Oh, they’re there. You’re just not looking. I have several bags in the freezer. Van Der Kamp and Gorton’s are the brands I usually see. I use them to make lazy-man’s fish tacos.
Or ribbon candy.
Oooh, count me in for both.
How 'bout Candy Raisins? They were discontinued back in 2008, but brought back.
I loves me some deviled ham! And braunschweiger or liverwurst on a sandwich with sharp cheddar cheese and mustard.
Outside of (rarely) Caesar salad, how often do waiters prepare dishes tableside anymore? Fillet of Dover sole, pressed duck, crepes Suzette, and so on. (Although semi-fancy Mexican restaurants might prepare fajitas and guacamole tableside.)
When was the last time you saw hollandaise sauce apart from Eggs Benedict, a similar dish.
Thick creamy French-derived sauces such as bechamel and bearnaise are uncommon these days, or modified to make them lighter. Cream-sauce covered dishes like chicken tetrazzini are a lot less common, too, although fettucini alfredo still is going strong.
Any time I eat at a decent restaurant. It’s a standard offering at any number of places we eat at. I don’t order it on things much, but it’s a option.
Handmade pierogis are widely available in Brooklyn, even in supermarkets, and very good. I think they are rolled on the thighs of beautiful young Polish girls.
I usually buy potato and onion, and serve them with my own sauerkraut. You can get them stuffed with kraut, with mushrooms, with potato and garlic, and a couple of sweet variations.
Oddly enough, now that the borough has gotten more gentrified, less ethnic, more whitebread, you can find good pierogi more easily. Thirty years ago, I had to go to a Polish neighborhood to get them.
Readily available at most I shop at. My husband loves the things.
Not Mrs. Paul’s? I always thought of that as the emblematic brand.
Using them for fish tacos is fucking brilliant. Gotta try that.
I don’t think Mrs. Paul’s is in business any more, I miss ‘her’ crab cakes…I also miss Stouffer’s little box of lobster newburg. And La Choy appetizer eggrolls…As for fishsticks, there are many brands in every grocery store. Where on earth do you people shop that you can’t see them in the freezer case? I buy a store brand made from pollock, 18 for about $3! We love our fish sticks here. I put frozen seasoned fries and fish sticks on a baking sheet and announce tonight we’re having UFOs - unidentified frying objects…One more thing, Sunshine Raisin Biscuits (Garibaldi biscuits) made with raisins. They aren’t very good, but sometimes we get a craving for them. They’re easy enough to make and taste about the same as commercially made. And Aldi sells something similar, only made with apple.
Chun King used to have an egg foo yung kit I really liked.
It may be a regional thing. I don’t have any familiarity with the Mrs. Paul’s brand. I looked online, and they do show up in my Target and Walmart searches, but no store within 50 miles of where I live carries them (I don’t know the closest store that carries them—the Walmart simply said “none within 50 miles” and the Target search said “unavailable near you.”) Mrs. Paul’s online product locator shows that there are no stores that carry it within 30 miles of me (that’s as wide as I could cast my search on their site.) Oddly enough, apparently the founder of Mrs. Paul’s was born in Chicago ,but started his company out in Philly.
I may have read about Mrs. Paul and her fish sticks in MAD magazine, back in the '60s. It often referenced New York area products that weren’t available to us in Cleveland.
Jokes about the “MORE PARKS SAUSAGES, MOM” commercials made no sense to me, either, when I was a kid.
I have nothing against beautiful young Polish girls, mind you, but for really good pierogis, you need to find the beautiful young Polish girl’s beautiful old Polish grandmother.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Melting Pot in action.
Add in that the “advances” in food science came in the 50s, when middle class housewives were victims of the cult of domesticity, and you get a lot of “fancy” foods hitting home kitchens - geletain becomes easy. Beef Wellington is time consuming, but these housewives have time - and beef has become affordable to the middle class.
The next set of foods in 1970s meals - chicken ala king - the way I know it (noodles, canned chicken, cream of mushroom soup) come from an era when women worked, divorce was fairly high, and the kitchen became something you didn’t have all day to spend it. Men needed to cook something if they were divorced, and chicken ala king or sloppy joes are easy when the kids are over. If you are working full time, tuna casserole whips up easy - no one has time for beef wellington (which is a two day deal, if I remember). The 70s were also a recession, so a meal that was cheap and quick was popular.
Someday we will look back on this era and wonder if people really went out for sushi. Remember the 1990s fascination with fajitas? How about $5 each oysters?
(Shrimp cocktail is still huge if the big party platters of shrimp over the holiday season is any indication. The only difference is we don’t tend to have individual appetizer sized serving of it often, and more often serve it on a tray).
In August at Blue Zoo - a Todd English restaurant. It was a fish dish, cooked in the kitchen, but finished tableside. I’ve also had bananas foster lit at my table in the past year.
Over asparagus at my own house over the holidays. My mother in law LOVES hollandaise - my husband really enjoys it as well. I’m not big on it, but I’ve learned to make it
A lot of these dishes you can find at good restaurants. Hollaindaise or bearnaise is still on a lot of good steak house menus.
And my favorite Italian place does amazing homemade noodles and cream sauces. Very rich. They also deep fry their pizza dough - its SO good. Not shocking, its hard to get a table (and they don’t take reservations).
Yes, the Babushka but Ukrainian is possibly better than Polish. 
Exactly. Hooray for immigrants!!!
:eek: Ick. They aren’t ‘rolled’. They’re crimped like turnovers. Most likely squished under your beautiful young Polish girls hairy armpits. Or asscheeks. :dubious: Enjoy!
Exactly. You need the grandmother to prepare the filling and to form, stuff and crimp the shells. The beautiful young Polish or Ukrainian girls can be enlisted later to bless the perogies by pressing them between their lovely thighs or sitting on them, as custom might require, but the grandmother is absolutely essential to the proceedings. 