May 4, 2011
What’s on the menu?
From project staff at the NYPL:
With approximately 40,000 menus dating from the 1840s to the present, The New York Public Library’s restaurant menu collection is one of the largest in the world, used by historians, chefs, novelists and everyday food enthusiasts. Trouble is, the menus are very difficult to search for the greatest treasures they contain: specific information about dishes, prices, the organization of meals, and all the stories these things tell us about the history of food and culture.
To solve this, we’re working to improve the collection by transcribing the menus, dish by dish. Doing this will allow us to dramatically expand the ways in which the collection can be researched and accessed, opening the door to new kinds of discoveries. We’ve built a simple tool that makes the transcribing pretty easy to do, but it’s a big job, so we need your help.
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Haunch mutton.
Which reminds me of a recent menu, Chez Cece, on the occasion of visitors from Alabama:
Dill Havarti and red grapes with water crackers
Grilled flank steak soaked all day in tamari or Bragg Liquid Aminos (probably both), balsamic vinegar, ginger, garlic paste.
Rice with chopped parsley sauted in onion, garlic, olive oil
Vegetable chop of raw cauliflower, carrot, celery, dressed with tamari, rice wine vinegar, sesame seeds (raw foodists would call this raw fried rice)
Spring greens salad mix with the Iowan’s “special” dressing
Nigella Lawson’s Victoria sponge cake iced with seriously dark ganache, sprinkled with white dragee pearls. Side of sliced strawberries
Several bottles of wine
How far in advance must one book a table?
Note, Cindy, that it’s haunch mutton with guava jelly. Not mint. Nor apple.
Oh, I noticed.
I am intrigued by the Iowan’s special dressing. Is corn involved? Or corn oil?
Oh, and I am really getting into doing menu transcriptions. I am such a nerd.
I need 2-3 days notice, Shelia. And the “special” dressing is not all that special, although I’ll deny I said that. He uses lots of garlic, dark mustard, serious amount of pepper from the pepper mill, combined with balsamic, then whisks in olive oil to proper emulsion. I think mine is as good as his. Although I admit he gets more compliments than I do.
Yarmouth bloater. Only 50 cents on the lunch menu at Proctor’s Cafe. April 26, 1901.
Yarmouth bloater.
Maybe the Iowan gets more compliments on his special dressing because he is a boy.
Yes, I agree that’s why, Shelia. I can make an entire dinner plus dessert and he gets raves for his salad dressing. HA! Although the meal for the Alabamians was a hit.
Isn’t Corned Pig’s Head and Spinach the best? Do you see why transcribing menus is my equivalent to World of Warcraft? Or . . . something?
“Fresh Ox Tongue Cutlets.” Served after the ox head soup. Ew.
Too much ox stuff.
“Potage Velour”
Creamed Vienna Sausage on Toast-points.
Creamed Vienna Sausage is so funny that it almost doesn’t need the Toast-points.
Now don’t you want to come transcribe with me?
I do. I have a Translato-wheel.
Good. Because I can’t figure out what the hell sauce they are serving with the Calf’s Head.
Brain sauce — or mock turtle — is traditional, but it ain’t either.
And that just can’t be “Deefee” Ham a la St James.
Just now I read “calf’s head” as “cat’s head.” The tranlato-wheel says it is traditionally served with Sauce Baudelaire, or Catsup.
Dubuque Ham. Durkee Ham. I bet India would know.
Rick, do you you think I could find a Translato-Wheel for my very own? Cat’s Head avec Sauce Baudelaire. Catsup. That is so damn good.
Maybe I will just bother you when I need help.
Sheila, I think the translato-wheel is no longer in production. I’ll have my people research. Who knows? They might find one on free-cycle. If so, it’s yours.
Cornish Tongue Asberger. Prolly not.
Rick, I have a geomantic compass and a set of voodoo tarot cards I’m willing to swap. Just so your people know.
This taxes my translato, but it says, “Corned tongue of beef with pork asshole on ciabatta. Dijon mustard on the side. Cheese, lettuce and tomato are extra.”
It adds the note, “It’s chewy.”
My people will be in touch.
The suburban Chicago lesbian bar where my TG friend and I meet for lunch offers an Ass Burger.
Oh. One more thing, Rick. Is your people Andrew?
Just asking. ‘Cause I know World of Warcraft takes priority over all.
Fried Chicken a la Maryland.
Where I am from Vienna sausages are pronounced Vy-eeener sausages.
I went to a luncheon in Mobile, AL, once and a guest was all up in arms because we were served a sauced shrimp dish over a delicate cornbread-type base. I said it’s a Creole thing, but that did not appease.
That’s what all my friends’ folks called it when I was growing up.
Also, they spoke of biscuits (pl.) as “biscuit.”
And of weevils (pl.) as “weevil.”
“I was fixing to make y’all a batch of biscuit, but they was weevil in the flour, so I th’ew it out.”
Cece, do your people speak of Oarsh (Irish) potatoes?
Wow, Carole. I do not even know which was the “wrong” element in the Creole dish served in Mobile.
“Vy-eeener.”
Carole, I was oncet in Georgia, it was pronounced there Vyeenee.
Clusterflock will eat itself.
Viennese Waltz. Wiener Walzer.
Wiener Würstchen.
Saucisse de vienne.
Potted meat food products.
I imagine an operetta.
A Viennese Wienie operetta.
Yep, I know that’s redundant. Therein lies a chunk of the charm.
An extruded-meat based operetta.
“The Pirates of Pen’z Ass.”
Rick. You’re hired.
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
What part of Georgia, Rick? I did hear the occasional Vy-eeen-ee growing up. And the adding of “i” to the end of things.
Shelia, the offense had something to do with the cornmeal base. Not elegant enough. Which was silly (it was “elegant” and perfect for the setting, i.e., C R E O L E). Or something. This was a person from Alabama who had left years before and back then I pompously suspected self-hatred. Now I think it was probably attention-seeking.
And we prono-ed Irish as III-resh.
The North Alabama accent usually is more Appalachia than marbles-in-the-mouth.
Cece, that person was just showing out.
Savannah. But I was staying with Dad’s cousin and his wife who were raised in NE Ark. so it may not have been indicative of Georgia.