All You Can Eat; Bread Line; Prix Fixe; Hamburger, Pizza, Gelati & more (LONG!)

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   A heaping helping of food antedates from NEW YORK TIMES full text.

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ALL YOU CAN EAT

   This is not mentioned in John Mariani's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN  FOOD &
DRINK, so it doesn't exist.
   The long, important article is NEW YORK TIMES, 28 February 1932, pg. SM11:

_"ALL YOU CAN EAT"--AND WHAT IS CHOSEN_
_The New Fixed-Price Plan at the Restaurants Reveals That the American's Real
Desire Is More Dessert_
(...)
   Down in Memphis, Tenn., at the hotel where possibly first in the United
States the fixed-price lunch was inaugurated two years ago, a buffet
steam-table on wheels brings even all the pieces de resistance hot to one's
elbow, with as many encores as desired.

   19 January 1925, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 4:
   "The Tub is one of the cleanest restaurants in New York, where you can get
meals for 5 cents--all you can eat."

   27 November 1925, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 19:
   _"All You Can Eat for a Nickel."_
   Urban J. Ledoux--better known as "Mr. Zero"--introduced a novelty in the
form of a 5-cent turkey dinner.  He fed turkey dinners at "The Tub" in the
basement of 33 St. Marks Place, on the basis of "All you can eat for a
nickel," and said that he was able to break even financially.  Dealers
furnished the turkey and trimmings at cost, the cooks volunteered, the diners
waited on themselves, there was no overhead and and at the end of the day the
ledger showed no red ink marks, according to Zero, who claims credit for the
world's greatest achievement with the 5-cent piece.
(I'll do "red ink," or "in the red" and "in the black," in a day or two--ed.)

   9 March 1931, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. ?:
   ...one of the tickets now being issued to the unemployed by Zero's Tub, at
33 St. Mark's Place, "Good for All You Can Eat."  The tickets were real.

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BREAD LINE

   OED has 1900, but this citation indicates earlier.

   31 May 1908, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 8:
      _THE "BREAD LINE."_
   The building owned by Grace Church on the northeast corner of Broadway and
Tenth Street, before which for thirty-two years the historic "bread line" has
been nightly formed, will this week be torn down, and thereafter the line
will form in front of a building leased for the purpose a lock further up
Broadway.  Mr. OTTO F. FLEISCHMANN, whose beneficence has so long insured a
loaf to the hungry, is still convinced of the efficacy of his plan. (...)

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PRIX FIXE

   OED has 1883 for "prix fixe."  I can probably do a more thorough job of
looking for it in the Paris guidebooks.  This is the earliest in the NYT.

   7 August 1881, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 5:
   You may visit the _prix fixe_ houses on the boulevards and in the passages
opening upon them, and fare very well indeed as to food and cost, but bustle
and crowd will take away half youir appetite.

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HAMBURGER STEAK (1868, 1873)

   We have "hamburger steak" on an early Delmonico's menu, but a few more
"hamburgers" can't hurt.
   A 3 January 1967 NEW YORK TIMES article mentioned that the Old Homestead
Restaurant at 56 Ninth Avenue was celebrating its 100th anniversary and was
showing off its 1868 vintage menu.  I have a clipping of that menu from the
NYC Municipal Archives restaurant clipping file (dated 3-3-1968, probably
from the DAILY NEWS).  "Pork and Beans...4, Sausages...4, Ham and Eggs...10,
Hamburger Steak...10."

   19 January 1873, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 5
   Also, we can have a Hamburger steak, which is simply a beefsteak redeemed
from its original toughness by bering mashed into mince-meat and then formed
into a conglomerated mass.  This is very appetizing, but conscience compels
us to state that it is inferior to the genuine article, which can also be had
here in a very satisfactory condition of tenderness. (...)
   ...the loved Vienna sausages with half anf half--that is to say, half a
plate of sauer-kraut and half of mashed potatoes.  The third orders _wiener
switzel_--a tremendous name, which, however, when brought, is only veal
cutlet with the bones removed; and the fourth says he feels delicate, and
will have calf's tongue with raisins.

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FETA CHEESE

   I gave the second citation, not the first, which is earlier by a few
months.

   19 May 1915, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 15:
   Cheese feta in brine exported by C. Fanti, Patras, was entered at 1.20
francs, and advanced to 1.32 francs per oke.

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WHITE CHOCOLATE

   26 January 1941, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. SM18:
   If it is home-made candy you crave there is a line from New York State,
Bitter chocolates, caramels and bonbons.  Unusual are the candies of white
chocolate, which is very much like milk chocolate in flavor.

