Semi-weekly herald., 1910-05-16
vicinity of the city produce all the

I
population of Naples get their food at
public kitchens or cooking stands.
which are found on every block in the
densely settled portions of the town.
the walls blackened with grease and
smoke OF generations In the rear is
an old-fashioned fireplace with aum.
Der of pots and kettles, from which
always for macaroni, for that is the
staff of life. The others contain soup
various kind of fish and vegetables,
while ON the counter, which usually
projects into the street, the cooked
food is spread out in large pans and
bowls. The customers come along
with pans and buckets. look over the
stock, and make their selection Prices
are remarkably low. Fish, vegetables,
fruit and macaronl, the chief III tieles
OF Neapolitan diet, are cheaper kere,
It is said, than in any other place
in the world; and at one of these
cooking shops a good dinner can be
obtained for cents, and enough for
a family for cents.
There are itinerant kitchens and
restaurants also, which are a great
convenience and economy, because
those who patronize them d. noi have
to buy stoves or fuel. and there is
lro waste of food whatever At the
corner of street you will often see
a man or a woman with a little stove
en- wheels, and over the fire is a big
kettle OF soup. On shelves at the side
there are hunks of bread. Grown peo-
pie and children, working men, fisher
men and street gamins will come up,
| lay down a little coin and pick up a
piece of bread, which the dealer will
thoroughly soaked Then they will
go off to the nearest loafing place and
eat it heartily
Drop penny into the tray of a
fruit peddler and he will let you have
Il handful of oranges. and many peo-
pie live exclusively upon oranges and
other raw fruit, vegetables and bread.
The theory that bread and fruit are
not nourishing receive a stout contra
dition from the Neapoitans, because
| there is no more muscular or vigorous
race than they, and a considerable por.
tion of the population never taste meat
from one end of their lives to the
other. They are exclusively vegetari-
ans and bread caters.
Next to fruits and bread comes mac
aroni, which is made of the semi.
translucent wheat raised in southern
Italy, Algeria and Egypt, which Is very
much richer in heterogeneous properties
than our wheat. Spaghetti is another
form of macaroni, while vermicelli is
macaroni drawn into fine threads or
cut into small lozenges. stars, disks,
letters of the alphabet, forms of ami
mails and other fanciful shapes. The
flour is mixed into a thick paste or
dough, with boiling water, and after
being thoroughly kneaded both with
the hands and by the use of heavy,
notched rollers, some OF them weigh
ing 200 or 800 pounds, it is placed in
q metallic cylinder. One end of the
cylinder is pierced with holes and a
pistol is pressed down upon the dough,
which eXpels the air and forces 1t
through the holes, coming out in the
form of long tubes. When the tubes
matte knife shaves them off and they
| fall in such way as to hang over
a wooden rod, which is carried out in
the sunshine to dry, or placed in a
room which is kept at an even temper
ature. Cheap macaroni is rapidly dried
| II is very important that the drying
should be slow, and that which Is
dried in the sun Is much better than
that dried indoors. People joke about
it. and say that the superiority of the
macaroni dried in the streets is due
to the flavor of the dust and dirt that
is blown upon 1t. for the streets in
which the macaroni is spread out to
dry are about the dirtiest of all Ma
pies.
Well cured macaroDi is tough, elias
tic and entirely without moisture and
with glossy surface. 1t can be kept
for any length of time in any climate
The reason Neapolitan macaroni is
better than that manufactured else.
where is the subject OF controversy
The same kind of wheat the same
kind of machinery and the same men
may be used in Genoa Milan. Turin
and other cities of the north and in
cities of the south as we'll, but the
macaroni there produced is different
| in taste and always inferior TO that
made in Naples It is also contended
that the only place In Naples where
good macaroni can be made is the lit
tie suburban town of Tore Annuncia
Ia. the first railway station on the
railway this side of Pompeii
Notice of an important law govern
ing the withdrawal from entry of des-