Golden era restaurants & cuisine of the era

[2jakes]

I never checked until now & noticed that cracklins are not the same as pork rinds or pork skins which are
made from just the skin of the hog.
Cracklins are the skin with the layer of fat beneath.

 

[tonyb]

We have a place across the street here that sells $12 toasted cheese sandwiches. Same deal.

Seriously? How shmancy a joint is this place?

Space at the table costs the restaurateur, so he or she has to charge some minimal amount per menu offering. But 12 bucks for a grilled cheese sandwich had better be some kinda exceptional grilled cheese sandwich. Me, I'd have a hard time offering such a thing while maintaining a straight face. If I had to charge a minimum of 12 bucks to keep the doors open, I'd serve something a bit more substantial than that.

 

[1961MJS]

My experience has it that the chewier cuts of meat are the more flavorful, generally, but you gotta cook 'em a long time. Hence barbecue and stews and such.

....

Now where the hell are we to find a decent head cheese?

Jeez Tony, you're in the hat business, should you be using the terms "decent" and "head cheese" together?

I don't speak much Spanish and ordered the special in a Mexi Diner in Wichita. I got Chitlins in Green Chili sauce. The sauce was GREAT, so great that I even ate 2/3 of the chitlins. I really wish I could remember what that was callled so I don't accidentally get it again.

Later

 

[Edm1]

We who grew up in the south just ate greens...turnip, collard etc. the only thing I remember that was eaten by black people that white people didn't regularly eat was chitterlings. And some may have but not I. Southern food was just southern. Didn't matter what race you were. Now I have seen people selling raccoon meat on the side of the road, but my dad always told me it was really greasy.

 

[Bamaboots]

2jakes, I'm just going by what my maternal grandparents told me, where the only real distinction was whether the chitlins were "hand slung or stump whooped". I think the point is nothing went to waste. I remember my grandfather showing me the spot where they used to string the intestines in a clear creek to allow the water to run through them.

Chitlins, cracklins, pork rinds or chicharrones, it's all pork to me.

 

[Bamaboots]

My experience has it that the chewier cuts of meat are the more flavorful, generally, but you gotta cook 'em a long time. Hence barbecue and stews and such.

Tripe? Prepared well (menudo, anyone?) can be quite tasty.

I make ham hocks and beans every now and then. Excellent, if I do say so myself.

My dear old mother, a child of the Depression, loves pickled pig's feet. And head cheese. A fellow in Seattle by the name of Davis made the stuff and sold it out of his house on Rainier Avenue. Mom was a regular customer. I believe old Mr. Davis has gone to the big kitchen in the sky. Now where the hell are we to find a decent head cheese?

tonyb, still a few spots as we say, "down south, ya'll".

 

[HudsonHawk]

Jeez Tony, you're in the hat business, should you be using the terms "decent" and "head cheese" together?

I don't speak much Spanish and ordered the special in a Mexi Diner in Wichita. I got Chitlins in Green Chili sauce. The sauce was GREAT, so great that I even ate 2/3 of the chitlins. I really wish I could remember what that was callled so I don't accidentally get it again.

Later

Mondongo?

 

[HudsonHawk]

tonyb, still a few spots as we say, "down south, ya'll".

I love ham hocks and beans. It's one of my favorite things.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Seriously? How shmancy a joint is this place?

Space at the table costs the restaurateur, so he or she has to charge some minimal amount per menu offering. But 12 bucks for a grilled cheese sandwich had better be some kinda exceptional grilled cheese sandwich. Me, I'd have a hard time offering such a thing while maintaining a straight face. If I had to charge a minimum of 12 bucks to keep the doors open, I'd serve something a bit more substantial than that.

It's one of these hipster joints -- they sell "New American Food," so I suppose the cheese is made from milk artisanally extracted from the carefully-exfoliated teats of Brahmin cows by a velvet-gloved urban farmer. They also serve liquor, and from the crowds I see coming out at night, they make some money doing so.

 

[HudsonHawk]

It's one of these hipster joints -- they sell "New American Food," so I suppose the cheese is made from milk artisanally extracted from the carefully-exfoliated teats of Brahmin cows by a velvet-gloved urban farmer. They also serve liquor, and from the crowds I see coming out at night, they make some money doing so.

I'd need to be pretty tuned up to give 12 skins for a grilled cheese sammich.

 

[Bamaboots]

HH, I'm with you. Lizziemaine, I keep looking but have yet to find one as articulate as you.

 

[tonyb]

I got hitched 15 years ago, and gave up the sauce eight years back, so I don't go out nearly as much as I did back in my earlier days, when, truth be known, I was quite the carouser.

But when I do venture out I am left shaking my head at what people pay for drinks these days. Seriously, people, how the hell can you afford seven or eight bucks for a watered-down well drink? Especially considering you gotta put at least three of 'em in your belly before you know you've had any at all.

Used to smoke, too. I see that, depending on locale, cigarettes now run at least six bucks a pack, and upwards of ten in some places. (You can get the generics for less, but you gotta be pretty hard up for a nicotine fix to buy those smokes.)

