Internet media now/Flickr

Last week, we looked at the most-searched recipes on the Internet so far in 2012, and some folks were surprised by how simple they were. Could this mean people truly do not know how to make spaghetti, mashed potatoes or baked chicken?

I don’t want to tire you out on the Miller & Rhoads luncheon theme, but it did seem appropriate in light of last week’s discussion to share with you a portion of Mary Rapoport’s speech at the luncheon on Friday. Mary, a member of the Peacock-Harper Culinary History Friends (the committee that put on the luncheon) is also the Roanoke spokesperson for the Virginia Egg Council. You may have seen her on various local cooking segments.

I found Mary’s talk interesting, particularly the part where she discussed how people fed their families around the 1950s or 60s. So here is a portion of her talk. At the end, you’ll find the recipe for M&R chocolate silk pie. And remember, if you would like a copy of the Miller & Rhoads Tearoom recipe booklet, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the address listed here.

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Frances Trent, a member of the Peacock-Harper group, talks to guests at the Miller & Rhoads Tearoom event. At right is Joan Bowers, who loaned her vintage hat collection for the event. Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis/The Roanoke Times.

The “Remembering the Miller & Rhoads Tearoom” luncheon I’ve written about a couple of times over the past few months took place today at the Roanoke Country Club. Actually, two of the three seatings took place today; the third will be held later this month.

Although the Peacock-Harper Culinary History Friends planned to host about 150 people at one luncheon, the country club will end up serving nearly 400 guests by the time the third seating is done. There are no tickets left for sale.

I purchased two tickets to the first seating for myself and my mother-in-law, who drove all the way from her home in the Outer Banks to attend with me. She is from Richmond and lived in Roanoke for many years, so she has treasured memories from the Miller & Rhoads tearooms in both cities.

To me, the best part of the luncheon was the fact that so many of the women who attended (and it was mostly women) brought out their best attire and unpacked vintage accessories as a tribute to the snappy outfits they used to wear to lunch at the Tearoom. One attendant, Joan Bowers, generously offered her large vintage hat collection for the club’s use. They incorporated them into the table centerpieces and decorated fireplace mantles with them. Bowers also loaned hats to some members of the Peacock-Harper group.

To continue reading and see the slideshow, click “Read more.”

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Photo by Lindsey Nair l The Roanoke Times

This past weekend, I braved the inferno of my great aunt and uncle’s attic to stash a few items. While I was up there, I got sucked into an Antiques Roadshowesque vortex and started poking around in musty old boxes that have been sitting around since Uncle Bill and Little Billie passed away back in the 1990s.

Inside an old shoe box I found a stack of papers, and I was fascinated to find that some of them were recipes and cooking-related pamphlets. Why, my aunt, who was the teeniest person I ever knew and who never seemed to cook much more than canned green beans, had a recipe collection of her very own! I always thought she’d rather smoke cigarettes than eat anything (she used to request a piece of pie or cake “so thin you could read through it”).

She seemed to be particularly attracted to dessert recipes. As I looked through the newspaper and magazine clippings and tried to decipher some of the instructions written by hand in pencil on yellowing paper, I discovered some pretty interesting things.

The coolest is probably a 1930 Rumford Baking Powder recipe card that contains instructions for 25 different baked goods, from Rumford biscuits to date muffins.

It’s actually a card within a card, and in order to see what quantity of ingredients you need for each recipe, you simply slide out the inner card until the recipe title and quantities line up with the open space in the outer card (see pictures below; it’s rather difficult to explain in words).

I also found recipes for:

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The Roanoke Times l File 1978

In yesterday’s Front Burner column, I shared some history of The Tearoom in downtown Roanoke and asked readers if they have any memories they can share. Please feel free to leave your thoughts as comments on this blog entry or to email them to me at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com. You may also snail-mail them to P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010.

If you leave a comment on this blog entry, please indicate whether it is OK for me to use your full name if I quote you in my article. Thank you. Random little note: I know the name of the store has an ampersand instead of the word “and” spelled out, but my blog software, Word Press, wigs out if I try to use ampersands in the title of blog entries.

