Limitless possibilities for coleslaw at senior center

Monday Munch,
Jan. 27, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Chicken pot pie soup, coleslaw, biscuits and dessert.

Monday Munch, Feb. 3
To be announced.

“Cooking: A Cook’s Dictionary” by Henry Beard & Roy McKie describes cabbage as a soggy, foul-smelling vegetable. A little goes a long way. Figure about one pound of cabbage for 70 people, if they’re hearty eaters.

Fear not! Coleslaw served at the Charlotte Senior Center is uncooked and crisp.

Coleslaw comes to us from the Dutch term koolsla or cabbage salad. When it’s on the menu, raw cabbage seems to be the only thing you can be sure of.

Coleslaw salad with cabbage and carrot.  Healthy and dietary food concept.
Adobe stock image

Besides cabbage, you might find all manner of additives: bell peppers, shredded carrots, onions (red and white), grated cheese, apples, pineapple, cranberries, pickles, pears, broccoli, bacon, ham, celery seed, dill, lime juice, buttermilk, red wine vinegar, peanuts, fried almonds, walnuts, raisins, mango, peaches, horseradish, curry, jalapeño pepper, jicama, Korean chili paste, Green Goddess dressing, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, turmeric, soy sauce, garlic, cilantro, bean sprouts, mint leaves, parsley, fish sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and, as Elizabeth Zott would say in “Lessons in Chemistry,” CH3COOH (or vinegar).

Your coleslaw preferences probably depend on where you live and where you’ve traveled. Here’s some possibilities:

  • A New York Times article, “Favorite New York City Sandwiches,” lists roast beef sandwich with Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and coleslaw.
  • In Agatha Christie’s “The Pale Horse,” a nice banana and bacon sandwich is favored. In “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” Shel Silverstein writes about a peanut butter sandwich and gives the recipe for a hippopotamus sandwich. No coleslaw in these favorites.
  • In 2024, hot slaw, containing jalapeño chilies and mustard, was named the first official state food of Tennessee.
  • Surprise. Surprise. Hawaiian coleslaw includes crushed pineapple.
  • “Yankee” notes that New England church supper coleslaw has diced green pepper, celery and shredded carrot. Cherry tomatoes are optional.
  • For “true New England flavor,” Haydn S. Pearson’s “Country Flavor Cookbook” recommends evaporated milk and equal parts sugar and cider vinegar in coleslaw dressing.
  • German slaw uses red cabbage, a bit of sugar and vinegar. It is cooked, then eaten hot or cold.
  • Insalata russa (Italian-style coleslaw) may use Italian dressing instead of mayonnaise and may contain potatoes, carrots, eggs, peas, pickles or fennel and capers. Or …
  • Poland’s salatka z kapusty has shredded carrot, grated apple, dill seed, garlic powder and lemon juice.
  • India’s slaw favors chopped tomatoes, peanuts, cilantro, turmeric, lemon juice and sugar. Mustard seeds are put in hot oil & poured over the cabbage mix.
  • Chinese coleslaw — napa cabbage, shredded carrots, green onions, water chestnuts, sesame seeds, oil.
  • Moroccan slaw (according to Texas Monthly) — red cabbage, pomegranate vinegar, honey, mustard, Harissa paste, julienned celery root, golden raisins, lemon juice, mint.
  • Kimchi — When I visited schools in Korea, we ate this traditional Korean side dish made of fermented napa cabbage and Korean radish, at every meal, even once for breakfast.

For making your own slaw, The New York Times suggests that grilling or ember-roasting the cabbage will make slaw the star of the meal. You start by roasting the cabbage until charred or “even burned, on all sides.”

Safety alert: The newspaper of record warns not to put charred cabbage on a wooden or plastic tray in case “a live ember or two has clung to the outside leaves.” And use a pastry brush to sweep away excess ash.

Forget the criminal-suspect dangers of holding a smoking gun, as in the Sherlock Holmes story, “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott.” In your kitchen, a hand-held electric smoker, often called a smoking gun, eliminates the dangers of grilling cabbage — and those loose embers and ash.

“The Secret Life of Groceries” by Benjamin Lorr devotes a chunk of text to slawsa, coleslaw plus salsa “jammed together in a bottle.” Slawsa seems to have originated with a family in Chattanooga, Tenn., their “riff on chow chow, an almost vanished southern relish that borrowed from Chinese rail workers, Indian chutneys and French-Canadian slaws.” Getting it to supermarkets involved one woman’s determination, grit, optimism and heartbreak.

Although cabbage idioms aren’t complementary (“cabbagehead” and “don’t fall off the cabbage truck”), cabbage music can be upbeat. Notable versions of the folksong “Boil Them Cabbage Down” (also “Bile ‘Em Cabbage Down”) have been performed by such artists as Pete Seeger, Ruby Jane Smith and the Smothers Brothers.

Wynston Marsalis introduces Mark O’Connor performing the song, noting it’s “one of the earliest African-American fiddle tunes.” Midway, he joins in on trumpet.

The University of Utah Singers add some fancy footwork while singing the song.

Here are the beginning lyrics to Louis Jordan’s “Cole Slaw (Sorghum Switch)”:

In Arkansas
They serve you cole slaw
Chopped up finer than a bale o’ straw
When you crunch and gnaw
A bunch o’ cole slaw
Keeps you chewin’ like a cross cut saw
Exercise your jaw
By eatin’ cole slaw
Best o’ goodness that you ever saw.

Alas, Arch Diner near Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn, where you could eat coleslaw 24 hours a day, has closed, but needless to say, it’s a whole lot easier to go to Monday Munch at the Charlotte Senior Center, 212 Ferry Road, to enjoy a good crunch with the friendly people there.


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