Eating in the 50's

[PILOON]

It's amazing how many regional dishes don't really travel well to other areas of the country. I've lived most of my life in New England, never had biscuits with gravy on them until about 10 years ago. IMHO didn't miss much. Then again, many of the French-Canadians here like poutine, which is french fries with gravy & cheese. Equally yuck in my opinion.

LOL, I'm French Canadian and still have never had POUTINE!
Truthfully just looking at that mess turns my stomach.

Now I love cheeses* and good fries** but combined with greasy gravy---Yuck!

* and sharper the better
** not McD's either

 

[Bird]

The first time I heard of putting gravy on French fries was in Canada enroute to Alaska; pretty good eating. I think I'm one of the world's least finicky eaters; not much that I don't like. HOWEVER . . . . I've been a peanut addict all my life, but only in recent years did I hear of BOILED peanuts. I didn't know peanuts could be made inedible, but that does it; horrible stuff that promptly went into the garbage.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

This has to be one of the most "local" of the "local" dishes, but thought I would mention it anyway. At our hometown cafe, they had a "special" based on the particular likes of one of their regular customers, "J.C". It was known as the "J.C. Special", oddly enough.

It was two small hamburgers on a platter, with a dip of mashed potatoes between them, and the whole thing topped with brown gravy. Believe it or not, it was very good, and I have eaten a lot of them. As I recall, there was no lettuce or tomatoes on the hamburgers, so it was basically meat, bread and potatoes covered with gravy. Yum, yum!

 

[scdeerslayer]

The first time I heard of putting gravy on French fries was in Canada enroute to Alaska; pretty good eating. I think I'm one of the world's least finicky eaters; not much that I don't like. HOWEVER . . . . I've been a peanut addict all my life, but only in recent years did I hear of BOILED peanuts. I didn't know peanuts could be made inedible, but that does it; horrible stuff that promptly went into the garbage.

Most people don't know how to make good boiled peanuts. Either they use way too much salt, they try to add some other flavor to it, or they let them sit in the water after they are done. I've never seen any commercial boiled peanut place have good boiled peanuts. Also, those large white peanuts don't make good boiled peanuts. They are fine for roasted/parched peanuts, but for really good boiled peanuts you need the little red peanuts.

I help my father grow peanuts every year for the specific purpose of having boiled peanuts. When we harvest them we eat lots and lots of boiled peanuts for several weeks, then the rest get put in the freezer. Usually on Saturday nights I get some of the peanuts out of the freezer and warm them up to eat.

 

[dmccarty]

The wife, one of the kids, and myself love boiled peanuts. I don't care if they are from a place selling on the side of the road or from the brand in a can. :thumbsup::licking::licking::licking:

The kid that likes boiled peanuts will eat a whole can at one time. What is odd is that this kid is one of the pickiest eaters I have ever seen, yet the kid will pig out on boiled peanuts. :confused3:

We have Poke Weed all over the place. I think I see some of the young plants starting to go right now. I have not eaten the stuff and the poisonous side of it is a bit worrisome. It is one of those foods where you wonder if the first person that tried it lived and how they figured out how to prepare the food so it would not kill them. How hungry were they to keep trying the food that they knew would poison them?

There is a creek near us named Poke Weed. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[3930dave]

LOL, I'm French Canadian and still have never had POUTINE!
Truthfully just looking at that mess turns my stomach.

Now I love cheeses* and good fries** but combined with greasy gravy---Yuck!

* and sharper the better
** not McD's either

My theory is that it was invented by under-employed cardiologists !

Rgds, D

 

[crackerjack222]

I remember the first time I had pizza. Don't remember the year but had to be late 40's. I went with a friend and his family to San Antonio. His uncle had just come back home from military service and knew about pizza and that there was a little place just outside SA that had it. I thought they were saying "piece of pie" and I wondered why we were going to make a meal out of pie.
At our house in town we kept chickens and sometimes turkeys, a milk cow or two, and at the farm outside town had cattle and later, pigs. The butchered meat was kept in a "locker" at the next town over. We sometimes churned butter in a large glass jar with a wooden hand cranked paddle. Made ice cream in a wooden bucket filled with ice and salt while we hand cranked a wooden paddle. When we took a hog in to be butchered, we would take the hog head to a lady who would boil it overnite then make tamales with what came off. Chickens were "dispatched" by wringing their neck then letting them flop, dipped in boiling water then plucked.
"Good ole Days"??? I am not so sure, but kids today miss so much of what real life is about. They have never milked a cow, taken a live chicken from pen to table, harvested from a garden, (much less worked a garden).... They have never shot a dove, deer or quail and ate it. They have never treed a coon with dogs.....