The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1913-12-12
A CULINARY TREAT
Served In a Little Cake Shop In
a Little French Town.
THE COST WAS LITTLE ALSO.

Surprises Came Thick and Fast In the
Way of Meals, but the Greatest Sur
prise of All Came After the Castro
nomio Conquest Was Ended.
They were talking about dainty din
ners when the man who goes abroad
said, THE best meal ever got was
in the back parlor of small shop In a
one horse town, and it cost me 30
cents"
Urged to tell his story, he continued:
1T was in a small provincial French
town-Blois. A friend of mine called
Bodfish enticed me there by looking
me up in Paris and throwing a ft
about the delights of the town
1T has CASTLE he told me, and
moat and ramparts and little cake
shop run by charming old woman
Enough said |, me for Blois.'
1--WE went there and we castled
and we moated and we ramparted,
and then we blew into the little shop
to cake. The proprietress. a very
pleasant old woman. indeed. intro
duced us to her son, who was mod
estly hiding behind his mustache In
corner.
I'VE got into conversation with him
that is, Bodfsh and | plunged into
French and he, diving in beroically
after Us. was pulled under in our
drowning struggles The upshot of it
all mas fbot mo ouraad to bjro n roor,
In his mothers house for the night
we meant to stay just one night In
Blois
'And-er-dinnerT asked Bodfish.
eff the messieurs will permit will
do myself the honor Of cooking them
a dinner. said the cake lady's son.
bowling most courteously
''Thereupon Bodfsh and / went
bllthely to an attic 518 years old at a
conservative estimate, washed the cas-
tie and the moat and the ramparts
from our hands and faces and descend
ed to the dining room. a small apart
ment In the rear Of madame's cake
shop.
Our landlady's son was there. ready
for us. So was a soup
THAT was. by actual count, the
grandest soup ever produced by a hui
man being | have travelled all over
the world, tasting the best every coun-
try has to offer in the way Of soup, but
at the first taste Of that Blois sample
all my memories of other soups hud
died together in q dark corner of my
mind and froze TO death
II looked at Bodfsh. He was posi-
lively half witted with delight He
looked as If he wanted to spend the rest
Of his life as high priest in a temple
ture-of that soup,
"'More, messieursP
Between US we razed that soup to
the ground
Entree, messieursp
Don't ask me what that entree was
Bodf1sh ate 1t with his eyes shut and
bis head bowed reverently
"Bodfsh and | stayed in Blois for
twenty nine meals. Don't ask me how
many days that makes; we knew only
two sorts OF times-meais and between
meals. AS for sightseeing, we didn't
see much more than our plates, be
cause after each meal I'm the back par
lor Of that celestial cake shop we were
so chock full that we hibernated like
snakes, lay sprawling on couches, un.
able to bulge, blinking sleepily, grunt-
ing grunts Of Elysian contentment-
Time and again we would ask that
Frenchman how he had come by his
culinary skill. but in vain. He would
merely smile and give us another help
ing You may get some idea Of what
sort OF meals that cuss gave US when
tell you that Bodfish summed up his
ability in these words:
"'At times he seems TO lose his Gull.
nary grip and descends to mere per.
lection
After the twenty ninth meal Bod
fish and | remembered that we be
longed somewhere. had a number Of
relatives. were engaged In business,
had restive careers to coax along So
we called our cook, announced that we
were leaving and wanted to know
how much we owed.
six francs for each day, mes
sieurs.' said he One for the room,
one for breakfast, one and half for
lunch, two and a half for dinner
"Bodfsh and | fell heavily against
each other Then we paid and started
for the door
"'Wait said our host 4. too, travel
away today.
"'Whither are you boundY we asked.
Ito st Petersburg he replied !
came away but to see by old mother
In the cake shop | had not seen her
for five years ! must thank you. mes
sieurs, for giving me this chance of
keeping up my art Had you not done
so, fear that after getting back to
st. Petersburg, my art would surely
have suffered
"'Whuh- whuh-what are you in st
Petersburg? we inquired huskily.
"'Chef, he said. bowling, to his maj
ssty the czarr New York Times
Who Gets the Medals7
Il understand that you have fine