The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-02-03

| is crude. barbarfc. II properly treated,
! each vegetable in the mess is suscepti-
BILE Of affording a variety of tempting
and delicious dishes. There are no bet
ter yams anywhere than these, the
cream" yam being especially good;
yet as they are served. even in the best
! hotels. they are as bad as peeled pota-
| toes boiled to sogginess.
The meat is always bad,-tough,
stringy. and unpleasant to the taste. no
| matter how IL is cooked. Why IL is so
one soon learns. No cattle are proper
~ reared and fattened for the market,
and the manner OF slaughtering is in
famous. The animals are lassoed in a
corral and dragged out to posts, where
they are made fast for killing. Their
sforns are often broken. eyes are
knocked out by stones. and their thighs
chewed by dogs. Mad with terror, ag
ony and rage, fevered and suffering
fortunes from thirst. they are left
standing 10 or II hours before their
threats are curt in time for the early
morning market. Then their flesh goes.
warm with the animal heat to the pot
and the oven. In this climate IL not
cooked in a few hours il will purify,
for there is no ice. Each days supply
must be freshly killed. OF course such
meat cannot be good, no matter how it
may be disguised by garlic and red
pepper.
What amazing perpetrators these
Nenezuelans are! on a tiny dish by
each guests plate are laid from six TO
nine fresh peppers, long. round. red and
yellow, small. but with more fire I'm
them than is contained in any other
peppers grown outside sheol. The cut
surface of one lightly rubbed on plate
viii be found as effective as a great
dash of Tobasco sauce. Yet these
brass palated people. the old fellows
especially will fork them into their
mouths. three or four together, and de-
liberately chew and swallow them as if
they were white grapes.
At breakfast as well as dinner, claret
mixed with water--is freely used,
though OF course every one finishes the
meal with coffee, and chocolate is serv-
ed If desired. The chocolate. by the
way. is eXcee dinghy good, being a pro-
duct of the country which is at its best
when crudely prepared, il is here,
and altogether free from sophistica-
ton, common elsewhere. All wine is
imported.-even the imitation sorts
Yet the mountain slopes of Venezuela
are admirably adapted 10 vine culture.
Spain forbade the growing Of vines
here when this was a Spanish colony,
and though she has been kicked out
nearly so years. nobody has yet had
the energy TO try grape culture.
A conspicuous novelty on the table is
an enormous platter piled high with
little green bundles. each tied neatly
with a green string. They are called
liakis At least, that is the way the
name sounds, and the dictionaries
throw no light upon it. Ii is probably
a word of South American coinage.
Each package contains a tablespoonful
OF some minced or pulpy mess. wrapped
and tied with pieces Of plantain leaf.
Their total constitutes a sort of lot
terry. You may draw successfully from
the pile flesh, fish. fowl, sweetstuff and
plain vegetable matter, rarely getting
a pair Of any kind. one wad may be
delicious. the next rank with garlic or
wickcdly 'peppery. As they have all
been boiled together I'm one huge pot,
il might be supposed their flavors
would mix, but the plantain leaves pre-
vent that.
Eggs are moderately abundant: at
least. one can generally get them for
the asking. But they would doubtless !