tender green parts

1/4 cup finely chopped chives

1 cup sour cream

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Directions

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the onions, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions just begin to turn golden.  Add the scallions and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring.  Remove from the heat;  add the chives and mix well.  Transfer the onion mixture to a bowl and set aside to cool slightly.

While the onion mixture is cooling, combine the sour cream, cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl.  (These can be mixed by hand if the cream cheese is soft or in a food processor if the cream cheese is still firm.)  Add the onion mixture and stir to combine.  Taste and add salt, if desired.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Makes 3 cups.

Nutrition per tablespoon:  34 calories, 1 g protein, 3 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 8 g cholesterol, 41 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber.

Recipe courtesy of the Record Eagle, Traverse City, MI

The Same but Different

     The onion family is made up of many close relatives.  And sometimes it's difficult to tell them apart.  Stephanie Witt Sedgwick writing for the Washington Post asks, "When you see a member of the onion family that is small and long and thin, colored green on the top and white on the bottom, what is it?"

     Some would say it's a scallion, others would recognize it as a spring onion while there are some who would call it a green onion.  And depending where you live you would be correct on any of the above.  The Brits use the term "spring onion" for both spring onions and scallions, but the folks from the Land Down Under call both of them shallots, confusing the issue even more. And back here in the good old US of A the two varieties are generally grouped together as "green onions."

But there is a significant difference.

     "Scallions are long and thin, and the little white bulb at the bottom is straight and does not bulge outward," states Roy Brubaker.  He and his wife own Village Acres Farm in Mifflintown, PA.  "Spring onions have more of a bulb, and its size depends on how long the plant is left in the soil."

     And as the saying goes, size does matter.  A spring onion can be used in recipes that call for scallions, giving an extra boost of sweet onion flavor.  But the reverse isn't necessarily true because scallion bulbs are so small.  Scallions can be grilled, roasted or braised, but they are most often sliced and diced and prepared raw, and with their mild flavor are ideal for cold salads.

     Another difference is availability.  Scallions are available year round, but that's not the case with spring onions.  They are as their name suggests only a seasonal vegetable.

Tomorrow: A recipe that incorporates the flavors of 3 members of the onion family.

A Native American

     Blueberries are one of only a few truly native American fruits, fruits of a shrub belonging to the heath family of edible plants, that includes cranberries.  Other relatives include the azalea, mountain laurel and rhododendron.  They grow in clusters and range in size from that of a pea to a marble.  With a deep color that can vary from blue to maroon, to purple/black they can have a white-gray waxy "bloom" that serves as a protective covering for the fruits that are in season from May to October.

     In terms of U.S. fruit consumption blueberries rank 2nd in popularity, behind the strawberry.  But they have the highest antioxidant content among all fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants are essential to optimizing health, helping to control free radicals that can damage cellular structures.  Enjoying these little powerhouses of health can benefit the body in a number of ways.  They support the cardiovascular system, improve memory, lower blood sugar, promote eye health and provide anti-cancer benefits.

     The United States cultivates and supplies over half of the world's blueberries!  That amounts to 275 million pounds annually.  And those of us who live in the Keystone State are fortunate to have easy access to some of the best in the nation right next door in New Jersey.

A Winning Combination

     

     Bucolic Bucks County in eastern Pennsylvania has a lot of open space.  Nestled in between the Delaware River and neighboring Montgomery County and just north of Philadelphia, there's a lot to see and do and enjoy.

     On Saturday I took a ride on my chrome pony and ventured over to Lahaska and spent the afternoon strolling through Peddler's Village near New Hope and took in the annual Bluegrass and Blueberries Festival.  Somehow it had not been on my radar but each July the Village transforms their shops and restaurants into a combination music stage and fruit stand.  There was something for everyone: fun and games for kids, foot-tapping music in several areas for adults, and all manner of food for everyone.  

     Of course blueberries were the star of the show.  Blueberries found their way into crepes, fritters, pie, ice cream, cup cakes, smoothies, and even apple cider and lemonade.  There were some non-blueberry possibilities, too, including crab cake sandwiches, corn dogs, pretzels, bratwurst & fried onions, chicken tenders and cheese fries.   And if music was the reason you attended you weren't disappointed.  Groups like the Daisy Jug Band and Hillbillies of Cohesion performed throughout the day.

