The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-02-28
WHAT ENGLISH COUSINS EAT
And the Very Peculiar Ways they
Have OF Eating IL.
Correspondence of the Press.l

Is that they are firmly convinced that
they are the only people who can, so that
it is impossible to teach them"
To certain degree she was right; the
Travelled Englishman of the higher classes
Is bon vivant, connoisseur in affairs
of the table, but his average fellow coun-
tryman, and still more fellow country
woman, rivals the Chinaman in con-
tempt for all "outside barbarians," and
regards his insular beef and mutton. his
veal and am pie as the only victuals for
Christians. Most of the ''roast beef of
Old England" comes nowadays from
America and Australia, and, thanks to
the system of refrigerator shipment. the
imported beef is for the most part supe-
rior to the domestic article, although few
of the English will admit it; indeed, some
of them still consider it as only next door
to poison.
The regular every day dinner of the
middle class family of moderate means
consists of beef or mutton boiled to death
or roasted to dry tastelessness (the En-
6Iish abhor rare meat), with white pota-
toes and cabbage, followed by some sort
of pudding for dessert, not because there
is any lack of variety from which to
choose, but merely because it is their
habit, and John Bull is a stickIer for
regular habits. The English mutton is
excellent, far more juicy and tender
than our best Southdown, and they cook
it much better than they do beef. The
usual mode of cooking fowl, which al
ways means chicken, is to boil it with
ham. The Saxon fondness for the swine
is general, as 'veal and am" (ham),
fowl and am" and the certainty with
which you are offered cam and heggs"
at every country inn abundantly testify.
AT first the ham, which is nearly always
good, imparts an agreeable flavor to the
FOWL, but it becomes nonotonous to the
stranger after awhile, though the natives
never seem to tire of it. "Pigs' trotters"
Il. e., pigs feet--are esteemed a great
delicacy among the common people and
may be had in every London cook shop.
The English are great fish eaters, and
there are many eating houses in London
and elsewhere where only fish is served.
The sole, the turbot and the john-doree
are among specialties. The latter is close
ly akin to our drumfsh in appearance and
flavor, and, like it, is only to be caught
under certain fayoring conditions of wind
and tide. Shrimps are another delicacy,
and are sold on the streets by the hawkers.
Those at Greenwich are esteemed espe-
cially good, and it is common thing for
the passenger on the penny boats to buy
pocketful of shrimps to regale himself
with on the return trip, eating them as
coolly as the American does peanuts.
When the Englishman gives an American
a dinner, he always, by way of compli-
ment to the guest, includes raw oysters
on the bill of fare, a compliment which,
if it be the guests first experience of the
British oyster, is apt to take away his
appetite. That bivalve is small and
ieathery, and the strong coppery flavor.
which the English like so much, is any
thing but agreeable to novice. "Our
oysters are small" said an Englishman
who had travelled much, and was famil-
lar with American cities, "our oysters
are small, but then the flavor. NV idea
OF the ideal oyster is one of your Blue
Points with the flavor of our English
oyster"
"H'm| answered disguised Ameri-
can, who was vainly endeavoring to
wash the said flavor out of his mouth:
"the flavor is easy enough to get. Just
suck copper cent?"
The English care far less for hot dishes
than we do. In every hotel dining room
or large restaurant you will find table
spread with cold meats of all sorts, in
GLIDING several kinds of fish and game,
most appetizingly garnished and deco
rated. Quite as many orders are taken
for this table as for the kitchen, and it is
usual thing for the customer to 60 over
to it in order to make his choice, fire.
quently directing the carver what cut to
serve. So, also, you may buy cold meats,
ham, fowl, game, salmon, beef, roast or
la mode, tongue, head cheese, mutton,
veal; anything, in fact, which you may
want for luncheon or high tea, daintily
dressed in the best French style. Much
more astonishing than the fancy for cold
meats is that for cold toast. The toast
Eack is a usual appendage of the Eng
lish breakfast table, and is invariably
filled with toast, stone cold
I once heard an indignant American
declare his belief that his landlady made
toast once week to last seven DAYS.
"And it don't take much to last me. I
can tell you'll" he added. The English muf-
fin is rarely served hot, and is at its best
when split open and toasted. Hot and
little richer, it would be much like the
American fapjack. There are no crack
ers in England; our Crackers" are all
biscuits. So, also, fruit pies are known
only as tarts, the term pie being confined
to meat pasties. "Love in disguise" is
the title, not of dainty dessert, but of
a Sleeps heart baked in pie. If you
call for pie in a London restaurant the
waiter answers, Yes, sir; veal and am,
or beefsteak?" The English potato is
perfect, mealy, large, and white as bolted
wheaton flour. Sweet potatoes are an
imported luxury, as is Indian corn, which
is little cultivated in the United King
dom. The vegetable marrow of England
is identical with the squash of New Eng
land and the cymling of the southern
states. All green herbs for food grow
luxuriantly in the moist, mild English
climate, and salads of all sorts are excel
lent.
A London costermongers cart is a
pretty sight to see for the artistic group
Ing Of the various vegetables. The red
and white of the radishes, the crimson Of
beets, the yellow of carrots, and the diff
ferent shades Of green-bright green of
spinach, blue green Of kale, pale green Of
bleached cabbage, etc.-are blended and
contrasted with the skill of an expert
florist making bouquet. Covent Gar
den market is sight which no visitor to
London should miss seeing. To see Ii
one must rise early, as the market is
practically over by 8 o'clock, and it is at
It's best at about 8 in the morning. Great
piles of fruit and vegetables, making
masses OF color which artists love to
study (there are few picture exhibitions
at which there are not one or more scenes
from Covent Garden), the market men
and women in their quaint, old fashioned
costumes, the army of purchasers of all
sorts and conditions, and most of all the
flower market, with its wealth of English
bloom, and rarer, but no more beautiful,
foreign blossoms, form picture to dwell
IN the memory forever.
English gooseberries are literally i'm
mense, and one must actually ''make
TWO bites" of an English cherry. Straw
berries are delicious, and sell for from
one to three shillings the basket, basket
holding rather less than pint dhis in