Roast rodent for royalty

Press, 14 October 1985, Page 13

Roast rodent for royalty

NZPA-Reuter Belize City Roast rodent may be one reason the Queen appeared to pick at her food during a State dinner.

One delicacy served up was roast gib’nut, a longlegged rodent not unlike a rat

It was the second feast of the day for the Queen after a luncheon prepared by a housewife, Olga Arnold, aged 53, who lives in the poorer back streets of Belize City.

Asked how she alone ended up preparing the four-course lunch, she said, “Well, Pm sort of well known round here. When people hear of something like this, they usually say, “Well, let’s get Olga, she can

do a good job’.” In a simple room at the new convention hotel in Belmopan, the tiny capital of Belize, the Queen enjoyed the woman’s shrimp remoulade.

“Just shrimps with a dip, really. But I ordered the shrimps fresh this morning,” she said.

Then came roast beef with stuffed tomato water lilies — “just tomatoes stuffed with cottage cheese and cucumber but it looks a bit like a water lily” — followed by fruit cocktail. “Unfortunately, the fruit was all from tins. There is not much fresh around just now,” said Ms Arnold, who did not get to meet the Queen.