1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (159 page)

For first-rate tuna salad, the best choice is solid albacore, packed in light oil that won’t fight with the mild flavor of mayonnaise. Well drained on paper towels before being gently broken up with a fork, the tuna should be mixed with finely diced celery, and possibly minced parsley, dill, chives, or tarragon for an airy hint of freshness. It gets a light fork tossing with a dash of lemon juice, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and a healthy dab of mayonnaise, perhaps with a dab of Dijon mustard. Mixing it gently will avoid the matted-down effect that mars the salad in cheap coffee shops, where tuna is ground to oblivion in food processors.

Mayonnaise, by the way, means Hellmann’s (or Best Foods in the West), and the salad should be piled onto good-quality American-style bread, like Pepperidge Farm Original White, or onto thinly sliced light multigrain bread, lightly toasted and spread with a little extra mayo. Add a leaf of a soft lettuce like Boston, or a more sophisticated sprig of peppery watercress if you like, but skip the tomato as its juices mess up the works in most instances.

Two New York classics that offer different but equally delicious versions are Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop, where a counter seat allows viewing of the sandwich’s preparation, and Elephant & Castle, where a spread of guacamole adds luster.

Where:
In New York
, Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop, tel 212-675-5096,
eisenbergsnyc.com
; Elephant & Castle, 212-243-1400,
elephantandcastle.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
, 13th edition, by Marion Cunningham (1996);
hellmanns.com
(click Recipes, then search extra special tuna);
epicurious.com
(for alternatives to classic tuna salad sandwiches, search albacore tuna sliders; tuna sandwich provencal; happy fish salad sandwiches).

Once upon a time on Manhattan’s food-obsessed Upper West Side, there was a revered restaurant-delicatessen known as the Tip Toe Inn, an invitation the locals followed in droves. Along with sublime examples of New York Jewish deli nosh—matzo ball soup, pastrami, corned beef, salamis, and the like—it sold a masterpiece of a turkey sandwich that will be well remembered by anyone fortunate enough to have tried it.

The Tip Toe is long closed, but the sandwich its deft countermen put together can be satisfactorily re-created at home (or ordered fairly convincingly at New York’s Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop). It began with wide, thin slices of the best caraway-flecked, crisp-crusted Jewish rye bread. On the bottom slice were piled hand-pulled chunks of moist, freshly roasted dark turkey meat, capped off with paper-thin slices of white breast meat. Then came a padding of cold and crunchy carrot-and-cabbage coleslaw, topped off with a slathering of Russian dressing, that pink-blushed mixture of mayonnaise and Heinz’s chili sauce. The sandwich halves were meant to be held in place by long, frilled toothpicks, but with one bite, the whole lascivious mess came undone—part of its charm, and a
marvelous excuse for tucking a sizeable napkin under one’s chin.

New Yorkers being famous for their complicated customized food orders, there had to be a few options available to those in the know. The classic sandwich could be ordered with white or dark meat only, or the combination could be had as a club sandwich, necessitating the addition of crisp bacon, ripe tomato, and an extra slice of bread. To each diner, his own order; it’s still New York, after all.

Where:
In New York
, Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop, tel 212-675-5096,
eisenbergsnyc.com
.
See also:
Chicken Sandwich
.

Onions have the utmost flavor and moisture when they’re in season.

Of all of the many guises and varieties, both wild and cultivated, of
Allium
, the botanical name for the onion family, the two sweetest are the Vidalia of Georgia and its Hawaiian cousin, the Maui. Both hybrids of the yellow granex onion, they are known for their large, semi-flat shape and their yellow skin and white flesh.

These are eating onions, which is to say they are suitable for eating raw, tossed into salads or onto sandwiches (most especially hamburgers), or chopped up and used as condiments for dishes like chili. But their high water content and gentle flavor also make them great candidates for sautéing. Because of their moisture, they turn out pale golden and rarely blacken. Simmered, they create an earthy, sweet sauce for sautéed meats and fish, or even something as plebeian as boiled potatoes. They are equally good baked whole as a side dish, peeled and topped with a little butter and sprinklings of sea salt.

Geography has played its part in the success of these particular bulbs. The Maui onions flourish in the deep-red volcanic earth on the upper slopes of Mount Haleakalā, Maui’s dormant volcano. Vidalias, on the other hand, thrive in southeastern Georgia. They took hold there in the 1930s, when farmers searching for a new cash crop tried yellow granex bulbs. These turned out unexpectedly sweet and quickly became beloved. By the 1940s, onions from the region were known for their mild flavor, which scientists later discovered was due to the lack of sulfur in the local soil. In 1986, the legislature of Georgia passed the Vidalia Onion Act, confining the term
Vidalia
to onions from specific counties only.

Sweet onions in general tend to have a spring season. Mauis are
ready to be harvested as early as April, with a season that runs to about August, and Vidalias are harvested from late April through mid-June. Thanks to the innovation known in the produce industry as “controlled atmosphere storage,” both onions are generally available until December (although they have more flavor and moisture and are generally less expensive when purchased in season).

