"Two on a raft" (LA cuisine, 1935

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Sun Aug 11 20:41:34 UTC 2002


LOS ANGELES:
CITY OF DREAMS
by Harry Carr
New York:  D. Appleton-Century Company
1935

   I found this book by accident.  It was next on the microfilm reel, just after JOURNEY TO LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
   It's part of a series of books that also includes San Francisco, Chicago, Manhattan, New Orleans, Washington, and Boston (written by Lucius Beebe).

Pg. 242:  The dinner is served in a collection of small bowls on a lacquer tray..._ostiu-mono_, a delightful soup with mushrooms and seaweed floating on the top..._curi sunomono_, a kind of cucumber salad..._wu-sa-ra-mame_, spiced beans.  THe girls cook _suki yaki_ in tiny gas stoves on the table...strips of beef and vegetables with cubes of soy bean cheese.  Sometimes they serve baby lobsters with a (Pg. 243--ed.) white radish sauce.  Usually the choice dish is _tempora_--a sort of giant shrimp; it is a food for the gods but presents problems for the amateur with chop-sticks.  Following _chawon-mushi_, an egg custard and _o-co-co_--which is a fruit pickle which is terrible to the Occidental taste.

Pg. 244:  They (Filipinos--ed.) did not bring much of the islands with them but there are restaurants where one can order _abobong monok_, which is chicken boiled with spices and a paprika gravy; _sinigang na hipon_, boiled shrimp with sauces; _iscabitching_, fish saute with vinegar and sugar; _pancit malabon_, fried noodles and chicken; _estopadong baboy_, boiled pork served in its own broth. (...)
   Farther down First Street near the river is a colony of Russian _molekanes_--they observe the Jewish holidays but are not Jews; pacifists but not Quakers.

Pg. 245:  There are Russian restaurants in pletitude there and elsewhere in the city.  Meat served on the end of blazing sticks in cossack fashion, _piorjkee_, a meat pie, _borsch_, a scarlet-colored, rich soup made of beets, _shashlik_, pickled lamb seasoned with lemon and onion juice and barbecued on skewers, _vlinchiki_, pancakes rolled with jam or cheese and fried in butter, served with powdered sugar.

Pg. 265:  Despite all warnings, thousands of girls pour into Southern California every year intent on storming the cold studio walls.  The lucky ones find jobs carrying trays--using their Garbo histrionics to yell "Mac, stack and a shorty brown and heavy on the goo; two on a raft and double it."

Pg. 293:  The success of a picture lies not in the big runs on Broadway.  The money is made in the "sticks."



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