I’m not only obsessed with what I’m going to eat in the future—I’m also fascinated with what I could have eaten in the past. Which is why when I discovered that the New York Public Library maintains a database of restaurant menus going all the way back to the 1850s, I immediately rushed back to the oldest bill of fare I could find—this ragged Revere House menu from May 18, 1851.

I’ll have some of that corned beef with dandelions, plus some pigeons in cases on the side, please! How about you?

Anybody got a time machine I could borrow?