1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (151 page)

The cut inner white surfaces of the bread are lightly brushed with olive oil, and then the sandwich construction begins. Layerings of firm, fatty, pungently peppered and garlicked Italian salami and rose-pink slabs of cooked ham alternate with sharp provolone cheese and, unless declined, abundant minced garlic. The real magic is supplied by slathers of olive oil and layers of finely chopped vegetable salads—green Sicilian olives and red pimientos, and a rainbow of vinegar-and-olive-oil-dressed pickled vegetables such as cauliflower, red and green peppers, carrots, and white onions, all seasoned with oregano, more garlic, and a verdant toss of parsley. The oil will deliciously seep into the bread as the sandwich is firmly pressed together, somewhat in the manner of Provence’s
pan bagnat
(see
listing
).

Cut into quarters, the muffaletta—or “little muff”—is a lusciously leaky indulgence, and a meal best eaten with a bib of paper napkins.

Where:
In New Orleans
, Central Grocery, tel 504-523-1620,
centralgroceryneworleans.com
; Napoleon House, tel 504-524-9752,
napoleonhouse.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Cooking Up a Storm
by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker (2008);
allrecipes.com
(search muffaletta sandwich; olive salad for muffalettas; real n’awlins muffaletta).

Cool and airy and fragrant with rum, sherry, or brandy (alone or in any combination), Nesselrode pie is a deliciously frothy example of culinary influence. Essentially a cloud-light Bavarian cream mounded into a pie shell, the dessert is named after one Karl Vasilyevich, aka Count Nesselrode, a Russian diplomat who was the son of a German count of the Holy Roman Empire. The highlight of his distinguished nineteenth-century career, spent furthering Russia’s interests in Europe, was negotiating
the Treaty of Paris after the Crimean War.

In all, Nesselrode was a highly unlikely source for culinary inspiration, and credit doubtless belongs to his head chef, a man named Mouy. Nevertheless, Nesselrode will forever be associated with a genre of chestnut-flavored sweets, ethereally beguiling and, though now rare, once virtually ubiquitous. Arguably, the best of these is the Nesselrode pie: a chestnut custard cream mixed with candied fruits, currants, golden raisins, and whipped cream. The pudding became popular in the sweet shops of France and England, eventually making its way across the ocean and gaining fame in the 1920s as a Christmas dessert in New York restaurants. By the 1950s, it had somehow become a particular favorite in seafood restaurants, although it was still a hit in many of the era’s other upscale restaurants, including Lindy’s and Longchamps.

The Nesselrode and a variety of other souffléd “chiffon” pies were also the specialty of one Mrs. Hortense Spier, of Hortense Spier Pies, on the Upper West Side of New York City. She sold desserts to restaurants all over Manhattan in the 1940s and ’50s, but her biggest triumph was her Nesselrode filling—an especially voluptuous creation of Bavarian cream spiked with chestnuts and lots of candied fruits, chocolate shavings, and rum, all inflated to sublimity with beaten egg whites and clouds of whipped cream. Spier’s children took over her bakery after her death in 1934, but by 1968 even her descendants were gone—and, sadly, the pies along with them. A sentimental favorite of home bakers with a taste for nostalgia, it only occasionally appears on restaurant menus.

Where:
In Orangeburg, NY
, at Christmastime, Le Gateau Suisse, tel 845-365-2194,
legateausuisse.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The New York Times Cookbook
edited by Craig Claiborne (1990);
New York Cookbook
by Molly O’Neill (1992);
thefoodmaven.com
(search nesselrode);
savour-fare.com
(search nesselrode);
nytimes.com
(search de gustibus nesselrode).

It wasn’t too long after the Pilgrims landed near Plymouth Rock, in the winter of 1620, that they looked around for something hot to eat. And it was probably not too long after that that they encountered, either on their own or with help from the Native Americans, the delicious bivalves common to New England’s shores. The clams were cooked in covered pots of water over an open flame—the pot being key, as some claim the word
chowder
comes from the French term
chaudière
, meaning an iron cooking vessel.

