Paresis Hall Chicken

Our meal tonight is a variation on the classic Chicken Cordon Bleu. It is named in honor of the hard working sex worker rentboys of 1890's in NYC. Find out more about these nearly forgotten young men making a living long before World War One!

Chicken thighs with a wonderful center of pastrami and Havarti cheese. Baked in a crispy sweet coating and ready to impress all who come to your table.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 cups rice crispies cereal, crushed

1/3 cup honey

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Tbs sweet paprika

1 Tbs onion powder

 Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Lay out some wax paper on the counter to make clean up easier. Open up the thighs and spread open on the wax paper.

On a cutting board, lay out a piece of the pastrami. Cut a piece of cheese lengthwise and lay on one half edge of the meat. Fold the meat over. Roll up tightly. This “roll” goes into the thigh just where the bone was.

Roll the thigh meat up over and secure with a couple of toothpicks. Continue until all four are done.

Put rice cereal in a plastic bag and crush until like bread crumbs then pour into a bowl. Stir in the salt, pepper, paprika and onion powder. 

 

Put honey in a second bowl and heat in microwave for about 15 – 20 sec. Just to make it flow easily.

With a pastry brush, brush the honey all over the rolled up thigh and press it into the rice crumbs.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and arrange the thighs on that. 

 

Roast for about 45 minutes or until golden brown and internal temperature reaches 155 degrees.

Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes then transfer to a serving platter with a spatula.

Here these thighs are served with a steamed broccoli and a dish of diced pears. Any green vegetable will work.

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1rH_iaZkv0

Honored to be serving my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via @amazon

 

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The OTHER Bowery Boys

“Paresis Hall”, was located in the Bowery on 5th Street near Cooper Union Run by ‘Biff’ Ellison, a gangster affiliated with the Five Points Gang. No attempt to disguise it as anything other than a ‘fairy resort”. A gay brothel.

Much like gay bars of the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s, it functioned as a social center, providing a sense of community and support. Many working class men and youths in the tenement districts met in such places. They held unsupervised gatherings, created informal social clubs, and even sponsored larger dances or balls.

A few men of the Paresis Hall men organized a club called the Cercle Hermaphroditis, which permanently rented a room above the bar. Dressing in women’s attire on the streets dangerous. Paresis Hall gave them a space where they could gather without fear, and even store some of their personal things in a place more private than their living areas.

The existence of Paresis Hall and its pictures offer quite an insight for the historian into gay life nearly 140 years ago.

It contained young hustlers from ages 14 to  21 years old. The boys often would dress up in a feminine manner including makeup and they would take their tricks to the upper floors or to the basement to conduct their business transactions.

During the 1890′s the area around fourteenth street was an early
“Tenderloin” section to the theater district a few blocks away. The area
boasted no fewer than six other “Resorts”. Paresis Hall being the
busiest, Little Bucks, Manilla Hall, The Slide and the Sharon Hotel (Cock Sucker’s Hall) just to name a few. 

 

Photo of the boys masquerading as working boys of another kind.

As was the practice each of the boys applying at the club were subjected to an "Intense Personal Interview" with the owner. If the boy passed his interview he would be hired on and given a copy of the rules, a appointment schedule, and asked/or told to choose the role of the "Man", of the "Lady", or a specialty.

Photographs were required to be taken of the sex worker at several local "Cabinet Studios" - these taken to remind the client of the worker and to urge a return visit. They were given to the man if his spending habits warranted. if not the pictures were made available for purchase.

On the back was this personal information: names, sexual preferences and sizes (I don't mean shoe size.)

An example of such a rare photograph post card, circa 1891. The good looking boy is "Little" Johny Mueller, age 17 years. He was a "Working Boy" at two infamous male brothels, "Paresis Hall" and "Little Bucks".
Johny was one of the most popular boys at both of the clubs, given the fact of some unique "Anotomical Gifts".

One the back of the card is the following information in faded pencil: "Little" Johny Mueller * 13 Inch & Huge Sac * Very Popular Boy * P.H. & L.B. * 1891 Jacob Miller

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About the name:

The official name of the establishment was Columbia Hall.
“Paresis” was a partial or incomplete paralysis.

It was disease of the brain, marked by progressive dementia, tremor, speech disturbances, and increasing muscular weakness.

Young boys were told you would acquire it by associating with fairies or, heaven forbid, having male to male sex!
With a typical sense of queer humor, this brothel became known as “Paresis Hall”.

The building is now the home of the Village Voice newspaper.

How appropriate.

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