Old Traditional Recipes From The Capital

Revealed: the UK's foodie capital

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Saratoga Springs, New York, A persnickety customer sends back his French fries then highfalutin fare eaten with a fork for being too thick. Crum makes a second, thinner, order. Still too thick for the picky diner. Annoyed, Crum makes the next batch with a little attitude, slicing the potatoes so thin, the crispy things can't possibly be picked up with a fork.

Traveling salesman Herman Lay sold them out of the trunk of his car before founding Lay's Potato Chips, the first nationally marketed brand. Lay's would ultimately merge in with Frito to create the snack behemoth Frito-Lay. Portugal meets meets Italy meets France by way of San Francisco. San Francisco's answer to French bouillabaisse, cioppino cho-pea-no is fish stew with an Italian flair. It's an American food that's been around since the late s, when Portuguese and Italian fishermen who settled the North Beach section of the city brought their on-board catch-of-the-day stew back to land and area restaurants picked up on it.

Cooked in a tomato base with wine and spices and chopped fish whatever was plentiful, but almost always crab , cioppino probably takes its name from the classic fish stew of Italy's Liguria region, where many Gold Rush era fishermen came from. Don't feel bad about going with the "lazy man's" cioppino -- it only means you're not going to spend half the meal cracking shellfish.

Wondering what your future holds? Perhaps its time for a Chinese. Culinary snobs like to look down their holier-than-thou chopsticks at ABC American-born Chinese food, but we're not afraid to stand up for the honor of such North American favorites as General Tso's chicken, Mongolian beef, broccoli beef, lemon chicken, deep-fried spring rolls and that nuclear orange sauce that covers sweet-and-sour anything. As the seminal symbol of all great American-born Chinese grub, however, we salute the mighty fortune cookie. Almost certainly invented in California in the early s origin stories vary between San Francisco, Los Angeles and even Japan , the buttery sweet crescents are now found in Chinese joints around the world That's OK -- the crunchy biscuits are still our favorite way to close out any Chinese meal.

A peanut butter and banana sandwich, Elvis Presley's favorite snack. To each his own, but everybody -- except those afflicted with the dreaded and dangerous peanut allergy and the moms who worry sick about them -- loves a good peanut butter sandwich. First served to clients at Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's sanatorium in Battle Creek, Michigan, peanut paste was improved upon when chemist Joseph Rosefield added hydrogenated vegetable oil and called his spread Skippy. For a rocking alternative, try peanut butter sandwiches the way Elvis Presley liked them: Baked beans popularity in Boston lead to the nickname 'Beantown'.

It's not a cookout, potluck, or the end of a long day in the saddle without a bubbling pot full of them. Just ask the Pioneer Woma n, who waxes rhapsodic about the baked-bean recipe on her site not a version with little weenies, but how fun are they? Yummy and plenty historical. Long before Bostonians were baking their navy beans for hours in molasses -- and earning the nickname Beantown in the process -- New England Native Americans were mixing beans with maple syrup and bear fat and putting them in a hole in the ground for slow cooking.

Favored on the frontier for being cheap and portable, chuck wagon, or cowboy, beans will forever live hilariously in popular culture as the catalyst behind the "Blazing Saddles" campfire scene, which you can review in unabashed immaturity on YouTube. As the imperative on the Orville Redenbacher site urges: It's just one of several Midwestern corn belt towns that vie for the title of Popcorn Capital of the World, but centuries before Orville's obsession aromatically inflated in microwaves or Jiffy Pop magically expanded on stovetops, Native Americans in New Mexico discovered corn could be popped — way back in B.

Americans currently consume about 14 billion liters of popcorn a year ; that's 43 liters per man, woman, and child. Scottish immigrants brought the deep-fry method across the pond, and it was good old Colonel Saunders who really locked in on the commercial potential in when he started pressure-frying chicken breaded in his secret spices at his service station in Corbin, Kentucky, paving the way for Kentucky Fried and all the other fried chickens to come.

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Nuggets, fingers, popcorn, bites, patties -- one of our all-time favorite ways to eat fried chicken is with waffles. And one of our favorite places to eat it is at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. Immortalized in "Pulp Fiction" and "Swingers," the L. Gone are the days when Catholics religiously abstained from eating meat on Fridays, but you'll still find clam chowder traditionally served in some East Coast locales -- not that it reminds anyone of penance these days.

