Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/47
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DIETETIC CURIOSITIES.
dishes and spices with impunity; or Aristolenus, who longed for the throat of a crane, that he might prolong the bliss of deglutition. Taci- tus speaks of a particular dish, called the shield of Minerva, the ingre- dients of which cost sixty talents ($72,000), and which the ineffable Vitellius had at different times prepared at that price an insanity which we may hesitate to believe; but less than a century ago the city of Lon- don treated George III. to a banquet of three hundred and fourteen "courses," at an expense of twenty-six thousand pounds sterling.
Opposite the Palais Royal, along the Chaussee d'Antin and on the Rue Rivoli, Paris, there are restaurants where a moderate fortune may be spent in a single week, and the dejeitners-dinatoires of the Freres Provencaux are not forgotten where some piquant made dishes would cost more than a year's board in the Faubourg St.-Germain.
"They offered me an omellette at Fitchburg," says Henry Thoreau, "an omellette with fried bacon, at forty-five cents. Not having forty- five cents to spare for an indigestion, I bought some bread and butter, which, together with the apples I had, made me a fine dinner. We do need some fat and farinaceous substance once a day, but, if one can get it out of a butter sandwich and ten cents, he commits a crime against national economy and against himself if he wastes the fourfold price on an omellette and fried bacon. And why commit a further waste by calling the thing an o-mel-lette? Are not the two syllables of a pan- cake sufficient? "
Whatever may have been the intrinsic value of that pancake, it would certainly be worth forty-five cents to know what Henry Thoreau would have said about the following menu of a "little lunch," given at the Langham Hotel (London) to the members of the Dietary Reform Club (society for the introduction of horse-flesh):
Potages Consomme de cheval. Puree de destrier. Amontillado.
Poissons Saumon a la sause arabe. Filets de soles a l'huile hippophagique. Vin du RMn.
Hors<Vceuvres Terrines de foie maigre chevalines. Saueissons de cheval aux pistaches syriaques. Xeres.
Releves Filet de Pegase roti aux pommes de terre a la creme. Dinde aux chataignes. Aloyau de cheval farci a la centaure et aux clioux de Bruxelles. Culotte de cheval braisee aux chevaux de frise. Champagne sec.
Entrees Petits pates a la moelle-Bucephale. Kromeskys a. la gladiateur. Poulets garnis a rhippogriffe. Langues de cheval ala troyenne. Chateau pe- rayne.
SECOND SERVICE.
Rots Canards sauvages. Pluviers. Mayonnaises de homard a l'huile de Rossinante. Petits pois a la francaise, choux-fleurs au parmesan. Volney.
Entremets Gelee de pieds de cheval au marasquin. Zephirs sautes a l'huile chevaleresque. Gateau veterinaire a la Ducroix. Feuillantines aux pommes des Hesperides.- Saint-Peray.
Glaces Creme aux truffes. Sorbets contre-prejuges. Liqueurs.
Dessert Vins fins de Bordeaux. Madere. Cafe.
Buffet Marmalade aukirscb, gateau d'ltalie au fromage de Chester, etc., etc.
