WHAT?Hunger killer.
According to laverdad.es, until the current economic and social
crisis in Argentina, the South American country had the world’s
highest consumption per capita of meat. Surprising for
a country where cattle and sheep didn’t even appear until
1580. That’s when Basque Juan de Garay founded Buenos
Aires and brought with him the country’s first 500 head
of cattle. The livestock quickly dispersed and thrived in the
Pampas. One hundred years later, there were one million. The
matambre (from Spanish mata: kills and hambre:
hunger) was born in those early days, killing first the gauchos’
(cowboys’) hunger, and later that of all Argentines. Matambre
is a cut obtained from the thin layer of muscle underneath the
skin in the flanks and ribs of cattle. In the old days, it was
cooked directly over the ashes of an improvised bonfire. Nowadays,
matambre can be grilled, stuffed, roasted, skewered, stewed
in water, or boiled in milk. Unfortunately, Argentina’s
current economic problems cannot be solved by beef alone.
WHAT?From trash to cash
crab. Perhaps you remember the days of menus without peekytoe
crab? Once upon a time, chefs clamored for Dungeness, blue,
and king, but no longer. The man credited with this sea change
is Rod Mitchell, owner of the esteemed Browne Trading Company
in Portland, Maine, who, in a brilliant marketing move, renamed
the cancer irroratus—aka the bay or rock crab,
that lobstermen had previously thrown away—peekytoe™
crab, which he sells in 7-ounce containers for $9.50. Maine
locals had been calling these crabs picket or picked toe (stretch
“picked” into two syllables for the correct Down
East pronunciation) after the sharp point on the crab leg. The
assistant to chef Kent Rathbun told us that Rathbun prefers
the name “picket” to “peeky” because
it jibes better with the Western theme of his restaurant. “What
really makes peekytoe crabs better than other crabs is the care
with which they are handled, cooked, and picked,” according
to New York Times writer Marian Burros. Pickers take
the crabs straight off the boat, cook them, shell them, and
send them out for restaurant service the next day. Moreover,
peekytoe are picked by individual home pickers, rather than
in a big warehouse. Burros compared a container of home-picked
peekytoe to one of Maine commercial crabmeat and found 10 pieces
of shell in the commercial, but none in the peekytoe.
WHAT? Fool’s fowl.
According to Culinaria: France, France exports more chicken
than any other country in the world (who knew?), and consumes
just under a half million tons all on its own. It’s good
to know that EVERY part of the chicken is being eaten. Sot l’y
laisse is translated as “only a fool would leave it”
and refers to the two strips of tender flesh between the backbone
and the thighs. They are often described as being above the
pope’s or parson’s nose, the equally colorfully
named fatty protrusion to which the tail feathers attach. The
website for the French supermarket chain Champion calls sot
l’y laisse a “choice morsel,” writing
that “these two tiny muscles have a delicious consistency,
almost like confit.”