That's one "Golden Era" thing I don't miss: Smoke-filled restaurants. People who knew me back when I put away at least a couple of packs a day and felt put out by anyone suggesting I not smoke wherever the hell I felt like smoking would hoot to hear me say that now. But whenever I set foot in one of the few remaining indoor spaces where smoking is still permitted, I think, wow, that smells awful. And to think that most every eating and drinking establishment smelled that way not so long ago.

 

[tonyb]

tonyb, still a few spots as we say, "down south, ya'll".

I'd bet that fewer than 10 percent of Northerners know what head cheese is, leastwise those younger than, say, 60.

How 'bout down your way? Is it still common enough for the average guy on the street to be familiar with it?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I got hitched 15 years ago, and gave up the sauce eight years back, so I don't go out nearly as much as I did back in my earlier days, when, truth be known, I was quite the carouser.

But when I do venture out I am left shaking my head at what people pay for drinks these days. Seriously, people, how the hell can you afford seven or eight bucks for a watered-down well drink? Especially considering you gotta put at least three of 'em in your belly before you know you've had any at all.

We serve beer and wine at the theatre, and I've set the prices specifically to discourage drinking-to-drunkenness. You can get a twelve-ounce bottle of Narragansett for $4, which is the least expensive alcohol offered, and you'll have to spend quite a bit of coin if you want to get belligerent on that.

We do get occasional drunks, who I have to throw out when they get obvious, but usually they've had a couple at one of our other watering holes in town before getting to the show.

As for head cheese, we have it here in New England, but it's called "souse loaf," which I never get tired of saying.

 

[tonyb]

I remain amused by those who would distinguish between drinkers and people who indulge in other intoxicants by putting the former in the category of "social" imbibers and the latter as people just looking to get high. I recall many a schoolteacher offering that pearl of wisdom back when I was a kid.

But really, even a little bit of alcohol has an effect -- a subtle one, sometimes, but an effect no doubt. And that's why people use it. Social drinkers? Sure, of course. A little booze loosens things up a bit. That is indeed the drug effect. That's the point. And a bit more than a bit can turn some people into people you'd rather not have around. Certainly wouldn't want 'em in the motion picture palace.

A friend of mine, who has since shuffled off, kept a saloon in Seattle. He was compelled by the state to send all his employees to a several-hours-long training session, the object of which was to prevent those workers from "over serving" customers. I asked this friend what would happen if his workers followed the guidelines imparted on them at the training. "I'd be out of business in a week," he said.

But that was a bar -- an unpretentious watering hole frequented by adults who liked things lively but peaceful. The customers wouldn't stand for the sorts of rowdiness encountered at the head-bashing establishments preferred by the younger set. As is often the case, the rules are made to address the exceptional, with the more typical paying the price as well.

 

[2jakes]

2jakes, I'm just going by what my maternal grandparents told me, where the only real distinction was whether the chitlins were "hand slung or stump whooped". I think the point is nothing went to waste. I remember my grandfather showing me the spot where they used to string the intestines in a clear creek to allow the water to run through them.

Chitlins, cracklins, pork rinds or chicharrones, it's all pork to me.

...and nothing is spared but the squeal !

 

[Mr. Godfrey]

I went into the restaurant bar El Cordano in Lima and there was a photo on the wall taken about 100 years before and the only thing that had changed was the barman.

We had not intentionally looked for this place but felt thirsty and was passing the door so looked in and I am glad I wore my fedora, it had a sense of calm and time.

 

[green papaya]

1930's era restaurant

here's another interesting photo with the menu on the window

 

[Fading Fast]

...That's one "Golden Era" thing I don't miss: Smoke-filled restaurants. People who knew me back when I put away at least a couple of packs a day and felt put out by anyone suggesting I not smoke wherever the hell I felt like smoking would hoot to hear me say that now. But whenever I set foot in one of the few remaining indoor spaces where smoking is still permitted, I think, wow, that smells awful. And to think that most every eating and drinking establishment smelled that way not so long ago.

It was only in the '90s that NYC stopped smoking in restaurants and bars (in a series of steps over several years), but while I rationally remember it (as someone who's never smoked, I always hated it) but emotionally I can't believe we ever lived that way. It was disgusting to sit at a table and eat your food with clouds of smoke passing by. And later that night, in your own home, you'd notice that your clothes and hair smelt disgusting.

I sometimes like to fantasize about the Golden Era (I get that in reality it had its own problems - but nothing wrong with day dreaming) and since I know it is a fantasy, I just lift smoking right out and, presto, I live in a smoke-free GE. That said, as much as I hated it at the time - and I did - one adjusts and it wasn't as jarring then as it is now to walk into an indoor space where someone is smoking since we are not at all used to it.

I recently dropped an appliance off to be fixed at a local guy who works out of his apartment and he smokes in it. It was like my body was under attack as it was so jarring - the mixed of stale, accumulated smoke smell and the fresh cloud he was producing when I gave him the appliance was overwhelming. It is incredible to believe that was once normal. I naturally didn't say anything to him, but my God, I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

 

[green papaya]

I remember going to the movie theater as a kid to watch Kung fu sword fighting movies and the guy sitting in front of me would be smoking cigarettes, it was very strong, they didnt have a smoking / non smoking section at this old movie theater in SF

while shopping in grocery stores it was also common to smoke while shopping and throw cigarette butts on the floor and step on them to put them out.