Tuesday, April 08, 2008

 

Opening Day at Fenway


I'm at Logan Airport getting ready to head back to Texas, but here in Boston it is opening day at Fenway Park. The World Champion BoSox are back in town, and that's big news here. I drove past the park today and saw the crowds heading in, and wish that I was a part of it. Fenway is a fascinating park-- as the diagram here shows, it is a bizarre shape, with left field shortened and then covered up with a giant green wall. Baseball is an odd sport in that there is no standardization as to the size of the playing surface-- it is as if in football some fields were 80 yards and others were 120.

Boston is intriguing in a number of ways. The toll taker calls you "boss," and the hot dogs are served in regular bread. To emphasize things, they tend to put words in quotes rather than underline, bold, or italicize them. Thus, you end up with a sign that says "Please... "no" smoking." Now, to my reading, those italics signify that they don't really mean "no," but that is "not" a proper Boston interpretation.

Plus, you can't find a decent fried pie in the whole state.

Comments:
"No" friend pie, means "no" culture.
 
How about "lahttays" (i.e., lattes)?
 
Reminds me of those CAR TALK guys on NPR... THey have CDs out of goffy car songs, and one is called "Driving in Massachusetts." by Greg Greenway

Some of the words are:

On the first day I knew I was done
When I was sideswiped by Atilla the Hun
In passing ha cast aspersions on my ancestry....

Driving in Massachusetts...
 
PS What is FRIED PIE?

You mean they take a entire pie and fry it? or just one piece? I don't get it...

I have seen Key lime Pie, frozen,
dipped in chocolate, on a stick... And I THINK at last years Pumpkin Festival in Canby they may have had something like fried apple pie....and Bill wanted some, but I had to babysit the dog while he and everyone else went on the hayride, so I never got him some..
 
"The Fried Pie"

What is a Fried Pie? A Fried pie is a pastry dessert, similar to a pie or a turnover, but the usually fruity filling is actually wrapped in the dough, similar to the dough of a pie crust, and then fried. The result is a tasty treat enjoyed by many people who do not even like pie. This pie is usually enjoyed in the southern states of America. (Courtesy of Wikipedia).

Where I was introduced to the wonderful food that is a fried pie: http://www.hutchspies.com/index.html

And just in case certain people (ahem Professor Osler) still do not believe that there is such a thing as a fried pie...
please scroll down the page at the above address and view the pictures of the fried pies.

=)
 
Fenway is great. And what a difference 4 years and 2 World Series Championships makes. Bill Buckner actually threw out the first pitch on Opening Day. Unbelievable.
 
My [late] grandmother made wonderful fried pies. My aunt - who lives in Waco - has the recipe and gets as close to my grandmother's recipe as anyone.
 
My late grandmother (in North Carolina) also made great fried pies. Always apple fried pies. It was sort of like a sandwich--she took a piece of white bread and put the apple filling inside, flipped one side of the bread over so it looked like half a sandwich, crimped together the ends, and voila. Fried apple pies. Mmmm. We loved them.
 
. . . or she would use leftover bits of pie dough, too, for the fried pies . . . anyway, they were great.
 
OK Here in Oregon, in Canby we have the Top O' Hill:

http://www.canby.com/topohillrestaurant/

If Sam Drucker from Hooterville had had a restaurant, this would be it, complete with hundred year old waitresses and a reserved table for this one group of suspender wearing 90 year old guys that come for breakfast every day weityhout fail and talk extremely loudly about all the news of Canby.

SO this place serves their WORLD FAMOUS APPLE DUMPLINGS. I think this might be FRIED PIE... because it is like an apple, wrapped in a pie crust and cooked and then covered in Caramel sauce and served with ice cream. We ate there last night and Bill usually get this and we all share it.

They call it a dumpling - so, but is that it?
 
PS:
UPDATE:
I have been informed that the dumpling is NOT fried. However we still love the crazy TOP O'HILL Diner. What I love the most is that they have a great kids menu, and they are very tolerant of kids. Spencer gets all crazy and loud and spills his milk every time and leaves crayons on the floor and pulls out way too many napkins and tells everyone who comes in that we have a goat... and no one even blinks. Plus I like their meatloaf.

IF Baylor Law School was a restaurant it would probably be like the TOP O HILL.
 
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