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diff --git a/18854.txt b/18854.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9ed567 --- /dev/null +++ b/18854.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8030 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Gourmet's Guide to Europe, by Algernon Bastard + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Gourmet's Guide to Europe + +Author: Algernon Bastard + +Editor: Lieut. Col. Newnham-Davis + +Release Date: July 17, 2006 [EBook #18854] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO EUROPE *** + + + + +Produced by Stacy Brown, Jason Isbell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +THE GOURMET'S +GUIDE TO EUROPE + + + + +Publisher's Announcement + + +DINNERS AND DINERS: + +Where and how to Dine in London + +By Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis + +_New and Revised Edition +Small Crown 8vo. Cloth._ 3/6 + + +WHERE AND HOW TO DINE +IN PARIS + +By Rowland Strong +_Fcap. 8vo. Cover designed cloth._ 2/6 + + * * * * * + +London: GRANT RICHARDS + + + + +The +Gourmet's Guide +To Europe + +BY + +LIEUT.-COL. NEWNHAM-DAVIS + +AND + +ALGERNON BASTARD + +EDITED BY THE FORMER + +[Illustration] + +London +GRANT RICHARDS +48 LEICESTER SQUARE, W.C. +1903 + + + + +The pleasures of the table are common to all ages and ranks, to all +countries and times; they not only harmonise with all the other +pleasures, but remain to console us for their loss. + +Brillat Savarin. + + + + +PREFACE + + +Often enough, staying in a hotel in a foreign town, I have wished to +sally forth and to dine or breakfast at the typical restaurant of the +place, should there be one. Almost invariably I have found great +difficulty in obtaining any information regarding any such restaurant. +The proprietor of the caravanserai at which one is staying may admit +vaguely that there are eating-houses in the town, but asks why one +should be anxious to seek for second-class establishments when the best +restaurant in the country is to be found under his roof. The hall-porter +has even less scruples, and stigmatises every feeding-place outside the +hotel as a den of thieves, where the stranger foolishly venturing is +certain to be poisoned and then robbed. This book is an attempt to help +the man who finds himself in such a position. His guide-book may +possibly give him the names of the restaurants, but it does no more. My +co-author and myself attempt to give him some details--what his +surroundings will be, what dishes are the specialities of the house, +what wine a wise man will order, and what bill he is likely to be asked +to pay. + +Our ambition was to deal fully with the capitals of all the countries of +Europe, the great seaports, the pleasure resorts, and the "show places." +The most acute critic will not be more fully aware how far we have +fallen short of our ideal than we are, and no critic can have any idea +of the difficulty of making such a book as we hope this will some day be +when complete. At all events we have always gone to the best authorities +where we had not the knowledge ourselves. Our publisher, Mr. Grant +Richards, quite entered into the idea that no advertisements of any kind +from hotels or restaurants should be allowed within the covers of the +book; and though we have asked for information from all classes of +gourmets--from ambassadors to the simple globe-trotter--we have not +listened to any man interested directly or indirectly in any hotel or +restaurant. + +Hotels as places to live in we have not considered critically, and have +only mentioned them when the restaurants attached to them are the +dining-places patronised by the _bon-vivants_ of the town. + +Over England we have not thrown our net, for _Dinners and Diners_ leaves +me nothing new to write of London restaurants. + +In conclusion I beg, on behalf of my co-author and myself, to return +thanks to all the good fellows who have given us information; and I +would earnestly beg any travelling gourmet, who finds any change in the +restaurants we have mentioned, or who comes on treasure-trove in the +shape of some delightful dining-place we know nothing of, to take pen +and ink and write word of it to me, his humble servant, to the care of +Mr. Grant Richards, Leicester Square. So shall he benefit, in future +editions, all his own kind. We hear much of the kindness of the poor to +the poor. This is an opportunity, if not for the rich to be kind to the +rich, at least for those who deserve to be rich to benefit their +fellows. + +N. Newnham-Davis. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +PARIS + PAGE + +The "Cuisine de Paris"--A little ancient history--Restaurants +with a "past"--The restaurants of to-day--Over +the river--Open-air restaurants--Supping-places--Miscellaneous 1 + + +CHAPTER II + +FRENCH PROVINCIAL TOWNS + +The northern ports--Norman and Breton towns--The +west coast and Bordeaux--Marseilles and the Riviera--The +Pyrenees--Provence--Aix-les-Bains and other "cure" places 35 + + +CHAPTER III + +BELGIAN TOWNS + +The food of the country--Antwerp--Spa--Bruges--Ostende 79 + + +CHAPTER IV + +BRUSSELS + +The Savoy--The Epaule de Mouton--The Faille Dechiree--The +Lion d'Or--The Regina--The Helder--The Filet de +Sole--Wiltcher's--Justine's--The Etoile--The +Belveder--The Cafe Riche--Duranton's--The +Laiterie--Miscellaneous 90 + + +CHAPTER V + +HOLLAND + +Restaurants at the Hague--Amsterdam--Scheveningen-- +Rotterdam--The food of the people 105 + + +CHAPTER VI + +GERMAN TOWNS + +The cookery of the country--Rathskeller and +beer-cellars--Dresden--Muenich--Nueremburg--Hanover-- +Leipsic--Frankfurt--Duesseldorf--The Rhine valley--"Cure" +places--Kiel--Hamburg 110 + + +CHAPTER VII + +BERLIN + +Up-to-date restaurants--Supping-places--Military +cafes--Night restaurants 144 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SWITZERLAND + +Lucerne--Basle--Bern--Geneva--Davos Platz 151 + + +CHAPTER IX + +ITALY + +Italian cookery and wines--Turin--Milan--Genoa-- +Venice--Bologna--Spezzia--Florence--Pisa--Leghorn-- +Rome--Naples--Palermo 157 + + +CHAPTER X + +SPAIN AND PORTUGAL + +Food and wines of the country--Barcelona--San +Sebastian--Bilbao--Madrid--Seville--Bobadilla-- +Grenada--Jerez--Algeciras--Lisbon--Estoril 178 + + +CHAPTER XI + +AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY + +Viennese restaurants and cafes--Baden--Carlsbad-- +Marienbad--Prague--Bad Gastein--Budapesth 196 + + +CHAPTER XII + +ROUMANIA + +The dishes of the country--The restaurants of Bucarest 207 + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SWEDEN. NORWAY. DENMARK + +Stockholm restaurants--Malmoe--Storvik--Gothenburg-- +Christiana--Copenhagen--Elsinore 210 + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RUSSIA + +Food of the country--Restaurants in Moscow--The +dining-places of St. Petersburg--Odessa--Warsaw 217 + + +CHAPTER XV + +TURKEY + +Turkish dishes--Constantinople restaurants 226 + + +CHAPTER XVI + +GREECE + +Grecian dishes--Athens 230 + + +INDEX 233 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +PARIS + + The "Cuisine de Paris"--A little ancient history--Restaurants with + a "past"--The restaurants of to-day--Over the river--Open-air + restaurants--Supping-places--Miscellaneous. + + +Paris is the culinary centre of the world. All the great missionaries of +good cookery have gone forth from it, and its cuisine was, is, and ever +will be the supreme expression of one of the greatest arts in the world. +Most of the good cooks come from the south of France, most of the good +food comes from the north. They meet at Paris, and thus the Paris +cuisine, which is that of the nation and that of the civilised world, is +created. + +When the Channel has been crossed you are in the country of good soups, +of good fowl, of good vegetables, of good sweets, of good wine. The +_hors-d'oeuvre_ are a Russian innovation; but since the days when +Henry IV. vowed that every peasant should have a fowl in his pot, soup +from the simplest _bouillon_ to the most lordly _consommes_ and splendid +_bisques_ has been better made in France than anywhere else in the +world. Every great cook of France has invented some particularly +delicate variety of the boiled fillet of sole, and Duglere achieved a +place amongst the immortals, by his manipulation of the brill. The soles +of the north are as good as any that ever came out of British waters; +and Paris--sending tentacles west to the waters where the sardines swim, +and south to the home of the lamprey, and tapping a thousand streams for +trout and the tiny gudgeon and crayfish--can show as noble a list of +fishes as any city in the world. The _chef de cuisine_ who could not +enumerate an hundred and fifty entrees all distinctively French, would +be no proficient in his noble profession. The British beef stands +against all the world as the meat noblest for the spit, though the +French ox which has worked its time in the fields gives the best +material for the soup-pot; and though the Welsh lamb and the English +sheep are the perfection of mutton young and mutton old, the lamb +nurtured on milk till the hour of its death, and the sheep reared on the +salt-marshes of the north, make splendid contribution to the Paris +kitchens. Veal is practically an unknown meat in London; and the calf +which has been fed on milk and yolk of egg, and which has flesh as soft +as a kiss and as white as snow, is only to be found in the Parisian +restaurants. Most of the good restaurants in London import all their +winged creatures, except game, from France; and the Surrey fowl and the +Aylesbury duck, the representatives of Great Britain, make no great show +against the champions of Gaul, though the Norfolk turkey holds his own. +A vegetable dish, served by itself and not flung into the gravy of a +joint, forms part of every French dinner, large or small; and in the +battle of the kitchen gardens the foreigners beat us nearly all along +the line, though I think that English asparagus is better than the white +monsters of Argenteuil. A truffled partridge, or the homely _Perdrix au +choux_, or the splendid _Faisan a la Financiere_ show that there are +many more ways of treating a game bird than plain roasting him; and the +peasants of the south of France had crushed the bones of their ducks for +a century before we in London ever heard of _Canard a la Presse_. The +Parisian eats a score of little birds we are too proud to mention in our +cookery books, and he knows the difference between a _mauviette_ and an +_alouette_. Perhaps the greatest abasement of the Briton, whose +ancestors called the French "Froggies" in scorn, comes when his first +morning in Paris he orders for breakfast with joyful expectation a dish +of the thighs of the little frogs from the vineyards. An Austrian +pastry-cook has a lighter hand than a French one, but the Parisian open +tarts and cakes and the _friandises_ and the ice, or _coupe-jacque_ at +the end of the Gallic repast are excellent. + +Paris is strewn with the wrecks of restaurants, and many of the +establishments with great names of our grandfathers' and fathers' days +are now only _tavernes_ or cheap _table-d'hote_ restaurants. The Grand +Vefour in the Palais Royal--where the patrons of the establishment in +Louis Philippe's time used to eat off royal crockery, bought from the +surplus stock of the palaces by M. Hamel, cook to the king, and +proprietor of the restaurant--has lost its vogue in the world of +fashion. The present Cafe de Paris has an excellent cook, and is the +supper restaurant where the most shimmering lights of the _demi-monde_ +may be seen; but the old Cafe de Paris, at the corner of the Rue +Taitbout, the house which M. Martin Guepet brought to such fame, and +where the _Veau a la Casserole_ drew the warmest praise from our +grandfathers, has vanished. Bignon's, which was a name known throughout +the world, has fallen from its high estate; the Cafe Riche, though it +retains a good restaurant, is not the old famous dining-place any +longer; and the Marivaux, where Joseph flourished, has been transformed +into a _brasserie_. The Cafe Hardi, at one time a very celebrated +restaurant, made place for the Maison d'Or, and the gilded glory of the +latter has now passed in its turn. The Cafe Veron, Philippe's, of the +Rue Mont Orgueil, and the Rocher de Cancale in the Rue Mandar, where +Borel, one of the cooks of Napoleon I., made gastronomic history, +Beauvilliers's, the proprietor of which was a friend of all the +field-marshals of Europe, and made and lost half-a-dozen fortunes, the +Trois Freres Provenceaux, the Cafe Very, and D'Hortesio's are but +memories. + +The saddest disappearance of all, because the latest, is the Maison +d'Or, which is to be converted, so it is said, into a _brasserie_. The +retirement of Casimir, one of the Verdier family, who was to the D'Or +what Duglere was to the Anglais, precipitated the catastrophe, and in +the autumn of 1902 the house gave its farewell luncheon, and closed with +all the honours of war. Alas for the _Carpe a la Gelee_ and the _Sole au +vin Rouge_ and the _Poularde Maison d'Or_! I shall never, I fear, eat +their like again. There was much history attached to the little golden +house; more, perhaps, than to any other restaurant in the world. From +its doors Rigolboche, in the costume of Mother Eve, started for her run +across the road to the Anglais. At the table by one of the windows +looking out on to the boulevard Nestor Roqueplan, Fould, Salamanca, and +Delahante used always to dine. Upstairs in "Le Grand 6," which was to +the Maison d'Or what "Le Grand 16" is to the Anglais, Salamanca, who +drew a vast revenue from a Spanish banking-house, used to give +extraordinary suppers at which the lights of the _demi-monde_ of that +day, Cora Pearl, Anna Deslions, Deveria, and others used to be present. +The amusement of the Spaniard used to be to spill the wax from a candle +over the dresses, and then to pay royally for the damage. One evening he +asked one of the MM. Verdier whether a very big bill would be presented +to him if he burned the whole house down, and on being told that it was +only a matter of two or three million francs he would have set light to +the curtains if M. Verdier had not interfered to prevent him. The "beau +Demidoff," the duelling Baron Espeleta, Princes Galitzin and Murat, +Tolstoy, and the Duc de Rivoli gave their parties in the "Grand 6"; and +down the narrow, steep flight of steps which led into the side street +the Duke of Hamilton fell and broke his neck. The Maison d'Or was the +meeting-place, in the sixty odd years of its existence, of many +celebrities of literature. Dumas, Meilhac, Emmanuel Arene used to dine +there before they went across the road for a game of cards at the Cercle +des Deux Mondes, and later Oncle Sarcey was one of the _habitues_ of the +house. + +Two restaurants in particular seem to me to head the list of the +classic, quiet establishments, proud of having a long history, satisfied +with their usual _clientele_, non-advertising, content to rest on their +laurels. Those two are the Anglais and Voisin's, the former on the +Boulevard des Italiens, the latter in the Rue St-Honore. The Cafe +Anglais, the white-faced house at the corner of the Rue Marivaux, is the +senior of the two, for it has a history of more than a hundred years. It +was originally a little wine-merchant's shop, with its door leading into +the Rue Marivaux, and was owned by a M. Chevereuil. The ownerships of +MM. Chellet and de L'Homme marked successive steps in its upward career, +and when the restaurant came into the market in '79 or '80 it was bought +by a syndicate of bankers and other rich business men who parted with it +to its present proprietor. The Comte de Grammont Caderousse and his +companions in what used to be known as the "Loge Infernale" at the old +Opera, were the best-known patrons of the Anglais; and until the Opera +House, replaced by the present building, was burnt down, the Anglais was +a great supping-place, the little rabbit-hutches of the _entresol_ +being the scene of some of the wildest and most interesting parties +given by the great men of the Second Empire. The history of the Anglais +has never been written because, as the proprietor will tell you, it +never _could_ be written without telling tales anent great men which +should not be put into print; but if you ask to see the book of menus, +chiefly of dinners given in the "Grand Seize," the room on the first +floor, the curve of the windows of which look up the long line of the +boulevards, and if you are shown the treasure you will find in it +records of dinners given by King Edward when he was Prince of Wales, by +the Duc de Morny and by D'Orsay, by all the Grand Dukes who ever came +out of Russia, by "Citron" and Le Roi Milan, by the lights of the French +jockey club, and many other celebrities. There is one especially +interesting menu of a dinner at which Bismarck was a guest--before the +terrible year of course. While I am gossiping as to the curiosities of +the Anglais I must not forget a little collection of glass and silver in +a cabinet in the passage of the _entresol_. Every piece has a history, +and most of them have had royal owners. The great sight of the +restaurant, however, is its cellars. Electric light is used to light +them, luminous grapes hang from the arches, and an orange tree at the +end of a vista glows with transparent fruit. In these cellars, beside +the wine on the wine-list of the restaurant, are to be found some +bottles of all the great vintage years of claret, an object-lesson in +Bordeaux; and there are little stores of brandies of wondrous age, most +of which were already in the cellars when the battle of Waterloo was +fought. + +From a gourmet's point of view the great interest in the restaurant will +lie, if he wishes to give a large dinner, in the Grand Seize or one of +the other private rooms; if he is going to dine alone, or is going to +take his wife out to dinner, in the triangular room on the ground floor +with its curtains of lace, its white walls, its mirrors and its little +gilt tripod in the centre of the floor. Duglere was the _chef_ who, +above all others, made history at the Anglais, and the present +proprietor, M. Burdel, was one of his pupils; and therefore the cookery +of Duglere is the cookery still of the Anglais. _Potage Germiny_ is +claimed by the Cafe Anglais as a dish invented by the house, but the +Maison d'Or across the way also laid claim to it, and told an anecdote +of its creation--how it was invented by Casimir for the Marquis de +St-George. The various fish _a la Duglere_ there can be no question +concerning, the _Barbue Duglere_ being the most celebrated; and the +_Poularde Albufera_ and the _Filet de Sole Mornay_ (which was also +claimed by the Grand Vefour) are both specialities of the house. You can +order as expensive a dinner as you will for a great feast at the +Anglais, and you can eat rich dishes if you desire it; but there is no +reason that you should not dine there very well, and as cheaply as you +can expect to get good material, good cooking, and good attendance +anywhere in the world. The "dishes of the day" are always excellent, +and I have dined off a plate of soup, a pint of Bordeaux, and some +slices of a _gigot de sept heures_--one of the greatest achievements of +cookery--for a very few francs. I always find that I can dine amply, and +on food that even a German doctor could not object to, for less than a +louis. For instance, a dinner at the Anglais of half-a-dozen Ostende +Oysters, _Potage Laitues et Quenelles_, _Merlans Frits_, _Cuisse de +Poularde de Rotie_, _Salade Romaine_, cheese, half a bottle of Graves +1e Cru, and a bottle of St-Galmier costs 18 francs. + +Voisin's, in the Rue St-Honore, the corner house whose windows, +curtained with lace, promise dignified quiet, is a restaurant which has +a history, and has, and has had, great names amongst its _habitues_. +Many of these have been diplomats, and Voisin's knows that ambassadors +do not care to have their doings, when free from the cares of office, +gossiped about. When I first saw Voisin's, it looked as unlike the house +of to-day as can be imagined. I was in Paris immediately after the days +of the Commune and followed, with an old General, the line the troops +had taken in the fight for the city. In the Rue St-Honore were some of +the fiercest combats, for the regulars fought their way from house to +house down this street to turn the positions the Communists took up in +the Champs Elysees and the gardens of the Tuileries. The British Embassy +had become a hospital, and all the houses which had not been burned +looked as though they had stood a bombardment. There were bullet +splashes on all the walls, and I remember that Voisin's looked even +more battered and hopeless than did most of its neighbours. + +The diplomats have always had an affection for Voisin's, perhaps because +of its nearness to the street of the Embassies; and in the "eighties" +the attaches of the British Embassy used to breakfast there every day. +Nowadays, the _clientele_ seems to me to be a mixture of the best type +of the English and Americans passing through Paris, and the more elderly +amongst the statesmen, who were no doubt the dashing young blades of +twenty-five years ago. The two comfortable ladies who sit near the door +at the desk, and the little show-table of the finest fruit seem to me +never to have changed, and there is still the same quiet-footed, +unhurrying service which impressed me when first I made the acquaintance +of the restaurant. It is one of the dining-places where one feels that +to dine well and unhurriedly is the first great business of life, and +that everything else must wait at the dinner-hour. The proprietor, +grey-headed and distinguished-looking, goes from table to table saying a +word or two to the _habitues_, and there is a sense of peace in the +place--a reflection of the sunshine and calm of Provence, whence the +founder of the restaurant came. + +The great glory of Voisin's is its cellar of red wines, its Burgundies +and Bordeaux. The Bordeaux are arranged in their proper precedence, the +wines from the great vineyards first, and the rest in their correct +order down to mere bourgeois tipple. Against each brand is the price of +the vintage of all the years within a drinkable period, and the man who +knew the wine-list of Voisin's thoroughly would be the greatest +authority in the world on claret. + +Mr. Rowland Strong, in his book on Paris, tells how, one Christmas Eve, +he took an Englishman to dine at Voisin's, and how that Englishman +demanded plum-pudding. The _maitre-d'hotel_ was equal to the occasion. +He was polite but firm, and his assertion that "The House of Voisin does +not serve, has never served, and will never serve, plum-pudding" settled +the matter. + +If the Anglais and Voisin's may be said to have much of their interest +in their "past," Paillard's should be taken as a restaurant which is the +type and parent of the present up-to-date restaurant. The white +restaurant on the Boulevard des Italiens has kept at the top of the tree +for many years, and has sent out more culinary missionaries to improve +the taste of dining man than any other establishment in Paris. Joseph, +who brought the Marivaux to such a high pitch of fame before he +emigrated to London, came from Paillard's and so did Frederic of the +Tour d'Argent, of whom I shall have something to say later on. Henri of +the Gaillon, Notta, Charles of Foyot's--all were trained at Paillard's. + +The restaurant has its history, and its long list of great patrons. _Le +Desir de Roi_, which generally appears in the menu of any important +dinner at Paillard's, and which has _foie gras_ as its principal +component, has been eaten by a score of kings at one time or another, +our own gracious Majesty heading the list. The restaurant at first was +contained in one small room. Then the shop of Isabelle, the Jockey Club +flower-girl, which was next door, was acquired, and lastly another +little shop was taken in, the entrance changed from the front to its +present position at the side, the accountant's desk put out of sight, +and the little musicians' gallery built--for Paillard's has moved with +the time and now has a band of Tziganes, much to the grief of men like +myself who prefer conversation to music as the accompaniment of a meal. +The restaurant as it is with its white walls and bas-reliefs of cupids +and flowers, its green Travertine panels let into the white pilasters, +its chandeliers of cut glass, is very handsome. M. Paillard, hair parted +in the middle and with a small moustache, irreproachably attired, +wearing a grey frock-coat by day, and a "smoking" and black tie in the +evening, is generally to be seen superintending all arrangements, and +there is a _maitre-d'hotel_ who speaks excellent English, and a head +waiter with whiskers who deserted to Henri, but subsequently returned, +who is also an accomplished linguist. + +Amongst the specialities of the house are _Pomme Otero_ and _Pomme +Georgette_, both created, I fancy, by Joseph when he was at Paillard's, +_Homard Cardinal_, _Filet de Sole a la Russe_, _Sole Paillard_, _Filet +de Sole Kotchoubey_, _Timbale de queues d'Ecrevisses Mantua_, _Cote de +Boeuf braise Empire_, _Pommes Macaire_, _Filet Paillard_, _Supreme de +Volaille Grand Duc_, _Rouennais Paillard_, _Baron d'agneau Henri IV._, +_Poularde Archiduc_, _Poularde a la Derby_, _Poularde Wladimir_, _Filet +de Selle Czarine_, _Becasse au Fumet_, _Rouennais a la Presse_, +_Terrine de Foie Gras a la gelee au Porto_, _Perdreau et Caille +Paillard_. + +Two menus of dinners M. Paillard has given me, one a very noble feast, +to the length of which I am a conscientious objector but which I print, +presently, in full, and the other a banquet of lesser grandeur with +_Creme Germiny_, _Barbue Paillard_, _Ortolans en surprise_, _Salade +Ideale_, and many other good things in it from which I select the +following dishes as making a typical little Paillard feast for two, the +price of which would not be a king's ransom:-- + + Caviar frais. + Consomme Viveur. + Filets de Sole Joinville. + Coeurs de Filet Rachel. + Pommes Anna. + Haricots Verts a la Touranquelle. + An Ice or some iced Fruits and some Coffee. + +And this repast might well be washed down by a bottle of Montrachet +1885, with a glass of Fine Champagne Palais de St-Cloud to follow. + +This is the menu of the banquet:-- + + | Le Caviar Imperial. + | Les Huitres de Burnham. + | ----- + | Le Consomme Paillard. + | Pailles Parmesan. + | La Creme d'Aretin. + | ----- + | Les Croustades a la Victoria. + _Eau-de-vie Russe._ | ----- + | La Carpe a la Chambord. + _Chablis Moutonne._ | Le Turbot a l'Amiral. + | ----- + _Johannisberg 1893._ | Le Baron de Pauillac persille. + | Les pommes Macaire. + _Mouton Rothschild | Le Veloute Favorite. + 1875._ | ----- + | Le Desir de Roi. + _Clos Vougeot 1858._ | ----- + | Les Becasses au fumet. + _Moet brut 1884._ | La Salade Esperance. + | ----- + _Fine Champagne des | Les Asperges d'Argenteuil + Tuileries 1800._ | Sce Mousseline. + | ----- + | La Pyramide a l'Ananas. + | Le Souffle aux Mandarines. + | Macarons et Gaufrettes + | Chantilly. + | ----- + | La Corbeille de Fruits. + | Cafe. + +What the cost of this feast would be it is difficult to estimate, and I +will not even hazard a guess. + +I asked, last spring, an Englishman who knows his Paris better than most +Parisians, what he would consider a typical breakfast, dinner, and +supper in Paris, and he answered, "Breakfast _chez Henri_ at the +Gaillon, dine at the Ritz, and sup at Durand's." + +There are two Henri's in Paris, one is the little hotel and English bar, +and the other is in the Place Gaillon. Henri's Restaurant Gaillon had +its days of celebrity in the Second Empire, and then sank, as the Maison +Grossetete, from grace until Henri Drouet, leaving Paillard's, +established himself there. When I first knew the restaurant it had +Paillard's cookery, but not Paillard's prices; but now that the whole of +the _monde qui dine_ has found it out, I fancy that the scale of prices +has risen to a level with that of the parent restaurant. The first room +is the best one to breakfast or dine in, for the others on hot days are +apt to be very stuffy; and it is well to order a table by telephone in +advance. Henri's, it always seems to me, has a more tempting table of +cold viands, pates, and tarts and _friandises_ set out than any other +restaurateur's, and many of the _habitues_ at lunch-time order eggs or +fish, and then turn their attention to the cold buffet. + +When dining at Henri's the _Consomme Fortunato_, the _filets de sole_ of +the restaurant, the _Noisettes de Veau Port Mahon_, the _Crepes des +Gourmets_ should be remembered. If you want a dinner for twelve, you +cannot do better than order the following, or rather select dishes from +it, for it is unreasonably lengthy as it stands:-- + + Hors-d'oeuvre a la Russe. + + POTAGES. + + Consomme Viveur. + Pailles et Parmesan. + + POISSON. + + Timbale de Homard a l'Americaine. + + ENTREES. + + Baron de Pauillac a la Boulangere. + Endives Pochees au jus. + Escalopes de Foies grand Opera. + + ROTI. + + Becasses Flambees au fumet. + Salade Port Mahon. + Mousse Bohemienne glacee. + Truffes au Champagne a la gelee. + + LEGUMES. + + Asperges fraiches. Sce Mousseline. + + ENTREMETS. + + Souffle Valenciennes. + Poires Gaillon. + +There are several other restaurants which claim to be quite first class, +and which are smart and amusing. Two such are the restaurants facing the +Madeleine, Durand's, and La Rue's. It was in one of the little rooms on +the first floor of Durand's that the Brav' General sat debating in his +mind whether he should initiate a _coup d'etat_, and the crowd outside +waited and watched, expecting something to happen. Nothing did happen. +General Boulanger thought so long, that the decisive moment passed, and +he went home to bed. Boulanger has gone, but his friends, grey-headed +now, breakfast daily at Durand's. La Rue's was also a restaurant in +favour with General Boulanger, and I fancy that the little +dinner-parties he gave there helped much to bring the place into +celebrity. Both these restaurants have lately been enlarged and +redecorated, and La Rue's advertises a great deal, which no doubt has +increased its _clientele_, but which has not decreased its prices. +Parisian Society has decreed that it is "smart" to sup at Durand's, and +I always find it an excellent place at which to breakfast. The last time +that I took my morning meal there I found all the younger members of the +British Embassy breakfasting there, a sure sign that the place is just +now on the crest of the wave. + +Some of the specialities of Durand's are _Potage Henri IV._, _Consomme +Baigneuse_, _petits diables_, _Barbue Durand_, _Poulet Saute Grand Duc_, +_Salade Georgette_, _Souffle Pole Nord_, and of course a variation of +the inevitable _canard a la presse_ and the woodcock subjected to an +_auto-da-fe_. + +This is the supper that the Restaurant Durand gave its clients on the +greatest supping night of the year, Christmas Eve, 1902. The _boudin_ of +course all Paris has for supper on the night before the great Christmas +feast:-- + + Consomme de Volaille au fumet de Celeris. + Boudin grille a la Parisienne. + Ailerons de Volaille a la Tzar. + Cailles a la Lucullus. + Salade Durand. + Ecrevisses de la Meuse a la nage. + Crepes Suzette. + Dessert. + Champagnes. + Clicquot Brut, Pommery Drapeau Americain. + Gde Fine Napoleon. + +At La Rue's I have felt inclined sometimes to protest when I have been +charged 2 francs for half-a-dozen prawns, and to think that the +vermillion-coloured seats are being paid for too quickly out of profits; +but I rarely pass through Paris without breakfasting there, and eating +the cold poached eggs in jelly, the _Grenouilles a la Mariniere_, or +one of the dishes of cold fish which are excellently served. Some of the +specialities of the house are _Potage Reine_, _Barbue a la Russe_, +_Caille a la Souvaroff_, _Tournedos a la Rossini_, _Caneton de Rouen au +Sang_, _Becasse Flambee_, _Salade Gauloise_, _Crepes Suzette_, _Glace +Gismonda_, _Peches Flambees_ and from this list any one could choose +either a little dinner or a big one. + +Of restaurants attached to hotels I do not propose to write in this +article, with one exception, for there are few of the hundreds of hotels +at which one cannot get a very fair dinner; and at some, such as the +Elysee Palace, over which Caesario presides, one can get an excellent +one; but the purpose of this book is to give information to the man who +wishes to dine away from hotels. The one exception is the Ritz, in the +Place Vendome, and I include this in my list because the Ritz is a +restaurant firstly, and an hotel secondly, and because as a dining place +it holds an exceptional position in Paris. It is the restaurant of the +smartest foreign society in Paris, and the English, Americans, Russians, +Spaniards, dining there always outnumber greatly the French. It is a +place of great feasts, but it is also a restaurant at which the +_maitres-d'hotel_ are instructed not to suggest long dinners to the +patrons of the establishment. In M. Elles' hands or that of the +_maitre-d'hotel_ there is no fear of being "rushed" into ordering an +over-lengthy repast. This is a typical little dinner for three I once +ate at the Ritz, and as a feast in the autumn it is worth recording and +repeating:-- + + Caviar. + Consomme Viveni. + Mousseline de Soles au vin du Rhin. + Queues d'Ecrevisses a l'Americaine. + Escalopes de Riz de veau Favorite. + Perdreaux Truffes. + Salade. + Asperges vertes en branches. + Coupes aux Marrons. + Friandises. + +In the afternoon the long passage with its chairs, carpets, and hangings +all of crushed strawberry colour is filled with tea-drinkers, for the "5 +o'clock" is very popular in Paris, and the Ritz is one of the smartest +if not the smartest place at which to drink tea. In the evening the big +restaurant, with its ceiling painted to represent the sky and its +mirrors latticed to represent windows, is always full, the contrast to a +smart English restaurant being that three-quarters of the ladies dine in +their hats. Sometimes very elaborate entertainments are given in the +Ritz, and I can recall one occasion on a hot summer night, when the +garden was tented over and turned into a gorge apparently somewhere near +the North Pole, there being blocks and pillars of ice everywhere. The +anteroom was a mass of palms, and the idea of the assemblage of the +guests in the tropics and their sudden transference to the land of ice +was excellently carried out. I give the menu of another great dinner at +the Ritz because, not only has it some of the specialities of the house +embodied in it, but that it is a good specimen of what a great dinner +should be, being important but not heavy:-- + + Caviar frais. Hors-d'oeuvre. + Royal Tortue Claire. Creme d'Artichauts. + Mousseline d'Eperlans aux Ecrevisses a l'Americaine. + Noisettes de Ris de Veau au fumet de Champignons. + Selle de Chevreuil Grand Veneur. Puree de Marrons. + Poularde de Houdan Vendome. + Sorbets au Kirsch. + Ortolans aux Croutons. + Coeurs de Laitues. + Asperges vertes en branches. Sauce Mousseline. + Ananas voile a l'Orientale. + Friandises. + Corbeilles de Fruits. + + VINS. + + Chateau Caillou 1888. + Chateau Leoville Lascases 1878 (Magnums). + Lanson Brut 1892 (Magnums). + Chateau Yquem 1869. + Grande Fine Champagne 1790 (Ritz Reserve). + +There are a score of capital restaurants in Paris which may be called +"bourgeois" without in any way detracting from their excellence. An +excellent type of such a restaurant is Maire's, at the corner of the Bd. +St-Dennis, owned by the company which controls the Paillard's Restaurant +of the Champs Elysees. It is a good place to dine at for any one going +to the play at the Porte St-Martin, the Renaissance, the Theatre +Antoine, or any of the music halls or theatres in the west of Paris. +Mushrooms always seem to me to play a great part in the cookery at +Maire's, and the _Poulet Maire_ is a fowl cooked with mushrooms; but the +restaurant has a long list of specialities of all kinds, and the +mushroom only appears in some of them. Charbonnier is the especial +dinner wine of the house, and it is said that the name was originally +given to the wine owing to the discovery of a quantity of it stored +under sticks of charcoal in the days when Maire's was only a wine-shop. + +Next door to the Gymnase Theatre is Marguery's, which always seems to be +full, and where the service is rather too hurried and too slap-dash to +suit the contemplative gourmet; but Marguery's has its special claim to +fame as the place where the _Sole Marguery_ was invented, and though I +have eaten the dish in half a hundred restaurants, there is no place +where it is so perfectly cooked as in the restaurant where it was first +thought of, for nowhere else is the sauce quite as good or as strong. + +Notta, 2 Bd. Poissoniere, and Noel Peters in the Passage des Princes, +both have claims to celebrity for their cooking, and the fish dishes at +the latter, the _Filet de Sole Noel_ for instance, are a speciality. The +Boeuf a la Mode, Rue de Valois, near the Palais Royale, is a place of +good cookery. + +There are two restaurants to which I generally go if I want good food +but have not time to linger over it, having cut my time rather close +when going to a theatre or to catch a train. One of these is Lucas's in +the little square opposite the Madeleine, and the other is the +Champeaux, Place de la Bourse. Lucas has rather an old-fashioned +_clientele_ and his restaurant is not very bright, but the cooking is +good, and if in a hurry one is served very quickly. The _Hareng Lucas_ +is an exceptionally stimulating _hors-d'oeuvre_, and there is a +selection of old brandies to choose from as liqueurs which I fancy +cannot be surpassed at any restaurant in Paris. The Champeaux, with its +garden and trees growing through the roof, is the restaurant of the +Bourse. It has a good cook, it has its specialities of cuisine, and it +has a particularly good cellar of wines. One can dine there in the +leisurely manner in which a dinner should be eaten by sane men; but the +_maitres-d'hotel_ used to business men know that there are occasions +when it is necessary to be in a hurry, and they can serve a dinner very +quickly. At the Champeaux, which has much history behind it, the +_Chateaubriand_ was invented which gives eternal honour to the +restaurant. + +I am told that Sylvain's remains a good dining place, but I have not +been within its doors since the days when it attained celebrity as a +supper place in favour with the butterfly ladies of Paris. + + +Across the River + +On the south side of the Seine there are three restaurants worthy the +consideration of the gourmet,--the Tour d'Argent, La Peyrouse, and +Foyot's. The Tour d'Argent is on the Quai de la Tourelle, just beyond +the island on which Notre Dame stands. It is a little old-fashioned +place with a narrow entrance hall and a low-ceilinged parlour. Frederic +is its proprietor, and since Joseph of the Marivaux died Frederic +remains the one great "character" in the dining world of Paris. In +appearance he is the double of Ibsen, the same sweeping whiskers, the +same wave of hair brushed straight off from the forehead. He is an +inventor of dishes, and it is well to ask for a list of his "creations," +which are of fish, eggs, meat, and fruit, and are generally named after +some patron of the establishment,--_Canape Clarence Mackay_, _Filet de +Sole Gibbs_, _Filet de Lievre Arnold White_, _Oeufs Claude Lowther_, +_Poire Wannamaker_, and so on. A marquis, M. de Lauzieres de Themines, +has written a long poem about Frederic, which is printed on the back of +the list of "creations," and an artist has painted a portrait of the +great man which will be shown to you if you have proved yourself a real +gourmet. Madame Frederic, or his daughter, will hold the canvas for your +inspection, and Frederic himself, brushing back his whiskers, will stand +beside it in order that you may see what an excellent likeness it is. It +is as well to interest Frederic in the ordering of your meal, and if you +give him an idea of your requirements, he will select two or three of +his "creations" which will make up a perfect meal. I always ask for a +_Filet de Sole Cardinal_, which is one of his best dishes, and look to +him to group a couple of other _plats_ with it to make a perfect +breakfast, for I look on the Tour d'Argent as being a better place to +breakfast at than to dine at, owing to its distance from the centre of +Paris. Frederic thinking out his dishes drops into a reverie and turns +his eyes up to the ceiling. I once took a lady to breakfast at the +Tour--she had selected it as being quite close to the Morgue, which she +wanted to see after lunch, having a liking for cheerful sights--and she +had the daring to interrupt Frederic's reverie. "And for the eggs?" I +had said insinuatingly to the creator of dishes, and he had dropped into +deepest thought. "_Uffs a la plat_," said the lady, who fancied we were +both at a loss as to how eggs could be cooked. Frederic came back from +the clouds and gave the lady one look. It was not a look of anger, or +contempt, but simply an expression of pity for the whole of her sex. +Frederic, as Joseph did, holds that a dinner to be good must be short, +which is, I believe, the first axiom that every true gourmet should +enunciate and hold by, and an excellent proof that he holds to his +tenets was once given me. When the Behring Sea Conference sat in Paris, +the American and English members used frequently to dine together after +their labours. Lord Hannen had heard of the Tour d'Argent, and sent his +secretary, a clever barrister, to order dinner there for all the +members. He went to the Quai de la Tourelle, saw Frederic, and sketched +out to him a regular Eaton Square dinner, two entrees, a joint, sorbet, +game, an iced pudding, a savoury, and fruit. Frederic heard him out, and +then very politely suggested that he should go elsewhere, for such a +barbarous feast could not be served in the Tour d'Argent. If you are in +great favour Frederic will cook you a dish himself, and will bustle +into the room with the "creation" in his hands and great beads of +perspiration, drawn out by the kitchen fire, on his broad brow. I am +sorry, however, to have to write that the last time I saw Frederic, at +the close of 1902, he was very ill. He complained of his chest, said +that the weather oppressed him, and lamented the death of Joseph which +had taken a friend and a brother artist away. His hair had lost its bold +curve and his whiskers their glory. I told him in all sincerity that he +must get over his malady, for that as there are so few "creators" and +great _maitres-d'hotel_ left we cannot spare one of the most original +and most accomplished of them. + +La Peyrouse on the Quai des Grands Augustins, is a little house with +many small rooms. It is known to the students of the "Quartier" as "Le +Navigateur." It is a favourite resort of the members of the Paris bar, +has its special dishes, one of which is, as a matter of course, _Filets +de Sole La Peyrouse_, and a most excellent cellar of Burgundies and +white Bordeaux. The Cerons at 3 francs is excellent money's worth. + +The Restaurant Foyot is almost opposite the Luxembourg Gallery, and is a +very handy restaurant to dine at when going to the Odeon. _Potage +Foyot_, _Riz de Veau Foyot_, _Homard Foyot_, and _Biscuit Foyot_ are +some of the dishes of the house, and all to be recommended. The +anarchists once tried to blow up Foyot's with a bomb; but the only +person injured was an anarchist poet, who has so far been false to his +tenets as to dine in the company of aristocrats, and was tranquilly +eating a _Truite Meuniere_, in company with a beautiful lady, when his +friends outside let off their firework. The _hors-d'oeuvre_ at Foyot's +are particularly good. It is, however, a restaurant at which it is +exceptionally difficult to get one's bill when one is in a hurry. + + +Summer Restaurants + +Of the restaurants in the Champs Elysees, Laurent's and Paillard's are +the most aristocratic. At Laurent's I generally find in summer some of +the younger members of the staffs of the Embassies breakfasting under +the trees behind the hedge which shuts the restaurant off from the +bustle of Paris outside. Of the special dishes of the house the _Canard +Pompeienne_ remains to me an especially grateful memory. It is a cold +duck stuffed with most of the rich edible things of this world, _foie +gras_ predominating, and it is covered with designs in red and black on +a white ground. + +Paillard's _bonbonniere_, in the Champs Elysees, is in the hands of the +company which also owns Maire's Restaurant, to which I have already +alluded. M. Paillard and the company formed under his name settled a +disagreement in the law courts, with the result that M. Paillard +retained the restaurant at the corner of the Chaussee d'Antin as his +property, and the company took possession of the Restaurant Maire and +the Pavillion des Champs Elysees. This, however, is mere history, for +the Pavillion serves its meals with all the quiet luxury of the parent +house, and I have a memory of a _Potage Creme d'Antin_ which was +especially excellent. + +Ledoyen's has attained a particular celebrity as the restaurant where +every one lunches on the _vernissage_ day of the Salon. At dinner-time, +on a fine evening, every table on the stretch of gravel before the +little villa is occupied, and the good bourgeois, the little clerk +taking his wife and mother-in-law out to dinner, are just as much in +evidence, and more so, than the "smarter" classes of Parisians. The +service is rather haphazard on a crowded night, and scurrying waiters +appeal to the carvers in pathetic tones to wheel the moving tables on +which the joints are kept hot up to their particular tables. The food is +good, but not always served as hot as it should be--the fault of all +open-air dining places. The wine-list is a good one, and I have drunk at +Ledoyen's excellent champagne of the good brands and the great years at +a comparatively small price. Guillemin, who was cook to the Duc de +Vincennes, brought Ledoyen's into great favour in the fifties of the +last century. + +The Bouillon Riche, just behind the Alcazar, with its girl waiters I +have generally found even more haphazard than Ledoyen's. Its food is +neither noticeably good nor is it indifferent. + +The Ambassadeurs prides itself on being quite a first-class restaurant, +and it is one of the special experiences of the foreigner in Paris to +dine at one of the tables in the balcony looking towards the stage, and +to listen to the concert while you drink your coffee and sip your _fine +champagne_. I have kept the menu of one such dinner, very well cooked +and well served in spite of the crowded balcony and general hubbub of +the evening, on a Grand Prix night. What the amount of the bill was that +the host of the party had to pay I did not inquire, but I feel sure that +it was a very long one. + +This is the menu:-- + + Melon. + Potage Ambassadeurs. + Hors-d'oeuvre. + Truite Gelee Maconnaise. + Ris de Veau Financiere. + Demi-Vierge en Chaud-Froid. + Poulets de Grain Rotis. + Salade de Romaine. + Asperges Froides. + Coupes Jacques. + Dessert. + Petites Fraises. + +The cold trout was excellent, and the wine was De St-Marceaux '89. + +The Alcazar has a restaurant somewhat similar to that of the +Ambassadeurs. + +Chevillard's, at the Rond Point des Champs Elysees, is not an +out-of-doors restaurant, but it is a favourite place to breakfast at on +the way out to the races. The cooking is good. Sometimes the restaurant +is crowded, and it is as well to secure a table in advance. + +There are half-a-dozen cafes, farms where milk is sold, and other +refreshment places in the Bois; but the two restaurants which the +travelling gourmet is likely to dine at are the Pavillion d'Armenonville +and the Chateau de Madrid. The first is very "smart," and the glass +shelter which runs round the little house is filled on a summer night +with men, all in dress-clothes, and ladies in flowered or feathered +hats. The world and the half-world dine at adjacent tables, and neither +section of Paris objects. The tables are decorated with flowers, and two +bands, which play alternately, make music so softly that it does not +interfere with conversation. The cooking is good, and the prices are +rather high. There are tables under the trees surrounding the building, +and some people dine at these; but "all Paris" seems to prefer to be +squeezed into the least possible space under the glass verandah. + +At the Chateau de Madrid the tables are set under the trees in the +courtyard of the building, and the effect of the dimly seen buildings, +the dark foliage, and the lights is very striking. The Madrid has always +been an expensive place to dine at, but its reputation for cookery is +good. Last year I dined at the Chateau one hot summer's night and found +there M. Aubanel, who had left his little hotel at Monte Carlo, during +the great heats, to take temporary command at the Madrid, striving to +serve a great crowd of diners with an insufficient staff of waiters. I +trust that the proprietors have made better arrangements since to meet +any sudden inrush of guests. The Madrid has a capital cellar of wine. + +On a race-morning I have eaten a little breakfast, well enough served, +at the restaurant of the Cafe de la Cascade. + + +Supping-Places + +The fickle Parisian crowd changes its supping-places without any +apparent cause. A few hundred francs spent in gilding a ceiling, a +quarrel between two damsels in gigantic hats as to which of them ordered +a particular table to be reserved, and the whole cloud of butterflies +rises to settle elsewhere. Julien's, Sylvain's, La Rue's, the Cafe de La +Paix, Maire's, Paillard's all had their time when there was not a vacant +seat in their rooms at 1 A.M. Durand's, in the summer of '92, was the +society supping-place. At the Cafe de Paris, where M. Mourier, a former +_maitre-d'hotel_ of Maire's reigns, the British matron and the +travelling American gaze at the _haute cocotterie_--who patronise the +right fork of the room as you enter. At Maxim's, any gentleman may +conduct the band if he wishes to, and the tables are often cleared away +and a little impromptu dance organised. At the Cafe Americain, the +profession of the ladies who frequent it at supper-time is a little too +obvious. You should take your wife to Durand's. She will insist on going +to the Cafe de Paris. You should not take her to Maxim's, and you cannot +take her to the Americain. Of course, the supping-places I have +enumerated are but a few of the many, for there is no Early Closing Act +in France, every restaurant in Paris keeps open till 2 A.M., and some +later, and supper is to be had at all of them. Personally, I am never +happier at supper-time than when I am sitting in the back room at the +Taverne Pousset picking crayfish out of a wooden bowl where they swim +in savoury liquid, pulling them to pieces, and eating them as they were +eaten before forks and spoons put fingers out of fashion. The Restaurant +des Fleurs, the newest of the Parisian restaurants, in the Rue +St-Honore, is making a bid with its decoration in the "new art" style to +capture those who sup. + + +Miscellaneous + +Since Cubat in dudgeon gave up his restaurant in the Avenue of the +Champs Elysees, there has been no prominent foreign restaurant in Paris. +Cubat, whose restaurant in St. Petersburg is so well known, brought +Russian cookery to Paris; but though the Parisians are fond enough of +cheering for the Dual Alliance, they did not dip into their pockets to +keep the Russian restaurant in existence. An expensive German +restaurant, a relic of the last exhibition, showed its lights just off +the great boulevards, but after a time disappeared. There are Viennese +restaurants on the boulevards and in the Rue d'Hauteville, and Spanish +and Italian establishments may be found by the curious who wish to +impair their digestion. The Englishman or American who has been feeding +on rich food for any length of time, often yearns for perfectly simple +food. At Henry's, at the Club Restaurant, and at most of the English and +American bars with which Paris is now studded, a chop is obtainable, and +a whisky and soda which is not poison; but I, personally, when _Pate de +Foie Gras_ becomes a horror, truffles a burden, and rich sauces an +abomination, go to one of the _Tavernes_, the Royale in the Rue Royale, +or the Anglais in the Rue Boissy d'Anglas (where you get Lucas's food at +lower prices than in the restaurant by the Madeleine), or into one of +the many houses of plain cookery on the boulevards, and order the +simplest and least greasy soup on the bill of fare, some plainly grilled +cutlets, and some green vegetables. A pint of the second or third claret +on the wine-card washes down this penitential repast. At Puloski's, an +uninviting-looking little establishment in the Rue St-Honore, I have +eaten excellent dishes of oysters cooked according to American methods, +and that dry hash which boarding-house keepers across the Atlantic are +supposed to serve perpetually to their paying guests, but which an +American abroad is always glad to meet. You will find a great variety of +oysters, Marennes, Ostendes, Zelandes, at Prunier's, in the Rue Duphot, +and the dishes of the house--soup, sole, steak--are all cooked with +oysters as a foundation, sauce, or garnish. Prunier's is the house at +which the travelling gourmet generally tastes his first snails, the +great Burgundian ones with striped shells, or the little gray fellows +from the champagne vineyards. If you eat Prunier's oysters you should +drink his white Burgundy. If you eat his snails, you should drink his +red wine, for he has some excellent red Burgundy. + +Most travellers at least once in their lives go the round of Montmartre +and its Bohemian shows. I have dined with the great Fursy in the +restaurant attached to the Treteau de Tabarin, and was given good +substantial bourgeois cookery. I asked the singer of the "Chansons +Rosses" how it was that he, who girds at all things bourgeois and +commonplace, ran the restaurant on such simple and non-eccentric lines; +and he shrugged his shoulders, which I took to mean that you may trifle +with a man's intellect but not with his stomach. About two in the +morning, in the upstairs room at the Treteau, there is often some +amusement forward. Upstairs at the Rat Mort, you may dine in comfort +with _Soupe a l'Onion_ and _Tournedos Rat Mort_ in the menu; and at the +Abbaye de Theleme, and at the Restaurant Blanche in the place of that +name, you will find the artists and sculptors of the Butte. + +In the Quartier, Thurion's in the Boulevard St-Germain is an interesting +restaurant for a wandering Anglo-Saxon to become acquainted with, for +there he will see most of the young Americans and English who are +climbing up the ladder of pictorial fame. It is a Parisian "Cheshire +Cheese." The floors are sawdusted, the waiters rush about in hot haste, +and the chickens stray in from the courtyard at the back and pick up the +crumbs round the tables. The place has its traditions, and you can hear +tales of Dickens and Thackeray from the plump lady who makes up the +bills. + + +Good Cheap Restaurants + +I feel tempted in connection with this heading to write as did the +naturalist of snakes in Iceland; but besides the _tavernes_ and +_bouillons_, which give wonderful value for the money spent but do not +require any lengthy mention in a book dealing with temples of the higher +art, there are one or two interesting _table-d'hote_ restaurants where +the meals are very cheap. One of these is Philippe's, on the first floor +of the Palais Royal, next door to the Petit Vefour, and another is the +Diner Francais, 27 Bd. des Italiens. + + +St-Germain + +The Pavillion Henri IV., on the terrace of St-Germain, where every +travelling Briton and American breakfasts once during his summer stay in +Paris, is "run" by the management of the Champeaux, and one gets very +excellent cookery and service in consequence, the prices not being at +all exorbitant. One groans, sitting at the little tables on the terraces +and looking at the view, to think of the chances some of our hotels near +London, with even finer views, throw away through lack of enterprise. + + +St-Cloud + +The Pavillion Bleu at St-Cloud, the proprietor of which, M. Moreaux, +bought the greater portion of the "grands vins" of the Maison d'Or, +deserves a special word of commendation. + + +N.N.-D. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FRENCH PROVINCIAL TOWNS + + The northern ports--Norman and Breton towns--The west coast and + Bordeaux--Marseilles and the Riviera--The + Pyrenees--Provence--Aix-les-Bains and other "cure" places. + + +I propose to take you, my gastronomic reader, first on a little tour +round the coast of France from north-east round to south-east, pausing +at any port or any watering-place where there is any restaurant of any +mark, and then to make a few incursions inland. + +Calais is, of course, our starting-place, and here my experience of +leaving the buffet at the Terminus and exploring in the town is that one +goes farther and does not fare so well. The buffet at Calais always has +had the reputation of being one of the best in Europe, and though the +Englishman new landed after a rough passage generally selects clear soup +and stewed chicken as his meal, it is quite possible to obtain an +admirably cooked lunch or dinner in the room off the restaurant; and the +cold viands, the cream cheese, the vegetables and fruit are all worthy +of attention. The "wagons-restaurants" which are attached now to most +of the express trains, no doubt have cut into the business of the buffet +restaurant; but as a contrast to the ordinary British station +refreshment- and dining-room the Calais buffet deserves to be mentioned. + + +Boulogne + +At Boulogne there is a restaurant in the Casino, but I think it adds +very little to the revenues of the establishment. Most people take their +meals contentedly or discontentedly in their hotels, but the little +restaurant on the pier, which used to belong to the widow Poirmeur but +is now the Restaurant Garnier, with its miniature terrace and its +windows which look out on to the waves when the tide is up, has an +individuality of its own, and is one of the haunts of the gourmet who +enjoys a meal with unusual surroundings. In the winter the little +restaurant hibernates. If customers appear the wife of the proprietor +cooks dinner or lunch for them, and cooks very fairly; but with the +advent of summer a cook is engaged for the season, and it is a matter of +importance to the sojourner in Boulogne whether that cook ranks as +"fair" or "good." He generally is good. Fish, of course, is always fresh +at Boulogne and generally excellent in quality, and the shell-fish are +above suspicion--at least I never heard of anybody suffering from eating +_moules_,--therefore a _Sole Normande_ or any similar dish generally +forms part of a _dejeuner_ on the pier, and this with an _entrecote_ and +an _omelette au rhum_ makes a fine solid sea-side feast. The buffet at +the station, since it was taken in hand by the South-Eastern Railway, is +not the dreadful place of ill-cooked food it used to be. At the terminus +of the tramway which runs into the forest a little _cabaret_ gives a +simple meal, and the trip out and back is the pleasantest short +excursion from Boulogne. At Wimille it is wise to inquire what charge +the new hotel proposes to make before sitting down to a meal. Ambleteuse +is another little watering-place to the north on the coast. Here the +mid-day meal at the principal inn is lengthy if nothing else. + +Following the coast along, Paris-Plage has not as yet developed any +restaurant of note, and the inn at Etaples, which is the town on the +railway whence the walk or drive to Paris-Plage has to be undertaken, is +more famous for having given shelter to generations of artists, some of +whom have paid their bills with sketches, than for its food, though some +of the best _pre-sale_ mutton in France comes from the fields +over-flowed by the estuary at high tide. A goodly proportion of the +shrimps and prawns one has to pay so highly for as _hors-d'oeuvre_ in +the restaurants of Paris come from Paris-Plage, Le Touquet, and their +neighbour down the coast, Berk. Indeed, if any gourmet has a _penchant_ +for shrimps and asses' milk, Berk would be his paradise. Treport +requires no description, but + + +Dieppe + +is a place of importance, and in the days of the Second Empire Lafosse's +Restaurant in the Grande Rue used to be one of the very best dining +places in the provinces of France. Good cooking is now to be looked for +from Cabois, 74 Grande Rue, from Beaufils, Rue de la Barre, and from +Lefebvre, Rue de l'Hotel de Ville. M. Ducordet, the proprietor of the +Grand Hotel, who was the happy man chosen to supply M. Felix Faure with +a banquet when he visited Dieppe, caters for the Casino and the Golf +Club. The Casino restaurant is worthy of all commendation. The buffet at +the Gare Maritime is above the average of buffets in its cookery. + +The restaurant of the Hotel Chateau at Puys, a mile and a half from +Dieppe, is owned by Mons. Pelettier of local celebrity, who has +collected an excellent cellar of wine. + +At Pourville, two miles from Dieppe, Mons. Gras is responsible for the +entertainment at the Hotel Casino. The restaurant has a special +reputation, made by "Papa" Paul Graff, who was formerly one of the many +_chefs de cuisine_ of Napoleon III., and who left the Tuileries to keep +the hotel. The proprietor is very proud of his kitchens and larders, and +is delighted to show them to visitors. + + +Havre + +is one of the towns in which the Englishman or American crossing to +Southampton or coming thence often finds himself for some hours. +Tortoni's in the market-place has a reputation for good cooking, but +judging from the two or three dinners I have eaten there, both _a la +carte_ and the _table-d'hote_ one at 5 francs, the cookery is of the +good solid bourgeois order, eight courses and a pint of wine for one's +money. In days long gone by there used to be this footnote to the _carte +du jour_ at Tortoni's, "Les hors-d'oeuvres ne se remplacent pas," +which was translated for the benefit of the English, "The out-of-works +do not replace themselves." Tortoni's Hotel Restaurant must not be +confounded with the Brasserie Tortoni quite close to it, which is a +bachelor's resort; but which I, as a bachelor, have found very amusing +sometimes after dinner. + +Frascati's Restaurant, an adjunct to the big hotel on the sea-shore, is +the "swagger" restaurant of the place, and many a man who has come over +by the midnight boat and has stayed for a bathe and a meal at Frascati's +before going on to Paris by the mid-day train has breakfasted there in +content. The _Ecrevisses Bordelaises_, the _Croutes aux Champignons_, +the _Salade Russe_ here have left me pleasant memories. In the winter +the _chef_ retires to Paris or elsewhere, and the restaurant is not to +be so thoroughly trusted; and sometimes when a crowd of passengers are +going across to Southampton by the night boat to catch an American +steamer, I have found the attendance very sketchy, owing to the waiters +having more work than they can do satisfactorily. The restaurant is in +the verandah facing the sea. + +So much from my own experience. Other people with larger knowledge all +have a good word to say for Frascati's, but all a word of caution as to +its prices. It is wise to look at the price of the champagnes, for +instance, before giving an order. The official dinners at Havre are +always given at Frascati's, and it is here that the British colony holds +its annual banquet on the King's birthday. I append a menu of a dinner +of ceremony at Frascati's which, though it is miles too long, is a very +noble feast:-- + + Tortue claire a la Francaise. + Creme Du Barry. + Rissoles Lucullus. + Caisses de laitances Dieppoise. + Barbues dorees a la Vatel. + Selle de Chevreuil Nemrod. + Poularde du Mans Cambaceres. + Terrines d'Huitres a la Joinville. + Cailles de vigne braisees Parisienne. + Granites a l'Armagnac. + Faisans de Compiegne rotis. + Truffes au Champagne. + Salade Chrysantheme. + Pains de pointes d'Asperges a la Creme. + Turbans d'Ananas. + Glace Frascati. + Dessert. + +The Hotel de Normandie is another hostel at which the cooking is good +and the wines excellent. This is a menu of a _table-d'hote diner maigre_ +served there on Good Friday, and it is an excellent example of a meal +without meat:-- + + Bisque d'Ecrevisses. + Reine Christine. + Filets de Soles Normandy. + Nouillettes Napolitaine en Caisse. + Saumon de la Loire Tartare. + Sorbets Supreme Fecamp. + Coquille de Homard a l'Americaine. + Sarcelles sur Canape. + Salade panachee. + Asperges d'Argenteuil Mousseline. + Petits Pois au Sucre. + Glace Quo Vadis. + Petits Fours. Corbeille de Fruits. + Dessert. + +The cooking at the Continental Hotel is reported as being good, but its +wine-list does not meet with so much praise. The Burgundies, red and +white, at the Hotel du Bordeaux are highly praised. + +One of my correspondents sends me an account of Perrier's, a little +restaurant, which I give in his own words. "The quaintest and most +original place in Havre is a little restaurant on the quay, opposite +where the Trouville boats start from. It is known equally well as +'Perier's' or the Restaurant des Pilotes. It is kept by one Buholzer, +who was at one time _chef_ at Rubion's in Marseilles. He afterwards was +_chef_ on one of the big Transatlantique boats, where he learnt to mix a +very fair cocktail. The entrance is through a tiny cafe with sanded +tiled floor. Thence a corkscrew staircase leads to a fair-sized room on +the first floor. All the food you get there is excellent, and +_Bouillabaisse_ or _Homard a l'Americaine_ 'constructed' by the boss, is +a joy, not for ever, but in the case of the first named, for some time. +The house does not go in for a very varied selection of wines, but what +there is is good. Ask for their special roll." The same correspondent +goes on to tell me that the proprietor of the Broche a Rotir at +St-Adresse, who used to be his own _chef_, and attained much local +celebrity, has sold the goodwill, but that the place is still to be +commended, and that Bequet of the Restaurant Bequet can, if he likes, +cook the best dinner in the department; but that you must find him in +the mood. + +Of cafes in Havre, the Cafe Prader, near the theatre, and the Paris are +the two where the drinkables are sure to be of good quality. + + +Rouen + +At Rouen the gourmet has a right to expect the _Caneton Rouennaise_ and +the _Sole Normande_ to be cooked to perfection; and outside the hotels, +some of which have excellent cooking, there is a restaurant, the +Francais, in the Rue Jacques le Lieur, a street which runs behind the +Hotel d'Angleterre, parallel to the Quai de la Bourse. Of course the +Rouen duck is not any particular breed of duck, though the good people +of Rouen will probably stone you if you assert this. It is simply a roan +duck. The rich sauce which forms part of the dish was, however, invented +at Rouen. The delights of the _Sole Normande_ I need not dilate on. A +good bottle of Burgundy is the best accompaniment to the duck. The +Restaurant de Paris, in the Rue de la Grosse Horloge, is a very cheap +restaurant, where you get a great deal to eat at dinner for 2 francs, +and where you will find the _Choux Farcies_ and other homely dishes of +Normandy as well as the excellent little cream cheeses of the country. + +Crossing the Seine, one is in the land of cider and Pont l'Eveque +cheese. At Honfleur you will find a very good _table-d'hote_ at the +old-fashioned Cheval Blanc on the Quai; and at the Ferme St-Simeon up on +the hill, in beautifully wooded ground, there is to be obtained some +particularly good sparkling cider. Honfleur has a special reputation for +its shrimps and prawns. + + +Trouville Deauville + +During the Trouville fortnight, when all the world descends upon +Trouville, the various big hotels and the Casino have more clients than +they really can cater for. At the Roches Noires one is likely to be kept +waiting for a table, and at the Casino a harassed waiter thrusts a red +mullet before one, when one has ordered a sole. The _moules_ of +Trouville are supposed to be particularly good, and also the fish. There +are _table-d'hote_ meals at the restaurants of the Helder and De la +Plage, the second being the cheaper of the two, and food is to be +obtained at the little Cafe Restaurant on the edge of the _promenade des +planches_. But Trouville in the season may be taken to be exiled Paris +in a fever, half as expensive again, and not half so "well done." + +Of the little bathing-places immediately east of +Trouville--Houlgate-Beuzeval, Dives, Cabourg--there is little or nothing +to say. At Cabourg the Hotel des Ducs de Normandie has some kiosks with +a full view of the sea, where it is pleasant to breakfast, and the +Casino can always be taken for granted as a _pis aller_ at all these +little bathing-places. The quaintness of the old inn Guillaume le +Conquerant at Dives counts for something, and the 5 franc _table-d'hote_ +dinner there is good of its kind. + + +Caen + +_Tripes a la mode de Caen_ may be a homely dish but it is not to be +despised, and it can be eaten quite at its best in the town where it was +invented. I have eaten it with great content at a bourgeois restaurant, +opposite to the Church of St-Pierre, the Restaurant Pepin, if my memory +serves me rightly, and a _Sole Bordeaux_ to precede it. The proprietor, +M. Chandivert, was very anxious that I should add a _Caneton Rouennaise_ +to the feast, but I told him that "to every town its dish." He gave me a +capital pint of red wine, and impressed on me the fact that he had +obtained a gold medal at some exhibition for his _andouillettes_. Caen +is the town of the _charcutiers_, and you may see more good cold viands +shown in windows, in a walk through its streets, than you will find +anywhere else outside a cookery exhibition. Caen is an oasis in the +midst of the bad cookery of Western Normandy; and the restaurant at the +Hotel d'Angleterre and the Restaurant de Madrid are very much above the +average of the restaurant of a French country town. In both restaurants +you can dine and breakfast in the shade in the open air, the Madrid +having a good garden, the Angleterre a great tent in the courtyard,--a +welcome change from the stuffy rooms, full of flies, of most Normandy +hotels. I have a most pleasant memory of a _Homard Americaine_, cooked +at the Hotel d'Angleterre, which was the very best lobster I ever ate in +my life. The old _chef_ who made the fame of the Angleterre has retired, +but his successor is said to show no falling off in the art of preparing +a good dinner. I would suggest to the wayfarer to breakfast in the +garden of the Madrid and dine at the Angleterre. There is a little +restaurant, A la Tour des Gens d'Armes, on the left bank of the canal +which is much frequented by students, and where an _al fresco_ lunch is +served at a very small price. The food is good for the money, and there +is always a chance of finding some merry gathering there. A note of +warning should be sounded as to the cider and _vin ordinaire_ supplied +as part of the _table-d'hote_ dinners in Caen, and indeed everywhere in +Normandy. There is almost invariably good cider to be had and good wine +on payment, but the cider and wine usually put on the table rival each +other as throat-cutting beverages. Vieux Calvados is an excellent +_pousse cafe_. It reads almost like a fairy-tale to be able to recount +that the delicious oysters from the coast-villages of Ouistreham and +Courseulles can be bought at 50 centimes the dozen or very little more. + + +Cherbourg + +This calling-place for Atlantic steamers is a very likely place for the +earnest gourmet to find himself stranded in for a day, and I regret that +there is no gastronomic find to report there. A most competent authority +writes thus to me on the capabilities of the place:-- + +"There are no restaurants, in the true sense of the word, in Cherbourg. + +"The leading hotel, where most of the people go, and which is the +largest, with the best cuisine and service, is the Hotel du Casino. This +hotel is managed by Monsieur Marius, and though partially shut during +the winter season, travellers can always get a good plain dinner there. +During the summer season, that is from May till October, the hotel is +fully open, and has a _petits chevaux_ room, entry free of course, and +also good military music in the gardens, twice a week. The gardens are +also very prettily illuminated very often, whilst from time to time +firework displays help to pass away the evenings. The dining-hall faces +the only nice portion of beach in the town, and being entirely covered +in with glass, is warm in winter and cool in summer, when it can all be +open. The meals are usually _table-d'hote_, but it is possible also to +order a dinner if one prefers to do so. Here also the traveller will +find a little English spoken among the waiters and management, which may +be useful to him. The wines are pretty good, but there is no very +special brand for which the place is known; also good Scotch and Irish +whisky can be obtained at a reasonable price; the hotel does not boast +of any special _plat_ either. + +"The Hotel de France, another fair-sized hotel, is the one patronised +mostly by the naval and military authorities of the town, but is not so +amusing a place for the traveller to stay at or dine at; though I +understand that the dinner to be obtained there is in every way +satisfactory. + +"Finally, I might mention two other hotels at which one can dine +comfortably; these are the Hotel d'Amiraute and the Hotel d'Angleterre, +at both of which a good plain dinner is served. + +"The chief joint obtainable here to be recommended is of course the +mutton, as Cherbourg is noted for its _pre-sale_ all over France; but +beyond this the food is of the usual ordinary kind to be obtained in +most French towns of this size." + +M. Roche, who made a little fortune in London in Old Compton Street, has +taken a little hotel near Granville, and as he learned cooking under +Frederic of the Tour d'Argent, he may be depended upon for an excellent +meal. + + +Breton Resorts + +Of the land of butter and eggs I have not much to write. Correspondents +at St-Malo say a good word of the feeding both at the Hotel de l'Univers +and the Hotel du Centre et de la Paix; but I cannot speak of either of +these from personal knowledge, nor do I know anything of Dinard, though +it is said that the best cookery in the province is found there. Cancale +of course has its oyster-beds, and the esculent bivalve can be eaten +within sight of the mud-flat on which it erstwhile reposed. The one +restaurant in this part of the world for which every one has a good word +is that of Poulard Aine at Mont St-Michel, where there is a cheap +_table-d'hote_ and where a good meal _a la carte_ is also to be +obtained. + +Artichokes, prawns, potatoes, _langouste_, eggs, lobsters, crabs, are +good all along the Breton coast; and at Quimper, at the Hotel de l'Epee, +you can--if you are in luck--get fresh sardines. + +Here is a typical Breton menu, one of the meals at the Hotel des Bains +de Mer, Roscoff:-- + + Artichauts a l'Huile. + Pommes de terre a l'Huile. + Porc frais froid aux Cornichons. + Langouste Mayonnaise. + Canards aux Navets. + Omelette fines Herbes. + Filet aux Pommes. + Fromage a la Creme. + Fruits, biscuits, etc. + Cidre a discretion. + +This is rather a terrible mass of food ranged in the strangest order, +but I insert it to show the traveller in Brittany that he need never +think his meal ended when he reaches the omelette, and that he had +better take a gargantuan appetite with him. + +Apart from being a good homely place to stay at, La Villa Julia at Pont +Aven is worth a visit, for it has been the temporary home of many of the +greatest French painters, notably poor Bastien Lepage. They are +welcome, and are provided with studios, only being charged 5 francs a +day "pension." "The country is charming" writes an enthusiastic +correspondent "and one lingers there, and the food is excellent. Even +were it not, dear old Mlle. Julia is worth a journey. She is one of the +most delightful of French landladies. In the old inn the walls of one +large room are covered with pictures and sketches given her by her +_chers artistes_." + + +Brest + +This great naval town has better cafes than it has dining or lunching +places; the Cafe Brestois in the Rue de Siam, and the Grand Cafe in the +same street being both good. Besides the restaurants attached to the +Hotels des Voyageurs, Rue de Siam, Continentale, and de France in the +Rue de la Mairie, there are the Restaurant Aury and the Brasserie de la +Marine, both on the Champ de Bataille, but I have no details concerning +them. + +Skipping Nantes as being out of the route of the Anglo-Saxon abroad, +though in the Place Grasselin the Francais and the Cambronne both +deserve a word, and the Plages d'Ocean which lie between Nantes and +Bordeaux as being purely French, though Rochefort has a European +reputation for its cheese, and Marennes for its oysters, I step down +from the platform to make room for my co-author A.B., who will take up +the parable as to + + +Bordeaux + +Bordeaux is, of course, the home of claret, and good feeding goes with +good liquor, the combination being essential. The result is that here +you can procure a good dinner with the best of wines, which being +consumed, so to say, on the spot where they have matured, are in +perfection both as to flavour and condition. + +The Hotel Restaurant du Chapon Fin, under the management of MM. Dubois +and Mendionde, is perhaps the best in the town. Here an excellent dinner +_a la carte_ is to be had and the service is _tres soignee_. The cellar +comprises the finest wines of the Gironde, Lafite, Haut Brion, Latour, +Margaux Leoville, etc., with Pommery, Mumm, Cliquot as champagnes. But +to my idea, any one asking for champagne at Bordeaux would order a pork +pie at Strasbourg. The Chapon Fin is fairly expensive, but good food and +good Lafite are not given away. The appointments of the hotel are +excellent. + +The Cafe de Bordeaux is a more popular establishment with brilliant +decorations, and if you do not wish for an _a la carte_ dinner, you are +provided with a very good "set" _dejeuner_ for 4 francs. Dinner can be +had for 5 francs, with a concert thrown in. + +Another good hotel and restaurant with fairly moderate terms is the +Bayonne, also boasting of a fine cellar of wine and service _a la +carte_. In fact many people aver that at the Bayonne one can get as +good if not a better dinner than at any other restaurant in Bordeaux. + +The Hotel des Princes et de la Paix has the Restaurant Sansot attached +to it, which is quite good. + +The Restaurant de Paris, situated on the lovely Promenade des Allees de +Tourny, is a first-class establishment with very moderate prices, where +a capital _dejeuner_ can be obtained for 2 francs 50 centimes, or a +dinner for 3 francs. The proprietor, Mons. Debreuil, was _chef_ at some +of the best cafes in Paris, and he has a _clientele_ of many well-known +epicures in Bordeaux. + +All these restaurants have saloons for private parties in case you +require them. + +The principal _specialite_ of Bordeaux, besides claret, is lampreys, +which, when cooked _a la Bordelaise_, are about as rich and luscious a +dish as a most ardent candidate for a bilious attack can desire. If you +are there in the autumn, don't forget to order _Cepes a la Bordelaise_. + +To the above of my worthy _confrere_, I would only add that the Chapon +Fin is a winter garden, somewhat resembling the Champeaux Restaurant in +Paris; there are rockeries and ferns, and a great tree-trunk runs up to +the roof, the foliage and branches being no doubt outside. A speciality +is the _Potage Chapon Fin_, a vegetable soup which is excellent. The +restaurant of the Bayonne is in a great conservatory. Judging from the +few meals I have eaten at each, I should class the Chapon Fin and the +Bayonne as being equal in cookery. The first floor of the Cafe de +Bordeaux is now decorated with mirrors and white walls, after the +manner of the _chic_ Parisian restaurants, but the Englishman who wishes +to drink whisky and soda there--an unholy taste in a wine country--and +who demands a special brand and Schweppe's soda, should ask how much he +is going to be charged for it before he commits himself. + + +Arcachon + +Of cooking at Arcachon there is nothing in particular to be said. The +place has a celebrity for its oyster-beds, and a great number of the +oysters we eat in England have been transplanted from the bay at +Arcachon to the beds in British waters. + + +Biarritz + +The average of cookery in the hotels at Biarritz is very good, for the +competition is very keen, and as money is spent by the handful in this +town on the bay where the Atlantic rolls in its breakers, any hotel +which did not provide two excellent _table-d'hote_ meals would very soon +be out of the running. In the basement of the building in which is the +big Casino, "Mons. Boulant's Casino," as the natives call it, is a +restaurant where a _table-d'hote_ lunch and dinner are served; but _the_ +restaurant of Biarritz is the one which Ritz has established on the +first floor of the little Casino, the Casino Municipal, where one +breakfasts in a glazed-in verandah overlooking the Plage and the +favourite bathing-spot, and at dinner one looks across to the +illuminated terrace of the other Casino. The decoration of this +restaurant is of the simplest but at the same time of the most effective +kind, being of growing bamboos which form green canopies above the +tables. Biarritz depends but little on the surrounding country for its +food, as the Pays Basque gives few good things to the kitchen. Fish is +the one excellent thing that Biarritz itself contributes to all the +menus, and the _Friture du Pays_ is always excellent. Here is a menu of +a little dinner for three at the Ritz. The _Minestrone_ is an excellent +Italian soup (which, by the way, Oddenino of the Imperial in London +makes better than I have tasted it anywhere else out of Italy); the +veal, I fancy, came from Paris, the _ortolans_ from the far south:-- + + Melon. + Minestron Milanaise. + Friture du Pays. + Carre de Veau braise aux Cepes. + Ortolans a la broche. + Salade de Romaine. + Coupes d'Entigny. + +I have not kept any bill for this, but I know that I regarded the total +as moderate in a town where all things in September are at gambler's +prices. The Royalty, in the main street at Biarritz, is the afternoon +gathering place for the young bloods, who there drink cooling liquids +through straws out of long tumblers, while the ladies hold their +parliament at tea-time in Miremont the confectioner's. + + +Marseilles + +Once more I step down from the platform to give place to my colleague +A.B. + +Two of the best hotels in Marseilles, with restaurants attached to them, +are the Noailles and the Hotel du Louvre; the latter is owned and +supervised by Mons. Echenard, who with Mons. Ritz helped to create the +popularity of the Savoy Restaurant in London, and is also his coadjutor +in the management of the Carlton Restaurant; it is needless to remark +that any cuisine that Mons. Echenard takes in hand is worthy of +attention. Mons. Echenard has lately acquired the Reserve at +Marseilles--a very pretty cafe and garden about half-an-hour's drive +from the Cannebiere, along the Corniche Road; it stands in a commanding +position, with a lovely view of the bay and the surrounding mountains. +It has furnished apartments attached to it, and for any one having to +stay at Marseilles, either while waiting for the _Messageries Maritimes_ +liner or for the arrival of a yacht, it is infinitely preferable to the +hot, stuffy town, and would be an excellent winter quarter. Like many +similar seaside cafes abroad, it has its own _parc au coquillages_ or +shell-fish tanks, and you here get the world-renowned _Bouillabaisse_ in +perfection. + +The best shell-fish are the _praires_ and the _clovisses_, about the +same size as walnuts or little neck clams; the _clovisses_ are the +largest, and rather take the place of oysters