The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1954-01-29
GOOD EATING

The art of preparing good food
has no doubt contributed to the
death of as many people as has
the eating of bad food. Tanta-
hzing sauces and tempting dishes
prepared with elaboration afore-
thought by gifted cooks have en-
ticed countless people into glut-
tony and fastened early demises
for many.
Say what you will in this hum
BILE opinion not all the restaurants
in the country ever prepared
more wholesome meals on short
notice than the family style
meals that one finds in many of
our small hotels and boarding
houses in eastern Carolina. Hav-
ing tried all sorts of foods, from
Mexican and japanese to Syrian
and Swedish, we can say that
nothing is actually nicer than to
sit down at times to the kind Of
table one usually finds at the
Engelhard Hotel, or the Hotel
O'Neal at Swan Quarter. An ele-
ment which adds to the flavor
of the meal of course, is the
friendly presence of the gracious
proprietor, always ready to bring
something extra.
Every year or two, I drop into
a doctors office and say Look
me over" Always the same an
swers, and charges that started
at So, and now have jumped to
SO for the same few minutes
work. The answer is: Nothing
apparently wrong, but at your
age you ought to take off about
so pounds at least" So I get a
nicely r1imeographed diet list
which shows how l can take off
weight without losing stamina.
Eastern North Carolina over
which I travel a lot is no place
to 60 on diet. It's just impos-
sible. It's strong on sweets and
starches, and every place just
naturally serves fattening foods
to beat the band. When it comes
to short-order meals, there just
isn't any way to get a meal with
the kind of diet needed to take
off weight.
I love to eat anyway. l love
just about everything eatable,
and have eaten everything but
limberger cheese, and had l been
able to get near enough to it, l
might have eaten it too. l have
never craved to try rattlesnake,
although it is highly recommend
ed for flavor. Frog legs are good
but better if one is properly
primed in advance so as to for
get for the time being the tone
and appearance of the portion
in its native habitat. Everyone of
my 220 pounds crave food as a
doper wants his dope. When on
the road, I can eat up to six meals
a day.
It narrows down now to a
question of getting food at its
best in all the good places. All
places are better at times. Eliza
beth City has two exceptionally
good restaurants, the Carolina
Coffee Shop and. the Fort Ra-
leigh Grille. l always enjoyed
seafoods at Mason's in Norfolk,
and Doc Twiford, a former East
Lake boy runs an excellent sea-
| food place, always so crowded
that we wonder why he doesn't
find a bigger place. The cafe on
Hampton Boulevard founded by
the late Cecil Griffin, Manteo
variety and volume, as to have
much left over.
| BY and large, nobody puts Out
a better seafood dinner in its
class, or more for the money thar
will be found in Manteo at Fear
ing's Cafe which has been re-
markably popular during the
years that Beloved Twiford ha:
kept his eyes on it. In Belhaven
the seafood dinner at River For
est Manor is enough for two PEG
pie, and simply a waste of fooC
to order one, which is so much o
riety and volume, as to leav'
\ for the discard.
"TayfloWer cafe j