     And of course all the shops in the Village were open for business, too.  Artisan, fashion, and home decor stores share space with the nearly a dozen restaurants, cafes, taverns and pubs.  Perhaps the most famous of them is the much acclaimed Cock & Bull Restaurant. 

      As for me, I settled for a single blueberry fritter and some of that odd-colored blueberry apple cider.  It tasted much better than it looked.

Only in Cleveland

     One of Cleveland's most famous foods it the Polish Boy sandwich.  It has been described by Jane & Michael Stern this way:  

     "Its main ingredient is a massive length of crisp-cased, juice-spurting kielbasa.  It is packed into a bun along with French fries and coleslaw, and the whole, huge cylinder of food is sopped with radiant barbecue sauce."


     While the sausage is typically grilled, some establishments will quickly deep fry it after grilling.  Oh, there is a strict rule that the kielbasa can be only a genuine beef polish sausage.  And don't even think of adding extras like cheese, peppers or sauerkraut.  That is strictly verboten!


     You might think that utensils would come in handy when eating a Polish Boy, but experienced customers know better.  They simply roll up their sleeves, lean forward and have plenty of paper napkins at the ready!

A Misnomer

     

     If your itinerary includes Cleveland for the RNC be sure to order up some City Chicken when you go out to eat.  But don't expect to be eating poultry.  The meal is a remnant of the Great Depression when prosperity was defined by having a "chicken in every pot." But for those living in urban areas like Cleveland, Detroit, and Erie who couldn't afford the then high priced birds, cheaper cuts of pork or beef were substituted, skewered and cooked by either baking or frying.  It can still be found on the menus of blue collar diners in cities that surround the Great Lakes.  Sometimes the meat is ground and then fashioned in the shape of a drumstick around a skewer using a special mold.

     Recipes vary regionally for this dish.  In places like Pittsburgh City Chicken is almost always breaded and then baked, while in Binghamton the meat is usually marinated, battered and then deep fried.  The Cleveland version is generally baked without breading, but the meat is dredged in flour, browned in a pan, then finished in the oven, and served with gravy.  Some super markets in the Cleveland metro area even include wooden skewers with pork cubes  in packages specifically labeled as City Chicken.

RNC

     Next week Republicans from all across the country will converge on Cleveland to nominate their candidate for the upcoming presidential election in November.  I must admit that I am less interested in that process than I am in their choice of regional culinary delights available to them.

     Cleveland's many immigrant groups and significant blue-collar demographics continue to play an important role in defining the area's cuisine.  Ethnically, Italian foods as well as several Eastern European cuisines, particularly those of Poland and Hungary, have become gastronomical staples for the area.  Prominent examples would be pizza, chicken paprikash, stuffed cabbage, pierogi and kielbasa.  Favorites among residents are City Chicken and the Polish Boy, meals that are both hearty and inexpensive.


     Cleveland is also where Hector Boiadi (Chef Boyardee) got his start and where the Mr, Hero franchise began.


     And for those with a sweet tooth, go to any number of bakeries and order up a coconut bar or a cassata cake.

More on Cleveland cuisine tomorrow.

A Really Cheesy Product

     Many cheesesteak affectionados would contend that the iconic sandwich of Philadelphia isn't complete without a healthy slathering of Cheez Whiz.  The processed cheese sauce was developed by the food scientists at Kraft Foods who set out to create a stable form of cheese. And they succeeded.  The pasteurized sauce first appeared on store shelves in 1953 and was an immediate hit among housewives all across the country.

     Containing American, mozzarella, Muenster and Gouda, along with mustard, salt, Worcestershire sauce, sorbic acid and the "school-bus orange hue of food dye #A001M" it is an amazing product.  It melts on contact with hot food, doesn't clump or curdle like other cheeses and has an almost eternal shelf life.


     Cheez Whiz can be spooned on macaroni, mixed with veggies, spread on crackers and used in 5 layer Mexican dip.  One web site boldly claims that there are over a thousand uses for the popular product.


     But a word of caution for dieters...A single serving which Kraft determines to be 33 grams (2 Tablespoons) contains 7 grams of fat, 25 mg of cholesterol and a whopping 541 mg of sodium.  In that serving are 91 calories of which 62 are derived from fat.  So while it is high in calcium and phosphorous it is also very high in saturated fat and sodium.

     I think I'll just have my cheesesteak with onions only, no cheese please!

