Culinary Tourism

Chapter 10. Rites of Intensification: Eating and Ethnicity in the Catskills

CHAPTER 10 Rites of Intensification Eating and Ethnicity in the Catskills Rochelle H. Saltzman That's the way it is in the Catskills. You come to eat, eat, eat! Margaret Hasenkopf Dukarm Crystal Brook Resort (1991) The Catskills resort experience was and is about hospitality, comfort, and feeling at home. Unlike modern-day tourist attractions, the familyrun resorts in the mountains of upstate New York were and are about recreating the familiar for their visitors. While second- and third-generation guests looked for innovation and modern improvements such as indoor heated swimming pools, movie theatres, and other entertainment, their parents and grandparents were looking for a place where they could just be in the fresh mountain air with others who spoke the same language, cooked and served familiar foods, and thought the same way. Going to the Catskills was the very antithesis of the touristic experience: it was not about going someplace new-the immigrants who came to the Catskills were already experiencing that on an everyday basis. Seeking out novelty was not the goal; going to the Catskills was about returning year after year to an idealized and re-created version of home and holiday time, complete with all the familiar food you could ever want. When immigrants came to the United States, they brought with them their religious, regional, and ethnic heritage-including their food traditions . Food, especially homemade food, was and is much more than just Rachelle H. Saltzman I 227 nourishment for most ethnic groups. From snacks to everyday meals, from seasonal specialties to holiday dishes, food communicates aesthetic, religious , family, and communityvalues from one person to another. As Mirra de Oro restaurant owner Lydia Malave put it, "We keep our sense of being Puerto Rican through our food" (1991). A stay at the ethnic resorts of the Catskills most closely resembles a homey and festive holiday experience, and, as at holiday time, an abundant supply of carefully prepared food plays a critical part in creating such an atmosphere. Resort menus specifically and consciously offer dishes that evoke family, ethnic, and national traditionsj they provide a dining experience that is neither as exclusive as the home kitchen nor as public as a restaurant. Meals are served at designated times and places, but they are not eaten among only family or close friends. Still, "home cooking" has been the model for chefs in Catskills resorts, famous since their beginnings for their elaborate spreads. In the Catskills, as elsewhere, specific foods-in some cases everyday dishes, and in others holiday specialties-evoke a sense of security and create the feeling of being at home in a new place. Using familiar ingredients and spices, combining certain dishes and ordering the courses, knowing the cook, evenbeingservedbysomeonewithafamiliaraccent-allevoke memories of safe and happy times among family and friends. In many resorts, diners are even assigned tables for their entire stay and get to know their waiters. Although the recollection of such times might sometimes be idealized , resort owners use them to re-create those touches that will make visitors feel comfortable and relaxed-as if their vacation really was an extension of home. For example, Griffin's Irish House in Palenville offered its home cooking as an inducement to visitors in the 1940s. Perri Poulos also describedsuch an atmosphere at SpartaManorinWindham during the 1950s and '60s, when her parents owned and operated the Greek resort: "This is how [the guests] feltj they went in and out of the kitchen. If they felt like having tea during the late evening, they would go make their own tea, and things like that. It was never, there was no restrictions in those days, you know. It was like having an extension of your home life" (1994). Joe Sausto, third-generation owner of the Italian resort Pleasant Acres, which started in the town of Lexington in the 1920s, echoed those sentiments . "It's very [much] home cookingj it's really like what you'd make at home. Back then when you came here, whatever my grandmother made that meal, that's what you ate. And there was no choice. We used to ask my grandmother if there was a choice, and she'd say, 'Yeah. You either eat or you don't.' And that was the choice" (1994). 228 I Rites of Intensification In the 1820s, fresh and abundant country milk, butter, eggs, game, and fish were featured at the Catskill Mountain House...