Sunday, July 25, 2010
What the great ate
Posted by Max Brantley on Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 8:03 AM
I got an e-mail yesterday from Mark Jacob, a former newspaper colleague who's now deputy metro editor of the Chicago Tribune. He and his brother Matt, North Little Rock natives, have written a new book, “What the Great Ate: A Curious History of Food and Fame.”
You can read more about the book at its website. But here's a taste of the food foibles of the famous and infamous they've chronicled:
* When Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was in U.S. custody, he demanded Raisin Bran Crunch instead of Froot Loops.* Elvis Presley once flew more than 800 miles just to eat a sandwich. But what a sandwich: The “Fool’s Gold” served by a Denver area restaurant was an entire loaf of Italian bread hollowed out and stuffed with peanut butter, grape jelly, and a pound of bacon.
* Actress Angelina Jolie praised a Cambodian delicacy as a “high-protein snack food.” It was otherwise known as cockroaches.
* Maya Lin came up with her concept for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial when she fashioned a model out of mashed potatoes in a Yale University cafeteria.
* Actor Paul Newman was so obsessed with the perfect salad dressing that during a dinner date at a restaurant, he carried his salad into the men’s room, washed it clean and returned to the table to re-dress it himself.
* Astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich into space in 1965.
Sounds like fun.
Comments (5)
Showing 1-5 of 5
When checking out the website for this book, I was saddened to see that Matthew Jacob lists foie gras as one of his favorite foods. Foie gras is banned in some countries because of its cruel practice of force feeding ducks and geese with a metal pipe down their throats. I hope he will reconsider and select more humane choices. http://www.nofoiegras.org/
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What Mark Swaney said last night: Moving! End the death penalty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahSAdWx9Ss…
Sorry, Whatta, you're all wet on that one. Yes, the ducks and geese flap their wings and appear agitated during "force-feeding"--because it's the way they've *always* been fed by their parents and they love it! Look at *any* baby bird being fed. Their esophagi are cuticle-lined, precisely to accommodate this method of feeding--no matter whether it's done by their parents or humans.
Those ducks and geese a live single year of a very pampered existence, happily fattening up their livers in preparation for migration, as all such naturally migratory birds do--even domesticated ones--but they will not ever have to migrate, since they are killed for food after that first year.
Next you'll be wanting us to stop eating eggs, for PETA's sake!
Now, back to the subject.
Saddam's choice of Raisin Bran over Froot Loops? I'd make the same choice.
Elvis' peanut butter-grape jelly-bacon on a hollowed-out bun? Why not, only I'd just make one myself instead getting on a plane to have it made for me.
Angelina's "high-protein snack food"? Yup, not only cockroaches but also crickets, locusts and almost anything with six or eight legs--including crawfish, shrimp, lobster and crab, etc.
Wonder what movie Ms Lin had been watching--something about an Encounter, perhaps?
Now, for my taste, no salad dressing beats oil and vinegar with salt and pepper, but I'd take Mr Newman's dressings over any others, if I couldn't have that.
Corned beef in space? Sounds like the title of a Mel Brooks movie.
Afraid you are grossly incorrect widj. Suggest you do some reading on the subject. Here's a starter for you:
Foie gras, the French term for "fatty liver," is the product of extreme animal cruelty. It is the swollen, diseased liver of ducks and geese who are force-fed just up until the point of death before being slaughtered. Birds suffer tremendously, both during and after the force-feeding process, as their physical condition rapidly deteriorates. In just a few weeks, their livers swell up to ten times their normal size, and the birds can scarcely stand, walk, or even breathe. At this point, they are slaughtered, and their livers are peddled as a "gourmet" delicacy.
Feel free to take a look at the website I posted earlier. It is not a PETA site. You can also Google foie gras and find many sites with horrific pictures of this barbaric practice that is banned in several countries. The animals are confined to extremely small cages where they can barely turn around or even move. Do some research. A metal pipe being shoved into their mouths is a far cry from the way they are fed by their mothers.
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