Nothing makes a young woman feel like a more mature one than "having the in-laws for the weekend." My husband (see: Cincinnati chili) and I have only been married a little bit over a year, and considering our short courtship, family time is essentially get-to-know-you time. Always surprises. Well, in the true spirit of my love of regional foods, we tried to introduce our guests to the distinctively Oklahoma foodways that has kept our fair city on the fattest cities in America lists. While my hatred of dubious statistics keeps me from pondering on the list and rankings for too long, I have to say that I'm proud our mayor, Mick Cornett, has made a commitment to getting our city fit.
After welcoming my inlaws to the breezy 104-degree day we were having in OKC, my husband and I whisked them to the first of many 'so Oklahoma' places--Pops on Route 66. Pops is quite the experience, as it boasts an inventory of hundreds of bottles of soda pop. There are pops from around the globe and across the country. The Pops shop includes a full-service restaurant and a gas station. It's the sort of place that may have been on old Route 66 in that its roadside attraction is the world's tallest soda pop bottle and straw. I hear that they light it up at night. Check out pics of it at www.pops66.com. So, as we were all sipping on our pop bottles hoping that it would cool down for the weekend (it did not), my mother-in-law mentioned a favorite 'pop' treat from her childhood in Detroit. (Incidentally, she was reading Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, a fantastic novel that makes the city of Detroit as compelling a character as the people. It's a must read...) One favored memory was of something called a Boston cooler, which she wasn't sure was real or a creation of her father. Apparently, my husband's grandpa was known to create things in his mind for his own palate and in his own interest and assume it was available, loved and accessible to millions. So, my mother-in-law truly doubted if anyone outside her household drank Boston coolers.
Well, luckily for her, she has a foodie/blogger/braniac daughter-in-law and after consulting the trusted sources at Wikipedia and Google (just like my students do for their term papers), I discovered that Boston cooler is recognized in the outside world. A Boston cooler is the delicate mix of Vernor's Ginger Ale and vanilla ice cream. Created sometime in the 188s0, the Boton cooler was one of many soda fountain drinks invented in the Motor City. I am a big fan of ice cream floats--Dairy Queen chocolate soft-serve and Coke--but I don't love the aching in my teeth as I drink it. The sugar of the ice cream kind of antagonizes the high fructose corn syrup in the soda, like a battle in an 1980s break dancing movie. It's just not fun. That is why the Boston cooler is a delightful alternative. The crispness of ginger ale gives your molars a break, while the creaminess of the vanilla ice cream sweetens it up and provides the coolness. Of course, if you were to go to Boston and order a Boston Cooler, no one would know what you are talking about. THAT is the beauty of local foods; they are distinctive to a place and sometimes make no sense outside of the city, state or region. So, as the weather in Oklahoma cools to a moderate 102 degrees, I will be enjoying a Boston Cooler in hopes that I won't suffer from a heat stroke. Sorry to leave on such a nasty note...it's too hot in Oklahoma.
Happy Eating!
1 comment:
I'm a big fan of not-to-sweet sweet things. My body just can't process all that sugar. When my in-laws were visiting, we had fresh strawberries for shortcake. My mother-in-law instructed me to put an entire cup of sugar over two pints of strawberries, which made the whole thing taste like a strawberry soda. I wish I'd gone with my gut feeling — which would have been about half the sugar.
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