266 COOKERY OF THE PIKE AND PERCH 



Lake, but the cosmopolitan esculent was cropping 

 up everywhere. In inland hotels, as at the old inland 

 abbeys, he was always turned to account. We do 

 not think he was much in favour in France; we 

 seldom remember to have come across him in the 

 elaborate cartes of the Parisian restaurants, nor did 

 he make a show in the trophies in Chevet's windows. 

 Eugene Sue makes no mention of him in the superb 

 display offish at the stall in his ' Gourmandise/ nor did 

 he impress Dumas in the ' Impressions de Voyage,' 

 though the versatile Alexander made a study of 

 scientific cookery, like M. Soyer or the Regent Orleans. 

 But pike served with rich stuffing and curious sauces 

 used to be a spedalite at ' The Archduke Charles ' in 

 Vienna and at the ' Munsch ' over the way. We have 

 never eaten it in finer condition than on the Elbe 

 banks at Dresden, and the stews at the famous 

 Friday fish dinners at the ' Flandres ' of Bruges were 

 so good that they must certainly have come from the 

 valleys of the Ardennes and not from those sluggish 

 waters of the Low Countries which are prolific of 

 unapproachable eels. Though the streams of Tyrol 

 and Salzkammergut teemed with trout, there were 

 always releves of pike at Innsbruck and Ischl, and 

 we could go on evoking recollections indefinitely. 

 Many an old-fashioned inn, besides the ' Hecht ' at 