There are time-honored versions of chowder from Maine to Florida, but the most famous and favorite has to be New England style: And there's even Minorcan from around St. The variations on East Coast clam chowder are deliciously numerous. Even the West Coast has a version with salmon instead of pork. With your fistful of oyster crackers ready to dump in, you might stop to wonder: What were the Pilgrims thinking when they fed clams to their hogs?

It was the pre-Columbian Maya who invented tortillas, and apparently the Aztecs who started wrapping them around bits of fish and meat. You have only to go to any Mexican or Tex-Mex place to see what those ancients wrought when someone dipped tortillas "en chile" hence, the name. S'mores -- you can't just have one, the clue's in the name. We'll go you one better on remembrance of things past: Gooey, melty, warm and sweet -- nothing evokes family vacations and carefree camping under the stars quite like this classic American food.

Whether they were first to roast marshmallows and squish them between graham crackers with a bar of chocolate no one seems to know, but the Girl Scouts were the first to get the recipe down in the "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts," transforming many a standard-issue campfire into a quintessential experience. Celebrate sweetly on August It's National S'mores Day. Get those marshmallow sticks sharpened.

Boiled or steamed alive -- animal cruelty some insist -- lobsters practically define a great Down East occasion. Melted butter on knuckle, claw, or tail meat -- we love it simple. But the perfect accompaniment to a salty sea air day in Vacationland would have to be the lobster roll. Chunks of sweet lobster meat lightly dressed with mayo or lemon or both, heaped in a buttered hot dog bun makes for some seriously satisfying finger food. Fabulous finger-licking lobster time in Maine is during shack season, May to October, and every August, when Rockland puts on its annual lobster festival.

Suggested soundtrack for a weekend of shacking: Long before Troy Aikman became pitchman for Wingstop, folks in Buffalo, New York, were enjoying the hot and spicy wings that most agree came into being by the hands of Teressa Bellissimo, who owned the Anchor Bar and first tossed chicken wings in cayenne pepper hot sauce and butter in According to Calvin Trillin, hot wings might have originated with John Young, and his "mambo sauce" -- also in Buffalo. Either way, they came from Buffalo, which, by the way, doesn't call them Buffalo wings. If you think your kitchen table or couch-in-front-of-football represents the extreme in wing eating, think again: If you've had it at Indian Market in Santa Fe or to a powwow or pueblo anywhere in the country, you're probably salivating at the very thought.

Who would think that a flat chunk of leavened dough fried or deep-fried could be so addictive? Tradition says it was the Navajo who created frybread with the flour, sugar, salt, and lard given to them by the government when they were relocated from Arizona to Bosque Redondo, New Mexico, years ago. Frybread's a calorie bomb all right, but drizzled with honey or topped with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, cheese, and lettuce for an Indian taco or all by its lonesome, it's an American Indian staple not to be missed. Pork or beef, slathered or smoked -- we're not about to wade into which is more embraced, what's more authentic, or even what needs more napkins.

There are cook-offs all over the country for your own judging pleasure. But we will admit we're partial to pork ribs. The Rib 'Cue Capital? We're not going to touch that one with a three-meter tong, either. We'll just follow signs of grinning pigs in the South, where the tradition of gathering for barbecues dates to before the Civil War and serious attention to the finer points of pork earn the region the title of the Barbecue Belt.

Outside of the belt, Texas smokes its way to a claim as a barbecue beef epicenter -- check out the 'cue-rich town of Lockhart. And let's not forget Kansas City, where the sauce is the thing. But why debate it when you can just eat it? When tomatoes come into season, there's hardly a better way to celebrate the bounty than with a juicy bacon, lettuce, and tomato.

Bread can be toasted or not, bacon crispy or limp, lettuce iceberg or other but iceberg is preferred for imparting crunch and not interfering with the flavor , and mayo -- good quality or just forget about it.

According to a pie chart seriously from the American Pie Council, apple really is the U. Not to burst the patriotic bubble, but it's not an American food of indigenous origin. Food critic John Mariani dates the appearance of apple pies in the United States to , long after they were popular in England. Apples aren't even native to the continent; the Pilgrims brought seeds. So what's the deal with the star-spangled association? The pie council's John Lehndorff explains: And you're saying Americans know something good enough to be an icon when we eat it, with or without the cheddar cheese or vanilla ice cream on top.

