Food Faddists.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 21, 18 November 1908, Page 2

Food Faddists.

The “British Medical Journal'’ has discovered that Britons are getting faddy about their food: and not only faddy, but priggish and self-opinionated about it as well. . . “In no country in the world. Save perhaps! in the United States,” says the article, “do we meet with so many persons who display idiosyncrasies in respect of food as in England, and the most striking results are obtained by observing * party of English men and women at the table d’hote in a foreign land. “One section abhors omelettes, another is equally emphatic in refusing Italian pastes, macaroni, and the like, while others declare that the sight of oil-dressed salad inspires nausea. , r.: "The noteworthy feature in this, pick-and-ehoose dietary is the solemnity with which the idiosyncrasy is asserted,, with an accent of sincerity which betokens the consciousness.of merit...lt-is not merely..a question of disliking this or that article of food; the tone is such as to east aspersions on all who think otherwise. “If, by way of contrast, we watch foreigners at dinner we shall be struck: by the fact that while they may vary as to quantity, old and young alike, partake of the dishes in due sequence. "Why is that the English stomach in general shows such antipathy to olive oil, which is the ordinary culinary fat in so many parts of the world? How is it that the Englishman who revels in such light delicacies as roly-poly pudding fights shy of nouilles and vermicelli. “One explanation may be’that children in many families are allowed to pick and choose, or, at any rate, to express approval or dislike, a licence which bears pernicious fruit in later life. . “It may be added that in no country is the culinary field as limited as in England.”