Whatever the origins of its name, clam chowder is one of the earliest and most iconic of American dishes. The New England style, first referred to in print around 1730, was based on a water broth, but the creamy concoction we now think of as New England clam chowder was already favored at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Since then, its basic formula remains largely unchanged: a stew enriched with diced salt pork, tender flecks of sweet onions, and nicely substantial chunks of potato, all offsetting briny clams gentled with milk.

By the end of the century, a few regional variations had sprung up. Some cooks added
chopped fish or crushed crackers or (quite wisely) butter; a thinner, milkier version can be found in Rhode Island’s chowder, still strong and delicious. The creamy, aromatic soup is still sacred in New England, celebrated with chowder societies, competitions, festivals, and boat races.

For the fullest flavor, the majestic quahog (pronounced CWAH-hog), a hard-shell clam larger than three inches in diameter, is hard to beat. Too tough to be eaten raw, it cooks slowly and long, adding a delicious zest to chowders. (Quahogs measuring less than two inches in diameter are considered littlenecks; between two and three inches, they’re called cherrystones. Both are tender and best eaten raw.)

Where:
In Plymouth, MA
, Wood’s Seafood, tel 508-746-0261,
woodsseafoods.com
;
in Boston and environs
, Jasper White’s Summer Shack,
summershackrestaurant.com
;
in Lincolnville, ME
, The Lobster Pound, tel 207-789-5550,
lobsterpoundmaine.com
;
in New York
, Pearl Oyster Bar, tel 212-691-8211,
pearloysterbar.com
; The Clam, tel 212-242-7420,
theclamnyc.com
; Adler, tel 212-539-1900,
adlernyc.com
; Grand Central Oyster Bar, 212-490-6650,
oysterbarny.com
;
in Brooklyn
, Grand Central Oyster Bar Brooklyn, tel 347-294-0596,
oysterbarbrooklyn.com
;
in Seattle
, The Walrus and the Carpenter Oyster Bar, tel 206-395-9227,
thewalrusbar.com
;
in Toronto
, Oyster Boy, tel 416-534-3432,
oysterboy.ca
.
Further information and recipes:
Jasper White’s Cooking from New England
by Jasper White (1998);
The Oyster Bar Cookbook
by Raymond Schilcher (1989);
foodnetwork.com
(search new england clam chowder lagasse).
Special event:
Great Chowder Cook-Off, Newport, RI, June,
newportwaterfrontevents.com
.

The tempting spoils of a successful clam dig.

Describing clams as “the treasure hid in the sand,” Elder William Brewster thanked God for the food that saw the Pilgrims through that first difficult winter in the Massachusetts Bay Colony—but even those fortunates who don’t have to rely solely on the sea-breezy bivalves for nourishment may well thank the heavens for their existence.

Although there are clams of many types in various parts of the United States and the world, none are so brazenly bracing as those dug out of muddy shorelines along the North Atlantic Ocean, from Maine to New Jersey. The very essence of an East Coast summer lies in these salty, oozily silky
Mercenaria mercenaria
; farther south, clams seem to lose their diamond sparkle and intense flavor, and shellfish lovers are better off switching to crabs.

The clams are best eaten icily cold and raw, slurped right off the half-shell without interference from jazzed-up cocktail sauces or anything more than a trickle of fresh lemon juice and, intermittently, a few little round oyster crackers to help refresh the palate. The deepest pleasure seems to come from eating them outdoors, as close as possible to the ocean. Never mind about that table service—in contrast to the
more serious, elegant oyster, these mollusks just seem to invite informality.

