The Sandwich Situation

This is an interesting one.  I had a quesadilla yesterday, and never even thought of it as a sandwich.  But I suppose it is a bunch of food stuffed between two pieces of bread.  But if that delicious barbeque chicken quesadilla from Pigskin is a “sandwich”, it would open up a whole new can of worms.  There are a lot of fringe sandwiches in the cooking world.  Panini are most certainly sandwiches.  I would make the case that a hamburger is, as well, simply because the bread is on the top and bottom, giving the burger vertical orientation.  However, if a hamburger is a sandwich, and a quesadilla is not, then what is the “Quesadilla Burger” at Applebees?  This item is just like it sounds: a medium well hamburger wedged into a tortilla, covered with cheese and salsa.  This greasy culinary hybrid is a personal favorite of mine, but I believe that with the presence of a tortilla, that the quesadilla burger is not a sandwich.

            Since I believe a tortilla cannot be the major bread layer of a sandwich, this eliminates the taco, burrito, quesadilla, and crepe from sandwichdom.  A sandwich needs to have bread (wheat, white, whole grain, or otherwise) as its base, some tortillas are corn based, and therefore do not qualify, and others are too flat to be considered a bread.  This also takes the ever popular pita out of contention too, as the pita is very thin, and usually used to wrap up tasty morsels instead of being on top and bottom of them.

            A hot dog is a tough one.  When one thinks of a sandwich, they think of two pieces of bread.  A hot dog meets all of the sandwich qualifications, except for this one.  There is only one bun that the hot dog is placed between.  I suppose a hot dog could be considered a sandwich if, and only if, the bun was ripped in two, making them essentially long and skinny pieces of bread on top and bottom of the dog.  This would make it a sandwich in name only, as it would taste nothing like that turkey and cream cheese that I am going to have for lunch as soon as I finish this blog post.  So those are my qualifications for a food creation to be considered a sandwich.  Two pieces of bread, not flat or corn based, and the bread has to be on top and bottom of the contents.  But that’s enough writing about food for me right now, it’s almost noon and it’s time for lunch.  For the last time, stay hungry Athens.

W9 Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday from a Food Perspective

            Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and being the good Italian Catholic that I am, this means that my diet tomorrow will be different than usual.  First, there is the fasting.  When most people think of fasting, they think that I mean not eating from sun up to sun down.  This used to be the case on Ash Wednesday for Catholics, but the church now allows us to eat three meals a day.  “Fasting” simply means no snacking.  This poses an interesting question for me:  I don’t eat breakfast, and never really have unless it was a special occasion, so am I allotted a third meal tomorrow?  The meal I like to call “second dinner” takes place around 9pm or so.  It is similar in nature to Taco Bell’s “fourthmeal” without eating sand in my supposed beef taco.

            Even with three meals, I am not allowed to eat meat tomorrow at all.  Obviously, giving up meat for the day is much more difficult for me to do than it is to the veteran vegetarian.  When one is not accustomed to a restricted diet, it becomes that much difficult.  Tomorrow, I plan on eating cheese pizza for some carbs, hummus for protein, and a whole lot of fruits and vegetables.  Maybe by the time second dinner rolls around, I’ll be in the mood for some fish.  Unfortunately in Athens, Ohio there are not very many places to get quality fish.  McDonald’s, Long John Silver’s, and in the frozen foods aisle at Kroeger are three places where I’d rather not eat seafood.

            The final Lenten sacrifice for us Catholics is that we are urged to give up something in our daily lives that we enjoy.  Many people choose to give up soda, or alcohol, or even using bad language.  When thinking about what to sacrifice this year, I decided that it should also be something that helps me.  After taking this class, and reading all the data and watching “Supersize Me” and “Food Inc” I’ve decided that for the forty days until Easter, I will not eat red meat.  This means no burgers, gyros, or my personal guilty pleasure, Burrito Buggy.  Giving up red meat will not only be a good thing to sacrifice for the Lenten season, but will also have a positive impact on my overall health.

            But for now, it is Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnivale, or whatever else a culture might refer to it as.  So I think I’m going to head out and get a burger, or two; Maybe three, and enjoy its deliciousness while I can.  As for everybody else who observes Ash Wednesday tomorrow, join me and eat up!

           

W7 Secret Secrets Are No Fun

            I would like to start off by wondering what makes a “secret” recipe.  Are the ingredients secret?  Or, is it only the amounts of ingredients that makes a recipe unknown to others?  I suppose some secret recipes can simply use methods that the cook wants to keep under wraps.  Either way, secret recipes dominate American society.  I’ve often wondered what the “23 flavors” are in a Dr. Pepper, or the 11 herbs and spices that Colonial Sanders used to make his world famous original recipe.  These are multi million dollar businesses that thrive on the fact that no one can replicate their recipes, and therefore the company will have little or no competition.  Sometimes, others can come close to copying the secret recipe, such as off brand versions of Dr. Pepper, like Mr. Pibb or the delightfully generic Dr. Thunder sold at Wal Mart.  However, all of these taste slightly different than the original.

