Straight Dope (1904); Mojama (1992), Mosciame; Broccoflower (1989)

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STRAIGHT DOPE

   Is "straight dope" turning 100?

(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
MAYOR THINKS HE'S STILL "IT."; LOCAL POLITICS. SAYS THE NOMINATION WILL COME EASILY. Pronounces the World's Fair Pike Not so Bad as it is Said to be Democratio Mayorialty Candidates Come Out from Cover--Dark Horses Barred.
Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Sep 23, 1904. p. 6 (1 page):
   "Me and Pinkey kin bring in a solid delegation.  We don't make two bites of it down there.  Farish is a nice young man, but his friends have got him in wrong.  This is straight dope I'm giving you and you can plank your money on it.  It's Savage for the Council and Pinkey for Mayor.  Why the children say that down our way.  They think it is a part of the catechism."

PAT SHEEDY FOR LAWSON.; " Those Fellows He Exposes Are Worse Gorillas Than I Am."
Special to The New York Times.. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 24, 1904. p. 1 (1 page):
   "Lawson," said Sheedy, "is giving us some straight dope.  He is telling the exact truth as I have seen it all my life. ..."

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MOJAMA, MOSCIAME

MOJAMA--2,840 Google hits, 761 Google Groups hits
MOSCIAME--585 Google hits, 46 Google Groups hits

   OED recently did the letter "m."  You won't find "mojama" or "mosciame" there.
   From this week's VILLAGE VOICE:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0410/sietsema.php
My favorite dish, hands down, is duck egg with mojama. On a bed of mushroom-dressed fried potatoes sits an outsize sunny-side-up egg that bursts yellowly across the spuds when you cut into it. Around the periphery are curls of mojama, a dried tuna loin that originated in southern Spain.


(GOOGLE)
http://www.chowhound.com/boards/general10/messages/25845.html
Subject:     Preserved Tuna: mojama/mosciame
From:        pv-land-dev.com at worldnet.att.net (Jerome)
Posted:      February 17, 2002 at 23:25:28

Message:
 There was someone asking about this a while back and there was a very nice post with a recipe. But this is what I've found over the past few weeks, having eaten some myself.
Tuna, primarily yellowfin tuna, has been caught for centuries around Tarifa in the Costa de la Luz in Spain using a complicated tuna net trap called an almadraba. The tuna is processed by taking the loins (lomos) and salting and air-drying them like prosciutto/jamon serrano or bresaola. The name for this product is mojama from (according to http://www.vox.es/consultar.html) the Arabic almuxama, the dried. It is made in other parts of Spain, like Alicante, as well and is available in many places as a tapa (and can be purchased online and in Spanish import shops here).

With the Arabic influence, Sicily also makes mojama, called mosciame. It has been made in Sardinia as well and is sometimes used in Ligurian food, especially in the dish Cappon Magro, a fish(apparently Lenten) dish.

Non pc note, it seems that a mojama/mosciame was also prepared in the past of mammalian dolphin meat as well as of tuna (one or the other, you can't mix the meat). This is illegal today although one website shows a very distressing picture of a dolphin skeleton with the thought that the dolphin may have been butchered for black market dolphin mosciame (this was in Sardinia) which, acdg to the site, retailed for about one million Italian lire per kilogram.

By the way, tuna mojama is amazingly delicious, as tasty and interesting as a prosciutto or a bresaola but with hardly any fat (0.2 g of fat per 100 g). I'm amazed it's not more popular.


(FACTIVA)(36 "mojama" hits)
TAPAS BARS WITH PLENTY OF TASTE
Bryan Miller The New York Times
960 words
9 July 1992
Los Angeles Daily News
Valley
H2
(...)
The specialty here is home-cured sardine fillets that are better than most: firm, minimally salty and with a clean aftertaste. They are particularly good with pan y tomates and Xampanyet, the refreshing house sparkling wine. Try the excellent regional sausages and salami here as well as mojama, a firm, salty, dried tuna fillet.


(FACTIVA)(1 "mosciame" hit)
  Eating Out - Cosi fan tutte? If only.
By Terry Durack.
1,162 words
28 October 2001
Independent On Sunday
69
(...)
When Sardo first opened in Fitzrovia three years ago, it too did the better-safe-than-sorry Britalian thing with pasta, pizza and the like. More recently, the owner, Romolo Mudu, decided the time was right to make a stand for Sardinian food. He Sardinianed the decor of his small, quietly blond-wood restaurant, and with Sardinian-born Roberto Sardu in the kitchen, ditched the pizza to offer instead an authentic, absorbing listing that includes an elegant spaghetti with shavings of bottarga (dried grey mullet roe) and a grandmotherly dish of malloreddus (maggot-shaped semolina pasta) in a heady tomato and sausage ragu. A specials board lists mosciame di tonno (shavings of sun-dried tuna) one day, and a simple char-grilled swordfish the next.

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BROCCOFLOWER

   Word Spy recently did "broccoflower."  That's been around; it's even in Wikipedia.  The earliest citation given is not the earliest.


http://www.wordspy.com/words/broccoflower.asp
Earliest Citation:

According to the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, restaurants are finally jumping on the nutrition bandwagon. ... They foresee these trends: ...

More exotic fruits and veg — like broccoflower (a cross between cauliflower and broccoli), wild mushrooms and all manner of squash.
—Marion Kane, "Peanut butter secret ingredient in stew contest winning recipe," The Toronto Star, March 21, 1990


(FACTIVA)
FOOD: SAFETY AND VARIETY TOP FOOD SCIENTISTS AGENDA. (FOOD SERVICE IN THE 90S; INCLUDES RELATED ARTICLES)
By Kathi Marshall and Nancy Backas and Nancy Ross Ryan
1,943 words
27 November 1989
Restaurants & Institutions
48
English
Copyright Cahners Publishing Co. 1989
(...)
Some research projects likely to result in practical applications during the '90s include: * Rice with more protein and better protein value through genetic manipulation. * Flour made from amaranth, an ancient grain with the potential to become a major food source because of its excellent nutritional qualities. * Eat-all melon, about the size of an egg or plum, that has an edible rind and is seedless. So far, the one species developed has a bright yellow rind, pink flesh and sweet melon flavor. The plan is to breed for longer shelf life with an eye toward being able to market the melon in vending machines. * Genetically altered cucumber plants that have virus genes designed to protect cucumbers from disease. * Black truffles grown under controlled conditions and ground into a powder or a thick paste. * A new commodity called a broccoflower, a genetic cross between a broccoli and a cauliflower. The flavor is closer to cauliflower, color and nutritional value closer to broccoli. * Four new blueberry varieties that have more intense flavor and can be harvested over a longer period. * A new nutritious snack food called nunas, colorful beans that pop after cooking a few minutes in oil, hot air or in the microwave. * Citrus fruit that is vacuum-infused and then injected with a natural enzyme that dissolves the white, fleshy substance between the fruit and the peel, making the fruit easy to peel.