DNC

     At the end of the month delegates from all across our great nation will descend upon Philadelphia to attend the Democratic National Convention.  In addition to seeing all the historic sites like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall they will also be flocking to places like Pat's and Geno's to sample the city's signature sandwich, the cheesesteak.

     Those of us who live in and around the City of Brotherly Love are very familiar with the ingredients that go into making this iconic meal.  But I began to wonder as I thought about the sliced rib eye on an Amoroso roll, do other places in the U.S. have anything like it?

     Turns out that in northeastern Illinois around Chicago there is something called Italian Beef that sounds strangely similar.  The Italian Beef sandwich is described by locals there as a sandwich made of thin slices of seasoned roast beef placed in a long Italian roll that has been dipped in the meat juices and then garnished with giadiniera, a relish of pickled vegetables.

     Accounts vary as to its origin but the most credible rendition is that Italian immigrants who worked in the Chicago stockyards in the early 1900s would purchase from the company the cheaper (and tougher) less desirable cuts of meat.  At home the meat would be slow roasted to tenderize it, then slow simmered in a spicy broth using Italian spices and herbs.  The meat was then thinly sliced across the grain so there would be enough to go around to feed all those invited to family events like weddings and banquets.  Most often the meat was stuffed into freshly baked Italian bread.


     Today these sandwiches are available throughout the greater Chicago region in small pizza and sandwich shops.  The roll is dipped in the meat juices to add flavor.  You can have the roll "wet" (dipped once), "juicy" (dipped twice), or "soaked" (dipped thrice).  It's also helpful when eating this soppy sandwich to learn the Italian stance, leaning over with elbows out.

     Sounds interesting, but they forgot the Cheez Whiz!

Too Cheap?

     Perhaps also as American as apple pie, Tater Tots have been a standard side dish in our country since 1956.  In addition to being an integral component to the Mid-West hot dish, they are a favorite of kids not only in the US but also around the world.

     Ore-Ida co-founders F. Nephi and Golden Grigg wondered what they could do with the leftover slivers of the cut-up potatoes they used to make their many other products.  They experimented with chopping up the slivers, adding flour and seasonings and pushing the resulting mash through holes and slicing off pieces of the extruded mixture.

     It wasn't an expensive process so they sold their Tater Tots at what they thought was a very economical price.  But the public didn't buy them, thinking that the low price equated to an unattractive product with little appeal.  It wasn't until they raised the price that folks became interested in them.  Currently over 70 million pounds of Tater Tots are sold in America each year.


    
 And there are plenty of generic substitutes as well.  While Ore-Ida holds the copyright on the name "Tater Tots" you can find a similar product with names like Tater Treats, Potato Puffs and  Cheesy Tots.  Ethnic and regional versions go by names like Tochos, Mexi-Fries, Border Fries, Potato Locos and Mexi-Nuggets.  Down under in Australia and New Zealand stores sell Potato Gems, Potato Royals and Potato Pom-poms, while in the UK you can find Oven Crunchies.  






But my favorite is the Canadian version marketed as Spud Puppies.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

     It's July and here in the Mid-Atlantic States it's just plain hot, with a double dose of humidity.  Recently I've commented on some iconic foods that have "hot" in their name:  Nashville's Hot Chicken and Louisville's Hot Brown.  Following that theme today's topic is Minnesota's Hot Dish, a misleadingly plain term for a rousing culinary phenomenon.

    
      Hot dish is never served as merely a side and is never trivial.   It is center stage, a deluxe casserole at a variety of venues: be it a church social, an Independence Day picnic, or a 50th wedding anniversary.  At a pot-luck event it is the star of the show, a full meal in a casserole. While some may bring things like beans, salad,  pie or cookies, only the accomplished cooks assume the weighty responsibility of providing the hot dish.

     The hot dish casserole includes meat, (usually beef), vegetables (most often canned) and a starch in the form of rice, noodles, Tater Tots, and/or a topping of biscuits, cornflakes or crumbled Ritz crackers.  And another common ingredient is Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom soup.

     Jane & Michael Stern in their book, The Lexicon of Real American Food have this to say on the matter, "A phenomenon we have noted whenever hot dish is served is that it never is anonymous.  That is Gail's Tater Tot Casserole or Brenda's Tuna Bake or Linda's Pork Roll Supreme."

Just Desserts

     And after you've enjoyed the Kentucky Hot Brown sandwich you should look over the dessert menu for a slice of Derby Pie.  But you might not find it.  It's only sold in a very few, select restaurants in and around Louisville.

