Show BEEFSTEAK IN ROME That Caffo di Roma of which I spoke ut now is an eminently iiprru ixristic feature of new Rome In my time the old onewhen you wished to vary the monotony of the hotel table dhote you lunched or dined at Spillmanns or atNazzaris These establishments I apprehend yet maintain their wellearned reputation rep-utation but if being at Rome you wish to do as the Romans do you lunch at Mortoes and dine at the Caffe di Roma I have never during dur-ing many years of discourse on culinary culi-nary topics disguised my opinion that the modern Italian cuisineis next to the Spanish the most detestable detest-able in Europe It basindeed hopelessly hope-lessly degenerated since the days when part of Cardinal Campeggios mission to the Court of Henry VJH was at the express commana of the Supreme Pontiff to ascertain whether English cookery presented any dish worthy of being included in the already splendid repertoire of the kitchen of the Vatican The reply of Cardinal Campeggio was to the effect that there was in English cookery assolutamente nejiti absolutely ab-solutely nothing worthy of transplantation trans-plantation beyond the Alps And now lo how all is changed From Calais Constantinople the English beefsteak and potatoes reign dissa greeably supreme I say disagreeably disagreea-bly because there are persons who abhor beefsteak and potatoes You will have little else offered you for breakfastas an alternative to badly fried fish and illmade omelets ome-lets from one end of modern Italy to the other The beefsteak and potatoes po-tatoes have even crossed the sea to the mainland of Greece and the first item which you see in the bill of fare in a restaurant at Athens is i mpiphtaik mo geomela You begin be-gin towonder what onearthmpip7i taiksometimes it is spelled mp iphtekican mean when you remember re-member that the modern Greeks have no letter b in their language and that they call Lord Byron Ho Lordus Mpiron Then you awake to the consciousness that the mystic mys-tic entry in the Romaic menu refers to beefsteak with earthapples otherwise potatoes This virtual abandonment of cunningly prepared dishes in favor of a flap of broiled bullocks flesh either halfburned or halfraw and on the continent wholly destitute of fat it is to me worthy of the most serious attention not only to the culinary expert but of the student of civilization generally gener-ally To me the universal supremacy suprem-acy of the bifteck represents not so much the prevalence of Anglo Saxon ideasfor an underdone steak is in reality quite as Abyssinian or as Kafirlike that is to say as savage sav-age as it is Englishas it does the feverish hasteflurryand excitement of modern lifeand the almost wolf like desire to devour the largest amount of solid succulence in the shortest possible timefrom a Rome Letter to the London Daily Telegraph |