when the latter are not in +season, in the same way the clam does in America; others are mussels, +oysters, and _langoustes_. _Langoustes_ differ as much as a skinny fowl +from a _Poularde de Mans_. Mons. Echenard gets his from Corsica, and you +then learn how they can vary. He has also a _Poularde Reserve en Cocotte +Raviolis_, which is a dish to be remembered; and a small fat sole caught +between Hyeres and Toulon is not to be despised. + +I am free to confess that the _Tutti Frutti de la Mare_, or stew +consisting of the many lovely and variegated small fish that are caught +in those waters, has no charm for me. Personally, I would as soon eat a +surprise packet of pins, but of course, _chacun a son gout_. Anyway, if +you are stranded in Marseilles for an afternoon or longer, you could go +to many a worse place than the Reserve. + +I suppose it is not necessary for me to add to A.B.'s discourse any +description of what _Bouillabaisse_ is, or how the Southerners firmly +believe that this dish cannot be properly made except of the fish that +swim in the Mediterranean, the rascaz, a little fellow all head and +eyes, being an essential in the savoury stew, along with the eel, the +lobster, the dory, the mackerel, and the girelle. Thackeray has sung the +ballad of the dish as he used to eat it, and his _recette_, because it +is poetry, is accepted, though it is but the fresh-water edition of the +stew. If you do not like oil, garlic, and saffron, which all come into +its composition, give it a wide berth. The _Brandade_, which is a +cod-fish stew and a regular fisherman's dish, is by no means to be +despised. + +Before leaving the subject of Marseilles and its cookery and +restaurants, let me record the verdict of a true gourmet and Englishman +who always lives the winter through in Marseilles. He writes me that in +Marseilles itself there are no restaurants worthy of the name, the best +being Isnard's (Hotel des Phoceens), Rue Thubaneau, and another good one +that of the Hotel d'Orleans, Rue Vacon, where the proprietor and the +cook are brothers and charming people. + +Those adventurous souls who wish to eat the fry of sea-urchins and other +highly savoury dishes, with strange shell-fish and other extraordinary +denizens of the deep as their foundation, should go to Bregaillon's at +the Vieux Port. It is necessary to have a liking for garlic and a nose +that fears no smells for this adventure; but if you bring your courage +to the sticking point, order a dozen _oursins_, a _petit poelon_, which +is a _tournedos_ in a _casserole_, and a _grive_. Cassis is the white +wine of the house; and it has some good Chateau Neuf de Pape. + + +Cannes + +Cannes is the first important town of the Riviera that the gourmet +flying south comes to, and at Cannes he will find a typical Riviera +restaurant. The Reserve at Cannes consists of one glassed-in shelter and +another smaller building on the rocks, which juts out into the sea from +the elbow of the Promenade de la Croisette. The spray of the wavelets +set up by the breeze splash up against the glass, and to one side are +the Iles des Lerins, St-Marguerite, and St-Honorat, where the liqueur +Lerina is made, shining on the deep blue sea, and to the other the +purple Montagnes de l'Esterel stand up with a wonderful jagged edge +against the sky. Amongst the rocks on which the building of the +restaurant stand are tanks, and in these swim fish, large and small, the +fine lazy _dorades_ and the lively little sea-gudgeon. One of the +amusements of the place is that the breakfasters fish out with a net the +little fishes which are to form a _friture_, or point out the bigger +victim which they will presently eat for their meal. The cooking is +simple and good, and with fish that thirty minutes before were swimming +in the green water, an omelette, a simple dish of meat, and a pint of +Cerons, or other white wine, a man may breakfast in the highest content +looking at some of the sunniest scenes in the world. There is always +some little band of Italian musicians playing and singing at the +Reserve, and though in London one would vote them a nuisance, at Cannes +the music seems to fit in with the lazy pleasure of breakfasting almost +upon the waves, and the throaty tenor who has been singing of Santa +Lucia gets a lining of francs to his hat. Most of the crowned heads who +make holiday at Cannes have taken their breakfast often enough in the +little glass summer-house, but the prices are in no way alarming. The +ladies gather at tea-time at the white building, where Mme. Rumplemayer +sells cakes and tea and coffee; and the Gallia also has a _clientele_ of +tea-drinkers, for whose benefit the band plays of an afternoon. + + +Nice + +At Nice the London House is one of the classical restaurants of France, +and one may talk of it in comparison with the great houses of the +boulevards of the capital. I am bound to confess that the great salon +with its painted panels, its buffet and its skylight screened by an +awning, is not a lively room; but the attendance is quiet, soft-footed, +and unhurried, and the cooking is distinctly good. It has of course its +_specialites du maison_, and classical dishes have been invented within +its walls; but the man who wants to take his wife out to dine, and who +is prepared to pay a couple of sovereigns for the meal, will find that +he need not exceed that amount. Here is the menu of a little dinner for +two which I ordered last winter at the restaurant. With a pint of white +wine, a pint of champagne, a liqueur, and two cups of coffee, my bill +was 46 francs. + + Hors-d'oeuvre. + Potage Lamballe. + Friture de Goujons. + Longe de veau aux Celeris. + Gelinotte a la Casserole. + Salade Romaine et Concombre. + Dessert. + +The little Restaurant Francais, on the Promenade des Anglais, is one of +the cheeriest places possible to breakfast at on a sunny morning. In the +garden are palm-trees, and the tables are further shaded by great pink +and white umbrellas. A scarlet-coated band of Hungarians plays +inoffensive music under the verandah of the house, and the page and the +_chasseur_ water the road before the garden constantly with a fire-hose, +in order that the motor-cars which go rushing past shall not smother the +breakfast-eaters with dust. Broiled eggs and asparagus points, a trout +fresh from the river Loup--if such a fish is on the bill of fare--and +some tiny bird either roasted or _en casserole_, with some light white +wine, is a suitable meal to be eaten in this garden of a doll's-house +restaurant. The house has its history. It was formerly the Villa Wuertz +Dundas, where so many art treasures were collected in the salons Louis +XV. and XVI. Mons. Emile Favre, the new proprietor, has added +considerably to the old house. + +The Restaurant du Helder, the white building in the arcade of the big +Place, has good cookery, and its _table-d'hote_ meals are excellent. + +On regatta days the world of fashion occupies all the tables of the +restaurant on the _jetee_ at breakfast-time. + +Two resorts patronised by the young sparks of Nice are the Regence and +the Garden Bar. The subjoined menu shows what the Regence can do when a +big dinner is given there:-- + + Hors-d'oeuvre varies. + Consomme a la d'Orleans. + Bouchees Montglas. + Filets de soles Joinville. + Piece de boeuf Renaissance. + Chaud-froid de foie gras. + Petits pois a la Francaise. + Faisans de Boheme a la broche. + Salade nicoise. + Mousse Regence. + Patisserie. Dessert. + +The great confectioner's shop in the Place Massena and the Casino +Municipal are always crowded with ladies at tea-time. + + +Beaulieu + +At Beaulieu the Restaurant de la Reserve is famous. It is just a +convenient distance for a drive from Monte Carlo, and the world and the +half-world drive or motor out there from the town on the rock and sit at +adjacent tables in the verandah without showing any objection one to the +other. The restaurant is a little white building in a garden, with a +long platform built out over the sea, so that breakfasting one looks +right down upon a blue depth of water. There are tables inside the +building, but the early-comers and those wise people who have telephoned +for tables take those in the verandah if the day be sunny. There are +tanks into which the water runs in and out with each little wave and in +these are the Marennes oysters and other shell-fish. Oysters, a +_Mostelle a l'Anglaise_--Mostelle being the especial fish of this part +of the world--and some tiny bit of meat is the breakfast I generally +order at the Beaulieu Reserve; but the cook is capable of high flights, +and I have seen most elaborate meals well served. The proprietors are +two Italians who also own the neighbouring hotel, and who take their +cook with them to Aix-les-Bains when they migrate during the summer to +the restaurant of one of the casinos there. A little band of Italian +singers and musicians add to the noise of this very merry little +breakfasting place. + +At Villefranche there are two unpretentious inns where men with an +unnatural craving for _Bouillabaisse_ go and eat it, and return with a +strong aroma of saffron and garlic accompanying them, saying that they +have partaken of the real dish, such as the fishermen cook for +themselves, and not the stew toned down to suit civilised palates. + + +Monte Carlo + +The first time that I stayed for a week or so in the principality, I +lodged at the Hotel du Monte Carlo, on the hill below the Post Office. +It was a dingy hotel then, not having been redecorated and brightened up +as it has been now; but it had the supreme attraction to a lieutenant in +a marching regiment of being cheap. When the first day at dinner I cast +my eye down the wine-list, I found amongst the clarets wines of the +great vintage years at extraordinarily low prices, and in surprise I +asked the reason. The manager explained to me that the hotel was in the +early days used as a casino, and that the wines formed part of the +cellar of the proprietor--whether Mons. Blanc, or another, I do not +remember. Most of them were too old to bear removal to Paris, and they +were put down on the wine-list at ridiculously low prices in order to +get rid of them, for, as the manager said, "In Monte Carlo the winners +drink nothing but champagne, the losers water or whisky and soda." So +it is. In Monte Carlo, when a man has won, he wants the very best of +everything, and does not mind what he pays for it; when he has lost he +has no appetite, and grudges the money he pays for a chop in the +grill-room of the Cafe de Paris. The prices at the restaurants are +nicely adapted to the purses of the winners; and there is no place in +the world where it is more necessary to order with discrimination and to +ask questions as to prices. At Monte Carlo it is the custom to entirely +disassociate your lodging from your feeding, and you may stay at one +hotel and habitually feed at the restaurant of another without the +proprietor of the first being at all unhappy. Ciro's in the arcade is a +restaurant only, and is very smart and not at all cheap. A story is told +that an Englishman, new to Monte Carlo and its ways, asked the liveried +porter outside Ciro's whether it was a cheap restaurant. "Not exactly +cheap," said the Machiavelian servitor, "but really very cheap for what +you get here." On a fine day grand duchesses and the _haute cocotterie_ +beseech Ciro to reserve tables for them on the balcony looking out on +the sea, and unless you are a person of great importance or notoriety, +or of infinite push, you will find yourself relegated to a place inside +the restaurant. At dinner there is not so much competition. Ciro himself +is a little Italian, who speaks broken English and has a sense of humour +which carries him over all difficulties. Every day brings some fresh +story concerning the little man, and a typical one is his comforting +assurance to some one who complained of an overcharge for butter. "Alla +right" said Ciro complacently, "I take him off your bill and charge him +to the Grand Duke. He not mind." The joke is sometimes against Ciro, as +when, anxious to have all possible luxuries for a great British +personage who was going to dine at the restaurant, and knowing that +plover's eggs are much esteemed in England, he obtained some of the +eggs, cooked them, and served them hot. Ciro's Restaurant originally was +where his bar now is; but when the Cafe Riche, almost next door, was +sold, he bought it, redecorated it, and transferred his restaurant to +the new and more gorgeous premises, putting his brother Salvatore--who, +poor fellow, has since died--in charge of the bar which he established +in his old quarters. I cannot put my hand on the menu of any of the many +breakfasts I have eaten at Ciro's, so I borrow a typical menu from +V.B's. interesting little book _Ten Days at Monte Carlo_. He and three +friends ate and drank this at _dejeuner_:-- + + Hors-d'oeuvre varies. + Oeufs poches Grand Duc. + Mostelle a l'Anglaise. + Volaille en Casserole a la Fermiere. + Patisserie. + Fromage. + Cafe. + 1 Magnum Carbonnieux 1891. + Fine Champagne 1846. + +This feast cost 61 francs. The Mostelle, as I have previously mentioned, +is the special fish of this part of the coast. It is as delicate as a +whiting, and is split open, fried, and served with bread crumbs and an +over-sufficiency of melted butter. + +At Monte Carlo one is given everything that can be imported and which is +expensive. The salmon comes from Scotland or Sweden, and most of the +other material for the feasts is sent down daily from Paris. The +thrushes from Corsica, and some very good asparagus from Genoa or +Rocbrune, are about the only provisions which come from the +neighbourhood, except of course the fish, which is plentiful and +excellent. I was last spring entrusted with the ordering of a dinner for +six at the restaurant of the Hotel de Paris, the most frequented of all +the dining places at Monte Carlo, and I told Mons. Fleury, the manager, +that I wanted as much local colour introduced into it as possible. He +referred me to the _chef_, and between us we drew up this menu, which +certainly has something of the sunny south about it:-- + + Hors-d'oeuvre et Caviar frais. + Creme de Langoustines. + Friture de Nonnats. + Selle d'Agneau aux Primeurs. + Becassines roties. + Salade Nicoise. + Asperges de Genes. + Sauce Mousseline. + Dessert. + + VINS. + + 1 bottle Barsac. + 3 bottles Pommery Vin Nature 1892. + +To crown this feast we had some of the very old brandy, a treasure of +the house, which added 60 francs to the bill. The total was 363 francs +10 centimes. + +In this dinner the _Creme de Langoustines_ was excellent, a most +delightful _bisque_. The _nonnats_ are the small fry of the bay, smaller +far than whitebait, and are delicious to eat. They are perhaps more +suitable for breakfast than for a dinner of ceremony, and had I not +yearned for local colour I should have ordered the _Filets de Sole +Egyptiennes_ in little paper coffins which look like mummy cases, a dish +which is one of the specialities of the house. + +Dining at the Hotel de Paris one pays in comfort for its popularity, for +on a crowded night the tables in the big dining-room are put so close +together that there is hardly room for the waiters to move between them, +and the noise of the conversation rises to a roar through which the +violins of the band outside the door can barely be heard. Bachelier, the +_maitre-d'hotel_ at the Francais, a disciple of Francois, is quite one +of the foremost men of his calling. + +The restaurant of the Grand Hotel, where MM. Noel and Pattard themselves +see to the comfort of their guests, is also a fashionable dining place. +I first tasted the _Sole Waleska_, with its delicate flavouring of +Parmesan, at the Grand Hotel many years ago, and it has always been one +of the special dishes of the house. _Poularde a la Santos Dumont_ is +another speciality. This is a menu of a dinner for six given at the +Grand, as a return for the one quoted above as a product of the Hotel de +Paris:-- + + Creme Livonienne. + Filets de Sole Waleska. +Baron de Pauillac a la Broche. + Puree de Champignons. + Petits Pois Nouveaux. + Merles de Corse. + Salade. + Asperges. Sauce Mousseline. + Souffle du Parmesan. + Friandises. + +The Hermitage, in which MM. Benoit and Fourault are interested, shares +the rush of fashionable diners with Ciro and the Paris and Grand, but I +cannot speak by personal knowledge of its dinners. + +There are other restaurants not so expensive as the ones I have written +of, and further up the hill, which can give one a most admirable dinner. +The Helder is one of the restaurants where the men who have to live all +their life at Monte Carlo often breakfast and dine, and Aubanel's +Restaurant, the Princess', which one of the great stars of the Opera has +very regularly patronised, deserves a special good word. The Restaurant +Re, which was originally a fish and oyster shop, but which is now a +restaurant with fish as its speciality, is also an excellent place for +men of moderate means. Madame Re learned the art of the kitchen at the +Reserve at Marseilles, and she knows as much about the cooking of fish +as any woman in the world. When it came to my turn in the interchange +of dinners for six to provide a feast, I went to Madame Re and asked her +to give me a fish dinner, and to keep it as distinctive as possible of +the principality, and she at once saw what I wanted and entered into the +spirit of it. She met me on the evening of the feast with a sorrowful +expression on her handsome face, for she had sent a fisherman out very +early in the morning into the bay to catch some of the little sea +hedgehogs which were to form one course, but he had come back +empty-handed. The menu stood as under, and we none of us missed the +hedgehogs:-- + + Canape de Nonnats. + Soupe de poisson Monegasque. + Supions en Buisson. + Dorade Bonne Femme. + Volaille Rotie. + Langouste Parisienne. + Asperges Vinaigrette. + Dessert. + +The _Soupe Monegasque_ had a reminiscence in it of _Bouillabaisse_, but +it was not too insistent; the _supions_ were octopi, but delicate little +gelatinous fellows, not leathery, as the Italian ones sometimes are; the +_dorade_ was a splendid fish, and though I fancy the _langouste_ had +come from northern waters and not from the bay, it was beautifully fresh +and a monster of its kind. + +The Riviera Palace has a restaurant to which many people come to +breakfast, high above Monte Carlo and its heat, and the cook is a very +good one. + +Any mad Englishman who like myself takes long walks in the morning, will +find the restaurant at the La Turbie terminus of the mountain railway a +pleasant place at which to eat early breakfast; and the view from the +terrace, where one munches one's _petit pain_ and drinks one's coffee +and milk, with an orange tree on either side of the table, is a superb +one. + +After the tables are closed the big room at the Cafe de Paris in Monte +Carlo fills up with those who require supper or a "night cap" before +going home; and though a sprinkling of ladies may be seen there, the +half-world much preponderates. The night-birds finish the evening at the +Festa, some distance up the hill, where two bands play, and there is +some dancing, and where the lights are not put out until the small hours +are growing into big ones. + + +Mentone + +Mentone has a splendid tea-shop at Rumpelmayer's, and a pleasant +restaurant at which to lunch is that of the Winter Palace. Many people +drive from Monte Carlo to lunch or take tea at the Cap Martin Hotel, and +it is a pleasant place with a splendid view from the great terrace, +though sometimes people not staying in the hotel complain of the +slowness of the attendance there. + + +The Pyrenees + +As a gastronomic guide to the Pyrenees I cannot do better than introduce +to you my very good friend C.P., who knows that part of the world as +well as any native, and whose taste is unimpeachable. I therefore stand +down and let him speak for himself:-- + +Throughout the Pyrenees, in nine hotels out of ten, you can obtain a +decently cooked luncheon or dinner--neither above nor below the average. + +But in order to depart from the beaten track of the ordinary menu, +abandon all hypocrisy, oh, intelligent traveller! and do not pretend +that you can turn a fastidious nose away from the seductions of the +burnt onion and the garlic clove, the foundations upon which rests the +whole edifice of Pyrenean cooking. Pharisaical density would be only +wasting time, for these two vegetables will be your constant companions +so soon as you decide to sample the _cuisine bourgeoise_ of the country. +You should on no account fail to venture on this voyage of exploration, +as some of the dishes are excellent, all of them interesting, and, once +tasted, never to be forgotten. + +To attempt to enumerate them all, to describe them minutely, or to give +any account of their preparation, hardly comes within the scope of these +notes. Suffice it to give the names of two or three. + +First comes the _Garbure_, a kind of thick vegetable soup containing +Heaven knows what ingredients, but all the same sure to please you. Next +comes the _Confit d'Oie_, a sort of goose stew, utterly unlike anything +you have tasted before, but not without its merits. Next, the +_Cotelettes d'Izard marine_ may interest you. The izard, or chamois of +the Pyrenees, has been _marine_ or soaked for some time in wine, +vinegar, bay leaves, and other herbs. It thus acquires a distinctive and +novel flavour. Don't forget the _Ragout_ and the _Poulet_, either +_chasseur_ or else _paysanne_; nor yet the _Pie de Mars_ if in season. +By way of fish you will always find the trout delicious, either fried or +else _a la meuniere_. (Don't miss the _alose_ if you are at Pau.) +Lastly, the Pyrenean _pates, Gibier_ and _Foie de Canard_, are justly +celebrated, and can more than hold their own in friendly and patriotic +rivalry with any of those purporting to come from Strasbourg or Nancy. + +At first acquaintance you will not care much for _pic-a-pou_ or the wine +of the country, but with patience you may possibly learn to appreciate +the Vin de Jurancon. Tradition has it that Henri Quatre's nurses +preferred to give this form of nourishment rather than the Mellin's Food +of the time. Perhaps babies were differently constituted in those days. + +In any case you will always be able to get a good bottle of claret, +bearing the name of some first-class Bordeaux firm, such as Johnson, +Barton Guestier, or Luze, etc. If you are lucky enough to obtain a glass +of genuine old Armagnac, you will probably rank it, as a liqueur, very +nearly as high as any cognac you have ever tasted. + +A word of warning! Don't be too eager to order whisky and soda. The +"Scotch" is not of uniform quality. + +So much for eatables and drinkables. A few hints now as to where you +might care to lunch or dine. + + +Pau + +To begin with Pau. There is really a great artist there--a man whose +sole hobby is his kitchen, and who, if he chooses, can send you up a +dinner second to none. His name is Guichard. Go and have a talk with +him. Hear what he has to say on the _fond-de-cuisine_ theory. Let him +arrange your menu and await the result with confidence. That confidence +will not be misplaced. + +For purely local dishes of the _cuisine-bourgeoise_ type, you might try +a meal at the Hotel de la Poste. But for general comfort the English +Club stands easily first. The coffee-room is run admirably, and as for +wine and cigars, they are as good as money can buy. A strong remark, eh? +But true, nevertheless. For a supper after the play you might give a +trial to the restaurant at the new Palais d'Hiver. Other restaurants are +at the Hotel de France and the Hotel Gassion. + +For confectionery, cakes, candied fruits, etc., Luc or Seghin will be +found quite A1. Whilst for five o'clock tea, Madame Bouzoum has +deservedly gained a reputation as great as that of Rumpelmayer on the +Riviera. But again a word of warning! Be discreet as to repeating any +local tittle-tattle you may possibly overhear. So much for Pau. + +Throughout the mountain resorts of the Pyrenees, such as +Luchon--Bagneres de Bigorre, Gavarnie, St-Sauveur; Cauterets--Eaux +Bonnes, Eaux Chaudes, Oloron, etc., you can always, as was stated +previously, rely upon getting an averagely well-served luncheon or +dinner, and nothing more--trout and chicken, although excellent, being +inevitable. But there is one splendid and notable exception, viz., the +Hotel de France at Argeles-Gazost, kept by Joseph Peyrafitte, known to +his intimates as "Papa." In his way he is as great an artist as the +aforementioned Guichard; the main difference between the methods of the +two professors being that the latter's art is influenced by the +traditions of the Parisian school, while the former is more of an +impressionist, and does not hesitate to introduce local colour with +broad effects,--merely a question of taste after all. For this reason +you should not fail to pay a visit to Argeles to make the acquaintance +of Monsieur Peyrafitte. Ask him to give you a luncheon such as he +supplies to the golf club of which Lord Kilmaine is president, and for +dinner (being always mindful of the value of local colour) consult him, +over a glass of Quinquina and vermouth, as to some of the dishes +mentioned earlier in this article. You won't regret your visit. + +In conclusion, should you find yourself anywhere near Lourdes at the +time of the Pelerinage National, go and dine at one of the principal +hotels there--say the Hotel de la Grotte. You will not dine either well +or comfortably, the pandemonium being indescribable. But you will have +gained an experience which you will not readily forget. _Adishat!_ + + +Provence + +Any one who is making a leisurely journey from Marseilles to the Roman +cities of Provence, and who halts by the way at Martigues, the "Venice +of Provence" should breakfast at the Hotel Chabas; and if M. Paul Chabas +is still in the land of the living, as I trust he is, and you can +persuade him--telling him that he is the best cook in Provence, which he +is--to make you some of the Provencal dishes, the _Bouillabaisse_, or +that excellent _vol-au-vent_ which they call a _Tourte_ in the land of +Tartaria, or the _Sou Fassu_, which is a cabbage stuffed with a most +savoury mixture of vegetable and meat, you will be fortunate. At Arles +the Hotel Forum has a cook who is a credit to his native province; but +if you stay in the house, make sure that you have a room to the front, +otherwise you may only look into the well-like covered court of the +house. At Tarascon, if you feel inclined to hunt for the imaginary home +of the imaginary hero, a great man whom the town repudiates as having +been invented in order that the world should be amused at its expense, +take your meal at the Hotel des Empereurs and ask for M. Andrieu. At +Avignon the Hotel de l'Europe is a very old-fashioned house with old +furniture in the rooms, old latches to the doors. The servants seem to +have caught the spirit of the place, and there is one old servitor, +still, I trust, alive, who might have been the model for all the +faithful old servants in the plays of the Comedie Francaise. The house +is kept by an old lady; the cook is a man. Several people of my +acquaintance choose Avignon as their halting-place on their way to the +Riviera because of the quaintness of the old hotel and of the excellence +of its cuisine. A breakfast on the Isle de Barthelasse, when the mistral +is not blowing, is one of the holiday treats of the inhabitants of the +town. At Remoulins the old Ledenon wine at the one hotel in the place is +worth a note. At St-Remy, M. Teston, who keeps the hotel named after +him, is an excellent cook. At Nimes, at the Hotel du Cheval Blanc, there +used to be some excellent old Armagnac brandy, and probably some of it +still remains. + + +"Cure" Places + +Most of the French cure places are for invalids and invalids only, and +the gourmet who goes to them has to lay aside his critical faculties and +to be content with the simplest fare, well or indifferently cooked, +according to his choice of an hotel. + + +Aix-les-Bains + +The big Savoy town of baths is the principal exception to the rule, for +the baccarat in the two Casinos draws all the big gamblers in Europe to +the place, and one half of Aix-les-Bains goes to bed about the time that +the other half is being carried in rough sedan chairs to be parboiled +and massaged. + +In the late spring there is an exodus from the Riviera to Aix-les-Bains; +doctors, _maitres d'hotel_ musicians, lawyers, fly-men, waiters move +into summer quarters; and any one who has time to spare, and enjoys a +three-day drive through beautiful scenery, might well do worse than make +a bargain with a fly-man for the trip from the coast to the town on the +banks of the lake. When a fly-man does not secure a "monsieur" as a +passenger, he as often as not drives a brace of friendly waiters over +just for company sake. Thus any gourmet who knows his Riviera finds +himself surrounded by friendly faces at Aix-les-Bains. There are +excellent restaurants in some of the larger hotels, and you can dine in +a garden, under lanterns lit by electric light, or on a glassed-in +terrace whence a glimpse of the lake of Le Bourget under the moon may be +obtained; and there are at the big Casino, the Cercle as it is called, +and at the smaller one, the Ville des Fleurs, quite excellent +restaurants. These two restaurants are managed by first-class men from +the Riviera--the proprietors of the London House at Nice and of the +Reserve at Beaulieu, were, I believe, last year the men in command--and +the King of Greece, who is a gourmet of the first water, sets a +praiseworthy example when he is at Aix of dining one day at the Cercle +and the next at the Villa. The prices are Riviera prices and the cooking +Riviera cooking. + +The Anglo-American bar, nearly opposite the principal entrance to the +Cercle, a bar where a whisky and soda costs two francs, always has its +tiny dining-room crowded. Durret's, also opposite the Cercle, a small +restaurant, is good and cheap. There are half-a-dozen little restaurants +in the street running down to the station, but the sampling of the most +likely looking one did not encourage me to try any further experiments. + +To keep up the illusion that Aix-les-Bains is a part of the Riviera, +there is a Rumpelmayer cake-shop within two minutes' walk of the Villa +des Fleurs. + +Many of the excursions from Aix have a little restaurant as the point to +be reached. At Grand Port, the fishing village on the borders of the +lake of Le Bourget, there is a pleasant house to breakfast at, the +Beaurivage, with a garden from which an excellent view of the lake and +the little bathing place can be obtained. They make a _Bouillabaisse_ of +fresh-water fish at this restaurant which is well worth eating and which +is generally the Friday fare there. At Chambotte, where there is a fine +view of the lake, Lansard has a hotel and restaurant. At Marlioz, near +the race-course and an inhalation and bathing establishment, the pretty +ladies of Aix often call a halt to breakfast, _Ecrevisses Bordelaises_ +being a speciality. At one of the little mountain inns, I fancy that of +La Chambotte, the proprietor has married a Scotch wife, and her +excellent cakes, made after the manner of her fatherland, come as a +surprise to the French tourists. The chalets at the summit of the Grand +Revard belong, I believe, to Mme. Ritz, wife of the Emperor of Hotels, +and the feeding there naturally is excellent. + +Most people who go a trip to the Lac d'Annecy breakfast on the boat, +though I believe there is a fair breakfast to be obtained at the +Angleterre. On the boat a very ample meal is provided--the trout +generally being excellent--which occupies the attention of the +intelligent voyager during the whole of the time that he is supposed to +be looking at waterfalls, castles, peaks, and picturesque villages. + + +Vichy + +Outside the hotels, the restaurants attached to which give in most cases +a good _table-d'hote_ dinner for six francs and a _dejeuner_ for four, +there are but few restaurants, for most people who come to Vichy live +_en pension_, making a bargain with their hotel for their food for so +much a day, a bargain which does not encourage them to go outside and +take their meals. The Restauration, in the park close to the Casino, is +a restaurant as well as a cafe, and is amusing in the evening. There are +several small restaurants in the environs of Vichy. In the valleys of +the Sichon and the Jolan, two streams which join near the village of +Cusset and then flow into the Allier, are two little restaurants, each +to be reached by a carriage road. Both the Restaurant les Malavaux near +the ruins, and the Restaurant de l'Ardoisiere near the Cascade of +Gourre-Saillant, have their dishes, each of them making a speciality of +trout and crayfish from the little river that flows hard by. At the +Montagne Verte, whence a fine view of the valley of the Allier is +obtainable, and at one or two other of the places to which walks and +drives are taken, there are cafes and inns where decent food is +obtainable. + + +Various + +Men who know shake their heads when you ask them whether there is good +food obtainable outside the hotels at Royat and La Bourboule, but I have +a pleasant memory of an excellent dinner with good bourgeois cookery at +Hugon's in the Rue Royale of the neighbouring town of Clermont-Ferrand. +At Contrexeville I am told that the wise man finding his food good in +his hotel, returns thanks and does not go prospecting elsewhere. + +N.N.-D. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BELGIAN TOWNS + + The food of the country--Antwerp--Spa--Bruges--Ostende. + + +I, the Editor, cannot do better in commencing this chapter than to +introduce you to H.L., a _litterateur_ and a "fin gourmet," living in +Belgium, who has written the notes on "the food of the country" on +Antwerp and Spa, and to whom I am indebted for the entire succeeding +chapter on the Brussels' restaurants. + + +The Food of the Country + +The Belgian is a big eater and a bird-eater. As a rule, in Belgium the +restaurant that can put forth the longest menu will attract the most +customers. There are people in Brussels who regularly travel out to +Tirlemont, a little Flemish town nearly twenty miles away, to partake of +a famous _table-d'hote_ dinner to which the guests sit down at one +o'clock, and from which they seldom rise before five. The following is a +specimen _carte_ of one of these Gargantuan gorges served in December. + + Huitres de Burnham. + Potage Oxtail. + Saumon de Hollande a la Russe. + Bouchees a la Reine. + Chevreuil Diane Chasseresse. + Becasses bardees sur Canape. + Tete de veau en Tortue. + Surprises Grazilla (a Sorbet). + Pluviers dores poire au vin. + Jambonneau au Madere. + Petites feves de Marais a la Creme. + Salmis de Caneton Sauvage. + Faisan de Boheme. + Salade de Saison. + Dinde truffee Mayonnaise. + Glace Vanillee. + Fruits. Gateaux. Dessert. + +All this for five francs! with a bottle of Burgundy to wash it down, at +any price from a crown to a pound. One thing that can safely be said +about the Belgian restaurants is that a good bottle of Burgundy can +nearly always be bought in both town and country. It is often told that +the best Burgundy in the world is to be found in Belgian cellars. +Whether this is a reputation maintained in honour of the Dukes of +Burgundy who once ruled the land, or whether the good quality of the +wine is due to the peculiar sandy soil, which permits of an unvarying +temperature in the cellars, I will leave others to determine, but the +fact remains that from a Beaujolais at 2 francs 50 centimes to a +Richebourg at 20 francs, the Burgundy offered to the traveller in +Belgium is generally unimpeachable. Ghent is another town famous for its +big feasts. The market dinner on Friday at the Hotel de la Poste is +often quoted as a marvellous "spread," but the best restaurant in Ghent +is undoubtedly Mottez's, on the Avenue Place d'Armes. This is an +old-fashioned place with no appearance of a restaurant outside, and a +stranger would easily pass it by. Here one dines both _a la carte_ and +at _table-d'hote_; the _table-d'hote_ is well worth trying, though some +of the dishes can be safely passed over. The wines at Mottez's are very +good, and some special old Flemish beer in bottles should be asked for. +A great local dish is _Hochepot Gantois_, a mixture of pork, sausages, +and vegetables which only the very hungry or the very daring should +experiment upon at a strange place. Flemish cooking as a rule is fat and +porky, and there is a dish often seen on the _carte_ called _Choesels a +la Bruxelloise_, which is considered a delicacy by the natives, and it +is supposed to be a hash cooked in sherry or marsala; it is, however, a +dish of mystery. A _plat_ always to be found in Belgium (especially in +the Flanders district), is _Waterzoei de Poulet_, a chicken broth served +with the fowl. This is usually very safe, and any one going to Mottez's +at Ghent should try it there. _Carbonades Flamandes_ is another Flemish +dish which, if well done, can be eaten without fear. This is beef-steak +stewed in "faro," an acid Flemish beer, and served with a rich brown +sauce. _Salade de Princesses Liegeoises_ is a salad made with scarlet +runners mixed with little pieces of fried bacon. The bacon takes the +place of oil, while the vinegar should be used with rather a heavy hand. +When other salads are scarce, this makes a really toothsome dish. Of +all the Belgian _plats_, however, first and foremost must be placed +_Grives a la Namuroise_, which of course are only to be obtained in the +autumn. I have said that the Belgian is a bird-eater, and throughout the +country every species of bird is pressed into service for the table. A +stranger visiting the Ardennes will be struck by the remarkable silence +of the woods, which is caused by the wholesale destruction of the birds. +How the supply is kept up it is difficult to say, but no Belgian dinner +is considered complete without a bird of some sort, and when _grives_ +are in season, thousands must be served daily. A _grive_ proper is a +thrush, but I fear that blackbirds and starlings often find their way to +the _casserole_ under the name of a _grive_. They should be cooked with +the trail, in which mountain-ash berries are often found. These give the +bird a peculiar and rather bitter flavour, but the berry that must be +used in the cooking is that of the juniper plant, which grows very +plentifully in Belgium. A traveller through Belgium in the summer or +early autumn should always make a point of ordering _grives_ at a good +restaurant. When _grives_ go out of season, we have woodcock and snipe; +and there are several houses which make a speciality of _Becasses a la +fine Champagne_. At Mons and at Liege, and I think at Charleroi also, +there is every year a woodcock feast, just as there is an oyster feast +at Colchester. At these festivities a little wax candle is placed on the +table beside each guest, so that he can take the head of his _becasse_ +and frizzle it in the flame before he attacks its brains. Then we have +plovers and larks in any quantity, but I would not like to vouch for +what are often served as _alouettes_ and _mauviettes_. The one bird that +we never get in Belgium is grouse, unless it is brought over specially +from England or Scotland. It has always been found impossible to rear +grouse in the country. In the neighbourhood of Spa there are great +stretches of moorlands reaching almost to the German frontier, covered +with heather, which look as if they would be the ideal home of the +grouse. Here M. Barry Herrfeldt, of the Chateau du Marteau at Spa, a +real good sportsman, has tried his very utmost to rear grouse; first he +laid down thousands of eggs and set them under partridges, but this +proved a failure; then he introduced young birds, but they all died off, +and I think he has now given up the attempt in despair. Whilst speaking +of partridges, I ought to mention that there is no partridge in the +world so plump and sweet as one shot in the neighbourhood of Louvain, +where they feed on the beetroot cultivated for the sugar factories. At a +restaurant _Coq de bruyere_ is often served as grouse, but this is a +blackcock. One last note: outside the capital and at all but the best +restaurants the Flemish custom is to "dine" in the middle of the day and +"sup" at about seven. + + +Antwerp + +It is strange that a big city and seaport like Antwerp, which is a +favourite stopping place of English and American visitors to the +Continent, should have so few good restaurants. None of the +establishments near the quays can be classed as even third-rate, and it +is in the neighbourhood of the Bourse that the best eating-houses will +be found. At the Rocher de Cancale, usually called Coulon's (after the +proprietor), the cooking and the wines are everything that can be +desired, but the prices can hardly be called moderate. This restaurant +is situated at the corner of the Place de Meir and the Rue des Douze +Mois, a little street leading down to the Bourse. On the Place de Meir +itself is Bertrand's, another restaurant of the same high character, +which, to the regret of its regular frequenters, is shortly to be +converted into a larger and cheaper establishment. Everything at +Bertrand's has always been first class, and local people who "knew the +ropes" could get there an excellent _table-d'hote_ lunch for 3 francs. +This _prix fixe_, however, was not advertised, and the stranger eating +the same meal _a la carte_, would probably find his bill 10 or 12 francs +without wine. Antwerp has a grill-room that can be highly recommended in +the Criterium, situated on the Avenue de Keyser, near the Central +Railway Station. The Criterium is also known as Keller's, and has a +large English _clientele_. Besides chops and steaks from the grill, +there are other viands, and a _table-d'hote_ dinner is supplied in the +middle of the day at 2 francs 50 centimes. The food is of the best, +while a special feature is made of English beers and other drinks +usually sought after by the Briton travelling abroad. The restaurant at +the Zoological Gardens is well managed and