Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-02-08
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I'm English Dinner,

ls.ondon correspondence of the Cincinnati
Commercial.
The tr1Ie London dinner consists
of frsm twelve to twenty courses
the halt of which are substantially
meats, fish, fowls and game, brace,l
mp and interpOlated with patties,
soups and entrees. Then follows -
vista OF sullen buildings and sOdden
sweets, cakes, custards and mixed
ices, whose consumption points to-
ward death and the hour of mid
night. And still the pOnderous
feast is not over. There remains
piles OF green nuts and Overnourish-
ed fruits, insidious entrees of late
dessert with foreign favor, and last
~ that inevitable, fatal cOmestible,
crowning the goal OF every British
dinner, and whose very look and
odor are suggestions OF the grave
Stilton cheese! But the London
dinner is not mostly a thing of eat
jng. a fter all has been said. tits All
affair to be drank ratherthan mas
ticated, its succeeding courses ap
pearing to be introduced mainly tor
the object OF clearing the palate for
fresh flavor of wine. A delicate
Hook is placed beside the plate of
microscopic, but finely flavor Eng
llsh oysters that began the meal.
Sauterne and moselle succeed to the
Hook, with the fish that follows the
oysters. Moselle and Sauternc give
way to the substantial sherry and
Hungarian in the third course. The
sherry is carried forward with AIRED
Burgundy to accompany the piece
de resistance, or the heavy roast OF
ERgksh sirlOin that breaks the first
shock of appetite in the process Of
dining. Chateau Yquem or white
Tokay attends the fowl that replaces
the roast. Game is introduced with
claret and champagne. A succeed
ing dish is supported by class of
Madeira. The Madeira, in tn n, is
contrasted with a Greek wine; and
a bottle of Manzanilla is deity in
serted to brace the tagging stimu-
liant of the Tenedos. With the des-
Sert appear the massive Southern
wines port and Spanish-while the
,lcavy English favOrrite, sherry, has
not once disappeared from the cloth.
The black wines are carried through
the dessert and fruits. Bordeaux is
slipped with the cheese, after which
the guests drink all round liquors.
ChatIruse OF MaraschinO, for better
digestion, and the ladies retiring,
after the English fashion, the cloth
is drawn, CogEac and whisky in
trOduced, and the regular drinking
Of an English dinner party begins.
To support this enormous and
massive eating and drinking, one
would suppose that the English.
would find it convenient, il not alb
solutely necessary, to recline, like
tn old Romans, at their meals. The
inference is as absu-d as the fancy OF
an Anglo Saxon in classic position.
An Engfishman is never stpadier
than when he rises from five hours
Ct dining. lie appears to carry of
his tons of food and gallons of wine
as lightly as il they were Il biscuit
and "a cup Of tea. And as for the
ma vellous POPULATION that follows
the ordinary English dinner, The
aristocraiic Londener appears sim
ply asa porous membrane througss
which liqitids disappear with the
simplicity of the endosmose process
in nature-or rather cognac and
whisky sink into his organization rs
gracefully Us il the British stomach
were the proper receptacle and des-
tiny OF the alcOhols.
The upper class English are un.
doubtedly the best dined and best
wincd race in the world; and there
appears to he dispensation in the
moist. unsteady atmosphere of the
English climate that atones forits
disagreeableness by allowing an
impunity of appetite to the inlabi-
tants which exists nowhere else. The
climate is a soaking one literally.
An American arriving in England
fluids that he can add one third to his
ration of the spirituous beverages
without apprehension.