Dakota Beacon

Enough of politics – at least for the moment. With political party conventions behind us, there is time enough to get one’s fill of hardscrabble politics over the next one hundred days. Speaking of “fill” brings to mind food.

Food. Now there’s a delicious topic. With summer’s fresh produce and outdoor grilling, there is no better digression from political indigestion than food.

Some prominent people over the years have commented on food and their love of the same. Here are some tidbits from a rare find “The Night 2000 Men Came to Dinner” by Douglas Meldrum. These quotable notables certainly place themselves in the category of culinary luminaries.

Aside from cornbread and honey and a good cup of coffee, Abraham Lincoln paid little attention to food and drink. That said, he personally planned the menu for the luncheon celebrating his inauguration as sixteenth president of the United States and it was mighty frugal fare. The luncheon consisted of mock turtle soup, corned beef and cabbage, parsley potatoes, blackberry pie and coffee.

Ulysses S. Grant was well known for his love of liquor. What is less known is his fondness for cucumbers. Often he would dine exclusively on cucumbers and a cup of coffee.

After a sumptuous meal at the Maxwell House restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, Theodore Roosevelt was so pleased with his coffee he gave his compliments. “That was good to the last drop!” Thus was born the advertising slogan heard round the world.

A classic comment was rendered by Calvin Coolidge at a White House dinner party. A guest remarked, “You go to so many dinners, they must bore you a great deal.” Continuing to eat and without missing a beat Coolidge observed, “Well, a man has to eat somewhere.”

Upon arriving in the White House, Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess acquired a housekeeper from the Roosevelts. Bess, gentle soul that she was, hinted time and time again that the Roosevelt housekeeper should resign that they might bring in their own housekeeper. The woman didn’t take the hint until one evening at dinner, after having been served Brussels sprouts for the third night in a row, and having been told that the President did not like Brussels sprouts, the housekeeper was given her walking papers.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a fervent cook and often did his own grocery shopping. It was rumored that Ike did the cooking because the only thing his wife, Mamie, knew how to cook was fudge. “I was never permitted in the kitchen when I was a young girl,” opined Mamie ruefully.

No one objected to Ronald Reagan’s fondness for jelly beans. Reportedly, at least forty million were consumed during his two terms as president at various celebrations, inaugurations and cabinet meetings. His real weakness, however, was during the showing of old movies after hours in the White House. It was then that he was known as a popcorn addict.

When John F. Kennedy visited the Berlin Wall in 1963 he said to the cheering crowd, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” meaning to say, “I am a Berliner.” According to C. David Heyman in his book “A Woman Named Jackie,” Kennedy’s German was not quite precise. “What he actually said was, ‘I am a jelly doughnut,’ referring to an indigenous pastry know as a Berliner. The more correct phrase…would have been ‘Ich bin Berliner.’”

When President George H. W. Bush banned broccoli from Air Force One he was ask, “Why?” His response was, “I do not like broccoli. I did not like broccoli when I was a kid and my mother made me eat it. Now I am the President of the United States and I do not have to eat broccoli if I don’t want to.” So there!

With presidents serving as food pundits can politics be far behind?

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).