DINNER
The Quick Quirk Quiz
The Surprising Stories, Hidden History,
and Unusual Origins Behind Familiar Things
By Janet Spencer, Trivia Queen of the Universe
Royal Ruler of Useless Information
Master of Arcane Knowledge & Extraneous Lore
Keeper of Forgotten Facts & Startling Statistics
Published by Janet Spencer at Smashwords.com
Copyright 2009 Janet Spencer
Discover other works by Janet Spencer at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/triviaqueen
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Thank you for your support!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
How a Restaurant Reviewer Got Into Your Cabinet
How a Naturalist Got Into Your Freezer
How John’s Mom Got Into Your School Lunch
Name That Dairy Farmer
Too Many Turkeys, and an Idea
A Train Trip Sparks a New Idea
XXXX Marks the Spot
A Baker With a Better Biscuit
The Failure of Canned Rice
An Armenian Recipe
Sick Chickens Result in Healthy Humans
Bread and Balloons
The Woman Who Revolutionized Cooking
A Suburban Street Goes Down in History
Building a Fortune from Peanuts
Desperation Salad
A South-of-the-Border Salad
A Super Sandwich
A New Noodle Dish
The Opera Star On Your Dinner Plate
An Operatic Snack
An Italian Chef
The Minced Meat Man
Pig Butcher for the World
Hot Dog Heaven
Ham-In-a-Can
Straight from the Comics
A Tasty Snack
How a Restaurant Reviewer Got Into Your Cabinet
A traveling salesman realized that many roadside restaurants served horrible food while others served delicious food. He compiled a list of his favorite places to eat while on the road, and he included the list in a Christmas card he sent to his friends in 1935. Afterwards he was inundated with requests for copies of that list from people he’d never heard of. He took the hint and published a guide to the best restaurants along America's highways called Adventures in Good Eating. Americans were in a motoring craze, and the book sold millions. He authored six more books. Restaurants across the nation sported signs saying they'd been recommended in the book. The food reviews he wrote were brutally honest: “If the soup was as warm as the wine, if the wine was as old as the turkey, if the turkey had breasts like the maid, it would have been a fine dinner.” A few years later, a man named Roy Park came out with a new line of baking mixes and he needed an endorsement. Polls of housewives showed that the name of the restaurant reviewer was more well-known than that of the vice-president of the U.S., Alben Barkley, even in Barkley's home state. In 1948 Roy Park and the author teamed up. Three weeks after the introduction of their new product line, they had garnered 48 percent of the national market. These baking mixes are still found in every grocery store in America. What was the name of the restaurant reviewer?
Answer: Duncan Hines.
How a Naturalist Got Into Your Freezer
Clarence was a naturalist who went on an Arctic expedition in the 1920s. One day he went ice fishing when it was 20 below zero and the fish he caught froze instantly when he removed them from the water. Back at camp, he tossed a fish into a bucket of warm water and was amazed to see it come to life again. He concluded that it had survived because it had been frozen so quickly. This gave him an idea. He tried flash-freezing food, with good success. Freezing food quickly prevents large ice crystals from forming, preventing damage to the cellular structure so that, when thawed, it tastes the same. In 1924 Clarence began marketing the first line of frozen food – fish. They didn’t sell well, because people didn’t trust the product and few people, including grocers, owned freezers. However, one day heiress Marjorie Post of Post cereals was on a yacht with her husband E. F. Hutton when their chef served a goose dinner, even though goose was out of season. She asked the chef where he’d gotten the goose and he subsequently introduced her to Clarence. She convinced her husband and the board of directors of Post to sign up Clarence and invest in this new technology. By 1930 they were selling 26 kinds of frozen foods. In the mid-1930s they introduced a freezer display case leased to grocers who couldn’t afford to buy one. By the time Clarence died in 1956, the company he started, named after himself, was one of the best known names in frozen foods. What was his last name?
Answer: Birdseye.
How John’s Mom Got Into Your School Lunch
In 1946 there was a strike at the Philadelphia power plant where Edward Piszek worked. To earn money, he started working in a bar where he made crab cakes. One evening he made 172, but only sold 50. Not wanting to waste them, he packed them into a freezer. A week later, they were still good. With no sign of the strike ending, he and his friend John decided to go into business selling frozen fish patties. Feeling their product needed a woman’s touch to appeal to homemakers, they resolved to name their company after a woman. Edward Piszek’s mother pressured them to name it after her, but they named it after John’s mother because her name was easier to spell. The best thing they had going for them was the Roman Catholic prohibition against eating meat (except fish) on Fridays. Edward teamed up with his wife to sell grocers on his product. First, he would go in and give the sales pitch, then his wife would enter the store and exclaim over it. Next Edward would hire his friends to go into the store and buy up the product, creating an artificial demand. The fish sticks were easy to prepare, children loved them, and Edward scored a business coup when schools put them on the lunch menu. He bought out John’s portion of the business but kept the name of John’s mother. He sold out to Campbell’s in 1982 and spent the rest of his life as a philanthropist. What was the name of John’s mother?
Answer: Mrs. Paul.
Name That Dairy Farmer