Doing the Dishes
Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
About this object
Delectable dishes were served on sturdy plates marked with an image of the Capitol.
Sifted
peas, Vanderbilt dressing, kraut juice, steak Stanley, and kaffee hag – now that
sounds like a hearty meal. Historic menus from the
House Restaurant, dating
back more than 80 years, include some incomprehensible dishes. Sifted peas? That’s
just one odd delicacy among many showcasing the culinary evolution of the House
Restaurant during the last century.
The oldest menu in the House Collection, from 1933, is an amalgam of foods from
regions represented in Congress. “Pin-money pickles” from Richmond appear on the
same page as “boiled New England dinner,” the Midwestern decaffeinated drink
Postum, and popular hangover remedy Red Raven Split from Pennsylvania. The
“dietary platter,” complete with Melba toast and stewed fruit, is given a
prominent spot on the menu. Attending Physician George Calver introduced it just
a few years earlier as “what’s good for brain workers in the sluggish days of
spring” according to one newspaper report.
/tiles/non-collection/6/6_02_menu_2005_039_000.xml
Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
About this object
Pin-money pickles were just 15 cents on this 1933 menu.
While
the dishes served in the House Restaurant changed over the decades, a few
remained on the menu year after year. The most famous is the House’s
bean soup,
which has been available every day since Speaker Joe Cannon, incensed that he
could not get it on a hot summer afternoon, decreed that it would always be
served. But what about the sifted peas, that mysterious dish that, unlike bean
soup, was consigned to the dustbin of culinary history? Sifted peas turn out to
be dried green peas that were reconstituted by boiling them, rather like split
peas. No bean soup, certainly.
As for the other taste sensations of the House Restaurant menus? Vanderbilt dressing, found on a 1939 “dietary platter” offering, was made from a singularly rich mix of whipped cream and mayonnaise. Kraut juice was the juice strained
from sauerkraut. It was popular in German-American communities for generations.
Steak Stanley may be the most unusual combination of tastes in the long history
of the House Restaurant offerings. It was a tenderloin steak topped with
bananas and horseradish, and appeared on the menu in 1935. Kaffee hag was an
early brand of decaffeinated coffee. It wasn’t the only decaffeinated beverage
on the menu. Postum, buttermilk, and the antacid Bromoseltzer all showed up in
the House Restaurant in the 1950s.
/tiles/non-collection/2/2004_085_003-2.xml
Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives
About this object
The House Restaurant was every bit as busy as this print implies, catering to Representatives whose culinary tastes were as diverse as the regions they represented.
By the late 1960s, the House Restaurant menu’s dishes began to look like something
one might order today. Hamburgers, chili, and hotdogs popped up. In the days
leading up to Passover, gefilte fish appeared. Menus survived as
treasured souvenirs from a lunch with one’s Representative. Tourists collected autographs
from the Members of Congress in the dining room and jotted down the date of
their visit. Unfortunately, not a single menu includes a visitor’s review of
the sifted peas.