Old Menus

[Kim Shook]

I looked and couldn't find this topic - if it exists, just tag this onto the existing thread.

 

I love old menus.  If I needed to start another collection, that's what I'd collect.  I do sometimes come across them, though, and keep them.  Of course, I can't find the others right now!  But Mr. Kim and I were down in Reidsville NC going through stuff at my late grandmother's house.  I found a menu from the "Pig N Whistle" in Tunica Mississippi.  This location doesn't seem to exist anymore and the Pig N Whistle in Millington TN (about an hour away from Tunica) seems to be mainly BBQ.  But there is some connection because they both claim to be named after a tradition of a tavern in England.  My mother's family is from the Mississippi Delta - Memphis, Shelby MS, Clarksdale MS, and Rosedale MS mostly.  So, I'm guessing that this was a "nice place" to go for a "nice meal" for them.  @kayb - do you know anything about this place?  The menu:

 

 

 

 

 

[liuzhou]

47 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

I love old menus.

 

Me too.

 

Many years ago I bought a book called "Menus". That's all it was - lots of menus. Loved it. No idea what happened to it.

Here is one I came across on the interwebs recently.

 

Sweet OR sour?

And I'll bet there were no bird's nests in that bird's nest soup.

But glad to see another confirmation that wontons and ravioli are essentially the same thing.

[Kim Shook]

I actually remember going to the Trader Vic's in Washington DC as a kid.  I know I loved the ribs, the noodles and the chow sui.  I remember feeling very elegant and grown up eating there!

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

I actually remember going to the Trader Vic's in Washington DC as a kid.

 

I'll bet the most expensive dish on the menu wasn't $3.25, though!

I remember the first time I went to a Chinese restaurant. In the UK in 1969. It billed itself as "authentic", but I now know no Chinese person would have recognized much! Perhaps rice. Only perhaps!

 

But  I was with my much more sophisticated than me new girlfriend with whom I was completely in lust love, so I didnt and still don't care! Wonder what happened to her.

Edited September 5, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

Right on cue comes this book published today. I'll be looking out for it. (via Twitter)

 

[chromedome]

6 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

I looked and couldn't find this topic - if it exists, just tag this onto the existing thread.

 

I love old menus.  If I needed to start another collection, that's what I'd collect.  I do sometimes come across them, though, and keep them.  Of course, I can't find the others right now!  But Mr. Kim and I were down in Reidsville NC going through stuff at my late grandmother's house.  I found a menu from the "Pig N Whistle" in Tunica Mississippi.  This location doesn't seem to exist anymore and the Pig N Whistle in Millington TN (about an hour away from Tunica) seems to be mainly BBQ.  But there is some connection because they both claim to be named after a tradition of a tavern in England.

 

 

 

There was a Pig & Whistle pub in Vancouver decades ago, when I first moved there. I'm in no position to say how authentic it was, having never been to the UK, though the couple who owned it were Brits. I don't have a menu, but I don't remember the food so that probably says something in an of itself.

 

There was also a television show by that name on the CTV network for several years, but the "pub" where it took place was just a set. The entertainers played traditional Irish/Scottish/English music.

[Maison Rustique]

I used to have a small collection of them, but have no idea what happened to them. ☹️

[liuzhou]

On 9/5/2019 at 6:51 PM, chromedome said:

I'm in no position to say how authentic it was, having never been to the UK

 

There are dozens of pubs in the UK called the Pig and Whistle. Which one is the authentic one to which the others should aspire? None.

Edited October 3, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[kayb]

This puts me in mind of the old Pig 'n Whistle on Union Avenue in Memphis, which closed in the 70s. Similar menu, from what I remember. I don't ever remember a Pig n Whistle in Tunica; we always either went to the Hollywood Cafe, or the Blue and White, which is one of those marvelous breakfast places. (It is, in fact, a white building with a bright blue roof.)

 

 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I don't know if this qualifies for this topic, but I have a collection of the menus from my voyage to Europe in 1969 on Holland America's Amsterdam. Here I was, a 21-year-old kid fresh from college, confronted by some of the most exotic (to me at the time) selections of "Continental" cuisine. Three meals a day and a midnight buffet, plus consomme and snacks all day long. The point being that if one's tummy was full and one was showing up for meals, one wouldn't suffer from seasickness. Seemed to work. That and liberal application of spirits, and I don't mean little gossamer creatures floating around in dark corners.

 

Every now and then I take out those menus, which were printed on heavy paper stock with illustrations from Dutch country scenes, and reminisce. I stayed in Europe until the money ran out and I had to call my parents (remember those phone booths?) to  send me enough $$ for a plane ticket. Flew out of Munich to London and then to Denver on BOAC, but the Munich leg took off late because the flight originated in West Berlin and the East Germans routinely hassled airliners, delaying arrivals. So we all stood in line in London to rebook, including Martha Raye, who was in her US Army uniform (she was a nurse).

