FUNNY FANCIES IN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5427, 30 November 1895, Page 1

FUNNY FANCIES IN

... FOOD. '' tTit.Bits.) [ Most people have some especial fancy in ( the matter of food, be it flsb, flesh or fowl. , Charles Lamb swore by pork. ■ Boasted ■ pig : served with apple sance was to the [ author of the essays of Elia the summum , bonum of things edible, a oharm to conjure with. Cold sheep's head tickled the I appetite and aroused the admiration of Sir I Walter Scott. Listen the actor would go | into ecstacies over tripe and onions. The : tragedian Charles Dillon was exceedingly , fond of a Yarmouth bloater. Varied as their palates may be, English- ; men, as a rule, are very eolectio in the , choice of their dishes. They do not, like their Gallic neighbours for inatanoe, take : kindly to » .y -. *"- ■ ■ TBI FBOO AS' AN "BNTBBMET; despite the fact that this little animal is i said to possess a most delicate flavour when i nicely cooked. Neither do they relish the i rat, whioh a Chinaman will, eat with , avidity. The tortoise, often used as a ' comestible in Southern Gaul, does not , come in for a greater share of their adi miration, while the hedgehog as an artiole 1 of diet is still confined toa few remote i rural distriots where epicures never penetrate. » Although horses have repeatedly been i tried aa food, and many enthusiasts aver i that a selected steak of horseflesh is as i juicy and palatable as prime ox-beef, Britishers as a body stand aloof. An ex- ' pariment in donkey-eating made some i years ago in a pollege at Cambridge, Baid : at the time to have been a great success, > does not appear to have been repeated. Frank Buekland tells a couple of amusing stories in connection with FANCY GABTRONOMT. Sradshaw, the Boyal rat-catcher, was out trapping at a farmhouse one day, and put Borne young rabbits on the fire to broil. During his temporary absence, a party of labouring men found out the dinner, and ate it up. Determined to have revenge, Bradehaw went again next day to the farmhouse, and put some big old rats on the gridiron, leaving them as before. The bait toek, the labourers appeared on the scene, and polished off the rodents under the impression that they were rabbits. The laugh was not on their side when the truth was made known to them. Several gentlemen of anatomical pursuits once becoming possessed of a live crocodile, determined to try what a crocodile steak was like, and having had one cooked, declared it excellent. An old servant of the school where the repast was taken watched the > operation with eager . eyes, and secretly determined that he, too, would try the new food. He did so, and in the middle of the night an alarm was raised, and the old servant said to be dying. With hiß hands to his stomach, he waa exclaiming in agony, "Oh, that crocodile : that crocodile!" It transpired thatthe old fellow, liking THE TASTI OF THS COOKED BEPTILE, had made a monster meal off the indigestible mass, whereas his masters had Bimply tasted a morsel. When his stomach had: been relieved of its heavy load, he vowed solemnly never to eat crocodile again. The following little narrative will show that there is a limit in dietary beyond which the ordinary man , will not go. The proprietor ef a pie-shop, not a hundred miles from old Temple Bar, died in the heyday of bis prosperity, and left behind him a disconsolate widow and a profitable business. In the lapse of time the widow was wooed by a couple of suitors— a baker and a butcher, who; each in hiß respective capacity, had supplied ingredients to the business. For a while the woman dallied with her lovers, hesitating which to accept, but having at length to decide, chose the butcher, who waß the younger man of the two. Stung with jealousy, tho baker, in revenge, opened AN OPPOSITION PIE-SHOP on the other Bide of the street, where, by giving larger pies and putting more meat into them, he succeeded in drawing off the widow's customers. With ruin staring her : in the face, the woman appealed to her ; accepted suitor for aid. " Leave it to me 1" said the mau of steel in response, and he ' suddenly disappeared from the scene. Por ! two days he was absent, and on the third he returned, with knife in belt and some- : thing slung over his shoulder. Watching : his opportunity he dashed into the baker's : shop when it waß full of hungry customers, ' and throwing down a couple of huge dead ! cats on the counter, bawled out: "That makes seventeen; I'll bring the other J three to-morrow !*' • • The effeot on the customers was ] electrical, though the butcher stayed not ] to see it. The open mouths refused to shut, the shut mouths could not be made ( to open, and a general stampede waß made *

W. Stbangb and Co.'a good tailoring « tor fit. style and value is uneanalled. ' *3

for the door. It. wab in vain that the baker protested that the thing wai a plant, and that his pies contained only the beat English beef. Tha pubiio palate waa outraged, and the man being compelled to beat a retreat, the widow had the satisfaction of Beeing her customers gradually return to the place of their former purchases.