Are you thinking of traveling abroad? Or will it be moved permanently? 150 years later, Americans would still do well to listen to Mark Twain’s satirical account of American travelers traveling through Europe and Palestine. innocent people overseas. “Americans Strangely Favorably Portrayed by Mr. Clements” (chic), also played the role of American satirist William Dean Howells I wrote it at the timeThese travelers, such as the one who “told the British officers that some of our gunboats might come and knock Gibraltar into the Mediterranean,” still roam the globe. The recklessness and belligerence that Twain skewers doesn’t feel that far removed from history.
Twain’s portraits, “somewhat satirical, some carefully and precisely drawn,” were so popular with readers that an unofficial sequel followed in the 1880s. overseas vagrantsa semi-serious fictionalized travelogue about an American traveling through Europe. This time it’s just Twain and his friend “Harris”. In the previous book, Howells complained, readers learned “almost nothing about the population of the city or the rock characteristics of the various regions.” Here, without the comedy troupe of his traveling companions, Twain turns his focus outward by describing his surroundings in detail. As always, he is very curious, often perplexed, but most of the time delighted with his experiences. Except when it comes to food.
Twain, who was becoming “increasingly bored with the abundance of food, which he described as ‘moderate to middling,'” commented that “there is enough food, but it’s a monotonous and unimpressive variety.” […] After 3 or 4 months of this exhausting condition, you will lose your strong appetite. “I can’t speak to Twain’s taste because I’ve never spent so much time apart. ennuiBut I can relate, as I’m sure many of you do, to the lack of a familiar comfort food or two (and some “honest and competent” ice water). Twain may not have been as adventurous as a traveler, but he was also a very modern American in that sense, but he made a “huge list of the foods he missed the most,” which he was to eat when he got home.
The list below is a travelogue of sorts in itself, showcasing a wide range of 19th-century American cuisine from East, West, North, and South, including such delicacies as “possum,” “Baltimore canvasback duck,” “Virginia grilled bacon,” and “Illinois prairie chicken.” and “Sierra Nevada brook trout.” While we may yearn for local delicacies or our favorite processed foods, Twain envisioned an entire continent of food back home. What foods do you run out of while traveling? And how long will your list be after months of roaming around a foreign land? Let us know in the comments section below. At the moment, Twain’s list includes:
Japanese white radish. Baked apples with cream
Fried oysters. Stewed oysters. Frog.
American coffee with real cream.
American butter.
Southern fried chicken.
porterhouse steak.
Saratoga potatoes.
American style grilled chicken.
Southern-style hot biscuits.
Southern-style warm wheat bread.
Warm soba cake.
American toast. clear maple syrup.
Grilled Virginia bacon.
Blue dot on half shell.
Sakura stone shell.
Steamed mussels from San Francisco.
Oyster soup. Clam soup.
Philadelphia Terrapin Soup.
North-style roasted oysters with shells.
soft shell crab. connecticut shad.
baltimore perch.
Brook trout from the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Lake trout from Tahoe.
Sheepshead and croaker from New Orleans.
Black bass from Mississippi.
American roast beef.
Roast turkey, Thanksgiving style.
cranberry sauce. celery.
Roasted wild turkey. Woodcock.
A canvasback duck from Baltimore.
Prairie chickens from Illinois.
Grilled Missouri Partridge.
“Possum. Coon.
Boston bacon and beans.
Southern style bacon and vegetables.
Hominy. boiled onions. Turnip.
pumpkin. squash. asparagus.
butter beans. Sweet potato.
lettuce. Succotash. Green beans.
Mashed potatoes. ketchup.
Boiled potatoes with skin on.
New potatoes with their skins removed.
Early rose potatoes are roasted in ashes and served hot, Southern style.
Add sugar or vinegar to the sliced tomatoes. Stewed tomatoes.
Cut the green corn from the ears and serve with butter and pepper.
Green corn in the ears.
Hot Corn Pone with Chitlings, Southern Style.
Southern style hot hoe cake.
Southern style warm egg bread.
A warm, light southern bread.
buttermilk. cold sweet milk.
Apple dumplings with real cream.
Apple pie. apple fritters.
Apple puffs, southern style.
Peach cobbler, southern style
Peach pie. American mince pie.
Pumpkin pie. squash pie.
Various American sweets.
All kinds of American fresh fruits including strawberries. Rather than being handed out like jewels, they are given out in a more free manner.
Ice water — prepared in an honest and competent refrigerator, not in an ineffective goblet.
Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on our site in 2016.
Related content:
Explore our online archive of 12,700 vintage cookbooks
The only footage of Mark Twain: original and digitally restored film shot by Thomas Edison
Mark Twain Drafts the Ultimate Indictment (1905)
Mark Twain Creates a List of Favorite Books for Adults and Children (1887)
josh jones I’m a writer and musician based in Durham, North Carolina.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
