HUNGRY GERALD

Kale seems to be the trendy, green, leafy vegetable of the moment but HG still prefers spinach. HG did not always love spinach. As a little fellow, HG expressed negative opinions regarding spinach. A believer in the nutritional value of the leafy, green wonder food, HG’s cunning Mom would enclose spinach in a mound of buttery, creamy mashed potatoes. She called the dish “buried treasure.” The romantic name — evoking pirates, the Spanish Main and wealth beyond imagination — convinced HG the vegetable was good stuff. These days HG associates spinach with many splendid restaurant dishes. Creamed spinach of sublime quality would accompany a thick cut of savory boiled tongue (plus a boiled potato and fiery English mustard) at Al Cooper’s Restaurant (long closed) in New York’s Garment Center. Creamed spinach was very good at Ben Benson’s Steak House (also closed) in midtown New York. Palm Restaurant (branches all over the country) serves whole leaf spinach sauteed in high-quality Italian olive oil and plenty of garlic with its steaks and hash browns. The Compound, in Santa Fe, flanks its Chicken Schnitzel in parsley caper sauce with some leaves of sautéed spinach. When HG lived in Colorado he lunched daily at 240 Union, the very good restaurant in Lakewood. The chef at the time, Matthew Franklin, would nest broiled or sautéed fish on a mound of spinach. There was always a plentiful amount of mashed potatoes. What made the dish sing was the abundance of melted butter. Cooking at home, HG likes to place a grilled paillard of chicken breast on some spinach cooked with oil, garlic and a tiny bit of nutmeg. A spinach risotto is a comforting dish as is a rice pilaf mixed with spinach. A very simple dish is some good tortelloni or ravioli plus spinach in steaming chicken broth. Popeye was right. Spinach makes muscle. Take that, Bluto!! Wham ! Bam ! Kazam !

Popeye not only loved it, he depended upon it! Remember the way his muscles would pop after sucking up a can of spinach allowing him to save Olive Oyl from the clutches of big, bad Bluto? Like the great, mumbling sailor man himself, HG is fond of the leafy vegetable. Loves it mixed into a risotto or rice pilaf. Spinach is one of the rare vegetables that freeze well, so HG always has some in the freezer. Frozen spinach (moisture wrung out) should be warmed gently and mixed with some warm olive oil and lightly browned garlic. Nice with a pan broiled steak. HG did not trust spinach as a child and actively rebelled against it. His imaginative Mom found a cure by concealing the tender vegetable in balls of mashed potatoes and calling the dish “buried treasure.” HG liked the name and the digging for treasure adventure and became a life long spinach fan.

So, watch out Bluto and keep your mitts off of BSK!!!

The connection between food and cartoon characters. A worthy subject as HG’s ponderings proved. Winsor McCay’s “Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend” illustrated the very British concern that partaking of a rarebit soon before bed would lead to extravagant and exaggerated dreams — a notion that mirrors my deep held belief of the connection between food and our unconscious. No wonder food plays such a prominent role in that hotbed of Freudian sexual sub-text — the Sunday comics: In a pretty much literal fashion, Popeye’s gulp of Spinach acts like a triple dose of Viagra — pumping his flacid forearm into a rod of Iron to take on the marauding Bluto (who is always right on the verge of ravishing Olive Oyl)! Dagwood? Blondie was hot! Tight sweaters! Serious cleavage! High Heels! And he had a crap boss, Mr. Dithers, who loved to humiliate him. Well, you cannot kill your boss and have great sex with your wife in your Sunday morning strip, so how do you express that dark Id? Well devouring a MASSIVE over-stuffed sandwich bigger than your head might be a good start. Which brings us right to Archie. Yessiree up in Riverdale you have Archie and the 3 components of his psyche: Reggie (the Ego), Mr. Lodge (Super-Ego) and yessss….stuffing his face to feed his insatiable hunger meet Jug Head a.k.a. Archie’s Id. So, why aren’t Superman, Batman, and the rest of the action force hungry? Well….that is a story for another day.

As you may have noticed, HG’s rarebit musings were illustrated with a drawing from Winsor McCay’s 1904-1913 comic strip, “Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend”. McCay also created the character Little Nemo (“Little Nemo In Slumberland” — 1905-1913) and “Gertie the Dinosaur“, believed to be the first animated film. This illustrative foray into the early history of comic strips led HG to ponder upon the linkage between comic strip characters and food. Popeye, of course, needed his spinach to defeat Bluto and retain the love of the, aptly named for a food maven, Olive Oyl. His pal, Wimpy, had no romantic inclinations. He lived to devour hamburgers, of which he would gladly pay you for on a Tuesday. Al Capp’s L’il Abner (and all of the Yokums) thrived on po’k chops. Dagwood, loving husband of Blondie, constructed gigantic Dagwood sandwiches. Garfield, the whimsical cat, is a chronic over-eater and Jughead, pal of Archie, is perpetually hungry. Hassenfeffer is commented upon favorably in “The Katzenjammer Kids”. The much beleaguered Jiggs of “Bringing Up Father” sought solace in corned beef and cabbage. (A cultural note from Our Friendly Neighbor To The North: Sunday dinner of corned beef, cabbage and boiled potatoes is known as a “Jiggs” in Newfoundland and Labrador.)

As for Superman and Batman (and of course Robin!): Too busy fighting the forces of evil to enjoy a nosh.