Getting the Treatment in Baltimore and Special Occasion Foods

Photo from our 1984 Game Day Program, click to enlarge. Notice I am rocking thick waves in my hair gained from lots of brushing, thick hair oil, and sleeping with a doorag. Those waves and my hair went out to sea when I turned 27. My Dad once told me he started losing his at 18! I figured my students at Marist College would get a kick out of seeing Dr. O back in the day.

For lunch on our spring break Syracuse lacrosse team trips in Hunt Valley, Maryland, Coach Roy Simmons Jr. would sometime give us per diem food money. Across the street from the hotel there was and is a mall with a food court with a ton of food options. We would wonder through the mall in search of the best tasting deals all wearing matching sweats and side line jackets with Syracuse Lacrosse plastered on them. Unlike 1980s Westchester County, where I am from, the folks in Baltimore County followed the game of lacrosse closely. This was and still is a hotbed region for lacrosse and Baltimore kids in the suburban mall spotted us right away. They treated us like professional athletes. What a contrast from my high school and junior college days when the teams I played for looked more like wondering gypsies with different colored and styles of athletic gear some even committing the carnal sin of wearing shorts over sweats. When I am trying to eat healthy as a student athlete in a mall in the early 80s, I sought out baked potatoes, pasta with red gravy/sauce, and the biggest salad I could purchase which I ate with a light non-dairy dressing. I started the gradual phasing out of fast foods (with the exception of whole wheat pizza now); dishes cooked with lots of fat, salt, red meat, artificial coloring and additives, white rice, white flour products, and highly processed sweeteners like corn syrup. As a person with a bachelor's degree in physical education, I call these—empty calories. They taste great but provide little to no nutritional value. In my junior year I began seeking out foods that tasted great and were loaded with nutritional benefits that would improve my performance on the fields. I found over time that I felt much better during practice when I drink water and 100% juices, ate baked goods made with whole grains, and increased my consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables high in fiber. Fried foods I ate in moderation and on special occasions like a road trip to Baltimore instead of everyday. That’s my mantra today, the rich foods that are not adding to your health on special occasions only.

The Spring Break for Syracuse Lacrosse Players in the 1980s: The Hunt Valley Marriott

In Baltimore we stayed at the Hunt Valley Marriott off of US 83. I will never forget the place because I spent both my SU spring breaks at this hotel as a Syracuse University (SU) lacrosse player in the 1980s (photo of the inn above). Today college lacrosse teams like SU travel to Florida and play in lavish tournaments in places such as Disneyland. Other college tournament organizers are luring top ranked teams to travel as far as the West Coast. In the 1980s, that was unheard of. The Hunt Valley Inn would be our home for the next week and it was not hard for this Junior college transfer to make the best of it. The Marriott looks like a sprawling fortress from 83. But inside it’s a fortress with the trappings of a luxury hotel including the rooms, whirlpool, and food. Road trips at Herk meant sleeping bags on the floor of teammates’ houses and team moms cooking pancakes in their small kitchen. Those poor moms would be cooking like machines trying to feed a dozen hungry college athletes carb loading for the afternoon game. In contrast, at Hunt Valley we each had our on beds and a wait staff that served us a semi-formal sit down breakfast with an abundance of eggs, pancakes, Danishes, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit and all kinds of juice. This was the breakfast routine each morning before we went off to practice on the turf at Loyola College. Between the room service, hotel whirlpool, and the breakfast, I felt like a professional athlete. More than twenty years later, I still regularly have dreams in which I get a call from coach Desko informing me that somehow the NCAA granted me another year of eligibility! Talk to any student athlete who enjoyed their college playing career, and chances are good that they have had a similar dream. In my dream I am frantically running around my house looking for my lacrosse equipment before the bus pulls off for another spring break trip and stay at the Hunt Valley Marriott.

Traveling with Eli Part II and Native American Culinary Culture

Recipe Included!

Eli, the Iroquois sage, who I wrote about yesterday, represented Simme’s way of staying spiritually connected with the game started by native people. Coach was like that, a Renaissance man interested in art, history and culture as much as the game of lacrosse. I maintain that this part of his persona came from growing up around the Onondaga Reservation, playing games there as a youth, and being teammates at SU with many of the best players from there. If one looks at the Syracuse University Lacrosse rosters over the years you will notice that most of them have at least one Native player on them. Our team included the very talented attackman, with a gun for a shot, Emmett Printup (Niagara Wheatfield) and midfielder and martial arts bad boy Mark Burnham (Henninger). By the way, Simmie played on the 1957 undefeated SU team that included All-Americans and Hall of Famers Jim Brown (Manhasset) and Oren Lyons (Lafayette), traditional Chief of the Onondaga Nation, Iroquois Confederacy. When I think of Native American culinary culture I think of corn, which historically represented their staple grain. They would steam, ground, roast, bake, soak, pound, and ferment it. Each of these methods changed the flavor, texture, and nutritional value of the corn. They also used it in one of my favorite ways, to bake bread. Below is a sweet corn bread recipe that’s easy to make and great on cool fall mornings like we've had lately here in the gorgeous Hudson Valley.

Sweet corn bread recipe:

3/4 self-rising cornmeal
1 cup Spelt flour (it’s better tasting and healthier than white or wheat flour)
1/2 cup cane sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup vanilla soymilk, (a fortified soy milk is a very good tasting healthy choice, I suggest the Vitasoy brand for newbies)
1 egg or egg substitute (beaten)
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp butter (Try I Can’t Believe It’s not Butter available at most supermarkets and Costco)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400; Combine dry ingredients. Add milk, egg and oil. Mix well. Spray a large cast iron skillet like the one in the photo or a 9 inch pie pan with Pam. Bake until tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean (about 25 minutes). Melt butter and brush over the top of the bread when it comes fresh out the oven; serves 8.

Tomorrow I will return to traveling to Baltimore and eating Crab Cakes and other special foods from the Chesapeake region.