            I understand the appeal of keeping a recipe secret on a major corporate scale, but what about locally?  Jackie O’s in Athens does not disclose the brewing method for their Raze Wheat Beer.  This is likely not due to any corporate monopoly on the recipe, but because they wish for their beer to be unique.  Their sweet, grapefruit juice colored brew certainly is unique in Athens, Ohio, and they likely keep the recipe away from major brewing companies for that reason.

            If Dr. Pepper and KFC are hiding their recipe from competitors, and Jackie O’s is keeping its brewing method away from other local breweries, just who is my mother hiding her maple chicken recipe from?  Maple chicken, as odd as it sounds, is what I ask for each time I go home to Cleveland for the weekend and my mom wants to make a special dish.  It consists of a chicken breast covered in pretzels, and an unknown sauce which includes maple syrup.  She will not tell me exactly what is in the sauce, or how much of the mystery ingredients to include.  I sometimes wonder if she fears that the list of ingredients may sound less appetizing on paper, so it is better if I just shut up and eat the delicious dish.  I wonder if she fears that if I knew what was in the sauce the maple chicken wouldn’t be my favorite home cooked meal anymore.  Either way I have always been curious, and wanted to solve this mystery.  And to be honest, no matter what is in that sauce, I could never be grossed out by my mom’s maple chicken recipe, it’s that good.

W4 On the Road, No Time to Eat

America is most definitely a “fast food nation.”  Downtown locations are on every block in major cities, and small towns are cluttered with them.  Even in a city as small as Athens, there are easily more than ten fast food “restaurants” in a two or so mile radius.  Something unique about American fast food is the road aspect of it.  Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives likes to claim the locally owned holes in the wall that he goes to as road trip food, but I believe that fast food is much more synonymous with road trips.

            Each and every time my family goes on vacation to somewhere in the States, we drive the entire way, stopping only for food, gas, and six hours of sleep.  I have driven (or rode in the car, depending on my age) as far as South Dakota, Florida, Maine, Texas, among countless others; the farthest being a thirty two hour car ride to southwestern Colorado.  On interstate trips like these, fast food is crucial.  My favorite fast food story would simply be eating a greasy cheeseburger in the backseat, trying not to spill it all over the two weeks worth of luggage sitting next to me.  When trying to drive over thirty hours in the car, there was no time to stop at a local dive bar for lunch.

            Fast food, however, is something totally different overseas.  In other developed countries, it hasn’t quite caught on yet.  In Europe for example, people don’t put nearly the emphasis on McDonald’s as they do here in the States.  One reason for an under appreciation of fast food in Europe is likely the lack of the “eating food quickly” concept in their culture.  In Italy, for example, mealtime is a family ritual, which often takes up a couple of hours, nothing to be disgraced by a five minute feast of fatty meat and cheese.  The lifestyle is also totally different in places such as France.  The workday is structured as to leave time in the day for a lengthy meal.  Many employers shut down the business for three to four hours during midday to go and have a huge meal, and take a nap.  There is no “don’t have time to eat” rush feeling when the work day is so relaxed.  For whatever reason, fast food remains and in my opinion will continue to remain an American phenomenon.  While I believe the future of fast food will be healthier, due to growing trends, the concept of the five minute meal will always remain uniquely American.

American Dining Overseas

Hamburger is a German word, French fries aren’t French, and pizza is clearly an American adaptation of an Italian dish.  In the modern world, it is very difficult to put identify a food with one particular culture.  However, if you go to a Chinese restaurant or a Mexican place, you can easily predict what is on the menu.  I have often thought about what an “American” restaurant would serve overseas.  When I’ve asked this to people, they don’t hesitate to name some fast food restaurant, or say “burgers and fries.”  Even before this assignment, I knew there was a deeper meaning to American food.  So, let’s say for a moment that I am opening up a chain of American restaurants throughout Europe.  What would be on the menu?

            First, I would serve a dish rich in tradition in America, turkey.  Turkey is associated with holiday feasts in the U.S. and seems to be quintessentially American.  We love roasted turkey, turkey and swiss sandwiches, and the comparatively healthy turkey burger.  Keeping with America’s love of poultry, I would also serve many fried chicken dishes.  Fried chicken is the heart of the cuisine in the southern states, which are some of the most patriotic in the nation.  One example of a fried chicken based dish is buffalo wings.  To me there is nothing more American than a fried chicken wing drenched in sauce so hot that it hurts.  It is a necessity that a good American restaurant overseas has wings and a wide variety of sauces.  Buffalo sauce was named after Buffalo, New York, a quintessential northern city, while fried chicken is a southern staple.  This makes buffalo wings an uniquely American dish that encompasses more than one region of the U.S.

