SHOPPING IN BERLIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 274, 19 November 1927, Page 24

SHOPPING IN BERLIN.

QUAINT WAYS AND QUEER

DISHES.

The idea that the German housewife is more economical than the British it not borne out by the experiences of an American woman who lives there. Rather than take the trouble to make up mustard, she says, even for. flavouring such things a3 mustard sauce to accompany fish, they buy it in pots ready made. Rather than dry scraps of bread, put them through a mincer and store them in a tin box until required for fried fish, meat balls, sprinkling over elieese and other savoury dishes covered with sauce, they buy them all ready. Buying Fish Alive. Some of their methods remind the traveller of Japan. For instance, if you go into any fish shop you can wait while the fisherman nets you carp, perch, pike, salmon, tench or trout, cleans it, and then take it home. "Mamselle," for cook insists on receiving that title, though Zutphrene is her surname and Augustus her Christian name, will boil whatever is your catch in vinegar till it is a glorious blue shade, and serve it, head, fins and all, surrounded with tiny heaps of grated horseradish mixed with cream and boiled potatoes. All you have to do to make this perfect is to help yourself to a good pat of

butter and let it melt over the fish before you Btart to eat. Schleie Blau, tench cooked in this way is a delicate fish you have qnly to taste once to want twice. • The poor cocks and hens also await their approaching fate, for if you want any fresh poultry, it is killed in the markets while you wait. Meats and Vegetables.

Pork, veal and mutton are very good] in Germany, but roasting beef is not so good as in Great Britain. But delicious venison is always procurable in Berlin. It is usually served with sour cream sauce. The German housewives roast the thick layer of flesh which runs along each side of the backbone of the deer until it is very tender. The sour cream sauce is a favourite accompaniment to all fried meats such as chops, cutlets and beef steaks.

In Berlin most shops are open from eight or half-past eight in the morning until seven o'clock at night. Some evOn open as early as 7 a.m. You can always go shopping early on Sunday morning, for the bakers, butchers, fishmongers, grocers and the milkmen, at least, all open on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. Only you cannot get freshly baked bread on Sunday. I cannot truthfully Bay, she concludes, that I have found shopping in Berlin cheap. Before the war the average milkman was glad to deliver your milk for its selling price and nothing charged for delivery. Now he charges you 35 pfennigs a week for delivery, which is about 8 or 9 cents. But milk and cream are very cheap in Germany, though the cream is not so thick as in Britain.

Soap should never be used for clean-! ing marble. Putty and olive oil will restore polish to marble stained with rust. J