National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day

November 9th is National Fried Chicken Sandwich Day in the United States.

The fried chicken sandwich is usually a piece of boneless, skinless chicken breast served as a sandwich. It can be served in bread, in a roll or in a bun. In a fried chicken sandwich, the chicken is, of course, fried; this will normally be in some sort of crumb or batter. The chicken piece is often served with other items; salad, pickles and mayonnaise are common additions. Chicken sandwiches are often associated with fast food restaurants; most places that sell burgers will also sell chicken sandwiches as an alternative, and then there are those restaurants that specialise in chicken. The American chain Chick-fil-A claims to have invented the fried chicken sandwich in the 1940s, though this is unsubstantiated. They are the fast food restaurant who are most likely to have introduced a fried chicken sandwich.

Image: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

National Harvey Wallbanger Day

November 8th is National Harvey Wallbanger Day in the United States.

The Harvey Wallbanger is a cocktail that was apparently invented in 1952, though the earliest known reference to it only dates back to 1971, making it a comparatively recent cocktail. Though it was believed to have been created by world champion mixologist Donato "Duke" Antone, this is by no means certain.

The cocktail is served in a highball glass (an 8-12 fl oz glass tumbler). The standard constituents of it are 3 parts (45ml) vodka to 1 part (15ml) Galliano (a sweet herbal liqueur) to 6 parts (90ml) fresh orange juice. The vodka and orange juice is stirred together with ice in the glass, then the Galliano is floated on the top. The drink is normally garnished with an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.

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National Pupusa Day

The second Sunday of November is National Pupusa Day in El Salvador.

The pupusa was declared the national dish of El Salvador in 2005. It is a thick flatbread or griddle cake from El Salvador and Honduras; both countries claim to be the birthplace of the dish. They have been linked to the Pipil tribes that lived in the region now known as El Salvador and items associated with their cooking have been found dating back 2,000 years; Honduran etymologists say the Pipil language is close enough to Nahuatl that the Honduran Nahua could have created the dish.

The pupusa is stuffed with one or more ingredients including such as refried beans, squash, cheese and chicharrón, and is usually accompanied by a tomato salsa and curtido, a spicy cabbage slaw. Variations can be found in other countries using different flour and ingredients.

Image: JMRAFFi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

National Hot Sauce Day

National Hot Sauce Day is on November 5th in the United States.

Hot sauces are spicy condiments, sauces and seasonings that use chilli peppers as one of their primary ingredients. They are also known as pepper sauces and chilli sauces. In the U.S., commercial hot sauces are graded according to their quality, which criterion includes flavour, absence of defects, consistency, colouration and character.

Hot sauces are strongly associated with the U.S., but they are also common in other countries of the Americas and the Caribbean. Outside the Americas, they are most common in the United Kingdom and Australia. There is a specific scale for measuring the heat of a hot sauce, known as the Scoville scale. Tabasco sauce is rather at only 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, making it one of the mildest commercially available sauces around. One of the hottest is Blair's 16 Million Reserve, and the Scoville scale only goes up to 16 million units.

Image: Veganbaking.net from USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons