posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
quinn222 at 10:15pm on 11/01/2005
quinn222 at 10:15pm on 11/01/2005Patrick O'Connell is someone I admire a great deal. He is the chef and co-owner (with his partner Reinhardt Lynch) of the Inn at Little Washington. I sent Justin and Brian there. It's one of the best restaurants in the country, maybe the best. Anyway, he wrote a second cookbook and I got it today. I have to share this story that he relates-
Quoting Mr. O'Connell-
"Party food of that era was also intended to look fussed over. No matter how hard I try I will never be able to forget what today would be called my mother's "signature dish." It was called "LIttle Nancy Etiicoat in Her White Petticoat" and was apparently inspired by an obscure nursery rhyme about a candle. It was a banana coming straight up through a dole pineapple ring, surrounded by a chiffonade of iceberg lettuce, with a dollop of Hellman's mayonnaise dripping down the sides -capped off by a maraschino cherry - definitely a conversation stopper.
The Little Nancy salads would be already placed on the table before we sat down. Guests would stare with wide-eyed wonderment, never knowing quite what to say. One of the women, obviously at a loss for words but needing to fill the silence, would usually murmur: "Oh, Gwen!" (my mother's name is Gwendolyn). That would be her cue to chime in and recite the nursery rhyme: "Little Nancy Etticoat in her white petticoat. The longer she stands the shorter she grows." A respectful pause followed while the guests contemplated the way of addressing the dish with knife and fork. For a small child whose chin barely reached the table, that salad had a rather haunting, larger-than-life aspect to it. Mysteriously, when my brothers and I began to reach puberty, the Little Nancy Etticoat salad disappeared from my mother's entertaining repertoire. Maybe good bananas just became hard to come by in Clinton - I never asked her. All I can say is, that's a dish I've never had the balls to serve."
End quote.
May I just say, ROTFLMAOPIMP!!!!!!! OMG!!! Imagine being confronted with this thing??? And the mayo dripping down it? ::dead::
Quoting Mr. O'Connell-
"Party food of that era was also intended to look fussed over. No matter how hard I try I will never be able to forget what today would be called my mother's "signature dish." It was called "LIttle Nancy Etiicoat in Her White Petticoat" and was apparently inspired by an obscure nursery rhyme about a candle. It was a banana coming straight up through a dole pineapple ring, surrounded by a chiffonade of iceberg lettuce, with a dollop of Hellman's mayonnaise dripping down the sides -capped off by a maraschino cherry - definitely a conversation stopper.
The Little Nancy salads would be already placed on the table before we sat down. Guests would stare with wide-eyed wonderment, never knowing quite what to say. One of the women, obviously at a loss for words but needing to fill the silence, would usually murmur: "Oh, Gwen!" (my mother's name is Gwendolyn). That would be her cue to chime in and recite the nursery rhyme: "Little Nancy Etticoat in her white petticoat. The longer she stands the shorter she grows." A respectful pause followed while the guests contemplated the way of addressing the dish with knife and fork. For a small child whose chin barely reached the table, that salad had a rather haunting, larger-than-life aspect to it. Mysteriously, when my brothers and I began to reach puberty, the Little Nancy Etticoat salad disappeared from my mother's entertaining repertoire. Maybe good bananas just became hard to come by in Clinton - I never asked her. All I can say is, that's a dish I've never had the balls to serve."
End quote.
May I just say, ROTFLMAOPIMP!!!!!!! OMG!!! Imagine being confronted with this thing??? And the mayo dripping down it? ::dead::
(no subject)
(no subject)