Shalloty

I may have posted this photograph previously. It’s from the Grolier Club exhibit
 “A Century of Dining Out: The American Story in Menus, 1841–1941”
(April 26 — July 29, 2023). The Henry Voigt Collection of American Menus, according to the GC,
contains more than 10,000 items. I wonder if the Blue Mill’s menu* is in the collection. 

From the introduction to the recipe for Via Carota’s insalata verde, by Samin Nosrat, on NYTCooking.com. [Italics mine.]

Next, the minced shallots are given a quick rinse under cold water — instead of a long maceration in vinegar — to keep them shalloty and savory and prevent them from becoming too acidic, which could overwhelm the delicate lettuces.

This word has the playfulness of a frilly white slip that’s slipped its hemline to get a better look at the wider world. (Personally, I love slips and still wear them.)

The recipe for the Via Carota salad looks pretty good, too. Commenters have a lot to say about the dressing. 

The only salad recipes I’ve ever paid attention to are the vegetarian epicure’s “salad of lettuce hearts with melted butter” — the epicure is Anna Thomas — and Elizabeth David’s “lettuce and almond salad.” Both, recipes, I notice include butter. Anna Thomas’s recipe was published in 1972 and Elizabeth David’s in 1965 (though possibly also in 1955, I’ve not checked).

* Before the Blue Mill Tavern closed in 1992, it was one of my favorite places in the city.  So was Mary Elizabeth’s tea room, at 36th and Fifth---at least during the summer of 1980, when I had my first summer job, at a publishing house. The subway cars had fans, then, not air conditioning. Iced tea at Mary Elizabeth’s came with a sprig of mint.