In 1948, a forty-nine year old “roving food editor” for This Week magazine (and later a food writer for, among other publications, the New York Herald Tribune) commenced a twelve-year, 800,000-mile odyssey to virtually every corner of the United States to learn about the culinary habits of Americans. That journey resulted in the publication of Clementine Paddleford’s How America Eats (1960), a collection of recipes drawn from every region of the country.
“How does America eat?” asked Paddleford in the book’s foreword. “She eats on the fat of the land. She eats in every language. For the most part, however, even with the increasingly popular trend toward foreign foods, the dishes come to the table with an American accent.”
When Don Draper travels to Los Angeles to drum up business for Sterling Cooper at a convention of aerospace manufacturers, he meets Joy, a beautiful ingénue who urges him to come with her to Palm Springs.
“I don’t know about that,” says Don.
“Why would you deny yourself something you want?” she replies suggestively.
As she gets into her white Mercedes convertible, Don impulsively joins her. He doesn’t need to bring his luggage; it’s been lost by TWA anyway. Without a word to Pete Campbell, who has also made the trip west, Don and Joy roar off into the sunshine, leaving Pete to fend for himself.
In Palm Springs, Joy tells Don they’ll be having dinner soon.
“Have you ever had Mexican food?” asks Joy.
“No,” Don replies.
Indeed, Mexican food would have been hard for Don to find in New York in the early 1960s, but not unheard of. Mexican cuisine came to the United States with the large influx of Mexican immigrants to California in the 1950s. Mexican restaurants began popping up throughout the Golden State in the early ’60s, including Palm Springs. El Parador Café, founded in 1959, claims to be the first Mexican restaurant in New York City, but the cuisine had yet to become as popular as it was in trendy California.
“You’re going to like it,” Joy assures him.
That evening, at the spectacular desert home Joy and a group of European friends are enjoying courtesy of wealthy friends traveling in Sardinia, they enjoy a Mexican dinner prepared by the house staff. Their sumptuous meal includes a pepper filled with cheese and a sauce, known as chile rellenos. This dish typically consists of poblano peppers stuffed with cheese (though meat is also sometimes used), then covered in egg batter and fried. Chile rellenos have been part of the cuisine in Mexico for hundreds of years, but in 1962 were an exotic new taste for a New Yorker like Don. This chile rellenos recipe celebrating Don’s trip to California is adapted from Clementine Paddleford’s How America Eats.
FROM HOW AMERICA EATS BY CLEMENTINE PADDLEFORD (CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, 1960)
For the sauce
1 (15-ounce) can crushed or diced tomatoes, with juice
1⁄2 cup minced onion
Salt and ground black pepper
For the chiles
2 cans whole green chiles (already roasted and peeled, about 3 chiles per can)
3–4 ounces Jack or Cheddar cheese, sliced
3 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon canola oil
YIELD: 4 APPETIZER SERVINGS