Here is yesterday’s column:

Seeking Memories of Miller & Rhoads Tearoom
By Lindsey Nair

My friend Jean Robbins has treasured memories of a special activity she used to share with her daughters in the late 1960s, when they were girls.

On certain Saturdays, Jean would leave her husband, Mal, to his gardening while she and their children, Cathy and Leslie, traveled to Miller & Rhoads in Roanoke for a morning of shopping. This was always followed by lunch in the Miller & Rhoads Tearoom, where diners could eat while beautiful models showed off the latest store fashions.

“That was always a neat atmosphere,” said Leslie Spigle, who now lives in Buchanan and has kids of her own. “I think about how we don’t have anything like that today — everybody is in and out of shopping and on their way. It was a really nice, relaxing lunch.”

The five-story department store, which was built in 1957 on an old Heironimus site on Campbell Avenue, was a destination for shoppers from miles around Roanoke. The Roanoke Tearoom was smaller than the one in Miller & Rhoads’ flagship Richmond store, but it still saw plenty of traffic.

To continue reading this column, click here.

Click these links to see these Miller & Rhoads Tearoom recipes:

Chicken Salad

Opera Mints

Missouri Club

Brunswick Stew

Coach & Four, one of Roanoke's stalwarts. Photo by Jeanna Duerscherl, The Roanoke Times

We recently ran a restaurant review of Coach & Four by freelance reviewer Wade Anderson. It amazed some of my colleagues that Coach & Four has been operating on Williamson Road for 35 years. Even after all that time, a lot of Southwest Virginians probably have never been to Coach & Four or don’t even know it exists.

In the restaurant business, making it for five years is a really big deal. But making it for 35, or even 25 years? Well, that’s success. We spend so much time talking about the revolving door of restaurants in this area. It’s high time to look at how many restaurants in The Roanoke Times coverage area have been open for an astonishingly long time.

Most interesting to me is how much these restaurants have changed — or not — over the decades. Some look nothing like they did when they first opened, have different management and different menus. Others, however, could be time machines. To step inside is to step back to the 1970s, with the same carpeting and decorations and menu. Which is a better scenario? I think it really depends on the restaurant.

In most cases these restaurants are still open today because they’ve been doing it right on a consistent basis every single day. But would you say they are all as good as they were when they first hit their prime? Or do you suppose some longtime customers are floating on memories of what once was and wearing blinders to the current reality?

The secret to restaurant success is a fascinating topic. While there are many concrete answers, I also think there are more elusive factors.

I’m going to list as many Southwest Virginia restaurants as I can come up with that have been open for more than 25 years. Special thanks to some of my Facebook readers, specifically Jeff F., for your help. I’m sure we’ve forgotten some, so help me out!

Montano’s, Roanoke, 43 years
New Yorker Delicatessen, Roanoke: 53 years
Mac and Bob’s, Salem, 32 years
Hale’s Restaurant, Shawsville, 45 years
Regency Room (Hotel Roanoke), 75 years
Aesy’s, Roanoke, 54 years
Coach & Four, Roanoke: 35 years
Community Inn, Roanoke, 35 years
Alexander’s, downtown Roanoke: 32 years
Stephen’s, Roanoke: 25 years
The Roanoker, Roanoke: 71 years
Texas Tavern, downtown Roanoke: 82 years
Fiji Island, Roanoke: 40+ years
Norberto’s, Roanoke: 26 years
Luigi’s, Roanoke: 35 years
The Deli Shoppe, Roanoke: About 70 years
The Farmhouse, Christiansburg: 35 (look for a review of The Farmhouse in The Burgs and on PlateUp next week)
The Homeplace, Catawba: 30 years
Cat & Owl Steak and Seafood House, Low Moor (Alleghany County): 40 years
The Southern Inn, Lexington: 75+ years
Parker’s Seafood, Roanoke: Opened as a seafood market in 1919, 93 years ago.
Cucci’s Pizzeria, Covington: 35 years (incidentally, I just heard they are expanding to create a larger banquet area)
New York Pizza, Vinton: 30 years
Canton Restaurant, Radford: 33 years
The Library, 33 years
Macado’s, 34 years (At downtown Roanoke location. Other locations are probably pretty old, too.)
El Rodeo, Williamson Road, 26 years
Zorba’s, Roanoke, 27 years
Paul’s Restaurant, downtown Roanoke, 64 years
Pete’s Deli, Crossroads area, 46 years
Corned Beef & Co., downtown Roanoke, 27 years
Shaker’s, Valley View, 26 years
Famous Anthony’s, multiple locations, 26 years
W.R. Brews, Williamson, 28 years
Little Chef, Williamson, off and on for 55 years