much frequented. + + +Spa + +"Les jeux sont faits! Rien ne va plus." It is not the cry of the +croupier, it is the proclamation of Parliament. What will happen now +that the Cercle des Etrangers at Spa has been closed, in consequence of +the Belgian Anti-gambling Bill which came into operation on the 1st +January 1903, it is difficult to say; one thing is certain, the hotels +and restaurants will suffer, for more people came to the pretty little +town on the outskirts of the Ardennes to try their luck at _roulette_ or +_trente et quarante_ than to drink the iron waters at the Pouhon and +other springs, or to take the effervescing baths and douches. Once upon +a time, Spa was one of the most fashionable and most frequented +watering-places in Europe, but gradually its glories have departed, +although its natural beauties remain. Of the Spa restaurants as they +exist to-day, there is little to be said and less to be praised. To tell +the truth, there is not a really first-class restaurant in the place. To +nearly all the springs, which are located in easy proximity to the town, +so-called restaurants are attached, but the patronage being intermittent +and uncertain, the choice of _plats_ is limited, and the service is slow +and bad. The Sauveniere Spring is nearest to the town, but the drive +there is all up-hill, monotonous, and dusty. The Geronstere is more +prettily situated, and is a favourite resort for luncheon during the +summer season; but unless the meal is specially ordered beforehand, the +visitor will, as a rule, have to be content with eggs, beef-steaks, or +cutlets. The Tonnelet is situated on the roadside, and the restaurant +there is often uncomfortable and dusty. Those who make the Tours des +Fontaines will be best advised to stop for lunch at the Source de +Barisart, which is situated in a most picturesque part of the woods, 160 +feet above the town, from which it is distant about a mile. The +much-written-of Promenade de Meyerbeer is close at hand, and a stroll +beneath the trees before or after lunch will be enjoyed, for the +surroundings are charming and romantic. If previous notice for a meal +can be given, so much the better: there is probably a telephone from the +town. In trout time this fish should be included, as it is caught +plentifully in the district, and is, as a rule, fresh and good. As +before said, there is no good restaurant in the town,--excepting, of +course, those in connection with the principal hotels, where a +_table-d'hote_ is usually served at mid-day and in the evening. The Cafe +Restaurant attached to the Casino is convenient, and will be found more +than sufficient now that the gaming rooms have been suppressed. On the +other side of the Casino is the Hotel d'Orange, well appointed and with +a beautiful garden, and M. Goldschmidt, the proprietor, looks well after +his guests. His dining-room has all the character of a restaurant, being +open to the outside public. The company there is as a rule +gay--sometimes, it is said, even a little too gay, but everything is of +the best and well served. Probably, however, the gourmet will find +things more to his taste at the Grand Hotel de l'Europe, where M. +Henrard Richard always paid great attention to his cuisine. Although he +no longer personally controls the management of L'Europe, the hotel is +still under the direction of his family, and retains its high +reputation. The following is a menu of a 6-franc _table-d'hote_ dinner +served in September. It has not been specially selected, and is +therefore a fair specimen:-- + + Bisque d'Ecrevisses. + Brunoise a la Royale. + Truites Meuniere. + Filet de Boeuf garni Beaulieu. + Ris de veau Princesse. + Petits pois a la Francaise. + Perdreaux rotis sur Canapes. + Glace Vanille. + Gaufrettes. + Corbeille de Fruits. + +The wines here are good, the Moselle and Rhine wines being especially +cheap. Other hotels with restaurants attached that may be mentioned are +the Britannique (with a fine garden in which meals are served), the +Bellevue, the Flandre, and the Rosette. The last mentioned is a small +hotel attached to the Palace of the late Queen of the Belgians, and is +run by Her Majesty's _chef_. The meals for the Palace were always cooked +at the hotel, and the restaurant, though simply appointed, has latterly +been excellent in its way. Strangers feeding there should try and secure +a table on the little glass-covered terrace in front of the hotel. +Mention might also be made of a couple of small restaurants that have in +the past been supported by the professional players at the tables. One +in a side street near the Casino, kept by a Frenchman, has a reputation +for its cheap French wines; and the Macon, at a franc the bottle, is +indeed drinkable. At the other, the Limbourg, the cooking is German in +character and flavour. Both places may be recommended as wholesome and +honest to people who want to "get through" on about 10 francs a day. +There is no more to be said. + + +Bruges + +It always seems to me that Bruges is the quietest city in the world. At +least when one sits out in the garden of the Hotel de Flandre, after +sampling some of the excellent old Burgundy which reposes in its +cellars, and listens to the chimes from the brown belfry, a feeling of +perfect peace steals over one. There are few hotels in Belgium, if any, +which have such a fine selection of Burgundy as the Flandre has, and the +food, if not noticeably good, is at all events not noticeably bad. Otto, +who used to be the head waiter at the Hotel de Flandre, is now the +proprietor of the Hotel de Londres in the station square; and though the +appearance of the hotel is not inviting, he can cook a _sole au gratin_ +as well as any cook in Belgium. The _table-d'hote_ lunch at the Panier +d'Or, in the chief square, is very excellent for the money. + + +Ostend + +I do not think that there is much to be said in favour of the +restaurants of the big hotels at Ostend. One gets an imitation of a +Parisian meal at half again the Paris price. I have little doubt that +the cessation of gambling will bring all the prices down at the hotels, +but during past years gamblers' prices have been asked and paid. At the +Continental there is a 10-franc _table-d'hote_ dinner, much patronised, +because people know exactly what it will cost them; and at the Palace +Hotel there is a _table-d'hote_ room where the food served is well +cooked; but it lacks the life and bustle of the restaurant, and most +people who go there for a meal or two revert to the restaurant with its +_a la carte_ breakfasts and dinner. There is a Chateau Laroque in the +cellars of the Palace at 7 francs a bottle which is quite excellent. +There is a little restaurant, called the Taverne St-Jean, in a side +street, the Rampe de Flandre, kept by an ex-head waiter from the +Restaurant Re at Monte Carlo, at which the cookery is thoroughly +bourgeois, but good of its kind and the prices low; and there is on the +quay a house, kept by a fisherman who is the owner of several smacks, +where the explorer who does not mind surroundings redolent of the sea +can get a good fried sole, and a more than fair bottle of white wine. + +Any one who wishes to see what a Belgian meal can be in the number of +courses should go by train past Blankenberghe, which is a pale +reflection of Ostend, to Heyste, and partake of a mid-day dinner there +at one of the hotels patronised by the Brussels tradesmen and their +families, who come to the little sea-town for change of air. Fifteen or +sixteen plates piled in front, or at the side of each place, mark the +number of courses to be gone through, and most of the guests eat the +meal through from soup to fruit without shirking a single course. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BRUSSELS + + The Savoy--The Epaule de Mouton--The Faille Dechiree--The Lion + d'Or--The Regina--The Helder--The Filet de + Sole--Wiltcher's--Justine's--The Etoile--The Belveder--The Cafe + Riche--Duranton's--The Laiterie--Miscellaneous. + + +Brussels must have been a gayer city than the Brussels of to-day when it +earned the title of "a little Paris." There is at the present time very +little indeed of Paris about the Belgian capital, and, in the matter of +restaurants, there is a marked contrast between the two cities. Here the +latter-day Lucullus will have to seek in queer nooks and out-of-the-way +corners to discover the best kitchens and the cellars where the wines +are of the finest _crus_. The aristocracy of Belgium mostly dines _en +famille_ and the restaurants that cater for the middle classes are the +most patronised. There are, however, several establishments which +provide for more refined tastes, but they will not be found upon the big +boulevards or the main thoroughfares. Four of the best restaurants in +Brussels are in two narrow little streets, and their exteriors resemble +old-fashioned London coffee-houses, rather than resorts of fashion. +Brussels is particularly destitute of smart rooms where one can sup in +gay company "after the opera is over." Until the Savoy was opened, we +had, in fact, nothing beyond the ordinary restaurant with its little +_cabinets particuliers_. When Mr. Arthur Collins of Drury Lane was in +Brussels about a couple of years ago, he asked me to take him one +evening, after leaving the Scala, to the local Romano's. "We haven't +such a place," I explained, "but we can go to the Helder." "I dined +there this evening," said A.C., "it was a very good dinner, but deadly +dull; show me something livelier." We resolved to try the Filet de Sole +thinking, as it was close to the Palais d'Ete, we were certain to meet +some people there, but the place was empty. The fact is, Brussels has +little night-life beyond the taverns and bars of low character, and the +only high-class supper-room is the Savoy. If a stranger came to pass a +week in Brussels, and wanted to be shown round the restaurants, I should +start him with lunch at the Savoy on Monday morning, and finish him off +with supper at the Savoy on the following Sunday night, for he would +then be sure of beginning and ending well. The grill is excellent, and +by no means dear. 1 franc 75 centimes is charged for a chop or steak, +including _pommes de terre_ well served. The _hors-d'oeuvre_ are a +speciality at luncheon. There is great variety, and the pickled shrimps +would tickle the most jaded appetite. + +On Monday night I should send my friend to dinner at the Epaule de +Mouton. + +On Tuesday, I should say, "Lunch at the Faille Dechiree and dine at the +Lion d'Or." + +On Wednesday, "Lunch at the Regina and dine at the Helder." + +On Thursday, "Lunch at the Filet de Sole and dine at Wiltcher's." + +On Friday, "Lunch at Justine's and dine at L'Etoile." + +On Saturday, "Lunch at the Belveder and dine at the Cafe Riche." + +On Sunday, "Lunch at Duranton's, and, if it is summer time, dine at the +Laiterie." + +He will then have sampled all the restaurants in Brussels that are worth +troubling about, and will be very unlucky if he has not alighted upon +some dish worth remembering. + +The Savoy is situated in the Rue de l'Eveque, by the side of the General +Post Office. It was originally a kind of offshoot from the American bar +and grill-room of the Grand Hotel. Being done in good spirit and with +good taste, it soon acquired favour, and at certain times in the day the +premises are almost too small. There are private dining-rooms upstairs, +and a restaurant on the first floor has lately been added. Everything is +_a la carte_. The _cafe extra_, for which 75 centimes is charged, is a +speciality. The manager is M.A. Reynier who speaks English like an +Englishman. + +The Epaule de Mouton is in the Rue des Harengs, one of the little +streets already alluded to, which run from the Grand Place to the Rue +Marche aux Herbes. In this street, which is barely five yards wide, are +some of the best restaurants of the town; but the stranger must be +particular and not enter the wrong door, as they are all huddled +together, and the names of some of the establishments are very similar. +There is, for instance, a Gigot de Mouton next door to the Epaule de +Mouton, and there is a Filet de Boeuf. It is at the Epaule, however, +where the best cuisine will be found. Behind the door on entering a snug +corner for a _tete-a-tete_ is to be found. Although the title of the +establishment suggests Simpson's and a cut off the joint, the cuisine +will be found thoroughly French, and everything is well and tastefully +done. In ordering, it must be remembered that one _plat_ is enough for +two persons, and this is the rule in most Belgian restaurants. The +Burgundy at L'Epaule de Mouton is renowned. + +La Faille Dechiree is at a corner of another little street, the Rue +Chair et Pain, close by the Rue des Harengs. The construction and +decoration are quaint; one sits in a kind of tunnel and eats _Homard a +l'Americaine_ which is a speciality of the house. Woodcock, when in +season, is also a dish to be ordered here. + +Le Lion d'Or is a small establishment in the Rue Gretry, and may safely +be called the "chic" restaurant of Brussels. The salon downstairs is a +perfect little _bonbonniere_, and the rooms above are extremely cosy and +comfy. The proprietor is Adolph Letellier (of course called simply +"Adolph" by _habitues_ of the house), and he is extremely popular among +the young sports of the town. The _vrai_ gourmet will appreciate _les +plats les plus raffines_ on which Adolph prides himself. Everything is +_a la carte_, prices being plainly marked. They are not cheap. The +restaurant and rooms upstairs are open till two in the morning. + +The Regina is a new restaurant at the top of the town, near the Porte de +Namur. Although only opened in 1901, it has been found necessary to +enlarge the premises, and the alterations are in progress at the moment +of writing. When completed, the restaurant on the first floor will be +more commodious and comfortable than it is at present. It is the good +kitchen that has made the reputation of the place, and if this is +maintained, the Regina will become one of the best patronised +restaurants in Brussels. Some people prefer to feed in the cafe on the +ground-floor but it is best to go upstairs, and, if possible, to obtain +a table on the glass-covered balcony in the front, which has a pleasant +outlook on the boulevards. The proprietor is Jules; he may have a +surname but no one seems to know what it is; to one and all he is +"Jules," a capital _patron_ who, having been a waiter himself, knows how +to look after the personal tastes of his customers. These include the +officers of the grenadiers, the crack Belgian regiment, whose barracks +are close by, judges and barristers from the Palais de Justice, members +of the King's household (the royal palace being nearly opposite), actors +from the Moliere Theatre, sportsmen who foregather here on race-days, +and the better-class Bohemians. Jules has also a good English +_clientele_, and makes a speciality of certain English dishes. This is +the only place on the Continent I know which serves a really well-made +Irish stew. The Flemish dishes are also safe to try here. The prices are +very moderate, and the _plats du jour_ range from 1 franc to 1 franc 75 +centimes, each _plat_ being enough for two persons. Breakfast dishes, +such as _Oeufs Gratines aux Crevettes_ and _Oeufs Brouilles au foie +de Volaille_, are also well done here. _Ecrevisses Regina_ is a special +dish of the house. There are always two special _plats du soir_. The +Medoc de la Maison at 3 francs the bottle is a La Rose and is _very_ +good. Although the prices are low, there is nothing of the cheap and +nasty order about the place. I have before me the bill of a little lunch +for two served in December, which can be taken as a fair specimen of the +fare and the charges:-- + + Huitres de Zelande, 1 douzaine 3 frs. + 1 bottle Sauterne 5 " + Oeufs en Cocotte 1 " + Haricot de Mouton (plat du jour) 1 " + Foie gras Hummel 2.50 " + Salade de Laitue 1 " + Laitance de Harengs 1.50 " + 1 bottle Medoc 3 " + Cafe et liqueurs 2.50 " + ---------- + 20.50 frs. + +At the same time, if one likes to lunch off a _plat du jour_, with a +glass of Gruber's beer, it can easily be done at the Regina for less +than 5 francs for two persons. + +The Helder is in the Rue de l'Ecuyer, near the Opera House. It is a +smart restaurant and one dines well there. It is frequented by a good +class of people, but it has no particular character of its own. The +proprietor is M. Dominique Courtade, formerly a _chef_, and he should be +personally consulted if a special dinner is wanted. The Pontet Canet +(only to be had in half bottles) should be sampled; it is very fine. + +The Filet de Sole is in the neighbourhood of the markets and close by +the Palais d'Ete. The proprietor is Emile Beaud. An excellent lunch can +be obtained here at a fixed price, and one can also eat _a la carte_. +Prices are lower than at most of the first-class restaurants, but the +cuisine and wines are both safe and sound. The Cantenac at 4 francs is +to be specially recommended, and the Medoc de la Maison at about 2 +francs is also good. There are private rooms upstairs. + +Wiltcher's, on the Boulevard de Waterloo, provides the best and cheapest +_table-d'hote_ in Brussels. The price is only 3 francs, and is wonderful +value for the money. The following is the menu of a dinner in January:-- + + Consomme a la Reine. + Filet de Sole a la Normande. + Quartier d'Agneau. + Mint Sauce a l'Anglaise. + Epinards a la Creme. + Poularde de Bruxelles en Cocotte. + Croquettes de Pommes de Terre. + Gangas du Japon a la Broche. + Compote de Mirabelles. + Salade de Laitue. + Glace Arlequin. + Biscuits de Reims. + Cafe. + +In old Mr. Wiltcher's time a good many people came from outside for the +excellent food here provided, but now so many families reside all the +year round in the hotel, that it is difficult to get a table for dinner +when it is not ordered beforehand. No matter what time of the year it +is, there is always poultry and game on Wiltcher's _carte_, and one +sometimes meets a strange bird here. Gangas is a Japanese partridge. The +birds migrate to Northern Africa in winter and often cross to Spain, +where they are caught in large numbers. The plumage of the gangas is +very beautiful and the flesh is excellent eating. The outarde, or little +bustard, is often to be had at Wiltcher's, and it is the only place at +which I have eaten the great bustard, whose flesh is very much like a +turkey's. White pheasant is another bird I remember here. Excepting in +its plumage, it in no way differs from the ordinary pheasant. A feature +of Wiltcher's dinner is that no fruit is ever included in the menu, +although coffee is always served. The story goes that Wiltcher the +First, who took great pride in his table, found it during one winter +time almost impossible to give anything else as dessert beyond apples, +oranges, pears, and nuts, there being no other fruit on the market. One +day some diners rudely complained, and insisted on a change, expecting +perhaps that pineapple should be included in a dinner at this price. +"You wish a change in the dessert, I hear," said Mr. Wiltcher, in the +suave and courtly manner which had earned for him the sobriquet of "the +Duke"; "Very well, to-morrow you shall have a change." To-morrow, there +was no dessert upon the menu. When the reason for this was demanded, he +simply answered, "You wanted a change, and you've got it. I shall give +no fruit in future." This has become a tradition. Notwithstanding, it is +a remarkable dinner, and there is usually a good variety of sweets. As a +tip to people who want to drink champagne and are sometimes deterred by +the high prices demanded for well-known brands, while being always +suspicious of the sugary _tisanes_ supplied on the Continent, I may +mention that the champagne wines bearing Mr. Wiltcher's own name and +labelled according to taste as Dry Royal and Grand Cremant respectively, +are specially bottled for his establishment at Rheims; and, though the +price is little more than half that charged for _les grandes marques_, +they will be found pure, wholesome, and to the English and American +taste. Wiltcher's is rapidly becoming essentially an American house. + +Justine's is a little fish restaurant on the Quai au Bois a Bruler, by +the side of the fish market. It has distinctly a bourgeois character. It +is not the sort of place you would choose to take a lady in her summer +frocks to, but you get a fine fish dinner there nevertheless. There is +no restaurant in the world where _moules a la mariniere_ are served in +such perfection, and you can rely on every bit of fish supplied there +being fresh. The exterior is unattractive, even dirty, and the service +inside is somewhat rough. On Fridays the place is always crowded, and +there may be a difficulty about retaining a room upstairs, where it is +best to go when you wish to be specially well served. In the old days, +it was the fashion to go on Fridays (or on any day for a fish lunch) to +Le Sabot, a _restaurant-estaminet_ of the same order a little lower down +on the quay, which has a reputation for its manner of cooking mussels; +but, since the death of old Francois, who kept it, the place does not +appear to be so much in favour, and the tide of custom now flows towards +Justine's. It must be remembered that this house is mentioned simply as +a feature of Brussels life and not as a representative restaurant. + +L'Etoile, in the Rue des Harengs, is the most famous restaurant in +Brussels. In the time of Louis Dot, it certainly held rank as the first +of all, both for cooking and for wine, and Emile Ollivier, Dot's +successor, is doing his best to sustain the reputation. Neatly framed +and hung on one of the walls is still to be seen the card signed by the +late Henry Pettitt, the dramatist, attesting to the fact that he had +just eaten the best lunch of his life. This card some years later was +countersigned by a Lord Mayor of London; and a Lord Mayor surely should +be a good judge of a lunch. Whatever place is visited in Brussels, +L'Etoile should not be missed. The stranger should be very careful to go +in at the right door. The wines at L'Etoile have always been good, and +Dot used to have some Burgundy that was world-renowned. His _fine +champagne_ was also famous, and he had some extra-special for which he +used to charge 4 francs 50 centimes a glass. I have heard Dot himself +tell the story how a well-known _restaurateur_ from London came one +evening with two friends to see how things were done at L'Etoile. After +dinner they sent for Dot, to compliment him and ask him to join them +with a liqueur, and he was to give them some of his best brandy. They +smacked their lips on tasting it, and the glasses were filled a second +time; but the gentleman who paid the bill rather raised his eyebrows +when he saw the item, "liqueurs, 36 francs." "He got even with me, +however," said Dot, "for when I went to London I returned his visit. I +had a good dinner (not so good, I think, as I should have served), and I +sent for him to join me with the coffee. While we chatted, I ordered +cigars, repeating his words, 'Give us some of your very best.' He did, +and he charged me 7s. 6d. a piece for them." The rooms at L'Etoile are +very small, and if any one wants to prove the establishment at its best, +he should take the precaution of retaining a table and ordering dinner +beforehand. + +Le Belveder is in the Rue Chair et Pain; it has lately been opened by +Jules Letellier, _ex-maitre-d'hotel_ of the Filet de Sole and brother to +Adolph Letellier of the Lion d'Or. Here the restaurant is _a la carte_, +and a speciality is made of fish and game. Things are well done, and it +is a safe place to "take on." + +The Cafe Riche is opposite the Helder, and nearer to the Opera House. It +was founded in 1865 by Gautier, the nephew of Bignon of Paris, who +retains the proprietorship and management until the present time. It has +always had an aristocratic _clientele_, and is specially favoured by +Parisians visiting Brussels. During the political troubles in France the +Duc d'Orleans, Prince Victor Napoleon, and Henri Rochefort were all +patrons of the Cafe Riche, and it required all the tact and _savoir +faire_ of the proprietor to keep apart and at the same time give +satisfaction and pleasure to the conflicting parties. The Cafe Riche is +one of the best places in Brussels for a banquet or a large +dinner-party. Woodcock and snipe _a la Riche_ are specialities. Although +the prices are generally _a la carte_, one can have a lunch and dinner +at fixed price by ordering beforehand. + +Duranton's, on the Avenue Louise, is now "run" by Monsieur Pierre +Strobbe, who took a first prize at the Brussels cookery exhibition. The +restaurant is pleasantly situated, and on Sunday, if you wish to go to +the races in the afternoon, it is very convenient, being on the direct +route to Boitsfort. There are three rooms on the ground floor, in which +you can lunch. That on the right, a small narrow room under the orders +of Charles, from the Black Forest, is the smartest. He will introduce +you to some special Kirsch--from the Black Forest. The cooking in all +the rooms is the same, and it is good. Order your cab to be at the door +half an hour before the first race. + +The Laiterie is in the Bois de la Cambre. In summer time it is indeed +the most pleasant place to dine in Brussels. In the Bois there are +several places that supply lunches, dinners, and light refreshments, but +the Laiterie is the only one that is really first class. For seventeen +years it has been under the management of M. Artus and his son. The +establishment is the property of the town of Brussels, and is well kept +up in every respect. Here on a Sunday as many as 1500 chairs and 400 +tables are often occupied. In the evenings the gardens are brilliantly +illuminated, there being 1100 gas lamps. Music is discoursed by a +Tzigane orchestra, and the late Queen of the Belgians, who often used to +stop her pony chaise at the Laiterie to hear them play, subscribed from +her private purse 200 francs every year to these musicians. Dinners are +served at separate tables, under Japanese umbrellas, and the cooking is +excellent; but it is as well to secure a seat as near to the main +building as possible, to overcome that objection to _al-fresco_ +meals--cold dishes. The wines are good, and M. Artus has some fine +Ayala--'93, in magnums--unless it is all drunk by now. There must be +something about the cellars of these out-door places peculiarly +favourable to beer, for no pale ale in the world can compare with that +drawn at the bars of the Epsom grand-stand, and in Belgium there is no +bottled Bass so fresh and palatable as that which one gets at the +Laiterie. + +If my friend were staying in Brussels longer than a week, the other +restaurants to which I might take him would be the Taverne Royale, at +the corner of the Galeries Saint Hubert, where some real 1865 cognac can +be had at 75 centimes the glass; the Freres Provencaux, in the Rue +Royale; the Restaurant de la Monnaie (a large place, generally noisy, +with not the most rapid of service); Stielen's, in the Rue de l'Eveque; +and the Taverne Restaurant des Eleveurs on the Avenue de la Toison d'Or. +At the Taverne de Londres, in the Rue de l'Ecuyer, there is always a +fine cut of cold roast beef with English pickles. + +On Wednesdays all the Brussels restaurants are crowded, it being Bourse +day, and in a wide sense "market" day, when over 5000 strangers, mostly +men, come into the city from provincial towns. In conclusion, I may +mention that I have failed to discover the restaurant where George +Osborne gave his "great dinner" to the Bareacres a few days before the +battle of Waterloo. Thackeray records that as they came away from the +feast, Lord Bareacres asked to see the bill, and "pronounced it a d---- +bad dinner and d---- dear!" Probably the place, therefore, is extinct; +for happily the double pronouncement can nowadays be seldom applied to +any of the restaurants mentioned in this chapter. + +H.L. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HOLLAND + + Restaurants at the Hague--Amsterdam--Scheveningen--Rotterdam--The + food of the people. + + +The Hague + +At the Hague, the capital, the best restaurant is Van der Pyl's, in the +centre of the town, situated on the Plaats, where the cuisine is French +and excellent, and where there are admirable wines in the cellar. A good +set luncheon is served at this restaurant for the very moderate price of +one florin (1s. 8d.); but it is wise to order dinner _a la carte_, and +to give them some hours' notice. The manager is M. Anjema. It is +advisable to secure a table near the window, especially in summer. Some +of the best wines are not put on the wine-list. + +In former years the proprietor of Van der Pyl's was possessed of a +puritanical conscience, and would not allow any two people to dine alone +in his private salons. So strictly did he adhere to his rule on this +subject, that when a well-known man-about-town insisted on his right to +dine in the _petit salon_ alone with his wife, the inexorable proprietor +turned him out of the restaurant. There was, however, another well-known +member of Hague society who succeeded where the gentleman who thought +that matrimony overrode all rules had failed. The hero of the little +story had made a bet that, in spite of the puritanical proprietor, he +would dine _a deux_ with a lady in the _petit salon_. He won his bet by +subtlety. He ordered a dinner for three, and when he and the lady +arrived they waited a quarter of an hour for the other imaginary guest. +Then, remarking that he was sure Mr. X. would not mind the dinner being +begun without him, the host ordered the soup to be brought up; and so, +with constant allusions to the man that never came, the dinner was +served, course by course, and the bet won before the proprietor had the +least idea that a trick had been played upon him. + +A somewhat similar story, it will be remembered, is told of Delmonico's +and its proprietor in the early history of that great New York +restaurant. In the American story, the youth who had dined in a _cabinet +particulier_ with a lady, in contravention of the rules of the house, +had not the sense to hold his tongue until after he had paid his bill. +When that document did make its appearance, some of the items were +astonishing. "You don't expect me to pay this bill?" said the astonished +diner to the proprietor, who had made his appearance. "No, I do not," +said Mr. Delmonico, "but until you do you will not come into my +restaurant again." + +The following are some of the dishes Van der Pyl's makes a speciality +of:--_Poule au pot Henri IV._, _Sole Normande_, _Cote de Boeuf a la +Russe_, _Homards a l'Americaine_, _Poularde a la Parisienne_, _Perdreaux +au choux_, _Omelette Siberienne_, _Souffle Palmyre_, _Poires Alaska_, +most of them standard dishes of the usual _cuisine Francaise_, though +the _Omelette Siberienne_ was invented to please a British diplomat who +preferred a _soupcon_ of absinthe to either rum or Kuemmel with his +omelette. And this is a typical menu drawn up by M. Anjema, a menu which +reads as though it were for a French banquet:-- + + Huitres de Zelande. + Caviar. + Consomme Diplomate. + Truite Saumonee a la Nantua. + Poularde a l'Imperiale. + Noisettes de Chevreuil a la St-Hubert. + Delice de foie gras au Champagne. + Becassines roties. Salade St-Clair. + Tartelettes aux Haricots Verts. + Mousse Antoinette. + Sandwiches au Parmesan. + Dessert. + +The Cafe Royal, in the Vijberberg, with an American luncheon bar on the +ground floor and a restaurant upstairs, is fairly good. + +Of the hotels to which restaurants are attached, the Hotel des Indes and +Hotel Vieux Doelen have a reputation for good cookery. The former was in +olden times the town house of the Barons van Brienen, and in winter many +people of Dutch society, coming to the capital from the country for the +season, take apartments there, and during that period of the year the +restaurant is often filled by very brilliant gatherings. The manager, +Mr. Haller, has been made a director of Claridge's Hotel in London, and +divides his attention between the two hotels. + +The following menu is a typical one of a dinner of ceremony at the Hotel +des Indes; it was composed for a banquet given by Count Henri Stuergkh:-- + + Huitres. + Consomme Bagration. + Filets de Soles Joinville. + Carre de Mouton Nesselrode. + Parfait de foie gras de Strasbourg. + Fonds d'Artichauts a la Barigoule. + Grouse rotis sur Croutons. + Compote de Montreuil. + Coeurs de Laitues. + Creme au Chocolat et Vanille. + Paillettes au Fromage. + +The Vieux Doelen has a beautiful old dining-room, and it is here that +every year the smartest balls in the capital take place, given by the +Societe du Casino, and generally attended by Their Majesties and the +Court. + +Hock's fish shop in the market has a room where excellent oyster suppers +are served, but this is not a place to which ladies should be taken at +night, for it is then patronised by damsels who take the courtesy title +of actresses, and the students from Leiden. + + +Amsterdam + +The Restaurant Riche is managed by a Frenchman, and the cuisine is +French. It is necessary to order dinner in advance, and it is well to be +particular. Under these circumstances an excellent dinner is obtainable. +There is a cellar of good wine, the Burgundies being especially to be +recommended. + +The Restaurant van Laar, in the Kalverstraat, has a celebrity for its +fish dinners, and excellent oyster suppers are to be had there. + + +Scheveningen + +Curiously enough, this important seaside resort has no restaurant with +any claim to celebrity. The dinners to be obtained in the hotels have to +suffice for the wants of the visitors to the place. + + +Rotterdam + +The Stroomberg here deserves a word of commendation, the food to be +obtained there being excellent. + + +The Food of the People + +The cuisine of the country, the food the people of the country eat, is +not recommended to the experimenting gourmet; for the favourite dish is +a sort of Kedjeree, in which dried stock-fish, rice, potatoes, butter, +and anchovies all play their part. Sauerkraut and sausages, soused +herrings and milk puddings also have claims to be considered the +national dishes. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +GERMAN TOWNS + + The cookery of the country--Rathskeller and beer-cellars-- + Dresden--Muenich--Nueremburg--Hanover--Leipsic--Frankfurt-- + Duesseldorf--The Rhine valley--"Cure" places--Kiel--Hamburg. + + +A German housewife who is a good cook can do marvels with a goose, +having half-a-dozen stuffings for it, and she knows many other ways of +treating a hare than roasting it or "jugging" it. She also is cunning in +the making of the bitter-sweet salads and _purees_ which are eaten with +the more tasteless kinds of meat; but, unfortunately, the good German +housewife does not as a rule control the hotel or restaurant that the +travelling gourmet is likely to visit, but rules in her own comfortable +home. The German Delikatessen, which form the "snacks" a Teuton eats at +any time to encourage his thirst, are excellent; and the smoked sprats, +and smoked and soused herrings, the various sausages and innumerable +pickles, are the best edible products of the Fatherland. The German meat +is as a rule poor. The best beef and mutton in the north has generally +been imported from Holland. The German is a great eater of fresh-water +fish,--pike, carp, perch, salmon, and trout all being found on his +menus, the trout being cooked _au bleu_. Zander, a fish which is partly +of the pike, partly of the trout species, is considered a great dainty. +The vegetables are generally spoiled in the cooking, being converted +into a _puree_ which might well earn the adjective "eternal." Even the +asparagus is spoilt by the native cook, being cut into inch cubes and +set afloat in melted butter. _Compotes_ sweet and sour, are served at +strange times during the repast, and lastly, as a sort of "old guard," +the much-beloved but deadly Sauerkraut, made from both red and white +cabbage, is always brought up to complete the cook's victory. The +potatoes in Germany are generally excellent, the sandy soil being +suitable for their cultivation. + +The cookery in the big hotels on much-frequented routes in Germany is +now almost universally a rather heavy version of the French art, with +perhaps a _compote_ with the veal to give local colour. In the small +hotels in little provincial towns the meals are served at the times that +the middle-class German of the north usually eats them, and are an +inferior copy of what he gets in his own home. As a warning I give what +any enterprising traveller looking for the food of the country from the +kitchen of a little inn may expect:-- + +Coffee at 8 A.M. with rolls, _Kaffee Broedchen_, and butter, and this +meal he will be expected to descend to the dining-room to eat. + +A slight lunch at 11 A.M., at which the German equivalent for a +sandwich, a Broedchen cut and buttered, with a slice of uncooked ham, +lachs, or cheese between the halves, makes its appearance, and a glass +of beer or wine is drunk. + +Dinner (Mittagessen) is announced between 1 and 2 o'clock, and is a long +meal consisting of soup, which is the water in which the beef has been +boiled; fish; a messy entree, probably of Frankfurt sausage; the beef +boiled to rags with a _compote_ of plums or wortleberries and mashed +apples; and, as the sweet, pancakes. + +Coffee is served at 4 P.M. with _Kaffee Kuechen_, its attendant cake, and +at supper (Abendessen) one hot dish, generally veal, is given with a +choice of cold viands or sausages in thin slices--_leber Wuerst, +Goettinger Wuerst_, hot _Frankfurter Wuerst_, and black pudding. + +If the above gruesome list does not warn the over-zealous inquirer, his +indigestion be on his own head. + +In the south the cookery, though still indifferent, approximates more +nearly to the French bourgeois cookery. + +A dinner-party at a private house of well-to-do German people is always +a very long feast, lasting at least two hours, and the cookery, though +good, is heavy and rich, and too many sauces accompany the meats. Many +of the dishes are not served _a la Russe_, but are brought round in +order that one may help one's self. Just as one is struggling into +conversation in defective German, a pike's head obtrudes itself over the +left shoulder, and it is necessary to twist in one's seat and go +through a gymnastic performance to take a helping. + +Except in large cities the Germans are not given to feeding at +restaurants. + +A golden rule, which may be held to apply all over Germany, is that it +is safe to take ladies wherever officers go _in uniform_. + + +The Rathskeller + +In most German towns where there is a Rathhaus (a town hall) one finds +the Rathskeller, where beers or wine, according to the part of the +country, are the principal attraction, single dishes, cutlets, steaks, +cold meats, oysters, caviar being served more as an adjunct to the drink +than as an orthodox meal. The most noted of these Rathskeller are at +Bremen, Luebeck, and Hamburg, and that at Bremen is first in importance. +It is a mediaeval Gothic hall, built 1405-1410, and it holds the finest +stock of Rhine and Moselle wine in the world. The wine is kept in very +old casks. One of the cellars is of particular interest as being the +"Rose" one, where the magistrates used to sit in secret conclave, _sub +rosa_, beneath the great rose carved upon the ceiling. The German +Emperor generally pays a visit to the Rathskeller when he visits Bremen. + +In the Luebeck Rathskeller is the "admiral's table," said to be made from +a plank of the ship of the last Admiral of Luebeck, who flourished in +1570; and even more interesting than the Rathskeller is the +Schiffergesellschaft, with its strange motto and its even stranger +sign. + + +Beer-Cellars + +Throughout Germany one meets in every town the large establishments, +beautifully decorated in the "Old German" style, of the various beer +companies, most of which are Munich ones, the Lowenbrau, the +Pschorrbrau, the Muenchener Hofbrau, and others. Be careful to close the +metal top of your Schopps if you are drinking with German companions, +for if you do not they have the right, by the custom of the country, to +place their mugs on the top of the open one and demand another "round." +If when you have emptied your mug, you leave it with the lid open, the +waiter, without asking any questions, takes it away and refills it. + +I now once more step down to allow A.B. to chat about the various German +towns. + + +Dresden + +Dresden is not exactly an epicure's paradise, but there is one +restaurant which may, I think, be safely recommended as an establishment +of the first order. I am referring to the Englischer Garten, which is +managed by its proprietor, Herr Curt Roething. The principal entrance is +through a rather dingy looking archway in the Waisenhausstrasse, nearly +opposite the Victoria Salon Music Hall. The principal public rooms are +on the ground floor. The decorations used to be of a very dismal type, +but a year or two ago the rooms were all done up, and, without being +palatial or particularly artistic, they are now quite nice and bright in +their way. + +There are also some rooms on the first floor which are generally used +for private parties. The atmosphere in the winter is apt to be rather +too sultry for English tastes, but it is perhaps less close than in most +other Dresden restaurants. At the back, there is an open space dignified +by the name of a garden, running down to a nice wide street, and here in +the summer a number of tables are laid, and one has the great advantage +of dining _al fresco_. + +The attendance is well above the Dresden average and the waiters there +invariably clean and civil. The German waiter at his best is not often +one of the highest polished specimens of humanity, although some +compensation may be found in the almost paternal interest he takes in +_habitues_ or customers who have succeeded in winning his good graces. +The table linen and other appointments are up to the mark without being +luxurious. + +In the middle of the day a huge dinner is served for 3s. By leaving out +one or two courses, you can get quite as much as you can eat for lunch, +and then you only have to pay 2s. This 2s. lunch is perhaps the +cheapest, and, at the price, the best meal of its kind that one could +possibly get at any restaurant. In its way, it is, I think, as +remarkable a performance as the 1s. 6d. Sunday morning breakfast at the +Grid at Oxford. It is, of course, not up to Chevillard or Paillard form, +but quite good enough for ordinary requirements. In the evening +everything is _a la carte_, and is almost as dear as the "set" meal in +the middle of the day is cheap. Single portions are, however, with some +very few exceptions, more than enough for two. The service is much more +_recherche_ than in the middle of the day; there is quite a large bill +of fare, and you can get all ordinary restaurant dishes, in addition to +a considerable selection of Delikatessen, such as oysters, caviar, fresh +truffles, peaches, etc., all of which are kept in good qualities. + +Game and fish are also good at the Englischer Garten, and the partridges +and woodcocks are very well cooked; in fact, all their game can be +highly recommended. Live trout and other fresh-water fish are kept in a +tank, and you may generally rely on finding the soles and turbot fresh +as well. As regards price, unless you are an _habitue_ or make special +terms, a fairly little simple dinner will average out at 10s. a head, +exclusive of wine. It is well to order dinner beforehand, as the +culinary arrangements are not very expeditious. In the evening the +cuisine is by way of being first-class French art, but it just lacks the +lightness of touch which is characteristic of the best French cookery. + +Wine is rather dear, but the higher-priced brands of hock, Moselle, or +claret are in some cases excellent. As to the champagnes found abroad, +unless they are specially made for the English market, they must not be +judged from an English standpoint, being as a rule far too sweet for our +taste. + +An instance of this occurred to me at Rheims, when staying with one of +the champagne magnates for some shooting owned by a syndicate of some +of the large champagne shippers. We met for _dejeuner_ at their Chalet +de Chasse or club-house, each gentleman bringing his own wine. The +result was that one saw from ten to a dozen different famous brands of +champagne on the table. + +My host asked me which sort I would prefer. "Du vin Brut, if you have +any," I replied. "Ah! Vous buvez de ce poison-la?" exclaimed he, +smiling. So they evidently did not agree with our taste for dry wine. +But you can make a pleasant and harmless drink of the sweet champagne in +summer by mixing it with an equal quantity of light Moselle, adding a +liqueur glass of curacoa, and putting some wild strawberries or a large +peach cut up into the concoction with some ice. + +To return to the Englischer Garten. They also keep some particularly +good Pilsen beer which they serve highly iced: that of course is as it +should be, but it is apt to have disastrous consequences if one is not +accustomed to it. Being a wine restaurant they do not expect you to +drink beer except as a supplement to your wine, but if you make a point +of it you can have it throughout. An additional charge of 6d. per head +is made for the set mid-day meal if wine is not ordered. + +The _clientele_ is by way of being "smart" in the evening, and +there is generally a fair sprinkling of officers of the two +crack Saxon cavalry regiments,--the Dresden Horse Guards and +the Oschatz Lancers. Evening clothes, or, better still, a dress +jacket and a black tie are advisable, but by no means _de rigueur_. +The-cloth-cap knickerbocker-cum-Norfolk-jacket-get-up, unfortunately +so frequently affected by travelling Englishmen in continental +capitals, is certainly _not_ to be recommended. + +In the middle of the day the company is more bourgeois, and on Sundays, +and occasionally on Saturdays, the place is apt to be unpleasantly +crowded. In the evening, except on race nights, there is always plenty +of room; in fact it is usually rather empty till after the plays are +over. + +The other restaurants would not appeal to a gourmet but, for a change, +some of them are well worth visiting according to the season. For +instance:-- + +The Belvedere, an old-established and very popular institution, +delightfully situated on the Bruhlsche Terrasse, with a charming view +over the Elbe and the principal architectural features of the town. +Essentially a place for the summer, when one can take one's meals out of +doors on its terraces and balconies. There is a beer and a wine +department, and in the former an excellent band plays; but it is +difficult to secure a table within earshot as there is always a great +crowd. The attendance is indifferent and the cuisine fair and wholesome, +though no doubt you could get a good dinner if you took a little trouble +and ordered it. + +The public dinners which take place there in the large banqueting hall +are quite creditable productions, and the position, view, and fresh air +all combine to render it a very pleasant hot-weather resort. + +The Stadt Gotha. The wine restaurant is small and quaintly decorated. +Very popular with the upper and middle classes and _extremely_ +respectable, cuisine very fair, set meals, and especially supper after +the play very inexpensive. But if you order _a la carte_, like most +other places, it is rather dear. A capital beer restaurant in connection +with it and good; a thoroughly plain German cooking served here. + +Tiedemann and Grahl's, in the Seestrasse, is a typical German Weinstube +with a large _clientele_ of _habitues_, mostly men, but ladies can go +there. The owners being large wine merchants have some first-rate wine +at prices averaging rather lower than the Englischer Garten. But there +is a very extensive list and the quality is not altogether uniform, so +if you can suborn a friendly waiter he could help you considerably. +Excellent oysters and smoked salmon are to be had here, but the place is +apt to be rather crowded and noisy. The appointments are of the simplest +and most unpretentious kind. Prices, moderately high--about two-thirds +of the Englischer Garten. Set meals are served, but _a la carte_ is more +usual. The waiters, being institutions like most of the guests, are +inclined to be a little off-hand and familiar, and there is altogether a +free and easy and homely tone about the place, but it is perfectly +respectable. + +Neues Palais de Saxe, on the Neumarket, is owned and managed by Herr +Muller. Very fair cuisine; good set meals; _a la carte_ rather more +expensive; speciality made of oysters and _ecrevisses_, which latter are +served in all sorts of fascinating ways. Not at all a bad place for +supper after the theatre, but perhaps a trifle dull. + +Kneist, in a little street off the Altmarkt, called, I think, the Grosse +Brudergasse, is managed by the proprietor whose name it bears. This may +perhaps be called the leading beer restaurant of Dresden; it is +remarkably popular and considered very good. Worth a visit as a typical +though favourable specimen of its kind. Much frequented by officers and +officials; here you find good plain fare served in the simplest of +fashions. Meals _a la carte_ and quite inexpensive; cuisine purely +German, homely and wholesome, with excellent beer, especially Erlanger. +The atmosphere is usually hot, thick, and stuffy, but the _clientele_ +does not seem to mind it. + +In a little back room the principal dignitaries of the Saxon Court, +State, and Army are wont to forgather every morning for their +Fruehschoppen,--a kind of early, largely liquid lunch, where, if rumour +can be trusted, a good deal of important business is informally +discussed and settled. + +The Kaiser Palast, on the Pirnaischerplatz, is a huge but not +particularly attractive establishment with wine and beer departments. + +The best Pilsen beer in Dresden is obtainable at the Bierstall in a +little street off the Altmarkt, in a somewhat disreputable quarter of +the town; it is not a suitable place for ladies, but is quite +respectable for men. The beer is well worth sampling, but the air is not +fit to breathe. + +Good Munich beer is to be had at the Zacherlbrau in the Koenig Johann +Strasse. + +As regards dining at hotels. + +The Savoy (Sedanstrasse), the Europaischen Hof (Pragerstrasse), and the +Bellevue (Theaterplatz) rank about equal. The set meals are of the usual +hotel type; the _a la carte_ prices are, of course, high. The preference +of the English is generally given to the Savoy, but the Europaischer Hof +is the most popular with German society. The Bellevue is very pleasant +in the summer, having a large verandah with a lovely view overlooking +the Elbe, where one can dine in the hot weather. + + +Munich + +There are no absolutely first-class restaurants in Munich, although the +Hotel de Russie is certainly the best and now boasts of a capital +_chef_. It is under the same directorate as the Vierjahrzeiten, but +being a better class of establishment, with more modern appointments, it +has eclipsed the latter. It is now a case of the Vierjahrzeiten's nose +being put out of joint by its own child. Yet the latter, though rather +old-fashioned, is still very comfortable and has an American bar. + +Schleich's Restaurant is very good, as is also the Continental, on the +Maximiliens Platz, and the Hungaerische Hof. + +You should visit the Hofbrauhaus in the Platz, if only to drink as good +a glass of beer as one could wish to have. It is a fine and typical +specimen of a German Bierhalle, very respectable and much frequented. +After having had your first Schoppen (for having once tasted you +invariably want more) you rinse out your glass at a handy fountain +before presenting it to be refilled; but the person who takes your +Schoppen along with several others in each hand, invariably with +unerring instinct hands you back your same Schoppen. As an appetizer for +the beer to which it is supposed to give an additional zest, they place +a large radish about the size of an apple in a sort of turnip-cutting +machine which ejects it in thin rings; it is then washed and put into a +saucer with a little salt and water and eaten without any other +accompaniment than the beer; it may be an acquired taste, but it appears +to be very popular. + + +Nueremberg + +Nueremberg being essentially a commercial and industrial town, it follows +that expensive restaurants and high living are not one of the features +of it. Yet the Bierkellers there are institutions that have existed +since the time of Albert Duerer and his companions. + +Among the best of these is the Rathhauskeller (or town-hall cellar), +kept by Carl Giessing, a most picturesque place, as indeed is everything +in Nueremberg; also the Fottinger in the Koenigstrasse and the +Herrenkeller in the Theaterstrasse. At all of these good meals can be +obtained at moderate prices, and hock is the best wine to order. + +Perhaps the most interesting place in this storehouse of beautiful +antiquities is the hostelry known as the Bratwurstgloecklein, or Little +Bell of the Roast Sausage; here the specialities are excellent beer and +the very best of diminutive sausages made fresh every day, also +Sauerkraut. The bell is still suspended on the end wall by an +ornamental, hammered iron bracket. Built about the year 1400, it is one +of the most ancient, if not the oldest, refreshment house in the world, +and has been used as such ever since. Here did the Meistersingers +forgather, Hans Sachs, Peter Vischer, Albrecht Duerer, Wellebald +Pirkheimer, Veit Stoss and other celebrated men in Nueremberg's history +in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Great historical interest has +always attached to this house, where the best class of entertainment is +to be had. The present owners profess to have many of the original +drinking-mugs, cans, etc., that these old customers habitually used and +which were individually reserved for them. The proprietors of the +Bratwurstgloecklein are so particular with regard to the character of +their sausages that they are made twice a day. Consequently the sausage +they give you in the evening has not even been made that morning; it +dates its construction only from mid-day. + +There is a doggerel rhyme written of the establishment that runs very +much in the same strain in which I have translated it:-- + + Not many noble strangers + Can possibly refrain, + When once they've ate our sausages + From eating them again. + And it usually strikes them, + If they have not yet found it out, + That these sausages are splendid + When they're mixed with Sauerkraut. + The only thing they rail at, + When they fain would criticise, + Is to wish the little sausage + Were a little larger size. + +At the principal hotels, such as the Grand, Strauss, Wuerttemberger Hof, +and Victoria, very good meals can be procured--the mid-day +_table-d'hote_ prices varying from 3s. to 3s. 6d. Perhaps the best of +these is the Victoria, which rejoices in a grill-room, and where the +delicacies of the season are available. + +There are American bars at the "American Bar," Karolinenstrasse, the +Hotel Strauss, same street, and at the Wittelsbacker Hof in the +Pfaunenschmiedsgasse. + +The cafes are the Bristol in the Josephs Platz, the Central in the +Karolinenstrasse, the Habsburg and the Imperial both in the +Koenigstrasse; but do not go to any of these under the idea that they +represent the Cafe Anglais in Paris. + +A very pleasant resort in the summer is the Maxfeld Restauration in the +Stadt Park. It is in the open air, and an excellent band plays at 5 P.M. +on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. A fair dinner is provided, but it +is better to order in advance by telephone. + + +Hanover + +The Georgshalle is, and has been for the last forty years, the best cafe +and restaurant in Hanover, but is now incorporated with Kasten's Hotel. +It was the usual and, for many years, the only place of resort where a +simple and decent meal could be obtained. I am not talking of the _haute +cuisine_, because it does not exist in this city. + +Kasten's Hotel is good of its kind. The Kaiser has dined there on his +occasional visits to the town. Private balls and other entertainments +are given there, and the wines are generally good. + +The Tip Top Restaurant, in the Karmarschstrasse, is a comparatively +modern, pleasant, and cheery _locale_, with a good bill of fare. On +account of its proximity to the theatre it is much frequented for +suppers after the play. + +There are several Biergaerten open in the summer where military and other +bands perform, but nothing but ordinary refreshment is to be obtained +here. + + +Leipzig + +Leipzig has one good restaurant, the Restaurant Paege on the +Marktplatz,--at least it is the best in the town. + +The Hotel Hauffe, in the Russplatz, is an old-established hotel, is well +conducted, and has a restaurant where one can get quite a decent dinner +if ordered beforehand. + +There is also another, Friedrichkrause, Katharinensbresse, No. 6, but +with these three the culinary capabilities of Leipzig are practically at +an end. Of course there are a number of Bierhalle and Kellern to +accommodate the students and music pupils, for which latter Leipzig is +the home of instruction. + + +Frankfurt-am-Main + +Frankfurt gives me the idea of having more wealthy people in it than any +other town I know, and I do not think I am very far wrong in this. The +Central Railway Station is the finest one can imagine. + +It has at least four first-class restaurants attached to hotels. + +The Hotel d'Angleterre, or Englischer Hof, in the centre of the city, +the Rossmarkt, is a fine old hotel. Our present king, when Prince of +Wales, generally stayed there when passing through. The famous German +philosopher, Schopenhauer, dined there regularly for thirty years--from +1831 to 1860, though I cannot advance that as any great recommendation, +for the ways and tastes of philosophers are usually somewhat erratic. I +have no doubt, however, that the cuisine has materially altered since +Schopenhauer's time. + +The Frankfurter Hof, built about thirty years ago, is a larger +establishment with all the modern improvements. It is much frequented by +Englishmen and Americans, but rather lacks the quiet of the Angleterre. +It has a good cuisine, for M. Ritz, who has an interest in the hotel, +has seen to that, and magnificent reception rooms where many balls, +parties, weddings, etc., take place. A band plays there during the +greater part of the day, and it is advisable to get as far distant as +possible from it when dining. In the restaurant one can obtain _a la +carte_ a very excellently cooked dinner. + +The Palast Hotel Furstenhof is of the highest class and was only +recently opened. It has beautifully decorated rooms, a good restaurant, +a dining-hall, and an excellent American bar. Herr Schill the former +head waiter of the Englischer Hof--his _nom de guerre_ is Mons. +Jules--assiduously sees to the comfort and welfare of his guests. Like +Mons. Ritz he has a large following of friends. + +The Hotel Imperial was opened about two years ago, and although a little +smaller than the Frankfurter Hof or the Palast has a most aristocratic +_clientele_. Being close to the Opera House, its restaurant is much +patronised in the season by people who during the _entr'acte_, or to +pass over a more or less tedious act, prefer to partake of light +refreshments and a cigarette on the terrace in the open air. There is an +American bar there also. The _elite_ of Frankfurt, on the rare occasions +when they do sup after going to the theatre or opera, generally order +their meals at one of the restaurants of the leading hotels; but +Frankfurt does not, as a rule, keep late hours. + +The Palmen Garten is a pleasant summer restaurant a little way out of +the town, on the Bockenheimerstrasse. It has a fine dining-hall, or you +may sit at _al-fresco_ tables while the regimental band discourses +excellent music. The cooking is good--German cuisine, but nothing high +class. It is a very pleasant spot to visit in the hot weather; on fete +days one is treated there to the luxury of fireworks, etc. + +Buerose ought to be mentioned as a quiet restaurant, where there is a +_specialite_ of _hors-d'oeuvre_ and excellent oysters. + +Lovers of good beer will find at the Allemania, if they ask for a +Schoppen of the Royal Court Hofbrau, exactly what they have been craving +for; and the Pilsener at the Kaiserhof Restaurant in the Goetheplatz is +equally good. One has to sample several glasses of each before one can +definitely make up one's mind as to which is the best. + + +Duesseldorf + +The best restaurant in Duesseldorf is that of the Park Hotel on the +Corneliusplatz. It is one of the best on the Rhine, and was opened in +April 1902 on the occasion of the Duesseldorf Exhibition; it is a fine +building, and has pretty grounds and ornamental water adjoining it. It +is frequented by the highest German nobility, but yet its prices are +moderate. + +Luncheons are served at 3 marks, dinners at 5 marks. Suppers for 3 marks +are served at _prix fixe_, or one can order _a la carte_. The Moselle +wines are exceptionally good. There is an American bar in the hotel. The +restaurant, handsomely decorated in the style of Louis XIV., is opposite +the Opera House and overlooks the Hofgaerten. + +It has no specialities in the way of food beyond the usual German and +French dishes. + +At the Thuernagel Restaurant, also in the Corneliusplatz, you are likely +to find the artistic colony in session. The restaurant dates back to the +year 1858. There is a good collection of wine in the cellars, and a word +may be said in favour of its cookery. + + +The Rhine Valley + +The Rhine valley is not a happy hunting ground for the gourmet. Cologne +has its picturesque Gurzenich in which is a restaurant; its inhabitants +eat their oysters in the saloon in the Kleine Bugenstrasse, part of a +restaurant there; and there are restaurants in the Marienburg and in the +Stadt garden, and the Flora and Zoological Gardens. At every little town +on either bank there are one or more taverns with a view where the usual +atrocities which pass as food in provincial Germany are to be obtained, +good beer, and generally excellent wine made from the vineyards on the +mountain side. Now and again some restaurant-keeper has a little pool of +fresh water in front of his house, and one can select one's particular +fish to be cooked for breakfast. The wines of the district are far +better than its food. + +Rudesheim, Geisenheim, Schloss Johannisberg, the Steinberg Abbey above +Hattenheim, are of course household words, and the man who said that +travelling along the Rhine was like reading a restaurant wine-list had +some justification for his Philistine speech. One does not expect to +discover the real Steinberg Cabinet in a village inn, and the +Johannisberg generally found in every hotel in Rhineland is a very +inferior wine to that of the Schloss, and is grown in the vineyards +round Dorf Johannisberg. I have memories of excellent bottles of wine at +the Ress at Hattenheim, and at the Engel at Erbach; but the fact that I +was making a walking tour may have added to the delight of the draughts. +The Marcobrunn vineyards lie between Hattenheim and Erbach. The Hotel +Victoria at Bingen has its own vineyards and makes a capital wine; and +in the valley of the river below Bingen almost every little town and +hill--Lorch, Boppard, Horcheim, and the Kreuzberg--has its own +particular brand, generally excellent. Assmanhausen, which gives such an +excellent red wine, is on the opposite bank to Bingen and a little below +it. The Rhine boats have a very good assortment of wines on board, but +it is wise to run the finger a little way down the list before ordering +your bottle, for the very cheapest wines on the Rhine are, as is usual +in all countries, of the thinnest description. Most of the British +doctors on the Continent make the greater part of their living by +attending their fellow-countrymen who drink everywhere anything that is +given them free, and who hold that the _vin du pays_ must be drinkable +because it _is_ the wine of the country. Our compatriots often swallow +the throat-cutting stuff which the farm labourers and stable hands +drink, sooner than pay a little extra money for the sound wine of the +district. The foreigner who came to Great Britain and drank our cheapest +ale and rawest whisky would go away with a poor impression of the +liquors of _our_ country. Drink the wine of the district where they make +good wine, but do not grudge the extra shilling which makes all the +difference in quality. The dinners and lunches on the big express Rhine +steamers are a scramble for food; but on some of the smaller and slower +boats, where the caterer has fewer passengers to feed, the meals are +often very good. I have a kindly memory of an old head steward, a +fatherly old gentleman in a silk cap shaped somewhat like an accordion, +who provided the meals on a leisurely steamer which pottered up the +Rhine, stopping at every village. He gave us local delicacies, took an +interest in our appetites, and his cookery, though distinctively German, +was also very good. In a land where all the big hotels fill once a day +and empty once a day, and where the meals are in heavy-handed imitation +of bourgeois French cookery, that old man with his stews and roasts, and +pickles, veal, and pork, sausages big and sausages small, strange +cheeses, and Delikatessen of all kinds was a good man to meet. + + +German "Cure" Places + +First of course amongst the places in Germany where men and women mend +their constitutions and enjoy themselves at the same time comes + + +Homburg + +The "Homburg Dinner" has become a household word, meaning that a certain +number of men and women agree to dine together at one of the hotels, +each one paying his or her own share in the expenses. During the past +two years, owing to the desire to spend money shown by some +millionaires, British and American, who are not happy unless they are +giving expensive dinners every night with a score of guests, this pretty +old custom seems likely now to die out. In no German town are there +better hotels than at Homburg, and one dines on a warm day in very +pleasant surroundings, for Ritter's has its world-famous terrace, and +some of the other hotels have very delightful open-air restaurants in +their gardens. Simplicity, good plain food well cooked, is insisted on +by the doctors at Homburg, and therefore a typical Homburg dinner is a +very small affair compared to German feasts over which the doctors do +not have control. This is a dinner of the day at Ritter's, taken +haphazard from a little pile of menus, and it may be accepted as a +typical Homburg dinner:-- + + Potage Crecy au Riz. + Truite de Lac. Sce. Genevoise. Pommes Natures. + Longe de Veau a la Hongroise. + Petits pois au Jambon. + Chapons de Chalons rotis. + Salade and Compots. Peches a la Cardinal. + Fruits. Dessert. + +The hotels at Homburg are always quite full in the season. No +hotel-keeper puts any pressure on his guests to dine at his hotel, and +you may have your bedroom in one hotel and dine at another every night +of your life so far as the proprietors care. All those who have the +luck to be made members of the Golf Club take tea there, and eat cake +such as is only to be found at school-treats in England. The restaurant +at the Kurhaus goes up and down in public favour. Everybody goes to its +terrace in the evening, and fashion at the present time has, I believe, +ordained that on one particular day of the week it is "smart" to dine +there. If the restaurant remains as excellently catered for as it was +when I last visited Homburg, it is well worth including in the round of +dinners. + + +Wiesbaden + +At Wiesbaden you generally dine where you sleep, in your hotel. I myself +have generally stayed at the Kaiser Hof, because I like to eat my supper +on its creeper-hung terrace and look across the broad valley to the +Taunus hill; but there are half-a-dozen hotels in the town, the Nassauer +Hof in particular, which many people consider the best hotel in Germany, +having capital restaurants, serving _table-d'hote_ meals, attached to +them. The Rose has a little terrace, looking on to the gardens, which is +a pleasant supping-place. The old Kurhaus, a tumble-down building, is +disappearing or has disappeared, and a new and gorgeous building is to +take its place. The restaurant at the old Kurhaus always had a good +reputation, and to eat one's evening meal, for every one sups and does +not dine, at one of its little tables under the trees, looking at the +lake beneath the moonshine and listening to the band, was one of the +pleasures of Wiesbaden. It was fairly cheap, and I thought the food well +cooked, and served as hot as one could expect it in the open air. I have +little doubt that the new restaurant will carry on the pleasant ways of +the old one. The proprietor is Herr Ruthe, who is caterer to several +crowned heads, and who is always on the spot and delighted to be +consulted as to the dishes to be ordered for a dinner. + +The wine-house, the Rathskeller, is one of the sights of the place. +Therein are quaint frescoes and furniture, there the usual German food +is obtainable, and _you_ have a choice of German wines such as is +obtainable in few other wine-drinking places in Germany. + +Any one who likes the open tarts of apple and other fruits--a rather +sticky delicacy it always seems to me--can eat them at ease of an +afternoon looking at the beautiful view from the Neroberg or watching +the Rhine from under the trees of the hotel gardens at Biebrich. + + +Baden-Baden + +The first-class hotels in Baden-Baden are so well catered for +that few people wander abroad to take their food, but the restaurant +of the Conversation Haus is a good one. The little restaurant, with +a shady terrace on the Alte-Schloss Hohenbaden, has achieved +celebrity for its trout _au bleu_ and good cookery, and the +marvellous view over the Rhine valley makes it a notable little place. +There are many refreshment-places on the roads along which the patients +take their walks, but as milk is the staple nourishment sold, they +hardly find a place in a guide for gourmets. The wines of the Duchy, +both red and white, are excellent. + + +Ems + +Ems has a restaurant in the Kursaal, near which the band plays in the +evening, said to be fairly good; and there is a restaurant close to the +Baderlei, the cliff of rock crowned by a tower, and another on the +summit of the Malberg, the hill up which the wire-rope railway runs; but +I have only meagre information as to whether the food obtainable at them +is good, bad, or indifferent. + + +Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) + +Henrion's Grand Hotel is the favourite dining-place of the Anglo-Saxon +colony in Aachen. M. Intra, the proprietor, lays himself out to attract +the English. The German civil servants and the doctors have a club-table +at which they dine, and they exact fines from the members of their club +for drinking wine which costs more than a certain price, etc., etc., +these fines being collected in a box and saved until they make a sum +large enough to pay for a special dinner. Every member of this club is +required to leave in his will a money legacy to the club to be expended +in wine drunk to his memory. There are two _table-d'hote_ meals at 1.30 +and at 7 P.M. At the first the dishes are cooked according to the +German cuisine, at the second according to the French. Suppers are +served in the restaurant at any hour. + +Lennertz's restaurant and oyster-saloon in the Klostergasse is a +curious, low-ceilinged, old-fashioned house which, before Henrion's came +into favour, had most of the British patronage. Its cooking is +excellent, and the German Hausfraus used to be sent to Lennertz's to +study for their noble calling. The _carte de jour_ has not many dishes +on it. Everything has to be ordered _a la carte_, though the prices are +reasonable, and it is possible to make a bargain that a dinner shall be +given for a fixed price. The _Omelettes Soufflees_ are a speciality of +the house. The fish used at Lennertz's comes from Ostend, and the Dutch +oysters are excellent. + +A restaurant opposite the theatre has good cookery but is expensive. + +Henry, who presides over the Anglo-American bar in the Kaiser Passage, +is an excellent cook and turns out wonderful dishes with the aid of a +chafing-dish. He learned his cookery at the Waldorf, and at the Grand, +in Paris. His partner, Charlie, is of the Cafe de Paris, Monte Carlo. + +Another American bar where food is obtainable is in the Grand Monarque +Hotel. + +The Alt-Bayern in Wirischsbongardstrasse is the beer-house which is most +to be recommended; and the Germania, in Friedrich-Williamplatz, is +celebrated for its coffee. + + +Kiel + +Kiel Harbour is as beautiful and picturesque a spot as one can well +imagine. The approach to it from the Elbe by the Kaiser Wilhelm +Canal--52 miles long, 70 yards broad, and about 30 feet deep, with +pretty banks on either side, is part of the river Eider. It is lighted +along its entire length with electric lamps, and constitutes as pleasant +a waterway as one can desire. + +The hotels and restaurants are neither numerous nor _recherche_, and, +with the exception of the sailor's rendezvous, are mostly closed during +the winter. The Seebadeanstalt is about the best restaurant; it was +built by Herr Krupp and is managed by an Englishman. Above it are the +fine rooms of the Imperial Yacht Club. These, during the regatta week, +which generally takes place at the end of June, are crowded with +yachtsmen of all nationalities, to whom the Kaiser dispenses most +gracious hospitality. When the extensive anchorage, surrounded by green +and wooded hills, is full of every description of yacht, foremost among +which is the _Hohenzollern_ and many German battleships, it forms a +scene at once impressive and gay. One can hardly blame the Germans for +annexing it, however galling its annexation by Germany must have been to +its former owners. + +The Hotel Germania has a very fair restaurant attached to it. + +The Rathskeller is well-conducted, and was built by the municipal +authorities. + +The Weinstuben, Paul Fritz, is a good refreshment-place, but is mostly +frequented by the students and officers. + +The Seegarten is a pretty little place overlooking the harbour, where +German beer is the principal article of commerce. + +At the Muenchener Buergerbrau the beer is good but the surroundings +dismal. + + +Hamburg + +At Hamburg is to be found Pfordte's Restaurant, which has gained a +European reputation; indeed, it is spoken of as the "Paillard's of North +Germany." The following description of the restaurant is from the pen of +an English _habitue_ of the house:-- + +Pfordte's Restaurant, which dates back to the year 1828, was originally +one of the numerous Kellers or cellars which are situated in many of the +basements of the houses near the Alster and Bourse at Hamburg. Their +function is to provide luncheons, dinners, or suppers, and their chief +_specialites_ are oysters, lobsters, other shell-fish, game, and +truffles. They are much frequented by business men for luncheon, and by +playgoers for supper after the theatre. + +Mr. Wilkins was the first proprietor, and in 1842 it was in the hands of +a company. In 1860 Pfordte, who had become director of this Keller, +aimed at higher things. Being a good organiser and administrator, he +eventually moved the Keller to the street that runs from the Alster Dam +to the Rathaus gardens, and there, at the corner of the gardens, +established a restaurant which is one of the best in the world. + +Pfordte is a man of small stature but of most courteous and polished +manners, and is no exception to the general rule that small men have +usually great brains. His restaurant is _facile princeps_ of all the +houses of entertainment at Hamburg where riches abound, and where good +cheer is scientifically appreciated. Entering the establishment from the +street, you find yourself in a fair-sized hall, where a deferential +servant in livery is prompt to relieve men of their overcoats and ladies +of their wraps. On the left, a large folding-door gives entrance to +three public rooms _en suite_ which look out on the Rathaus gardens, and +are furnished with small tables--some for two, some for four, some for +six persons. Here a most excellent dinner or luncheon can be obtained at +short notice. The service is capital. The waiters are German, but appear +to be conversant with every tongue in the world. All sorts and +conditions of men have to visit Hamburg, the great centre of maritime +commerce in Germany. All seem to be able at Pfordte's to give orders in +their own language, and find themselves understood. English seems as +much spoken here as German. + +On the right of the entrance-hall, a fine staircase leads to the first +floor, where are rooms for private parties of any number, from two to a +hundred. Hardly any important public dinner is held at Hamburg which +does not take place at Pfordte's. The cuisine is perfect. The menus are +original, the wines are of the best. If you are at Hamburg in the +proper season, do not fail at Pfordte's to order oysters, trout from the +hill streams, partridge with apricots, and _truffes en serviette_. + +To the above there is but little to add except that there is a certain +cosiness about Pfordte's, a sense of personal supervision, which is +difficult to define but which everybody who dines there feels and +appreciates. One Londoner put it thus, referring to the little rooms, +"It's what Kettner's ought to be." I append a menu of a dinner of the +day at Pfordte's, there being a choice of four or five dishes in each +course. The charge is 6 marks. This bill of fare is by no means an +exceptionally good one. Indeed it is below the average rather than +above. The "English" adjective to the celery is used to distinguish it +from celleriac or "Dutch" celery, which is largely used in salads in +North Germany. The _Junger Puter_ is a very little turkey poult. It is +to the turkey what the _poussin_ is to the fowl:-- + + Potage a la Stuart. + Potage creme d'orge a la Viennoise. + Potage puree de concombres au cerfeuil. + Consomme Xavier. + Filets von Seezungen (soles) a la Joinville. + Steinbutt (turbot) sauce moscovite. + Rheinlachs kalt, sauce mayonnaise. + Boeuf braise a l'alsacienne. + Rehbruecken (venison) a la Conti. + Lammviertel a la Provencale. + Roast-beef a la Clamart. + Artischoken sauce hollandaise. + Salat braisirt mit jungen Erbsen. + Engl. Sellerie mit Mark. + Junge Flageolets a la Maitre. + Spanishe Pfefferschoten farcirt. + Junge Ente (duckling). + Rebhuhn (partridge). + Junge Puter. + Escarolle-Salat mit Tomaten. + Erdbeer-Eiscreme panache Fruchttorte. + Kase. + +Dress clothes are not _de rigueur_ when dining at Pfordte's. Bordeaux +wines are a speciality of the house, as indeed they are in every good +restaurant in Hamburg and Bremen, better claret being found in those +cities than anywhere else outside France that I know of. There is a +celebrated picture in Pfordte's hall which has a story attached to it. +The painter wished to give a dinner to his club friends, and consulted +Pfordte as to the price. Pfordte said that he would supply the dinner, +and that the artist afterwards should paint him a picture. The dinner +was given to the entire club, and was said to have been the best dinner +ever served in Germany: the artist showed his appreciation of it by +painting a masterpiece. + +This is a specimen of one of Pfordte's dinners of ceremony:-- + + _Nectar old sherry._ | Natives. + | Astrachan Caviar. + | ----- + 1894 _Louis Roederer | Potage Malmesbury. + grand vin sec._ | ----- + | Truffes du Perigord a la + | Savarin. + | ----- + 1876 _Geisenheimer | Saiblinge aus dem Koenigssee. + Hothenberg-Auslese._ | Bayrische Sauce. + | ----- + 1889 _Chat. Dauzac | Engl. Hammebruecken + Labarde (Tischwein)._ | a la Courdomage. + | ----- + 1878 _Chat. Marquis | Cotelettes de Macassins + de Therme._ | a la Montalembert. + | ----- + 1869 _Clos St-Hobert._ | Supreme von Strassburger + | Gaenselebern in Madeira. + | ----- + | Creme de Chicorees aux + | pointes d'asperges vertes. + | Fonds d'artichauts + | a la St-Charles. + | ----- + 1874 _Chat. Larose | Enten von Rouen. + Schloss-Olbzug._ | Salade a la Francaise. + | ----- + _Moet and Chandon | Pouding glace a la Jules + Cremant blanc._ | Lecomte. + | ----- + | Dessert. + +At the Zoological Gardens there is a good restaurant where one dines in +a balcony overlooking the beer-garden, in which a military band plays. + +The oyster-cellars of Hamburg are noted for their excellent lunches. +_Bouillon_, cutlets, steaks, caviar, lachs, and other viands are served, +and English "porter," generally Combe's stout, is much drunk. Another +British production, "Chester" cheese, which is red Cheshire, is much in +demand. At supper in these cellars, and also in Berlin, caviar is much +in demand, the small black Baltic variety, not the Russian, which is +lighter in colour and larger in grain. A large pot of it is put on the +table in a bowl of ice, and your Hamburger, who is a good judge of +victuals as he is of drink, makes his supper of it. + +The Rathskeller of Hamburg is in the modern Rathhaus, and is finely +decorated in "Alt-deutsch" style with frescoes and paintings by +well-known artists. + +In the summer gardens down the Elbe, good wines are to be obtained; and +at the Faehrhaus at Blauenesse. + +The Alster Cafe is very beautifully situated. It has three tiers of +rooms, and from its balconies one can look either landward or on to the +river, which at night, with the lights reflected in its water, is very +beautiful. The rooms of the cafe are decorated in the style of the +seventeenth century. