What Men Eat in Restaurants.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 7, 16 February 1907, Page 48

What Men Eat in Restaurants.

BY MRS. S. T. RORER. shows men’s earls training and environment more quickly than the way they eat. Sociologists continue to debate as to which has the greater influence in the after life of the individual, environment or heredity. The truth is that both are so closely interwoven that it is dillicult to separate them. Both play an important part in the health and destiny of man. Tlie man eats as the buy was taught. He likes and dislikes what his mother did before him. When he was a little tot she cut and seasoned his plate of food before slip took her own. and as she fixed it in his childhood so ho likes it in manhood. He grow up to this way and knows no other. If all conditions arc hygienic the child grows .up to oat hygienic food; but. on the other hand, if the mother is governed entirely by her own palate, and perhaps her own whims, her child will suffer when a man. As a boy his digestion was good, his outdoor exercise gave him an appetite, and ho paid little attention to digestive disorders. In later years, however, he is confined to a close, ill-ventilated office, and ho lives up to the hurry of the average business man and his health fails. THE TOW N-DWELLER SOON LEARNS TO BE A MEAT EATER. Every day he rushes to the nearest restaurant for his luncheon, orders from the list of new dishes, largely entrees and invariably meats. 'The chef. a. trained cook, can show his skill to far greater advantage on fancy meat dishes than on vegetables, and so he makes the list of meats unusually long and attractive. The vegetable cookery is relegated io the undercooks or to the maid-of-all-work. whereas in reality it requires more knowledge and care to boil or bake potatoes than to make chicken croquettes. There is far less danger of failure in meat dishes than in pastry and vegetables. Thus the town-dweller learns to be a. meat-eater not because ho really wants or needs it. but because there is little else offered—and wonders, in after years, why he has rheumatism and kindled diseases. Another reason why he is a meat-oator is that meat is digested in the stomach; he can swallow it without mastication and suffer less than he would from starchy foods eaten in the same way. I notice also that most men. as well ns women,, order things not usually found on the homo table. Homo cooks are not always trained and there is a groat monotony on the average family table. Odd names arc attractive, and you frequently find a man ordering a dish of which ht* knows nothing, simply because the name is attractive. Highly-seasoned fish dishes, such as lobsters, crabs, oyster crabs, oysters, and all forms of clam dishes, arc exceedingly popular; not because they are good or wholesome, but somewhere ingrained in the man’s mind is the idea that these are lighter than meat. The truth is that they are more difficult of digestion. Raw oysters, no doubt, are easily digested, but they are without question dangerous, as they frequently carry the germ* of disease. 'This is not true of clams, but clams are tough and leathery compared to oysters. WHAT NEW YORK MEN EAT FOR THEIR LUNCHEON. Th<» New York man invariably cats a. light salad with French drossing: this, of course, is exceedingly wholesome.

