Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-09-24
Roast Lizard
(WNU Feature-Through special arrangement
with Golfers WeekIy.)
By Robert Mccormick

Every American plane in the Pa
cific carries combination cookbook
and guidebook, but it's a strange
example of either. The main idea
behind the volume for the present
is to save the lives of fiers forced
down in the weird reaches of the
South Seas. But after the war, it
will be priceless to those of us who
actually have the courage to take
up beachcombing as profession.
The book tells US how to roast a
goanna to a turn. A goanna is a
big lizard, and the tail makes a raw
ishing dish if properly cooked. The
book also tells US that a stuffed
bandicoot is elegant eating, that its
flesh is scarcely distinguishable
from rabbit. The fact that the
bandicoot is nothing but large rat
with big ears has nothing to do with
its taste.
And the yavato! There's a dish
that would thrill you clear down to
your toes. Cooked up in a casserole,
the yavato is something right out of
this world. It's right out of our
world anyhow, since it's described
as "a large cream-colored grub
found in rotting wood.'
The book was put together by DR..
Frank Roberts of the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington. Much of
the information in it was supplied
by DR.. William Strong, director of
the photographic board, which
sounds very dull, but the Ethnogeo-
graphic board has the delightful
job of finding out all it can about
the personal habits and environment
Of other folks all over the world.
How to Find Honey.
The book does more than merely
tell how to cook the strange flora
and fauna man is likely to run into
on a desolate island in the Pacific.
The main body of the book is divid-
ed into two columns. First, the
name of the food, then description
and an explanation of where to find
it and how to cook it.
An ordinary fig may be quite
strange business to a pilot from
Brooklyn, for example. Figs grow
ing on trees don't look much like
those in packages.
Then there's honey. Honey is a
blessed thing for a hungry wanderer
to come across. The trick of finding
it revolves around recognizing the
insects that make it. In the tropics,
the honey bee is mild, stingless
little thing that looks like an ordi-
nary fly. The book tells the boys to
tie bit of white cloth on one of the
bees, or sprinkle it with flour, then
follow it through its zigzag course
to its hive.
There's plenty of food lying
around in the Pacific, both on land
and in the water. But you have to
know how to find it, and how to
avoid the items that are poisonous,
of which there are fortunately very
few.
The coconut aim is practically a
grocery store all by itself. The
meat of its nut is fine food, ripe or
green. The liquor of the green fruit
is refreshing. And when fermented,
it becomes a powerful wine. The
, tip-top bunch of leaves on the tree
is a true delicacy. 1t is known as
palm cabbage, and it's cooked just
like cabbage and tastes like it.
Baked Breadfruit.
Breadfruit is almost as much of
an all-round dish as coconut. 1t
grows in large tree, and the fruit
hangs on the tree like green bal
looms, with pock-marked skin.
Breadfruit is substantial item of
food when roasted, baked or fried.
After it's cooked, it can. be sliced
and dried, and it'll keep indefinitely.
But it's not all vegetables and no
meat. The book has directions for
tracking down and fixing up such
things as scrub turkey, wild pigs,
barking pigeons, parrots and white
cockatoos. The Filipinos are nuts
about locusts, particularly when
they are picked in vinegar or fried
in salty fat.
Sea food offers fine variety. The
book tells of a number of shellfsh
that can be picked up around the
islands in the Pacific. Things like
the cookie, the cowry, the limpet,
the conch and a lot of the other
creatures, whose principal attrac-
ton has been their shells, are nice
eating. So are prawns and fresh
water mussels.
The Biting Cone.
The wanderer has to watch out
for one shellfsh, however It's called
the cone, because it's shaped like
pine cone. The cone is not only
poison to eat, but has sharp teeth
that shoot venom into you like SER
pent's fangs. Furthermore, it seems
to get positive pleasure out of using
its teeth.
The book tells how to cook the
shellfsh if no kitchen utensils are
handy. Simply build a fire on top
of them. They stew in their own
juices and come out quite palatable.
| Or they can be eaten raw.