|
In a Place You’ll Never Forget The Cioppino's StoryCioppino, the excellent California fish stew rarely appears in any standard English dictionary. Some sources speculate that it may have to do with an Italian dialect word meaning “chopped fine.” One story of its origins appears in Morrison Wood’s More Recipes with a Jug of Wine. Mr. Wood attributes his information about the soup to Mrs. Winfield G. Wagener of Palo Alto, California, and an interesting history it is. “Cioppino,” Mrs. Wagener wrote, “was a familiar dish” in San Francisco, particularly on Meigg’s Wharf, as Fisherman’s Wharf was called prior to World War I. It seems that the practice in those days was for friendly natives to make the rounds of small boats moored in the bay in an effort to coax the fishermen or toss in, gratis, one or two small fish, shellfish or any other edible oddment for a stew. “One fisherman,” she added, “would toss into the...bucket a nice, fat fish, another would drop in a crab,” and so on. “The cry that instigated this wonderful stuff was ‘Chip in! Chip in!’ “To make the soup sound more Italian-most of the fishermen were of Italian descent-an “o” was added to the cry, thus “cioppino.” Most often these homespun legends of word origins we tend to discredit, but somehow the above sounds as logical as it is amusing. Thank You for Joining Us! CULINARY
ENGINEER: All paths lead to Cioppino's |