Pies are not eaten to any great extent; the lighter desserts, such as whipped cream and ice cream, are preferred. During the winter months, mince pies and plum puddings are frequently indulged in. Both contain quite sufficient nourishment to form an entire meal, ami should never be eaten after a heavy meal, except at Christmas ami lio’iday times, when one has hours of leisure for digestion. Among the vegetable dishes, spaghetti is perhaps the most popular; for some reason, home cooks do not know how to prepare this excellent dish properly. Au gratin dishes are also much liked, as well as such things as broiled chicken livers, goose livers, and stewed kidneys. If one could come into personal < ontact with each customer the bills-of-fare might be shortened and improved, but under existing conditions it is out of the question. The restaurateur, good or bad, has little to do with his kitchen; he is not a cook. But the restaurant is his fashion of making money; and i find, knowing what I do, that to reform man’s eating is an operation too gigantic to be accomplished in a single lifetime. My successors may accomplish it. The American commercial man is nervous and irritable, and he wants what he wants, and that very quickly, so that he may rush back to the "ticker” or the desk. Indeed, he often eats with a telephone on bis table and a “ticker” near by. Frequently he leaves his ordering to the waiter, who knows the time to be given to the luncheon and the amount of money the man cares to spend. Money plays, however, a secondary part in the New Yorker’s luncheon. He pays what you ask. providing his food is brought quickly and suits his palate and his eye. It must be properly served and be of first-class quality. However, he too often orders “out-of-season” foods. He lives in tbe city and has little time.to study the natural conditions of the country, and ho is likely to think it time for green corn in the very early spring. He saw it perhaps at a fruiterer's—it came from the far South; ho orders it next day. with a keen anticipation of the taste of corn fresh from the garden; and he is, of course, disappointed at what he gets, and condemns the cook or the restaurant for buying second-class food. .So back he goes to the ever-present, well-served entrees. Even in the hot months the common orders are eold meats and salads. HIGHLY-SEASONED DISHES AKE USUALLY CHOSEN. My observations are, of course, limited to the few with whom I eome in contact each noonday; men who neither have well-regulated homes nor live at the best New York hotels—and they certainly know what is good to eat. They may not select what the world calls hygienic food, but they will not eat in a haphazard fashion, nor will they eat simply to satisfy their hunger. A gratified taste brings special satisfaction, and the New York man must have it gratified. Highly-seasoned dishes ; re usually chosen; indeed, a curry is frequently more salable in winter than in summer, when the reverse should be the < a-e. This man is willing to pay for fiesh food and refuses to bb served with coldstorage stuff; in this respect lie is very hygienic. I observe that ninety-nine men out of a hundred choose mashed potatoes with their meats; they are easily swallowed and—so the men think—do not require mastication. Here comes the first step to serious intestinal troubles. Soups arc in great demand for the .same reason; all kinds of entrees and dishes made from chopped meats play a most important part in the noonday lune’ eon. Many prefer a good stew, with a plain boiled or baked potato, or perhaps potatoes mashed in cream, with a side dish of green vegetables or a salad, and stop before they reach I lie dessert. Pies and shortcakes are meals, not deserts. I am quite sure that a goodsized piece of shortcake with a small pitcher of cream, eaten slowly and thoroughly masticated, makes- an exceedingly good luncheon. , Eggs are often preferred to moats. They provide an easily-digested luncheon, and as there are nearly a hundred ways of serving pouched eggs, one can always find a variety. Methods of eating and bills-of-fare vary greatly in different cities. In New I ork the financial man takes more time to Ids luncheon than he does in many other cities. Ho prefers to sit comfortably at a table; in fact, he re-

fuses to stand and dislikes to sit at a “lunch counter.” He may eat with a rush, but sits long enough after his luncheon to smoke. This gives his stomach time to start digestion. COFFEE STIMULATES WITHOUT ROBBING A MAN OF HIS WITS. Men arc certainly coffee-drinkers. It is an unusual thing for a man to finish his luncheon without coffee, and nine times out of ten he takes a large cup. He has long sinee learned that, to compete with his neighbour, he must have a clear and active brain; coffee stimulates without robbing him of his wits. Hot tea is not a favourite. In the summer iced tea is exceedingly popular, and is

far worse than iced water, which I consider deadly. Iced coffee is frequently called for instead of iced tea, aud with sugar and cream it is very unwholesome. Steaks, chops and ordinary roasts are seldom called for. Goose and duck are more popular than ehieken and turkey, for the simple reason that these two birds are not, as a rule, well prepared at home. The New York man consumes more food in a day than almost any other commercial man. This may be due in part to the ever-present salt air. He seems to be larger in stature than the inland man, with a more vigorous consti-

