Forever Amber; 10,000 Snacks (long!)

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FOREVER AMBER

   The people who've claimed to me that the light wasn't red but was "amber" have been generally older.
   This book was the kitschy LOVE STORY of the 1940s, from the NYPL entry:

AUTHOR:  Winsor, Kathleen
TITLE:  Forever Amber
Macmillan, 972 pages, 1944
Great Britain--History--Charles II, 1660-1685--Fiction

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10,000 SNACKS:
A COOKBOOK OF DELICIOUS CANAPES, RELISHES, HORS D'OEUVRES, SANDWICHES, AND APPETIZERS FOR ALL OCCASIONS
by the Browns
Cora, Rose & Bob
Halcyon House, Garden City, NY
1948
copyright 1937

   I decided to clean off Bonnie Slotnick's bookshelf of the Browns' books.  This book is useful for BLT (John Clark is recording these abbreviations) and other foods.  I'll jump around the page numbers a bit to connect it all.

Pg. 189:
   _B. T._ is the counterman's signal for the ever popular Bacon and Tomato Sandwich.
   _B. M. T._ is another lunch room order for the same thing, especially in New York, where those intials stand for the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Co.  Probably the "M" between the Bacon and Tomato stands for "mit," the old German free lunch word for any bite "with" beer.

Pg. 201:
   _L. T._ or _I. R. T._  L. T. is the dog-wagon hasher's symbol for the vegetarian lettuce and tomato sandwich, with mayonnaise.  In New York, there is also called I. R. T. after the Interborough Rapid Transit Co., to rival the B. M. T. sandwich of bacon and tomato named for the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Co.

Pg. 176:
   _C and O:_  Dog wagon slang for cream cheese and olive sandwich.
   _C and W:_  Cream cheese and walnut sandwich.

Pg. 168:
   "H. C." OR "COMBO"
   The ham and cheese sandwich, consisting of a slice of each, on rye or white, is such a familiar lunch wagon order that it has two pet names--"H. C." from the initials, and "Combo," an abbreviation of Combination Sandwich.  In the same lively lingo of the short order, ham is "a slice of squeal," ham sandwich, "a pig between sheets," or "dress a pig," ham sandwich with onion, "pig with a breath," or just "Trilby."  Ham and eggs, "toast two on a slice of squeal," ham, potatoes and cabbage, "Noah's boy with Murphy carrying a wreath."  The Biblical name "Noah's boy" for ham, suggests the classic "Adam and Eve on a raft and wreck 'em," for scrambled eggs on toast.  And a ham sandwich to be wrapped up for eating off the premises is "dress a pig to take a walk."

Pg. 177:
   _H. C. Combo._  In lunch wagon jargon, where brevity is the soul of service, the shouted symbol "H. C." orders Ham and Cheese Sandwich, or "H. C. Combo," meaning Combination Sandwich of Ham and Cheese.  This is one of the most popular of fist-size sandwiches.  The "hasher" behind the counter calls the more ladylike crackers and cheese, "dog and maggot," after dog biscuit and you know what.

Pg. 187:
   _Hot Dog Notes._  In ordering hot dogs with sauerkraut simply say, "Unchain a coupla dogs and a bale of hay."  A Hollywood Hot Pooch is any film star's pet poodle playfully tucked in between the halves of a Pullman sandwich loaf, and tied with a ribbon.
   Feltman's snack shop in Coney Island had more to do with popularizing these Americanized frankfurters than any other.  Before our synthetic age, in which sausages are stuffed with sawdust and anything else that's handy, genuine hot dogs were so luscious they earned the name "Coney Island Chicken."

Pg. 187:
   _Poor Boy Sandwich._  The Poor Boy Sandwich is another natural.  It started at Martin's coffee-chickory stand in the Creole Market of New Orleans and has spread all over the Southwest.  The story goes that Martin couldn't resist little negro boys who eyed his snacks wistfully and finally came out with, "Mistah, could you-all spa'h a sandwich fo' a po' boy."  He'd pick up a 30-inch French loaf, slit and butter it, slice it in thirds, fill each third with something different, fried oysters in one, sausage cake in the second, ham or cheese in the third and hand the whole bundle to the astonished kid.
   It's the same sandwich today, except that it costs 15 cents, a nickel a portion, or in any way you want it, say with a dime's worth of filling in a nickel length of bread.
(Pg. 188--ed.)
   In retelling the Martin story all New Orleans puts a great deal of pathos and feeling into pronouncing "po' boy," so the sandwich is better known that way than as a "poor boy."

Pg. 167:
   Western Sandwich
   (Also known as "Cowboy")
1 egg
1 tablespoon onion, minced
2 slices buttered bread
2 tablespoons cooked ham, chopped
Salt and pepper
   Beat egg a little, then mix in onion, ham, salt and pepper.  Fry golden brown on both sides and clap between buttered slices.
   This might be called Ham and Hen Fruit Sandwich.  It is, in fact, Ham Hamburger, as All-American as the ancient gag--now if we had some ham we'd have ham and eggs, if we only had some eggs.  "Ham and--" is the lunch wagon order for these Siamese twins, and that cry used to bring a real slab of ham as thick as your thumb, with a brace of eggs.

Pg. 518:
   _Noon to midnight Nasches_

(Curiously absent from the book--and verifying its 1937 copyright--are Dagwood sandwiches, Heros, Hoagies, Submarine sandwiches, Cheeseburgers, Sloppy Joes--ed.)