The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-17

e1S bid Tor them horCely nS men do In this
degenerate age for Titan or Murillo.
All this was charming for people who liked
good dinners; for, as in time of military rage
every French soldier fights like man in
hopes OF being rewarded with a bit OF red
ribbon, 80 in the days when cookery was ap-
preclated every French cook fried, boiled,
and roasted with q will in humble expecta-
ton that some day or other the title of
cofuon-bto2t would crown his well-meant
efforts. Who could tell, indeed, but that the
quiet, well-dressed individual who had just
entered the dining-room of the modest res
taurant and ordered mayonnaise, sol au
gratin, and some cotelettes la soubise for
his dinner, was peer Of France in mufti-a
peer who, if pleased with his repast might
bring other peers after him and set the
modest restaurant in fashion Such things
happened then. II had required no more
than frozen barrel of Romano and the
accidental christening of poulet a la Marengo
to found the reputation of the Trois Freres
Provencaux; whilst tureen of potage bisque
30 the story goes--had been enough to
start the fame of the Rocher de Cancal.
The Imagination of French cooks and soul
lions was on the alert. Every customer who
ordered clever dinner, and showed that no
knew what he was eating raised golden
hopes in the hearts below stairs. French
hotels and restaurants were then really worth
dining at, and twas a fact which travellers
never failed to record very tenderly in their
memoirs that. whether one spent on ones
dinner five francs or fifty, the fare was
sure to be wholesome, well-cooked, and
agreeable. Truth to say, however; this
blissful state of things only lasted few
years, for one must not go back for excellent
cookery further than the reign of Napoleon,
nor hope to find the vestiges of it much later
than 1880.
Taken all in all, France may be no worse
in point Of cookery than England or Ger
many, but ii is hardly better. Amongst
British travellers there are still few en-
thusiasts who go into raptures over the fare
provided at the monster hotels and the more
famous restaurants. But Frenchmen them
selves are of a different opinion, and it is q
significant fact that the restaurants most
popular with French barristers, Journalists,
artists, officers, and well-to-do bachelors in
general are precisely those where the dinner
is of an English kind, that is where cor
tege of solemn-looking joints is wheeled in
at o'clock and made to do duty as the
staple article of the evenings dinner. And
this, be it observed, is not question OF
economy, for a dinner off the joint with
accompaniment of the usual ct ceteras is not
| any cheaper-often much less SO, indeed
than q purely French dinner of three or
four courses. But Frenchmen are placed on
the horns of dilemma. Long acquaintance
has made them distrustful of stews. 1t is
! the old question of ti1aeo DG7eG0S. Under
| the heaps of mushrooms and olives turks
mischief Those therefore, who cannot af-
ford to pay twenty francs for a dinner at the
Cafe Anglais, or to keep cook of their own
| prefer relying upon the simple joints set il
fashion by England, and dine-from mulla
| gatawney or oxtail to Stilton cheese inclusive
very much as if they were on the other sid,
of the Channel. The only thing they hav'
not yet been able to accustom themselves t.
entirely is the taking of beer whilst eating
But this is an innovation which, like tn,
joints, is destined to have it's day. Already
under pretext of trying British pale ale, man,
Frenchmen may be deserted handling plate
tankards at luncheon. Inveterate patriot
bewail the practice as another symptom o
| Anglo-mania; but the Anglo-maniacs conten
that in this age Of progress the French wine
have shown tendency to follow in the walk
of the French stews, and that the only way O
being certain that one is drinking of a soun
vintage, wholesome, cheap, and unadulterated
is to drink beer.