The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-30
AMERICANS AT DINNER
IMPROVEMENT IN OUR MANNERS
 NOTED BY FOREIGNERS.
Crftfcisn sf ithe Way Our Meals Were
 Served in the Olden Time.
Washington Star

washington S5tar
 Twenty or twenty-five years ago the art or cooking and serving meals was In It's infancy in the United States. The majority of hotels were then carried on upon what was known as the Ameri- can plan. A single daily charge GOV cred all guests necessary expenses In the house. including food and such in different service as there was.
 In many hotels, however, the charge even when otherwise most comprehen- sive, did not cover the biacking of the visitors boots. 1t being a maxim of those houses that although freeborn hu- man beings might black their own boots without loss of dignity, they could not black another's without stopping to slavery.
 The usual result was that the travel ing Englishman went out with dirty boots. and got them blacked by some interruptions fellow at a street corner. This artistic citizen charged often i've pence, and meyer less than twopence- halfpenny, as the price of his degrada- ton: but he'put on lovely polish. A Continual Feast.
 In those days I never liked the Amer ican plan, for too often 1t was accom- panied by a method of serving meals | that was singularly diseagreeable. The whole dinner was put upon the table together. in about a score of plates and small saucers.
 dare say that all of 1t was hot when 1t was pitched down before you, but | most of 1t was quite cold ere you were half ready for it. Moreover, it was ex tremely unappetizing, thus to be obliged | to contemplate a succession of dishes, | each unattractive in appearance, and | each deteriOfating.
 The American plan still survives in | numerous excellent hotels, but the sim I11 1fan ri inp of hn aa1 takes place no longer, save in remote | districts or fin very inferior houses. American table service. like American | table habits, has improved vastly; and all large American cities. especially in | the North and on the Pacific slope, now 1 contain hotels as good as any in Flu rope. The boot blacking difficulty, too. | has been suTmOunted.
 Yet even in the day when the art of | feeding was at its lowest in the United | States, America produced certain table | de1icacies which were not to be had | elsewhere, and which, once enjoyed. | could newer be forgotten by any one l fond of good living. As a rule, you did not get them at hotels, but rather in l restaurants and private houses. Some | of them, however, I have had in per l lection in little inns of the most unpre- | tentious character. First on the list is | terrapin.
 The terrapin, or diamond backed tur- tie. is a small tortoise which inhabtts | the braclcish shadows along the eastern coasts of the United States from New | York sonthward The best breeding grounds are. perhaps. Chesapeake Bay | and Delaware, in both of which n- | lets terrapins are farmed in immense numbers.
 Terrapin and Cnnvnsback. I have enjoyed terrapin in the great p.,lt limo hut he- | lieve it is heresy to admit this, and
 Philadelphia pretends that only Phil l adelphian can stew a diamondback in 1 a thoroughly beftting manner. The | inquiring epicure should be careful that | he gets the real thing. An inferior and | larger tortoise, the slider, or red-bellled | terapin, is often dished up Instead of the dianondback ,or used as an adul- | terant.
 If you see the shell you cannot mis-
 take the two reptiles. one for the other
 Tho diamondback has regular hexa-
 gona1 markings of line within line down
 the broad of it's back, while the slider g i shell has no approach to a regular se-
 ometrica1 pattern on 1t.
 Scarcely less to be desired than the l terrapin is the canvas back duck, an
 other frequenter of the eastern shores
 of the United States. The name comes
 fro Il the peculiar canvas-like appear l | The head Is of dull reddish brown
 and the extremity of the bill has q | downward curve The body Is much larger than that of that other excellent
 duck, the pochard. an allied species.
 The canvas back breeds in the North
 and winters in the South, but he ranks | as a delicacy only at certain seasons
 and onlt when he has been able to ge;
 the particular kind of food which gives
 him the flavor by which he has won his
 reputation. This food is the plant call
 ed Vallisneria spiralis, water celery
 the sp-ng plant of Australia and the
 tape grass or eel grass of other places
 It flMrishes in many fresh water
 streams, and is extraordinarily plentl'
 ful in the streams which feed Chesa-
 peake Pay. .."+f -."'s--
 American waters contain no soles, bu
 they produce many other fishes, espe
 cially some varieties of bass, the de
 lici1us blue-fish and the American shad
 The last differs entirely from either o'
 the two species of shad known to Brit
 ish waters Though a sea fish, 1t as
 cends the rivers to spawn. It may Dc ' cooked in various ways, but 1t is at it'
 best when "planked," or fastened to :
 pine board and so toasted and baste' | before d hot fire
 It is certainly very good done in tha
 way kut it may be that the circum
 stances in which one usually eats plank
 ed shad have much to do with th'
 grtttdulneSs of the dish. l have had l only when camping out or picnicklng
 With d healthy open-aiS appetite onei | palate is neither eXacting nor very sen
 sitive. ~*.~ @:-.:
 "... The Real Blue Point.
 Thege can be no doubt, however, al to the abounding merits of the Amerl can oyster. Brtons who have no crossed the Atlantic and who haV'
 tasted so-called American oysters onl!
 in London, will probably Jeer at me 10 sayina so. Nevertheless. 1 know man! an epicGre of judgment who maintain hrst-rate oyster is until he has mad the acquaintance of the best American
 kinds. It must not be supposed that the bes
 blue points, as sold in good New 4ori restaurants. bear much more than nominal resemblance to the coarse oys ters which are comonly advertised a blue p)ints ln England. 1 necoIlect once asking London oys
 ter man whether he ever had any req
 American blue points. Plenty" he re piled. picking up an oyster and opening | it.. Here's one. Do you see the nlu
 poin&?" And he showed me the well
 known bluish eye on the inside of tn
 she'll Unfortunately, the genuine blu
 poi.; is SD named from q promontor.
 near Great south Bay, Long Island. an' r not from any real or supposed bluenes of the shell or it's contents.
 !, Excellent oysters of similar typ I hal{ pa