Even the most modest chili has legions of fans. Consider Kit Carson, whose dying regret was that he didn't have time for one more bowl. Or the mysterious "La Dama de Azul," a Spanish nun named Sister Mary of Agreda, who reportedly never left her convent in Spain but came back from one of her astral projections preaching Christianity to Indians in the New World with their recipe for venison chili. Less apocryphally, "chili queens" in s San Antonio, Texas, sold their spicy stew from stands, and the "San Antonio Chili Stand" at the Chicago world's fair secured chili's nationwide fame.

The muffaletta might be the signature sandwich of Crescent City, but the po' boy is the "shotgun house of New Orleans cuisine. The traditional Louisiana sub is said to have originated in , when Bennie and Clovis Martin -- both of whom had been streetcar conductors and union members before opening the coffee shop that legend says became the birthplace of the po' boy -- supported striking streetcar motormen and conductors with food.

Enjoy the beloved everyman sandwich in its seemingly infinite variety the traditional fried oyster and shrimp can't be beat and fight the encroachment of chain sub shops at the annual Oak Street Po-Boy Festiva l each Fall. Have pork and green chiles ever spent such delicious time together?

Green chile stew has been called the queen of the New Mexican winter table, but we don't need a cold winter day to eat this fragrant favorite. We like it anytime -- so long as the Hatch chiles are roasted fresh. Better yet, make the trip to green chile stew country and order up a bowl. Whether you eat it in New Mexico at a table near a kiva fireplace or at your own kitchen table, the aroma and taste are to die for, and the comfort level remarkable on the resurrection scale.

The chocolate chip cookie was invented by American chef Ruth Graves Wakefield in Today the name most associated with the killer cookie might be Mrs. Fields, but we actually have Ruth Wakefield, who owned the Toll House Inn, a popular spot for home cooking in s Whitman, Massachusetts, to thank for all spoon-licking love shared through chocolate chip cookies. Wakefield making her Butter Drop Do cookies when, lacking baker's chocolate, she substituted a cut-up Nestle's semisweet chocolate bar? Or did the vibrations of a Hobart mixer knock some chocolate bars off a shelf and into her sugar-cookie dough?

However chocolate chips ended up in the batter, a new cookie was born. Andrew Nestle reputedly got the recipe from her -- it remains on the package to this day -- and Wakefield got a lifetime supply of chocolate chips. Can you feel the serotonin and endorphins releasing? Cobblers emerged in the British American colonies and remain beloved today. Also charmingly called slump, grunt, and buckle, cobbler got its start with early oven-less colonists who came up with the no-crust-on-the-bottom fruit dish that could cook in a pan or pot over a fire.

They might have been lofting a mocking revolutionary middle finger at the mother country by making a sloppy American version of the refined British steamed fruit and dough pudding. Cobblers become doubly American when made with blueberries, which are native to North America Maine practically has a monopoly on them.

We love blueberries for how they sex up practically any crust, dough, or batter, maybe most of all in cobblers and that other all-American favorite, the blueberry muffin. There are steakhouses all over the country but perhaps none so storied -- with a universally acclaimed steak named for it no less -- as the original Delmonico's in New York.

The first diner called by the French name restaurant, Delmonico's opened in with unheard-of things like printed menus, tablecloths, private dining rooms, and lunch and dinner offerings. Among other firsts, the restaurant served the "Delmonico Steak. Lightly seasoned with salt, basted with melted butter, and grilled over a live fire, it's traditionally served with a thin clear gravy and Delmonico's potatoes, made with cream, white pepper, Parmesan cheese, and nutmeg -- a rumored favorite of Abraham Lincoln's. Naples gave us the first pizza, but the City of Big Shoulders and even bigger pizzas gave us the deep dish.

The legend goes that in , a visionary named Ike Sewell opened Uno's Pizzeria in Chicago with the idea that if you made it hearty enough, pizza, which up till then had been considered a snack, could be eaten as a meal. Whether he or his original chef Rudy Malnati originated it, one of those patron saints of pizza made it deep and piled it high, filling a tall buttery crust with lots of meat, cheese, tomato chunks, and authentic Italian spices.

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Thin-crust pizza made in a brick oven has its place, but if you lust for crust, nothing satisfies quite like Chicago-style. A Northern Mexican snack which has become a firm favorite North of the border. The bane of diets and the boon of happy hours -- could there be a more perfect calorie-dense accompaniment to a pitcher of margaritas? Because it was there that Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya invented nachos when a gaggle of shopping wives of American soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan arrived at the Victory Club restaurant after closing time.

