MEALS: INDIFFERENT AND DIFFERENT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3135, 18 September 1922, Page 7

MEALS: INDIFFERENT AND DIFFERENT.

(By Gertrude Bell). Why is it that in one house the meals are so extraordinarily good, and in another so poor? It has nothing, I solemnly believe. to do with finance, and little enough to do with the cook. I go to my friend Mrs A., and know that I shall be given a delicate luncheon which will not only satisfy every one of my gastronomicnl needs but leave me wondering how she manages to do it on what her husband once described as- twopence a year. I go to my friend Mrs B.'s house, and know that in spite of her expensive kitchen, I shall be —just fed. Yet both these ladies go into their kitchens each morning to draw up the menu. Both of them genuinely enjoy entertaining their friends. How. then, does this remarkable difference arise? A little imagination, I fancy, is all that is necessary. Your housekeeping money may be microscopic, but that does not mean to say that you are thereby debarred from providing a meal that will not slavishly resemble all the meals of last week. Your purse may not run to turtle sou)) or ortolans, but that is not to say that your mutton or beef must come to the table roast, boiled, or hashed. Choice of a menu, in other words, does not mean only choice of the actual food.

On tlio other hand, a really successful meal does not mean a profusion of sauces or of dishes smothered in spice. Because you are playing hostess, moreover, there is no reason to give your guests a more elaborate meal than they are likely to get in their own homes. Hut what Mrs A. does, what all hostesses who take a pride in their table set out to do. is to provide a meal that shall in some way he—different.

Take, for example, that little question of horst-d'eeuvres. Any cheap restaurant in Soho will give you six or eight dishes to choose' from, but how rarely are they to be found in private houses!! Yet at a cost, of a shilling or so. some little appetising trifle may pave the way most satisfactorily to the solider dish that is to •come. And with your meat, whatever it be, how inexpensive it is to find a garnish that is not to be seen everywhere. A s'alad, as I know to my cost, can be a dull business, yet half an orange in slices, or a few peas and carrots, may make all the diffeT'ence. And that stand-by of old England, apple-pie, need 1 not be the fearsome erection round an egg-cup that it so often is. Nor is it necessary to go to a. patisserie to obtain apple tartlets. Cut up your pie before cooking, and on each little tart put a touch of whipped cream or a. cherry—something of that sort. . . .

Not the plainest of cooks will object if you tell her that variety is the great thing. With a little coaching, indeed, her invention will be stimulated. A touch here and there, and that dull old British menu, invented Heaven knows how oi' when, will be banished for ever. And. indeed, as my friend Mrs A. has found out. so far from these "extras." as some people call them, depieting your exchequer, they can decrease your expenses. The hostess' (or cook) with imagination will learn just exactly how much of this or that is required. Give your quests enough, of course, but no more; and give them something, however small it may be, that they will think of going home —something, if yon can. that will mark off your table from the others. It is worth using your imagination. you know, at all tomes. Sir John Tudor Walters, M.P., speaking lately stated that the idea of .Mr Lloyd George being _ a worn-out, exhausted man was, he said, a myth. He had dined with him the previous night, and thought he looked more like a thoroughly fit boy come up for the Harrow cricket match than an exhausted politician.