1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (155 page)

With such an embarrassment of multi-flavored chip choices lining our supermarket aisles, the original remains a reminder of how a good one ought to taste: fresh, crunchy, homemade, not greasy or full of preservatives, and generously salted. Salt is the true magic of the potato chip’s appeal, in Saratoga and everywhere else.

Further information and recipes:
One Potato, Two Potato
by Roy Finamore and Molly Stevens (2001);
The American Heritage Cookbook
by the editors of American Heritage Publ. Co. (1964);
originalsaratogachips.com
.
Tip:
Other good brands on supermarket and grocery store shelves include Kettle Chips and Cape Cod Potato Chips.

A woman prepares a pie, Pennsylvania Dutch-style.

A dark and mysterious treat, shoofly pie is a blessedly enticing conglomeration of crust; a rich filling of dark, malty molasses, brown sugar, and butter; and a crackly crumb topping. The nicely gooey pie is a specialty of the Pennsylvania Dutch country, that fifteen-county swath of southeastern Pennsylvania populated by Amish, Mennonites, and Moravians. Once upon a time it was served at the Sun Inn, the Moravian-style colonial hotel where George and Martha Washington were believed to have stayed. Built in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1758, the hotel is still open for tours today.

The most popular theory as to how the pie got its name is that its filling was so sweet, flies had to be shooed away as it cooled. A more probable conjecture has it inspired by Shoofly Molasses, a Philadelphia product that was popular in the late 1800s, when pies by that name first appeared. Whatever its American origins, the pie bears more than a passing resemblance to the toothachingly sweet British treacle tart that has been baked since medieval days in Europe (see
listing
). For the Pennsylvania Dutch, it was a staple wintertime dessert—for that time of the year when the fruit supplies had dwindled down to nothing, and the very expensive eggs in the cupboard had been designated for more important uses. In those days, it was strictly eaten for breakfast, the kind of stick-to-your-ribs food that gave you energy to last until lunchtime. Today, it’s almost exclusively a dessert, a delicious oddity and a terrific example of regional American food.

Where:
In Ephrata, PA
, on Fridays, The Green Dragon Farmer’s Market & Auction, tel 717-738-1117,
greendragonmarket.com
.
Retail and mail order:
In Intercourse, PA
, Kitchen Kettle Village, tel 800-732-3538,
kitchenkettle.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking
by William Woys Weaver (1997);
Classic Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking
edited by Betty Groff (2007);
foodnetwork.com
(search shoo-fly pie alton brown);
bonappetit.com
(search shoofly pie lancaster central market).

A Southern favorite.

Although a favorite throughout the South, shrimp ’n grits (using “and” to join these two luscious ingredients marks you as being someone “from away”) is a particular specialty of South Carolina. Sweet, fresh shrimp, preferably local, sprightly with black pepper and a generous dash of cayenne or Tabasco, are sautéed in butter, then nested on a soft and wavy bed of snowy stone-ground grits that have been whipped with butter and black pepper.

As tempting as that classic dish is, it is merely the jumping-off point for Robert Stehling, who, at his delectable restaurant, the Hominy Grill in Charleston, raises this simple soul food standard to the celestial with the triumph he bills as Pan-Fried Shrimp and Cheese Grits.

He cooks stone-ground grits from the local Anson mill in well-salted water, then gently tosses in a creamy combination of grated sharp white Vermont cheddar and Parmesan cheeses, butter, black pepper, and Tabasco. Next, he crowns each portion with tender shrimp that were pan-fried with crisp bits of smoky bacon, sliced mushrooms, chopped garlic, scallions, yet another dose of Tabasco, and a tingling shot of lemon juice. The rose-gold, spicy, pungent result, with its tantalizing textural contrasts, makes an ecstatically bracing breakfast, brunch, or lunch, especially when paired with hot biscuits or cornbread—again, lavishly buttered.

As the Hominy Grill only accepts reservations for parties of six or more, the dish, along with at least a dozen others that are equally good, makes for a very long wait in line, especially for weekend brunches.

Where:
In Charleston, SC
, Hominy Grill, tel 843-937-0930,
hominygrill.com
;
in New Orleans
, Atchafalaya restaurant, tel 504-891-9626,
atchafalayarestaurant.com
;
in Houston
, Zelko Bistro, tel 713-880-8691,
zelkobistro.com
;
in Chapel Hill, NC
, Crook’s Corner, tel 919-929-7643,
crookscorner.com
;
in New York
, Red Rooster, tel 212-792-9001,
redroosterharlem.com
.
Mail order:
For grits,
ansonmills.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Nathalie Dupree’s Shrimp and Grits Cookbook
by Nathalie Dupree and Marion Sullivan (2006);
The Gift of Southern Cooking
by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock (2003);
saveur.com
(search shrimp and grits crooks corner).
Special event:
Shrimp & Grits: The Wild Georgia Shrimp Festival, Jekyll Island, GA, September,
jekyllisland.com/shrimp-and-grits.com
.

Pretzels are among the world’s oldest snacks—historians have evidence of the Roman armies eating them for sustenance, and their name is believed to have come either from the Latin
bracchium
, meaning arm, or the German word for small bread,
brötchen.
Wherever they began, they rose to popularity in German bakeries, and in many northern European countries they remain the symbol of a bread baker’s shop. The brötchen traveled to America via the Palatine German immigrants to Pennsylvania, now known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, with the first commercial pretzel bakery in the U.S. opening in Lititz, Pennsylvania, in 1861; named for its owner, Julius Sturgis, it still turns out delicious, teasingly chewy pretzels.