Maitre d'Ignacio improvised something for the gals with what he had on hand, christening his melty creation nachos especiales. From thence they have gone forth across the border, the continent and the world. Philly cheese steak has famous fans -- including former President Barack Obama. It's a sandwich so greasy and hallowed in its hometown that the posture you must adopt to eat it without ruining your clothes has a name: Made of "frizzled beef," chopped while being grilled in grease, the Philly cheese steak sandwich gets the rest of its greasy goodness from onions and cheese American, provolone, or Cheese Whiz , all of which is laid into a long locally made Amoroso bun.

Pat and Harry Olivieri get the credit for making the first cheese steaks originally with pizza sauce -- cheese apparently came later, courtesy of one of Pat's cooks and selling them from their hot dog stand in south Philly. Pat later opened Pat's King of Steaks , which still operates today and vies with rival Geno's Steaks for the title of best cheese steak in town. Hot dogs are a staple of American street food -- sold at carts and stands across the country. Nothing complements a baseball game or summer cookout quite like a hot dog.

For that we owe a debt to a similar sausage from Frankfurt, Germany hence, "frankfurter" and "frank" and German immigrant Charles Feltman, who is often credited with inventing the hot dog by using buns to save on plates. But it was Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker's hot dog stand on Coney Island that turned the hot dog into an icon.

Every Fourth of July since , the very same Nathan's has put on the International Hot Dog Eating Contest current five-time winner Joey Chestnut took the title in , downing 62 hot dogs and buns in the minute face-stuffing. Meanwhile in Windy City, the steamed or water-simmered all-beef Chicago dog Vienna Beef, please is still being "dragged through the garden" and served on a poppy seed bun -- absolutely without ketchup.

Corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing -- the ultimate combination for the Reuben sandwich. Who knew sauerkraut could be so sexy? Was it the late-night inspiration of grocer Reuben Kulakofsky, who improvised the eponymous sandwich in to feed poker players at Omaha's Blackstone Hotel? Or perhaps the brainchild of Arnold Rueben, the German owner of New York's now-defunct Reuben's Delicatessen, who came up with it in ? The answer might be important for dictionary etymologies, but the better part of the secret to the Reuben is not who it's named after but what it's dressed with.

And you'll want thick hand-sliced rye or pumpernickel, and good pastrami or corned beef. When the rice has cooled enough to handle it without getting burnt, make 20 balls with it. Close the ball by pressing it and shape it like an egg. Put the breadcrumbs in a separate plate. Remove them and put them on a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain the excess oil. In a soup pot over high heat, bring chicken broth to a boil. Season to taste with salt and reduce heat to a simmer.

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Crack eggs into a medium-size bowl and beat lightly with a wire whisk. Ladle the soup into individual bowls and sprinkle parsley over each serving. Pass more grated Parmesan separately. The recipe relies on semolina a wheat derivative, also used as the base for couscous to achieve a soft, melt-in-your-mouth dumpling accented with butter, Parmesan, cream, and egg yolk for a rich and satisfying finish.

In a 5-quart pot over medium-high heat, bring milk to a simmer while stirring.

Reduce heat to low; slowly whisk in semolina. Cook, whisking, until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Wet a byinch rimmed baking sheet with a soaked paper towel. Let cool until firm, about 40 minutes.

Heat oven to degrees Fahrenheit. Using a knife, cut gnocchi dough in 2-inch squares; transfer half of the squares to a buttered 9-byinch baking pan. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Serve with remaining cheese. Neopolitan-style pizza may be most widely influential variety in the U. The secret to Pizza alla Romana is all in the dough. To save time, note that you can make the dough up to 3 days in advance up to 1 month in advance, if stored in freezer. The sauce can also be prepared up to 4 days in advance if stored in the refrigerator.

Using dough hook, mix on low speed until everything is moist, about 4 minutes, scraping bowl as needed with a rubber spatula. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix until dough clings to dough hook, about 4 minutes. Add salt and mix until dough is very soft and stretchy, another 3 minutes. Cut dough into 6 or 7 equal pieces and roll into balls about the size of a softball on unfloured board. Arrange balls on baking sheet and scatter a little flour on top of dough.

Cover entire sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Remove dough from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Working one at a time, flatten ball on a floured work surface. Hold disk in the air and circle your fingers around the edge, pinching gently around the edge to make a border.

Gently push your palms into center of the dough to stretch it toward the edges. Top as you like and bake.

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Taste and adjust seasoning. Bake in a degree Fahrenheit oven until soft, 7 to 9 minutes. Cut rounds in half. Spread pizza sauce onto dough.

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