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ON UPSTATE MENUS, GRAPE PIES AND WHITE HOTS

ON UPSTATE MENUS, GRAPE PIES AND WHITE HOTS
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October 16, 1985, Section B, Page 2Buy Reprints
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White barbecue sauce? Flowers for eating? Grape pie? Smoked cheese in a breakfast dish?

These and other local specialties are served in country hamlets or cities in upstate New York in atmospheres as diverse as an elegantly restored post-Revolutionary stone house in the Catskills and a fast-food stand behind the Rochestor airport.

And as travelers are drawn upstate this time of year to see the fall colors or attend college football games, they are discovering some of the local eating curiosities.

In Naples, for instance, a town wreathed by vineyards an hour's drive south of Rochester, grape pie makes a fleeting but intense appearance this time of year.

For almost six weeks, Patricia Hughner commands the proceedings around the stove at Bob and Ruth's restaurant as she crushes, boils and stirs large vats of grapes for the 1,200 grape pies consumed at the restaurant.

Baking the pies, which ooze a deep purple grape and syrup mixture from pale pastry shells, is complicated, Mrs. Hughner said.

The grapes are mashed to separate skin from pulp. The pulp is boiled and pushed through sieves to dislodge the seeds. Lots of sugar is blended with the skin and pulp mixture and a clear starch is added to thicken the juice and heighten its color. ''They're a little sweet, but people like them that way,'' said Mrs. Hughner.

The Rite of the White Hot

Rochester's ''white hots'' seem poised to take on the status of a sacred rite. Zab's, a fast-food chain founded in the city four years ago, has restored the white hot dog to a place of pride.

Originally manufactured in the 1920's as a poor man's hot dog made of the less desirable meat parts, the white hot dog later evolved into a top of the line sausage, according to J. Michael Zabkar Jr., the president of Zab's.

At Zab's, the ''white foot,'' a foot-long white dog inside an elongated bun is a specialty of the house. It is filled with a mixture mostly of pork and veal, with less beef than in a typical hot dog, and no red dye.

''Without question it's the taste,'' said Mr. Zabkar, dismissing the idea that novelty alone accounted for the popularity.

A white hot dog contains less fat, is not smoked and is cooked with ''natural sodium rather than salt,'' he said. Instead of mustard, Zab's recommends its all-natural ''backyard barbecue sauce,'' so hot, said Mr. Zabkar, ''it smokes.''

Little brings out parochial instincts as much as rivalry over beer. Telling a Rochester resident that Matt's from Utica is better than their Genesee (''A Genny?'' is the usual Rochester bartender's salutation) is like suggesting to an Australian that Perrier tastes better than Foster's.

Four months ago, the F. X. Matt Brewing Company seemed to get a leg up on its rivals, unveiling an all malt lager, Saranac 1888.

At the tap room of the Elm Inn in Milford about 50 miles west of Albany, a bottle of Saranac 1888 - a dark beer that froths from an amber bottle styled to resemble that of an imported beer - costs $1.35, an upmarket price in an area where local beer usually sells at $1.

The name Saranac 1888 signifies two events. The label shows railroad men and a steam engine from the time the Adirondack railroad was being built through Saranac. The year also marked the founding of Matt's Brewery by a German immigrant who came to Utica.

At Eat's Cafe in Jamestown, a bustling upstairs establishment, loyal customers come for ''wings.''

To the uninitiated, wings are an extraordinary thing to make a fuss about. Formally known as Buffalo chicken wings, after the nearby city where they were created, wings are split chicken wings, deep fried, doused in an explosively hot sauce and served with blue cheese dressing and a stick of celery.

Like many regional food specialties across New York State, wings have entered the local mythology. Fierce debates can be heard over which place serves the crispest wings or the sauce with the most tang. There is little doubt, however, how the fad began.

Late one night in 1964 at the Anchor Bar on Main Street in Buffalo, several friends of the owner's son sauntered in for a meal after the kitchen closed.

In desperation, Theresa Bellissimo, the owner's wife, salvaged some chicken wings relegated for soup, fried them, improvised a blue-cheese dressing and added a celery stalk. Right there, said the Anchor Bar's manager, Ivano Toscani, a trend was born.

''Today we serve 800 pounds of chicken wings a day,'' he said.

In Ithaca, chicken is only considered authentic if it is coated with a local creation - white barbecue sauce.

Turback's, a restaurant that often searches for local produce to create sophisticated dishes - goat cheese from a nearby farmer, raspberries for a sauce to coat baked ham - heads its menu with the more plebeian ''Cornell barbeque chicken.''

A poultry science professor from Cornell University, Robert C. Baker, who makes barbecuing a serious pastime, dreamed up the white sauce 22 years ago. It is akin to a vinagrette with a couple of egg whites beaten in and a heavy dose of poultry seasoning.

A Sauerkraut Festival

At Rosemary's, a diner on Route 96 in Phelps, about 40 miles southeast of Rochester, newcomers at the sky-blue Formica horseshoe counter have to scrutinize the menu to find sauerkraut, once the town's claim to fame.

To the regulars, the ''creamed cod, pot. and veg.'' posted on the board for $3 is preferred. But sauerkraut put Phelps on the culinary map.

Once a roaring town with numerous sauerkraut canning factories, Phelps called itself the sauerkraut capital of the world. Now, only two plants are left.

Even so, a sauerkraut festival parades down Main Street every August and at the Phelps Hotel, a striking two-story white building in the center of town, the chef offers a sauerkraut salad.

Rosemary Smith, a petite woman in a blue T-shirt and a pink pinafore, serves sauerkraut with hot dogs. Sauerkraut's only drawback, she said, is the pervasive odor at canning time. ''You can really smell it,'' she said.

Restaurants upstate often proudly announce fish ''flown in from Boston.'' In Cooperstown, the locals boast of a fish of their own, one that is peculiar to Lake Otsego, which laps the village shore.

The Otsego bass is not really a bass but a white fish with delicate flavor, according to Russell W. Bland, a sports fisherman.

He is not quite certain how the fish got dubbed a bass. But he is sure why they taste so sweet. ''The water has imparted a taste to them that is crisp,'' he said.

The fish taste even better, he said, when plucked from under the lake ice during the winter.

Bed-and-Breakfast Treats

At bed-and-breakfast establishments, local specialties can also be found.

Smoked New York State cheese provides a vital ingredient to the ''stradas'' served by Barbara Johnson, the proprietor with her husband, Bruce, of the William Seward Inn in Westfield, 60 miles south of Buffalo. A strada, a concoction of cheese, egg, bread and milk baked in the oven, arrives at the table resembling a puffy, cheese-laden pancake.

At Baker's, an inn at High Falls, a breakfast specialty for guests, prepared by Doug Baker, is deep-fried green tomatoes picked from the garden. They are served as a side dish to a Spanish omelette topped with a basil leaf.

For almost 20 years, John Novi has been singled out by food critics for his innovative touches and regional flair at the Depuy Canal House, a 1797 stone structure in High Falls in the Catskills. Among his discoveries: local plants and flowers.

''Elderberry blossoms in tempura batter - wonderful,'' he said.

The elderberry blossoms for three weeks, and during the short season he bikes the back roads to harvest them. He deep-fries them in batter so that they emerge resembling a piece of lace, he said. The flower is then placed as a decoration atop a loin of smoked lamb.

Mr. Novi sautees day lily buds for an addition to soups. Sometimes he poaches the buds for eating as a vegetable. The buds even go into his pesto.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 2 of the National edition with the headline: ON UPSTATE MENUS, GRAPE PIES AND WHITE HOTS. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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