The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-30
.fHE CHESAPEAKE BREAKFAST.
FISH, OYSTERS. FRTrTERS, CORN
PONE, "AI6S."


An Things % Ne Remembered win
ssy-Tas Appetite Co Eat Tisem Prescnt I
Alse-But You Can Have Csffce.
'Cohn polk an aigs' would be esteemed
q very slim breakfast In tidewater Virginia ,
and Maryland. 1t is true that there 10 q
great deal OF good food spoiled by the
cooks OF Maryland and Virginia and that
the frying a TOO often takes the place
Of the gridiron, but for abundance and
variety OF raw material those States are
certainly unTivalled.
The waiter ashore or adoat approaches
the quest at breakfast with a list Of edibles
A. long a. your arm. II the season Is spring
there will be strawberries to begin with.
Out Of regard for Northern prejudice the
public entertainers in Maryland and vir-
ginia a put breakfast foods Of one
kind or another on the bill Of fare, but
natives avoid them as they avoid and
abominate canned oysters.
After the strawberries the waiter usually
Offers steak, fish Of some sort, oysters In
at least two styles, clam fritters or colt
shell crabs, fried or baked potatoes, genuine
cornpone without sweetening and free from
the slightest suspicion Of wheat -four, hot
rolls. mullins. Maryland biscuit or some
other form OF hot bread, and finally he Leans
gently down and whispers:
How'd you lax to rave yo' aigs. suh?'
The funny thing about it all is that when
q man is voyaging in the Chesapeake waters
he falls into the way Of eating all these things
at breakfast. Anywhere else he would take
IL for granted that the half dozen meats
were provided in order that each guest
might choose his favorite food, but nothing
Of the sort is intended.
You nay choose v hat you like, but
all the other things will he added unto you.
As to the eggs, they are a matter Of course,
and they are invariably fresh. You always
get at least two and you are always asked
to have more. d.. 49,
There IL every reason to suppose that
a trife Of half a dozen boiled eggs on top OF
the meats and fish and potatoes and hot
bread would not excite unpleasant criti-
cism. Sometimes tripe or kidneys or both
are added to the breakfast bill of fare, and
there is usually cold bread for those who
nave the bad taste TO choose it.
Northerners are sometimes a little slow
at taking TO the SIMON IUre ooTnT one.
Their taste has been vitiated by spurious
corn pone adulterated with molasses, wheat
Jour and even raising powder.
None OF these things enters into the real
article. which is a simple matter o: properly
ground corn meal, water. salt, and a bit Of
butter to grease the pan. The product
looks so Gay to the unpractised eye, and 10
tastes a Dit queer to the novice, but it 10
wholesome, filing. and after a while ex-
! tremelv good. Cut into wedges and but-
| tered il 10 almost a breakfast in itself.
Some OF the other hot bread served at
bre akfast in the Chesapeake country is
not % wholesome as the native oompone.
The mountainous rolls, for example, are
fatal to any save the strongest digestion.
Flannel cakes, which are sometimes
served, are a f~avorite form OF hot wheat
bread, but they are far inferior in favor
SeSutifui little thin hot cake with, the COM
plexion Of a badly freckled boy.
-Four waiter viii be disappointed IL you
stop short OF a dozen corn cookies. and they
are really mere tribes, though a bit filing
after the two saigs" that follow all the other
things. Sometimes the waiter gently sug-
gests "sur'p' as IN Vi TO the consumption
| OF the proper quantity of corn cookies.
One OF the best and most wholesome
forms Of hot bread served in the Chesapeake
country 10 Maryland biscuit. When prop
eFly made it looks much like a porcelain
| door knob, hut it 10 not so hard.
Maladroit Northerners have been known TO
out Maryland biscuit through with a knife.
Upon such occasions the Chesapeake waiter
prevent the sacrilege..
It may be necessary to use a knife in order
TO penetrate the tough ~integument OF the
Maryland biscuit, but that done the
fingers. Thus broken in half, the hot
Maryland biscuit should betray an interior
white, 6aky and thoroughly cooked.
Here Is no sPongy~ indigestible soft dough.
The Maryland biscuit is edible TO the last
crumb, and eaten hot with butter it IL Z
thing to be remembered with joy, and not
with that memory Of the stomach which Il
called indigestion.
The n thing that is almost certain %
be bad in the Chesapeake country is what
analysis could determine what this bever-
are really is, but IL is certainly not made
from the pulverized coffee berry.
Mixed with milk or cream at Breakfast
IL has the sullen and distasteful look OF
bad medicine or an active poison. Ap-
parently IN native taste has never re-
covered from the experience OF the civil
war period, when all sorts Of vile substi-
tutes for coffee were used.
A man and his wife travelling in Vir-
ginia, and knowing the native breakfasts
beverage. took along a contrivance for
making their own coffee. Their hostess
at the remote little hotel where they finally
brought up was so charming in her kind
solicitude for their comfort hat they
had not the heart even by implication 20
c~riticise anything served at her table.
So the husband told a robust lie, saying
that he and his wife were forbidden "a
drink coffee, and that they would prepare for
themselves q substitute. Day after day
the couple made themselves excellent
| coffee, and drank il instead OF the beverages
provided by the house. At last one day
the innocent hostess, who had been washing
the coffee pot Of her guests came to thu
wife and said:
Il drank a little bit OF what was left II
yo' pot to-day, and it does taste mighty
like coffee"
The wife disssmbled and when she told