Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-25
EPICUREAN MARVEL.
Four Birds Legs Served at Cost
 of Fifty Dollars.
Dish Sufficiently Delicious to Gladden. the Heart of the Most Jade6 Epicure-Other Expensive
 DIshes.

l
 The most expensive dish in the world consists of the fat legs of four small
 birds, rare and expensive, no bigger
 than juvenile pigeons, inclosed in a quail, which is placed in teal, itself 1 wrapped inside capon. A goose, the fattest and tenderest parts obtainable, and fine turkey also play important
 parts in the preparation of this dish,
 but the four small legs from the in- I side of the quail alone are served up, | the other birds being employed to add their flavor to that of the four legs, in which duty they are assisted by liberal basting with rare wines.
 This dish is said to be sufficiently de- 1icious to soften the heart of the most callous epicure, but, of course, the greatest thing in it's favor is its pro- hibitive cost. It is occasionally served
 in certain London restaurant, and a
 single order costs about $50, says the New York World.
 l Peacocks' tongues form the basis 1 of another fashionable dish, and, though they are sufficiently expensive for most people, it is really the things
 added to them and their treatment which make the dish so costly. It takes Ia dozen peacocks' tongues to make dish large enough to be clearly visible I to the naked eye, and such dish would add anything from $15 to $50 to din- ner bill, according to what other deli- cacies were employed in creating" the dish.
 Turtle-fin soup is yet another choice l course calculated to allure a man into the banruptey courts, though its cost
 is comparatively trihing, enough to l cover the bottom of a soup-plate being obtainable in many hotels for a mere
 bagatelle of S10, unless it has been elaborated, as it often is, when it oc- sasiona1ly runs to $2o per head on the bill. Bird's-nest soup is not yet really
 appreciated by westerners, despite the l fact that 1t is even dearer than turtle. Probably the most expensive soup
 to be had is that for which the tai ented-we were almost writing "in- spired'-chef of Paris restaurant is noted3 Much mystery Gas Is usual with French dishes) exists as to what l 1t is made of, but one of the chief constituents is woodcocks' legs, stewed very gently until the flesh falls off the bone. The resultant l liquor is then allowed to cool, equal l portions of two wines are added, and 1 then it is ready to be prepared in all ! earnestness. It costs 80 francs every l time.
 l The tasteful art of being a genius l of chef seems to consist to great
 extent in getting the smallest por- | & <,f ho V l bird or beast in such way as to
 effect the greatest possible waste. A dish invented by a Paris chef in honor of dinner given to an actress
 by some of her admirers consisted of
 the most delicate portions of 30 l geese, ten turkeys and some wood
 cocks, prepared in a sauce obtained l by stewing the tender meat of four
 sirloins of beef, and leaving only the l turkey element to be served up with l truff1es The cost of the course was 1 $4o0, not because of what it consisted, 1 but because of all that was wasted in it's preparation.
 It is on the cards that truffies will
 soon be as unfashionable as onions,
 since they can almost always be ob- l tained for $5 a pound, and no chef ! |. A-ft Asl 1. 5s7
 has yet discovered any part of them
 so much better than the rest to ex-
 cuse wasting half and doubling the
 price, though chefs nearly always
 have "waste" of any kind to do with
 as they will.
 Epicures of 20 years ago used to
 relish a nice woodcock, snipe, or capon, but the modern epicure would not deign to eat more than the most delicate portions of any of those birds, and thus while they are rarer
 than ever more are required to make a dish, and so the cost leaps up.
 There is a small and infinitely deli
 cate species of the sturgeon called
 the sterlet, which was very much favored few years ago. Now, how
 ever, the higher epicures will only
 touch it's roe as caviare at $10 time. II Aw MN-. wwv~ ww WF- .