OLD MAN’S IDEAL MEAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 5, 18 October 1935, Page 2

OLD MAN’S IDEAL MEAL

LONDONER’S 14 DISHES. Every day of the week, between 12.30 and 3 p.m., a little man of professional appearance, dressed in a dark suit and wearing white shoes and socks, enters a small restaurant in Edgeware Road, London, and orders luncheon.

The lunch is unique in the sense that the man orders the same dishes and drinks each day, and never begins his meal until the complete order is placed before him. Here it is:

Soup, two junkets, three jellies (in separate dishes), three hard-boiled eggs (in thin shells), cheese (three varieties), biscuits (two varieties, sweet), a plate of sardines, a mixed salad, salmon mayonnaise, a double ice cream, one extra large coffee, one glass of milk, one glass of cider, one glass of barley water.

Once he begins to eat his meal he becomes oblivious of all about him. His method of eating is as varied as the dishes. - For instance, he may start by stabbing a sardine; then he will eat a biscuit or polish off a portion of jelly; swallow a few spoonfuls of soup and sample the cheese. Sometimes he will try some mixed vegetable salad, a smatter of junket, some salmon mayonnaise, barley water, another variety of cheese, a ladle of soup bolstered by a variety of jelly, and a half glass of cider. As the contents disappear, he places the dishes one on top of another on a chair beside him, and the glasses* on top of these when the stack is complete. A waitress states he is a regular customer, and his hill for the juggling of this gastronomical puzzle is eight shillings a day.