Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-02

ing sieges, eggs formed necessarily an i'm
portant part of the diet. Everything to
eat drink and warm had to be brought up
on the backs of donkeys; but any quantity
of chickens could be kept, and eggs are
such concentrated food. Ham and eggs
and cheese. according to the old-time Ben
edictine, formed the staple food when there
was not even bread.
1t is not much changed after 900 years.
Eggs continue to be the bilious standby of
the spot; and tourists are not rendered
bilious only because they stay SO short
time.
This is how we get to the omelettes of the
greatest egg-cook of all France Thirty
years ago Annette Poulard, blushing
bride, began to whip up omelettes for tour
lists Had she natural genius for it? Or
were the eggs of these ozone-fed hens par
ticularly fresh laid? Or were the tourists
simply very hungry?
In any case the reputation of Annette
POulard began to flourish like the green bay
tree. Artists IN oil and water colors swarm
ing the coast paid their bills by painting
Annette at her omelettemaking. Tourists
gobbled them and asked for more. Soon she
could advertise them as renowned "A la
Renommee de IOmeletter'
j asked her secret
Good eggs and good butter" she replied.
That much may be due to the delicious
''half-Salted" butter of Normandy is prob
able. 1t is plentiful-and cheap. Annette
cuts a tremendous chunk of butter from
block of 1t two feet cube, slaps in into d
long handled saucepan, and heats it over
dancing wood fire till it bubbles
Then she pOurs IN her beaten eggs.
She has been photographed and painted
in the act a hundred times. In spite of the
fact that she has grown rich, she keeps on
making omelettes with her own hands She
wears a black silk gown with a real lace
or embroidered batiste collar and an apron
of the finest batiste edged with lace or en-
bro!dery. And she changes 1t eight times
a day to keep it always smart,
IN chr hos viii
in her cavernous open fireplace. On its
floor dances a diabOlical little fire of sea-
sOned wood And it is her husbands task
to keep it burning lively. With great art
he shifts this stick OF that He seldom
touches the bellows.
Theory of Omelettes.
Annette approaches with her long handled
saucepan, because some tourist has com
planned: Madame Poulard how can 1 leave
Mont ST. Michel until l have one Of your
omelettes made by your own hands?" AS
If conceding an unprecedented favor, An
nette mods and holds the saucepan with its
melted butter and beaten eggs over the
wood fire.
She moves the saucepan continually. She
looks as II she were popping corn. She
had begun the movement already when
there was but butter in the saucepan.
why, it's scrambled eggs!' exclaimed an
American. Luckily Annette Poulard could
not understand him. Indeed it looks like
scrambled eggs. Only, when she judges
that the omelette is done" she rests the
saucepan on the table and rolls up the
omelette with knife.
You then see 1t is an omelette. Still It
tastes like scrambled eggs-of a very
smooth, light and lumpless variety. Its
color even. is that of scrambled eggs 1t
has none of the fluffy lightness, dryness
and delicate brown of the typical American
omelette.
l have even seen Americans disappointed
with the looks of this most celebrated ON
elette of all France. 1 asked Madame Pou-
lard:
do you never beat the whites and yell
lows separately. then beat them up a mo-
ment to unite them? 1t makes an omelette
that is beautifully light and brown"
And dry replied the lady in dry tone
mo. to make that sort Of omelette one
would need less whites than yellows
Waste is a horror to the FrenchD And
then the omelette would get too light
There would not be sufficient substance"
Ought not an omelette to be dry?" l
asked.
mo: 1t should baver' she said-"it
should slobber.' She was not pleased with
my timid inquiry.
why do Americans upon their travels re-
gard these scrambled-eggs omelettes as II
they were composed of heavenly mama
one of our party declared the secret to be
due TO the strange picturesqueness of the
stage setting-in particular the handling OF
the saucepan in Annettes wonderful fire.
place.
Annette's fireplace is certainly a wonder.
She had 1t copied In minutest detail from
the chimney In the guard hall of the an
cient monastery fortress. How extraordi-
nary are the fireplaces Of this wonderful
old pile! One could sit and muse before
them. Here William the Conquerer warm
ed himself, and in the dancing flames he
saw the castles of England. Here old Eng
lish kings centuries later sat honored
guests. Here English knights sat prisoners
Here ENJOYS warmed their heels Here fat
red-faced Benedictine cooks lifted the boil
Ing pot to higher notch, scolded the BOBBY
for letting the fire go down, and cooked
scrambled-egg omelettes in long-handIed.
saucepans-for ''the most bilious city Of
Gaul."
Here before the fire in this gigantic chin.
ney there sat pale-faced, learned monks
porting over manuscript books In epochs
when there were more books at Mont ST
Michel than at Oxford and probably ali
England combined. Here riotous men-at-
arms heated their cider and red wine nv
plunging hot poker into the Jar. Here
they sat and drank and warmed themselves
after fight with English pirates or a
pirate raid upon the English coast
Something of all this gets into the ome-
lettes of Annette Poulard. In these siren
uohs days she gives ron other things -