HOLIDAY FOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 309, 30 December 1940, Page 9

HOLIDAY FOOD.

EATING NATURALLY. SALADS, FRUIT AND FISH. (Contributed by the Department of Health.) It all depends on what you are going to do, but presumably camping or baching will be the holidays for most New Zealanders. You may be near or away from shops, you may be in a fruit-grow-ing district, or there may be none at hand. You may be anywhere from North Auckland to Stewart Island, with corresponding differences in local conditions.

Well, primarily, it is a holiday—for e'vervone, including mothers. Try to bear that in mind, and excuse the tinned foods. The tinned meats and the tinned fish, and the eggs will 110 doubt be varied according to father's success at hunting, be it rabbits or venison, or the fish he has brought home with such pride. And how pleasant to combine business with pleasure, bringing home mussels or eels, both of them of jrood food value. Turning native in this fashion is particularly justified in these days when we are not getting our supplies of cod-liver oil—get fresh air, get sunlight 011 your bare limbs, and catch fish for your dinner—and come home after the holidays with a good store of vitamin D in your body. Full Quota of Milk. What else can you do to save mother the work? Take your full quota of milk —one and a half to one and threequarter pints a day—and a good deal of the food problem is already solved. No cooking needed for this item, unless, having to get your milk from a tin, you need to make soups, custards, salad dressings or puddings with it. But we were hoping to save mother from having puddings to make.

Tomatoes, cheese, vegemite, brown bread and butter—there is nothing wrong with a repetition of these for your lunch every day. They need not be made into sandwiches, in fact the tomatoes will be better kept whole. If brown bread is not to be had, perhaps you can get raw peanuts, or have beans with your breakfast bacon, or tinned peas, or wheat germ sprinkled 011 your fruit or on your porridge—and don't "forget the porridge. These things will contribute to your quota of Vitamin B.

And then, if raw fruits and vegetables, so enjoyable in the summer as well as health-giving, are not available, let us hope that oranges and lemons are at hand. But if not, you will have to rely 011 tinned tomatoes and tomato juice. However, perhaps there will be small fruits, black currants and raspberries, perhaps you may even be lucky enough to find ripe gooseberries growing in profusion as they do around Lake Wanaka. And if lettuces are in short supply, make the most of their value and of mother's holiday by not cutting them up—it is also better for the teeth to have the chewing to do.

Value of Watercress. Then, too, you are sure to find some watercress growing in a stream. We New Zealanders have lost the habit of eating watercress, largely because we have been unnecessarily afraid of its harbouring hydatid oggs. It is a valuable addition to our salads. Let us rid this country of this fear by seeing that our dogs are made hydatid-frec. Regarding salads, the people of England are trying to win the war—which will be largely a nutritional war—by returning to good food habits; for example, using the hedgerow salad, made with dandelion, nasturtium and other leaves. Mountaineering expeditions often present difficulties. What sort of foods, can be taken to provide a maximum food value with a minimum of cooking difficulties and a minimum of weight. Back to the foods of our Scottish forbears—oatmeal porridge and milk. Dried skim milk will keep quite well—it has less tendency to go rancid than dried whole milk. Butter can be carried separately. Cheese, damper, bacon, pemmican—these will form the climber's fare. And in his case, sweets are justified to supply his muscles with energy.

As sound nutrition is the bedrock of health it is well to consider carefully the problem of the food supply, so as to ensure the greatest happiness and benefit from our holidays.