Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-01
THRIFT AND EXTRAVAGANZA.
French and American Methods of Cook.
ing Compared.


Any one who has spent any length d
time in Paris viii affirm that a person who
is sufficiently democratic not to mind join
ing the multitude, and Bohemian enough
in his tastes to relish a good dinner at a
low price, can get the most palatable food
for the smallest amount of money in that
city of any Of the great metropolitan cities
Prices have risen in Paris, to be sure, as
everywhere else, and you can go to a fash
ionable restaurant there, much frequented
by Americans; and pay as much for din
ner as at Delmonico's in New York, Or
Young's in Boston, but there are still
plenty of cheap places where the waters
do not speak English, where you can get
an excellent dinner at low cost. There
is this great difference between Paris and
our large cities: that while our first-class
restaurants are equal to any in the world,
our cheaper ones are much poorer than
those of equal grade in France. Anybody
in New York or Boston who is obliged to
live at restaurants finds that he must have
long purse to get good fare; if not, he is
condemned to bad food and consequent in
digestion. g How / do WISH said young
man to ne, who dimes at restaurant in
the city, "that there were such places as
the Establishments Duval in America"
For those who do not know the Etab-
easements Duval, a little description may
be interesting. They are cheap restaurants
established by an authorized company in
various parts Of Paris, on the most conve-
nient and popular thoroughfares. They
are well fitted up, neat and tasteful, with
plenty of mirrors-as everywhere in
Fr;ncc-marble tables, and enough gid
ing sana frcseoing to make the place bright
and cheerful. Here, at the usual Paris
dinner hour, from 6 to 7 o'clock, flock all
sorR of persons of various employments;
artists from the studios, students from the
col tges, tradesmen from the shops, jour
nal kts, idlers, and Il very few strangers to
thef city. One must know Paris pretty
thoroughly before he finds himself at home
in these places which the true Partisan
fre,luents:
Nlou take seat at the marble table and
begin to look over the bill of fare.
Evfrything is charged for, but at the
lowest possible charge. The waiter brings
vol a napkin which is one cent, piece of
bread two cents, and then waits your
order. First comes the soup. There are
severel of the savory potages, which they
know how to make in France, of the
bores and meat which is thrown away in
New York or Boston. These are from five
to ak cents a plate. Then fish, which is
always dear in Paris, so the charge is from
twgve to sixteen cents portion. | re-
me alber well delicious bit of salmon with
a..a I'm, ,rhinh .l,a ,ao,,f,,l
of eighty confines, or sixteen cents. After
the fish come the roasts and the entrees in
great variety; from plain boiled beef with
a salad to saints of duck with olives
with prices varying from eight to twenty
cents. But where could you get at any
restaurant in America, tor three or four
times the sum, such delicious tender bit
of duck, with the tempting gravy favored
with floating olives; or such tenderloin of
beef with mushrooms or such mutton cut
lets with tomato sauce? In each case the
portions are small, but that only makes
ttem seem more palatable, and when you
have eaten all You want you will find you
have had good dinner for forty or forty
five cents, or 4 luxurious one for sixty
.cents-a dinner which would cost three
times that sum, if equally good, in New
York City.
But the chief lesson to be learned by
these places is the economy with which all
is managed, and the fact that nothing
whatever is wasted. could not help con-
trasting meal which | took at one Of
these Establishments Duval with one
which | took year later in hotel near
the seaside in Massachusetts. The price of
the hotel dinner was 81 %, which was
cheap enough when one considers the
quantity. First, there was soup, greasy
and unpalatable; then the fish, which was
good if it had been well cooked, and which
Iwas brought for two persons in sufficient
quantity for six. Then beef and chicken,
the former very tough and the latter very
dry; these accompanied by six or eight
Varieties of vegetables in lavish profusion.
Then pies, buildings, fruit and coffee, all
badly served and in most reckless abund-
ance. When the slatternly girl who
waited gathered up the dishes to take
away what we could not eat she gathered
into heap of refuse material enough to
have made a dinner for four ether persons
in France and a very much better dinner
than we had eaten. Waste-reckless and
th0ughtleSs wastes the characteristic of
all our hotel and restaurant life in America
| wish we could be sure it were better in
the kitchens Of our private houses, but /
fear great many of the refuse barrels
would tell different tale. How much
bread hardly vet stale enough to be whole
some goes to the pigs; how much good ma
terial for soup TO dogs and chickens how
many dishes Of cold vegetables which
might be made edible are thrown away,
even in houses otherwise thrifty? One
trouble is we have in our kitchens class
of servants, ignorant ard unframed, never
before accustomed to plenty, who seem to
delight in careless improvidence. \ proper
thrift, which makes the most Of all ma
terial, is one OF the highest virtues of civil
ization. We cannot expect to find it i'm
ported into our kitchens from the bogs of
Ireland by servants who have lived on po-
tatoes or buttermilk, and who see in the
United States land overlooking with
roast beef and pies and puddinS;' or by
the German, who comes from coatentedly
munching black bread to land where
there is nothing but white flour 10 tc used
Thrift must be acquired by long and pa
tient nursing of the virtue; and not till we
are, As people, sufficiently educated in
cookery and the value Of materials, shall
We know how to get the most comfort out
OF an abundance Is great rs that of our
land Abby Sage Richardson in Congre-
gationalist.