AIRMEN'S MEALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24084, 1 October 1941, Page 10

AIRMEN'S MEALS

CANADIAN MENUS GOOD FOOD IN ABUNDANCE NEW ZEALANDERS AND TEA BY T. W. MOOIIE SOMEWHERE IN CANADA. Sept, 14 New Zealand airmen studying under the Commonwealth Air Training Scheme in Canada are nothing if not well nourished. Good food in any military establishment is a prerequisite for good spirits, and satisfaction among the meu. Officials in charge of the Air Training Scheme recognise this, and pay particular attention to the culinary departments of the schools. The food may differ from that to which New Zealanders have been accustomed at home. Many of the items regularly served in the training school messes are strange to the lads from ''down under" when they first arrive in Canada, but they have been greeted with enthusiasm rather than complaints. Breakfast on a normal day consists of a choice of two kinds of porridge, pancakes with maple syrup (the latter combination has been labelled Canada's National Breakfast), bread and butter with jam or honey, and either coftee or tea. Dinner at mid-day consists of vegetable soup, sirloin steaks, creamed mashed potatoes, turnips, rice pudding with raisins, tea or coffee. Supper offers the airmen cold salmon with mayonnaise, boiled potatoes, blancmange, pudding, jam and cake, bread and butter, and the usual coffee or tea. Variety and Quantity There is plenty of variety from day to day, for food restrictions have not yet hit Canada. Canadians have been asked to cut down their consumption of pork so that more bacon may be made available to Great Britain, but everything else is plentiful. French Canadians are famous for their pea soup, and it seems to have become a tradition that nearly all messes serve it on Fridays. And be they New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians or Americans, they usually howl for more. Friday is always fish day, and then the chances are that Canadian salmon or halibut steaks or fillets will be found on the dinner menu instead of the meat course. Apple pies most frequently appear on the dessert menu, but for variety there are butterscotch pie, raisin pie and lemon pie. Breakfast is at 7 a.m., dinner at noon and supper at 5 p.m. Men posted to guard duty eat an hour earlier, while those reporting off duty late at night get an extra snack of toast and eggs and coffee. New Zealanders are exerting a big influence on coffee-drinking Canadians. Their example has converted large numbers of Canadian airmen to tea instead of coffee, so many, in fact, that the tea drinkers now outnumber the coffee drinkers two to one. Famous Chefs at Work The men in charge of the kitchens are experts with long cooking records behind them. All are ranked as cooks, but in private life many were recognised as full-fledged chefs. Typical is Sergeant-Cook Kenneth Dawson, head of the mess at a training school in Eastern Canada. Sergeant Dawson has been in the kitchen for 20 years. He was pastrycook to King George and Queen Elizabeth during their Canadian tour of 1939. But for the outbreak of war he might now have been in Australia as assistant chef in the Governor-Gen-eral's house, which was to have been occupied by the Duke and Duchess of Kent. He was chosen for the post, but enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force instead. Other men with equally fine records to-day are looking after the appetites of Empire airmen, while the airmen themselves fit themselves for their task of whipping Hitler. There is one other item always apparent in a training school mess. The authorities are firm believers in the old adage: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." It is easy to follow, for apples form one of Canada's greatest fruit crops. So, in nearly every mess, at all times of the year and at all meals, big bowls of apples are provided on every table.