Subj : Greasy Spoons
To : Dave Drum
From : Ruth Haffly
Date : Tue Mar 11 2025 11:49:49
Hi Dave,
DD> a "daily special" at an Italian joint owned by a chilli cook of
DD> Italian ancestry. And his explanation. Neveer ordered red sauced pasta
DD> there again. Mostly stuck with my usual chilli-mac. Mardango was,
DD> after all, six time Illinois State chill champion.
RH> I remember reading your account of it. My MIL's ancestry is from
RH> Calabria, the toe of the boot--down near Sicily. She has put a carrot
RH> in her sauce as she claims that it absorbs some of the acid from the
RH> tomato in the sauce. I've not really noticed a difference in hers with
RH> the carrot and mine without. I think I'm a bit heavier with the spices
RH> (except salt) than she is.
DD> There seem to be as many regional variants in Italy as there are in
DD> the Unried States. My friend Joe (Guiseppe) Gallina and his brothers
DD> wound
DD> up here in Spring-A-Leak running restaurants. Joe's is in the middle
DD> of downtown. Mike's (Emilio) place is in nearby Riverton where 70% or
DD> so of the population is of Italian descent. And Marco had a very
DD> successful
DD> restaurant in a shopping center. Then it disappeared. I aked Joe about
DD> "What happened?" and was told the Marco got homesick and returned to
DD> the island of Sicily where he's "cleaning up" selling American-style
DD> pizza. Go figure. Bv)=
Sounds like they all did well. Back in the early 70s, my younger (just
below me in family order) did a school trip to Italy. She said in one
place the kids ordered pizza and were quite disappointed when it came
out. They were all expecting the American style; what they got was the
Italian style.
DD> 8<----- SLIUCE ----->8
DD> My house mate spotted the cans of tuna I got at Hy-Vee and began a
DD> long reminiscence about his Aunt Joan's tuna salad and how it was the
DD> best he had ever had. He won't be expecting this:
RH> My mom's only uses for tuna were in a simple macaroni and tuna (with
RH> mayo) salad or just with mayo for a sandwich. I'll cut up an apple or
RH> two (depending on how much tuna I'm using) into the tuna and mayo. My
RH> MIL was skeptical of that when she saw me do it; now it's the way she
RH> likes her tuna. As a Tupperware dealer, she passed on the suggestion at
RH> some of the demos she did, giving me credit. (G)
DD> Hmmmmmmm ..... never tried an apple in tuna salad. I'll have to keep
DD> that in mind. I know applem works great in chicken salad.
Try it, you'll like it. (G)
DD> This is basically what I made. I've never been a fan of sweet pickles
DD> in my tuna salad - so I stock Heifitz or Vlasic or Mt. Olive dill
DD> relish.
DD> I use Duke's mayo as it is less sweet than Kraft or Hellman's. The "As
DD> Seen On TV" Vidalia Onion Chopper with the small (1/8") plate in place
DD> worked very nicely/quickly to make uniform chinks of the veggies.
I use a small amount of sweet pickle relish if Steve isn't eating it,
none if he is. The past few years we've been using an olive oil based
mayo we've found at Costco, don't recall the name. I prefer Duke's but
Steve doesn't like it as much.
DD> I did all the options except the eggs in this batch. Must have been
a DD> hit because I was asked this morning A: Is there any left? And B:
When DD> are you going to make some more?
