FOOD IN PARIS.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 1004, 25 February 1871, Page 11

FOOD IN PARIS.

t The accounts whioh h< ye reached the out* side world from Paris show that the volatile people of that city have Dot lost their light* heartedness amid their recent troubles. The principal subject for joking appears to be the ! shifts to whioh they are put to obtain animal food, and dogs, cats, ana rats are having a hard time of it. Dogs sell at 4 f runes (3a 2d) the half animal, and are goaty rftlished. Cats, or " gutter rabbits," a». *he Parisians call them, sell at 6 franca (4- 94} each. 24,000 of them, according to one j mraal, have been sold and eaten. A correspondent of the Food Journal, in an amueing letter to that paper, says :—": — " A woman is detected stealing out of a hsuse with something hidden under her shawl ; she Is ar« rested, and a fioe cat found upon her. *Oh pray do not expose me, 1 she cries in a plaintive voice, 'It is for a sick friend 1'" The same correspondent says: " In the midst of all our annoyances we have our jokes. When dinner is ready, some one is sure to say, 'To horse, ladles and gentle* men, tt. horse I' Stories are told of oom« manders of besieged towns who presented to their guests as choice dishes a roast oat, garnished with a dozen of mice and a salmi of rata." The most extraordinary thing about this matter, howerer, is that in B-uaaels similar dishes are being freely partaken of, not of neceßßity as in Paris, but because it ia considered de rigueur to foe in the Paris fashion and to do as Paris does. Even in England it is possible that converts may be obtained, as will be seen from the following paragraph, which we take from the Daily News :— " M. de Ponvielle {who escaped from Paris in a balloon) delivered a lecture on the Franco- Prussian war, on Wednesday even* ing, at Southampton, and in the course of his address gave a description of the mode by whioh the Parisians converted horses, oats, dogs, and rats into food, and raised vegetables, such asoabbages, lettuces, and radishes, in a very Bhort time on the waste places about Paris. He exhibited a rat pie, whioh had been prepared by a cook at a London hotel. It was a raised, ornamental pie, resembling the pork pies sold by English pastrycooks. It was cut in two ; the interior looked savoury and inviting, and the lecturer declared it delicious eating, and very nutritious. It was about the size of a 2s pork pie, and contained the flesh of five rats."

A contemporary states that the first attempt at manufacturing ioe oa any considerable scale iii this colony has been successfully made at Auckland. Mr Gledhill, & soda-water manufacturer, has imported icemaking machinery, and produces 30 cwt per , day. It has already come largely into use •both at "the hotels ~aud by dealers in butter and other perishable articles.