Cioppino (Bernstein's Fish Grotto, 1906?); Wet Fries

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

WET FRIES:  I gave Boston a look, but I didn't see "wet fries" in CHEAP EATS
(1975), THE REAL BOSTON UNDERGROUND DINING (1973), or BOSTON--DINING OUT
(1972).  Maybe on Monday I'll buzz through the BOSTON PHOENIX, starting in
1989 and working backwards.

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SUMPTUOUS DINING IN GASLIGHT SAN FRANCISCO
1875-1915
by Frances de Talavera Berger & John Parke Custis
Garden City, NY:  Doubleday & Company, Inc.
1985

   This is a frustrating book.  You wish it were better, and then you realize
that it just can't be better and it is what it is.
   For example, there is no bibliography and there are no footnotes.  It's
very annoying when you find an interesting "fact."  The authors basically
stole parts of old cookbooks.  When they couldn't do that, they stole sample
old recipes from unnamed new cookbooks.  It's the John Mariani method of food
research.  Several old errors are repeated.
   However, the "cioppino" section is of interest for following up.  (See
prior ADS-L "cioppino" posts.)

Pg. 59:  It is not generally known that the modest but delicious Mexican
_enchilada_ was first introduced to _gringos_ at San Francisco's Ingleside
Race Track in the 1890s.  Another "first" was the popularization of "Hangtown
Fry" as the recipe traveled from Placerville in the Sierra foothills to the
Old Fly Trap Restaurant at 73 Sutter Street in the heart of San Francisco's
business district.
(No footnotes for any of this!..."Enchilada" was introduced in the 1890s they
state, so I'll have to throw out my 1880s cites right now--ed.)

Pg. 62:  _Oh Yes!  There Was A Free Lunch!_
(This chapter states that the "free lunch" comes from San Francisco in the
1880s.  I'm not 100% sold on either a San Francisco or a New Orleans origin,
but it's clearly before the 1880s--ed.)

Pg. 126:
      Bernstein's Fish Grotto
      _The Pride of Powell Street_
Bernstein's, until recently a Powell Street landmark, opened its doors for
the first time soon after the earthquake.  From its inception the restaurant
kept cioppino, the famous San Francisco fish stew, on the menu.
(Cites??--ed.)

Pg. 137:  Some scholars insist that chop suey was invented in San Francisco
in the 1890s by an unknown Chinese on Dupont Street.
(Gotta throw out my 1880s cites for this one, too--ed.)