Shrimp Remoulade; Egg Cream; Chinese Menus; Doozy/Duse

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SHRIMP REMOULADE
    
   This is not in DARE, but it's a classic Creole dish.  I don't have New 
Orleans newspapers to work from, so I couldn't find an early date for it.
  
  
http://radio.weblogs.com/0117154/stories/2003/01/01/newOrleansFoodAndDrinkGlos
sary.html
Shrimp Remoulade – Boiled, chilled gulf shrimp covered with a signature, 
cold, brick-red cocktail sauce made from an oil base and a combination of spices, 
hot mustard and cayenne pepper.   Along with turtle soup, this is an appetizer 
of choice at many of the finest restaurants. Where to get it - a staple at 
any of the best restaurants including Galatoire’s, Commander’s Palace and Arnaud
’s (where it is called “Shrimp Arnaud”).
  
 
(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)                     
      VICTUALS AND VITAMINS
       By KILEY TAYLOR.       New York Times  (1857-Current file).       New 
York, N.Y.: Aug 25, 1940.                   p. 98 (1 page)                     
       
  Pleasant it is to sit under the stars on the terrace before the pillared 
Southern mansion which is the New Orleans restaurant and be served such 
authentic Creole dishes as gumbo, shrimps remoulade and pompano en papillotte.  The 
shrimps, large ones, are folded into a smooth sauce in which are combined onion, 
paprika, olive oil, vinegar, celery, pepper and mustard.
  
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EGG CREAM  
  
   The City section of today's New York Times has a story about the "egg 
cream."  Again.  Why doesn't City, just once, just ONCE, run a story...
   At the end of the piece is this:
    
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/24/nyregion/24egg.html?pagewanted=2
Andrew Coe is the editor of "FDNY: An Illustrated History of the Fire 
Department of New York" (Odyssey, 2002) and a contributor to the forthcoming Oxford 
Dictionary of American Food and Drink.    
        
 
   I'm writing for the Oxford ENCYCLOPEDIA of American Food and Drink.  
Oxford's also doing a dictionary?

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CHINESE MENUS
  
   Also in the City section of Sunday's New York Times is a story about 
Harley Spiller and his 6,000 Chinese menus.
  
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22chop+suey%22+banquet+li+hung&hl=en&lr=&
ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wg
  
   It's mentioned that Spiller contributes to FLAVOR AND FORTUNE.  I posted 
on ADS-L that article about him, many months ago.
   The famous "chop suey" banquet date keeps changing.  Was it 1878, 1879, 
1894, 1895, or 1896?  According to the article (which surprisingly does not 
mention General Tso):
  
His most prized item and the oldest menu in his collection is a tiny card 
with a red tassel in the corner, sitting in a black lacquer box; the card listed 
chop suey, tea and a few indecipherable items served at a 1879 banquet held by 
Li Hung Chung, one of the first Chinese emissaries to travel to the United 
States. The visitor angered Americans by refusing to indulge in steak and 
potatoes in favor of the Chinese meals prepared by his own chef.   
      
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DOOZY
  
   From the New York TImes, 22 August 2003:
  
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/22/books/22BOOK.html 
        ELEONORA DUSE
A Biography
By Helen Sheehy 
Illustrated. 380 pages. Alfred A. Knopf. $32.50. 
    BOOKS OF THE TIMES | 'ELEONORA DUSE' 
The Actress Who Became the Original 'Doozy'
By MEL GUSSOW

Fourteen years younger than her great rival, the flamboyantly romantic Sarah 
Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse was "the first modern actor," says Helen Sheehy in 
her new biography. As such, Duse stressed a subtle but profound emotional 
identification with her characters. Because there is only one extant 30-minute film 
of Duse (directed by Duse), Ms. Sheehy has to rely on others to describe her 
magic in performance, and she calls upon expert witnesses, beginning with 
George Bernard Shaw.
(...)
Parenthetically Ms. Sheehy notes that the slang word "doozy," meaning "a 
stunning example, a wow," was inspired by Duse. As this book makes amply clear, 
she was all that word implies, and never failed to capture the house.  
    
(There is no evidence that "doozy" is from Duse.  David Shulman called my 
attention to this review--ed.)
 
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MISC.
  
MUSHNICK'S TV GLOSSARY--In today's Sunday NEW YORK POST, 24 August 2003, TV 
WEEK, pg. 8, is Prime Time by Phil Mushnick, "Low-Definition TV: A Glossary 
from A to Z."  There is a photo of the book, which is quite obviously 
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition.  No photo credit is given.  Not 
even "photo illustration" is added.
  
A WALK UPTOWN--It was a nice day today, so I did some walking.  I walked to 
Kitchen Arts & Letters on Lexington and East 93rd, but the bookstore is closed 
until September 8th.  
   A street ad for North Folk Bank read, "AS NEW YORK AS A CONEY ISLAND HOT 
DOG."  
   I walked to 135th Street and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.  Boulevard.  The 
"Big Apple" sign is still there from the night club of 1935.  (An ADS-Ler had 
recently shown me a photo of it on the internet.  I hadn't looked at it in over 
ten years.)  A little further west on 135th Street, in the pavement, is a 
Harlem walk of fame, starting with David Dinkins.
  Someone should interrupt Dinkins's tennis game and ask if he's heard of me.