The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-12-17

ABOUT 20 mllllon people were
born the same year l saw first
the light of day, and doubt any
of them learned less about cook
ing than l learned. After 40 years
of adult life, l never learned even
to cook a pot of coffee. l nave
been toasting bread however, for
number of years, on an auto
matte toaster. l always burn it up
on any other kind.
But Tuesday morning of this
week, l got up all alone at the
house in Rodanthe, and not feel
ing particularly hungry and having
plenty of time, decided l would
try making breakfast. So | put
on a pot of coffee, and put some
bacon in a skillet, and l got the
toast ready. l drank some fruit
Juice, ate my usual bowl of corn
flakes. When the bacon was done,
cooked my usually "sunnyside"
egg. Everything was a complete
success and my meal was as good
as usual.
Save for one thing, and that
was the presence of a woman. A
meal is better if it is cooked by
woman and served by a woman.
All of this may be state of mind.
l think food goes better if the
table has a white cloth and the
silver looks nice. Everyone has his
preferences; for instance Eph
Mann says he doesn't care any
thing about the style, just so he
is waited on by a pretty girl with
low neck dress bending over
him.
l once worked on a boat which
had a black cook, who went Oft
times without a shirt, and the pro-
fusion of sweat that stood on his
body. must at times have dripped
into the food. l never did enjoy
eating this mans cooking, and in
fact l have never enjoyed
thoroughly any food prepared by
cooks who worked with arms, legs,
or any other part of the body
naked.
l have eaten everything but
limburger cheese, and perhaps
would have eaten it too, had l
been able to get near enough to it.
Of course I have eaten rattle
snake, which is considered quite
delicacy, but then there are peo-
pie who eat snails and birds nests.
There is no accounting for tastes.
AS l say, my first effort at
cooking was a complete success,
save for the fact that it was a
mans cooking. l just don't like to
eat a mans cooking, not even my
own. Of course such is taken as a
matter of course in cafes and no.
tells, but l was raised on a wo-
mans cooking, and it seems the
proper thing. AS a child, it never
seemed men could be as clean and
dainty as a woman, and l we'll re-
call aunt Lou Cooper's contention
that "a mans hands are never
clean"
We develop a lot of likes and
dislikes about our eating. l never
did like a paper napkin. like an
ample and commodious piece of
cloth. I can't dine so daintily that
paper napkin will clean up the
mess.
l do not like coffee without a
saucer. Not because | drink out
of the saucer since I grew up, but
because | like to stir it well, and
if there is no saucer, it goes on the
table. l like fish and pork well
done and beefsteak rare. And l
like good food so well, l know 1
shall never cook for myself any
thing more than a mere breakfast
which is now so easy to do with
electric or gas appliances.
My mother used to say the best
food she ever ate was cooked by
her mother and grandmother in an
open fireplace. Delicacies so pre-
pared included sweet potatoes and
corn bread wrapped up into and
cooked in the ashes. No doubt it
was good. AS a small boy l was
thrilled and delighted with the
small birds my playmates and l
used to roast on a wooden skewer
over a fire of leaves and sticks.
This was gay adventure.