Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-03-12

che thanks you grsciously, and both Of you 20
your ways, feeling the happier for the service rem
dered and the Acknowledgement made A lady
IN Havana takes every preferred courtesy kindly,
mud thanks you for it. She does not stalk up to
your seat in public places, and, with sulky dog
gedness, silently demand that you should give
np to her what you have paid for and secured,
Ind after you have given it, take no more notice
OF you than If you were cur which had been
driven from her path. She does not if you offer
your hand or your arm to assist her shrink within
herself, and look at you as if you were q lepcr
branded felon, because you have never been
introduced If she be pretty and you tell her
80, she thanks you for admiring her; and have
yet to learn that this disposition her part les
sens her pleasure in receiving attention and ad-
Iairation, or yours in giving it.
Breakfast is almost as important a meal with
the Habanero, as dinner. 1t is hearty; dec-
dedly la fourchstte, almost a la fourche, with
some of the merchants who have, for three hours
before it, been en- the wharf which, more
anon. Indeed, invitations to breakfast are quite
as common as invitations to dinner; and the ordi-
nary breakfast table, save in the absence of pre-
liminary soup, and the supplemental dessert, diff
fers little from the ordinary dinner table. Before
breakfast, is the proper time to eat oranges,
which is done thus The skin is paired off with
sharp, rough-edged knife, leaving thin layer
of the white leathery underskin still around the
fruit. A small slice is then cut from one end, and
the pulp is sucked from the incision; successive
slices being removed as the process advances. 1t
is well to remember this Those who have eaten
an orange in this way, will never eat one in any
other. Only the tick-skinned Havana fruit, how
ever, can support the operation. An orange or
two, rather gives zest to the appetite for break
fast and, although by nine o'clock it is oppres
sively hot, in spite of the land breeze which
has sprung up you look at the well loaded table
with desiring eyes. On it you will find fish,
poultry, fried eggs, ragouts, chops, plaintains de-
liciously stewed in wine and jelley, as we'll as
roasted whole and fried in slices, yams, rice and
rolls. The native rice has rich sweet favor,
which is far superior to that of the product of our
Southern States. 1t is darker and smaller grain
ed. Rolls are the only form in which bread APP
pears; and this staff of life with u.s. is one of the
luxuries of Havanese table. Almost every bar.
rel of flour used On the island is brought from
Spain, as the import duty on American -four is
rice takes the place of wheaton -four, and plain
tains answer the purpose of all other vegetables.
There is yet another occupant of the breakfast ia
BILE which finds great favor with all natives and
many foreigners it is the aguacate, or alligator
pear. 1t is somewhat Of the shape, and generally,
three or four times the size of an ordinary pear.
Its outer skin is tough, and of bright green CO.
lor in the centre ID smooth stone, about as large in
proportion as that of peach; between the two
Is soft oleaginous substance which is made into
salad, or eaten meat, with expressions of ecs-
tatic pleasure by those who were born to the
taste or have acquired it. AS for me, my attempts
to eat it only produced disgust Its taste, to the
nninitiated, can be likened to nothing else than
that of tallow family sweetened, about to that
vague indefinite degree to which the parsimonious
hand ofthe ordinary genteel boarding house keep
or sugars the pale, watery custards which grace
the end of her Sunday dinner. Fasting and pray
er might beget relish for this greasy fruit but
can conceive no other mode of attaining that
gastronomc virtue.
At breakfast, no coffee or tea is offered; but at
every other plate stands bottle of red Bordeaux
or Cataonian wine, of which all partake as freely
as If it were water. Do you shrink from drink
ing 1t so early in the day, or from drink ing it at
all You are unwise. Take it, asking no ques-
TONS as you did with the coffee three hours ago.
Though at the North. such potations al such an
hour would make your eyes ache and your head
swim, here you will feel from them only benef-
clal effects; or, more correctly, will know nothing
of them, save to feel their want if YOU should
omit them. After breakfast, coffee comes again;
over which, it is the fashion to sit and chat
awhile, as do over our after. dinner
wine. Drink that too for the stomachs sake.
no BE CONCLUDED