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• CULINARY HISTORIANS OF NEW YORK• Volume 14, No. 1 Fall 2000 CHNY Steering Committee 2000-2001 TRAVELER’S JOURNAL Chairperson: Phyllis Isaacson Vice-Chairperson: Stephen Ethiopia: Land of Culinary Contradictions Schmidt By Larry Litt Secretary: Lois O’Wyatt Treasurer: Lee Coleman ESPITE drought, In Ethiopia fasting is only one Members-at-Large: famines, and wars, of the important mainstream Wendy Clapp-Shapiro, DEthiopians have always dietary themes. Conversely, and Membership observed their sacred fasting days. strange to outsiders, considering Helen Studley, Programs Fasting in the Ethiopian Orthodox their dedication to religious fast- John W. R. Jenkins, Publicity Church means to do without meat ing, on non-fasting days the or dairy products for a given majority of Ethiopians I met ate period of time, from one day to the highly spiced and piquant raw meat CHNY Information Hotline 55 days of the Lenten season. In to celebrate events like births, (212) 501-3738 the old Julian calendar that funerals, and weddings—and of Ethiopia’s ancient church observes course, only if these days don’t there are over 200 days where only coincide with fasting days. I was CHNY Newsletter: vegetarian foods are prepared and told that very fatty raw beef, goat, Editor: Helen Brody served in homes, schools, the mili- and lamb meats, with a side of Copy Editor: Karen Berman tary, and restaurants. spicy awaze sauce, (a mixture of red The custom comes from the peppers, garlic, fresh ginger, red Please send, fax, or e-mail all Orit, the Old and New Testaments onion, rue seed, basil, cloves, cin- newsletter correspondence to: written in Ge’ez, the ancient namon, salt, cardamom, red wine, Helen Brody language of the historical king- and water), are the most popular PO Box 923 doms of Abyssinia, Kush, and Saba, dishes throughout Ethiopia. 19 Trillium Lane now called Ethiopia. There is evi- According to Hagos Legesse, Grantham, NH 03753 dence that fasting rituals began in \a representative of Ethiopian Air- [email protected] the West with Pythagoras’ non- lines, lemlem zign (raw beef in spicy (603)863-5299 animal sacrifices at certain Greek sauce), kitfo (ground beef), and t’ire (603)863-8943 Fax temples and became a part of early siga (chunks or cubes of raw beef) Christian worship. Continued on page 2 CHNY encourages the submis- sion to the newsletter of articles relating to culinary history, member news, and other TO CHNY MEMBERS: pertinent information. The Contributors have been generous and timely in delivering their editor has the right to edit for information. Unfortunately, I found it impossible to put everything length, clarity, accuracy, and together last spring. Thus, you are receiving a spring/fall punctuation. combination. —HELEN BRODY, EDITOR Ethiopia, from page 1 Legesse said proudly. “We can buy ravages of poverty, disease, and food from around the world as prolonged war on the neighboring are the three most popular raw long as we can sell coffee. During streets. The political reality is that meat entrees cut from freshly droughts, much food is donated. when food is donated there are killed, skinned, and racked animals, We are lucky there is so much ample funds for military budgets. usually accompanied by many extra in the world right now.” “You must understand, these bottles of homemade tej, tradi- Ethiopia is a beautiful and his- luxury hotels exist to attract busi- tional high-alcohol-content honey toric country filled with fantastic, ness people to my country so we wine. magical sights and wonders, both can build a new economy and share A night of raw meat and tej is ancient and modern. But for me in the wealth of the world,” said considered a celebratory feast even there will always remain the reality Legesse. “We have everything to if there is no official cause for cel- of economic contrasts and offer, if only God and nature will ebration. Legesse explained further struggles for survival. There is cooperate.” that men get together to eat, drink, enough wealth in Ethiopia for and talk until “they are full and Addis Ababa to have both Hilton Larry Litt is a journalist who special- feeling like warrior kings. It is very and Sheraton premium luxury izes in food and politics. He believes important for our physical and hotels, each with four or five res- that “What we eat not only has cul- mental health.” taurants serving well prepared tural meaning, but political meaning At a recent Lenten fast day international cuisines along with as well. How we are persuaded to breakfast in Addis Ababa, I ate traditional Ethiopian dishes. grow, process, market, and consume buttered t’iqur sinde dabbo, a special But as I walked outside the our food is one of the most important whole wheat bread that had the gates of my heavily guarded hotel identity, survival and class issues