One of the most shocking realizations that I had when I became firmly committed to a piscetarian dietary style was this: Road Food Is Hard To Find.
We were standing in front of a Subway, my beloved and I, and I was In Need of Protein. The one thing I can get in nearly any town, iceberg lettuce and some bread that probably was not made with eggs and possibly was not made with milk, was not going to cut it. He, however, had thought that Subway would be fine--tuna sandwiches, you know? But I stood there and starved, so hungry that I actually cried, because the tuna salad is mayo-based. Eggs. Even if the mayo was vegan (and why Subway would use veganaise on a tuna sandwich, I dunno), I couldn't eat it--the soy would move it out of my dietary range.
He learned that day that when I said no animal products but sea creatures, I meant it. It was a long ride to the family home that morning. Ever since that day, I have learned to pay attention to Road Restaurants that we can all eat at.
Fred's Drive-in is one of those places I will go to when I am jonesing for the bad foods of my home town. Fred's is one of several Milwaukee area restaurants that is devoted to a style of artery-clogging eating that is immensely pleasurable and insufficiently available away from the southwest corner of the Third Coast. Fred's specializes in Chicago dogs and Italian Beef and Polish and Italian sausages like you'd find at a vendor outside Wrigley Field. MMM, giardinara!! MMM fried onions!!! MMMM lots of other stuff I don't eat anymore!
Fred's, however, has something that the other good Chicago-style beef joints in the Milwaukee area don't have: the Flynn Fin.
The origin of the sandwich, in short: The police chief saw the restaurant across the street from his brand-spankin' new police station and gasped at the beauty of the menu... and then realized that it would not have the best health effect on his officers. Really, you want the police officers to be healthy. Flynn certainly does. And so he asked the owner for a sandwich a little less overwhelming and just as tasty. The Flynn Fin was born shortly thereafter.*
It's a salmon fillet on your choice of roll, bun, or rye, with options for additional condiments and lettuce or tomato. I got mine on rye, with the lettuce and tomato, and brown mustard. Since I was having a bad-eats day, I had fries as well.
I have to say, I was happy. Here in the land of the Friday Fish Fry, you would think that most chefs can do simple fish like salmon. I assure you, there are many who can not. Fred's Drive-in can. The salmon was cooked appropriately, the lettuce was real leaf lettuce, the tomato was ripe rather than pink cardboard, and the amount of mustard was just right--mustard can overwhelm a sandwich. This didn't.
The fries were the fat, crinkle cut sort. Not my favorite--again, because they are so often cooked poorly--but these were fine. And Hot. And excellent conveyors of rich and tasty ketchup. MMMM.
There is also a breaded fish fillet on the menu, more like the sort of fish sandwich you'd get at a fast food chain. I presume it's good, as I've never had anything I don't like there-hell, even the Decider likes Fred's--but I won't be trying it anytime soon, as the Flynn Fin tasted so very fine.
*A longer version of the story is here.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Shiney new practice piscetarian cookery blog!!!
Okay, I confess, I'm not going to leave this blog in this location forever and ever, Amen. I have a New Shiny Site under construction, but I am just too excited by this idea to wait until the New Shiny Site is live, and doing this here will let me concentrate on behind the scenes things there. This is a beginner blog, a baby steps blog, a place to move all my cookery. I haven't even figured out what I want everything to be called--I've gone through 15 different names. But obviously I like Pretty Kettle a lot, as that's what is up top.
But I can start with firming up a mission and pulling the various recipes into one organized pile.
I eat a very specific style of diet, one which has various names and has been around for centuries. I am a Piscetarian. I eat plants and no meat but fish, 99% of the time. I can't say I am always a strict piscetarian, but I do my best, and the largest bulk of my meals are actually vegan friendly. I focus on locally available foods before long-distance, and organic over factory farmed.
This blog is intended to fill a space. You'd think that with all the fabulous vegan blogs out there, I would be well served and would not need to add another voice for cooking an alternate dietary style from scratch to the internet. However, when I built this page, it became very apparent that there was a place for one more specialty cook.
My emphasis is on modern and medieval cookery. There will be things here to feed piscetarian, true. That's my main focus. So also will there be things to feed vegans. I hope to be particularly helpful to vegans who can't eat soy--I can't either, not in any real way. This would be why so many vegan blogs are of minimal help to me--there is a huge emphasis on soy replacement foods. However, a well-developed piscetarian diet is going to focus on plant foods for most meals. It makes sense to be able to cook as a vegan cooks. Too, I'd like to be of service to those people who are transitioning. If you are going to go all the way, the piscetarian/pescetarian/pesco-vegetarian dietary style is a nice way to ease into it.
However, I'll also be focusing on the cookery of the old world, before the new world foods became prevalent. I love history, and I love redacting recipes. I also enjoy the challenge of cooking something that would be recognizable to people who lived in the era, and modifying that cookery so that it can be eaten by people with alternative dietary styles.
Well, that's a rough draft, but all mission statements start with just such a beginning. And now, there is cooking to be done and a product to be reviewed. So I'll go eat it and tell you what I think. :-)
But I can start with firming up a mission and pulling the various recipes into one organized pile.
I eat a very specific style of diet, one which has various names and has been around for centuries. I am a Piscetarian. I eat plants and no meat but fish, 99% of the time. I can't say I am always a strict piscetarian, but I do my best, and the largest bulk of my meals are actually vegan friendly. I focus on locally available foods before long-distance, and organic over factory farmed.
This blog is intended to fill a space. You'd think that with all the fabulous vegan blogs out there, I would be well served and would not need to add another voice for cooking an alternate dietary style from scratch to the internet. However, when I built this page, it became very apparent that there was a place for one more specialty cook.
My emphasis is on modern and medieval cookery. There will be things here to feed piscetarian, true. That's my main focus. So also will there be things to feed vegans. I hope to be particularly helpful to vegans who can't eat soy--I can't either, not in any real way. This would be why so many vegan blogs are of minimal help to me--there is a huge emphasis on soy replacement foods. However, a well-developed piscetarian diet is going to focus on plant foods for most meals. It makes sense to be able to cook as a vegan cooks. Too, I'd like to be of service to those people who are transitioning. If you are going to go all the way, the piscetarian/pescetarian/pesco-vegetarian dietary style is a nice way to ease into it.
However, I'll also be focusing on the cookery of the old world, before the new world foods became prevalent. I love history, and I love redacting recipes. I also enjoy the challenge of cooking something that would be recognizable to people who lived in the era, and modifying that cookery so that it can be eaten by people with alternative dietary styles.
Well, that's a rough draft, but all mission statements start with just such a beginning. And now, there is cooking to be done and a product to be reviewed. So I'll go eat it and tell you what I think. :-)
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