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Lisa Messinger's
Cookbook Corner
 I'll
Have What They're Having: Legendary Local Cuisine
By Linda Stradley (Three Forks/Globe Pequot)
Have
you feasted on "garbage" or "old clothes"
lately? Chances are you will---while enjoying every
bite---if you read I'll Have What They're Having:
Legendary Local Cuisine, Linda Stradley's honorable
homage to this country's favorite foods.
"The
Garbage Plate" was created in Rochester, NY,
reports Stradley, previously author of What's Cooking
America. It starts with half the plate filled with
home fries and the other half with macaroni salad.
Anything from steaks, to burgers, to eggs tops the
dumpster plate. The final touches are always the same:
A handful of chopped onions and a glob of mustard.
"Old Clothes" (which also goes by the even-less-appetizing
title "Dirty Laundry")---thought to look
like a heap of tangled clothes on a plate---is a Cuban
beef dish (translated as "Ropa Vieja"),
especially popular in Miami and Tampa.
Because
the hundreds of recipes in the book are local specialties,
many aren't known outside of the city in which they
originated. Leave it to good-neighbor Stradley to
spread the word as well as Ice Cream Dressing (a classic
mayonnaise-vanilla ice cream topping for the original
Floridian Hearts of Palm Salad) and Caper-Tartar Sauce
(splendid atop Pacific Northwestern Pan-Fried Smelt.)
If
some recipes aren't your cup of tea (smelly Limburger
Sandwiches from Monroe, WI, or Deep-Fried Cheese Curds,
also from WI, for instance), chances are many others
will fit the bill. Some standouts: Horseshoe Sandwiches
(tops in Springfield, IL, chefs cautiously guard their
special cheese-beer sauces that accompany sliced baked
ham); Popped Wild Rice (from Minnesota, where Native
Americans considered wild rice a sacred food, this
treat is a gourmet alternative to popcorn and the
variation including maple syrup and melted butter
is divine); Creamy Grits with Shrimp (from Charleston,
SC, the richness of the cream, butter and grits, combined
with the flavor and texture of bacon, onion, garlic
and bell pepper, is outstanding); and Eskimo Ice Cream
(originally made with fresh snow, reindeer fat, seal
oil, fresh berries and/or ground fish and here with
vegetable shortening, sugar, berry juice and fresh
berries).
Generally,
recipes stand the test of time like this for two reasons:
They are down-home delicious and exceptionally easy.
Stradley's picks pass the test on both counts. And
the recipes are as much a joy to read as they are
to emulate, thanks to excellent researcher Stradley.
You'll undoubtedly walk away with a few history lessons:
"During
the War of 1812," she writes in an accompaniment
to a pork recipe, "a New York pork packer named
Uncle Sam Wilson shipped a boatload of several hundred
barrels of pork to U.S. troops. Each barrel was stamped
'U.S.' It soon made the rounds that the 'U.S.' stood
for 'Uncle Sam,' whose large shipment seemed to be
enough to feed the entire army. This is how 'Uncle
Sam' came to represent the U.S. government."
Entirely
lacking the charm of Stradley's writing and recipes
is another quite pricey book, American Regional
Cuisine: A Coast-to-Coast Celebration of the Nation's
Diversity put together by the Art Institutes,
which run culinary schools around the country.
"New
England is a distinctive region of America,"
flatly begins the book's first section and it doesn't
get much more compelling from there. Because these
culinary instructors are trying to get their "peas"
and "Qs" just right, the recipes, too, seem
cold and generic—as well as extremely longwinded
and cumbersome.
Stradley, on the other hand, goes straight to the
sources—the restaurant cooks or local housewives
who have prepared their distinctive dishes so many
thousand times, as well as having dreamed up every
shortcut imaginable, that they could do it with their
eyes closed.
Recipes
—Horseshoe
Sandwich with Cheese-Beer Sauce
—Hearts
of Palm Salad with Ice Cream Dressing
Buy
the book.
Visit
the Cookbook
Corner for additional reviews
(Updated:
01/26/07)
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