FOOD IN GERMANY

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 282, 29 November 1938, Page 5

FOOD IN GERMANY

A SUMMER SHORTAGE. ITS PACIFISM EFFECTS. WHAT THE ONLOOKER SEES. {By JUNIUS 11. WOOD.) BKRLIN. Lotteries and booknmking are legal in fierman.v, but tlie. greatest gnniblc, one OB which everybody with a healthy ■ ppetite place* at least two bets every day, is the food lott.ry. Coffee and rolls •re a sure thing fo r brcikf.ist, but anybody will give odds on what he will get for the. cither two meals. Those to whom rating is a. pleasure ns well ae a necessity, no longer u*k themselves: -What shall I eiit to-day'.'" but mentally specuUte: -What can I get today?" Ho can get a» much as he wants, and more, without any difficulty, but whether the discriminating diner will find ju«t what he craves for that particular moil adds unccrtainty to dining. Nomads who eat in restaurants and know the head waiter'* first name, or tourists, need not take the food gamble »o ierlouslv. A rc«titiiraiit menu usually hag enough suggestions to make the average customer forget wliat he intended to eat. Nchlkhtei's, where I nte l««t night, offered 'JO fish and meat dishes a<4 tho day's specialities in addition to tho steaks, chops and a hundred other items which do not vary through the season. If the present conditione continue long enough, the hoinclovmjj Germans, certainly the city dwellers, will bo transformed into a race of dine, re-out. A Week's Menu. Sunday—A whole half lemon decorated my grilled flounder at the hotel— •urii extravagance— and every order in the dining room was enough for a starving stevedore, naturally much of it uneaten and wasted. To-morrow, we •hall start housekeeping ..,,„! what fun with Germany rolling in food. Monday—At breakfast we decided on pork chops for dinner. None of the neighbourhood shops had pork of any cut. but one did produce two email, not too juicy, beef stetiks. Tlie day's prices, fixed by tho cent nil market, wore posted for pork and mutton chops and a lot of other things which were not there, as helpful us the prices of summer cottHge.s on the moon. Vegetable truys had only green beans, kohlrabi and preen peppers. No shop had onions or lnrd and anyway I would need a ration curd to get tho weekly allowance of the latter. Tuesday—Bought three eggs which n pill iissistjiiit apparently had hidden behind the counter. A woman wanted two pounds of fresh greoti beans which were insido the store, but the proprietor, nrropunt since people must take what they «.'Hii get inwtond of what they vriint, said tthe could not have them until the stale ones outside wore sold. Cnt some. lamb chops, the first I have seen, and the • tmes and stew beef mid pork which can be boiled in sauerkraut.

Wednesday—Tried d> get more eggs, but was told there would not be nnv until next week, if then. After tele"phoning, rode over to friend i>ll the other sifln of tho city who hud found half ft pound of onions. The woman in the market (old her the. city was out of onions, nlso garlic, because the army needs them to make poison gas. It m»y be a. joke, but it relieves the dealers of the responsibility. No pork chops, but pork kidneys. Always something for stew or gonlunli.

Thursday—Found n small grapefruit, from either Pnlcstinc or (Spain, to vary the uslinl pcacliCM, plums and grapen. It cost 10d. Alii, ■snail tomatoes and Mtucp for sahid. which nppear about twice ii week. The proprietor, explaining that the. Government had to use foreign currency to buy rice made sure that I would not feed it to our doys before he would sell me a pound. Friday—Good fresh fish for dinner, but shopped in \ii in |dr lemons. When 1 asked for them, shop .assistants scowled as if I wen; trying to kid them, it has been ho Inn;; since they linrl any to sell. Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, green beans and carrots on the trays, but, still no onions.

Saturday—One store hud a leg of lamb for roasting, and others had a supply of beef mid pickled pigs' feet. Windows of those handling smoked meats are full of hams and countless varieties of sausiiges, but cold lunches become, monotonous. All had green corn in the husks, an idea from America, but at caviare prices. What a disappointment when cooked, for it was field corn, tasteless and woody. It would be just as < sy to grow sweet corn, but they obediently eat American food because somebody said it is stylish.

bunday—Ate in a restaurant, and from the way they are crowded most of Berlin must be dining out. They have plenty of food, but complain that what they can get varies from day to day. I finally caught up with a pork chop, 3/. with fried potatoes. Not a stylish #fttabli«hment. but the price of a threetourtc meal ia .Italy or Czechoslovakia.

Butter is Rationed. Fn Berlin the early bird at the weekly miirket or stores pets the chops—if there are any. Hotels anil restaurants do not get any preference, but being big buyers and earlier in the day, their purchases affect what is distributed for -ale in small establishments through the city. Some days they cannot get pork, and other days it may be mutton or another staple. So far Otto Baarze. where old time Berluiers eat, hug had ••isbein every Tuesday, but often the *upply i s gone early in tlw day and many restaurant*? no longer offer that local favourite, boiled pork shank*, saucikrat and pea puree.

Butter and lard arc already rationed. and the police may issue cariln for meat before the winter is over. Kach adult is allowed half a pound of butter and a.s much lard each week, if there is any lard. Lust year (Jerniany imported 1 f>0.200 metric tons of whale oil. mostly from Norway, which expands a lot of butter" as any milkman who usee a pump to help lifc cows knows.

Few (iermdiis have icobo.vee. The water i* turned on in the kitchen sink and the butter set under it to cool. Meat and vegetables are cooked and eaten before they upoil.

With an eg<r and onion shortage already here before the summer is ended, the two humble "fruits ,, may be luxury dishes before winter arrive*" fiormany never grew all tlie food it needed, and the balance must Ix , imported. That is the simple explanation for the present food conditions. Now Germany has cut down on food imports. The excuse is that the country needs its foreign exchange to Import war material*. Women weep when brighteyed youth is used for cannon-fodder. A more prosaic appeal against war and a more potent one, is the housewives of the land plodding from store to store to get onions for the stew. One day the price of onions is quoted at seven pfennijj a pound, but on that day no onions are in the stores, while on another day there are onions and the price i« 14 pfennig. Their heads are dizzy and their feet are sore, and it is not surprising that they want nothing of wars or preparations for war.

The pilots of tho Third I'eichV destinies know all that, and tho grumbling will n6t get a« far as an onion or a butter and egg revolution. When it gets too loud they can say, "This month we ehall do without a couple more bombing aeroplanes, and buy a shipload of onions instead." and everybody will be happy again.—N.A.N.A.