Big News!  The New York Historical Society, which has been closed for renovation, will reopen tomorrow!  The reopening is from 11am-11pm on 11-11-11.  Kids under 13 are free all day, and adults get in free after 6pm.  There are special events, like a scavenger hunt, Big Quiz, and late night champagne party (swanky).  In addition, there’s the grand opening of the Dimenna Children’s Museum, and the new exhibit REVOLUTION! which has been recommended to me as a must see (the actual Stamp Act is there, for the first time outside of England !(thanks for the tip, Rachel!))

To celebrate the NYHS reopening, I’m going to celebrate their collections!  The library at the NYHS has immense culinary holdings, both in terms of a manscript collection and historic and vintage cookbooks.  And ANYONE can access them.  That’s the amazing and beautfiul thing about libraries: you can reqeust to look at a 200-year-old, handwritten manuscript, and they’ll BRING it to you, and you can TURN ITS PAGES.  It’s historic, yellowed, food-stained, love-worn pages.  Talk about a connection to the past.

Starting tomorrow, and continuing into next week, I’m going to feature a few gems from the NYHS collection: an historic New York manuscript, an ethnic cookbook from the turn of the 20th century, and a pamphlet entitled “Unusual Meats”.  I think I may have just summed up this blog in three books.

So join me in my mini-celebration, and learn more about the goings on at the NYHS here.

I’m going to be in McGolrick Park in Greenpoint from 1-4 today as part of an event commemorating the building of the Monitor, the infamous iron-clad ship of the Civil War.  I’ll be giving a talk around 3;30 about the spice trade in Greenpoint, but throughout the day I’ll be passing out samples of Civil War Navy rations.  The rations, which were quite a bit better than what was handed out to the Army:

Stop by and give this food a try! Full details below.

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Saturday, October 22nd

Greenpoint 1861
1pm-4pm @ McGolrick Park, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
FREE

On October 25, 1861 the keel of the USS Monitor was laid. Come and celebrate the 150th anniversary of the USS Monitor and the workers who built Greenpoint and worked in the shipbuilding industry. The Diggers will recreate Greenpoint circa 1861 for a one day festival that imagines North Brooklyn when it was the center of national trade and shipbuilding. The event will include:

-A near lifesize model of the Monitor made out of papermache by Jason Gaspar
-Historic food that would have been Greenpoint staples by Sarah Lohman from Fourpoundsflour.com as well as a talk on culinary developments & the spice trade in Greenpoint
-Knot tying demonstration & workshop by Peter Haakon Thompson
-Talk on Alfred and Carnes Eddey, shipwrights in Greenpoint, by their descendant Gary E Eddey
-1860s music by the Depressionaires
-Historic costuming by Melissa Estro and a chance to actually “Walk in the shoes” of 1860s Greenpointers
-Mini pop up museum with educators

Fine Dining
A special night out on the town requires more than just your average food fare. It takes a “Fine Dining” experience composed of select foods, the right décor and perfect lighting. Join host William Grimes as he uncovers the stories of how these small, exclusive, elegant and elite restaurants found a home in New York City. Explore one of the oldest fine dining establishments in the City. Then visit with the talented team behind the groundbreaking 11 Madison Park.

I’ll be making one of Delmonico’s most famous desserts, originally known as “Alaska, Florida.”  This is the last episode of the season! Tonight @ 8:30 on NYC LIFE.

I know I’ve been behind getting the full episodes up on my blog; I’ll catch up next week!

Diners
Host William Grimes explores that favorite New York institution where breakfast for dinner is considered the norm and where food travels from the grill to the table at fast-food speed. Follow Grimes as he uncovers the story of the “Diner” from its origin as a lunchroom to feed the masses to a refuge for female shoppers to its place today. Join our historic gastronomist as she recreates a lost recipe from the famous Schraffts.

Tonight I make some certified stoner food.  Tune in @8pm on NYC Life.

“Street Food” is a must-have for many New Yorkers. Join host William Grimes as he looks at this current food fad that actually dates back to the turn of the twentieth century, when falafel carts were wheel barrows filled with yams, pizza trucks were push carts filled with pies of every kind imaginable and hot dogs were a new and unusual food. Discover what surprising street food our historic gastronomist whips up and listen in with Grimes as he speaks with a Lower East Side author.

Tune in to watch me make a suprising turn-of-the century street food!  8pm on NYC Life.

Or, if you’re out and about, catch me at the Brooklyn Historical Society talking all about Historic Gastronomy!  7pm tonight, tickets at the door; More info here.

The first issue of “Vegan News,” from 1944.

Bid farewell to meat, dairy and eggs.  For the next five days, I’ll be going historically vegan.

Historically vegan, you say?  Why yes!  Veganism has at least a 100-year history.

To understand the history of veganism, we have to take a brief look at it’s predecessor, vegetarianism.  There have been certain cultures which have been vegetarian for thousands of years: notably, Hindus and Buddhist monks.  In the western world, English author Thomas Tryon was advocating vegetarianism in the late 17th century; his book inspired a young Ben Franklin to give up meat.  Although Franklin didn’t stick with it, he was a lifetime advocate for gastronomic exploration, collecting recipes for dishes like “Towfu.”  The Reverend Sylvester Graham, founder of Oberlin, was a “dietary reformer.”  Students at Oberlin College in the mid-19th century had to be vegetarian, and Dr. Graham also invented a “cracker” you may be familiar with.

