| Show A NORWEGIAN MEAL i Some of the Novel Dishes That Make Up a Formal Dinner A neat maid with a beau complexion announced dinner and Prof Helberg who offered me his seat at table said Velkom men till bordet welcome to the board a pretty way of expressing hospitality The table was charmingly arranged with i quaint old Norwegian silver and beautifully fine embroidered linen The silver drinking drink-ing cups of various shapes had usually little lit-tle round tinkling things hanging from them as an ornamentation these dangles give light and pretty effect and are quite old Norwegian style Some of the spoons with their quaintly twisted handles were also very pretty The menu was excellent and in our honor had been composed purely representative foods First of all we had a delicious white soup made from cod in which floated small balls of tho fish along with the French heans that had previously been preparedby being soaked iu vinegar and sugar This soup 1 Lo sounds a curious melange but it was really excellent Next came a prepared fish served mila soufild dish something like kegeree only without any rice A white sauce was handed with this and the capers served separately Wonderful to relate we hal lienknives still a great luxury abroad Cold ham tongue and peas prettily arranged ar-ranged together on one dish were next handed round and then came hot ptarmigan ptarmi-gan which in its native land well larded and with a thick Norwegian sauce is an I excellent dish With this we had compote of raspberries red currant Jelly and preserved pre-served ginger a Muster are delicious They are yellow fruit bout the size of mulberries They grow on low bushes in the Norwegian mountains tho fruit and flowers bearing simultaneously simultane-ously They are picked in October and preserved and served cold with cream They have a slight flavor of pice trees if such a thing is possible but they are fascinating fasci-nating food I Two or three kinds of broad were eaten the white rolls black bread which closely I resembles German pumpernickel and flat brod a bread or cake made from rye I and first cousin to Scotch oatcake Hock and claret were drunk during dinner din-ner and sweet champagne served with the pudding for dessert I After dessert we hade cheese and the meal ended I Skole is really a Swedish word for drinking I drink-ing your health and almost any time anyone any-one drank anything they smilingly skoled across the table to someone who thereupon I had to bow and drink and bow again before be-fore putting down the glass We as guests were skoled by everyone in turn until at I last this health drinking became quite alarming and we mertly bowed in selfde I I fense With many thanks from our host for I kindly dining with him and many invitations Invita-tions for the future a universally pretty form of politeness our host offered me hi3 arm and wo walked back to the drawing room After a few minutes conversation the gentleman teft us to smoke Excellent coffee with scalded cream was then handed accompanied by Swedish punch a delicious although somewhat sweet liquor Our hostess produced a large handsome cutglass bottle of eaudeCo logne to which her friends liberally helped themselves Everyone was kindness itself and everyone wanted to know if thero was any service they could render us if so they I JIalaiine were quite at our disposal eteJIurrau C |
