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 SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009
Weekly Trivia Quiz is below (New on July 4)
TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE
“But what was most remarkable, Broadway being three miles long, and the booths lining each side of it, in every booth there was a roast pig, large or small, as the centre attraction. Six miles of roast pig! And that in New York City alone; and roast pig in every other city, town, hamlet, and village in the Union. What association can there be between roast pig and independence?”
Frederick Marryat (1837) describing a Fourth of July Celebration
TODAY’S EVENTS IN FOOD HISTORY
* The 4th of July - U.S. Independence Day
* Barbecue Day
* National Barbecued Spareribs Day
* National Huckleberry Festival
1828 The cornerstone was laid for the Tremont House in Boston, Massachusetts. It would be the first U.S. hotel to install bathrooms. It opened on October 16, 1829.
1845 Henry David Thoreau begins his 2 year experiment with simple living at Waldon Pond.
1848 Francois Auguste Renι Vicomte de Chateaubriand died. Chateaubriand was a French writer and politician. His chef, Montmireil, created a famous recipe consisting of a center cut from the beef tenderloin, grilled and served with bιarnaise sauce and chateau potatoes. Montmireil named the dish Chateaubriand.
1906 Vincent Schaefer was born. A U.S. research chemist, he invented 'cloud seeding' with dry ice to cause rain or snow.
1918 Pauline Esther and Esther Pauline were born. Pauline Esther’s pen name was Abigal Van Buren and she wrote the "Dear Abby" newspaper advice column. Her twin sister Esther Pauline wrote the "Ann Landers" column advice column.
1943 Alan Wilson of the music group 'Canned Heat' was born.
1956 At a Fourth of July family picnic, Milton Levine came up with the idea for the Ant Farm.
View: Today in Food History Calendar for the year
View: Food Timeline 50,000 BC to 2009
View: Extensive Food Festival Listings
DID YOU KNOW? Food Trivia
Barbecue: barbicue, barbique, barbeque, Bar-B-Cue, Bar-B-Que, Bar-B-Q, BBQ, Cue and just plain Q.
Either from the Spanish spelling of the Taino Indian word for their method of cooking fish over a pit of coals (barbacoa), or from the French barbe ΰ queue (from whiskers to tail) or de la barbe ΰ la queue (from the beard to the tail) or even the French barbaque (which is from the Romanian barbec) meaning roast mutton. Take your pick, every one has their favorite, and none are certain.
CULINARY TRIVIA QUIZ
1) Can you name this vegetable?
In ancient Egypt, paintings of this vegetable appear on the inner walls of the pyramids and in the tombs of both the Old Kingdom and the New Kingdom. It is mentioned as a funeral offering and they are depicted on the banquet tables of the great feasts. They were shown upon the altars of the gods. Frequently, a priest is pictured holding them in his hand or covering an altar with a bundle of their leaves or roots. In mummies, these vegetables have frequently been found in the pelvic regions of the body, in the thorax, flattened against the ears and in front of the collapsed eyes. They have been found on the chest, and some have been found attached to the soles of the feet and along the legs. King Ramses IV, who died in 1160 B.C., was entombed with this vegetable in his eye sockets.
In India as early as the sixth century B.C., the famous medical treatise Charaka - Sanhita celebrates them as medicine - a diuretic, good for digestion, the heart, the eyes and the joints.
Likewise, Dioscorides, a Greek physician in first century A.D., noted several medicinal uses of this vegetable. The Greeks used them to fortify athletes for the Olympic Games.
The Romans ate them regularly and carried them on journeys to their provinces in England and Germany. Before he was overcome and killed by the volcano's heat and fumes, Pliny the Elder catalogued the Roman beliefs about the efficacy of them to cure vision, induce sleep, heal mouth sores, dog bites, toothaches, dysentery and lumbago.
2) Can you name this fruit?
The scientific name (Blighia sapida) comes from its association with Captain William Bligh, of the H.M.S. Bounty ('Mutiny on the Bounty'), who is thought to have carried the fruit from tropical West Africa (possibly Guinea) to the Caribbean Islands, and specifically to Jamaica in 1793. Since then, it has become a major feature of various Caribbean cuisines, and is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas around the world. It is a relative of the lychee and the longan. The fruit itself is not edible - only the fleshy arils around the seeds are edible. The remainder of the fruit, including the seeds are poisonous. The fruit must only be picked after the fruit has opened naturally, and must be fresh and not overripe. Immature and overripe ones are also poisonous.
3) What flavorless, colorless oil has more polyunsaturates than any other oil, a very high smoke point (which makes it good for deep frying), and doesn't solidify when refrigerated?
4) What popular snack food was invented by George Crumb, chef at Moon's Lake House in New York in the late 19th century?
5) These dried flower buds are picked and dried before they open. The tree is a member of the myrtle family and is native to the Spice Islands of Indonesia (Moluccas).
6) 99% of the U.S. blueberry crop comes from one state, and 90% from just one county. Can you name the state, and the county?
7) In 1849, Henderson Lewelling traveled from Oregon to San Francisco with 100 of these, which he sold for $5 each to gold prospectors. What was he selling?
a) potatoes b) pans c) chickens d) apples e) strawberries
8) Yuban brand coffee was developed in the early 20th century by coffee merchant John Arbuckle. Do you know how he came up with the name Yuban?
9) In 1191, England's Richard the Lion Hearted leads the 3rd Crusade in a victory over Saracen leader Saladin. As a peace offering, Saladin presents Richard with a sweet treat made with a special ingredient from Lebanon. Can you name the special ingredient, and the name the treat is known by today?
10) The following events all took place in the same year.
Can you guess what year?
Friskees introduced the first dry cat food
Rice-A-Roni goes on sale. Produced by Vince DeDomenico from an Armenian family recipe.
Cocoa Puffs is introduced by General Mills; it contains 43% sugar.
Cocoa Krispies is introduced by Kellogg’s - it's 45.9% sugar.
There are 4,063 drive in movie screens nationwide.
Jolly Green Giant was born. He appears on TV, but he looks like a monster and scares kids. So they lighten him up a bit, added 'Ho, ho, ho' and add a catchy jingle.
Sweet n' Low was introduced as an artificial sweetener (granulated saccharin, dextrose, cream of tartar and calcium silicate). It received U.S. trademark patent no. 1,000,000.
Frank Carney, 18 years old, reads about the pizza fad with college students. He borrows $600 from his mother and opens the first Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas.
McDonald's sold its 100 millionth hamburger.
Click here for the answers to this Culinary Quiz
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Dedication
This website is dedicated to:
Gladys Ehler, my mother, who taught me patience and how to make Sauerbraten (it is still my favorite)
Edward Ehler, my father, who taught me a love of books and history.
Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, my nephew. Died in action on Feb. 7, 2007 in Iraq. He was 30 yrs. young
Chef James
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