<<Third in a continuing series exploring the tastes, histories
and crafts of favorite food items mentioned in THE BLOND LEADING THE BLOND…>>
“Be
it apple or humble, pie should always be served à la mode,” the woman tempted
me.
I
hesitated, thinking about my half-diet and wondering if I’d rather limit myself
to one full piece of pie without ice cream or one half of a piece with creamy
vanilla melting over it.
~Excerpted from The Blond Leading the Blond
Which “foodies”
amongst us hasn’t heard the story about the invention of the Sandwich ?
Well, not so much the “invention” of as the naming of it. I’ll save you a Google search: While the idea of tucking meat between slices
or on top of slices of bread (in lieu of plates) had been around for a while, it
wasn’t until the late 18th century that the term sandwich was
coined. The 4th Earl of Sandwich was fond
of asking his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread,
enabling him to continue to play cards while eating the meat. As you probably realize, eating meat without
cutlery left your hands messy, so this was a perfect solution. Others at the table would say “Bring me what Sandwich has,” and the rest, as they say, is food-naming history.
But very few
people know the story behind the naming of Pie
à la Mode.
Many people mistakenly
think that à la mode is French for “with
ice cream.” Nothing is further from the
truth.
It means “to the modern” or more loosely, “how fashionable.”
So how did
pie with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top become to be named à la mode?
