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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1989)
Thursday, March 2,1989 The Battalion Page 15 Innovation makes delicacies of odd food rouch o( ie song, '"'(l to an 12-string m that i s ■ s a neat '1' a solo "ore lih FIGUERAS, Spain (AP) — Tur nips and anchovy spines may not be everyone’s idea of delicacies, but res taurateur Jaume Subiros delights in adding such humble fare to his spe cial rendition of the cuisine of Cat alonia, an area of Spain noted for fine dining. Subiros’ inventiveness and dedica tion to local fare, passed on to him from his father-in-law, Josep Mer- cader, has allowed him to maintain the star first awarded by Michelin, the French restaurant guide, to Mer- cader’s Ampurdan restaurant in/ 1974. The restaurant’s mix of tradition and innovation has also built a local clientele among vacationers on the highway connecting France, 16 miles to the north, and Spanish resort areas on the Mediterranean. “We are now serving the third generation of people who pass by here on the way to their summer homes,” Subiros says. Subiros, 39, began working as a bellboy when he was 1 1, moved to the kitchen at 15, then spent three years in Barcelona’s top restaurants before returning to the Ampurdan. He frequently quotes Mercader, who opened the restaurant in 1961 in this green region of Catalonia called the Alt Ampurda where a strong culinary tradition always has existed. Figueras, a town of 30,000, has three Michelin one-star restaurants. Nearby Barcelona, capital of Cat alonia with some 2 million residents, has half a dozen. “Mr. Mercader was a very innov a tive cook,” Subiros says. “How else could he have come up with the idea of frying anchovy bones as an appetizer?” With the same anchovies, mari nated in the Ampurdan kitchen, Mercader created an olive and an chovy pate, called garun, and stuffed eggplant and lamb dishes. The turnips, black on the outside and white and tender on the inside. are unique to the fields of nearby Campmany. The restaurant often serves them roasted in the traditional manner, with duck or goose, or in salads, or with a delicate Roquefort cheese sauce. Subiros says he has introduced seasonal menus, expanded the des sert selection and created a good number of his own dishes since his father-in-law’s death in 1979. But he insists the founder’s ideas still guide the restaurant when it’s time to come up with new recipes. “The cuisine has evolved rather than changed,” he says. ls quit{j 'ck-n-rol 'toying in fiery ao Tien oi toiesmat it job o! disinter- by, bald- own for playing, toes thai ged to tar after rs in ev ling one gs beino and hi< e bodv 1 model d about e than whoops got into ial. Ro- i are al- : inspir- tion of Reconstruction brings schoolday memories to life SALADO (AP) — Memories of Salado College bring a smile to the f ace of 86-year-old ].R. Hol land. As a child, he used to play near the school with his Salado cousins, and as a teen-ager he at tended school plays there. That was more than 70 years ago, but he says he can still recall the tolling of the school’s bell. Holland, of Temple, is happy to know that someone is doing something to preserve the left over limestone ruins from the single building that was Salado College more than a century ago. The structure was built between 1859 and 1860, and fell to a fire some six decades later. The Salado Historical Society, with permission from the Salado College-Robertson Colony Foundation, is conducting and financing the preservation project, says Patricia Barton, presi dent of the Salado Historical Society. “The society began its first phase of preserva tion in December and hopes that ultimately the area will be opened as a park,” Barton said. “However, we have no immediate plans to do that.” The first attempt at saving the school’s crum bling ruins will cost the historical society Sla.OOO, Barton said. The project was made possible by the society’s annual historic homes tours, which began in 1981. Salado College was founded in 1859, after Col. E.S.C. Robertson donated 100 acres of land to be sold in lots to provide funding to establish a col lege and create a town. The college initially offered graduates two de gree choices and also taught courses to elemen tary school children. Records indicate the winter of 1859-1860 was severe, but the school opened its doors on Feb. 20, 1860, with teachers occupying tents. About 60 students enrolled at the school for the first term. “Salado College was the reason many of the original families came to Salado,” Barton said. “They were very interested in educating their children and they had very high standards. “The college is really behind the founding of the town of Salado.” The