[Sca-cooks] I is in teh East Kingdom! -- plus, a digression on the Rochester Garbage Plate

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 6, 2009, at 9:14 AM, Ginny Beatty wrote:

> The chili sauce for the hot dogs in Central New York is an interesting
> phenomenon. I have an aunt and uncle in Wellsville, NY and there's a
> restaurant in town known as Texas Hot.

I don't recall this being a Thing in the Southern Tier of New York,  
where, at least in the areas with which I'm familiar, the spiedie  
(yes, this is the correct spelling, derived from Italian spiedini) is  
king (more meat on a stick).

> The sauce on the hot dog is to
> me, reminiscent of Cincinnati Chili (more specifically Skyline Chili).
> More cinnamon and cumin than cayenne.

Well, cumin is a very common, almost requisite, chili ingredient, but  
cinnamon in this case appears like it might be a nod to the many  
Greeks (who often add it to tomato sauces) who have opened restaurants  
in the US, regardless of the actual cuisine nominally pursued. [We've  
got two or three local diners, all serve a fine Irish full breakfast,  
beans on toast, a mixed grill in the evenings: one run by actual Irish  
folks, one, I believe, by Dominicans, and one with a Greek-American  
chef -- the food between the three is largely indistinguishable most  
of the time.]

> The brothers who run the
> restaurant are Greek as well as the founders of Skyline Chili (the
> Lambrinides brothers). Hmm....coincidence?

Sounds like, not. Or not much.

But yes, the sauce in question is fairly wimpy by Scoville-unit  
standards; the recipes I've seen for it do include cayenne, but not in  
any serious quantity. I'm not sure, though, that for this application,  
it's a problem.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter