Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-02-28
THIS IS Life TODAY I'M berlin

covered something about the luxurious food
we eating. That was that it was large
ly goose. For some reason goose is not COW
cred by the meat cards, so that the hungry
person who has the money may have goose
to his hearts content. We had goose as
cheap as nine marks a portion on this tour
and we had goose at fifteen marks Toward
the last however, it ceased to be luxury and
became just goose. For five days on end
we had other meat than goose We had
happened in on meatless week.
FISH LOSES ITS CHARM
There is no butter to be had, and because
fats of any sort are very expensive there are
no rich sauces. In Berlin we were served
with .the horrible soft feshed fresh water
fish of Germany. Boiled fish, eaten
with salt as the only relish and with
boiled potatoes the side, inevitably
loses charm. One always has boiled potatoes,
for any other way would consume the pre-
cious fat. In a fifteen-mark luncheon at the
Hotel Bristol | had the very smallest lamb
chop I have ever SEEM plus the boiled fish,
and a soup made of some sort of soup meat
which rasped the throat and made us cough
and leathery cake. Kempinskis was once
perhaps the most famous popular priced res
taurant in Europe. On my one visit to it |
paid ten marks for the wing of a small
chicken, with some adhering shreds OF car
cass It was of value, dishes labelled
"stews' of various sorts-in the hope of
finding one eatable one-and had turned them
all away If there was a taste of meat in any
one [ could not find it.
1t is true, however, that the man of wealth
who is willing to part with it, can live almost
as we'll in Berlin now as he ever could. We
, were invited to take Thanksgiving dinner
with an American family which for one rea-
son and another had remained in Berlin dur
ing the war I should say at this point that
they seemed to be thoroughly good Amerl-
cans Our host of the evening is very wealthy
and for weeks had been buying and bribing in
preparation for his Thanksgiving dinner.
SMUGGLING AND BRIBERY
We were served with oysters, turkey,
mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and coffee, and
wound up with ice cream made with real
sugar and cream. It was unbelievable. The
other guests were likewise marooned Ameri-
cans, and all exclaimed in ecstasy at this
startling food. After dinner the host TOOK us
somewhat behind the scenes. The oysters
were legitimately bought in the open mar
ket, but the turkeys had been struggled in,
each at price that should buy an ostrich
The sugar had been obtained by shameless
favoritism on the part of high official and
the coffee had been smuggled in from Hol-
| land The cost was monstrous and absurd.
The coffee one drinks in Germany today
| is made of carrots that have been dried and
made into small cubes and then roasted 1t
| looks like coffee, but does not taste like any
| thing at ALL 1t does not even taste like
! boiled water If one orders mocha" at three
marks for demi-tasse, enough real coffee is
put in this carrot cOncoctiOn to family haVor
! the brown liquid Tea is made of the leaves
of a tree though little tea does trickle in
! through Russia at times. There are plenty
of fairly good Dutch cigars in the shops, how
ever, at very decent prices. We did not see
sugar all the time were in Germany, eX-
cept at the Thanksgiving dinner.
CABBAGE AS A FILLER
The war bread is better than it was in
1915, because the mixture is better. Less po-
tato flour and more rye is being used. But
the staple food on every dinner table is some
sort of watery observation-disclosures or turnip
or white beets or cauli1ower. Even those
who hate cabbage eat cabbage in order to fill
up Once in a blue moon one can get small
! bite of cheese.