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BERLIN + + Up-to-date restaurants--Supping-places--Military cafes--Night + restaurants. + + +Twenty years ago Berlin had no restaurant worthy of the name, now of +course they are plentiful; in many instances, however, showy paintings, +bad gilding, and heavy decorations seem to atone with a certain class of +the public for inferior _materiel_ and mediocre cookery. + +The Monopole part of the Hotel-Restaurant L. Schaurte is first-rate, and +the set dinner for the price is as good as one could get anywhere. I +append an everyday menu which, for 5 marks, ought to satisfy the most +exacting customer. The second soup is a _Consomme_ with _quenelles_. The +fish dishes are _Sole Normande_ and _Turbot au Gratin_. + + MENU. + + From 2 P.M. to 9 P.M. + + Haeringfilet nach Daube. + Mulligatawny-Suppe. + Kraftbruehe mit Einlage. + Seezungenfilet auf normaennische Art. + Steinbutt in Muscheln gratiniert. + Eng. Roast-beef. + Yorker Schinken in Burgunder. + Spinat. + Homard de Norvege. Sauce Ravigotte. + Franzoes. Poularde. + Fasan. + Salat Compot. + Sellerie. + Fuerst Pueckler Bombe. + Kaese. Fruechte. + Nachtisch. + +Estimated cost of two dinners at the Restaurant Schaurte (Monopole):-- + + M. Pfgs. + + Dinner 5 00 + 1/2 Pontet Canet (1890) 7 00 + Coffee 60 + Cognac 60 + ------ + 13 20 + + M. Pfgs. + + Dinner 5 00 + 1/2 Roederer 8 75 + (1893 Reserve for England) + 1 Cognac (1860) 75 + Coffee 60 + ------ + 15 10 + +If you drink no wine with the above repast, you are charged 6 marks for +the dinner instead of 5. The wine charges are rather expensive, +otherwise there is no fault to be found. This restaurant is a +fashionable place at which to sup. + +The Bristol Restaurant, attached to the hotel of that name, is also one +of the best and answers, on a reduced scale, to the Carlton Restaurant +in London; you get as good a dinner at the Bristol as you can wish to +have, especially if you interview Mons. Maxim (who was for a time in +London) the _maitre-d'hotel_, a proceeding which will ensure your being +well cared for. + +In fact with regard to most restaurants, it is always better, in Berlin +as elsewhere in the world, if you have time or happen to be passing that +way, to look in wherever you may have settled to dine, choose your +table, and see what they propose to give you. It simplifies and +expedites matters on arriving, especially if you are going on to some +entertainment and have not much time to spare. + +Borchard's, in the Franzoesischerstrasse, is a capital place to drop in +to lunch, as there is a cold buffet there with every sort of +Delikatesse. You can get a very good dinner there, and the wines are of +excellent quality. The attaches of the British Embassy patronise it, and +it is to the Bristol in Berlin what Claridge's is to the Carlton in +London. + +The Hotel de Rome has an excellent restaurant, and many dinners of +ceremony are given there. This is the menu, headed by the motto, "The +Tubercle Bacillus will federate the World," of a dinner given at the +Berlin by a distinguished British physician to some of his German +colleagues of the great Congress:-- + + Hors-d'oeuvre. + Consomme Sevigne. + Potage Oxtail. + Sole a la Bordelaise. + Filet de boeuf a la Moderne. + Cotelettes de Foies gras aux Truffes. + Faisan Roti. + Compote Salade. + Asperges en branches. + Prince Pueckler. + Fromage. + Fruits. + +The Palast Hotel and restaurant, at the corner of the Potsdamerplatz, +and the Savoy in the Friedrichstrasse are also excellent. + +The Hiller and the Dressel, in the Unter den Linden, are bright, +pleasant, and good restaurants. Dressel gives an excellent lunch for +2.50 and dinners for 3 marks or 5. This is a sample lunch:-- + + Bouillon in Tassen. + Eier Skobeleff. + Seezunge gebacken, Sauce Tartare. + Kalbskopf aux Champignons. + Mutton Chops. + Pfirsich nach Conde. + Kaese. + +The English bar in the Passage is a grill-room and restaurant, and +ladies can lunch there, though the sporting British element is rather +too prominent. In the evening it is frequented by the theatrical world +and is practically open all night. One can enjoy a peaceable supper +there without having to pay the bill and leave shortly after one has sat +down, as is the custom in England. + +Kempinsky's, in the Leipzigerstrasse, a very popular restaurant and +always crowded, rather corresponds to Scott's in the Haymarket. Here you +get very good oysters (when in season) and excellent Holstein crayfish, +lobsters, etc. The cook at this restaurant has an excellent manner of +cooking lobsters, called _Homard chaud au beurre truffe_. It consists of +chopped truffles worked up into best fresh butter rolled out, and then +laid on the hot lobster. + +I subjoin a menu, in order to show the moderate charge for an extremely +well-cooked dinner. As a rule a portion of any dish on the bill of fare +costs M. 1.25. + + MENU. + + Hors-d'oeuvre. + Consomme double a la Moelle. + Homard chaud au Beurre Truffe. + Escaloppes de Veau. + Choux de Bruxelles. + Faisan Roti. + Salade. + Fromage, Celeri. + Cafe, Cigare. + 1 Bottle German Champagne. + +For two people, including the champagne, the total came to 12 marks 75 = +12s. 9d. + +As to the German champagne, "Sect," as it is called, they are now making +very pleasant light wines of this character in the country at very +reasonable prices. They are excellent of their sort, though they are +rarely kept long enough in the cellar, and I should certainly advise +their being tried, in preference to paying heavily for _soi-disant_ +French brands which in Germany are of very doubtful origin. "Herb" does +not guarantee what we understand by "dry." + +If you wish to sample German dishes well and inexpensively, you could +not do better than go to the Ruedesheimer in the Friedrichstrasse. The +house can provide you with an excellent bottle of Rhine wine, having a +special celebrity for this. + +The Reichshof, in the Wilhelmstrasse, is a cafe of a more Bohemian +description. It is most frequented towards the evening and for suppers +after the theatres; usually a first-class but very noisy band is engaged +there. It is also a good hotel. It is next door to the British Embassy. + +There are also two cafes in which the military element predominates, one +might almost say exclusively. These are Topfer's and the Prinz Wilhelm, +both in the Dorotheenstrasse. Here the officers usually lunch and make a +general rendezvous, often bringing their wives. + +There are, of course, plenty of suburban cafes open in the summer, but +they are more refreshment establishments, and appeal rather to the +general public than to the higher class; they are opened or closed +according to the seasons. + +Bauer's, in Unter den Linden, is also a well-known cafe, and is much +frequented by the Berliners; it is, however, more of the refreshment +saloon class, and is patronised by a large newspaper-reading public, +from the fact that there are few of the leading publications in all +languages that you would fail to find here. This cafe has become a +general rendezvous in the afternoon and evening, and everything supplied +there is of the best quality. The walls are decorated with paintings by +the eminent German artists of thirty years ago. Upstairs, between 5 and +6 P.M., one sees many of the people of the world of the theatres and +music halls. + +At Ewest, just off the Friedrichstrasse, there are two or three little +quiet dining-rooms. The management is not anxious to find accommodation +for any except old customers, but the best wine in Berlin is to be +obtained there. + +The Kaiserkeller, with its rooms decorated splendidly in various styles, +one after the model of the Luebeck Schiffergesellschaft, and others after +other famous German rooms, is one of the sights of Berlin. It retains an +army of cooks and its wine-list is a wonderful one. + +If you wish to see the rowdy student life of Berlin, the Bohemian +festivity which corresponds to the life of Paris in the _cabarets_ of +Montmartre, and if you speak German, go to the Bauernschaenke, which has +obtained a celebrity for the violence and rudeness of its proprietor, +who, as Lisbonne and Bruant used to, and Alexander does in the +_cabarets_ of the City of Light, insults his customers to the uttermost +and turns out any one who objects. Die Raeuberhohle is an inferior +imitation of Die Bauernschaenke. + +A noted night restaurant is Der Zum Weissen Roessl, in which each room is +decorated to represent some typical street in Berlin. This is a hostel +much frequented by artists. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SWITZERLAND + + Lucerne--Basle--Bern--Geneva--Davos Platz. + + +Switzerland is a country of hotels and not of restaurants. In most of +the big towns the hotels have restaurants attached to them, and in some +of these a dinner ordered _a la carte_ is just as well cooked as in a +good French restaurant, and served as well; in other restaurants +attached to good hotels the _table-d'hote_ dinner is served at separate +tables at any time between certain hours, and this is the custom of most +of the restaurants in most of the better class of hotels. There is in +every little mountain-hotel a restaurant; but this is generally used +only by invalids, or very proud persons, or mountaineers coming back +late from a climb. There is no country in which the gourmet has to adapt +himself so much to circumstances and in which he does it, thanks to +exercise and mountain air, with such a Chesterfieldian grace. I have +seen the man who, at the restaurants of the Schweitzerhof or National at +Lucerne, ate a perfectly cooked little meal which he had ordered _a la +carte_ on the day of his arrival in Switzerland, and who was hoping to +find something to grumble at, sitting in peace two days later eating the +_table-d'hote_ meal at a little table in the restaurant of one of the +hotels at Lauzanne or Vevey, Montreux or Territet, after a walk along +the lake side or up the mountain to Caux, and four days after one at a +long table at Zermatt or the Riffel Alp, talking quite happily to +perfect strangers on either side of him and eating the menu through from +end to end, more conscious of the splendid appetite a day on the +glaciers had given him than of what he is eating. Switzerland entirely +demoralises the judgment of a gourmet, for its mountain air gives it +undue advantages over most other countries, and an abundant appetite has +a way of paralysing all the finer critical faculties. + +At one period all hotels in Switzerland were "run" on one simple, cheap, +easy plan. There were meals at certain hours, there was a table in the +big room for the English, another for the Germans, and another for mixed +nationalities. If any one came late for a meal, so much the worse for +him or her, for they had to begin at the course which was then going +round. If travellers appeared when dinner was half over, they had to +wait till it was quite finished; and then, as a favour, the +_maitre-d'hotel_ would instruct a waiter to ask the cook to send the +late comers in something to eat, which was generally some of the relics +of the just-completed feast, the odours of which still hung about the +great empty dining-hall. + +I fancy that it is a matter of history that M. Ritz, who has since +become the Napoleon of hotels, coming as manager to the National at +Lucerne and finding this system in practice, put an end to it at once +and started the restaurant there, which was and is quite first class. +Whether some one else was making history at the Schweitzerhof at the +same time in the same way I do not know, but the two hotels have run +neck and neck in the excellence of their restaurants, and not only are +they first rate, but, as is always the case, the average of the cooking +at the other hotels has gone up in sympathy, as the doctors would say, +with the two leading caravanserais, and one usually finds that any one +who has stayed at Lucerne has a good word to say for his hotel. I was +once at Lucerne during race week, and was doubtful whether I should find +a room vacant at either of the hotels I usually stay at. A charming old +priest, who was a fellow-voyager, suggested to me that I should come to +a little hotel hard by the river; and there, though the room I was given +was of the very old continental pattern, the dinner my friend ordered +for himself and me was quite excellent. I have breakfasted at the buffet +at the station and found it very clean, and the simple food was well +cooked. There is a restaurant at the Kursaal, but I have never had +occasion to breakfast or dine there. + +In Northern Switzerland some of the towns have restaurants which are not +attached to hotels, and Basle has quite a number of them, though the +interest attaching to most of them is due to the quaintness of the +buildings they are in or the fine view to be obtained from them rather +than from any particular excellence of cookery or any surprisingly good +cellar. The restaurant in the Kunsthalle, for instance, is ornamented by +some good wall paintings; and by the old bridge there is a restaurant +with a pleasant terrace overlooking the river. There is a good cellar at +the Schutzenhaus, and there is music and a pretty garden as an +attraction to take visitors out to the Summer Casino. + +Of the Bern restaurants much the same is to be said as of the Basle +ones. Historical paintings are thought more of than the cook's +department. The Kornhauskeller, in the basement of the Kornhaus, is a +curious place and worth a visit for a meal. At the Schauzli, on a rise +opposite the town, from the terrace of which there is a splendid view +and where there is a summer theatre, there is a cafe-restaurant, and +another on the Garten, a hill whence another fine view is obtainable. + +Geneva, for its size and importance, is the worst catered for capital in +Europe. Outside the hotel restaurants, none of which have attained any +special celebrity, there are but few restaurants, and those not of any +conspicuous merit. There is a restaurant in the noisy Kursaal, and two +in the Rue de Rhone, and most of the cafes on the Grand Quai are +feeding-places as well; but I never ate a dinner yet in Geneva--and I +have known the place man and boy, as they say in nautical melodrama, for +thirty-five years--that was worth remembering; and though the trout are +as palatable as they were when Cambaceres used to import them to France +for his suppers, I have never tasted the _Ombre Chevalier_ of which +Hayward wrote appreciatively. There are two little out-of-door +restaurants which are amusing to breakfast at during the summer. One is +in the Jardin Anglais and the other in the Jardin des Bastions. At each +a cheap _table-d'hote_ meal is served at little tables. There is also a +restaurant in the Park des Eaux Vives. + +On the borders of the Lake of Geneva there are many good hotels, though +some of the best of them pick and choose their visitors, and writing +beforehand does not mean that a room will be found for a bachelor who +only intends to stay a few days. The better the hotel the better the +restaurant, and if the haughty hotel porter at the station says "No" +very courteously when you look appealingly at him and ask if a room has +been kept for you, the only way is to try the next on your list. +Fresh-water fish, fruit, cheese, honey, are all excellent by the lake, +and the wines of the Rhone valley are some of them excellent. At +Lauzanne, Vevey, Montreux, Territet, the wines of the country are well +worth tasting, for in the valley above Villeneuve there are a dozen +vineyards each producing an excellent wine; and the vines imported from +the Rhine valley, from the Bordeaux and Burgundy districts, give wine +which is excellent to drink and curious as well, when the history of the +vine is known. Always ask what the local cheese is. There are varieties +of all kinds, and they afford a change from the eternal slab of +Gruyere. + +Of course Switzerland has its surprises like every other country, and +one does not expect to find an ex-head _chef_ of Claridge's running a +little restaurant by a lake in the Swiss mountains. Mr. Elsener, who is +this benefactor to humanity, was the head of the catering department at +the Imperial Institute when a very praiseworthy effort was made to make +a smart dining place in the arid waste called a garden in the centre of +the buildings; and he also catered for the Coldstream Guards, so that he +started business with a good _clientele_. As a sample of what can be +done on the mountain heights, I give the menu of one of the dinners +served by Elsener at the restaurant Villa Fortuna:-- + + Huitres d'Ostende. + Consomme Riche. + Filet de Sole au Vin Blanc. + Tournedos a l'Othello. + Petits Pois. Pommes paille. + Vol-au-vent a la Banquier. + Aspic de foie gras en belle vue. + Melons Glace Venitienne. + Petit Fours. + Omelette a la Madras. + Petit Souffle au Parmesan. + Dessert. + +N.N.-D. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ITALY + + Italian cookery and wines--Turin--Milan--Genoa--Venice-- + Bologna--Spezzia--Florence--Pisa--Leghorn--Rome--Naples--Palermo. + + +Italian Cookery + +There is no cookery in Europe so often maligned without cause as that of +Italy. People who are not sure of their facts often dismiss it +contemptuously as being "all garlic and oil," whereas very little oil is +used except at Genoa, where oil, and very good oil as a rule, takes the +place of butter, and no more garlic than is necessary to give a slight +flavour to the dishes in which it plays a part. An Italian cook frys +better than one of any other nationality. In the north very good meat is +obtainable, the boiled beef of Turin being almost equal to our own +Silverside. Farther and farther south, as the climate becomes hotter, +the meat becomes less and less the food of the people, various dishes of +paste and fish taking its place, and as a compensation the fruit and the +wine become more delicious. The fowls and figs of Tuscany, the white +truffles of Piedmont, the artichokes of Rome, the walnuts and grapes of +Sorrento, might well stir a gourmet to poetic flights. The Italians are +very fond of their _Risotto_, the rice which they eat with various +seasonings,--with sauce, with butter, and with more elaborate +preparations. They also eat their _Paste asciutte_ in various forms. It +is _Maccheroni_ generally in Naples, _Spagetti_ in Rome, _Trinetti_ in +Genoa. _Alla Siciliana_ and _con Vongole_ are but two of the many ways +of seasoning the _Spagetti_. Again, the delicate little envelopes of +paste containing forcemeat of some kind or another change their names +according to their contents and the town they are made in. They are +_Ravioli_ both at Genoa and Florence, but at Bologna they are +_Capeletti_, and at Turin _Agnolotti. Perpadelle_, another pasta dish +with a little difference of seasoning, becomes _Tettachine_ when the +venue changes from Bologna to Rome. + +There are many minor differences in the components of similarly named +dishes at different towns; the _Minestrone_ of Milan and Genoa differ, +and so does the _Fritto Misto_ of Rome and Turin. I fancy that, as a +compensation, only an expert could tell the difference between the soups +_di Vongole_ at Naples, _di Dattero_ at Spezzia, and _di Peoci_ at +Venice. + +The "Zabajone" the sweet, frothing drink beaten up with eggs and sugar, +is made differently in different towns. At Milan and Turin Marsala and +brandy are used in it; at Venice Cyprus wine is the foundation; and +elsewhere three wines are used. It is a splendidly sustaining drink, +whether drunk hot or iced, and Italian doctors order it in cases of +depression, and it might well find a place in the household recipes of +English and American households. The wines of the various towns I have +noted in writing of them. "Vino nostrano" or "del paese" brings from the +waiter his list of the local juice of the grape, and the wine of the +district is the wine to drink. Roughly speaking, the red wine is the +best throughout Italy, the white of Bologna and the Veneto being the +exceptions. Finally, do not be alarmed if at a _trattoria_ a waiter puts +before you a huge flask of wine. It has been weighed before it is +brought to you. It will be weighed when the waiter takes it away after +you have finished, and what you have drunk, plus the great gulp the +waiter is sure to take if he gets a chance, is what you will be charged +for. + +The Anglo-Saxon travelling in Italy is likely to strike Turin, or Milan, +or Genoa as his first big town, according to the route he has chosen, +and those are therefore the three towns the capabilities of which I +shall first try to describe. + + +Turin + +You will be fed well enough at your hotel whether you are at the Grand, +or Kraft's, or the Trombetta, but if you want to test the cookery of the +town I should suggest a visit to the Ristorante della Meridiana, which +is in the Via Santa Theresa, the street which joins the Piazza Solferino +and San Carlo; or to the Ristorante del Cambio, which is in the Piazza +Carignano, where stands a marble statue of a philosopher and which has a +couple of palaces as close neighbours. At these, or at the Lagrange and +Nazionale, both in the Via Lagrange, you will get the dishes of Turin. + +If you wish to commence with _hors-d'oeuvre_, try the _Pepperoni_, +which are large yellow or red chillies preserved in pressed grapes and +served with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. The _Grissini_, the little +thin sticks of bread which are made in Turin and are famous for their +digestible quality, will be by your plate. Next I should suggest the +_Busecca_, though it is rather satisfying, being a thick soup of tripe +and vegetables; and then must come a great delicacy, the trout from the +Mount Cenis lake. For a meat course, if the boiled beef of the place, +always excellent, is too serious an undertaking, or if the _Frittura +Mista_ is too light, let me recommend the _Rognone Trifolato_, veal +kidney stewed in butter with tomatoes and other good things, including a +little Marsala wine. The white Piedmontese truffles served as a salad, +or with a hot sauce, must on no account be overlooked; nor the +_Cardons_, the white thistle, served with the same sauce; nor indeed the +_Zucchini Ripieni_, which are stuffed pumpkins; and some _Fonduta_, the +cheese of the country, melted in butter and eggs and sprinkled with +white truffles, will form a fitting end to your repast unless you feel +inclined for the biscuits of Novara, or _Gianduiotti_, which are +chocolates or nougat from Alba or Cremona where they make violins as +well as sweets. You should drink the wine of the country, Barbera or +Barolo, Nebiolo or Freisa; and I expect, if you really persevere +through half the dishes I have indicated, that you will be glad of a +glass of Moscato with the fruit. Take your coffee at the Cafe Romano if +you long for "local colour." + + +Milan + +In the town of arcades, white marble, and veal cutlets I generally eat +my breakfast at one of the window tables of the Biffi, from which one +sees the wonderful crowd--well-groomed officers of the Bersaglieri, the +pretty ladies, the wondering peasants--that goes through the great +Galleria; but if there is no window table available, and the head waiter +fails to understand why he should give a table retained for a constant +patron to a bird of passage, I go to the Savini, also in the great +arcade, where I think the food is rather better cooked, but which has +not the same tempting outlook. In the evening, if it is a cold day, I +dine at the Orlogio, at the corner of the great square, a restaurant +which some men find fault with, but where I have always been well +treated; but if the day is hot, I as often as not go to the Cova, near +the Scala, where a band plays after dinner in the garden. Such is my +usual round, with a night-cap at the Gambrinus if I have been to one of +the theatres; but I am penitently aware that my circle is a small one, +and I am told that I should take the De Albertis and the Isola Botta +into my list. Wherever one dines and wherever one breakfasts there are +certain Milanese dishes which one should order. The _Minestrone_ soup is +a dish which is not only found all Italy over but which is popular in +Austria and on the French Riviera as well; but the _Minestrone alla +Milanese_, with its wealth of vegetables and suspicion of Parmesan, is +especially excellent. The _Risotto Milanese_, rice slightly _saute_ in +butter, then boiled in capon broth, and finally seasoned with Parmesan +and saffron, is one of the celebrated Milanese dishes, but the simpler +methods of serving _Risotto, al sugo, al burro_, or _con fegatini_ suit +better those who do not like saffron; or better still is a very +well-known dish of another town, _Risotto Certosino_, in which the rice +is seasoned with a sauce of crayfish and garnished with their tails. +Then come the various manners of cooking veal, the _Cotelette a la +Milanese_, cutlets plunged in beaten eggs and fried in butter after +being crumbed, and others stewed with a little red wine and flavoured +with rosemary; and the _Cotelette alla Marsigliese_, of batter, then +ham, then meat which, when fried, is one of the dishes of the populace +on a feast-day. _Ossobuco_, a shin of veal cut into slices and stewed +with a flavouring of lemon rind, is another veal dish; and so is the +delicate _Fritto Picatto_ of calf's brains, liver, and tiny slices of +flesh. _Polpette a la Milanese_ are forcemeat balls stewed. _Panettone_ +are the cakes of the city and are much eaten at Carnival time. +Stracchino or Crescenza is a cheese much like the French _Brie_. +Gorgonzola all the world knows well; and though Parmesan takes its name +from that Duchess of Parma who introduced it into France, the best +quality comes from Lodi, near Milan. Val Policella and Valle d'Inferno +are the wines to drink. + + +Genoa + +Genoa is a town of noise and bustle. The worst curse one Genoese can +pronounce to another is "May the grass grow before your door." The +Genoese restaurants have not the best reputation in the world for either +cleanliness or quiet; but at the Concordia, in the Via Garibaldi, you +will find a cool and pleasant garden; and at the Gottardo you will +discover the Genoese cookery in all its oily perfection, for the +important difference between the cuisine of Genoa and of every other +Italian town is that all its dishes are prepared with olive oil instead +of butter. + +Of course Genoa has its own especial _Minestrone_ soup flavoured with +_Pesto_, a paste in which pounded basil, garlic, Sardinia cheese, and +olive oil are used; and the fish dishes are _Stocafisso alla Genovese_, +stock-fish stewed with tomatoes and sometimes with potatoes as well, and +a fry of red mullet, and _Moscardini_, which are cuttle-fish, oblong in +shape and redolent of musk. The tripe of Genoa is as celebrated as that +of Caen, and the _Vitello Uccelletto_, little squares of veal _saute_ +with fresh tomatoes in oil and red wine, is a very favourite dish. The +_Ravioli_ I have already written of. The _Faina_ somewhat resembles +Yorkshire pudding made with pease-powder and oil. _Funghi a Fungetto_ +are the wild red mushrooms stewed in oil with thyme and tomatoes, and +_Meizanne_ is a small, bitter egg-plant, only found on the Riviera, +stuffed with a cheese paste and then fried. _Pasqualina_ is an Easter +pie. The figs of Genoa are excellent. The wines are those _delle cinque +terre_, and in some of the cellars you will find them dating back sixty +years or more. + + +Venice + +The city on the lagoons is the next town to be considered, for Verona +has scarcely a cuisine of its own, and Padua sends its best food to the +Venetian market, and its Bagnoli wine as well. The Restaurant Quadri, on +the north side of the Piazza of St. Mark, is one of the best-known +restaurants in Europe, and it is not expensive, for one can breakfast +there well enough for 4 francs. + +A gourmet of my acquaintance thus describes a typical breakfast at the +Quadri. "When you go to the restaurant do not be induced to go upstairs +where the tourists are generally invited, but take a little table on the +ground floor, where you can see all the piazza life, and begin with a +_Vermouth Amaro_, in lieu of a "cocktail." For _hors-d'oeuvre_ have +some small crabs, cold, mashed up with _Sauce Tartare_, and perhaps a +slice or two of _Presciuto Crudo_, raw ham cut as thin as +cigarette-paper. After this a steaming _Risotto_, with _Scampe_, +somewhat resembling gigantic prawns. Some cutlets done in Bologna style, +a thin slice of ham on top and hot Parmesan and grated white truffles +and _Fegato alla Veneziana_ complete the repast, except for a slice of +Strachino cheese. A bottle of Val Policella is exactly suited to this +kind of repast, and a glass of fine-champagne (De Luze) for yourself and +of ruby-coloured Alkermes for the lady, if your wife accompanies you, +makes a good ending. The _maitre-d'hotel_, who looks like a retired +ambassador, will be interested in you directly he finds that you know +how a man should breakfast." + +The restaurant which comes next in order in popularity with visitors is +the Bauer-Grunwald, in the Via Ventidue Marzo, which has a garden with +seats in it; but this is a German house, and can scarcely claim to +represent anything Venetian. The Capello Nero, in the Merceria, behind +the Piazza of St. Mark, is thoroughly Venetian and unpretentious, and +there you may obtain the real cookery of the town; and another such +_trattoria_ attached to an hotel is the Cavalletto, by the Ponte +Cavalletto, close to the great square; but the Venetian cookery, it +should be thoroughly understood, is not eaten in Parisian surroundings. + +At the Florian Cafe, which in the summer keeps open all the night +through, one gets the frothing _Zabajone_ made so stiff that a spoon +stands upright in it. + +There are many _birrerie_ in Venice, the Dreher being one frequented by +the Italians. + +The _Zuppa di Peoci_ is a soup made from the little shell-fish called +"peoci" in Venice, and appearing under other names at Spezzia and +Naples, and so fond are the Venetians of it that they flavour their rice +with sauce made from it and call it _Riso coi peoci. Baccala_, or +salt-cod, and _Calamai_, little cuttle-fish or octopi, looking and +tasting like fried strips of soft leather, are native dishes not to be +recommended; but the _Anguille di Comacchio_, the great eels from +Comacchio, grilled on the spit between bay leaves, or fried or stewed, +are excellent. Another Venetian dish which I can strongly recommend is +the _Fegato alla Veneziana_, calf liver cut into thin slices, fried with +onions in butter, and flavoured with lemon juice. Stewed larks, with a +pudding of Veronese flour, are satisfying, and a sausage from the +neighbouring Treviso, which also gives its name to the _Radici di +Treviso_, is much esteemed. The _Pucca baruca_ is one of the big yellow +pumpkins baked. The wines are, of course, those of the mainland, +Conegliano from Treviso and Val Policella from Verona. + + +Bologna + +"Bologna la grassa" does not belie its nick-name, and it is said that +the matronly ladies, all over forty, who cook for the rotund priests, +are the _cordons bleus_ of Italy. The restaurant of the Hotel Brun is +the one where the passing Anglo-Saxon generally takes his meals and a +chat with the proprietor, who is generally addressed as Frank, is +entertaining, for he owns vineyards behind the town, which he is happy +to show to any one interested in vine-culture, and he makes his wine +after the French manner. The Hotel d'Italie is more an Italian house, +and the Stella d'Italia, in the Via Rizzoli, is the typical popular +restaurant of the town. At the Albergo Roma, on the Via d'Azeglio, I +have lunched on good food for a couple of francs. + +The _Coppaletti_ I have already referred to. The _Perpadelle col +Ragout_ are made of the same dough as the French _nouilles_, in narrow +strips boiled and seasoned with minced meat and Parmesan cheese. Another +variety of this _Perpadelle alla Bolognese_ has minced ham as a +seasoning. Then come the far-famed sausages, the great _Codeghino_, +boiled and served with spinach or mashed potatoes; the large, +ball-shaped _Mortadella_, which is sometimes eaten raw; and the stuffed +foreleg of a pig, which is boiled and served with spinach and mashed +potatoes and which is a dish the Bolognese "conveyed" from Verona. + +The wines are San Giovese and Lambresco. + + +Spezzia + +Not at Spezzia itself, but at Porto Venere on the promontory at the +entrance to the bay, will the gourmet find the _Zuppa di Datteri_, which +is the great delicacy of the gulf. The _dattero_ is a shell-fish which +in shape resembles a date stone. It has a very delicate taste, and is +eaten stewed with tomatoes and served with a layer of toast. The little +inn, Del Genio, is not too clean, but the landlord will tell you that +Byron and Shelley made no complaints when they lived there and that they +had a thorough appreciation of the dainty _datteri_. Byron is said to +have written most of his _Corsair_ in a grotto at Porto Venere, and +Shelley was cast up drowned on the sand across the gulf. + + +Florence + +If you wish to be aristocratic in Florence you will lunch at Capitani's +in the Via Tornabuoni, and in the afternoon you will lounge about the +street until it is time to drink tea and eat cake at Giacosa's, or +Doney's, or the Albion, or Digerini's, and Marinari's venture, next door +to the library, after which you will look in at Vieusseux's to see if +there is any news a-foot. You will then have eaten a very fair lunch +cooked _a la Francaise_, and will have met in the course of the +afternoon all your fellow country-men and country-women resident in +Florence. If, however, you want to sample Florentine cookery, you will +fly from the splendours of the road which leads to the bridge of the +Trinity and will try Mellini's in the Via Calzajoli, which runs from the +Piazza della Signoria to that of the cathedral, where you will find both +German and Italian dishes; or if you wish to test the native art, +untouched by Teuton heaviness, go to La Toscana in the same street. +There you will find comparative quiet, and you can be quite sure that +the fish you order will be fresh, for it is sent daily direct from +Leghorn, where the owner of La Toscana has a branch establishment. + +At night the Gambrinus in one corner of the Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele +rocks with sound, a band plays at intervals, and till long past midnight +red and white wine and most indifferent cigarettes are called for by the +revellers. This is hardly a place at which ladies would enjoy +themselves, and still less should they be taken to Paoli's--where the +young Florentines amuse themselves with good oysters and bad company +until the small hours of the morning grow big--or to Picciolo's. + +The Cafe la Rosa is a typical haunt of the submerged tenth, with a +corrosive drink of its own. + +There are not very many dishes distinctively Florentine. _Stracotto_, +braised beef with tomatoes, is one of them; and _Fegatini di pollo_, +giblets stewed in wine sauce, is another. The Tuscan fowls are +especially esteemed, and are roasted before a wood fire; and there is a +special Florentine salad of haricot beans generally served with caviar. +The figs, of many kinds, are delicious, and _Presciutto con fichi_, +fresh figs and ham, are eaten all over Tuscany. The chestnuts from the +Appenines are the best flavoured in Italy. Chianti is the local wine. + +The Aurora is the restaurant to be patronised at Fiesoli. It has a +little garden whence there is a fine view. + + +Pisa + +The Nettuno at Pisa is the old-fashioned Italian inn, and it used to be +the restaurant patronised by the officers of the garrison, but for some +reason they quarrelled with the proprietor and transferred their custom +to the other Italian restaurant and inn, the Cervia. + +Pisa prides itself on its puddings and confectionary. The _Pattona_ and +_Castagnacci_, both _alla Pisana_, are puddings made of chestnut flour +and olive oil, and flavoured with fruit. _Schiacciata_ are Easter +cakes. In the afternoon, after a walk on the Lungarno, all the world of +Pisa goes to Bazzeli, the pastry-cook's shop, and there you may find the +elders of the town and the high officers of the garrison, talking over +affairs of State while they demolish many little cakes. + + +Leghorn + +An Englishman who knows his Leghorn thoroughly, writes thus:-- + +The restaurant of the Albergo Giappone is one of the most famous +eating-houses in Tuscany. The kitchen is not merely Italian, it is +wholly Tuscan, and the Tuscan kitchen in skilful hands appears to +content both the gourmet and the gourmand. Affairs once brought a +distinguished English gourmet on a brief visit to Leghorn, and accident +(for its fame had not preceded him) took him to the Giappone. Instead of +staying three days, he stayed three weeks, so that he might ring all the +changes of that wonderful menu, and he has since publicly declared that +the kitchen of the Giappone is one of the finest in Europe. The English +visitor to Leghorn is a rarity, but all famous Italians have at some +time or other eaten at the Giappone--Crispi, Zanardelli, Cavallotti, +Benedetto Brin, Puccini, Mascagni, to mention only a few among many. The +proprietor is the Cav. Pasquale Cianfanelli, known even on the London +market for the excellence of his Tuscan wines. + +The full Tuscan dinner does not follow in the order of fish, entree, +roast, _piece de resistance_, and game, but of boiled (_lesso_), fried +(_fritto_), stewed (_umido_) and roast (_arrosto_). The boiled may be +beef; the fried, sweetbread; the stewed, fish; the roast, pigeon; but +this order is always maintained, and the stranger's disappointment at +there being no fish after the soup has only been equalled by his +astonishment when it turns up in the fourth place. It is for this reason +that the Tuscan bill of fare proves such a puzzle to the stranger with +only a smattering of the language, for it is not made out under the +headings of fish, entrees, joint, etc., but of _lessi_, _fritti_, +_umidi_, and _arrosti_; and fish, for instance, will be found under all +four headings. Famous dishes at the Giappone are _Spaghetti a sugo di +carne_ (gravy sauce), _Risotto_ with white truffles, _Arselle_ (a small +shell-fish) _alla Marinara_, _Triglie_ (red mullet) _alla Livornese_, +_Fritto misto_ (mixed fry), _Controfiletto con Maccheroni_, etc. The +diner cannot do better than keep to the ordinary _vino da pasto_, and +end with the delicious _caffe espresso_ and a _Val d'Ema_ (Tuscan +Chartreuse), green or yellow. The best Tuscan mineral water is the +_Acqua Litiosa di S. Marco_ (from the province of Grosseto), and it +deserves more than a merely local fame. If the traveller's flask is not +already empty, let him try some of its contents with this water, and he +will have a pleasant surprise. + +Another excellent restaurant in Leghorn is that attached to the Hotel +d'Angleterre-Campari, owned by Signori De-Stefani and Clerici, the +latter of whom was for a time in London, at the Albergo d'Italia. The +cuisine is North Italian and French, and the traveller not thoroughly +converted to the Tuscan table will find himself extremely well treated +at the Hotel Campari. + + +Rome + +A man who loved strange experiments in eating, once asked me in Rome to +dine with him at a very cheap inn outside one of the gates, and he +explained how the dinner was arranged. He had found a hostel which did +not provide food, but if you bought a lamb from a shepherd outside the +gate, so as to save the _octroi_, you could have it cooked in a great +pot, a certain amount being charged for the cooking; and you bought your +wine, as a matter of course, at the inn. The carters and herds were, he +told me, the people who partook of this repast, and every man ate his +own lamb, leaving little but the bones. I did not go to that inn. That +place of refreshment was at one end of the social ladder, the Grand and +Quirinale are at the other. Set a man down in the restaurant of the +Grand, or the Winter Garden of the Quirinale, and there will be nothing +to give him a hint as to whether he is in London, or Paris, or Rome. He +will eat an excellent dinner--French in all respects--and will be waited +on by civil waiters, whom he knows to be foreigners, but who will answer +him in English whatever language he addresses them in. At either +restaurant an excellent dinner of ceremony can be given. The last time +that I stayed at the Grand, I ate the _table-d'hote_ dinner on several +occasions and found it good. The Roma in the Corso, and the Colonna in +the Piazza Colonna, are the typical city restaurants; but they have a +leaning towards the French cuisine. To eat the food of Rome, try La +Venete in the Via Campo Marzio, which has a garden; or, more distinctive +still, the Tre Re, hard by the Pantheon, where you must talk Italian, or +else make signs. + +Bucci, in the Piazza della Coppelle, is the Scott's or Driver's of Rome, +and you can dine or lunch there off shell-fish soup, and the fish which +comes from Anzio and the other fishing villages of the coast. + +There is a curious restaurant close by the station, Vagliani is, I +fancy, the owner, where artichokes are the staple fare, and where the +decorations are in keeping with the food. You will find the foreign +colony of art students--Danes, Norwegians, Germans--in the restaurants +of the Via delle Crace, Coradetti, where the food is well cooked but +served without any unnecessary luxury, being perhaps the best +eating-house; but the real haunt of the artist in Rome is, at the +present time, the Trattoria Fiorella in the Via delle Colonelli. Only do +not go and stare at him while he is taking his meals, for if you do, he +will go elsewhere to another _trattoria_, the position of which he will +keep a dead secret. Of course there are Roman dishes without number, and +these are some of the best known of them:-- + +The _Zuppa di Pesce_ is a _Bouillabaisse_ without any saffron. The fish +and shell-fish (John Dory, red mullet, cuttle-fish, lobster, whiting, +muraena, and mussels) which compose it are served on toast. The _Fritto +di Calamaretti_ is a fry of cuttle-fish in oil. _Cinghiale in agro +dolce_ is wild boar cooked in a sauce of chocolate, sugar, plums, +_pinolis_, red currant, and vinegar. A _bacchio e Capretto alla +Cacciatora_ is very young lamb and sucking-goat cut into small pieces, +and cooked in a sauce to which anchovies and chillies give the dominant +taste. _Pollo en padella_ are spring chickens cut up and fried with +tomatoes, large sweet chillies, and white wine. _Pasticcio di +Maccheroni_ is an excellent macaroni pie, and _Gnocchi di Patele_ are +little knobs of paste boiled like macaroni. Broccoli, green peas cooked +with butter and ham, and, above all, the Roman artichoke stewed in +oil--which is to be obtained at its best in the old Jewish eating-houses +of the Ghetto--are the vegetables of Rome. A very small ham is one of +the local delicacies. _Gnocchi di latte_ are custards in layers, each of +which is seasoned with either sugar or butter, or cinnamon or Parmesan +cheese; and _Zuppa Inglese_ is a rich cake soused with liqueurs and +vanilla cream, covered with meringue and baked. _Uova di Bufola_ is a +little ball of cheese made from buffalo's milk. The best kind, _Abota_ +is kept in wrappings of fresh myrtle leaves. Marino (red) and Frascati +(white) are two of the best local wines. Orvietto has a faint +remembrance of the champagne taste. Monte Fiascone is a dessert wine. + + +Naples + +There is a certain man in a certain London club who has a grievance +against Italy in general, against Naples in particular, and, to descend +to minute detail, against one Neapolitan restaurant above all others. He +tells his tale to all comers as a warning to those who _will_ travel in +"foreign parts." He returned from a long turn of service in India, and, +landing at Naples, concluded that as he was in Europe he could get +British food. He went to a restaurant which shall be nameless, and +ordered a "chump chop." He had the greatest difficulty, through an +interpreter, to explain exactly what it was that he wanted, and then was +forced to wait for an hour before it appeared. When the bill was +presented it frightened him, but the proprietor, on being summoned, said +that as such an extraordinary joint had been asked for, he had been +compelled to buy a whole sheep to supply it. This is a warning not to +ask for British dishes in a Neapolitan restaurant. + +Time was when the Gambrinus, which is the excellently decorated cafe and +restaurant at the end of the Chiaja, and the big cafe and restaurant in +the great arcade, were at daggers drawn, and a war of cutting down of +prices raged. In those happy days one could dine or lunch at either +place sumptuously for a shilling. Some meddling busybody interfered in +the quarrel and brought the proprietors into a friendly spirit. The +Gambrinus, with its bright rooms, good decorations, and fair attendance, +is perhaps the best restaurant at which a stranger can take a meal, +unless he is looking for the distinctive Neapolitan cookery. If he is in +search of the dishes of the town, let him try the Europa or, better +still for his purpose, the Vermouth di Torino in the Piazza del +Municipio. To eat the fish dishes which show the real cookery of Naples +better than any other, he should go out on a moonlight night a couple of +miles to the Antica Trattoria dello Scoglio di Frisio, or to the less +aristocratic Trattoria del Figlio di Pietro in the Strada Nuova del +Posilipo. + +Of the macaroni I have already written. The splendid tomatoes grown in +Naples, which are cooked with it, give it its particular excellence. It +is also seasoned with cheese. _Spagetti alle Vongole_ is the macaroni +seasoned with the little shell-fish of the place. _Zuppa di Vongole_ is +a clear soup of bread and _Vongole_. _Polpi alla Luciana_ are small +octopi stewed in an earthern pot with oil, tomatoes, chilli, and red +wine. Between the pot and the lid a sheet of oiled paper is placed, to +prevent the steam from escaping. The _Spigola_, the most delicate of +fishes of the Mediterranean, is at its best between 1 and 1-1/2 lbs. in +weight. It is either boiled or roasted, and is served with a sauce of +oil, lemon juice, and chopped parsley. A steak _alla Pizzaiola_ is baked +in an oven with potatoes, garlic, and thyme; and _Pizza alla Pizzaiola_ +is a kind of Yorkshire pudding eaten either with cheese or anchovies and +tomatoes flavoured with thyme. _Mozzarelle in carozza_ is a slice of +bread soaked in milk and a slice of Provola cheese, the whole plunged in +beaten eggs and then fried. There is an excellent Neapolitan method of +treating egg-plants, fried in oil, cut in slices, sandwiched with cheese +and tomatoes, and then baked. Provola and Cacio Cavallo are the +Neapolitan cheeses. Vesuvio, Capri, Gragnano, Lacrima Christa are a few +of the wines grown along the bays. The walnuts of Sorrento are the best +in Italy. + + +Palermo + +Palermo has its special dishes, amongst them of course its _Spagetti_, +seasoned with minced meat and egg-plant; but its ices and its fruit are +its particular delicacies. Marsala, Moscato di Siracusa, and Amarena di +Siracusa are the wines of the island. If you want to try Sicilian +cookery, go either to the Lincoln by the Plazza Marina or the Rebecchina +in the Via Vittoria Emanuele. + +N.N.