MEN'S BOND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEN'S BOND.

RICE PUDDING.

WAR-TIME MEMORIES.

(By. LADY ADAMS.)

Careful and unobtrusive observation has decided for me that a great bond between men of the English-speaking nations is their quiet passion for i ice pudding; more, they do not like it with beaten-up eggs, or a layer of jam, or whipped and coloured cream, or any other effrontery; they like it plain, and unadorned. If any attempt at decoiation has been made by the thoroughly bored cook, they say it has been tampered with." I used to think that American men preferred apple pie; many do; but a large majority of those whom I have had the pleasure of observing, choose rice pudding. I think it must soothe them. Of course, Ido not forget that in America, Presidents may come and Presidents may go, but apple pie remains. It is looked oil as a kind of subsidiary Stars and Stripes. Once my husband and I were travelling in tho wilds of Colorado, and had to change trains, without too much time to do it in. We were hungry, and went to the little "Eats"—l can call it nothing else—at the station. The place was empty, but a kindly official from another department of the station, who knew his way about in the "Eats" room, promised to look after us. We chose what we knew would be ready, coffee, and applie pie. He brought the coffee, and went off for the pie. Soon he came back with an eerie look in his eyes; he was plainly shockcd.

"Mv Cod," he said, "there's no apple pie.""

But apple pie does not bind the men of the nations as floes rice pudding.

War Menus. During the war, In London, when we had little dinner parties for the Allies, and not too much to give our guests, when our old cook and I had discussed how best to use our little bit of rationed beef, and how to make the most of our practically bootlegged potatoes, she used to say (she was Scotch): Ah 1 pit awhl ma, coancentraation into the rice pooding." And somehow, a bland, plain, well-cooked rice pudding always finished the meal, and one of the Ameri-

can guests was sure to say, rather respectfully: "Well, you don't seem to liavo any difficulty with the food question."

Tho wives, of coursc, hated it; a great stodgy, well-cooTvcd nursery rice pudding. How could they help it? For, just as every man likes it, so every woman hates it. But clubs and restaurants know their business; that is why, in the York Station Hotel, if you ask for "pudding three six five," the waiter brings rice pudding at once.

A man I know was taken prisoner three weeks before the end of the war. The Germans were as hungry as their prisoners, and it was a cruel time for everybody concerned. The War Office reported him missing, and there was desolation in his little London home. Finally lie got to Hull, and not being skilled in the ways of the post he sent his wife a postcard, as he boarded the train, telling her lie was coming home and ordering a rice pudding to celebrate.

Outraged Husband. When the wanderer arrived there was jubilation, but naturally 110 rice pudding. "So, I sez, sez I, 'No,' I sez, 'I won't 'avo no cups 0' tea; I wants my rice puddin', wot I wrote abalit 011 a powst card. Posted it at 'Ull, I did, an' if it ain't 'ere yet —w'y then it shud be.' So my wife 'ad the rice an' some milk, an' she borrered the other things orf the neyburs, an' the dairyman give—give— mind ye, give 'er two eggs, an' there I set an' set an' set an' waited fur my rice puddin' for two hours. Then it wuz ready—jist prime—an' I set down to it, an' I et it, every morsel. 'Now,' I sez, Til 'ave yer cup o' tea.' Ye see, all them twenty-one days I 'adn't thought o' nutliin' but a rice puddin', made by my wife. Kep' me goin', the thought uv it did, right through. 'Stick it,' I sez, 'stick it, an' ye'll see yerself sittin' at 'ome in front uv yer rice puddin', before ye know where ye are, ole man.' An' I did. An' I 'as a rice puddin' every day of me life, an' I'm a-goin' ti 'ave a rice puddin' every day till I die."

"B-b-b-but what docs your wife think of having to eat rice pudding for ever and ever?" I gasped.

"My wife? Oh, I never asked her."

I expect some Americans on reading this will disclaim their love of rice pudding, as a nation. This is not a challenge; far from it; I am always on the look-out for more points of contact between the nations; in rice pudding there is a real Hands Across the Sea bond.