Mid-century musings, or ruminating about rumaki.

Rumaki, a mid century favorite.

There is nostalgia in America for “mid century” culture evoking a time when suburban moderns congregated in verdant back yards to get seriously drunk, flirt with their neighbors’ spouses, and eat rumaki. Those times are not coming back. Reason one: today’s rising potential suburban homeowners would find such a lifestyle out of reach financially. Reason two: bacon.

I have been fiddling with foods wrapped in bacon and broiled. Last week we tried scallops with a dash of lemon juice. Today it was rumaki: chicken livers and water chestnuts marinated in a soy/sugar/ginger sauce then wrapped in bacon before hitting the oven. Angels on horseback (oysters wrapped in bacon) and devils on horseback (dates stuffed with cream cheese and ditto) are tempting but I’m throwing in the Hula Hoop because the bacon I’ve used falls apart.

Notice how the bacon in the photo of a Trader Vic’s pu pu platter is meaty and thick compared to today’s thinner, stringier rashers even in premium brands. (Not shown: little crunchy nodules from dead trichinosis parasites which were ubiquitous in those gentler times.) The rumaki in my feature photo tasted fine and the bacon was crisp but Instagram is not going to come knocking at my door.

Trader Vic rumaki with improbably pink yet crisp bacon.

I’m now turning the page to more successful uses of bacon, like fried up crisp and served with eggs and pancakes or hash browns. If you’d prefer to linger in the 1950s, here is a history of Trader Vic’s pu pu platter with its faux Polynesian roots and husband-pleasing (yours, and someone else’s if you are a suburban wife with a roving eye) flavors. And here is an account of an early-aughts party in the deep south that successfully recreated the steamy decadence of mid-century. Bottoms up!

P.S. Except visually, my rumaki was a success. Here’s what I did and what I would do differently next time.

Ingredients:
½ lb chicken livers
12 water chestnuts (from a 6 oz can)
6 slices bacon, each cut in half crosswise
¼ c light soy sauce
2 t grated ginger
2 T dark brown sugar

Method: trim connective tissue and any yellow bits from the livers and marinate an hour or so in a mix of soy/ginger/dissolved ground sugar. (Online recipes say to marinate the water chestnuts too but why? The soy sauce won’t penetrate and will only discolor them.) Assemble 12 rumaki with a half slice of bacon, a portion of liver and a water chestnut on top for each then fold together and secure with a toothpick. (This part was a mess and must have been the bane of mid-century prep cooks. Whole livers are too large but they are slippery and you have to slice through a lot of strange tissue to create smaller pieces, and the water chestnuts are also too big and tend to pop out and shoot across the room. Experiment with smaller chicken liver pieces and sections of water chestnut. Good luck!)

Secure each rumaki with a toothpick (some recipes advise soaking in water but this makes the toothpicks collapse when you try to penetrate the water chestnut) and broil until bacon is crisp but chicken livers are still pink in the middle, about 20 minutes. Serve warm with other appetizers.

PPS. If you want to get in the midcentury mood with  tales of suburban infidelity, try some John D. MacDonald books. He’s best known for the Travis McGee mystery series but his other bus station paperbacks are full of sultry bedroom stuff.