OT: a eulogy to American food

[carolynwhite2]

First, Ginger..you are one hell of a star. I will paste things into the 
Word files pronto. Thankyou.

But, to while away my commute I am currently immersed in a biography of 
one of your turn of the century poets, Edna St Vincent Millay. I was 
greatly struck by a rave she wrote about American food to a sniffy 
foodie in Paris, and wondered if such comestibles still existed 
alongside MacDonalds?

'In your travels, cher Madame, did you ever taste the lobsters that 
come from the waters off the coast of my home state, Maine? Broiled or 
boiled and served with melted, fresh country butter, they are 
unforgettable. Did you have fish chowder, made of haddock, Maine 
potatoes, onions, salt pork and rich milk?'

'Were you ever introduced to Boston Baked Beans? I mean the kind baked 
in an old-fashioned crock. We cook them slowly and for long hours in 
the oven and serve them sometimes with such brown bread that can be 
found in no other part of the world. Did you ever have Cherrystones or 
Little Necks; and did you ever, by chance, taste a Provincetown clam 
pie made of the deep-sea Quahogs and a liberality of olive oil and 
garlic, cooked by one of the Portuguese fishermen who had hauled in the 
clams himself? Were oyster-crabs and whitebait ever set  crisp before 
you? Did you taste soft-shell crabs, lightly sauteed, or drink the 
juice of a soft-shell clam? I must say I have never met their like over 
here. And were you ever a happy member of an old-fashioned clam-bake on 
a secluded New England beach?

'Then what of the other American dishes that are seldom to be met with 
elsewhere on the gastronomic globe? There's the shad roe and the shad 
itself, both broiled; sweet corn and sweet potatoes; pumpkin pie and 
deep-dish blueberry pie; diamond-back terrapin done as the Baltimoreans 
do it in a rich Madeira stew, or as the Philadelphians do it with egg-
yolks, cream and sweet-butter in a lordly dish? Then there's the 
Philadelphia Pepperpot which as tripe in it, and that same city's 
surprising mixiture of tripe and oysters. There's the Creole Jambalaya 
of New Orleans made with savory rice and shrimps almost as big as your 
French ecrivisses.

We have also our native blueberries. And there's our cranberries and 
our beach-plums which I used to gather on Cape Cod. We make delicious 
preserves from them. Oh there are many other products and dishes native 
to states and regions of my country. If you have never tasted them, ma 
chere, you cannot in all fairness have judged American cuisine..'

A rather fine defence !
Carolyn