            Due to the recent health food craze sweeping through America, another item that is imperative to include on an American restaurant’s menu is a variety of soups and salads.  There are a multitude of places in the states that boast a soup and salad combo.  Nearly every deli and even some fast food sandwich shops have this to offer.  The most American of soup and salad would be chicken noodle soup with a house salad with ranch dressing.  This would be a healthy alternative on an American menu.

            After eating a salad, a visitor to an American restaurant overseas can’t leave without treating themselves at least a little bit, after all the U.S. is the one of the most overweight nations in the world.  A dessert would have to be an option on an American restaurant’s menu.  And aside from the quintessential apple pie, the menu would also include pumpkin pie, another favorite of the United States.  Also, birthday traditions are very important in America.  Strange as it sounds, I would like to put homemade cake and vanilla ice cream on the dessert menu.  Nearly nowhere in America can you find this on a restaurant’s menu, yet cake and ice cream is a tradition deeply rooted in American culture. 

W2 Buckeye State Favorite

A toothache and a bunch of dentist bills would never have stopped me from going to my grandma Diehl’s house when I was growing up.  Yes, she would make turkey and chicken salad sandwiches, appetizers, and of course fruit salad and the like.  But the main culinary attraction when I visited my mom’s parents was without a doubt dessert.  Grandma made this dessert that was uniquely Ohio.  Her buckeyes were better than any store bought brands or anything one could find at a bakery.  First, she mixed peanut butter with some sort of cream, which gave it a fluffy, almost marshmallowey texture.  After these were done, she would melt chocolate in a pot on the stove, and proceed to dip the peanut butter morsels into the melted chocolate with a toothpick.

Here is where many go wrong when making buckeyes: they simply dip the peanut butter into the chocolate fondue, and pull it right back up and leave it to cool.  Grandma Diehl will hold the peanut butter ball in the chocolate for much longer, allowing a thicker layer of chocolate onto the outside.  Then she will leave them on a tray for an hour or so to let the chocolate harden.  No, the buckeyes are not perfect circles like the ones in stores, but they make up for it with sheer size and taste.  Grandma’s Ohio delicacies are about the size of a golf ball and taste like a chocolate and peanut butter match that gives Reese’s a run for its money.  No trip to southern Ohio to visit my Grandparents is complete without taking at least two tins of these buckeyes home with me.

W1 North Coast Cuisine

If one asks someone from nearly anywhere in the country their first impressions of Ohio, he or she would almost always be filled with images of Midwestern culture, flat cornfields, rolling hills, and of course, prototypical “American” food.  The Midwest is the last place that is usually associated with food variety.  However, along the shores of Lake Erie lies a place that is filled with as many food cultures as there are people.  I decided to investigate Cleveland’s culinary culture as my first post on this blog.

            “The mistake by the lake” as outsiders so callously refer to the city is home to one of the largest Little Italy neighborhoods in the country.  Along the main road through the neighborhood lies several family owned Italian restaurants and bakeries.  A personal favorite of mine is Guarino’s.   The restaurant is filled with old Italian décor, several photos of the owner’s family, and the smell of homemade pasta salad and chicken parmesan.  Across the street lies Corbo’s Bakery, which is home to the single greatest cannoli that I have ever tasted, and no Little Italy trip is complete without it.

            Both the Polish neighborhoods and the Jewish neighborhoods of the east side also have their own cuisine and ethnic food cultures.  The African American food culture is also very prominent in Cleveland, and even received attention when Anthony Bourdain of the Travel Channel series No Reservations. Another aspect of Cleveland cuisine that differentiates it from the rest of Ohio is the seafood.  Fat Fish Blue, a Cajun style seafood restaurant located downtown has also been visited by prominent food critics and television hosts.

            Perhaps the most unique center of Cleveland food culture is East 4^th Street.  The street is closed to traffic and is covered in brick and stone.  Each restaurant has a European style patio filled with people enjoying one of the many East 4^th establishments.  Zocalo is home to an eighty dollar shot of tequila, and Lola is the work of famous chef, Michael Symon.  A trip down East 4^th, I could easily be fooled into believing I was in downtown Paris or London, but walking a block or two in either direction quickly snaps me back to reality.

            I am by no means claiming that Cleveland’s food culture is any better or more important than that of the rest of Ohio.  I am simply attempting to show everybody the tip of the iceberg that is Cleveland area cuisine.  If you are lucky enough to visit the old rust belt town, make sure to pay special attention to the city’s unique food selections.