Aztec Soup; VIP Sauce; White Fruitcake; Palm Court Salad

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Tue Sep 18 05:10:38 UTC 2001


AZTEC SOUP

   Not in OED?  It's widely served in Mexico, as I reported two years ago.
   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 8 November 1948, pg. 18, col. 6:

   WORLDLY WISE SOUPS--Today in their fifth-floor food shop Abraham & Straus, Brooklyn, will introduce the well known Twin Gabel soups made from recipes collected around the world by Zachary Gable (sic), former Brooklyn restaurant owner.  He and Abe Gruber put out a lione of eight soups that represent a potpourri of the nations.  There is Aztec bean soup made with black beans in a way discovered in a Mexican hut.  Bavarian peasant soup has crisp vegetables chopped and cooked in a claret-laced beef stock according to a recipe found in a Viennese restaurant.  Gule Arter, a Danish specialty from Copenhagen, is made with smoked pork trimmings, dried peas and diced vegetables, all with a delicious smoky flavor.
   Soup from Singapore is here in the can, and so is an Arabian Chercah soup as made at Port Said.

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VIP SAUCE

   From the NYHT, 18 November 1948, pg. 30, col. 8:

   LET'S TALK SAUCE--It is little more than a year ago that Crosbie's introduced V.I.P. Sauce to the British Public, the name coming out of he war.  The term V.I.P. had been coined in England when Winston Churchill, the late Franklin D. Roosevelt, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery were among the very important persons affectionately known as the V.I.P.s, hence the title of this very important product--an epicurean treat.

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WHITE FRUITCAKE

   From the NYHT, 29 November 1948, pg. 12, col. 6:

_White Christmas Fruitcakes Wrapped in Wine_
-----------------------------
_They're Made in  Kitchen_
   _in Connecticut From Old_
   _North Carolina Recipe_
By Clementine Paddleford
   Little blond fruitcakes bursting to surprise.  Today there are ten, maybe twenty tomorrow, so the line grows, a vast company soon, swathed in white cheesecloth, dampened in white port, taking their time to come mellow for Christmas.  The cakes are made by Molly Wyckoff, twelve years manager of the Kirby Allen Restaurant, 797 Madison Avnue, a woman wise in the ways of fine food, a perfectionist with her baking.
   The white fruitcake is made from an old North Carolina recipe, made in Molly's home kitchen in Southport, Conn., made with infinite care. (...)  A pretty fruitcake, light golden in color, baked in a ring.

(DARE for N. Carolina?--ed.)

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PALM COURT SALAD

   See John Mariani's "Palace Court salad" entry in the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD & DRINK.  The date given and even the name of the salad are not certain, but it's from the Palm Court at San Francisco's Palace Hotel (now Sheraton-Palace).
   From Clementine Paddleford's trip to San Frnacisco (no cappuccino at Tosca?) in the NYHT, 10 November 1948, pg. 28, col. 8:

   We had luncheon with Ruth in San Francisco's famous Palm Court of the Palace hotel.  Between bites of Palm Court salad we took these notes...
   (Pg. 32, col. 7--ed.)
   PALM COURT SALAD--Our luncheon with Ruth on Nov. 1 was also opening day in the West of the dungeness crab season.  That Palm Court salad we ordered was made with the fresh crab, and a pretty sight to behold.  First a circle of shredded lettuce, so finely shredded, so crisp the green seemed a refined and distant cousin of the usual garden variety.  On the lettuce bed a thick slice of tomato.  Posed on this an artichoke heart filled with big lumps of the crab meat (or chicken or shrimp), chopped egg to garland the base.  The waiter dipped over Thousand Island dressing.  A few bites down, he was back adding more, then again more.  Garlic bread completed the course.  We ate more garlic bread in the West in four weeks than in all the years before.  Toasted garlic bread is everywhere, and one taste--like popcorn--you can't let it alone.

(So popcorn is the food that "you can't eat just one"?--ed.)

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HERE'S HOW AGAIN! (1929) again

   Pg. 28:

   _Side Car_
THIS drink has become quite famous--and why not?
   1/3 Brandy
   1/3 Cointreau
   1/3 Lemon juice

   Pg. 56:

   _The Kitchen Stove_
BECAUSE there's everything in it but it!
   1/6 Rye
   1/6 Applejack
   1/6 Italian Vermouth
   1/6 Lemon juice
   1/6 Orange juice
   1/6 Cream
   Dash of Angostura Bitters
   Dash of Grenadine

   Pg. 62:

   _The Tomato Cocktail_
(Non-alcoholic)
THIS very simple concoction is guaranteed to pick you up no matter how low you have fallen.
   Take a can of tomato soup and place in a shaker full of ice.  Add a few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce and shake well.

(Note tomato "soup," not tomato "juice"--ed.)



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