two-story structure remained open throughout the Civil War. In 1890, Thomas Ar nold High School occupied the Salado College buildings under an agreement with the college board of trustees. Two major fires burned the structure in 1901 and 1902, but Salado residents rebuilt the L- shaped structure. “It was a great example of a struggling com munity trying to rebuild itself,” said Dr. Douglas B. Willingham, chairman of the historical socie- The work of preserving a structure such as Salado College is not an easy task, according to Jim Sharp, a Killeen mason contracted to com plete the first phase. Sharp and two other men are using sand and lime mortar to help preserve the standing lime stone. Sections of the long walls still stand, por tions of them 35 feet high, Sharp said. “This is very slow', hard and tedious work,” said Sharp, who has been a mason for 40 y ears. “Some of the stones out there probably weigh 120 to 130 pounds and it could be a little danger ous if one of the stones fell.” But Sharp says the hard work is worth it and the project has made him become interested in Salado history. “I know a lot more about Salaclo’s history now than when I started this thing,” Sharp said. “This is going to be a beautiful sight when it’s all done.” To people such as Holland who saw the struc ture in the early 1900s and have recently visited the ruins, Sharp’s excitement is easy to under stand. “I hadn’t been out there for many years, but it brought back many good memories,” Holland said. “My family lived a couple of miles down Sal ado Creek in Armstrong. “But I still remember hearing that big (school) bell ring.” 19th-century seaside inn still welcomes sailors HONOLULU (AP) — The old est hotel in Honolulu has a tradi tion richer than the Royal Ha waiian, a clientele more exclusive than the Kahala Hilton, and a lobby that leads into the Marine Firemen’s Union hiring hall. Rooms rent for $ 12 a night and the occupancy rate is a steady 99.99 percent. This is the Honolulu Seaman’s Home, resort of the world’s most experienced travelers, founded in 1855 during the heyday of whaling and still housing only seamen and seawomen of all na tions who are between ships. Deckhand John Palmer of Oakland, Calif., occupies a one- room suite on the fourth floor. He’s been there since Christmas, when he broke his knee in a mooring accident on board an in ter-island cruise ship. “Sailors are different, like cow boys,” he says. “If you do it long enough, you feel more comfort able on ships, not on the beach. There aren’t many seamen any more. People look at it like penal servitude.” One reason seamen feel com fortable at the Seaman’s Home is that its manager, Herbert Wong, is a former seaman himself. “I used to make ships going to China and the South Pacific,” he says. “That’s why they picked me. They wanted somebody who can handle sailors. “People who go to sea are dif ferent. They lead lonely lives and they live away from home.” There is another thing that makes the Seaman’s Home differ ent from other hotels. It was founded because strong drink and lewd women figured heavily in the recreation of whalemen on shore in 1855. As a result, the Seaman’s Home is the only hotel in Hono lulu with the following house rules: “No intoxicating liquors shall be drunk on the premises; no women of lewd character be ad mitted; no gambling allowed nor any other disorder tolerated.” Wong admitted that keeping sailors away from women and li quor is more difficult than house breaking pets. “How do you stop a seaman from having a few beers?” he says. “We don’t search them down. Women? Well, I’m a sea man myself. I close my eyes.” Female sailors cause no more or less trouble than men, he says. “Wong treats us decently,” Palmer says. “This may look like a YMCA but it isn’t. We’re all the same kind. In the hall or in the head (toilet), people say hello.” In 1855, when it was on Bethel Street, the Seaman’s Home had accommodations for 50 and lodg ing cost $5 a week for seamen, $6 for officers, who ate at separate tables. Today there are only 23 : rooms, now located at the foot of Richard Street. The toilets are down the hall and the furniture , looks as if it had come from a Sal vation Army thrift shop. But j there’s nothing like it in Hono- i lulu for $ 12 a night. “Sailors usually come here to i stay when they’re down and out,” i Wong says. “When they’ve got plenty of money, they’re in Wai kiki somewhere having a ball.” A&M Steakhousel f Delivers 846-5273 behind | TXA/U some® J*M**«***«™******^^ ^11 month unlimited Tanning $35 00 846-1571 ng be-1 between Loupot’s & Kinkos Discover Kinko's When you hove deadlines to meet. el till? in a "t miersiB ad. 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