The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-10
BREAKFAST THAT
IS WORTH EATING
Fish, Oysters, Fritters, CornpOne
and "Aig8"
A CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR
Corn Cookies and Maryland Biscuit
and All Things to Be Remem-
bered-Art of Eating
Good Meal.
A CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR

John polk an aigs" would be es-
teemed very slim breakfast in tidewater
Virginia and Maryland 1t is true that
there is a great deal of good food spoiled
by the cooks of Maryland and Virginia
and that the frying pan too often takes
the place of the gridiron, but for abund-
ance and variety of raw material those
states are certainly unrivalled.
The waiter ashore or aioat approaches
the guest at breakfast with a liIt of ed-
! bles as long as your arm If the season
is spring there will be. strawberries 10
begin with. Out of regard for northern
prejudice the public entertainers in Mary
land and Virginia have put breakfast
foods of one kind or another on the bill
of fare, but natives avoid them as they
avoid and abominate canned oysters, says
the New York Sun
After the strawberries the waiter US
ually offers steak, fish of some sort, oys-
| tiers In at least two styles, clam fritters
or soft shelled crabs fried or baked po-
tatoes, genuine cornpone without sweet
enng and free from the slightest suspl-
cion of wheat flour, 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 have yo' aigs, suh?"
The funny thing about it all is that
when a man is voyaging in the Chesa-
peake waters he falls into the way of
eating all these things at breakfast. Any
where else he would take it 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 may choose what you like. but all
the other things will be added unto you.
AS to the eggs, they are matter OF
course, and they are invariably fresh.
You always get at least two, and you are
always asked to have more.
| There Is every reason to suppose that
trihe of half a dozen boiled eggs on
top Of the meats and fish and potatoes
| and hot bread would not excite unpleas-
| ant criticism Sometimes tripe or kid
| neys or both are added to the breakfast
| bill of fare and there is usually cold
| bread for those who have the bad taste
| to choose 1t.
Northerners are sometimes a little slow
| at taking to the simon pure cornpone.
| Their taste has been vitiated by spurious
cornpone adulterated with, molasses,
wheat flour and even raising powder.
Real OOFn 6Tcdus
None of these things enters into the
real article, which is a simple matter of
| properly ground corn meal, water, salt,
and bit of butter to grease the pan.
| The product looks soggy to the unprac-
| ticed eye, and it tastes a bit queer to
the novice, but 1t is wholesome, filling,
and after awhile extremely good. Cut
into wedges and buttered 1t is almost a
breakfast in itself.
| - he hot a
breakfast In the Chesapeake country Is
not so wholesome as the native cornpone.
The mountainous rolls, for example, are
fatal to any save the strongest diges-
ton.
Flannel cakes. which are sometimes
served, are a favorite form of hot wheat
bread. but they are far inferior in flavor
and wholesomeness to corn cookies,
beautiful little thin hot cake with the
complexion of a badly freclsled boy
Your waiter will be disappointed If you
stop short of dozen corn cookies, and
they are really mere trihes. though bit
filling after the two "aigs" that follow
all the other things. Sometimes the
waiter gently suggests ''surp' as an aid
to the consumption of the proper quantity
of corn cookies.
One of the best and most wholesome
forms of hot bread served in the Chesa-
peake country is Maryland biscuit. When
lain door knob, but it is not so hard.
Don't Cut Biscuit.
Maadroit northerners have been known
| to cut Maryland biscuit through with a
| knife. Upon such occasions the Chesa-
peal5e waiter can scarce refrain from in
terposing to prevent the sacrllege.
1t may be necessary to use knife In
order to penetrate the tough integument
of the Maryland biscuit, but that done the
fracture should be completed with the
| fingers. Thus broken in half the hot
Maryland biscuit should betray an inte-
rior white, fial<y and thoroughly cooked.
Here is no spongy, ndigestible soft
| dough. The Maryland biscuit is edible to
the last crumb. and eaten hot with but
ter it is a thing to be remembered with
joy, and not with that memory of the
stomach which is called indigestion.
The one thing that is almost certain to
be bad in the Chesapeake country is what
the natives call coffee. Only a chemical
analysis could determine what this bever-
age really is. but it is certainly not made
from the pulverzed coffee berry.
Mixed with milk or cream at breakfast
ii has the sullen and distasteful look of
bad medicine or an active poison. APP
parently the 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 breakfast
beverage, took along a continuance for
making their own coffee. Their hostess
at the remote little hotel where they final
ly brought up was SO charming in her
kind solicitude for their comfort that they
had not the heart even by implication to
criticse anything served at the table.
So the husband told a robust lie. say
ing that he and his wife were forbidden
to drink coffee, and that they would pre-
pare for themselves a substitute Day
after day the couple made themselves ex-
cellent coffee. and drank il instead of the
beverage provided by the house At last
one day the innocent hostess, who had
been washing the coffee pot of her guests
came to the wife and said
II drank little bit of what was left
in yo' pot today and 1t does taste mighty
like coffee"
The wife dissembled and when she told
her husband he said:
II wonder how she knew"