Global
Food Heritage Project
Food
Heritage Sites:
Preserved
| Remembered
| Endangered
| Newsmakers
|Communities
Lost
But Not Forgotten
Belgian
Fried Potato Wagons
Maritime
& Seafood Industry Museum
Biloxi, Mississippi,
USA
Windows
on the World Restaurant
107th floor World Trade
Center, NYC, USA
Nut
Tree--Vacaville, California
Mirapolis--Courdimanche,
France
Plantation
Inn, Lake Wales, Florida, USA
Belgian
Fried Potato Stands
Fried potato stands
once were found in every Belgian city
neighborhoods, small town centers and
most highway pullouts. Most "frite"
stands have been lost due to gentrification
and availibility of frozen fries.
The following is a
description of how it was at the beginning
of the end. It is a 1986 article by
Peter Maass that appeared in The New
York Times.
"As a couple of hungry customers
wait in line, Jean-Paul Desmiet eases
a kilo of sliced potatoes into a sizzling
vat of vegetable grease, which bubbles
with volcanic fervor. The unmistakable
aroma of french fries, known here as
frites, pours out of the cramped, open-air
stand at a busy intersection in Brussels.
While traffic lights change and cars
roar by, Mr. Desmiet uses a giant spatula
to skillfully nudge the frites around
the vat, and then scoops them up in
a smooth motion, depositing the new
french fries into a steel wok, where
they glisten under the somber light
of another cloudy day in Belgium. ''This,''
says Mr. Desmiet, shaking some salt
onto the fries as he hands them to a
customer, ''is a Belgian tradition.''
Indeed it is. Scenes
such as this one, which took place at
the family-run Friterie Antoine, happen
virtually every minute in Belgium, a
country whose voracious frite-eating
make it without dispute the Land of
the Frites. There are no less than 7,000
frite stands in Belgium, or one for
every 1,285 frite lovers in this country
of 10 million people. This probably
constitutes a world record, but nobody
really keeps tabs on these kinds of
things - and it's not something that
Belgium is keen to publicize. That is
mainly because this country suffers
from a case of culinary schizophrenia:
it both loves and reviles the frite.
"
Continue reading
this 1986 NY Times report by Peter Maass
here
at our companion site The Potato Museum.
Maritime
& Seafood Industry Museum
Biloxi, Mississippi,
USA
The following message has been posted
on the museum's website:
"Hurricane Katrina has
destroyed the Maritime & Seafood
Industry Museum. The Museum's two schooner
replicas only received minor damage."
Some of the photos of
the destruction:
Click
here for more images.
This
is a panoramic photo of the statue
honoring the fishermen that once stood
near the now destroyed Seafood Industry
museum.
We will continue to report
on the situation concerning this treasure
of a food heritage museum. We visited
the museum in November 2004. Here
is our report.
Windows
on the World Restaurant
107th floor World Trade
Center, NYC, USA
Destroyed 9/11/01
Images
from a remarkable memorial
website dedicated to this lost but
not forgotten restaurant landmark and
food heritage site.
Here are the names
of Windows on the World employees
who died when the World Trade Center
towers collapsed on 9-11.
Landmark's
storied past
by Sabine Goerke-Shrode The Reporter
"For 75 years, from 1921 until
its closure in 1996, Nut Tree delighted
its visitors with a unique blend of
high-quality foods, creative presentation
and a warm, family-oriented and fun-filled
atmosphere.
Nut Tree started as a
fruit stand set up (around a black walnut
tree) by Helen and Edwin "Bunny"
Power in 1921 along Lincoln Highway.
The following year saw a one-room shack
and a small kitchen addition, with walls
constructed of gunny sacks dipped in
plaster, covered by palm fronds.
For years, rooms were
added here and there, carrying picturesque
names such as Tea Room and Soda Fountain.
Adobe brick floors and walls, handmade
by Bunny Power, rough hewn crossbeams,
a big fireplace and wooden chairs and
tables, together with Bunny's beloved
cacti landscaping gave the little Nut
Tree restaurant a rustic atmosphere.
Early menus were built
around simple, popular foods, with an
emphasis on local produce, freshness
and quality. On Thursdays, Edith Harbison,
Helen Powers' sister, went fishing and
if she was lucky, the restaurant served
fish on Fridays. For years the restaurant
employed Chinese cooks, many of whom
lived in San Francisco while working
at the Nut Tree during the week.
Other signature dishes
soon followed. One of them was the pineapple
appetizer: fresh pineapple chunks and
marshmallow sauce served in a pineapple
shell. Helen and Bunny Power had experienced
this idea on a trip to Mexico. They
served it free, based on their philosophy
of always giving the customer a little
something "extra."
In time, Nut Tree became
the third largest importer of pineapples
on the West Coast. A specific grade
of ripeness was called the "Nut
Tree pick" in Hawaii.