Mail order:
Take Home Maui, tel 800-545-6284,
takehomemaui.com
(click Maui Products, then Maui Onions); for Vidalia onions, Morris Farms, tel 800-447-9338,
sweetonion.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Hali‘maile General Store Cookbook
by Beverly Gannon and Bonnie Friedman (2000);
epicurious.com
(search vidalia onion pie; vidalia fritters);
cookstr.com
(search onion soubise).
Special events:
Maui Onion Festival, first weekend in May,
whalersvillage.com
(click Events & Activities); Vidalia Onion Festival, Vidalia, GA, early spring,
vidaliaonionfestival.com
.
Tip:
Vidalia and Maui onions are essentially interchangeable served raw or cooked.

A ripe melon is 92 percent water.

Slurpingly juicy, jolly, and red-fleshed, iced to a thrilling coolness, it’s a happy sort of treat that instantly calls to mind summer festivities like Fourth of July picnics and lazy afternoons on the porch. Although iconically American, watermelon has a long and international history, owing some of its significance on the world food stage to its ability to travel, well encased in its thick, dark-green protective packing of sturdy rind. It’s also not quite a melon, but actually a member of the botanical family Cucurbitaceae, and hence a cousin to the more plebeian cucumber, pumpkin, and squash.

Originating in the subtropical African Kalahari desert thousands of years ago, the fruit is depicted in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back to well before 2000
B.C.
, when it appears to have been placed in the tombs of the dead in hopes of nourishing their spirits in the afterlife. By the tenth century, watermelon had traveled to Asia, and today China is its largest producer. Although the fruit is harvested in forty-four American states and in Mexico, the best examples come from the Southern states with which it is so heavily associated, Florida and Georgia in particular. Of the three hundred or so varieties grown, two to seek out are the Sugar Baby, a dark green, early variety, and the Charleston Gray, a huge, elongated, oval-shaped fruit with pale green marbled skin.

Many passionate watermelon eaters swear that their fruit is best enjoyed sprinkled with a
bit of salt, which theoretically draws out some of the water while imparting a sweet-salty savor to the flesh. Although ambitious chefs have tinkered with refining what is essentially a messy eating process—transforming the brilliant red flesh into balls, cubes, sorbets, and granitas to adorn haute-cuisine menus—the best way to enjoy it is to take a big bite out of a half-moon slice and spit out the seeds—preferably while outdoors or leaning over a sink.

When selecting a watermelon during its prime, April-to-October season, follow three steps: First, look for a firm, symmetrical shape free of bruises and dents; second, lift it to feel if it seems heavy for its volume—it should, as a ripe watermelon will be 92 percent water; third, check to see if the underside has a creamy yellow spot marking where the fruit sat on the ground as it ripened in the sun.

Further information and recipes:
Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking
by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart (2012);
watermelon.org
;
cookstr.com
(search watermelon cooler; water-melon gazpacho; watermelon and red onion salad).
See also:
A Basket of Summer Fruit
;
Hand Melons
.

Among hot cereal devotees, cornmeal, oatmeal, and the ghostly white semolina known as Cream of Wheat may seem like worthy starts to a frigid winter morning, but none have the bracing, rustic texture, aroma, and flavor of old-school Wheatena. Ripe for rediscovery, the king of hot breakfast cereals is a beige-brown, cracked whole-wheat grain meal with a pleasantly nutty taste and a markedly gritty texture. As it simmers away in lightly salted water, it sends forth a hearty perfume—“Wake up and smell the Wheatena” could be as much of an inducement as the lure of brewing coffee, and the cereal has indeed had its share of jingles. Although Popeye memorably relied on spinach for his strength, between 1935 and 1937 the well-muscled sailor admonished young radio listeners, “Wheatena’s me diet, I ax ya to try it, I’m Popeye the Sailor man! Toot. Toot.”

High in iron, calcium, potassium, and fiber, among other nutrients, the down-home cereal was a New York invention, first ground and named on Manhattan’s Mulberry Street, in 1879, by one George H. Hoyt, and now produced in Ohio by Homestat Farm Ltd., along with other old cereal favorites, Maltex and the maple oatmeal, Maypo.

Served in a heated bowl with a generous topping of butter to gloss its grittiness, Wheatena’s stiff porridgey texture is its own humble reward. Some might add milk or cream, although they detract from its heat and chewiness, or sugar or syrup, even though salt and pepper make for more harmonious accents. One decidedly delicious way to eat Wheatena is fried. (This is also a great way to use any leftovers.) The cooked cereal should be spread out in a baking pan to a depth of about one and a half inches and chilled overnight; cut into about two-inch squares, it is then slowly fried golden brown on both sides in hot butter. Crisp bacon slices make the perfect garnish to a dish so good you might want it for lunch

Mail order:
amazon.com.
See also:
Oatmeal
;
Polenta
;
Mamaliga
.