Bumpy Stew (1938); Pozole (1934); Bint El Sahn (1932)

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BUMPY STEW

   I was looking for something else, but never mind.  I have a soft spot for the food of our women's colleges.


   July 1938, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, pg. 25, cols. 1-2:
   Silhouetted there against the dusk were the iron words "St. Mary's Female Seminary."
   A SEMINARY SERVES BUMPY STEW
   The principal asked me to dinner.  "We're having a seminary special, bumpy stew."
   The school was founded about a hundred years ago to give life again to this long-forsaken site, and to help keep alive in Maryland the spirit of religious tolerance.  DIrectors are Methodist, Catholic, and Episcopalian, the faiths then and now represented in the county.
   "Our teachers--they're of many creeds--come from everywhere," my hostess said.  "Girls must worship, but as they like.  We would accept Mohammedans or Buddhists.  I wish we had some.  Catholic, Jewish, or Presbyterian, they all like bumpy stew.  Married alumnae write for the recipe."
   "I'd like it myself," I said.
   "Fry chopped onions in butter until they're brown.  Then fry ground beef in the mixture until that's brown.  Sprinkle with flour; add milk, salt, and pepper.  Keep stirring until it gets bumpy.  Then," she added, "it's bumpy stew."

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POZOLE

   December 1934, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, pg. 784, col. 2:
   Outside, several persons lay dozing, while an old woman stirred a caldron of boiling corn called _pozole_.

(From Central America...Does "pozole" exist yet or does one still need more proof?--ed.)

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NEW MEXICO "CHILI PROVERB"

   May 1938, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, "Nature Paints New Mexico," pg. 561 photo caption:
   "All a peon needs to furnish his house is a string of red peppers and the picture of a saint" is an old Southwest saying.  This colorful crop was picked near Espanola, not far from the Santa Clara Pueblo Indian Reservation.  "Chili con carne," or peppers and meat--with a tamale or enchilada of cornmeal--is a popular repast here as in Mexico.

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BINT EL SAHN

   February 1932, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, pg. 231, col. 2:
   One of our favorite foods was _bint el sahn_, or "daughters of the dish."  This was brought in, still sizzling hot, in enormous covered woven baskets.
   Under the cover was layer after layer of very thin bread circles.  The indigo-turbaned servant next brought in a pitcher of steaming melted butter and poured it generously over the top and between the layers.  It was a delectable dish.