The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1901-12-31
CURIOUS ENGLISH MENUS.
Pompeiian Apples and Butter Made
Many Years Ago i'm the Reign
OF Queen Elizabeth.

There has been no more eccentric
banquet served than that partaken OF
in Liverpool recently by couple OF
well-lxnown antiquaries, says London
Answers.
Practically, the dinner was a yege-
tartan one, consisting, as it did, OF
apples, bread, butter and wine. The
apples were at least 1,S00 years old,
having been taken from a hermetical-
ly sealed jar unearthed at Pompeii.
The bread was made from wheat
looted from a recently opened Egyp-
tian tomb. the hieroglyphics thereon
showing it to have been crown in the
reign of that Pharaoh ''who knew not
Joseph" and who afterward perished,
together with his armies, in the Red
sea. The butter, discovered on a
stone shelf in an ancient and long
disused well, dated from the days of
"Good Queen Bess," while the wine
was old when Columbus was boy,
and came from vault in Corinth.
Dinners of sauces have been not
infrequently tried by epicures crav-
Ing for new gastronomic sensations.
One of the most famous was given
some few years back by an eccen-
trio member of well-lnown West
End club. The soup was represented
by gravy sauce; and, in lieu of fish,
oyster and lobster sauces were hand
ed round. Egg sauce did duty for
a joint. and bread sauce recalled the
memory of pheasant; while the abb
sent plum pudding was suggested by
brandy sauce.
Flower breakfasts threatened to
become society fad the season be-
fore last. The viands at these unique
repasts were entirely composed of.
flowers, and infinite was the ingenui-
ty expended in devising new and
appetizing dishes. Salad made from
the showy, warm-tasting blossoms G
the nasturtium alternated with caper
jelly and myrtle-fower soup. Usual
ly the flowers of particular species
of pumpkin vine constituted the
principal dish. They were yellow in
color, fleshy and about the size of
a fiye-shilling piece. The edible
blooms were pluclxed before the pet
ais were fully expanded, baked or
stewed in fresh milk. and favored
with cloves, which latter, as every
one knows, are merely the unexpand-
ed flowers of an evergreen plant from
the Indian archipelago. The feast
was finished off with a plentiful sup
ply of candied rose leaves, violets, etc.
OF strange gastronomic fads of
Individual eccentrics there is literally
no end.
Death dinners, as they were called,
were a gruesome fad OF London So
ciety early in the SOS. There is
still living a certain lady of high rank
who. not so very long AGO. used an
nually TO give one of these somber
banquets in memory Of her dead
husband. The room was draped in
black and mauve, the linen was
mauve. the ladies wore dresses TO
match, while the walters were attired
in black silk knee breeches, black
coats and mauve silk stockings. The
menu was modelled after the memori-
am cards in fashion. and even the
viands were either black. mauve or
white.
An alphabetical dinner was. given
only the other day at one OF the
best known Strand hotels. Every
item on the menu began with the let
ter c. Banquets at which he guests
reclincd on couches and fed them
selves with their fingers, as did the
fashionables Of Augustan Rome. con-
Etituted another society fad that was
exceedingly popular Tor awhile. OF
course. the menus for these queer
dinners had 10 be so contrited as to
permit Of the guests feeding them
selves with the minimum Of discom-
fort and grease Among the items
comprised in a biz OF fare that lies
before me as write are bonillon in
cups, asparagus. fried smells. lamb
chops en- Eapillofe. woodcock ard
cheese sfraws.
TIE most eccentric diner fhe world
has ever seen WAS a certain regular
customer of a famous Partisan res
iauranf known - the walters as
-the auttcr man. Ie ate next fo
nothing. but bis Soup toureen. flied
with 8 conscrre specially prepared
for him. was alra1s pf- before him.
IIe iock q fcsl res ar6 has *
rtH 1sarI -, Ee