DIETETIC CURIOSITIES. 



37 



dishes and spices with impunity ; or Aristolenus, who longed for the 

 throat of a crane, that he might prolong the bliss of deglutition. Taci- 

 tus speaks of a particular dish, called the shield of Minerva, the ingre- 

 dients of which cost sixty talents ($72,000), and which the ineffable 

 Vitellius had at different times prepared at that price an insanity which 

 we may hesitate to believe ; but less than a century ago the city of Lon- 

 don treated George III. to a banquet of three hundred and fourteen 

 " courses," at an expense of twenty-six thousand pounds sterling. 



Opposite the Palais Royal, along the Chaussee d'Antin and on the 

 Rue Rivoli, Paris, there are restaurants where a moderate fortune may 

 be spent in a single week, and the dejeitners-dinatoires of the Freres 

 Provencaux are not forgotten where some piquant made dishes would 

 cost more than a year's board in the Faubourg St.-Germain. 



" They offered me an omellette at Fitchburg," says Henry Thoreau, 

 " an omellette with fried bacon, at forty-five cents. Not having forty- 

 five cents to spare for an indigestion, I bought some bread and butter, 

 which, together with the apples I had, made me a fine dinner. We do 

 need some fat and farinaceous substance once a day, but, if one can get 

 it out of a butter sandwich and ten cents, he commits a crime against 

 national economy and against himself if he wastes the fourfold price 

 on an omellette and fried bacon. And why commit a further waste by 

 calling the thing an o-mel-lette ? Are not the two syllables of a pan- 

 cake sufficient ? " 



Whatever may have been the intrinsic value of that pancake, it 

 would certainly be worth forty-five cents to know what Henry Thoreau 

 would have said about the following menu of a " little lunch," given at 

 the Langham Hotel (London) to the members of the Dietary Reform 

 Club (society for the introduction of horse-flesh) : 



Potages Consomme de cheval. Puree de destrier. Amontillado. 



Poissons Saumon a la sause arabe. Filets de soles a l'huile hippophagique. 

 Vin du RMn. 



Hors<Vceuvres Terrines de foie maigre chevalines. Saueissons de cheval 

 aux pistaches syriaques. Xeres. 



Releves Filet de Pegase roti aux pommes de terre a la creme. Dinde aux 

 chataignes. Aloyau de cheval farci a la centaure et aux clioux de Bruxelles. 

 Culotte de cheval braisee aux chevaux de frise. Champagne sec. 



Entrees Petits pates a la moelle-Bucephale. Kromeskys a. la gladiateur. 

 Poulets garnis a rhippogriffe. Langues de cheval ala troyenne. Chateau pe- 

 rayne. 



SECOND SERVICE. 



Rots Canards sauvages. Pluviers. Mayonnaises de homard a l'huile de 

 Rossinante. Petits pois a la francaise, choux-fleurs au parmesan. Volney. 



Entremets Gelee de pieds de cheval au marasquin. Zephirs sautes a l'huile 

 chevaleresque. Gateau veterinaire a la Ducroix. Feuillantines aux pommes 

 des Hesperides.- Saint-Peray. 



Glaces Creme aux truffes. Sorbets contre-prejuges. Liqueurs. 



Dessert Vins fins de Bordeaux. Madere. Cafe. 



Buffet Marmalade aukirscb, gateau d'ltalie au fromage de Chester, etc., etc. 



