Footnotes to the TV series
RORY: What’s good are the yams.
LORELAI: Definitely. Got some more marshmallows?
Sweet potatoes are often called “yams” in North America. Candied sweet potatoes are a side dish sweetened with brown sugar, marshmallows, maple syrup, molasses, orange juice, candied chestnuts, or other sweet ingredients. It is often served at Thanksgiving.
SOOKIE: A couple of days ago, Jackson asked me if he could cook the turkey. I thought he was gonna roast it, stick a couple of onions around it, something simple. So I said yes, figuring that the minute he put it in the oven and leaves the kitchen, I can sneak in and give it a nice herb butter rub and stuff it with a pancetta-chestnut stuffing.
Sookie allows Jackson to cook the Thanksgiving turkey when his family come for dinner, but with this couple’s typical rotten communication, what Sookie actually means is that as soon as she gets a chance she will secretly rub the turkey over with herb butter to keep it moist, and stuff it with chestnuts and pancetta (an Italian salt-cured pork belly meat product).
Although this sounds lovely, Jackson’s plan is actually to deep fry the turkey in peanut oil, much to Sookie’s dismay. Of course, he doesn’t share his plans with Sookie, and she doesn’t tell him how unhappy she is about it.
MRS. KIM: Try the tofurkey. Turkey made from tofu.
Tofurkey is a vegan meat substitute made from tofu and wheat protein, made into a loaf, filled with stuffing and flavoured with herbs and spices. As a brand name, Tofurky is made by Turtle Island Foods in Hood River, Oregon. It is stuffed with mushrooms and wild rice, and has been available since 1995.
[On Thanksgiving morning, Lorelai and Rory are walking toward the market]
RORY: What’s on the list?
LORELAI: Flowers for everyone we’re visiting and cranberry sauce for the Kims.
Cranberry sauce is a relish made from cranberries. In the US, the word “cranberries” refers to Vaccinium macrocarpon, a North American species of cranberry, grown commercially for its berries. Cranberry sauce in the US is more heavily sweetened than the tarter, more astringent version common in Europe. Cranberry sauce is traditionally served with turkey at Thanksgiving, and sometimes Christmas.
LUKE: Don’t bother, saw you coming, already ordered your Wednesday usual – the French dip, extra fries, the every-Wednesday cherry pie.
We know the Gilmore girls like their food routines, with every Wednesday being the day they have a Danish pastry and coffee for breakfast. Wednesday for dinner, which is always at the diner, they order extra fries with their dinner and French [onion] dip to have with them, and cherry pie for dessert.
Hm, cherry Danish for breakfast and cherry pie for dinner? What is it about Wednesdays and cherries with these girls??? And having a set menu on Wednesdays in general? Perhaps it’s meant to be a sort of midweek lift.
SOOKIE: Bob has two seconds to get the hollandaise off the flame before I break his neck!
Hollandaise sauce, a mixture of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice/white wine/vinegar, usually seasoned with salt and pepper/cayenne pepper. It’s a key ingredient in eggs Benedict, and often served on vegetables such as steamed asparagus.
The name is French for “Dutch sauce”, but it’s unclear why. The first known recipe was published as “fragrant sauce” in a 1651 recipe book by Francois de la Varenne, and it’s possible he invented it. A Dutch recipe for a similar sauce was published 16 years later, which may explain the name.
When making the sauce, it’s very important not to overcook it, or you will turn it into something resembling runny scrambled egg – hence Sookie’s stress about Bob leaving it on the flame too long.
LORELAI: Is [Sookie] melting down?
MICHEL: Like butter on a skillet.
In American English, a skillet is a frying pan.
LUKE: I already have food here. We sell it to the other customers who don’t come quite as prepared as the two of you.
LORELAI: Mm, be nice and get us some salsa.
Salsa, a variety of sauces used as condiments for tacos, dips for tortilla chips, and other dishes in Mexican and Mexican-American cuisine. In Spanish, the word salsa just means “sauce” (any sauce), but in English, it specifically refers to Mexican table sauces.
Their use in the US was popularised by Mexican restaurants, gaining in popularity during the 1980s. By 1992, salsa sales in the US exceeded those for tomato ketchup.
RICHARD: See that? That is my favorite building in the whole school … Because that’s where the Timothy Dwight Dining Hall is.
This is the dining hall of Timothy Dwight College, a residential college at Yale University which opened in 1935. Presumably it was Richard’s old college. The dining room at the college is a replica of a New England town hall with maple tables and captain’s chairs. According to Richard, they serve a delicious pot roast (one of Rory’s favourite meals), although that no longer seems to be on the menu.
RORY: We like tacos …
LORELAI: “With homemade tortillas, it elevates this fast finger food to the level of haute cuisine.”
A taco is a traditional Mexican food consisting of a small corn-based or what-based tortilla topped with a filling then folded around the filling, and eaten by hand.
Corn (maize) tortillas are a thin, unleavened flatbread that have been made in Mexico since prehistoric times, although it was the Spanish who gave them the name tortilla (“little cake”). The Nahuatl word for them is tlaxcalli, meaning “something baked”. Wheat-based tortillas developed in northern Mexico, and are often associated with California, since it was once part of the Mexican Empire. In North America, most tortillas are made from wheat.
Common taco fillings include beef, pork, chicken, seafood, beans, vegetables, and cheese, and they can be topped with condiments such as salsa, guacamole, or sour cream, and garnished with vegetables such as lettuce, onion, tomatoes, and chillies. The meaning and origin of the word taco has been much debated.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 