   24 June 1947, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 20:
      _White Chocolate a Feature_
   White chocolate is probably the most unusual of the Blum candies.  The
formula for bleaching the cocoa is a secret, though Fred Levy, the president
of the company, told us yesterday that it is a simple one.  Why white
chocolate?  The flavor is much milder than the regular type, we were told.
Hence it blends more agreeably with the soft butterscotch filling that is
used and that also has a gentle flavor.
   Another interesting candy is a florintino.  The center is a caramel,
another Blum specialty.  It is covered with chocolate, and on the top is a
delicate daisy pattern of milk chocolate that is put on by hand.
   Assortments start at $1.75 a pound and vary upward in price.  Besides
chocolates--white, milk and dark--there are bonbons, pecan rolls, mints and
so on.
(John Mariani doesn't have "dark chocolate."  I'll do "dark chocolate."  I
only have two hands!--ed.)

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--------------------------------------------PIZZA & SPUMONI & ZEPPOLE &
GELATI & FRENCH VANILLA ICE CREAM

   12 July 1903, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 30:
   Men push through masses of people on the sidewalks, carrying trays full of
brick cream and yelling, "Gelati Italiani"--Italian ices.  Lupini, the
"ginney beans" of the New York arab; "ceciretti," the little roasted peas,and
dried squash seeds are favorite refreshments.  Great ropes of Brazil nuts
soaked in water and threaded on a string, or roasted chestnuts, strung in the
same way, lie around the vendor's neck.  Boys carry long sticks strung with
rings of bread.  All manner of "biscuttini," small Italian cakes are for sale,
 frosted in gorgeous hues, chiefly a bright magenta, cheerful to look upon
but rather ghastly to contemplate as an article of food.
   Boys atthe doors of bakeshops vociferate "Pizzarelli caldi"--hot
pizarelli.  The pizarrello is a little flat cake of fried dough, probably the
Neapolitan equivalent of a doughnut.  They sell for a penny a piece.
Sometimes the cook makes them as big as the frying pan, putting in  tomato
and cheese--a mixture beloved of all Italians.  These big ones cost 15 cents,
but there is enough for a taste all around the family.  The bakers are frying
them hot all through the feast.  A certain cake made with molasses, and full
of peanuts or almonds, baked in a long slab and cut in little squares, four
or five for a cent, is much eaten.  So is copetta, a thick, hard, white
candy, full of nuts; and the children all carry bags of "confetti," little
bright-colored candies with nuts inside.

   16 June 1912, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. X12:
   Nothing is prettier than a round or oval ring mold of French vanilla ice
cream heaped high with fruit in its season, strawberries, raspberries,
peaches, oranges and bananas.

   18 June 1922, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 122 classifieds:
   YOUNG MEN (3) to sell Spumoni ice cream on good commission basis.  Call 8
to 8:30, 123 Elizabeth St.

   3 August 1926, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 35:
   The entire building at 539 West Fifty-second Street has been leased to J.
Di Marco and A. Menafria, who will use it as a factory for the manufacture of
spumoni ice cream.

   28 September 1930, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. SM9:
   It is in Italy, perhaps, that ice cream has been most elevated and
glorified.  And that is as it should be, since Italy is credited with
fathering the famous dish.  In the cafe of an Italian, a man of Palermo, it
was first served in France.  That was in 1660, according to the records.
Afterward it found its way to England, and then overwhelmed America.
   "Gelati!  Gelati!" swarthy, deep-voiced men intone through their bushy
black mustachios on the streets of Tuscan towns, and the "gelateria" is a
city centre for evening gossip and gatherings. (...)
   If they seek the French Vanilla that they know and the spumoni and bisque
tortoni with which the American-Italian restaurant has familiarized them,
they find they must return to their own country to get it.

   14 March 1976, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. SM54:
   It is sfinge di San Giuseppe--cream puffs with a rich ricotta (similar to
cottage cheese) filling.  Instead of being baked, the sfinge are
deep-fat-fried on St. Joseph's feast; why, no one seems to know.
   Roman-born Maria Luisa Falbo, woman's page editor of Il Progresso, the
Italian language newspaper in New York City, said the sfinge are chiefly
Sicilian.  In Rome they are called bigne, in Naples zeppole.
   Variations in preparation, as well as name, exist.  Sfinge, bigne and
zeppole may be more like small holeless doughnuts than cream
puffs--delicately crisp little morsels of fried dough with a sifting of sugar
on top.
   The main dish peculiarly associated with St. Joseph's feast is spaghetti
with a sauce containing an unusal combination of food--sardines, anchovies,
raisins, pine nuts and something called "mountain fennel."

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CHINESE CHICKEN IN GENERAL

   It's interesting that that 1976 "General Chang's Chicken" is from Long
Island.  A SEINFELD episode mentioned "General Chang's Chicken," and Jerry
Seinfeld's from Long Island.
   Do we have regional field generals here?  General Tso--New York City.
General Gau--Boston.  General Chang--Long Island.
   A Google check for hit numbers:

General Tso--4,000 hits
General Tsao--628 hits
General Gau--251 hits
General Gao--61 hits
General Chang--30 hits
General Cho--29 hits
General Chow--17 hits
General Chou--6 hits
General George--2 hits
General Yao--0 hits (mentioned on Google groups)