A note about Lew’s: Lew’s has been open since 1992, which makes it 20 years old this year. Before that it was Pierre’s, and before that it was Piche’s, and before that it was a peanut shack. But Lew’s owner Hayden Payne agrees it wouldn’t be exactly accurate to count all the way back into the Pierre’s and Piche’s days.

www.vintageadbrowser.com

Here comes another fun tip from The Roanoke Times librarian Belinda Harris, who writes “Looking Back,” a column that runs in every Monday’s issue. Belinda has been mighty busy lately, because this year, the newspaper’s is celebrating 125 years in business! We are seeking keepsakes and reader memories from the past century and a quarter. If you have a cool old issue or story to contribute, or if you just want to see some vintage photographs, click here.

Back on topic: Belinda recently ran across a fantastic website and forwarded the link to me. Vintageadbrowser.com offers a collection of old advertisements, some of which date back to the 1800s. When you hit the gateway page for the site, you will see a whole bunch of categories. Check out “food” or “drinks.”

You’ll see the little girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead selling Kellogg’s corn flakes, the lady serving a piece of chocolate cake to her fellow and hiding the instant frosting mix behind her back, and advice about how Velveeta can help you be a good mother, to name a few. The Burger King ad you see here is from the 1970s.

I love to try and pick up on the trends when I look back through these ads. One can see the rise of more convenience and packaged foods. One can also see the addiction to gelatin in its many forms. Do you see any ads that take you back?

I met Cynthia Bertelsen through her role as a member of the Peacock-Harper Culinary History Friends group, which formed around a special collection of culinary books at Virginia Tech. The Peacock-Harper Culinary Collection contains more than 3,000 works, including 1,700 in a rare books room, and dates as far back as 1693. I’ve received a lot of interesting information from the friends group since I first heard of it a few years ago.

Last month, Bertelsen sent an e-mail about a special digital collection at the University of Nevada Las Vegas called Menus: The Art of Dining. It seems the folks there have collected and digitized more than 1,500 restaurant menus from around the world. The bulk of their collection is made up of the Bohn-Bettoni Collection, a personal collection consisting of about 2,000 restaurant menus dating from 1870-1930. Bohn was editor and publisher of “Hotel World” magazine and Bettoni was a restaurant manager in London in the late 19th century.

The UNLV database is so cool because you can scroll through the collection on your computer and see each of these menus. Not only does the food on these menus provide a slice of history, but some of the menus feature brilliant art work. Many of the restaurants are long gone, including some of the original Las Vegas establishments, which were destroyed to build what is the existing strip.

If you’ve got a little time on your hands to poke around and look through this menu collection, click here and have fun. Incidentally, you can also look at a few digitized versions of works in the Peacock-Harper collection here.

Hey, maybe I should send some of Howard’s old Roanoke menus, such as this Villa Sorrento menu, to UNLV, eh?

dullhunk/flickr

I know some folks use the 7-Day Menu Planner that runs in Sunday’s Extra section because they’ve mentioned it to me in the past. But did you know we used to run a menu planner waaaaaaaaaaay back in The Roanoke Times & World News in the 1930s? I sure didn’t – that is, until RT archive librarian Belinda Harris dug up a real gem: a menu planner for the week of Dec. 27, 1935.

I’m going to have to type this thing up and share it with you guys, because I found it so fascinating. Just look at this thing! And who in the world had the time to do all this cooking? Oh, that’s right – the women folk stayed home back then. Check this out:

Monday
Breakfast: Baked apples, dry cereal with cream, grilled bacon, French toast, coffee.
Luncheon [it actually says that]: Deviled eggs a la king, clover rolls, preserved pears, cookies, tea.
Dinner: Green pea soup, broiled beefsteak, French fried onions, mashed potatoes, pineapple and cheese salad, rice meringue, coffee.

