I'll start this blog with a wonderful quotation with a good chance for offending someone:
There is no question that Romanian-Jewish food is heavy. At the Parkway, a dispenser of schmaltz (liquid chicken fat) is kept on the table for those who want to improve on the chef's excesses. Following the Romanian tradition, garlic is used to excess to keep the vampires away; if the vampires get through the garlic defense, they're hit with heartburn from the garlic. The standard line about Romanian-Jewish cooking is usually credited to Zero Mostel, a great fan of the Parkway: "It's killed more Jews than Hitler."The quotation above is from Alice, Let's Eat by Calvin Trillin and is reproduced without permission. The book is part of Trillin's omnibus American Fried. The "Parkway" is a restaurant in New York City. Trillin wrote it was on "Allen Street" and then "in the Forties," but if it's still around, I can't find a link for it. :(
By the way, I want to thank the two wonderful friends who gave me this book for $mas. You know who you are. ;)
Hey Jack, isn't there a lot of starch in Romanian food? I hope so: fat, garlic, and starch sounds like my kind of meal. :)
Plenty of starch. Indeed, there is an old story in Romania (I'm sure that there are similar stories elsewhere) that goes: A king wanted his three daughters to show him how much they loved him. The first daughter gave him gold and he was very pleased and knew that she loved him. The second daughter gave him jewels and he was pleased and knew that she also loved him. The third daught gave him bread. He was so furious with her that he threw her in the dungeon. However, the king's cook took pity on the daughter and, that night for dinner he did not serve bread with the meal. The king was so distraught that he then realized that bread was more valuable that gold or jewels and upon forgiving the third daughter promised her the kingdom. Thus: Starch is important to Romanians because big loaves of bread are served at EVERY meal ALWAYS!
Posted by: Jack | 15 March 2004 at 02:06 PM
holy crap. i just looked at this page for the first time in a browser that renders blink tags.
you've committed a crime here. a crime against your readers. ok, i know it was probably on purpose and all, but oh my god, that is completely out of control.
stopitstopitstopit!!!
Posted by: lisa | 16 March 2004 at 05:00 PM
Blinky tags all gone
Uglier than homemade sin
They deserved to die.
Posted by: Joe | 16 March 2004 at 10:41 PM
AND the haiku makes up for the psychological damage caused by the blink tags.
Posted by: lisa linn | 17 March 2004 at 08:12 AM