With their high content of protein and zinc, both the petite littlenecks (450 to a bushel) and the slightly larger cherrystones (300 to 325 to a bushel) can be cooked up into many tempting dishes, from clams casino (see
listing
) to
spaghetti alle vongole.
Technically, all hard-shells fall into the general category of quahogs, but that name is generally reserved for the largest (125 to a bushel) hard-shell clams, so tough they are relegated to New England and Manhattan chowder pots (see listings
here
and
here
). These are delicious options, but none compares with the raw, unadorned treatment that requires careful work with a clam knife or oyster knife; the clams’ white to stone-gray shells can shut tightly, hence the expression “to clam up.”

Where:
In Essex, MA
, Woodman’s of Essex, tel 800-649-1773,
woodmans.com
;
in Ipswich, MA
, Clam Box, tel 978-356-9707,
ipswichma.com/clambox
;
in Boston and environs
, Jasper White’s Summer Shack,
summershackrestaurant.com
;
in Wellfleet, MA
, Mac’s Seafood, tel 800-214-0477,
macsseafood.com
;
in New York
, The Lobster Place at Chelsea Market, tel 212-255-5672,
lobsterplace.com
; The John Dory Oyster Bar, tel 212-792-9000,
thejohndory.com
; Grand Central Oyster Bar, tel 212-490-6650,
oysterbarny.com
; Mary’s Fish Camp,
marysfishcamp.com
;
in Brooklyn
, Grand Central Oyster Bar Brooklyn, tel 347-294-0596,
oysterbarbrooklyn.com
;
in Greenport, NY
, Claudio’s Clam Bar, tel 631-477-1889,
claudios.com
;
in Nassawadox, VA
, The Great Machipongo Clam Shack, tel 757-442-3800,
thegreatmachipongoclamshack.com
;
in Santa Barbara and Ventura, CA
, Brophy Bros. Restaurant and Clam Bar at two locations,
brophybros.com
.
Retail and mail order:
In Belfast, ME
, Young’s Lobster Pound, tel 207-338-1160,
youngslobsterpound.webs.com
.
Further information and recipes:
North Atlantic Seafood
by Alan Davidson (2012);
Special events:
Yarmouth Clam Festival, July,
clamfestival.com
; for other events in the U.S. and Canada,
weloveclams.com
(click Festivals).

As ageless as Cleopatra, and perhaps a bit more beloved, America’s favorite chocolate cookie celebrated its centennial birthday on March 6, 2012. One hundred years after its initial release, this triumph of the Nabisco division
of Kraft Foods still brings double-decker pleasure to children and grown-up cookie lovers, who famously enjoy the treat in a variety of ways.

All cherish the crackling crispness and toasty chocolate flavor of its cookie parts, fun to bite into when the sandwich is eaten intact, with the creamy, soft, and sugary white filling gentling the cookies’ flavor and texture. Some, in an effort to prolong the pleasure, take the sandwich apart, the better to enjoy the filling as an intensely sugary treat. Some treat the cookies to a dip in a glass of cold milk—quick enough so that they don’t dissolve and drown, but still effective in softening the cookies and imparting that delicious Oreo quality to the milk itself.

Not content with simply nibbling Oreos out of hand, fans are also incorporating them into recipes for piecrusts, cookies, and more. Crushed to fine crumbs with a rolling pin, the Oreo can lend crunchiness to a scoop of ice cream or a full-fledged sundae. (Indeed, the cookie has inspired its very own ice-cream flavor in cookies ’n cream, seen in innumerable ice-cream shops and freezer aisles the world over.)

The cookie was invented in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood in 1912, in the building that now houses the Chelsea Market, and the name Oreo seems most likely to have come from the Greek
oreo
, meaning beautiful or nicely done. Although the lacy embossing on the cookie’s surface has been redesigned several times, it still follows the original concept: a wreath centered around the word
Oreo.
But the cookie’s name has been altered through the years, from the original Oreo Biscuit to the Oreo Sandwich, to the Oreo Creme Sandwich and, since 1976, to the Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie. By any name, it seems likely to retain its “lick and dunk” mystique for at least one hundred years more.