-D. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SPAIN AND PORTUGAL + + Food and wines of the country--Barcelona--San + Sebastian--Bilbao--Madrid--Seville--Bobadilla--Grenada--Jerez-- + Algeciras--Lisbon--Estoril. + + +A candid Frenchman, who had lived long in Spain, asked as to the cookery +of Spain compared with that of other nations, replied, "It is worse even +than that of the English, which is the next worst." That Frenchman was, +however, rather ungrateful, for the Spaniards taught the French how to +stuff turkeys with chestnuts. The Spanish cooks also first understood +that an orange salad is the proper accompaniment to a wild duck, and the +Spanish hams are excellent. The lower orders in Spain have too great a +partiality for _ajo_ and _aceite_ for oil and garlic. Their oil, which +they use greatly even with fish, is not the refined oil of Genoa or the +south of France, but is a coarse liquid, the ill taste of which remains +all day in one's mouth. Garlic is an excellent seasoning in its proper +place and quantity, and the upper classes of the Spaniards have their +meat lightly rubbed with it before being cooked, but the lower classes +use it in the cooking to an intolerable extent. Capsicum is much eaten +in Spain, being sometimes stuffed, but in any quantity it is very +indigestible. + +In the south of Spain the heat is tropical in the summer, and the only +meat then available in any small town is generally goat. As in India, +the chicken which you order for your lunch is running about the yard of +the inn when the order is given. The principal dish of Spain is +_Puchero_, which consists of beef, very savoury sausages, bacon, fowl, +and plenty of the white haricot beans known as _garbanzos_, some leeks, +and a small onion, all put together into a pot to boil. The liquid is +carefully skimmed before it actually boils, and as the scum stops +forming hot water is added. The broth, _Caldo_, is used as soup; the +remainder, which has had most of the sustaining quality boiled out of +it, is the daily dish of the middle and upper classes, who call it +_Cocido_. _Gazpaco_ is a kind of cold soup much used in the southern and +hotter parts of Spain. It is made of bread crumbs, bonito fish, onions, +oil, vinegar, garlic, and cucumbers. All these are beaten into a pulp, +then diluted, and bread broken into the mixture. The better classes +drink this as we should afternoon tea. _Bacalas_, or dried cod, is one +of the staple dishes of the poor in the north, and the English in Spain +also often eat it. The favourite mode of preparation is to first soak +out the salt, then let the cod simmer, but not boil, adding afterwards +_pimientas dulces_ and chopped onion fried and pounded. The selection of +a cod-fish is the first necessity in preparing this dish, for some of +the cheaper kinds from Norway are so odoriferous as to make them +impossible to most white men. + +Spain is a country which is no happy hunting ground for a gourmet. The +restaurants in Barcelona one can rely on, Madrid comes next in honour, +and the rest, to use a sporting term, are "nowhere," the customary +_table-d'hote_ dinner at the restaurants of a small town consisting of +_Caldo_, then the universal stew, then _Arroz a la Valencia_, rice, +chicken, and tomatoes, and finally quince marmalade. + +Lisbon is the one city in Portugal where the cooking is worthy of any +serious consideration. + +The wines of Spain are the Valdepenas, which is very strong and really +requires eight or ten years in bottle to mature, a Rioja claret, which +is a good wine when four years in bottle, and of course sherry in the +south, of which all the leading brands are obtainable. In the north I +have found Diamante a pleasant wine to drink. The Spanish brandy is, if +a good brand is chosen, excellent. + + +Barcelona + +The busy bustling capital of Catalonia is better off in the matter of +restaurants than any town in Spain, the capital included. First in order +comes Justin's, the longer title of which is the Restaurant de Francia, +in the Plaza Real. It is an old-established house with a good cook, and +excellent wines in its cellars. It is a restaurant that the French would +describe as _non chiffre_, for it does not mark the prices on its card +of the day, though they are not higher than at most of the other +restaurants of Barcelona. There are some very pleasant private rooms at +the restaurant, and a large room for banquets. The cuisine is almost +entirely French. You can get a very fair dinner, wine and all, at +Justin's for about 6s.; but if you are giving a dinner party, and are +prepared to pay 30 pesetas or 18s. a head, Justin's will give you such a +dinner as the menu I give below, wine and all:-- + + Huitres de Marennes. + Consomme Colbert. + Hors-d'oeuvre varies. + Loup. Sauce Hollandaise. + Cotelettes de Sanglier Venaison. + Salmis de Becasses. + Chapon Truffe. + Petits pois a la creme. + Glace Napolitaine. + Desserts assortis. + + VINS. + + Rioja blanco. + Vinicola. + Cliquot sec frappe. + +The Rioja Blanco, Diamante, and Vinicola seem to be the wines most +generally drunk at Justin's. MM. Marius and Gerina are the present +proprietors. + +In the central square, the Plaza Cataluna, is the new and gorgeous +Restaurant Colon, attached to the newly finished hotel of that name. The +decorations of the interior are artistic, and the building bears on its +facade in gold and colours the arms of the principal European nations. +Here, as at Justin's, the cookery is almost entirely of the French +school. The _chef_ is M. Azcoaga, the manager Mons. Scatti. There is a +good fixed priced lunch and dinner, specimen menus of which I give:-- + + 5 Pts. DEJEUNER. + + Hors-d'oeuvre. + Oeufs poches Princesse. + Filets de Sole Waleska. + Poulet Cocotte Bayaldy. + Buffet froid. + Filet grille. Pommes fondantes. + Biscuit glace. + Dessert. + + 6 Pts. DINNER. + + Hors-d'oeuvre. + Consomme Duchesse. + Creme Windsor. + Turbot. Sauce Hollandaise. + Carre d'Agneau Maintenon. + Haricots verts Anglaise. + Caille sur Canape. + Salade. + Peches Richelieu. + Dessert. + +The Continental and Martin's may be said to run a dead heat for third +place. The former is in the Plaza Cataluna, and its cuisine is both +foreign and of the country. On its bill of fare are always three _plats +de jour_, and that on one day, _Raviolis Napolitaine_, _Escargots +Bourguinonne_, and _Filet grille Bordelaise_ were the three dishes, and +on another _Oeufs Meyerbeer_, _Filet de veau froid aux Legumes_, and +_Rap Marinera_ shows the variety of the fare. The prices of these dishes +are all between one and two pesetas. Under the heading of _fritures_, +all kinds of _conchas_ and _Escalopitas_ and _Croquettas_ are to be +found, as well as the _Frito Mixto_; and the fish column gives an +interesting selection of the sea denizens of the coast, _Rap_, +_Calamares_, _Merluza_, _Pouvine_, and others. The banquets at the +Continental are entirely French in character. + +Martin's in the Rambla del Centro is almost in front of the Opera House, +and has a number of snug little rooms for supper parties, of two or +more, after the theatre. This is a dinner for a dozen given at Martin's. +The position in the menu of game, _hors-d'oeuvre_, and fish is in +accordance with the usual Spanish custom, and is always adhered to in +this establishment:-- + + VINS. + + _Jerez Macharnudo._ | Creme de volaille Royale. + | Hors-d'oeuvre. + _Rioja Clarete._ | Cailles a la Maintenon. + _Barsac_ 1893. | Saumon de la Loire a la Parisienne. + | Troncons de Filet a la Perigueux. + | Asperges en Branches. + _Moet Chandon._ | Chapons de la Bresse aux Cressons. + | Biscuits Glaces au Praline. + | Dessert assorti. + + CAFE ET LIQUEURS. + +M. Martin, who is the proprietor, will give you a dinner at any price +from 4 pesetas upwards. He was caterer to the kings of Portugal and of +Sweden when they were at Barcelona in 1888, and has furnished all the +banquets given by the municipal council since 1881. _Filet de sole +Martin_, one of the dishes of the house, proves that he has the Parisian +ambition to give a name to a filleted sole. + +The Maison Doree which has lately been increased to double its original +size, has as proprietors the MM. Pompidor, Frenchmen, who march with the +times. It is in the Plaza Cataluna. It makes a speciality of a +_prix-fixe_ breakfast and dinner on Thursdays and Saturdays, and it +serves tea daily _a l'Anglaise_ from 4 to 6. + + +Port Bou + +There is a little restaurant at Port Bou, kept by Francisco Jaque, where +you are likely, if you are making a stay to see the Pyrenees, to be +better looked after than at the station on the French side of the +frontier. There are rooms to be hired there. + + +San Sebastian + +Crossing the Spanish frontier on the western side from France, the first +important town reached is San Sebastian. The great sea-bathing place of +Spain is a town where one would expect to find some excellent +restaurants, for the Queen-mother lives for a great part of the year in +her palace on the sea-shore, and the Court is with the King whenever he +is in residence there, which is generally in summer and autumn. A large +hotel, with a good restaurant and all the latest improvements, is +projected, and no doubt San Sebastian will soon be as well catered for +as any French watering-place; but in the meantime it is as well for the +casual seeker for a meal to go to the Continental, which overlooks the +bay, and where a very fair breakfast is to be obtained for 4 francs in +the verandah whence all the life of the place can be watched. + +The Casino has a restaurant with a wide verandah which should be a +delightful place at which to take dinner. I had been warned that I +should not be well served there, but one day I thought that the view of +the town and the garden, with its picturesque crowd, would make amends +for any dilatoriness. This was the menu of the dinner that I partook of, +and, though wine was included in the repast, to conciliate the haughty +Spaniard in dress-clothes who came and looked at me as though I were an +"earth-man," I ordered a pint of Diamante:-- + + Hors-d'oeuvre. + + POTAGES. + + Creme de volaille. Consomme Riche. + + POISSON. + + Langouste. Sauce Tartare. + + ENTREE. + + Salmis de Perdreaux au Jerez. + + LEGUMES. + + Tomates farcies Provencale. + + ROTI. + + Filet de Boeuf Pique Broche. Salade. + + ENTREMETS. + + Arlequin. Dessert. + +I do not think that I ever had a worse-served 7 francs worth of food. +Once in my life, at a Chicago hotel, I saw a negro waiter shaking up the +bottle of Burgundy I had ordered, just to amuse his brother "coons," and +I felt a helpless exasperation as I watched him. The same feeling of +voiceless anger was upon me as I watched the gentleman who was supposed +at the San Sebastian Casino to keep me supplied with hot food, bring a +dish from the interior of the cafe and then put it down on somebody +else's table to cool while he strolled across the terrace to ask the +military guardian at the gate how many people had paid for admission, or +at what hour the band played, or what number had won the lottery. + +Bourdette and the Urbana, both with French cookery, are the restaurants +patronised by the Englishmen in San Sebastian who talk Spanish, and both +are said to be fairly good. + + +Bilbao + +It is curious that at the great northern town of Spain there should be +no first-class restaurants. The two best in the town are the Antiguo, +in the Calle de Bidebarrieta, and the Moderno. Both of these boast what +the Spaniards term _Cocina Francesa_, which only means that if you make +a request, as the English always do, the cook will fry your food with +butter instead of oil. + +At Portugalete, the port of Bilbao, there is a restaurant, good, as +Spanish restaurants go, attached to the hotel of the place, the +proprietor of which is Dn. Manuel Calvo. The cook and the staff of +waiters come from Lhardy's, the best restaurant in Madrid, and spend +their summer by the seaside. The prices at this restaurant are high. +Portugalete is only a summer resort. + + +Northern Towns + +At Santander, a little further along the northern coast, the best food +to be obtained is found at the Hotel Europa; but the best is bad at +Santander. At Burgos and at Zaragoza the two largest hotels in each +place give the least indifferent food. + + +Madrid + +The capital of Spain cries aloud for a Carlton, or a Ritz, or a Savoy, +and is, I believe, soon to have a really large hotel with a restaurant +managed on the lines which we are accustomed to in all the important +European capitals. The Hotel de Paris, one of the two noisy and +expensive hotels on the Puerta del Sol, has always had a reputation for +its cookery, always remembering that the standard in Spain is not high. +There is a _table-d'hote_ lunch and a _table-d'hote_ dinner, of the +latter of which I append a menu which is a fair specimen:-- + + Consomme Julienne. + Merlan Sauce aux Capres. + Filet de Boeuf Renaissance. + Galantine Truffee a l'Aspic. + Haricots Verts Sautes. + Cailles au Cresson. + Creme au Chocolat Glacee. + Desserts assortis. + +The cookery of the house is French, but Spanish dishes can be obtained +by an order given in advance. There used to be a manager at the Paris +who was known as Constantino--what his other name was no one knew. He +was a universal provider, and the Englishmen who knew him and who used +to stay at the Madrid, never hesitated to ask him for anything +procurable in the capital, from a ticket for a bull-fight to a genuine +Murillo, quite sure that next morning they would find in the office what +they had asked for the previous evening. + +Lhardy's, in the Curera de San Jeronimo, is the typical Madrid +restaurant not attached to an hotel. The appearance of the ground floor +is that of a _charcutier's_ and pastry-cook's combined. The restaurant +you will find on the first floor, where a _table-d'hote_ dinner and +lunch are served. The annexed menu shows what the daily lunch is like:-- + + Potage Tortue a l'Americaine. + Turbot Garni. Sauce Crevettes. + Filets de Boeuf a la Vatel. + Bellevue de Perdreaux a l'Ecarlate. + Dindonneaux rotis au Cresson. + Salade Russe. + Glace Conde. + Dessert. + + VINS. + + Jerez. + Bordeaux. + Champagne Frappe. + Cafe and Liqueurs. + +The Cafe de Fornos is also well spoken of by all who have experimented. +The restaurant at the Fornos is in the cafe on the ground floor. On the +first floor are the private rooms. There are several of the restaurants +with _cabinets particuliers_ where little suppers are given after the +theatre, the Fornos being one; but the Madrilese dandy, wishing to sup +_a deux_, generally chooses the Cafe Ingles, as the private rooms are +very well decorated. The Perla is also well spoken of. All these +restaurants profess the French cuisine, and at Lhardy's as good a dinner +is obtainable as at the best restaurants of Barcelona. + + +Seville + +At Seville you dine and breakfast at your hotel, whether it be the +Madrid or the Paris, both very good hotels for Spain. There is a +_table-d'hote_ dinner at each after the style of the meal of which I +have given a menu under the heading of Madrid. At both hotels an extra +charge is made to those aristocrats who will not sit at the long table +which runs down the centre of the highly ornamented dining-room and are +accommodated at little tables at the sides of the room. The great +_patio_ of the Madrid, with its palm grove and creepers, is a delightful +place to sit in after dinner. + +The dinner-hour at Seville is seven o'clock. There is a Restaurant Suizo +in the Calle de las Sierpes, and a little restaurant, the Eritana, with +a pleasant garden, is to be found near the turning point of the drive +that the beauty and fashion of Seville take on fine afternoons down the +Paseo de las Delicias by the river. If you are tempted to try the +Manzanilla wine with its proper accompaniment of snails or +_langostinos_, visit the Taberna, opposite the Madrid Hotel; and if you +are a bachelor, do not mind an atmosphere of smoke, can make yourself +understood in Spanish, and like local colour, take your _cafe au lait_ +of an evening in the Cafe Cantante of the Calle Sterpes. You will +recognise the house by the little dancing-girl on the lamp. + + +Bobadilla + +The junction of the lines to Seville, Granada, and Algeciras is +Bobadilla, and there all trains wait for half an hour that the +passengers may feed. The meal is a very fair sample of Spanish cookery, +and you are given soup or eggs, according to the time of day, an entree, +a joint, and fish. I can still recall a Bobadillian meal, with the taste +of garlic acting as a sort of _Leitmotiv_ in all the dishes, of +omelette, stewed beef and beans, a ragout of veal, fried fish in +butter, and cheese. Do not omit to cast an eye on the fair damsel behind +the bar. She is a typical Andalusian beauty and is used to admiration. + + +Grenada + +The hotels Siete Suclos and Washington Irving are the two principal +hotels near the Alhambra, and are crowded with tourist-trippers of all +nations, Americans and Germans predominating, during the tourist season. +At the Siete Suclos the cookery is said to be Spanish in character. My +personal experience is confined to the Washington Irving, and on the +first day of my stay, when I tried to order breakfast and the waiter, in +answer to my query as to what dishes were ready, rolled out with great +rapidity, "Beefsteeake, colfolanam, baconnegs, mutton-chops, mutton +cotolettes," I thought that the local Spanish dishes sounded something +like English ones. Englishmen who live in Spain tell me that they +generally go to the Alhambra, which I take to be the Casa de Huespedes, +3 Alhambra, a lodging-house where I fancy only Spanish is spoken. + + +Cadiz and Jerez + +At Cadiz the cooking at the Grand Hotel de Paris is Spanish and good of +its kind. At Jerez the cooking at the Fondas de Los Cisnes and La +Victoria is Spanish also. This is the menu of a dinner at the Hotel Los +Cisnos:-- + + Consomme de Quenelles a la Royal. + Filetes de Tenguados a la Tutus. + Chuletas de Cordero a la Inglesa. + Pechugas de Pollos a la Suprema. + Perdices al jugo. + Ensalada Rusa. + Esparragos de Aranjuez, salsa blanca. + Mantecados de Vainilla y Fresa. + Postres variados. + + +Algeciras + +The town on the Spanish side of the bay has redeemed Gibraltar from its +ill fame as a place of entertainment. The late Ignacio Lersundi, under +whose rule the Bristol in London--now converted into a ladies' +club--gave one of the best, if not the best, _table-d'hote_ dinners +obtainable in the English capital, supervised the arrangements of the +Hotel Reina Christina, and the _table-d'hote_ dinner there still is an +excellent one. + + +Lisbon + +There are good hotels to stay at in Lisbon and there are restaurants in +plenty, but to try the cookery of some of the town eating-houses a +gourmet requires to have his taste educated up to, or down to, the +Portuguese standard. + +At the Braganza, a little club of bachelor Britons have been in the +habit of dining together and ordering their dinner in advance, and this +is a fair sample of what the steady-going but very comfortable hostelry +can do when it chooses:-- + + | POTAGES. + | + _Madeira Riche._ | Queues de Boeuf. Creme Clamart. + | Petits Souffles Desir. + _Johannisberger | Saumon Sauce Genevoise. + (Claus)._ | Selle de Presale a la Montpensier. + | Poularde a l'Ambassadrice. + _Chateau Giscours._ | Pain de foies gras en Bellevue. + | Punch au Kirsch. + | Asperges Sauce Mousseuse. + _George Goulet, | Pintades Truffees. + 1892 Vintage._ | Salade Japonaise. + | Timbales a la Lyon d'Or. + _Porto 1815._ | Glaces a la Americaine. + | Petits fours. + | Dessert. + _Liqueurs._ | CAFE. + +A good _table-d'hote_ breakfast and dinner are served daily at 11 A.M. +and 7 P.M. and the price is moderate, being about 800 reis and 1.200 +respectively. (It is well to remember that the exchange varies +considerably, and it is therefore difficult to give the equivalents in +sterling for the prices quoted, but 5500 to 6000 reis may be roughly +taken at _L1_ sterling.) The proprietor is M. Sasetti, who is ably +supported by his manager and by a head waiter named Celestino, a most +useful person in every way. + +Wines, spirits, and liqueurs of foreign origin are expensive at the +Braganza, as they are everywhere else, owing to the high custom tariff; +but the local wines, amongst which may be cited Collares, Cadafaes, +Collares Branco, Serradayres white and red, etc., are all good and +cheap table wines. + +The next restaurant as regards comfort, cleanliness, and cuisine is the +Cafe Tavares, situated in the Rua Largo de S. Roque. It is essentially a +cafe restaurant, and is open from breakfast time in the morning till 3 +or 4 the following morning. Tavares is the principal rendezvous of the +young bloods, both Portuguese and foreign, particularly so after the +theatres and opera are over and suppers are in demand. The revel goes on +from twelve o'clock until any hour of the morning, more especially as +regards the _cabinets particuliers_, which are best entered from the +back entrance situated in the Rua das Gaveas. A very good _table-d'hote_ +lunch and dinner are served daily at the very moderate cost of 600 and +800 reis. The proprietor and manager is Snr. Caldeira, who is most +attentive and obliging to his guests. + +If any visitor to Lisbon is anxious to try the Portuguese cooking, he +cannot do better than pay a visit to the Leao d'Ouro, situated in the +Rua de Principe, adjoining the Central Railway Station. This formerly +was, and to a great extent still is, the rendezvous of actors, authors, +and professional men. The food is good and very cheap, served _a la +carte_. Portuguese food may be called "highly seasoned," but for all +that there are many good dishes, one speciality of the house being _Sopa +de Camarao_, a _bisque_ of prawns, which in no way is to be despised. +With regard to wines at this restaurant it is advisable to drink those +of the country. + + +Estoril + +Estoril is a very picturesque and beautiful spot about three-quarters of +an hour from Lisbon by rail. Here there has been lately established a +high-class hotel with _cuisine a la Francaise_ and good wines. The hotel +is owned and managed by M. Estrade, who has had a long experience in +this class of business. + +N.N.-D. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY + + Viennese restaurants and + cafes--Baden--Carlsbad--Marienbad--Prague--Bad Gastein--Budapesth. + + +Vienna + +The cuisine of the best of the Viennese restaurants, those attached to +the big hotels, is French, though the Wiener Rostbraten and the Wiener +Schnitzel are world-famous, and the typical Viennese dinner is a good +French dinner with the addition of very delicious bread and pastry made +with a lighter hand than any Gallic cook brings to his task. The wines +of the country of Retz, Mailberg, Pfaffstadt, Gumpoldskirchen, +Klosterneuberg, Nussberg, and Voeslau should all be tasted, most of them +being more than drinkable. Beer, however, is the real Viennese drink, +and the very light liquid, ice cold, is a delightful beverage. + +"Stay at what hotel you please, but dine at the Bristol," was the advice +given me nigh a score of years ago when I first visited Vienna, and it +holds good now; indeed of late the "smart set" of Vienna has taken it +greatly into favour, and dines or sups there--the opera and plays begin +at 7 and end at 10--constantly. The prices, _a la carte_, are high, but +the cooking is good. Some specialities of the house are trout taken +alive from the aquarium, _Huitres Titania_, _Homard Cardinal_, _Poularde +Wladimir_, _Souffle King Edward VII._, _Oranges a l'Infante_. + +Sacher's, in the hotel of that name just behind the Opera House, is very +well known and may be taken as the typical Viennese restaurant. It is +expensive, as indeed all the best Viennese restaurants are. It is not +quite so exclusively French in its cuisine as some of the other good +restaurants, and one of its _plats de jour_ is always a national dish, +as often as not a Hungarian one, so that by dining or breakfasting at +Sacher's one obtains some idea of what the real cookery of the dual +monarchy is like. Sacher's has a branch establishment in the Prater, +which is always in high favour with the Viennese. + +Hartmann's (Leidinger's successor) in the Ring, is an excellent +restaurant to breakfast at. Here more of the national dishes--the +pickled veal, smoked sucking pig, stewed beef of various kinds, +Risi-Bisi, stewed pork--are to be found than at the restaurants +mentioned above. It is rather Bohemian, but only pleasantly so. + +A good word may be said for the cooking at Meissl and Schadn's, in the +Kaernthenerstrass, and for that at the Reidhof. + +The Stephan Keller (Cafe de l'Europe) in the Stephan Platz is a much +frequented cafe. It was originally an underground resort in the vaults +of St-Stephan, but it has risen to a higher sphere. This house is much +used by the colony of artists who also are to be found at Hartmann's, +Gause's, and the Rother Igel. + +There are wine houses--Esterhazy Keller, for instance, where all classes +go to drink the Hungarian wines from the estates of Prince +Esterhazy--without number, and many of these have their speciality of +Itrian or Dalmatian wines. The summer resorts are mostly for the people +only; they are butterfly cafes opening in the summer and closing in the +winter, and if their _clientele_ deserts them there are only some +painted boards, tables, and benches to be carted away and a hedge to be +dug out; but in the Prater there are some more substantial +establishments, Sacher's, mentioned before, and the Rondeau and +Lusthaus, which are made the turning-points in the daily drives of the +Viennese. + +Vienna keeps very early hours, the cafes closing well before midnight, +unless they are kept open for some special _fete_. + +In the environs of Vienna there are pleasant restaurants on the +Kalenberg, up which a little railway runs, and at Klosterneuberg, where +one can drink the excellent wine of the place at the Stiftskeller before +one admires the view from the terrace or looks at the treasures of the +abbey. + + +Baden + +Baden bei Wien is a little watering-place sixteen miles from the +capital, to which the Viennese go for a "cure," and to which the +Carlsbad and Marienbad doctors sometimes send their patients to begin an +after cure. It is a pretty little place with shady parks and an +unpretentious restaurant at the Kurhaus and another in the +Weilburggasse, and the walk up the valley of the Schwechat has +cafe-restaurants at several of the points of interest. + + +Carlsbad + +Probably twenty Englishmen go to Carlsbad for their liver's sake for +every ten who go to Vienna to be amused, and the great Bohemian town in +the valley where the hot spring gushes up is one of the resorts to which +gourmets, who have eaten not wisely but too well, are most frequently +sent. It is a town of good but very simple fare, for the doctors rule it +absolutely, and nothing which can hurt a patient's digestion is allowed +to appear on the bill of fare of any of the restaurants or hotels. + +The life of the place, which chiefly is bound up in the consideration of +where to eat the three simple meals allowed, is curious. In the morning, +after the disagreeable necessity of drinking three or more glassfuls of +the hot water, every man and every lady spends a half hour deciding +where to breakfast and what kind of roll and what kind of ham they shall +eat. The bakers' shops are crowded by people picking out the special +rusk or special roll they prefer, and these are carried off in little +pink bags. Two slices of ham are next bought from one of the shops +where men in white clothes slice all day long at the lean Prague ham or +the fatter Westphalian. No man is really a judge of ham until he has +argued for a quarter of an hour every morning outside the shop in the +Carlsbad High Street as to what breed of pig gives the most appetising +slice. Bag in hand, ham in pocket, the man undergoing a cure walks to +the Elephant in the Alte Wiese, or to one of the little restaurants +which stud the valley and the hillsides, delightful little buildings +with great glass shelters for rainy days and lawns and flower-beds and +creepers, where neat waitresses in black, with their Christian names in +white metal worn as a brooch, or great numbers pinned to their +shoulders, receive you with laughing welcome, set a red-clothed table +for you, and bring you the hot milk and boiled eggs which complete your +repast. Be careful of which waitress you smile at on your first day, for +she claims you as her especial property for the rest of your stay, and +to ask another waitress to bring your eggs would be the deepest treason. + +Dinner is a mid-day meal, and as you are not tied down to any particular +hotel for your meals because you happen to be staying in it, the custom +is to dine where your fancy pleases you. There is Pupp's with its +verandah and its little grove of Noah's ark trees, patronised by all +nations, and the Golden Shield and Anger's, and Wirchaupt's in the Alte +Wiese, which since I have known Carlsbad has grown from a ham shop into +a very smart little restaurant handsomely decorated. Wirchaupt's is +small enough still for its patrons to have individual attention paid +them, and if you are an _habitue_ you will be told as you go in if +anything especially good has been bought at market that morning, and +little hints are given you as to the composition of your meal. Bohemian +partridges and the trout and _Zander_ from the Tepl and other mountain +streams are the two great "stand-bys" of the man at Carlsbad who likes +good food; but the big fowls which come, I fancy, from Styria, are +excellent birds; the venison, the hares, the mutton, and the +ever-present ham are all capital. The wines of the country are +excellent. The cheapest form of the local wine is served in little +_caraffes_, but here, as in most other places, it is wise to pay the +extra shilling and drink the bottled wine. Besides the wine of the +province there are obtainable the usual Austrian wines, and the +Hungarian Erlauer and Offner and Carlowitz. + +I have halted in the Alte Wiese to descant on the usual dinner of +Carlsbad, which, ordered _a la carte_, never costs more than a few +shillings. Up on the hill at the Bristol, from the terrace of which +there is a fine view over the valley to the Keilberg, and at the Savoy +Westend, where some Egyptian servants imported by Nuncovitch from the +land of the Pharoahs wait upon you, and which has a great pavilion as +its open-air dining-hall, you are likely to find most of the people, +English and American, whose movements are recorded in the society +papers, taking their mid-day meal. The American millionaire at +Carlsbad, however, fares just as simply and just as cheaply as does any +half-pay captain, for Dr. Krauss and Dr. London are no considerers of +persons in their dieting. + +In the afternoon, about five o'clock, all the world goes to one of the +cafes in the valley to listen to a concert and to drink hot milk; and in +the evening a meal, as simple as dinner has been, is eaten. This is the +hour to see Pupp's at its best. In the little grove of trees before the +house, where the big band-stand is, there is an array of tables, each +with its lamp upon it. In the outside verandah of the great restaurant +there are more tables, and inside the glazed verandah and in two long +rooms, each rising a step above the other, are a host of people supping. +The scene is like some great effect at a theatre, and I know nowhere +where one can find any restaurant shining with light as Pupp's does on a +summer night. The restaurant in the Stadtpark is always crowded when the +band plays there, but the attendance is very hurried and casual, and +contrasts badly with Pupp's and the other first-class restaurants. At +the two Variety Theatres in the lower town one can, by booking a table +in advance, sup fairly comfortably, and listen while one sups to a very +good variety entertainment. + +At Gieshuebl, where Herr Mattoni makes a fortune by bottling the spring +water, and which is little more than an hour's drive from Carlsbad, +there is an excellent restaurant where the fare is the same as that +found in Carlsbad. + + +Marienbad + +All that I have written of Carlsbad, concerning its food and drink, +applies to Marienbad. There is the same freedom as to dining-places, and +on a sunny day a man will take his meal in one of the creeper-grown +bowers which are erected on the edge of the park by the hotels which +face it, or at the Kursaal garden. On a dull day he will dine at +Klinger's, the house which has a special celebrity, but which, with its +rather stuffy rooms and its much ornamented plate-glass windows, which +never seem to open quite wide enough, is pleasanter on a cool day than a +hot one; or at the New York, which has its rooms ornamented after the +style the Parisians call "the New Art." + +There are several good restaurants in the environs of Marienbad, at the +Waldmuehle and elsewhere, and the Egerlaender Cafe is well worth a visit. +It is a large cafe, with the usual grove before it, built on a +commanding hill. The special characteristics of the place are that the +rooms and the great hall are built and furnished after the fashion of +Egerland, the most picturesque style that Austria boasts of. The girls +who wait are all in the handsome Egerland costume, and the effect is +very pretty. There is a restaurant at Egerland, and the proprietor, when +I was at Marienbad in 1901, talked of adding sleeping apartments to the +establishment and of making it a hotel as well as a restaurant and +cafe. + + +Prague + +The expedition to Prague generally forms part of a stay at Carlsbad or +Marienbad. My personal experience, gained from two visits, is that if +one stays either at the Saxe or the Blauer Stern, it is wiser to take +one's meals in the restaurants of the hotels than to go further afield +and fare worse. One traverses the hop-fields of Pilsen during the +journey from Carlsbad, and an amateur of beer should find Prague a +paradise second only to Munich. + + +Bad Gastein + +There are several more or less pretentious hotels in Gastein, but +perhaps the most reliable for feeding purposes is the Badeschloss; it is +rather old-fashioned, but good of its kind. It was formerly the palace +of the Cardinal Bishops. The hot-water springs, discovered in A.D. 680, +have their source close to the hotel. + + +Budapesth + +The most distinctive feature of Hungarian cookery is the use of +_paprika_, the national pepper. A _Goulache_, as it is usually written +on menus, or _Gulyas_ as the Hungarians call it, is a ragout in which +the pepper plays an important part. The _Paprikahuhn_ is a chicken +stewed or baked with the pepper, which is very pleasant tasting. Pork +served with a sharp-tasting _puree_ in which cranberries play a _role_, +and other combinations of meat and fruit, brought together very much as +we Britons take red current jelly with hare and mutton, are all part of +the national cookery. The entrails of animals are used to make some of +the dishes; pork, from the innocent sucking pig to the great wild boar, +veal, pickled or fresh, and calves lungs in vinegar are all treated as +national dishes. + +The wines of the country are well known to all Anglo-Saxons for some of +them, the red wines, Erlauer, Ofner, and Carlovicz, are exported in +great quantities. The white wines, Ruster, Schomlayer, Szegszarder, and +others are equally drinkable, while Tokay is of course a king amongst +wines. + +Of restaurants in Budapesth there are but few to be recommended to the +wanderer. Both the Ungaria and the Koningen von England have restaurants +where one can order a dinner which is expensive however simple it may +be, and where one may listen to one of those gipsy bands which are now +to be found in most of the London restaurants and in some of the +Parisian ones. The best restaurant not attached to an hotel is +Palkowitch's, the National Casino, which is the "smart" restaurant of +the town. A Hungarian gentleman, wishing to give a friend a good dinner, +takes him to the Casino Club, and this is the style of meal and wines +that he will get. I am not responsible for the spelling of the menu, +which is that of the club steward:-- + + _Somtoi._ | Gulzas Clair. + _Eteville_ 1868. | Fogas de Balaton a la Jean Bart. + _Chateau Margaux_ | Cuissot de Porc frais. + 1875. | + | Choucroute farcie. + _Moet_ 1884. | Cailles roties sur Canape + | Salade. + _Tokay_ 1846. | Artichauts frais. Sauce + | Bordelaise. + _Silvorium_ 1796. | Turos Lepeny. + _Baracrkpalinka_ 1860. | + +There is a fairly good restaurant near the landing-place on the +Margarethen Insel. + +N.N.-D. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ROUMANIA + + The dishes of the country--The restaurants of Bucarest. + + +In Roumania you must never be astonished at the items set down in the +bill of fare, and if "bear" happens to be one try it, for bruin does not +make at all bad eating. The list of game is generally surprisingly +large, and one learns in Roumania the difference there is in the venison +which comes from the different breeds of deer. Caviar, being the produce +of the country, is a splendid dish, and you are always asked which of +the three varieties, easily distinguishable by their variety of colour, +you will take. A caviar _salade_ is a dish very frequently served. The +following are some of the dishes of the country:--_Ciulama_, chicken +with a sauce in which flour and butter are used; _Scordolea_, in which +crawfish, garlic, minced nuts, and oil all play a part; _Baclava_, a +cake of almonds served with _sirop_ of roses. These three dishes, though +now Roumanian, were originally introduced from Turkey. _Ardei Ungelute_ +is a dish of green pepper, meat, and rice; _Sarmalute_ are vine leaves +filled with meat and served with a preparation of milk; _Militei_ is +minced beef fried on a grill in the shape of a sausage. _Cheslas_ and +_Mamaliguzza_, the food of the peasant, much resemble the Italian +_Polenta_ and are eaten with cold milk. _Ghiveci_, a ragout with all +kinds of vegetables mixed in it, is a great dish of the country. + + +Bucarest + +When in Bucarest, as it should be spelt, go straight to Capsa's in the +Calea Victorici, a first-rate restaurant. It is perhaps not quite equal +to the best of the London and Paris establishments, but the cooking is +really good, and certainly superior to anything you can find in Vienna. +The French _chef_ will provide you with a _recherche_ dinner ordered _a +la carte_. Fresh caviar is in perfection there, as also the sterlet or +young sturgeon; the latter is caught in the Danube, and is a most dainty +and much prized fish. The prices are fairly high,--about 2 francs 50 +centimes for an ordinary _plat_. The wines are all rather expensive, +that of the country being perhaps best left alone, although the +Dragasani is a wine which tastes strangely at first, but to which one +becomes used. A liqueur tasting of carraway seeds is pleasant, but that +made from the wild plum is not to be rashly ventured upon. + +This is the menu of a little dinner for two eaten at Capsa's:-- + + Caviar. + Ciorba de Poulet. + Turbot a la Grec. + Mousaka aux Courzes. + Gateaux. + +And this a breakfast at the same establishment:-- + + Glachi de Carpe (froid). + Oeufs Polenta. + Pilau. + Aubergines aux Tomates. + +There is also a confectioner's shop kept by Capsa, who was for some +considerable time at Boissier's in Paris, afterwards returning to +Bucarest and opening this establishment. It is as good as that of any +Parisian _confiseur_, with the result that all Bucarest are his +customers, and his business is an extremely lucrative one. + +A cheap dinner can be obtained, _a la carte_, at the Hotel Continental +in the Calea Victorici, opposite the Theatre Nationale. + +Jordachi's in the Strada Coatch, and Enesco's in the Strada Sfantu +Tonica, also deserve mention; they are cheap, second-rate restaurants, +but you get there the dishes of the country. In both these places a +capital band of Tziganes play the music of the country. Enesco's is, +perhaps, the better of the two. If you require any _specialites_ the +waiter will be sure to know what to advise; one dish, called _Brochettes +de Filet_, may be recommended. The waiters at Enesco's and Jordachi's +are intelligible in German and Roumanian; at the Continental, and +especially at Capsa's, they are mostly French. + +If you pay a call in Bucarest you will be offered _Dolceazza_, a kind of +sweetmeat, and a glass of water. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SWEDEN. NORWAY. DENMARK + + Stockholm restaurants--Malmoe--Storvik--Gothenburg--Christiana-- + Copenhagen--Elsinore. + + +Stockholm + +Of all the restaurants in the capital of Sweden the Hasselbacken, in the +Royal Djurgarten Park, is the most interesting to visit should it be +open, which it is from the beginning of March till the end of September. +During the early part of the season Tziganes play in one of the small +rooms, whereas in summer a somewhat noisy orchestra plays in the garden. +The price of dinner, _a prix fixe_, is 3 kronor 50 oere; this includes +soup, fish, meat, _releve_ (generally a Swedish guinea-fowl called +_hjaerpe_) and ice. Wine and coffee are of course extra. + +The Hasselbacken is often used for the giving of banquets of ceremony, +but the dinner at 3 kr. 50 oere is more likely to interest the stranger +within the gates than the more extensive feasts, so I give a typical +menu of this very reasonably priced repast:-- + + Puree a la Reine. + Saumon fume aux Epinards. + Selle de Mouton aux Legumes. + Gelinottes roties. Salade. + Soufflee au Citron. + +Quite one of the best restaurants is in the Hotel Continental opposite +the Railway Station. The food here is excellent, _tornedos_ (1 kr. 50 +oere) and _naesselkalsoppa_, an excellent soup made from a sort of young +nettle, being specialities. The prices are slightly cheaper than those +of the Hasselbacken. + +Operakaellaren is a very good restaurant and one of the most popular. +They serve here a _dejeuner_ at 1 kr. 50 oere consisting of an excellent +dish of eggs (a speciality of the place) and meat and cheese or +so-called "sweet" (generally a very unwholesome stale cake with cream). +The _table-d'hote_ dinners are excellent, one being at 3 kr. 50 oere and +the other at 2 kr. 50 oere; the first consisting of soup (thick soups +being a speciality of the place), fish, entree, meat, and _releve_ +(generally _hjaerpe_), with a _compote_ of Swedish berries called lingon +(a sort of cranberry) and an indifferent sweet or ice. Here, as in most +Swedish eating-places, objection is taken to coffee being served in the +restaurants, people being requested to take it in the cafe, which is +generally the next room. Supper is served at the Operakaellaren, and the +restaurant is crowded for this meal. It costs 2 kronor and consists of a +_smoergasbord_ or copious _hors-d'oeuvre_, an entree, and meat. + +The Grand Hotel is fairly popular, owing to the smartness of the +dining-room and the "swagger" way in which meals are served. The food is +not as good as the decorations. The lunch costs 2 kr. 50 oere and the +dinner 3 kr. 50 oere. + +The Hotel Rydberg is also most popular, and the food is good. A great +feature is made here, as everywhere, of the _smoergasbord_ (literally +"bread and butter") table, which has a room to itself and on which are a +score or more of dishes, there being some wonderful combinations of +smoked eels and other fish and eggs amongst them. There are from five to +thirty of these dishes, all delicate and appetising. The guests eat them +standing. In the same room is a huge plated spirit-stand containing a +number of different spirits, white brandy called "Branvin," and other +drinks resembling Vodka. The crayfish, _kraftor_, a little larger than +the French ones, excellent in flavour and served in a terrine, the +_bisque_ soup, _caviar_ served, as of course it should be, on a bed of +ice are good at the Rydberg and the cook manages to make even a +ptarmigan toothsome. It is a favourite place for people to sup at after +the theatre. The _table-d'hote_ dinner costs 3 kr. 50 oere and the lunch +2 kr. 50 oere. Caloric punch is a favourite drink here, as elsewhere in +Sweden, and two men think nothing of drinking a bottle between them +after dinner or supper. + +The Cafe du Nord is very crowded and very popular, although more +bourgeois than the others. The food is good, meals being served mostly +_a la carte_. A good _filet de boeuf_ costs about 90 oere. The business +men who mostly patronise this cafe dine from 3 to 4 P.M. Many people +sup there in the evening. There are some excellently painted pictures in +black and gold, rather daring and French in subject, on the walls. + +There are also the Cafe Anglais (fairly good) and the Hamburger Boers. +The Berns' Salonger, the Blanch Cafe and Stroemparterren are cafes where +coffee, punch, liqueurs, and sandwiches may be had. The former is the +only one open in summer and winter, the two latter being opened on 1st +May without regard to the temperature, and closed on 30th September. + + +Malmoe + +At Malmoe, which is the landing place from Kiel, there is a good dinner +or lunch obtainable at the big hotel with twin turrets which faces the +statue to Gustavus Adolphus. + + +Storvik + +At Storvik, a station on the Storlieu line, there is a restaurant which +is celebrated throughout Sweden. You are charged 2 kronor, which is the +price of a meal at all railway refreshment rooms, and help yourself at a +big central table, crayfish soup, fish, meat, poultry, game, and sweets +all being included in the meal, and a glass of light beer. + + +Gothenburg + +The restaurant of the Haglund is a good one, and I give one of the menus +of its dinner at 3 kronor:-- + +SOPPA. + +Potage a la Parmentier. + +FISK. + +Saumon grillee a la maitre d'hotel. + +KOeTTRAeTT. + +Langue de Boeuf Garni. Sauce aux Olives, ou Fricandeau de veau aux +pois. + +STEK. + +Poulet a la Printanier. Compotes. + +EFTERRAeTT. + +Bavaroise hollandaise ou Framboises. + + +National Dishes + +There are very few Swedish national dishes, milk, cream, butter, and +fish being, however, excellent. The _Smoergasbord_ is the great +institution of the country. _Plaettar_, or Swedish pancakes, are also +good. + + +Norway + +Norway is by no means a happy hunting ground for the gourmet. Salmon, +halibut, and ptarmigan are the usual luxuries, and they pall on the +palate after a time. The Hotel Victoria at Christiana is well spoken of +in the matter of cooking, and the Brittania at Throndhjem is said to +cater well considering the latitude it is situated in. + + +Denmark + +From the gourmet's point of view there is little to write as to the +Copenhagen restaurants. That of the Hotel d'Angleterre is good, and a +good word can also be said for the cooking at the Hotel Phoenix. + +The Tivoli Gardens are the summer resort of Copenhagen, and all classes +patronise them, rich and poor both being catered for. They are a +magnified Earl's Court, with the Queen's Hall and the booths from a +French fair added. There are restaurants of all kinds at the Tivoli, +some being very popular and surprisingly cheap. One of these +restaurants, the Danish one, is of interest and gives a very good +national meal for 3 kronor. + +The Cafe National is an excellent place at which to sup, cold poached +eggs in aspic being one of the delicacies of the house. + +All the world makes expeditions to Elsinore, or as the Danes, regardless +of Shakespeare, call it, Helingsoer. There in the Marienlyst you may see +Hamlet's grave, which is so excellently built up that one would believe +it to be really the burial place of a Viking, and you can lunch at the +Kursaal, whence there is a delightful view across the Sound to Sweden. +There is a second park at Elsinore where Ophelia's pool is shown. + +The meals in Denmark are preceded by a feast of little delicacies, +"sandwiches with the roof off" as they have been aptly described, which +both men and ladies eat as they stand and chat before going into lunch +or dinner, as is the custom in Sweden and Russia also. + +N.N.-D. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RUSSIA + + Food of the country--Restaurants in Moscow--The dining places of + St. Petersburg--Odessa--Warsaw. + + +Russian Dishes + +The Russians are a nation of gourmands, for the _Zakouska_, the potatoes +and celery, spiced eels, stuffed crayfish, chillies stuffed with potato, +olives, minced red cabbage, smoked goose-flesh, smoked salmon, smoked +sturgeon, raw herring, pickled mushrooms, radishes, caviar, and a score +of other "appetisers," and the _petits pates_, the _Rastegai_ (tiny pies +of the lightest paste with a complicated fish stuffing and a little +fresh caviar in the openings at the top), the _Tartelettes St-Hubert_, +any other little pasties of fish and flesh eaten with the soup, could +only be consumed by vigorous eaters. Soups are the contribution of +Russia to the cuisine of the world, and the moujik, when he first +stirred some sour cream into his cabbage broth, little thought that from +his raw idea the majestic _Bortch_ would come into existence. The two +cold soups of which salt cucumber juice forms the foundation are +curious. There are other admirable soups of Russian invention, one, +_Selianka_, a fish soup made from the sterlet and sturgeon, being much +liked when a taste for it has been acquired. The sturgeon of course +comes into the menu of many Russian dinners, and also the sterlet, +cooked in white wine and served with shrimp sauce. There is a fish pie +of successive layers of rice, eggs, and fish, which is one of the native +dishes and is much like _Kedgeree_. Boiled Moscow sucking pig, which in +its short but happy life has tasted naught but cream, boiled and served +with horse-radish sauce and sour cream is a dish for good angels, and +roast mutton stuffed with buckwheat is not to be despised. _Srazis_ are +little rolled strips of mutton with forced meat inside, fried in butter. +Moscow is especially celebrated for its cutlets of all kinds, chicken +garnished with mushrooms and cream, and veal in especial. _Nesselrode +Pudding_ is frequently found on Russian menus. Some of the peasant +soups, one for instance in which all the scraps of the kitchen are +boiled with any grain and fruit which may be handy, are dreadful +decoctions. Russia has its native wines, those of the Caucasus being +very good imitations of French wine. There is a champagne of the Don +which often finds its way into bottles with French labels on them. +Polynnaia, a wormwood whisky, is an excellent digestive. + +I now let A.B. have his say. + + +Moscow + +There are three principal restaurants in Moscow--the Bolskoi Moscovski, +the Ermitage, and the Slaviansky Bazaar; of these the Ermitage and the +Bolskoi are probably the best for dinner. + +The Ermitage in Trubnaia Plastchad has a great reputation in Moscow for +its cuisine, and is the favourite restaurant and resort of the upper +class; it has an imposing general luncheon and dining-hall, also +separate saloons for private dinner-parties. Most of the official +banquets are held here. + +The cost of a luncheon, with choice of any two dishes from a list of +fifteen or twenty, is 1 rouble. + +Dinners can be had for-- + + 1 rouble 25 kopeks (6 courses) or + 2 roubles 25 " (8 courses) + +The restaurants are generally open till about 2 A.M. + +The numerous waiters are dressed in white on week days, on Sundays and +feast days in coloured silk Tartar dresses. A large orchestrion plays +from time to time during meals. + +This restaurant has three head _chefs_ and thirty-eight _chefs_, besides +_patissiers_ and all the smaller fry of the kitchen. The store-rooms for +game, etc., form one of the sights of Moscow, and should be seen. There +is a service of Sevres china, which is very beautiful, and on which +dinners are served on very special occasions. An extra charge, and a +high one, is made for the use of this. + +The Ermitage is unlike any other restaurant in the world in many +respects. There is an admirable cellar of wines, and it is not a place +for a man to give a big dinner at unless he is prepared to encounter a +very big bill. + +In Russia there is, as you will see by the subjoined menu of a typical +Ermitage dinner, a sort of intermediate course between the soup and the +fish called _petits pates_, which rather takes the place of an entree, +and although counted as nothing when it is preceded by the _Sakouska_ +(_i.e._ a preliminary "stand up" snack which waylays you at a separate +buffet as you walk into dinner and consists of all sorts of +_appetissants_ such as caviar, cunningly smoked fish, olives, etc., with +Kuemmel and other liqueurs as an accompaniment) the smallest dinner +resolves itself into a formidable repast that perhaps only a Russian +would be capable of doing full justice to. + + ERMITAGE RESTAURANT. + + MENU. + + Consomme Bariatinsky. + Petits Pates. + Timbale Napolitaine. + Vol-au-vent Rossini. + Friands a la Reine. + Tartelettes St-Hubert. + Esturgeon en Vin de Champagne. + Selle de Mouton d'Ecosse Nesselrode. Punch + Imperial. + Becasses. + Cailles. + Salade et Concombres Sales. + Chouxfleurs. Sauce Polonaise. + Bombe en Surprise. + Dessert. + +The Bolskoi Moscovski is opposite the town hall and has a spacious and +fine central dining-hall. Here also the waiters are dressed in white, +and an orchestrion discourses music during meal times. Its prices are +practically the same as at the Ermitage. + +Testoff's is another good restaurant where purely Russian dishes are +served; it is therefore interesting and worth a visit, and gives a very +good insight as to the national cuisine. + +These restaurants are much frequented at lunch time, especially in +summer, when families are out in Datchas or villas in the environs of +Moscow, and the men have to lunch in town. In winter they are full until +late in the evening. + +One of the best lunch-places in Moscow is the Slaviansky Bazaar in +Nikolski Street, Kitaigorod, situated in the city or business centre of +Moscow. It is a mid-day resort of the business men and travellers +staying at the hotel, but is more or less deserted afterwards. It has a +spacious and lofty restaurant hall and takes in the _Times_ and English +illustrated papers. It was formerly noted for its regular English table +for members of the colony, who, however, subsequently deserted it to +some extent for the three main restaurants. + +Here luncheons can be had with excellent choice _a la carte_. Dinners +cost from 1 rouble 25 kopeks. + +In addition to these regular restaurants there are several summer garden +resorts of a gayer character with cafes, theatres, open-air stages, and +various cafe-chantant amusements. These resorts are at their gayest in +the early hours of the morning, till 4 A.M., when the company becomes +somewhat varied, and as the guide-books sagely remark, "Gentlemen had +better leave their ladies at the hotel." + +These places are prettily laid out, and in the afternoon and early part +of the evening serve to pass a pleasant hour or two in the summer. Dress +clothes are not generally worn when visiting them. + +In the town the two best ones are the Aquarium and the Ermitage Sad (Sad +is Russian for garden), not the same as the Ermitage Restaurant above +mentioned. Admission to gardens, 50 kopeks. + +The Yar and the Strelna are favourite restaurant late-evening resorts +near the Petrovski Park, a short drive out. The Yar is open in the +summer and winter, but the Strelna in the winter only. + + +St. Petersburg + +St. Petersburg has nominally three first-class restaurants, viz., the +Bear (L'Ours) on the Bolschaya Kononschaya; the Restaurant de Paris, +known as Cubat's, on the Bolschaya Marskaya; and Donon's on the Moika +Canal. All of them are good. Donon's has an excellent cellar and +supplies a good dinner if ordered in advance. The price of the set meals +is very reasonable, about 2 roubles or 4s. 4d. per head; but the profits +are made on the wines, which are ridiculously expensive (owing to the +enormous duties). For instance, a bottle of _vin ordinaire_ costs 4 +roubles 50 kopeks, or 9s. 8d., and no bottle of dry champagne can be had +for less than 10 roubles or 21s. 8d.; a whisky and soda is charged 1 +rouble 50 kopeks, and in some places 2 roubles; a half bottle of wine is +always charged 50 kopeks more than the actual half bottle price. + +The Hotel de France has a luncheon at 75 kopeks, or 1s. 6d., which is +very popular with the business community of St. Petersburg, and it is +crowded from 12.30 to 2 o'clock. The food is not high class but of a +good bourgeois description, and the place is kept by a Belgian named +Renault. It is one of the best hotels in St. Petersburg, and its +situation is suited to the purpose; but, as a matter of fact, there is +absolutely no first-class hotel either in St. Petersburg or Moscow, and +sanitation is a factor that has not yet penetrated into the Russian +intellect. A man who eats oysters in Russia, eats his own damnation, and +at a high price in both senses; they are both costly and poisonous in a +town where typhoid is easily contracted. + +In the summer there are two good restaurants on the islands, a few miles +from St. Petersburg, a sort of Richmond to St. Petersburg,--Felicien's, +a dependence of Cubat's; and Ernest's, a branch of the Cafe de l'Ours, +and managed by a brother of the proprietor. Both these have an excellent +cuisine and cellar, but the charges, especially at Felicien's, are +fairly extravagant. Bands of music and pretty gardens are features of +these restaurants, and Felicien's has a terrace on the river opposite +the Emperor's summer palace on the Island of Iliargin. They are both +practically closed during the winter, excepting by arrangement or when +sleighing parties make a rendezvous there. + +There is also a German restaurant, Lemner's, at No. 18 Newsky Prospect, +where a good, cheap German repast can be procured for 1 rouble and drink +therewith, Russian pilsener or Munich beer. + + +Odessa + +At the great port on the Black Sea the restaurant of the Hotel de +Londres Yastchouk is one of the best in Russia. Yastchouk was the name +of its late proprietor, who died in 1902, and was a real lover of good +cookery, enjoying nothing more than to serve an exquisite meal to a real +connoisseur. When any gourmet came to his restaurant, he would ask him +whether he came from the north or the south. If from the north, he would +suggest a real southern meal, with _Rougets a la Grec_ and the delicious +_Agneau de lait_, unobtainable in St. Petersburg, and a ragout of +_aubergines_ and tomatoes. If from the south, he would recommend a good +_Bortch_ with _petits pates_, or a slice of _Koulebiaka_, a great +pot-pie full of all kinds of good things, or some milk-white sucking-pig +covered with cream and horse-radish. Yastchouk has joined the majority, +but his restaurant is carried on in the same spirit as when he was +alive. + + +Warsaw + +Bruehl's used to be the one good restaurant in the capital of Poland, but +the restaurant of the Bristol, new, clean, smart, and cheap, with a +French _maitre-d'hotel_ in command, is commended and recommended. When +the Bristol restaurant at night has all its electric lights in full glow +it looks like the magic cave into which Aladdin penetrated. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +TURKEY + + Turkish dishes--Constantinople restaurants. + + +Constantinople + +One of the hotels in the restaurant at which very good food is +obtainable is the Pera Palace; but the hundreds of dogs that are allowed +to infest the city for scavenging purposes, and who disgracefully +neglect their business in order to bark and howl dismally all night, +would ruin the best hotel in creation. Therefore, if in the summer, I +should advise any man to go to the Summer Palace Hotel at Therapia, a +few miles from the city, on the Bosphorus, which is perfectly +delightful, and to run into Constantinople by river steamer to visit the +mosques, bazaars, etc.--but this by the way. + +The best restaurant in Constantinople is Tokatlian's, in the Rue de +Pera; it is very good but expensive, for all wines, spirits, etc., +coming into Turkey have to pay a heavy duty. There is a strong native +wine of a sauterne character made in Turkey, also Duzico, a sort of +Kuemmel liqueur, not bad, and Mastic, another _chasse_, especially +nasty. You can obtain Turkish dishes at Tokatlian's. The Turkish +_kahabs_ and _pilaffs_ of chicken are good, but their appearance is not +appetising and they are too satisfying. A little rice and beef, rather +aromatic in taste, is wrapped round with a thin vine leaf, in balls the +size of a walnut, and eaten either hot or cold. This is called _Yalandji +Dolmas_. _Yaourt_ or _Lait Caille_ is a milk curd, rather like what is +called _Dicke Milch_ in Germany. _Aubergines_ are eaten in every form; +one method of cooking them, and that one not easily forgotten, is to +smother a cold _aubergine_ in onion, garlic, salt, and oil; this is +named _Ymam Bayldi_. _Keinfte_ are small meatballs tasting strongly of +onions. Plaki fish, eaten cold; Picti fish in aspic; small octopi stewed +in oil; _Moussaka_, vegetable marrows sliced, with chopped meat between +the slices and baked; _Yachni_, meat stewed with celery and other +vegetables; _Kebap_, "kabobs" with a bay-leaf between each little bit of +meat; _Kastanato_, roasted chestnuts stewed in honey, and quinces +treated in the same manner; vermicelli stewed in honey; and preserves of +rose leaves, orange flowers, and jessamine, all are to be found in the +Turkish cuisine. The _Roti Kouzoum_ is lamb impaled whole on a spit like +a sucking-pig, which it rather resembles in size, being very small. It +is well over-roasted and sent up whole. I am informed on the best +authority that when a host wishes to do you honour he tears pieces off +it with his fingers and places them before you, and you have to devour +them in the same manner. + +When I was in Turkey last year I had the misfortune not to be +introduced to the privacy of a Turkish family gathering, so I have to +confess that I have not yet accomplished this feat myself. + +There is a very good fish when in season in the summer, called +_espadon_, or sword-fish, but the butcher's meat, unless you have good +teeth, is not often eatable. The natives are mostly vegetarians; beans, +small cucumbers, rice and what cheap fruits may be in season are their +principal food; water, about which they are most particular, is the +principal beverage of all Turks from the highest to the lowest class. + +I herewith give a typical Turkish dinner:-- + + Duzico. + Hors-d'oeuvre. + Yalandji Dolmas. + + POTAGE. + + Creme d'Orge. + + POISSON. + + Espadon. Sce. Anchois. + + ENTREE. + + Boughou Kebabs. + Carni Yanik. + + ROTI. + + Kouzoum. + + LEGUMES. + + Bahmieh a l'Orientale. + Ymam Bayldi. + + ENTREMETS. + + Yaourt et Fruits. + +The charges in Turkey on the whole are moderate, but the Turkish coinage +is somewhat confusing, and even a Scotch Jew, who had been brought up in +New York, would find it a matter of difficulty to hold his own with the +unspeakable Turk when it came to a question of small change. + +Tokatlian has a branch establishment of a bourgeois description for +business people just outside the big bazaar at Stamboul, the Restaurant +Grand Bazaar, where there are plenty of good dishes, besides native +experiments, which are worth trying. Here the charges are very moderate. + +The food at the Royal and Bellevue Hotels and Dimitri's is also good, +and for supper you can go to Yani's, which is open practically all +night, but perhaps not so eminently respectable as the other restaurants +I have mentioned. + +A.B. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +GREECE + + Grecian Dishes--Athens. + + +No one lives better than a well-to-do Greek outside his own country, and +when he is in Greece his cook manages to do a great deal with +comparatively slight material. A Greek cook can make a skewered pigeon +quite palatable, and the number of ways he has of cooking quails, from +the simple method of roasting them cased in bay leaves to all kinds of +mysterious bakings after they have been soused in oil, are innumerable. +There are _pillaus_ without number in the Greek cuisine, chiefly of +lamb, and it is safe to take for granted that anything _a la Grec_ is +likely to be something savoury, with a good deal of oil, a suspicion of +onion, a flavour of parsley, and a good deal of rice with it. These, +however, are some of the most distinctive dishes:--_Coucouretzi_, the +entrails and liver of lamb, roasted on a spit; _Bligouri_, wheat +coarsely ground, cooked in broth, and eaten with grated cheese; +_Argokalamara_, a paste of flour and yolk of egg fried in butter with +honey poured over it. All Greek cooking, as all Turkish is, should be +done very slowly over a charcoal fire. A too great use of oil is the +besetting sin of the indifferent Greek cook. The egg-plant is treated in +half-a-dozen ways by the Greeks, stuffing them with some simple forced +meat being the most common. + +The food of the peasant is grain, rice, goat when he can get it, a +skinny fowl as a great delicacy, milk, and strong cheese. A bunch of +grapes and a piece of sour bread forms a feast for him. + +The Grecian wines are not unpalatable but very light. They are mostly +exported to Vienna, being fortified previous to their departure to +enable them to stand the voyage, and again manipulated on their arrival, +so that their original characteristics are considerably obliterated. + + +Athens + +My trusted _collaborateur_ A.B. went on a yachting tour in Grecian +waters last spring, having a special intention of studying Greek +restaurants. He wrote to me as to Athens, and his report was short and +to the point: "Outside the hotels there is but one cafe, Solon's, +principally used as a political rendezvous. Its attractions are of the +most meagre description." A most grave _litterateur_ to whom, as he had +been lately travelling in Greece, and as I had not been there for ten +years, I applied for supplementary information, applied the adjective +"beastly" to all Greek restaurants, and added that the one great crying +need of Greece and Athens is an American bar for the sale of cooling +drinks in the Parthenon. + +N.N.-D. + + + + +INDEX + + +Aachen, 135 + +Abbaye de Theleme Restaurant, 33 + +_Acqua Litiosa di S. Marco_, 171 + +_Agnolotti_, 158 + +Aix-la-Chapelle, 135 + +Aix-les-Bains, 74 + +Albergo Giappone, Leghorn, 170 + +Algeciras, 192 + +Allemania, Frankfurt, 128 + +Alster Cafe, Hamburg, 143 + +Ambassadeurs Restaurant, 27 + +Ambleteuse, 37 + +Amsterdam, 109 + +Anglais, Cafe, 5, 6, 8 + +_Anguille di Comacchio_, 166 + +Antwerp, 83 + +_Ardei Ungelute_, 207 + +_Argokalamara_, 230 + +Arles, 73 + +_Arselle alla Marinara_, 171 + +Artichokes, 48, 173 + +Asparagus, 3 + +Athens, 231 + +Aubanel, M., 29 + +_Aubergines_, 227 + + +_Bacalas_, 179 + +_Bacchio e Capretto alla Cacciatora_, 174 + +Bachelier, 65 + +_Baclava_, 207 + +Bad Gastein, 204 + +Baden, 198 + +Baden-Baden, 134 + +_Barbue Paillard_, 13 + _Durand_, 17 + _a la Russe_, 18 + +Barcelona, 180 + +_Baron d'agneau Henri IV._, 12 + +Bars, 31 + +Basle, 153 + +Bauernschaenke, Berlin, 150 + +Bauer's Cafe, Berlin, 149 + +Bayonne Restaurant, 50, 51 + +Beaufils, 38 + +Beaulieu, 60 + +Beauvillier's Cafe, 4 + +_Becasse Flambee_, 18 + _au Fumet_, 12 + +Beer, 103, 117, 120, 121, 128, 129, 138, 196 + cellars, 114 + +Belgium, 79 + +Belvedere Restaurant, Dresden, 118 + +Bequet, 42 + +Berk, 37 + +Berlin, 144 + +Bern, 154 + +Bertrand's Restaurant, 84 + +Biarritz, 52 + +Bignon's Cafe, 4 + +Birds, 3, 82, 98 + +_Biscuit Foyot_, 25 + +Blanche Restaurant, 33 + +_Bligouri_, 230 + +Bobadilla, 190 + +_Boeuf, Cote de, braise Empire_, 12 + +Boeuf a la mode Restaurant, 21 + +Bologna, 166 + +Borchard's Restaurant, Berlin, 146 + +Bordeaux, 50 + Cafe de, 50, 51 + +Borel, 4 + +_Bouillabaisse_, 41, 54, 55, 73, 76 + +Bouillon Riche Restaurant, 27 + +_Bouillons_, 34 + +Boulogne, 36 + +Bouzoum, Madame, 71 + +_Brandade_, 55 + +Bratwurstgloecklein, 123 + +Brest, 49 + +Breton menu, 48 + +Brill, 2 + +Bristol Restaurant, Berlin, 145 + +Broccoli, 174 + +Broche a Rotir, 42 + +Bruges, 88 + +Brun, Hotel (Bologna), 166 + +Brussels, restaurants at, 93, 103 + +Bucarest, 208 + +Budapesth, 204 + +Buerose Restaurant, Frankfurt, 128 + +Burdel, M., 8 + +Burgos, 187 + +Burgundy, 80, 88, 94, 100, 109 + +_Busecca_, 160 + + +Cabois, 38 + +Cabourg, 43 + +Cadiz and Jerez, 191 + +Caen, 44 + +Caesario, 18 + +Cafe de Paris, 30 + Americain, 30 + de la Cascade, 29 + de la Paix, 30 + +_Caille a la Souvaroff_, 18 + +Calais, 35 + +_Caldo_, 179 + +_Canape Clarence Mackay_, 23 + +_Canard Pompeienne_, 26 + _a la Presse_, 3, 17 + +Cancale, 47 + +_Caneton de Rouen au Sang_, 18 + +_Caneton Rouennaise_, 42 + +Cannes, 56 + +_Capeletti_, 158 + +_Carbonades Flamandes_, 81 + +_Cardons_, 160 + +Carlsbad, 199 + +_Carpe a la Gelee_, 5 + +Casimir, 4 + +Casino, Hotel du, Cherbourg, 46 + Municipal, Biarritz, 52 + +_Castagnacci alla Pisana_, 169 + +Caviar, 143, 207, 208, 212 + +Cellars, 7, 10, 25 + +_Cepes a la Bordelaise_, 51 + +Chabas, M. Paul, 73 + +Champagne, 99, 100, 116, 148 + +Champeaux Restaurant, 22 + +Chapon Fin, 50, 51 + +_Charcutiers_, 44 + +"Charles," 11 + +Chateau de Madrid, 28 + Laroque, 89 + +Chateaubriand, 22 + +Cherbourg, 46 + +_Cheslas_, 208 + +Cheval Blanc Restaurant, 43 + +Chevillard's Restaurant, 28 + +_Choesels a la Bruxelloise_, 81 + +_Choux Farcies_, 43 + +Cider, 43, 45 + +_Cinghiale in agro dolce_, 174 + +_Ciulama_, 207 + +Claret, 50 + +Clermont-Ferrand, 78 + +Club restaurant, 31 + +_Codeghino_, 167 + +Coffee, 93, 136 + +Cologne, 129 + +Colon Restaurant, Barcelona, 181 + +_Confit d'Oie_, 69 + +_Consomme Fortunato_, 15 + _Baigneuse_, 17 + +Constantinople, 226 + +Cost of dinners, 8, 14, 17, 29, 34, 39, 40, 48, 65, 80, 84, 88, 89, 229 + +_Cote de Boeuf a la Russe_, 107 + +_Cotelette alla Marsigliese_, 162 + _a la Milanese_, 162 + +_Cotelettes d'Izard marine_, 69 + +_Coucouretzi_, 230 + +_Creme de Langoustines_, 65 + _Germiny_, 13 + +_Crepes des Gourmets_, 15 + _Suzette_, 18 + +Criterium Restaurant, Antwerp, 84 + +_Croutes au Champignons_, 39 + + +D'Hortesio's Cafe, 4 + +Denmark, 215 + +_Desir, Le, de Roi_, 11 + +Dieppe, 37 + +Dinard, 47 + +Diner Francais Restaurant, 34 + +Dresden, 114, 121 + +Dressel Restaurant, Berlin, 147 + +Drouet, Henri, 14 + +Ducordet, M., 38 + +Duglere, 2, 8 + +Durand's Restaurant, 14, 16, 30 + +Duesseldorf, 128 + + +Echenard, M., 54 + +_Ecrevisses Bordelaises_, 39, 76 + _Regina_, 96 + +Eggs, 48 + +Elysee Palace Hotel, 18 + +Ems, 135 + +Ermitage Restaurant, 219 + +Estoril, 195 + +Etaples, 37 + + +_Faina_, 163 + +_Faisan a la Financiere_, 3 + +_Fegatini di pollo_, 169 + +_Fegato alla Veneziana_, 166 + +Ferme St-Simeon, 43 + +Fiesoli, 169 + +Figs, 163, 169 + +_Filet de Lievre Arnold White_, 23 + _Paillard_, 12 + _Selle Czarine_, 12 + +_Filet de Sole_, 12 + _Cardinal_, 23 + _Gibbs_, 23 + _Martin_, 184 + _Mornay_, 8 + _Noel_, 21 + _La Peyrouse_, 25 + +Fishes, 2, 21, 53, 64 + +Florence, 168 + +_Fonduta_, 160 + +Fowls, 2 + +Foyot's Restaurant, 11, 22, 25 + +Francais Restaurant, Nice, 58 + Restaurant, 42 + +France, Hotel de, Cherbourg, 47 + +Frankfurt-am-Main, 126 + +Frankfurter Hof, 126 + +Frascati's Restaurant, 39 + +"Frederic," 11, 23 + +_Fritto Misto_, 158, 171 + _di Calamaretti_, 174 + _Picatto_, 162 + +_Friture du Pays_, 53 + + +Gaillon Restaurant, 11, 14 + +Game, 3, 116, 219 + +Garbure soup, 69 + +Garnier, Restaurant, 36 + +_Gazpaco_, 179 + +Geneva, 154, 155 + +Genoa, 163 + +German restaurant, 31 + cooking, 110 + +_Germiny, Creme_, 13 + +Ghent, 80 + +_Ghiveci_, 208 + +_Gianduiotti_, 160 + +Gieshuebl, 202 + +_Gigot de sept heures_, 9 + +_Glace Gismonda_, 18 + +_Gnocchi di Patele_, 174 + +Gothenburg, 213 + +_Goulache_, 204 + +Graff, M. Paul, 38 + +Grand Hotel de l'Europe, Spa, 87 + +Grand Port, 76 + Revard, 76 + +Grand Seize, 5, 7, 8 + +Greece, 230 + +Grenada, 191 + +_Grissini_, 160 + +_Grives a la Namuroise_, 82 + +Grouse, 83 + +Gudgeon, 2 + +Guepet, 4 + +Guichard, 71, 72 + +Guillemin, 27 + + +Hague, 105 + +Hamburg, 138 + +Hanover, 124 + +Hardi, Cafe, 4 + +_Hareng Lucas_, 22 + +Hartmann's Restaurant, 197 + +Hasselbacken Restaurant, 210 + +Havre, 38 + +Helder Restaurant, 66, 92 + +Henrion's Grand Hotel, Aachen, 135 + +Henri's Restaurant, Gaillon, 14 + +Heyste, 89 + +_Hochepot Gantois_, 81 + +Hofbrauhaus, Munich, 121 + +Holland, 105 + +_Homard Cardinal_, 12, 197 + _a l'Americaine_, 41, 45, 107 + _Foyot_, 25 + _chaud a beurre truffe_, 148 + +Homburg, 131 + +Honfleur, 43 + +_Huitres Titania_, 197 + + +Irish stew, 96 + +Isnard's Restaurant, 56 + +Italian cookery, 157 + restaurants, 31 + + +"Joseph," 11, 23 + +Julia, Mlle., 49 + +Julien's Cafe, 30 + +Justin's Restaurant, Barcelona, 180 + + +Kaiserkeller, Berlin, 150 + +_Kastanato_, 227 + +_Kebap_, 227 + +_Keinfte_, 227 + +Kempinsky's Restaurant, Berlin, 147 + +Kiel, 137 + +Kneist, Dresden, 120 + + +Lafosse's Restaurant, 37 + +Laiterie, Brussels, 152 + +Lampreys, 2, 51 + +La Peyrouse Restaurant, 22, 25 + +La Rue's Restaurant, 16, 30 + +Laurent's Restaurant, 26 + +Ledoyen's Restaurant, 27 + +L'Etoile, Brussels, 100 + +Lefebvre, 38 + +Leghorn, 170 + +Leipzig, 125 + +Le Navigateur, 25 + +Lennertz's Restaurant, Aachen, 136 + +Liqueurs, 22 + +Lisbon, 180, 192 + +Lobsters, 45, 48 + +London House, Nice, 58 + +Lucas's Restaurant, 21, 32 + +Lucerne, 153 + + +_Maccheroni_, 158 + +Madrid, 187 + +Madrid, Restaurant de, 44 + +Maire's Restaurant, 20, 26, 30 + +Maison Doree, Barcelona, 184 + +Maison Grossetete, 14 + d'Or Cafe, 4, 6, 8 + +Malmoe, 213 + +_Mamaliguzza_, 208 + +Marguery's Restaurant, 21 + +Marienbad, 203 + +Marivaux Cafe, 11 + +Marseilles, 54 + +Martigues, 73 + +Maxim's Restaurant, 30 + +Medoc, 96, 97 + +_Meizanne_, 163 + +Mentone, 68 + +Menus, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17, 19, 28, 48, 53, 58, 59, 63, 64, 66, 67, 80, + 87, 97, 107, 108, 132, 140, 141, 144, 146, 148, 156, 164, 181, 182, + 183, 185, 188, 192, 193, 206, 208, 211, 214, 220, 228 + +Milan, 161 + +_Militei_, 207 + +Milk, 28, 37 + +_Minestrone_, 53, 158, 161, 163 + +Monte Carlo, 61 + +_Mortadella_, 167 + +_Moscardini_, 163 + +Moscow, 218 + +Mottez's Restaurant, 81 + +_Moules a la mariniere_, 99 + +Mourier, M., 30 + +_Moussaka_, 227 + +_Mozzarelle in carozza_, 176 + +Munich, 121 + +Mushrooms, 20 + +Mutton, 47 + + +Naples, 174 + +Nassauer Hof, Wiesbaden, 133 + +_Naesselkalsoppa_, 211 + +National Hotel, Lucerne, 153 + +Neues Palais de Saxe, Dresden, 119 + +Nice, 58 + +Nimes, 74 + +Noailles Hotel, Marseilles, 54 + +Noel Peter's Restaurant, 21 + +_Noisettes de Veau Port Mahon_, 15 + +Normandie, Hotel de, 40 + +Norway, 214 + +Notta, 11 + +Nuremberg, 122 + hotels, 124 + + +Odessa, 224 + +_Oeufs Claude Lowther_, 23 + +_Omelette Siberienne_, 107 + _Souffles_, 136 + +_Oranges a l'Infante_, 197 + +_Ortolans en surprise_, 13 + +_Ossobuco_, 162 + +Ostend, 89 + +Oysters, 32, 45, 47, 49, 52, 60, 136, 147 + cellars, 142 + + +Paillard's Restaurant, 11, 26, 30 + +Palast Hotel, Furstenhof, 127 + Berlin, 147 + +Palermo, 177 + +Palmen Garten, Frankfurt, 127 + +_Panettone_, 162 + +_Paprika_, 204 + +_Paprikahuhn_, 204 + +Paris and cookery, 1 + Cafe de, 4 + Plage, 37 + Restaurant de, 42 + +Park Hotel, Duesseldorf, 128 + +Partridges, 3, 83, 201 + +_Paste asciutte_, 158 + +_Pasticcio di Maccheroni_, 174 + +_Pasqualina_, 163 + +_Pattona alla Pisana_, 169 + +Pau, 71 + +Pavillion d'Armenonville, 28 + Bleu, 34 + Henri IV., 34 + +_Peches Flambees_, 18 + +Pepin Restaurant, 44 + +_Pepperoni_, 160 + +_Perdreau et Caille Paillard_, 13 + +_Perdrix au choux_, 3, 107 + +_Perpadelle_, 158 + _col Ragout_, 167 + +Perrier's Restaurant, 41 + +Peyrafitte, Joseph, 72 + +Pforte's Restaurant, Hamburg, 138 + +Phillipe's Cafe, 4, 34 + +Pisa, 169 + +_Pizzaiola, Steak alla_, 176 + _Pizza alla_, 176 + +_Plattaer_, 214 + +_Poire Wannamaker_, 23 + _Alaska_, 107 + +_Pollo en padella_, 174 + +_Polpette a la Milanese_, 162 + +_Polpi alla Luciana_, 176 + +_Pomme Otero_, 12 + _Georgette_, 12 + _Macaire_, 12 + +Port Bou, 184 + +_Potage Henri IV._, 17 + _Foyot_, 25 + _Germiny_, 8 + _Reine_, 18 + +Potatoes, 48 + +Poulard Aine, Mont St-Michel, 48 + +_Poularde Maison d'Or_, 5 + _Archiduc_, 12 + _a la Derby_, 12 + _a la Parisienne_, 107 + _Reserve en Cocotte Raviolis_, 55 + _a la Santos Dumont_, 65 + _Wladimir_, 12, 197 + +_Poule au pot Henri IV._, 107 + +_Poulet Saute Grand Duc_, 17 + _Maire_, 21 + _Saute petits diables_, 17 + +Pourville, 38 + +Prague, 204 + +Prawns, 17, 43, 48 + +_Presciutto con fichi_, 169 + +Prices charged at restaurants, 8, 14, 17, 29, 34, 39, 40, 43, 45, + 50, 52, 57, 58, 61, 63, 66, 75, 88, 96, 97, 105, 115, 119, 128, + 134, 136, 144, 147, 148, 155, 164, 166, 181, 183, 201, 209, 210, + 212, 219, 221, 223 + +Prinz Wilhelm Cafe, Berlin, 149 + +Provence, 73 + +Prunier's restaurant, 32 + +_Pucca baruca_, 166 + +_Puchero_, 179 + +Puloski's Restaurant, 32 + +Puys, 38 + +Pyrenees, the, 69 + + +Quadri, Restaurant, Venice, 164 + + +Rat Mort Restaurant, 33 + +Rathskeller, 113 + Hamburg, 143 + Wiesbaden, 134 + +_Ravioli_, 158 + +Regence, restaurant, Nice, 59 + +Reichshof, Berlin, 149 + +Remoulins, 74 + +Reserve, cafe, Marseilles, 54 + Cannes, 56 + Restaurant de la (Beaulieu), 60 + +Restaurant, good cheap, 33 + +Restaurant Re, 66 + des Fleurs, 31 + Summer, 26 + +Riche, Cafe, 4 + +_Risotto_, 158, 171 + _Certosino_, 162 + _Milanese_, 162 + +Ritz, Hotel, 14, 18 + +Ritz, M., 153 + +_Riz de Veau Foyot_, 25 + +Rocher de Cancale, restaurant, 4, 84 + +Roches Noire, 43 + +_Rognone Trifolato_, 160 + +Rome, 172 + +_Roti Kouzoum_, 227 + +Rotterdam, 109 + +Rouen, 42 + +_Rouennais Paillard_, 12 + _a la Presse_, 12 + +Roumania, 207 + +Rudesheimer restaurant, 149 + +Rumpelmayer, 71, 76 + +Russian restaurant, 31 + dishes, 217 + + +Sacher's Restaurant, Vienna, 197 + +_Salade Gauloise_, 18 + _Georgette_, 17 + _Ideale_, 12 + _de Princesses Liegeoises_, 81 + _Russe_, 39 + +Salamanca, 5 + +San Sebastian, 184 + +Santander, 187 + +Sardines, 2, 48 + +_Sarmalute_, 207 + +Sauerkraut, 111 + +Scheveningen, 109 + +_Schiacciata_, 169 + +Schweitzerhof, Lucerne, 153 + +_Scordolea_, 207 + +_Selianka_, 218 + +Seville, 189 + +Shrimps, 37, 43 + +_Smoergasbord_, 212, 214 + +Snails, 32 + +_Sole au vin Rouge_, 5 + _Marguery_, 21 + _Normande_, 36, 42, 107 + _Paillard_, 12 + _Waleska_, 65 + +_Sole, filet de, a la Russe_, 12 + _Egyptiennes_, 65 + _Kotchoubey_, 12 + +Soles, 2 + +_Sopa de Camarao_, 194 + +Sou Fassu, 73 + +_Souffle Palmyre_, 107 + +_Souffle Pole Nord_, 17 + _King Edward VII._, 197 + +Spa, 85 + +_Spagetti_, 158, 177 + +_Spagetti alle Vongole_, 176 + +_Spaghetti a sugo di carne_, 171 + +Spanish restaurants, 31 + cookery, 178 + +Spezzia, 167 + +_Spigola_, 176 + +_Srazis_, 218 + +St-Cloud, 34 + +St-Germain, 34 + +St-Malo, 47 + +St-Petersburg, 222 + +St-Remy, 74 + +Stadt Gotha Restaurant, Dresden, 119 + +Stephan Keller, 197 + +_Stocafisso alla Genovese_, 163 + +Stockholm, 210 + +Storvik, 213 + +_Stracotto_, 169 + +_Supreme de Volaille Grand Duc_, 12 + +Switzerland, 151 + +Sylvain's Restaurant, 22, 30 + + +Tarascon, 73 + +_Tavernes_, 30, 32, 34 + +_Terrine de Fois Gras a la gelee au Porto_, 13 + +_Tettachine_, 158 + +Thurion's Restaurant, 33 + +Thuernagel Restaurant, Duesseldorf, 128 + +Tiedemann and Grahl's Restaurant, 119 + +_Timbale de queues d'Ecrevisses, Mantua_, 12 + +Tirlemont, 79 + +Tomatoes, 176 + +Topper's Cafe, Berlin, 149 + +Tortoni's Restaurant, 38 + brasserie, 39 + +Tour d'Argent, 11, 22 + +_Tournedos a la Rossini_, 18 + +Treteau de Tabarin Restaurant, 32 + +_Triglie alla Livornese_, 171 + +_Trinetti_, 158 + +_Tripes a la mode de Caen_, 44 + +Trois Freres Provenceaux Cafe, 4 + +Trout, 2, 28, 77, 116, 154, 197, 201 + +Trouville Deauville, 43 + +Truffles, 160 + +Turin, 159 + +Turkey, 220 + +Turkeys, Norfolk, 3 + +Tuscan dinner, 170 + + +_Uova di Bufola_, 174 + + +Van der Pyl's Restaurant, 105 + +Veal, 2 + +_Veau a la Casserole_, 4 + +Vegetable dishes, 3 + +Venice, 164 + +Veron, Cafe, 4 + +Very, Cafe, 4 + +Vichy, 77 + +Vienna, 196 + wines, 196 + +Viennese restaurants, 31 + +Vieux Calvados, 45 + +Villa Julia, La, at Pont Avin, 48 + +Villefranche, 61 + +_Vitello Uccelletto_, 163 + +Voisin's Cafe, 6, 9 + + +Walnuts, 177 + +Warsaw, 225 + +_Waterzoei de Poulet_, 81 + +Wiesbaden, 133 + +Wine cellars, 198 + +Wines, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 38, 41, 45, 50, 61, 70, + 87, 88, 116, 150, 155, 159, 160, 162, 164, 174, 177, 180, + 193, 196, 198, 201, 205 + Amarena di Siracusa, 177 + Bordeaux, 141 + Chianti, 169 + Diamante, 181 + Dragasani, 208 + Marsala, 177 + Moscato di Siracusa, 177 + Moselle, 128 + Rhine, 129, 149 + Rioja, 181 + Valdepenas, 180 + +Wimille, 37 + +Woodcocks, 82, 102 + feast, 82 + + +_Yachni_, 227 + +_Yalandji Dolmas_, 227 + +_Yaourt_, 227 + + +Zabajone, 158, 165 + +Zaragoza, 187 + +_Zucchini Ripieni_, 160 + +Zum Weissen Roessl, Berlin, 150 + +_Zuppa di Vongole_, 176 + _Inglese_, 174 + _Datteri_, 167 + _Peoci_, 165 + _Pesce_, 173 + + +THE END + +_Printed by_ R. & R. Clark, Limited. _Edinburgh._ + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +Page 20, Is is corrected to It is + +Page 150, Raeuberhotle corrected to Raeuberhohle + +Page 150, Zunweissen corrected to Zum Weissen (also in Index) + +Page 158, paste corrected to pasta, "another pasta dish" + +In the Index, added reference to Page 13 in the entry for Perdreau et +Caille Paillard. + +Some spellings and accents are used inconsistently throughout the text. +They have been left as in the original since they are potentially +intentional. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Gourmet's Guide to Europe, by Algernon Bastard + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOURMET'S GUIDE TO EUROPE *** + +***** This file should be named 18854.txt or 18854.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/8/5/18854/ + +Produced by Stacy Brown, Jason Isbell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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