Who cooks for
real any more? Families today go out so regularly to restaurants and dine every
weekend that it hardly seems special any more. In my family it was a special
event.
Sadly most
American families don’t cook food anymore. Spaghetti sauce from a jar,
Hamburger Helper, dehydrated mashed potatoes is considered cooking. I grew
up eating at home. I later learned to cook from family, friends and
restaurants that I worked for.
My mother
cooked every night. In good times we had steak, in lean times we had rice and
eggs or rice and Vienna sausage. I never noticed the difference. The food was
good. At that time I believe home cooked food was cheaper than fast food. I
never had fast food until we moved to Nicetown and the utilities hadn’t been
turned on so my family ate at Gino's hamburgers on Broad St the Roosevelt
Boulevard. Ginos was an area favorite. They had the Gino
Giant. McDonalds actually modeled their Big Mac after that
sandwich.
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| Gino's File Photo |
The next time
I had fast food was a few years later when my childhood friend, Maryann's
mother took us to see Barbara Streisand in "What’s up Doc" and
we went to a Burger King. I do love a good burger. Later a McDonalds
showed up and change everything. I also remember those burger king and
McDonalds commercials that were mini- stories with Ronald, the Hamburgler and
my favorite was The Grimace, who
originally had two sets of arms. I remember that the commercials were part of
my Saturday morning ritual. I never realized that they were marketing crappy
food to me until I got considerably older. I am grateful that my parents,
either through economic or practical reasons limited my access to this Crap.
I never saw
Disney films as a child. I got all my Disney’s images from Maryann’s GAF Viewmaster.
You know, it was the slide show viewer that you would click to see the next
slide (Tip, Never walk while looking through a GAF Viewmaster). Her brother
Michael always tried to get me to play baseball or stick ball but since I was
never any good at it. I would just hag out more with Maryann. Until I
reached pre-adolescence when her mom limited her availability. I remember in
second grade carrying her books when she came to my school as a first grader.
That's what gentlemen do.
When my father
decided that it was time to go out we would go out to eat, it was an event. We
would get dresses up and drive or take the Trolley to a few of my parent’s
favorite places. When my parents did go out they would go to 2 places
that I remember, La Preciosa and
Chinatown
La Preciousa was
a Puerto Rican chef owned restaurant. His restaurant was where Latinos went
when they wanted something special. It was located down the street from the Teatro Puerto Rico where Latinos in the
city would go to watch movies in Spanish. They were mostly Mexican movies at Germantown
between Susquehanna and diamond streets. It was the dinner and movie spot for
Philadelphia Latinos.
There is a lot
of pride in cooking for Puerto Ricans. Every family knows who makes the best Pasteles.( Puerto Rican version of a tamale)
Endless arguments would be debated
on whose grandmother makes the best food. No one would dispute that La Preciosa
had great food.
It was a
humble place with simple table and chairs. It had clear plastic table covers
covering the red tablecloths underneath. There would be salsa and Puerto Rican
music coming from the jukebox that would continue playing during dinner.
On Saturdays
it was Sancocho day. Sancocho is a thick gelatinous soup with
tripe and root vegetables made with pork stock that is on my list as an automatic
sleep inducer similar to Thanksgiving dinner. The Sancocho was a
meal in itself. I would sometimes order a steak with onions, which was
different from the one my mother used to make. My mother used to make Bistec
ecebollado . Puerto Rican cube steak sautéed and slow cooked in onions and
vinegar. Cube steak is a cheap cut of meat that is cubed or perforated to cut
the connective tissue of the meat to make it tenderer.
At La
Preciosa, Chef's steak was a better cut, usually a strip or porterhouse steak
perfectly grilled with the same slowly simmered onions in vinegar.
I was saddened
to learn that after the Chef died, the place went down hill. Becoming
a first a go-go bar then nuisance bar and finally closing in the late 70s.
In my opinion there are no matches for Puerto Rican food in the city since.
Sorry Freddy
and Tony’s and Porky’s Point.
The other
place would be Chinatown. Of course I remembered the tea and fortune cookies.
My dad’s and my favorite dish was always Egg Foo Young. A scrambled egg omelet
with crunchy bean sprouts, green onions and sometimes shrimp or chicken topped
off with thick brown gravy and served over white rice. I couldn’t get my Coke there. There was a time
that Chinatown didn't serve soft drinks, just tea.
On their rare
occasion in Fairmount my father would take us to Beatos pizza for spaghetti and
meatballs. It was a local restaurant that was near the Museums that my sister
would take me to when she wanted to talk to boys. Remember, I was her
tattletale and she would take me to the Franklin Institute, The Philadelphia
Library or the Art Museum. She tried to placate me into not telling mom. I
didn't care. Whether meaning to or not she sparked my curiosity in science, art
and stories. The museums were free for children and it didn't matter if it was
just for a little while. I was both
scared and enthralled with the giant heart that you could and still walk
through. Beatos was usually a weekday treat. If my mother didn’t cook which
meant that she was usually not feeling well, we would go to Batos. I usually had
my father favorite Spaghetti and meatballs. The meal was simple and good
with lots of Parmesan cheese. I try to cook at home most of the time. When I go
out its more to socialize with friends, coworkers and sometime with my students
that I work with.
Below are some
of the places I visit and recommend.
Italian food I
go to either Ralph’s or the Bistro Romano (where I used to perform in their
mystery dinner theater)
Chinatown is amazing! It's my favorite place in Philly to visit. I ran into Sang there once.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check out Terakawa ramen sometime.