But the vegetarian movement really picks up steam around 1900.  This is when John Harvey Kellogg comes onto the scene, opening up his exclusive, vegetarian spa in Battle Creek Michigan.   Not only did he do a lot to develop modern vegetarianism, but he also changed the way all American eat, by popularizing peanut butter, exotic ingredients like soy and seaweed, and inventing breakfast cereal.  We eat less meat as a country because of Kellogg.  This is also the same era we begin to understand nutrition, including calories and vitamins, and the vegetarian movement fit in to the new, broader, “health food” movement.  I have written extensively about Kellogg, and eaten his Battle Creek Sanitarium diet for a week, which you can read about here.

As vegetarianism picked up steam, there was an even more strict movement that was gaining ground, particularly in England: a diet that contained no animal products at all.  In 1910, the first cookbook is published that only contains foods “of the vegetable kingdom”: No Animal Food and Nutrition and Diet with Vegetable Recipes by Rupert H. Wheldon.  According to the publishers the book is first printed in England, and then adapted for American use.  The “No Animal Food” movement began to take hold:

As early as 1909 the ethics of consuming dairy products were hotly debated within the vegetarian movement. In August 1944, Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson (a conscientious objector later to be acclaimed as the Vegan Society’s Founder) agreed the desirability of coordinating ‘non-dairy vegetarians’; despite opposition from prominent vegetarians unwilling to even consider adopting a diet free of all animal products.

In November, Donald organised a London meeting of six like-minded ‘non-dairy vegetarians’ at which it was decided to form a new society and adopt a new name to describe themselves – vegan derived from VEGetariAN.
It was a Sunday, with sunshine, and a blue sky, an auspicious day for the birth of an idealistic new movement.

– Elsie Shrigley, The Vegan magazine, Spring 1962

The first issue of “Vegan News,” published by the world’s first vegan society in England, can be read in its entirety here.  It is in this journal that the term “Vegan” is coined.

The next year, in 1945, The Vegan Society of English published a pamphlet titled “Vegan Recipes,” by Fay K. Henderson.  This is the first cookbook to use the term “vegan.”  Henderson also provides the little motto that is the title of this post.

So for the next five days I will be historically vegan!  Today and tomorrow, I’ll be dining from No Animal Food; and Thursday-Saturday I’ll be cooking from the pages of Vegan Recipes.  Wish me luck, and follow along right here, all this week!

New York City offers an abundance of sustainable and locally grown fresh “Green Market” options. Host William Grimes reveals how our food shopping today mirrors a time in the early 19th century when New York City was a world class food mecca – where indoor and outdoor markets dotted the City and people fought for spots in the check-out line. Then uncover the story behind the resurgence of green markets in the City with the co-founder of Union Square Market.

Have you ever had you world rocked by PEAS?  You’re about to.  Tune in tonight, 8pm on NYC LIFE.

Chinatown
Believe it or not, there was a time in New York City when there weren’t any Chinese restaurants. Discover, along with host William Grimes, the origins of “Chinatown” as it grew from a small cluster of streets in Lower Manhattan to the vibrant neighborhood of today. Take a trip to New York’s oldest tea parlor, hear stories about the first immigrants and find out what’s in Chop Suey.

Last week I made one of the best things I’ve ever eaten; this week I cook one of the most horrible things I’ve ever put in my mouth.  Tune in to watch disaster, tonight @8:30 on NYC Life Channel 25.

SO this is Kinda a Big Deal: I’m in a tv show!

Noted author and former New York Times restaurant critic William Grimes brings his epicurean knowledge to Appetite City, a new series on NYC life (Channel 25) that tells the history of New York City through its iconic food. Each episode focuses on a unique flavor of food that has become a staple in New York City as Grimes takes viewers on a journey about how soul food, delis and farmers’ markets all came to be a part of New York’s history.

The show is hosted by William Grimes, but every week, viewers will stop by my Queens kitchen to cook up a dish on the episode’s focus.  Join me as I eat a chicken gizzard for the first time; as a I drop a toppling tower of Baked Alaska to the floor; and as I come to the realization that raw pig’s feet feel like human hands.  And I’ll make some delicious stuff, too.

If you’re in the NYC area, Appetite City premieres Thursday, August 11 at 8:30pm on NYC life (Channel 25). The first episode features soul food:

Host William Grimes takes a journey back in time to the glory days of Harlem when he explores the origins and evolution of “Soul Food.” At a favorite local restaurant he speaks with soul food expert and author Frederick Douglass Opie and later has our historic gastronomist, Sarah Lohman, whip up a soul food favorite. Then viewers join award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson at his newest Harlem-based restaurant where he’s putting a whole new spin on this down-home favorite.

Additionally, there’s a premiere party tomorrow night at Tavern on the Green, the Central Park Visitor’s center;

Twilight @ Tavern: Film Screening

Watch a screening of Appetite City under the stars. Appetite City tells the history of New York through its food. Author and former restaurant critic of the New York Times, William Grimes, takes viewers back in time to explore the origins of some of New York’s most loved and iconic foods with visits to Brooklyn delis, historical taverns, and local food markets. This screening features an introduction and remarks from host William Grimes.

No advance registration. Free. All ages welcome.

Date: Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Time: 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

And if you’re not in the NYC area, don’t fret! I’ll be posting the full episodes on my blog every Friday along with recipes and stories from the show!

Stay Tuned! Watch a promo video for the show here.

I picked this book up at an antique store in Ohio.  Printed in 1915, it was a school book, likely both in NYC and in the rural Ohio town I found it in.

After the general acceptance of germ theory, but before antibiotics were available, great emphasis was put on preventative medicine and hygiene.  In fact, it was part of everyday school curriculum.

What make this little special is not just its advice on avoiding typhoid; after being in the hands of about fifteen years worth of bored school children, vandalism and doodlings have turned this book into a piece of outsider art.