Footnotes to the TV series
RORY: You remember – she was the one you made all those Hamburg/hamburger jokes to.
LORELAI: God, I beat that dead horse.
See “The Horse is Dead“.
Although hamburgers literally mean “from Hamburg”, the connection between the food and the city is far from certain.
TRIX: Now, please take this to your chef. These are the times I would like each course to appear at this table. [Emily rolls her eyes, Lorelai looks at her] I like a brisk pace, twelve minutes per course is best for my digestion. However, please tell your servers that they are not to clear until everyone has finished. Thank you.
Sookie has made twelve courses, so even at a “brisk pace” of twelve minutes per course, the dinner would last more than two hours. Emily makes it last even longer.
CLARA: I want a pretzel and a snowcone and a cheese stick. . .
Pretzel, a type of baked bread made from dough that is commonly shaped into aknot. The traditional pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical form, with the ends of a long strip of dough intertwined and then twisted back onto itself in a particular way (a pretzel loop or pretzel bow). They may be either soft or hard-baked.
They have been eaten since the Middle Ages, have been an emblem of baker’s guilds, and are a traditional food for Lent, since they are made with only flour and water. They are particularly associated with Germany and German culture, and immigrants introduced pretzels to the US in the 18th century. Pennsylvania is often considered the pretzel heartland of the US, and soft pretzels are the most common and popular.
FRANCIE: Hey, no one is denying Gidget a chance to snag Moondoggie for the clambake, but the rest of us have things to accomplish.
A reference to the film Gidget, previously discussed. In the film, Moondoggie (played by James Darren) was Gidget’s love interest and eventual boyfriend. They didn’t really attend a clambake, but a luau. Presumably Francie thinks a clambake is the closest thing to a luau in New England.
KIRK: Today we have … various marzipan fruits made by a sect of cloistered nuns in Toledo.
Toledo is a city of around 80 000 people in central Spain on the Tagus River, known as the “City of Three Cultures”, for the influences of Christians, Jews and Muslims on its history. There are several convents of cloistered nuns in the city, and many of them do indeed specialise in making sweets such as marzipan.
KIRK: Today we have an almond torte, an apple pandowdy, and various marzipan fruits made by a sect of cloistered nuns in Toledo.
Almond torte: an almond cake, rich and sweet, which may be simple or multilayered.
Apple pandowdy [pictured]: pandowdy is a New England term for something similar to cobbler, a pudding which has a fruit filling covered with a batter or biscuit topping before being baked. A classic pandowdy is covered in little scraps of pastry and cooked in a skillet, hence “pan dowdy”. Pandowdy sometimes has a crust on the bottom as well, so that it resembles a deep dish pie.
Marzipan: a confection consisting primarily of sugar, honey, and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract. It is often made into sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzipan and small marzipan imitations of fruits and vegetables. Marzipan is mentioned several times in Gilmore Girls as something of a strange, European novelty food.
Note that Weston’s has thirty different types of pie, and thirty-two flavours of ice cream.
RORY: No, or the taffy binge of ’97.
Taffy is a type of candy from the US, made by stretching or/and pulling a sticky mass of soft candy base, made of boiled sugar, butter, vegetable oil, flavorings, and colorings, until tiny bubbles form, resulting in a light, fluffy and chewy candy. The word dates to 1817, and the origin is not known. In the UK, this kind of candy is known as “chewy sweets”.
Lorelai and Rory may have binged on taffy they bought at a candy store, possibly on one of their road trips, as it is a specialty of New England. It isn’t difficult to make at home, and if they ate home made taffy, I’d think Sookie would have made it for them. This sickly binge occurred in 1997, when Rory was 12-13.
LUKE: So, how did the four dinners work out? You guys must feel more stuffed than you’ve ever been.
LORELAI: I don’t know. Is this more stuffed than the great Six Flags hot dog consumption of ’99?
Six Flags is an amusement park corporation founded in the 1960s in Arlington, Texas, and headquartered in Manhattan. It has 27 theme parks in the US, Canada, and Mexico, more than any other amusement park company, and has more than 30 million guests each year. The name Six Flags refers to the flags of the six nations which have governed Texas over the years – Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the USA, and the Confederate States of America.
The nearest Six Flags to Lorelai and Rory is Six Flags New England, in Agawam, Massachusetts. It is just north of the Connecticut border, about an hour’s drive away. They went to the theme park in 1999, possibly during the summer vacation, when Rory was nearly 15.
LORELAI: Is there anything ceremonial about the salads? Do we carve a crouton, then have them taken away?
A crouton is a piece of rebaked bread, often cubed and seasoned. They are often used to add texture and flavor to salads. The word crouton is derived from the French croûton, meaning “little crust”. Croutons are often seen in the shape of small cubes, but they can be of any size and shape, up to a very large slice.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 