Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1861-07-23
Thackeray on American Hotels and
Cookery.

| From the last number of the Corn hill Mag
azlne we extract the following descriptions OF
All American dinner:
a. But after all the semi-French cooking.
and the want of honest roast aud boiled. the
! peculiar aud unmatchable superiority of the
American dinner consists in the Vegetables
of which there Is an endless variety. and
n ost Of which are fine, quick grown and lux
url&nt IN SIZE. The egg plant, cut in slices
and roasted. is not 10 be despised. The
squash. or pumpkin.ls very nutritious and
good. The yams deserve a sentence to them
selves. They are something between a pota-
tC and parsnIp; they have II strlngy soft,
brown peel, and her mashy and sweet taste
Is to me very unpleasant, though could soon
learn to like them. The Lima beans, too. are
another favorte vegetable at American dim
, ners; they are brought mp peeled, are sol;
and white. and very succulen, and pleasant
to taste. Nor must succotash be forgotten ::
nor the ineStimable Indian corn. with lis
large bearded cobs, the sckly smell of which
is t" the stranger at first So unpleasant 1t
Is brought to table in the full head, and YOU
strip It down with your knife or your teeth
whichever you prefer. 1t used to rather give
me shudder to see American ladies' take up
III Their hands one of these heads of corn. as
large round as cucumber, and strip it down
with their teeth, as you would strip the cur
rants off The branch Of a currant tree. Hav-
ing s1rpped them, you dip them in melted
hutter, and SO make an end For myself |
prefer the green or unrIpe corn W hich is more
tender.
" But my great glory was in the old Indian
staple. hoHiuy. This is ripe Indian corn
which has been steepeti ia I've, and 50 depriv-
ed OF us tough outer cuticle. 1t is served IN
holled INTO fine grained mass, as white and
delicious as rice, yet with flavor lightness
and sweetness peculiarly its own. There is
no article of American diet 1 still daily long
Tor more than tins fut j; is more direstihIe
than the potato, and it never seems to surleit
or cloy
The Americans eat it ~ enormous quanti-
ties at breakfast, and at almost every other
meal. As an article of diet forshlldren it
cannot be surpassed for if theY once get
iond OF 1t. they viii almost live on it alone
Ot the meat part Of the American dinner I
have little to say, except that veal and PORK
seem much commoner than beef and muton,
ana that Whatever was the meat it was spoil
ed by being baked. or in some way or other
robbed Of It's proper Juices"
Mr. Ihackeray admits the iuferioritv Of
European to American hotels He saws
" In every respect but that Of privacy which
no gregarlous social traveller should wish
l"r, American hotels seem to me Al least a
century IN advance Of those in England
here, from the moment 4 traveller sets his
1907 within the door, the sole object OF every
one III the house seems 10 be 10 extort from
hIm every farthlng that the greediest cXac-
tons can wiring from his purse. The Amer
lean system. on tie other hand, moves on fix
ed mechanical laws. and never stops to think
Of the single guest"
And he winds up with the confession that.
" America IS the poor mans Paradise, Eng
Land the rich mans Eden. 7 ne American
system of hotels pucpurrcac trarot;,,r u
II pays. because tray eicrs are 50 numerous,
owing 10 encouragement Commercially.
they answer admirably. Il is time then,
that our abominabIe igh charging system
should be abolished for it pro lbiis travel
ing, and renders The home circuit of tourists
tie dearest, the dIsmaleSt. and the most
wrangling and uncomfortable possible"