Yankee Survival Guide: In Search of Eastern Goodies

Many Easterners are still about as eager to cross the Mississippi as the River Styx. But a good many others have joyously fled the cramped Coast for the wide open West. And a lot of them have landed in Dallas.

Few have any intention of returning. And yet, with an atavistic longing the psychologist would call nostalgic de la boue and the Texan sheer masochism, the expatriate invariably turns eyes eastward and sighs for his Mecca whether it be Boston or Manhattan or Washington, D.C.

It’s not the dirt, noise or local income taxes the former Easterner misses. Rather it’s the sense of living near a great city, with its multiplicity of nationalities, events, and foods. Dallas is a wonderful place: the people are friendly, the weather is kind, and the general cleanliness and optimism are inspiring. But because it’s so spread out, Dallas is not a city in the Eastern sense. Dallas is a great suburb.

This difference does not mean the Yankee living here cannot have the best of both worlds. As a transplanted Easterner myself, I have followed the yearnings of my Yankee palate in search of those treasures I’ve missed the most – and discovered I can survive quite nicely. It’s only fair to share them with fellow expatriates. But this guide is not for Yankees only. He who never gnawed a bagel is the poorer for it – by 150 calories and an unforgettable culinary experience.



It’s Good But It’s Not New York

Of course some of the elements of Eastern life cannot be duplicated here. Living in an Eastern city means you can often get by without a car. This must be why it is so difficult to get a good heavy-crusted bread in Dallas. You see, if you can walk to the neighborhood bakery to get your bread, you will probably end up cutting through a park on the way home. Eastern city parks, naturally, are full of muggers. But a well-placed, solidly carapaced pumpernickel can deflect a knife or bullet at point blank range. Since nobody walks in Dallas, defensive baking is not needed.

The Eastern predisposition to walking gives rise to other amenities not found in Dallas, such as the ubiquitous sidewalk vendors. In New York the favorite items thus sold are soft hot pretzels (which can not be duplicated here because of a lack of particulate matter in the atmosphere), hot dogs and Italian ice. These are all dispensed from colorful, umbrella’d carts, a group of which, all apparently manned by members of the same extensive family, will set up within 25 feet of each other on a busy street, say in front of the Metropolitan Museum. Making a purchase from any one of the carts entitles you to a free view of another New York spectacle – the Sicilian shouting match.

In Washington, the vendors favor simple stands and quickly folded suitcases. There you can buy a hand-tooled belt of genuine cardboard for not much more than you’d pay at Woolworth’s, or a dewy bunch of jonquils plucked just that morning from the Capitol grounds.

One of the most striking features of the East is the high number of immigrants and second and third generation Americans of every derivation. Most Easterners know a few words of Yiddish and Italian, and every decent-sized city on the coast has a distinct Chinatown. My favorite restaurant in Washington was a Greek place where we would always see a table in the corner surrounded by swarthy muscular men. They would turn and glower at us for a few seconds, then go back to plotting the overthrow of the former military regime or whatever.

With so many ethnic groups, the East naturally has a corner on certain cuisines, particularly the Jewish and Italian. Finding East Coast favorites from such cuisines is not impossible in Dallas, but it is controversial. If I tell you where to get the New York Times, no one will dispute that it is indeed bread and garnished with enough oil, onion and spices so that you can still taste it after three successive tooth brushings. Getting the proper filling wasn’t too hard for Harkness, but he went to great lengths to find the proper bread here. “I brought a recipe from a baker in New Jersey,” he recalls. “People didn’t know how to bake this kind of bread here. I went to every bakery in town and finally found one guy who would do it.” His name remains a secret.

The combination of this “perfect” bread and a filling that adds up to a quarter pound of meat and cheese – traditionally ham, provolone and spicy Italian meat capicolla – has been a commercial success for Harkness and a godsend for Eastern transplants.

Harkness also steered us to what our Eastern taste buds say is the best pizza in Dallas. It’s found at Marco’s, 1034 Preston Royal Shopping Center. Don’t be deterred by the fact that Marco’s is operated by Mexican-Americans. They make a delicious, crisp, not over-greasy pizza. Basically a carry-out shop, Marco’s has a good supply of U.S. News and World Reports to read while you’re waiting.

If, like many an Easterner, you miss the little Italian grocery store so prevalent on the coast, don’t worry. There are several in Dallas that draw a large Yankee trade. Both Vince’s, 115 Marsh Lane Shopping Village, Walnut Hill and Marsh Lane, and Al’s, 8209 Park and Greenville, feature home-made sausage. Proprietors of both stores say that Easterners find it the closest thing to the sausage back home. They also have the delicate prosciutto ham (“Italians who were brought up here don’t know what it is,” remarks Al Cascio, owner of Al’s), pungent cheeses, and the spicy capi-colla. You can also find frozen Italian dishes, such as ravioli and stuffed manicotti from New York area companies such as Silver Star and Buitoni. All manner and shape of pasta line the shelves. Al’s also has Greek and Lebanese products.

Alas, it is still impossible to get a truly crusty Italian bread even at these stores. Lamenting the absence of such bread in Dallas, Betty Sheu, manager of Vince’s, advises that the closest thing to it is the Louisiana French bread made by the Superior Bakery, 3502 Oak Lawn.

There is another item that Yankees may have some difficulty locating – real veal. The genuine article can be found at Tom Thumb stores and Treasury markets and some Yankees claim that the veal is especially good at the Promenade Meat Center at 370 Westwood in Promenade Center, and at Kuby’s Sausage House, 6601 Snider Plaza.

With all the food imported from theEast and with the general abundancein the supermarkets, it is evident thatno Dallas Yankees will starve todeath. But there are still some Easterngoodies one longs for, those littlethings we’ve missed the most: Italianice, chipped ham, hard kaiser rolls,Drakes Cakes, Yoo-Hoo chocolatesoda and Mell-O-Roll ice cream bars.We’ll just have to write home forthose.