IF you want to impersonate Elvis this week to mark the 25th anniversary of his crossing into rock heaven, better loosen your belt.
The King had a king-size appetite.
Elvis’ love for mass quantities of stick-to-your-ribs Southern food is as legendary as his talent. A documentary on his eating habits tallied his daily intake at 100,000 calories at its peak. That’s more, one paper noted, than an Asian elephant consumes.
“Mashed potatoes, French fries, lots of biscuits, bacon and eggs – he was a good eater, all right,” Pauline Nicholson, Elvis’ cook from 1964 until his death, told The Post in a 1997 interview.
Why has there never been an Elvis sighting at Le Bernardin? They say he didn’t like fish.
Instead, comfort food was his thing – meat loaf, pork chops or fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy you’d find at Bubby’s in TriBeCa or Harlem’s Amy Ruth’s.
He apparently wasn’t one for restaurants, either, preferring to chow down at home in bed – though there is the story of the Denver eatery where Elvis flew with friends by private jet for its specialty: Fool’s Gold Loaves.
The restaurant has since been shuttered, but you can re-create its 42,000-calorie sandwich-for-one from a hollowed-out loaf of oven-toasted bread filled with one large jar each of grape jelly and Skippy peanut butter plus a pound of bacon.
Elvis loved bacon so much, he was said to have kept a bowl of crispy pieces on his piano for munching purposes.
Any breakfast-all-day diner can supply you with one of his favorite 5 p.m. rising noshes – a pound of bacon, six fried eggs, half a pound of sausages and a dozen biscuits.
He’d also go for Papaya King’s hot dogs with sauerkraut – and a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
Don’t forget to save room for dessert, especially banana pudding or brownies, which cook Nicholson said she made “for Mr. P.” every day.
In honor of Memphis’ favorite son, Sweet Mama’s in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will whip up a menu of Coca Cola-baked ham, chicken-fried steak, fried green tomatoes and fried dill pickles Friday (Aug. 16, the date of his passing)
Just for the day, chef-owner Terrie Mangrum is adding Elvis’ favorites to her regular down-home fare: his signature grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich, ham-bone dumplings and baked apple and sweet potato pie. A blues, gospel and soul tribute will be performed by the Rev. Vince Anderson and His Love Choir.
The King’s beloved peanut butter and banana sandwich is also a menu staple of Peanut Butter & Co. on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village – only here honey is added, and, if you wish, bacon.
And on Friday, the Comfort Diner is serving a milkshake version of the classic sandwich. The Elvis is all shook up with vanilla ice cream, banana and peanut butter – “Smooth for the young Elvis, chunky for the older Elvis,” adds owner Ira Freehof. The diner has two East Side locations.
INSIDE HIS FRIDGE
HERE’S some of what had to be kept in stock at Graceland “at all times,” according to “The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley” by David Adler:
Thin, lean bacon
Wieners
Pepsi (one case)
Orange drinks (one case)
Biscuits (at least six cans)
Sauerkraut
Pickles
Peanut butter
Banana pudding
Brownies
Vanilla and chocolate ice cream
Shredded coconut
Fudge cookies