The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-08-01
FASHION IN Fooo.
whales, Grampuses SD Porpoises Once
Popular ~ Table Fishes

Popular ~ Table Fishes
Foods have their fashions as well as
clothes. For no clear reason we eat
certain kinds of fish. flesh and vegeta-
BILE and dlsdain others which might be
edible and pleasing to the taste. Queen
Elizabeth ate the flesh of whales, but
we, today would turn up our noses at
such dish. Yet why? Is the cetacean
flesh disgusting or tough or tasteless?
We do not know, for we have never
had 1t on our tables. Fish soup, gram
puses and proposes \, ere dainties to
the English palate before French cooks
invaded the tight little isle and inn
posed the astronomical modes Of
Paris on the British lisine II is not
very many years since English and
American stomachB revoIted at the
delicate legs Of frogs, yet we MUNICH
those tender tidbits now with the
steadiest nerves and the incest relishJ
Of their sweetness and flavor.
What untrled dainties are there yet
to be found in the world and intro
duced to our bored stomachs, hungry
for new sensations? 1t is said that the
French, in spite of occasional periods
Of hostility, revere and love the Jesuits
because Jesuit missionaries firstI
brought the turkey into France and
taught the cooks of Paris its delicious
properties. Why should we not eat
mice and kittens? Shall we always abb
hon the flesh of fat young puppies? Oh,
for an epicurean Columbus to open
new worlds to our appetite! Since we
do not scruple to eat pork-the flesh Of
the filthy hog, and very palatable
flesh, too-why should we choke at
mice, kittens AMI puppies? One dapes
say that if the flesh of puppy were
served under some French nom de
cuisine we wOul1 praise it nightly and
call for a second helping.
In our eating, more, perhaps, than
in anything else, we, are slaves of pref
udice, custom and caprice We do not
venture. Our bill of fare does not
grow with civilization We have few
staples which we disguise and vary by
means of sauces and French aliases.
We improve the kitchen range, but we
! do not improve our dinners. Talley-
rand said that the English had "a re-
ligions and only one sauce. Since then
the English have multiplied their res
ligions, but they have not yet invented
their second sauce. AS people the
English and Americans oppose expan-
sion and innovation i'm their dining
rooms. When forks were brought over
from Italy to London theme were stout
Britons enough to. declare that to eat
with a tool as though pitching hay,
end not with tho fingers, was to des-
troy the simplicity and manliness Of
old England
The English speaking peoples have
stomachs, but no palates, They have
not enthusiasm for an excellent truf1e,
they do not feel emotions of pure
pleasure in the memories of good din
ners, long since digested. Who but a
Frenchman could thr0w up his hands
and exclaim in. praise of a certair
green sauce, the recipe for which, alas
is lost, with this. sauce could eat my
grandfather" Brillat-Savarin de-
clared that the man who discovers a
new dish is a greater benefactor of his
race than the man who discovers a new
planet. This is a truly Gallo opinion
and is not shared by our. sauceless peo-
pie, but, when one comes to think il
is curious that TIE only permanent
work of the great soldier-statesmaN
ecclesiastic, Armand Richelieu, was the
mayonnaise sauce, which he invented
and that the only idea of the brilliant
Cardinal Wolsey, which the world re-
members, and still makes use of, was
his idea-Original with him-tha
strawberries and cream would go wel
togetheT.-San Francisco Bulletin.
Old Time Dollars.