Issues → September/October 2010 → Features →
Quiz: How New England Are You?
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73. Buy the Maple Syrup That Locals Buy
Yes, you can pay more for that Vermont Fancy, but savvy locals know the better deal and a stronger maple taste comes from the Grade B stuff, sold in bulk at food co-ops and small shops around the region.
74. Debate the Cakes
Rhode Islanders have come to blows over jonnycakes for any number of reasons--over how they originated (Indians vs. settlers), over how to spell the name (journey-cake vs. Johnny cake vs. Jonny cake vs. johnnycake vs. jonnycake), over which kind of corn to grind for jonnycake meal (whitecap flint vs. white dent), and even over how to grind that corn (hot and round vs. flat and cool). Of course the most heated arguments occur over the "correct" way to make them: Debates about the merits of South County (West Bay)-style (thick, made with boiling water) vs. Newport County (East Bay)-style (thin, made with cold milk) have even reached the Rhode Island legislature. It's enough to work up a healthy appetite.
75. Know That Covered Bridges Weren't Covered to Keep Out the Snow
Joe Allen of Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, who answered Yankee reader inquiries for more than 35 years in his "Sayings of the Oracle" column, had a short fuse when it came to questions regarding the origin of the covered bridge. One of his last answers proved to be the hottest: "Jesus for Guard Almighty, we thought all hands knew by this time," he wrote back to one reader. "Bridges were covered, damn fool, for the same reason women used to wear petticoats--to protect their underpinnings. Ever hear that wood rots when it gets wet? Your asinine suggestion that they were covered to keep the snow off the road is dead wrong. In fact, I recollect throwing snow inside the bridges after a snowstorm so our sleighs wouldn't grind on the wood." Rest in peace, Joe.
Reader Comments
Comment from Patrick Lien on September 1, 2010
No one orders that way at Louis\' Lunch, and they don\'t offer lettuce. You can get your choice of 3 toppings: onion (grilled with the meat), a slice of tomato, or a smear of cheese whiz. Burgers with both the tomato and onion are called \"works.\" Order a burger with all 3, and you\'ll call it a \"cheese works.\"
Comment from Lily Taylor on September 17, 2010
Or, you don\'t do half of this stuff and still be a New Englander.
Comment from Ernest Phelps on September 27, 2010
aH WHAT A TREAT!!! AS A NEW ENGLANDER WHO IS DOING \'TIME\' IN NORTH CAROLINA THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE DONE IN YEARS...THIS IS HOME.
I HAVE MISSED YANKEE MAG...NOW YOU ARE A KEYBOARD AWAY!! TIME TO PAY MY DUES SHORTLY.
Comment from Robert Wordell on October 17, 2010
Boy where do I start? How about with chowder it\'s clear, not red or white but clear. The Vermont Country Store is a treasure, love it. Coffee Milk, you get a pick-me-up from the caffeine and vitamin D all in one. You can\'t beat that. I grew up on brown eggs. I\'m 6\'3.5\". I grew up in Adamsville on a chicken farm; guess what breed of chickens we had. Boston baked beans, Brown Bread in a coffee can, New England Boiled Dinners, Yankee Pot Roast, Toll House Cookies, all home cooked. Having grown up in Adamsville I am very fimular with the monument to a chicken. How could anybody think of eating apple pie without a slice of cheddar cheese? Across the road from the chicken monument in Adamsville their used to be a general store called Manchester?s. They would buy Cheddar cheese by the wheel that had been aged a few years and then age it a couple of more years, boy was that stuff good. During WW II when my dad was in the Army, my mother and I lived with her parents in Bristol. The parade went right by the front door, what a treat. I\'ve been to the Constitution And I was born in Fall River not too far from Lizzys\' house, IT IS JONNYCAKES AND THEY ARE MADE WITH COLD MILK AND FLINT CORN AND ANYONE WHO PUTS SYRUP OR GRAVY ON THEM IS UNAMERICAN ;>)
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