Lobster Newburg (1899); Beefsteak Johns & No NY Chinese Restaurants (1895)

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LOBSTER NEWBURG (continued)

   From the NEW YORK TRIBUNE, 17 April 1899, pg. 6, col. 5:

   "Years ago," says Colonel Henry Watterson, "when I belonged to a coterie of gay young cavaliers in New-York City, I designed the dish now generally known as lobster a la Newburg.  I gave my idea to "Charlie" Delmonico, and he saw that it was carried to successful execution.  John McCullough was one of us, and to John is due the appearance of broiled live lobster in the East.  He had caught on to that epicurean way of preparing it during his stay in California.  In after years I attained some fame as a manipulator of certain dishes, terrapin perhaps being my masterpiece.  Curiously enough, all the newspaper stories have given me credit for being an artist in the preparation of oyster stews, but my experience with the bivalves is limited.  I always left them to John Chamberlain, while he would not allow any one but myself to attend to the diamond backs.  I can't begin to tell you how much of this ingredient or the exact quantity of the other to put with the terrapin, but I know how to blend them all in an instinctive sort of way, and I've never yet found the man who didn't admit that my cooking was of the highest order."

(Henry Watterson was the editor of the LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL.  I've mentioned him before in connection with "Windy City" and "Gin Rickey."  I was not familiar with his culinary abilities--ed.)

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BEEFSTEAK JOHNS; NO NEW YORK CHINESE RESTAURANTS

   From the BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, 4 August 1895, pg. 19, col. 5:

_STRANGE RESTUARANTS._
_BROOKLYN HAS MANY PECULIAR EATING HOUSES._
_Some of These Are Not Calculated to_
   _Put a Fine Edge on Fastidious Appe-_
   _tites--Italian, Hebrew, Swedish and_
   _German Tastes Appealed To._
(...)(Col. 6--ed.)
   Scattered all over the city there are a large number of restaurants commonly known as "Beefsteak Johns."  In these places a regular dinner is sold for 15 or 20 cents and single dishes, like roast beef with potato, for 8 and 10 cents, according to the piece.  The regular dinner consists of a bowl of soup, a cut of roast beef, lamb, veal or corned beef and cabbage, a cup of tea or coffee and for dessert pie or pudding.  Places of this kind are to be found on Myrtle avenue, upper nad lower Fulton street, lower Atlantic avenue, and in the neighborhood of all the ferries, car stables and the large factories.
(...)
   There are no Chinese restaurants in the city, although there was one started at 97 Broadway about two years ago.  It was run on the same style as those on Mott and Pell streets in New York.  The place was closed very soon after opening, as it did not attract enough customers to make it pay.

(No Chinese restaurants in New York in 1895?  See "Chinese Restaurants in New York," LESLIE'S ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY, 9 January 1896, pg. 28--ed.)

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FOOD MISC.

   Gersh Kuntzman's "Metro Gnome," to appear in Monday's NEW YORK POST, is about the "fried twinkie."
   MADE ME LAUGH: From THE ONION, 24-30 October 2002:

_Motorist Overwhelmed By_
_Array Of Jerky Choices_

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O.T.: WINDY CITY (or, YOU correct the TIMES OF LONDON)

Sport
Ascot less Royal as parade takes a day off
Cornelius Lysaght
10/25/2002
The Times of London
News International
Final 4
43
(Copyright Times Newspapers Ltd, 2002)
  (...)
CHICAGO'S Windy City nickname, a reference to the changeable nature of the hot air spouted by local worthies rather than the lakeside weather, has rarely been so apt.