tution. The New York man refuses to eat trash of any kind. He hates the “dairy lunch,” and while the dishes he eats may not he wisely selected he knows whether they are properly prepared, and he believes most thoroughly that French cooking is the only way. In other words, he pays more attention to his noonday luncheon than do commercial men in many other cities. He insists upon being well served with nicely-garnished foods; he refuses absolutely to have a warm plate for his salad, or a cold plate for his roasted beef, both of which I have seen in first-class hotels. He insists upon having hot milk with his coffee, even if he takes cream; he knows that a little hot milk gives it a better flavour. He does this not from a hygienic standpoint but Because he has learned that it tastes better. He insists upon French bread with its crisp, hard crust, because he knows that the mastication of this is a saving grace in his dinner. IT IS BETTER TO ORDER FOOD THAT IS TN SEASON. I would like to give a word of advice to the great mass of men who take their luncheon in a noonday restaurant: Acquaint yourselves with the foods in season. Do not ask for shad in midwinter, for if you demand it you will get it. and as shad are not in season at that time it naturally must come from the cold storage. Fish and poultry, as we., as eggs, held in cold storage any lengt., of time are unfit for food. Vegetables deteriorate quickly. Corn, cantaloups and watermelons shipped to New York from the South are not good. The serving prices must be regulated by the waste. For instance, when cantaloups are two dollars a dozen. a single cantaloup cannot be served for less than thirty cents, and even then there is little profit. In a whole dozen there will only be a few that the average man will accept. Corn costs four cents an ear. and with the loss the serving-cost for two ears is twenty-five cents. Even at these prices men are dissatisfied. They don’t know the reason why, because they do not know that foods of this sort are not in season. Foods out of season cause more trouble than any other dishes, hence to save time and trouble, and to please his customers, the restaurant-keeper settles down to meat-serving, with such vegetables as potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce and spaghetti. It is singular that in this country men who have time and money for a course luncheon rarely order a handsome vegetable dish served .alone, as do people in other countries. Asparagus, cauliflower or artichoke any of these makes an admirable dish to he used as entree in place of moat. For fear that my readers may

forget an important point, I shall repeat that all foods of this kind require thorough mastication. As to the practice of chewing gum after a meal “to aid digestion,” how perfectly ridiculous it is for a man to bolt his food and then sit and chew on some foreign material for an hour or two w.... the idea‘that he is correcting his bad eating habits! Mastication of food is necessary; and later mastication of gum and such things can play no part whatever in the digesting of foods; indeed, such a theory is nonsensical. The working of the jaws causes an increased flow of saliva; the alkaline saliva should be mixed with the starches and sugars when they are taken into the mouth. The stomach is acid, and if we constantly swallow alkaline materials, drawn out by this artificial mastication, we neutralise the effect of the gastric juice and create two disorders: stomach and intestinal indigestion. THOROUGH MASTICATION IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE. I fully believe that mastication is of greater benefit to health than is the selection of any special line of diet, providing the usual diet be not absolutely indigestible. Take cheese, for instance, a highly concentrated form of nitrogenous food, necessarily difficult of digestion; this is easily converted into tissue when masti-

cated and mixed with the proper proportion of carbonaceous foods. To go back to the point of the restaurant: shocking combinations are frequently ordered; for instance, plum shortcake and cream. Plums are not easily digested, and as they are rarely peeled in preparing, they are doubly bad when served with starches and cream. Cream reduces the secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. In some individuals gastric juices are secreted in greater quantities than is necessary for a healthy digestion. To such people cream or olive oil is a good thing, but where the gastric digestion is slow or impaired fats of all kinds should be avoided. Fruits are to be recommended only when they are peeled and thoroughly masticated. Sub-acid fruits make good combinations with starches. Ice-cream on hot apple-pie is not to be recommended. To many this seems to be a gastronomic entertainment, but it certainly brings sad results. Reform in diet must be done at home, under the influence of the wife ant!

mother; the child must be taught in early years the road to health and life. It is more difficult to correct a false habit in after-life than it is to implant a good one during the plastic years. After a man’s habits become fixed and he has been successful in every ot ler line except health, he believes sincerely that this will come his way later. Of course, he wakes up to find that his success has been entirely financial, and, s ange as it may seem, this ever-present picture is not a warning to others. Each man feels sure that he will be the exception, but he drops down to the rule as sure as can be. I have often wondered why some of our rich men who are spending their money on various public institutions do not see the necessity for a school of hygiene. Prevention is certainly better than cure, and if children were taught what to eat, how to eat it and how to cook it, the following generations would not be “wiser and weaker, but wiser and stronger. They would develop equally along all natural lines.