Tuesday
Breakfast: Stewed prunes, hominy with cream, scrambled eggs, bacon, popovers, coffee.
Luncheon: Chicken and macaroni in casserole, baking powder biscuits, mocha pie, tea.
Dinner: Cream of mushroom soup, baked stuffed beef heart [!!], baked potatoes, boiled spinach, beet and lettuce salad, French dressing, queen’s pudding, coffee.

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In May of last year I posted a retro takeout menu from the old Villa Sorrento restaurant in Roanoke, which served up Italian food to hungry customers from 1959 until 2000. The blog entry sparked 26 comments and a lot of warm memories of the place. Several of you specifically mentioned the wonderful “older lady” who worked as hostess and made everyone feel at home.

That was Rose Provenzano, affectionately known to many regulars as “Mama Sorrento.” She ran the restaurant with her husband, Joe. Sadly, Mrs. Provenzano passed away on Saturday. She was 83. She was preceded in death by Joe Provenzano. Maybe they are whipping up some spectacular pies in heaven. Surely there’s awesome pizza in heaven?

A quote from Mrs. Provenzano’s obituary in today’s Roanoke Times: “She served a lot of Italian food in her lifetime, but it was her rolls and that one of a kind personality that kept people coming back. Rose had a way of making each and every customer feel special and right at home.”

Rest in peace, Mama Sorrento.

Meadow Creek Dairy in Galax has brought home another award from the American Cheese Society competition, an annual, nationwide contest that is in its 26th year.

This year, the dairy’s best-selling cheese, Grayson, placed second in the Washed Rind Cheese Category. Just what is a washed rind cheese, you are probably asking? Well, these are cheeses that are literally washed down, usually with a saltwater brine but sometimes with such liquids as beer, brandy, or wine, on a regular basis throughout the aging process.

Keeping the surface of the cheese wheels wet allows a beneficial bacteria called b-linens, or brevibacterium linens, to multiply across that surface. But since I am no expert, here’s more information from the American Cheese Society:

“Washed rind” is used to describe those cheeses that are surface-ripened by washing the cheese throughout the ripening/aging process with brine, beer, wine, brandy, or a mixture of ingredients, which encourages the growth of bacteria. The exterior rind of washed rind cheeses may vary from bright orange to brown, with flavor and aroma profiles that are quite pungent, yet the interior of these cheeses is most often semi-soft and, sometimes, very creamy. Washed rind cheeses may be made from both pasteurized and raw milk, depending on the style of the cheese and the cheesemaker producing them. Cheeses in this category include some tomme-style cheeses, triple-crème, and semi-soft cheeses, similar to Epoisses, Livarot and Taleggio.

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No, I’m not talking about Star Trek. I’m talking about the latest installment in Retro Menu Madness, a sampling from my husband’s dusty collection of old takeout menus that I found piled in a plastic bag in one of our kitchen drawers.

You may remember the premier installment of RMM. If not, you must check it out before you can fully appreciate this latest menu.

Tell me what you remember about this defunct restaurant:

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I would like to introduce a new and very exciting feature on the Fridge Magnet blog. This journey along Nostalgia Lane is brought to you thanks to a junk drawer clean-up in the Nair/Swank household.

While engrossed in this clean-up, I came across a plastic grocery bag stuffed full of restaurant to-go menus. A certain male someone in the Nair/Swank household has an affinity for to-go menus and seems to collect them voraciously and then keep them for years after a restaurant served its last meal.

As we went through them and sorted out all of the ones for restaurants that no longer exist, it occurred to me that perhaps these menus might be of interest to somebody. Somebody like my hubby, who has lived in Roanoke for all of his life and can remember eating at just about every restaurant that ever opened — and then closed.

Introducing Retro Menu Madness! On an occasional basis, I’ll put up an old menu on the blog and see how many readers remember eating at that particular restaurant. Drumroll please for the first ever retro menu, below the jump…

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