Bob Power quickly introduced
other food ideas, relying on local fresh
produce, traditional ingredients and
his visionary feeling for food combinations
and food presentation. A California
first was the introduction of cold salad
and hot food on the same plate, an inspiration
Bunny and Helen brought back from a
trip to Yucatan. Bob called this style
of food "Western food ... America's
newest cuisine. It is packed with history,
color and taste because it has been
shaped by climate, tempered by many
nationalities and improved by ingenuity."
By the early 1950s, the
Nut Tree was firmly established as a
destination restaurant and as a trendsetter
in food development. A new era began
with the advent of Don Birrell as the
graphic design director in 1953.
The former Crocker Art
Museum director immediately began to
translate the family's vision to create
a contemporary, fun-filled, well-designed
environment.
Always fascinated by good
design, he introduced Charles Eames
furniture to the restaurant. For a time,
Nut Tree even became the sole licensed
West Coast retailer for Eames furniture.
Tables were laid with
care, using stylish Dansk silverware,
and a dish pattern that later found
its way into New York's Museum of Modern
Art, individual peppermills and specially
designed dishware to present specific
foods. Menu items were often served
on a leaf or decorated with an orchid
blossom, all plated exactly as Don Birrell
designed it.
By 1957, Nut Tree employed
more than 150 people. Besides the restaurant,
it included the toy shop, a gift shop,
the toy train, the airport, its own
togs department and its own design studio.
The "Guide to American
Restaurants" 1967 listed Nut Tree
as one of only 87 outstanding restaurants
in the United States, saying: "Shrine
of Western food; a California extravaganza."
"
Read the full article
here.
A loss beyond
our imaginations By Richard
Rico
" The Nut Tree was Vacaville's
portal to adventures so incredible that
now - especially with bulldozers at
the ready - they seem to have never
happened. But they did, and some of
us got to go along. When the California
State Parks Foundation decided to stage
a fund-raising dinner at Hearst Castle,
and when the Gov. Deukmejians rolled
out the red carpet for Queen Elizabeth,
who did they ask to do it up right?
Right: Nut Tree. Imagine a golden sun
setting at San Simeon as Cary Grant's
car pulled up for the reception by the
Neptune Pool; imagine an excited wait
staff in the Capitol Rotunda breaking
out in muffled cheers when they learned
that Queen Liz absolutely loved the
blackberry dessert; imagine a dining
room full of flying Rotarians from eight
states, gathered to see and hear Neil
Armstrong, who took the "first
small step for Man" on the moon;
imagine Mike Iseberg filling the NT
Plaza with his one-man "Iseberg
Machine" electronic organ as hundreds
of locals and travelers ate up the fruit
pizzas and the ambience; imagine fresh
pineapple appetizers with marsh-mallow
sauce, handmade tamales from an immigrant's
Arizona recipe, hand-dipped chocolates
from the candy factory and tiny loaves
of wondrous bread that became an original
NT hallmark. Imagine a stumping Nixon
in the main dining room,
a newly-elected Gov.
Reagan sitting at a quiet table
in a corner, and Chief U. S. Justice
Earl Warren in a luncheon stopover on
his way to do some duck hunting in Colusa.
A Shirley Temple sighting, a Bing Crosby
en-counter and every so often, actor
and comedian Danny Kay would fly his
own plane into the NT Airport, and cop
a typical free ride on the NT Railroad,
just because there was no place on earth
quite like Nut Tree."
Read the full article here.
This painting was commissioned
by Nut Tree owners to commemorate the
founding of the business as a roadside
fruit stand in 1921.
Nut Tree: A Look Back
Mirapolis was a food-themed French
amusement park that existed from 1987
to 1991. Instead of Mickey Mouse, this
park featured Gargantua, the fictional
gourmet/glutton created by 16th writer
Rabelais.
Gargantua sat astride
one of the main exposition halls which
featured animations that simulated
his digestive system. Above is a view
of the park which covered 90 hectares.
The park was in the
commune of Courdimanche near Cergy
Pontoise, 25 km from Paris. The 60
million Euro park attracted 2.5 million
visitors before it shut down in the
early 90's. The park was established
in a era of theme park mania in Europe,
especially France. In the end it had
trouble competing with the likes of
Euro-Disney, and parks dedicated to
favorite cartoon characters like Asterix
and the Smurfs.
The figure of Gargantua
was the world's second largest after
the Statue of Liberty, which the French
also built and donated to the United
States. Gargantua's head remained
a curious and highly visible remnant
of the park for four years after the
park closed. In 1995 it was demolished.
Now aside from a few fading reminders,
the park is now just a memory with
a website dedicated to it.
Click here to learn more about Mirapolis.
Single subject
Culinary arts
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