of consistency of a thick pancake. It grounds, I was struck by the any society.” was prepared fresh in the morning in a clay oven, somewhat like a nan bread from the Indian subcon- tinent. The evening meal consisted of five colorful vegetarian dipping pastes spread over a layer of injera, the renowned teff flour spongy pancake bread, on a single large painted metal tray. Everyone at the COMMITTEES table shared from the tray and ate with their just-washed hands like Membership: Wendy Clapp-Shapiro ([email protected]) our hosts. Send out welcome packets, welcome new members Because many varieties of dried beans are donated as food aid from Newsletter: Helen Brody ([email protected]) world aid programs, this meal was Write book reviews, lead articles, new member news heavy on fava beans, spilt peas, and lentils. Fortunately, these beans are Nominating: Phyllis Isaacson ([email protected]) also much desired Ethiopian Assemble annual ballot for Steering Committee staples enjoyed in times of abun- dance as well. Program: Helen Studley ([email protected]) When there is a drought, Engage interesting speakers arable land is used to grow teff plants for injera flour. “This bread Publicity: John W. R. Jenkins ([email protected]) is a great part of our national iden- Establish contacts to publicize the organization tity. Along with coffee, we need these crops to feel like Ethiopians,” 2 THE CULINARY BOOKSHELF Prairie Home Cooking chapter headings she tells us how sonings) and schwartenmagen (beef by Judith M. Fertig and by whom the Midwest was heart and pork tongue, jowls, and (Harvard Common Press, 1999) settled, and how its settlers man- skin) from the Amana Colonies, a aged to reproduce their comfort mid-19th century religious com- REVIEW BY JEANNE LESEM foods by substituting locally avail- munal sect in southeastern Iowa. able ingredients for the old, Peanuts, she tells us, became a “We think the best cookbooks are familiar ones. Hers is a story of household commodity because of a story books, their purpose as much courage, creativity, the immigrant Midwestern physician who wanted a to document the communal draw work ethic, and the legendary soft health food to give his patients. of the meal table as to show the friendliness and hospitality for By 1910 an Ohio cookbook pro- curious cook how to bake a grav- which the Midwest and the South vided several recipes for homemade ity-defying biscuit or stir up a tasty are famous. The Ohio-born author peanut butter, “which at the time kettle of Brunswick stew. When all now lives in Kansas, where she was considered a kind of condiment the dishes have been cleared from writes a weekly food column for like catsup or mustard.” the table, these recipes remain, a the Kansas City Star. Some of the If you think Midwestern reci- tangible link to a time, a place, a recipes are her own contemporary pes lack sophistication, consider people.” versions of classics: potato salad this: September means the start of —John T. Edge with a parsley-pesto dressing or a pheasant season from the middle of winter vegetable salad whose dress- Kansas north through Nebraska Edge’s insightful words introduce ing includes a bottled sauce (brand and the Dakotas. Then look at his own recently published (and name Maggi) popular in the Heart- Marllys Yelton’s recipe for pheasant wonderful) American regional land. baked with heavy cream, garlic, cookbook, A Gracious Plenty: Recipes No native Midwesterner can and thyme. Yelton hails from a tiny and Recollections from the American read this book without salivating town in central Kansas. “It seems South (Putnam, 1999)—to be for the foods of her childhood, be as if everyone has at least a few reviewed in the next issue of they Pickled Watermelon Rind, pheasant recipes,” author Fertig CHNY newsletter—but they also Cracked Wheat Salad (originally, writes. A lot of the morel mush- accurately describe Fertig’s cook- Middle Eastern tabbouleh), or a rooms sold year-round in specialty book about the Midwest, the Strawtown Dutch Lettuce Salad markets and upscale supermarkets American Heartland. that reads like a layered hybrid of come from Midwestern suppliers. Between 1865 and 1880, Kan- the wilted lettuce and warm potato They are also sold at farmers mar- sas attracted more immigrants than salads of my youth. Among the less kets and supermarkets throughout any other state in the United familiar recipes is a rich homemade the Midwest. We were astonished States. Homestead Acts in the last cheese made with two dozen eggs, on a visit to Indianapolis a few half of the 19th century brought salt, sugar, vanilla, and milk, a years ago to find affordable bags of Poles, Irish, Czechs, Bohemians, Hungarian Easter specialty tradi- dried morels in a supermarket and Austrians to the Dakotas, tionally made on April 4 in years there before they had begun to ap- Iowa, and Nebraska.