 

Boy, does this bring back memories! I wonder if meals on the modern ships are anything like the ones on the Amsterdam. Anybody know how the food is?

 

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

Nancy in Pátzcuaro

Edited October 3, 2019 by Nancy in Pátzcuaro
to add content (log)

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

I don't know if this qualifies for this topic, but I have a collection of the menus from my voyage to Europe in 1969 on Holland America's Amsterdam. Here I was, a 21-year-old kid fresh from college, confronted by some of the most exotic (to me at the time) selections of "Continental" cuisine. Three meals a day and a midnight buffet, plus consomme and snacks all day long. The point being that if one's tummy was full and one was showing up for meals, one wouldn't suffer from seasickness. Seemed to work. That and liberal application of spirits, and I don't mean little gossamer creatures floating around in dark corners.

 

Every now and then I take out those menus, which were printed on heavy paper stock with illustrations from Dutch country scenes, and reminisce. I stayed in Europe until the money ran out and I had to call my parents (remember those phone booths?) to  send me enough $$ for a plane ticket. Flew out of Munich to London and then to Denver on BOAC, but the Munich leg took off late because the flight originated in West Berlin and the East Germans routinely hassled airliners, delaying arrivals. So we all stood in line in London to rebook, including Martha Raye, who was in her US Army uniform (she was a nurse).

 

Boy, does this bring back memories! I wonder if meals on the modern ships are anything like the ones on the Amsterdam. Anybody know how the food is?

 

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

Nancy in Pátzcuaro

 

Let’s see some menus!

[Kim Shook]

3 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Let’s see some menus!

I agree!  Don't you wish there had been an eGullet then so that you could have blogged it for us?  

[weinoo]

 

 

[liuzhou]

 

 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

OK--I'll have to dig up some of those menus. If I can find them, of course. When we moved to Pátzcuaro a lot of stuff went into long-term storage, but I'm pretty sure I know where they are. This may take a while.

 

Nancy in Pátzcuaro

[Katie Meadow]

The Titanic menus are remarkable. The Triple Screw says it all. And for breakfast it's nice they give you a choice between fresh fish and not-so-fresh fish, which is what the Yarmouth Bloaters must be.

[rotuts]

and the Captain's table  not as nice as

 

2d class !

 

the Captain did get turkey and cranberry sauce 

 

sad ,  no stuffing , nore mashed potatoes.

Edited October 3, 2019 by rotuts (log)

[gfweb]

3 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

captain's Table menu looks to be the least attractive one

[liuzhou]

7 hours ago, gfweb said:

captain's Table menu looks to be the least attractive one

 

Me too.

[liuzhou]

22 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

The Titanic menus are remarkable. The Triple Screw says it all. And for breakfast it's nice they give you a choice between fresh fish and not-so-fresh fish, which is what the Yarmouth Bloaters must be.

 

 

Nothing wrong with bloaters. They're just cold-smoked herring.

[Drew777]

I happen to know that one of the great libraries in NYC has a fine and extensive collection of "old" menus.  Google some research and you'll find it.

[liuzhou]

 

6 hours ago, Drew777 said:

I happen to know that one of the great libraries in NYC has a fine and extensive collection of "old" menus.  Google some research and you'll find it.

 

Many libraries have collections of menus, including the British library which has a huge collection.

 

 

Edited June 28, 2020 by liuzhou (log)

[Katie Meadow]

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

 

Many libraries have collections of menus, including the British library which has a huge collection.

 

 

 

Good thing Dick's is one minute from New Law Courts. Very convenient if you sue Dick after you  have a heart attack.

[Cross]

Hi Kim,  My grandfather was an owner at one time of this restaurant in Tunica and of a restaurant of same name in Memphis Tn (there may have been two in Memphis, I forget).  Old ads for the Pig N' Whistle from the 1930s and 1940s can been seen on the website for the SW'wester, the student newspaper for what is now Rhodes College in Memphis.  See also https://memphismagazine.com/ask-vance/lost-memphis-the-pig-n-whistle/

[Kim Shook]

6 hours ago, Cross said:

Hi Kim,  My grandfather was an owner at one time of this restaurant in Tunica and of a restaurant of same name in Memphis Tn (there may have been two in Memphis, I forget).  Old ads for the Pig N' Whistle from the 1930s and 1940s can been seen on the website for the SW'wester, the student newspaper for what is now Rhodes College in Memphis.  See also https://memphismagazine.com/ask-vance/lost-memphis-the-pig-n-whistle/

How cool!  It must have been a special place to them because they kept the menu all those years.  I wonder if my grandfather knew yours?  Thanks for the link to the article.