Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-07-06
ARTICLE xxx.
Oxford, Eng, June -, 10.

| OAlOTQ, Eng, June IL, l5IV'
The hardest part of living in
foreign country is the food. One
can get used to fireplaces instead of
raditors; he may even come to like
antiquity in place of comfort. But
| shall never, never get used to roast
mutton and green cabbage every day.
When l first came to England, l ex-
pected to get lots of good buildings
of which English people and English
books never tire of talking. Take 1t
from me, they don't exist. The Eng
lish pudding is about as tasty and
digestible as a block of marble. That
stone and be on the safe side.
The sameness of the English diet
is deadly. There are millions of Eng.
lish homes which never see any vege-
tables but potatoes and cabbage, ex-
cept once in long while when they
have Brussels sprouts for a treat.
The cabbage isn't white and tender
like ours. They call it greens, and
that expresses it. Asparagus is lux
ury for the rich at thirty cents doz-
en- stalks.
AS for fruit, it seldom appears in
any form except jam. The canning
process is in it's infancy here. and
very unlikely to make Roadway at
present prices of fruit. In the very
middle of the apple season we often
had to pay twelve cents a pound for
apples. The climate and soil are
fairly we'll suited for fruit growing,
but the people don't seem to care
much about it. More than half of the
country's fruit is imported, yet dur
sary to cut down on the use of ship
ping, the governments first step was
to reduce the importation of fruit
eighty per cent and the importation
of wines and liquors twenty per cent.
That about cages the importance o.
the two as articles of diet. Straw
berries occasionally appear. but no
one in the whole land has ever heard
of shortcake.
By this time you will be wonder
ing what they do eat. Well, the
menu is as much the same every day
throughout the land as if it had been
published 500 years ago and never
varied since. Everyone has bacon.
toast, marmalade, and tee for break
fast. Mind you. not coffee, but tea.
For lunch. cold mutton, bread, and
beer, won't be far off. Then there is
afternoon tea, with bread and buttcr
and cakes. Dinner consists of roast
mutton, potatoes, and cabbage, with
a pudding, as described above, fol.
lowed by-you'll never guess-a lit
tie chunk of toast with a sardine on
Itop. This last is called "savoy."
think it is intended to make you
thirsty for more beer. Macaroni AMI
cheese sometimes appears as pud-
ding, never as a side dish or lunch
con dish.
Every English housekeeper will
tell you that she never attempts any
thing but plain cooking" That is
rigidly true. Our landlady Of the
moment has grown up sons and
daughters, and she has never yet
made custard, though she confesses
to having made something like II
with -four and skim milk. Nor do
most of them wish to learn. Ameri'
can dishes fill them with fear AMI
, horror. An American couple lived in
this house before US, and the land
; lady has wild stories to tell of her
+ experiences:
) "You can't guess what an awful
/ dish Mrs. w. used to make me cook
every Saturday. l had to boil some
, beans and put them in q pan. Then
I IL poured treacle (molasses) over
them. and put in a big chunk OF fa'
> pork, and baked them long time
How the children used to hate the
, smell while it was cooking; and wha'
v a greasy mess it was 1t made Mr.
e w. sick the last time they had It
i. and / said I was sure it would have
. made me sick II l had eat any OF It,
quite believe it. She has made
me sick on much more innocent
o dishes than baked beans. But We
+ thought that when we got into som'
c Of the better homes things would bf
. different. They weren't. The bal
:, anced meal has not yet made its ap
q pearance in England. At the house
i party to which we went during tht
= vacation we had at one meal: !.
Z sort of barley loaf; 2. bread; 3. pota
/ toes; 4. rice; 5. macaroni and cheese
felt as starchy as boiled shirt foI
week afterwards.