     It was Walter & Leaudra Kern who with their son, George, that came up with the recipe for a chocolate chip and walnut tart in a pie shell covered with a pastry dough crust back in 1950 at the Melrose Inn in Prospect, Kentucky.  Unable to come up with a suitable moniker for their concoction they put several potential names in a hat and Derby Pie was the name that was pulled out.

     Eventually the Kern family moved on from the Melrose.  But they took their recipe with them and registered it in 1968.  The succeeding family members still diligently guard their trademark secret recipe.  Only a few family members and a single staff person have access to the ingredients and proportions that go into making the pie.  They have even gone so far as to file over 25 lawsuits against those who would use the name and print the recipe, including local organizations who would print it in a cookbook.  And that is why the Electronic Frontier Foundation has named the Derby Pie into their Hall of Shame for being the most litigious confection in America.

     For obvious reasons I will not print the recipe below:

Just Next Door

     In May I spent a week studying Nashville's Hot Chicken.  But little did I know that just next door in neighboring Kentucky I could have also tasted their iconic Hot Brown.

     As the story goes, back in the Roaring Twenties the Brown Hotel would host over a thousand guests each evening for a night of dancing.  As the band played on the chefs in the restaurant kitchen were preparing a midnight snack.  For the first few years it was a traditional serving of ham and eggs, but as attendance began to dwindle, Executive Chef Fred Schmidt decided to change the menu in hopes of revitalizing interest in the nightly event.



His creation was a variation of the familiar Welsh rarebit.  in 1926 his chefs layered turkey and bacon on white bread to make an open-faced sandwich that was then covered in Mornay sauce and baked in the oven until the bread was crisp and the sauce began to brown.  It was a hit!  And still today is the overwhelming favorite in the Louisville area.  95% of the patrons at the Brown Hotel Restaurant order it.  Some local variations also include ham and tomatoes, and sometimes Cheddar or American cheese is substituted in place of the Mornay.



     The sandwich is not without its imitators around the country.  On some restaurant menus you can find a "cold brown" sandwich that consists of baked poultry, hard-boiled egg, lettuce and tomato on rye bread and covered with Thousand Island dressing.  At the Mayfair Hotel in St. Louis you can order a sandwich very similar to the Hot Brown under the name of "Prosperity Sandwich."  And in Pittsburgh ask for a "Turkey Devonshire."

Independence Day Philly Style

     For those of you who live in and around the City of Brotherly Love this won't be news to you.  But to the rest of the world it may come as a surprise that Philadelphia doesn't celebrate Independence Day just on July the 4th.  No, it's a week long event, well, actually 8 days, starting on June 27 and concluding with fireworks like you have never seen above the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in front of the Art Museum.

     Yesterday I attended one of the events that took place on Independence Mall.  That's located between the National Constitution Center and Independence Hall.  It was the Wawa Hoagie Day Celebration.  And once again, locals will know exactly what a Wawa and a Hoagie are.  But to those who aren't from around here you may have to Google those two words.  But let me try to explain.  A Wawa is a convenience store that sells things like coffee, drinks, newspapers, chips and sandwiches.  There are around 500 of them in this Mid-Atlantic region.  Some even sell gasoline at pumps located out in front of the store.  Wawa is the name of a very small town in Delaware County where the concept all began.  It's the Lenni Lenape Native American word for wild goose, as seen on their logo.

And when it comes to making and selling sandwiches, Wawa stores are the best at making Hoagies, an iconic sandwich of Philadelphia.  They are built on a long roll of varying lengths, anywhere from 4 inches to 3 feet and are stuffed with a variety of different kinds of meat, cheeses, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and hot peppers if you wish.  

Today's celebration was sponsored by Wawa and they made 23,000 hoagies that were distributed free to anyone who showed up.  Some of their employees arrived at 4:30am to begin making them.  Others arrived just before noon to hand them out.  The Hoagie Salute honored our service men and women from all branches of the military during all terms of conflict.

The Hoagies were delivered in six foot long boxes to be dispensed to the public for nearly 2 hours.  Old people, young people, firefighters, police, day care kids all got to enjoy a free lunch that included: a hoagie, a bag of chips, a bottle of iced tea or lemonade, and a TastyKake Krimpet.  

OK, that will be the next vocabulary word for those not familiar with Krimpets...