The soft pretzel’s charms are obvious. Yeasty, crisply firm on the outside but softly yielding inside, it is salty, chewy, neatly hand-held, and brimming with toothsome, sink-your-teeth-in appeal. Crisp pretzels have their own snackable allure, certainly, but the soft versions are difficult to resist and seem like more-serious food, especially when they are fresh and still warm.

Prepared much like bagels (briefly boiled before being salted and baked), soft pretzels have long been a popular street food in American cities. Since the 1820s, street vendors in Philadelphia have made such brisk traffic with them that the city itself is sometimes referred to by locals as The Big Pretzel. There, and in other cities, the soft pretzels with flat, wide arms are customarily topped by a squiggle of yellow mustard. Satisfying as that might be, it lacks the sophistication of the German way, which is to split the pretzels and spread the insides with plenty of sweet butter, then to close the top and bottom, sandwich-style.

Where:
In Philadelphia
, Miller’s Twist in the Reading Terminal Market,
millerstwist.com
.
Retail and mail order:
In Lititz, PA
, Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, tel 717-626-4354,
juliussturgis.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Classic Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking
edited by Betty Groff (2007);
The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home
by Nick Zukin and Michael Zusman (2013);
epicurious.com
(search hot soft pretzels; new york pretzels).

Honored for its sumptuous, quintessentially crabby crabmeat,
Callinectes sapidus
is the famed blue crab that flourishes along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and around the coast of Florida, to the Gulf of Mexico. The best, most
elegant crab in the world, its satiny lump meat is delectable in crab cakes or just out of its shell at a spicy Southern crab boil. But blue crabs reach their true apotheosis as youngsters, when they outgrow their shells. Bursting out to develop larger quarters for themselves, they become, for a brief span, the celestial treats known as soft-shell crabs, an American specialty only occasionally encountered in parts of Europe.

Prime season for these silky, gentle crustaceans is mid-spring, when the soft-shell squirmers are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. A light sautéing in butter turned a golden nut-brown (known in French as
beurre noisette
) and a dash of lemon juice is all that’s needed to add a warm and sunny sprightliness to the gently meaty, deep-sea essence of the tiny crabs, although a showering of toasted, thinly shaved almonds cannot go amiss. With great prudence and restraint, they can also be lightly fried after being tossed in salted and peppered flour, a method that adds an enticing edge of crispness to the tender meat.

Because there is just a matter of minutes, at most an hour, between the crab’s bursting its shell and forming a new one—a period when it is considered a “peeler” or a “shedder”—crabmen look for a telltale red crack that develops close to the crab’s back legs just before it molts. Gathered into “floats” or tanks and left in the water, the crabs are then picked up the second they lose their shells, before new ones begin to develop. In Louisiana, crabmen don’t wait for the crabs to molt but actually “bust” the shells by hand; the delectable results are featured on upscale menus as “busters,” each a tiny, quivering, translucent dream of a crab that gets only about a five-minute gilding in butter, then a light showering of minced parsley and lemon juice.

As the season wears on, the so-called soft-shell crabs become much larger, and have begun to develop the thin new shells that classify them as “buckrams.” These lend themselves satisfactorily to heavier breading and a quick deep-frying in a light vegetable oil, and are ideally served as sandwiches on toasted soft buns with plenty of tartar sauce and coleslaw to keep things moist.

Where:
In Boston
, B&G Oysters, tel 617-423-0550,
bandgoysters.com
;
in Halethorpe, MD
, Cravin’ Crabs, tel 410-636-2722,
cravincrabs.com
;
in New York and Santa Monica
, Michael’s,
michaelsnewyork.com
,
michaelssantamonica.com
;
in New York
, Barchetta, tel 212-255-7400,
barchettanyc.com
; The Clam, tel 212-242-7420,
theclamnyc.com
;
in New Orleans
, Clancy’s, tel 504-895-1111,
clancysneworleans.com
; Bayona, tel 504-525-4455,
bayona.com
;
in Houston
, Ninfa’s, tel 713-228-1175,
ninfas.com
;
in Yountville, CA
, The French Laundry, tel 707-944-2380,
frenchlaundry.com
.
Further information and recipes:
North Atlantic Seafood
by Alan Davidson (2012);
The French Laundry Cookbook
by Thomas Keller (1999);
saveur.com
(search panfried softshell crabs with garlic-herb butter);
nytimes.com
(search crunchy soft-shell crab recipe).

Golden fried pillows of crisp yeast dough drizzled with honey, sopaipillas are the stuff of sweet dreams. Versions appear throughout Latin America (in Argentina a sopaipilla is actually a deep-fried tortilla), and Texas takes pride in these puffy treats, too; for a time the Texas House of Representatives designated sopaipillas the state’s official pastry. The airiest and lushest of the lot can be found in Albuquerque and other
parts of New Mexico, where they are thought to have been developed a few hundred years ago. And they are a fitting example of New Mexico’s melting-pot cuisine, an amalgam of foods and flavors informed by Native Americans, Hispanics, and a mix of early travelers on the Santa Fe Trail.