HUNGRY GERALD

Some hearty dishes, traditional in New York City diners and “coffee shops” of HG’s youth, seem to have disappeared or exist so far from the pubic’s imagination, that they might as well have been taken off the menu. These include: Liver and onions plus bacon (with a side of French fries or mashed potatoes). Pot roast with a pool of dark brown gravy. Corned beef and cabbage (plus boiled potatoes). Boiled knockwurst with sauerkraut. Hot turkey sandwich (sliced turkey on white bread slathered with lots of giblet gravy plus a scoop of cranberry sauce). Hot roast beef sandwich (like turkey but with brown gravy, a side of mashed potatoes and pallid string beans). These were all cheap, filling dishes. Young HG, not a fastidious fresser, found them delicious.

Liver. A much reviled organ here in America where it is habitually over-cooked into a grey, mealy tastelessness. In Europe, they know how to do calf’s liver correctly. It is served pink and a rasher of bacon is not obligatory but is pleasant. In Paris, a thick hunk of calf’s liver is often sauced in butter and sherry vinegar. HG has also enjoyed liver in Venice: Fegato (liver) Veneziano consists of very thin slices of liver cooked quickly in a hot pan with onions. Goes nicely with a mound of white polenta. HG/BSK never cook calf’s liver at home. Admittedly, it is not a health food and BSK takes great pains in keeping HG alive. But, once in a while, an exception can be made and BSK makes that exception with delightful chicken livers. BSK sautes them beautifully so they are brown and crisp on the outside and pink inside. A very nice lunch consists of these chicken livers with mushrooms, onions and softly scrambled, creamy eggs. HG likes to cook chicken livers in a sauce of sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic, olive oil and tomatoes which is served over fettucine. HG believes this was a favorite dish of the great tenor, Enrico Caruso.