Big Al's and Chaps, Baltimore
Highlight of the last bit of 2007 (and have you realized that we are 3/4s though the first decade of the 21st century?) is going to be a trip to Baltimore. I got invited last Christmas to write a chapter of a book called Beer and Philosophy and now we are invited to the book launch.
Being a 20 watt bulb in the brightly lit world that is beer writing has a few perks and none is so perkier [Ed.: wow, did that came out wrong!] than the genial clan of more senior writers who will answer important questions like the one I posed to Lew Bryson about where to find the best BBQ in Baltimore:
The thing you want in Bawlmer is pit beef, a sinfully delish pile of rare, juicy beef piled high on a roll. There are several of these joints out on Pulaski Highway (like in this catty review: I liked Chaps, so there, nyah. I understand Big Al's is closed now...sigh. More at this Chowhound link which also makes reference to the Double T local chain of diners (WELL worth your time for breakfast, my friend) and while some of them are not in the most savory of locations, the beef is nothing but. Pit beef is kinda like spiedies in that for some odd reason it's never really traveled, but is definitely worshipful in situ.Fabulous. Having already, in 2007, checked the wonderful western NY sandwich called a "weck" off my list of local US foods, the prospect of pit beef adds another layer of glowing orange to my vision of the next Yule. I found a great article from 2000 in the New York Times that further elaborates the concept:
Pit beef is Baltimore's version of barbecue: beef grilled crusty on the outside, rare and juicy inside and heaped high on a sandwich. Several things make it distinctive in the realm of American barbecue. For starters, pit beef is grilled, not smoked, so it lacks the heavy hickory or mesquite flavor characteristic of Texas- or Kansas City-style barbecue. It is also ideally served rare, which would be unthinkable for a Texas-style brisket. Baltimore pit bosses use top round, not brisket, and to make this flavorful but tough cut of beef tender, they shave it paper-thin on a meat slicer.This is all so excellent. One of my gripes as a Canadian is that there are few actual local foods. We can speak of Quebec cuisine (whether lowly comforting poutine or the selection of game that you do not get in English speaking Canada) and we can think of the seafood of Atlantic Canada but these are entire ranges of food based on local resources. A phenomenon at far too high a level. No, what I love about traveling in the US is that local thing on a bun that is made only in that neighbourhood or those couple of counties: Rochester's garbage plate or the various regional BBQs of the Carolina, the pinnacle of one of which Lew encountered this week. Where is our Fat Boy fish sandwich with a wild blueberry frappe? Our humble hot or our bap and square? Where is our Chocolate Boston - which I have learned is made even more over the top at Purity Dairy by placing an entire sundae on top of a milk shake?Then there's the bread: the proper way to serve pit beef is on a kaiser roll or, more distinctively, on rye bread. The caraway seeds in the rye reflect the Eastern European ancestry of many Baltimoreans in this part of town and add an aromatic, earthy flavor to the beef. Finally, there is the sauce. No ketchup, brown sugar and liquid smoke, as you would find in Kansas City. No Texas-style chili hellfire or piquant vinegar sauces in the style of North Carolina. The proper condiment for Baltimore pit beef is horseradish sauce -- as much as you can bear without crying. And speaking of crying, you need slices of crisp, pungent white onion to make the sandwich complete.
Comments
ry - October 9, 2007 12:24 AM
WOw, nobody on this one?
And no gloating on the BoSox sweeping the Angels? Are you sick or something, Al? Bad case a beer?
Alan - October 9, 2007 8:14 AM
I think it's the whole turkey sleepy thing, ry. There isn't much to discuss around a sweep. Poor old Yankees last night. After the game, listening to 880 AM, there were tears, tears, tears. Joe Torre basically admitted he was done. I think the #1 player on the market may end up being Posada.
Ryan - October 9, 2007 10:19 AM
I think it is pretty common for us Canadians to think that we don't have much in the way of cuisine. The Star had an article in May that quoted Mike Myers saying:
“I come from a country that struggles with identity and self-esteem. Canada’s a country of ingredients without a cuisine.... Toronto’s a city that doesn’t even have a dish named after it. Even Buffalo across the way, which has a quarter of the population, has wings, so it’s very strange.”
I like trying to think of our unique foods. You can get quite a list.
What about:
- butter tarts
- Coffee Crisp
- Chinese smorgasbord
- Bloody Caesars
- jambusters
- beaver tails
- Montreal smoked meat
- Montreal bagels
- wild rice
Alan - October 9, 2007 10:59 AM
Good list. I would quibble with some but better to add local ethnic foods like those of Sudbury Finns and Manitoba Icelandics. Caesers, I recently learned, are not from Canada so much as just way more popular in Canada.
And could you live on that diet?
Hans - October 9, 2007 11:30 AM
I think what Al is going for is along the lines of Montreal style bagels, scuh that Coffee Crisp, while uniquely Canadian doesn't cut the mustard (ahem, so to speak) as a unique local delicacy. Then again, there are Toronto style bagels and New York style bagels, so that's iffy. I'm guessing that Newfoundland may have a few contenders and the dish, Figgy Duff, may qualify. Also, Halifax style donairs come to mind....
Alan - October 9, 2007 12:26 PM
The donair is an excellent example as would be Newfie Jiggs dinner, the variant of Maritime boiled dinner in that I think it rquire pease pudding. boiled dinner is also to be found in North Country NY communities with an Irish background like Ogdensburg.
Hans - October 9, 2007 1:16 PM
Yes, my Dad had heard of boiled dinners before he came to PEI. He used to say he had heard of many of the verbal expressions and phrases in his youth before coming to PEI that were touted by various Island folklorists as "Island" sayings. But I'm way off topic now. So, to return, surely there must be perogie variants in the major urban centres of the Prairies? Winnepeg style versus Edmonton style, perhaps? And what about prairie oysters? Maybe we could construct a group project?
Alan - October 9, 2007 1:19 PM
Group Project - local Canadian food or just local food. I am quite content to get me to Missouri as much as Manitoba if there is something I can eat on a bun or in a bowl that I can't get anywhere else. Maybe it's just Ontario, land of agricultural bounty, that just has so much no one notices it. Driving through a Niagara peach grove with the windows down at harvest time cured me of the idea that nothing grew in Ontario.