On Sep 10, 9:59 am, Amy Guskin  wrote:   
   > (This is one of those subjects that has always made me long for someone to   
   > create a comprehensive regional US food encyclopedia/lexicon/travel guide.     
   > Probably there's a website already.  I know there's one for soda/pop/coke.     
   > The other weird one here in Philly is that they call spaghetti sauce "gravy"   
   > or "Sunday gravy.")   
   That's just a classic Italian-Americanism - certainly as true in New   
   York and Boston as in the Philly area.  I'm not sure about other   
   cities that were major immigration hubs for Italians, like New Orleans   
   and San Francisco. I haven't visited any others and/or haven't known   
   any Italians who came from them.  (One of my college classmates was a   
   big Italian kid from Philly, and it take us long to figure out that we   
   had grown up in almost identical subcultures.  He nearly wept when my   
   mom sent me a care package that included some Stella d'Oro biscotti.   
   (And he couldn't believe that the factory was in my old stomping   
   ground in the Bronx. )   
   It is true that in common culinary parlance a "gravy" is one of a   
   particular subset of sauces, usually derived from meat drippings and   
   including a thickening agent.  Tomato sauce would not seem to qualify,   
   but it is "gravy" in every Italian household I've ever lived in, and   
   this is reflected in that fine study of Italian-American culture "The   
   Godfather".  If you want to argue with Clemenza and the boys, that's   
   up to you.   
   A big pot of gravy would usually be made on Sunday (starting with the   
   frying of meatballs early in the morning, followed by grilling the   
   sausage, maybe some pork and then the bracciolla - "brahz-yol" -   
   rolled seasoned beef, all of which would finish cooking in the   
   gravy.)   This job usually fell to the grandma of the house, who would   
   always fry extra meatballs and slice some bread so she had something   
   to distract the hungry throng between the time everyone got back from   
   church and the time dinner was officially served.  Needless to say   
   leftovers would continue to be eaten throughout the week.   
   Later,   
   Joe   
   --- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32   
    * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:14/400)