# Complaining about Amtrak food? Check out this 1899 menu



## Trollopian (Jan 26, 2016)

From today's _Washington Post_ (article at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/26/the-strange-foods-that-americans-loved-a-century-ago/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_wonk; a poor headline in my view, because there's nothing "strange" about most of the foods mentioned, like celery and the so-called alligator pear or avocado).

"It [the New York Public Library menu collection] also includes the menu for a meal McKinley ate in 1899 while riding the Pennsylvania Railroad, a defunct railroad that most people will know from the game Monopoly. That menu includes interesting dishes like green turtle, broiled oysters on toast, and, of course, celery." This was apparently for the funeral of Vice President Hobart, who was buried in Paterson, NJ. Maybe some of this forum's history buffs can tell us what route this train took.

Sorry I can't paste the image, but its filename appears to be https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2016/01/Pennsylvania-Railroad.jpeg&w=1484.


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## Cho Cho Charlie (Jan 26, 2016)

Was that a special menu, because the POTUS was on board?


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## MikefromCrete (Jan 26, 2016)

Nothing seems that strange, except for the "boneless bacon."

Since Patterson is in the New York City area, I would assume the president rode what is today's Northeast Corridor from Washington to Newark.


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## Cho Cho Charlie (Jan 26, 2016)

MikefromCrete said:


> Noting seems that strange, except for the "boneless bacon."


I was going to mention the "boneless bacon". Is there such a thing as bacon with a bone?


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## Trollopian (Jan 26, 2016)

Cho Cho Charlie said:


> Was that a special menu, because the POTUS was on board?


Good question, C.C. Charlie....and I expect that the answer is "yes," because I don't see any price printed at the bottom. But it also looks pretty typical for that route. Compare it, for example, with this 1893 menu also in the NYPL collection, which lists (among other things) blue points, spring lamb with mint sauce, duchess potatoes, some dubious "spaghetti, italienne," and much else. (No boneless bacon, however.) Price: one dollar.

http://menus.nypl.org/menu_pages/25900


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## tommylicious (Jan 26, 2016)

Yeah...the current cafe menu is much better....


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## Seaboard92 (Jan 27, 2016)

I want to say Patterson is in Lackawanna territory. So I would say PRR to Newark maybe even Hoboken before backtracking to Paterson. That would be the most likely route. Of course it could have been a B&O route with the CNJ and then the DLW.


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## NETrainfan (Jan 27, 2016)

Very interesting. Thanks for posting it.


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## Mystic River Dragon (Jan 27, 2016)

I think both the special menu and the regular one sound pretty good!


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## neroden (Jan 27, 2016)

$1 then would be $26.61 now (more or less). And the 1893 menu looks pretty good to me. Though it's pretty pretentious to put "Cafe Noir" on the menu (that would be "Black Coffee").


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## caravanman (Jan 27, 2016)

My family used to enjoy a meal of potatoes, boiled bacon and cabbage... yep, they were Irish... The bacon was a "hock", and had a bone through it... I guess a salted version of a ham bone joint?

Been many years since I ate such a meal myself... looking forward to curry and rice tonight!

Ed.


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## trainman74 (Jan 27, 2016)

Here's the image pasted:


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