*The Diane di Prima specials are from her book Dinners and Nightmares (published 1998 by Last Gasp of San Francisco, with a foreword by Robert Creeley).

Recipes

Below are some recipes that either are shown in books or that people have sent to me. Thanks to Patricia Elliot for sharing some of William Burroughs' favorites, to Adrien Begrand for helping me find recipes and food descriptions in Kerouac's novels, and to Marie K. for Burroughs' Mexico City shish-ka-bob eating experience. If you have other menu items or recipes, feel free to send them in.

Big Sur Roast Potatoes and Spam
Potatoes wrapped in foil and thrown on the fire, and coffee, and hunks of Spam roasted on a spit, and applesauce and cheese, from Big Sur

Burroughs' Rhubarb Pie
Filling: two cups of rhubarb, 3/4 cup of sugar, 4 tbls of flour, one egg yolk, from Patricia Elliot.

Desolation Angels Breakfast Special
Cold roast beef with Dutch sugar powdered raisin bread, followed by the usual bacon and eggs and pot of coffee, from Desolation Angels.

Desolation Peak Casserole
Marvelous pot of turnip greens, carrots, roast beef, noodles, and spices, from Desolation Angels.

Desolation Peak Spaghetti
Sauce: 3 cans tomato paste
12 garlic cloves
half teaspoon oregano
basil
onions (from Desolation Angels).

Henri Cru's Scrambled Eggs
Mix six scrambled eggs with a quarterpound of butter and cheese and spices, from Desolation Angeles.

Kerouac's Green Pea Soup
Two packages of Lipton Green Pea Soup
Bacon
Onions
Salt & pepper
Couple of envelopes of dried pea soup into a pot of water with fried bacon, fat and all, and stirred till boiling, from Dharma Bums.

Kerouac's Rice with Sweet and Sour Sauce
I make a crazy Chinese sweet and sour sauce on the hot stove, compounded of turnip greens, sauerkraut, honey, molasses, red wine vinegar, pickled beet juice, sauce concentrate (very dark and bitter), from Desolation Angels.

Kerouac's Yellow Cornmeal Johnny Cakes
Yellow corn meal, chopped onions, salt & pepper, and tablespooning out into sizzling corn oil, turning over to brown both sides of each cake, from Dharma Bums.

Lonesome Traveller Breakfast
Best prepared for 6:45 a.m. Coffee - '[B]oil water... throw some coffee in, stir it, French style, slowly... ...make my raisin toast by sitting it on a little wire I'd especially bent to place over the hotplate... ...the toast crackled up... I spread the margarine on the still red hot toast and it would crackle and sink in golden, among burnt raisins and this was my toast.- Then two eggs gently fried in soft margarine in my.... frying pan - the eggs slowly fluffed in there and swelled from butter steams and I threw garlic salt on top... when they were ready... I spread them out on top of my already prepared potatoes... boiled in small pieces and then mixed with the bacon I'd already fried in small pieces, kind of raggely mashed bacon potatoes, with eggs on top steaming, and on the side lettuce, with peanut butter dab nearby on side.' Eat. '...hustle out into the fog of the flow... to work ...the train is leaving.' From 'The Railroad Earth' in Lonesome Traveller. Thanks to Nelson Liddle, High School English Teacher, Denny High School in Scotland, for submitting this fine recipe.

Pate de Porc Gras
2 pounds of ground Boston pork butt (with all the fat)
2 onions
2 garlics
teaspoon dry mustard
Simply immerse the ground pork butt till water just covers it, in pot, with onions & garlic chopped in, and salt and pepper, and dry mustard. Let simmer slowly (say, 5 hours). Spoon & level into bowls; chill bowls in ice box. Next day, use as sandwich spread on crackers (preferably good French Bread)--from letter to Jacqueline Stephens, late December 1961, Selected Letters: Jack Kerouac, 1957-1969.

Note: All the menu items come directly from passages found in Kerouac books. You guess which ones if you like! I didn't mark them all, and could go back and find them, but if you're curious, here's a hint: most of these came from On the Road, Dharma Bums, Visions of Cody, Big Sur, and Desolation Angels. I began this project with the best of intentions (thinking I could get every single reference of food listed in all my books, but that's an ongoing project). I realized just how often Kerouac mentioned food in his books, and why not? He loved to eat. However, if you see that I've missed something important, and would like to send me another menu suggestion or recipe, just send it in, along with the source, and I'd be glad to add to the diner's menu, crediting you.