Comments on: Vinegar, Fruit Cake, and Bagels

By: Douglas

Douglas — Fri, 26 Mar 2004 00:19:59 +0000

I do agree with Elayne, decent bread is remarkably hard to find in the US, it’s mostly disgustingly sweet and the ingredients don’t bear contemplation. In the olden days, BC (before children) we used to bake our own. One of the pleasures of travelling is getting vinegar with fries without the odd looks or comments from the waitron..

By: JRoth

JRoth — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 20:27:21 +0000

Well, I hate to contradict jw mason’s NY-centrism, but double-fried french fries with malt vinegar (or ketchup or cheese or gravy) has been a staple at the Original Hot Dog Shop in Pittsburgh, PA forever. In fact, PNC Park (America’s best place to watch baseball, unless the Pirates are in town) even has malt vinegar bottles with the condiments. Of course, Pittsburgh also has a mighty fried fish fetish – I think that your liquor license actually arrives bundled with a “Burgh’s Best Fish Sandwich” sign. On a side note, when my mother in law made gulasch the other night, she couldn’t locate our white vinegar because we keep it not in the pantry, but in the cleaning cabinet. Oh, and back on topic: as someone noted, ketchup is astringent, and plays essentially the same role to fries as vinegar. I love mayonnaise, but I find that on fries, it just adds to the existing richness. It’s better with thinner fries, which have less grease and less fluffy insides, but still doesn’t have that great counterpoint of ketchup. I think this may be a rare food preference where the Yankee way can be argued as objectively superior to (or more sophisticated than) the Euro way. But I really shouldn’t say such a thing.

By: Jeremy Osner

Jeremy Osner — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 16:21:57 +0000

Currywurst shows up in todays Achewood.

By: LowLife

LowLife — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 15:19:17 +0000

Belle reminds of that we are ignoring fruit cakes and we promptly continue to ignor fruit cake. Yet, like Belle and Harry, I think they deserve more attention that they get. My mother, a Kentucky girl, somehow came up with a recipe for what she called a Rum cake that was absolutely transendental. It matches quite well the discription Harry gives the British fruit cake and was quite beloved by me.

By: harry

harry — Sun, 21 Mar 2004 14:47:05 +0000

No nick, you’re wrong—there is one kind of baked bean that is superior to all others—Bush’s Vegetarian Baked Beans. They’re available in the Northwest and midwest at least. After you’ve had them you will find Heinz baked beans as pale an imitation as you currently find all other kinds to Heinz. (sorry about syntax, my toddler is bugging me).

By: nick

nick — Sun, 21 Mar 2004 07:56:43 +0000

My tuppence-worth about comfort food: American grocery stores have an aisle full of baked beans, but nothing to rival a British can of Heinz. Maple syrup? Brown sugar? Bacon? Yeugh.

By: Stentor

Stentor — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 21:57:18 +0000

Vinegar on fries is standard in Palmerton PA, where I grew up. My guess is that the condiment choice is influenced by the use of vinegar on pierogies, which are served in the same kind of paper cone.

By: David

David — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 18:44:48 +0000

(actually that’s L.A. county only, but I’m sure you can get good ones somewhere within the city limits. It’s not as if we’re short of Jews).

By: David

David — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 18:41:59 +0000

Good bagels in L.A. Goldstein’s Bagel Bakery. I’ve seen Taiwanese, on numerous occasions, dipping their French fries into the ice cream at MaiDangLau. Speaking of which, the Rough Guide assures us that those MacDonald’s “chips” are just marvelous. What’s up with that?

By: wolfangel

wolfangel — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:53:53 +0000

I tend to prefer Fairmount bagels to St-Viateur, but will easily accept either. Best in the world, by far. Montreal bagels are the epitome of bagel. Fresh mayo is much better than what you can buy, and not that hard to make, but it’s not always worth the trouble. Just like most things, except desserts, because making your own cake/cookies/brownies is always worth the trouble.

By: Bill Tozier

Bill Tozier — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:20:21 +0000

Oh, and the best stuff for fries/chips is undoubtedly Dutch/Indonesian pindasaus/satesaus (satay or saté in English). Very hot spicy peanut butter with lots of fiery sambal in it. Delicious. For best effect, buy it in a little shop in a train station with good crisp Dutch fries.

By: Bill Tozier

Bill Tozier — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:12:46 +0000

As the original author of the quoted comment [ ahem ;-) ], I have to say I was a bit brusque in my dismissal. In addition, I used the word "crap" twice, where once should have sufficed. It was a total memory lapse that led me to forget that malt vinegar is available in many restaurants I frequent, even though I have eaten in them daily over the last few weeks. That said, it's still relatively artificial stuff -- as is a good deal of the "balsamic vinegar" available in grocery stores in the US. For the truly pretentious (which is a state I merely aspire to), I'd recommend reading Zingerman's co-founder Ari Weinzweig's Zingerman's Guide to Good Vinegar (available through a number of obvious outlets). Caveat lector: There's a strong regional folkoric component to this whole, "You've never had real X until you've tried Y!" trope. In many cases of my experience, Y is an abhorrent concoction which is considered "authentic" by the locals simply because it's also local. Just off the cuff, I can recall several incidents in which I've had to commend a mouthful of some local delicacy without spitting it out: ice cream (Hanover, PA), local fresh seafood (Eastern Shore, MD; Turin), dessert (over-priced Toronto Chinese restaurant), "sausage" (Utrecht; "Mmmm... is that, umm, allspice or nutmeg!?"), &c &c. Thus, my advice should be treated with skepticism. Ari's however pricey, seems pretty good, though. And if you come to the store or any other Zingerman's location, they will give you free samples of anything. Try it for free, first.

By: reuben

reuben — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 13:35:35 +0000

FWIW, the best bagels I’ve ever had were in NY, but the second best are made at a place called (I think) Beigel Break in Finsbury Park, London. Every other bagel I’ve had in the UK has been either a dry monstrosity or, as on Brick Lane, just good enough to get you through (albeit literally cheaper than chips). I haven’t been to Montreal yet, but this discussion has moved it several notches up my list of desired travel destinations. And what sane human can declare that American sausages are better than British? The UK is full of small, craft-based manufacturers who turn out truly lovely links. I don’t remember that in the US.

By: reuben

reuben — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 13:11:37 +0000

Currywurst ! If there’s a more disgusting dish known to man or beast I’d like to know about it. Holodetz, a Russian dish that, at least when served to me at an otherwise lovely banquet, consisted of chipped beef in a gelatinous goo, with little olive bits on top in the shape of a smiley face. Thank god for vodka.

By: Iain J Coleman

Iain J Coleman — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 11:44:11 +0000

What’s pakora? It’s an Indian snack, which basically consists of some nugget of food deep-fried in spicy batter. When this was introduced to Glasgow, a city whose culinary philosophy is “if it moves, deep-fry it in batter”, the result was a rich creative synergy. I’m getting hungry now just thinking about the many fine pakoras I’ve had in Glasgow, but the best all came from one little take-away whose proprietor is the most innovative pakora specialist I’ve ever met. His spinach and ricotta pakora is divine. Seriously. Where in the Western Hemisphere is Glasgow located? It’s the major city in the west of Scotland.