OCR Text |
Show iSUMNHES IHFIUIICE I FI MENU PLEASING V, ! Habitual French Breakfast, However, Strikes Them as Most Amusing. i VIEWED AS TOO LIGHT i Other Meals Are Exactly to jV Their Taste, With Abun-j Abun-j dant Servings. I I By DANIEL DILLON, W-a International News Service Staff Correspondent. , y?-It;RlCAN TRAINING CAMP IN tIAXCB, Aug. 15 (by mail). The hour- long pleasant rites with which the French li te rally celebrate their noon-day and I J evening meals is a custom to which i , Sammy in France lias not been able as yet to accustom himself. The habitual French breakfast of cof- 1 . - fee or chocolate and bread strikes him : j as exquisitely funny. "Can you imagine ; a good healthy guy putting no more coal ; than that in his furnace and expecting to get up much steam In the morning?" , V" he murmurs. "It looks to me like he is j always figuring on the afternoon game I and doesn't worry much who pitches in the morning." j But the daily "dejeuner ' and "diner" j visibly affect iiim. He stands rather in J awe of them, in fact. And the quantity J and quality of t lie menus have served f to impress upon him the fact that France right now apparently has plenty ; r to eat and that America need noj. grow I hysterical over the job of feeding her ancient ally.' i Likes French Dishes. 1 Every opportunity an American sol- i dier finds to get away from his own r company "mess chow" he joyously em- i braces and comes tumbling into town t eager to Investigate every French euli- nary mystery he can encounter. ' ', The slowness of the service irritates him. He frets and growls and opines 7 volubly, "I could get five meals at Child's while they serve you soup here." However, his great consolation is that he obtains white and red wine with every meal and as much as he wants of If it to drink, all for the regular price of (; ' the meal, which usually amounts to about i DO cents in our money. ' ! But what fills his lordly cup of satis- V faction to the brim and overflowing ".I is to lean back nonchalantly in his i chair and in his best Imitation of S "movie" opulence to drawl out, "Garcon, bring me a bottie of champagne."" Then, ' 4 as lie sips it at his ease and draws a mental picture of the gang in the old town staring at him In awed amazement, he is .content to let the meal drag along at its own sweet pace. A bottle of ! champagne can be bought foe $1.50.-. t' The first time he encounters the usual ' French hors d"oeuvres, always the open-!( open-!( ing course at the noon-day meal, con- i sis ting usually of snails, clams in the h t shell, olives, cold potatoes in oil, toma-f toma-f ' toes and cucumbers, he falls to them '! with, a ready vigor, half believing this Is j the meal Itself. f Finds Menu Good. ; A bowl of soup, untouched bv meat, i encourages him though in the idea that f, he is still "at the post" and the race is It still before him. A fish course next r tempts him and at Its ttnny end he be- i gins to understand the homelike clatter ,t of china that he hears on all sides; ev- . cry dish is served on a clean platter. But it takes him some little time to get the rule that he Is allowed but one knife ana i fork for the entire performance and must : hang on to it after every course unless he desires to be greatly handicapped by ' the other entries at the table while An- i toinette finds him another set in the re- ' cesses of the kitchen. An omelette follows on the meatless r, days of Monday and Tuesday, but during ' the rest of the week he gets his meat. Again he 1b surprised. He will wait pa-tlently pa-tlently for his vegetables to be served at j the Fume time, and unless he is warv f will have his plate snatched awav from him by the alert waiter before he bus . even sampled It. His indignant protest (. r brings him the information that the "le-i "le-i gumes" are served shortly thereafter on ( another fresh plate. Reminded of Home. V "Verv good. Eddy," chirps Sammv, "but they sure do hang on some dog ' over giving you a spoonful of peas." The assortment of cheese that flanks him before the dessert of fruits has him guessing. Their names and pedigrees are not even listed In the "dope book." He looks them over hopelesslv, and then like t he lady turf follower plays one by its color. Peaches, grapes and apples look like - "t ack in the state" to him, and he greets , ; them like long-lost playmates, but the ' green almonds and camouflaged colored gooseberries hold him at arm's length un-y un-y iL',e nas nut 'ieni n number of times. , a fler his deml-tusse and hand -made . "Hull" cigarette (he stoops to the French brand only when necessity compels), he . walks out Into daylight, convinced that : Berlin will soon be his for the taking i and that the French people after all do - know "a little somethin' about cookin'." |