The In and Out
By LESLIE ADRIAN
This terrible text is called The Drinking Man's Diet, costs five bob and comes from San Fran- cisco. The authors, Gardner Jameson and Elliott Williams, have discovered from 'an Air Force Pilot (Pilots have to keep thin . .)' the secret that carbohydrates are fattening, while salads with Roquefort dressing (ugh!) are not. They generously recommend their silly suggestions to ladies and teetotallers, but they fail to mention that the food they list in most of their menus happens to cost a great deal more than bread and potatoes. Another American tragedy is l. Aucken's Scien- tific Cocktail Making (7s. 6d. direct from the author at 1 Beverley Gardens, Barnes, London, England), dedicated to 'my darling daughter.' If you don't know what SVW1TFASICCG means, get a copy and find out. But stay, I, Leslie Adrian will save you seven-and-six. It means `Shake vigorously with ice to frosting and strain into coloured cocktail glass.' What? You do not have a CCG? Tsk, tsk. So how can you serve a Brandy Barber, which is 2 vol brandy, 1 vol stewed rhubarb juice, Svwitfasi coloured cg?
All this eating and drinking and putting on of weight at the taxpayers' expense has got to stop, it says here in a native paperback How to Eat and Stay in Business (3s. 6d.). The authors are worried about expense-account gourmandis- ing (even the poor bloody Russians have to last out on £3 oh £4 a day in London, so let me quickly squeeze in a plug for Betty James's London on fl a Day, Batsford, 12s. 6d., to be translated into Muscovite). Their solution is not to do your deals in the office over a nice cup of tea, but to do them over breakfast at the May Fair or Grosvenor House for 10s. or so, or stick to their list of restaurants in London where it is possible to lunch two people for £3 and a 7s. 6d. tip. For example, a quiet, eco- nomical place like the Forum in Chancery Lane, packed to the doors with advertising executives and PR men, or the humble (I) Vend6me in Dover Street. This is all Mr. Callaghan's fault. And because he has taken so long to make the Finance Bill law, the poor dears have eaten their way through the whole of the asparagus season without a cheque, signing as they went.
Which is as good a way as any of working in a mention of the Good Loo Guide (Wolfe Publishing, 3s. 6d.), by Jonathan Routh, who must lead a most varied life. Here is an impartial and serious, ha ha, guidebook to the lavatories of London, carefully too graded. Sadly, not a one has been awarded four stars, the Royal Flush, but presumably they just couldn't get in there. However, I can now reveal that a potty is avail- able for John Junior's little customers at Thurloe Place, provided they are taken short before 4.45 p.m., 12.45 Saturdays.
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We really must count our blessings as mem- bers of a mixed economy. When the chairman of ICI, Sir Paul Chambers, was in Russia he found a drab uniformity in building materials `exemplified by the poor-quality, roughly var- nished plywood lavatory seats which you will find everywhere from Riga in Latvia to Tbilisi in Georgia. . .
I suppose any concerted attempt to put this right stands the danger of being suppressed as a mere splinter group.
The Pimms season is now upon us, with thirsty guzzlers sucking away at, what looks like an alcoholic fruit salad. I always feel sorry for the barman who has to chop and slice all that greengrocery for one drink. At least I used to. Now I learn that he (or his boss) does rather well out of the vegetation, for the more they can cram in with the lemonade, the less Pimms (the only costly part) they will need to make it all look good.
A slice of lemon and a piece of cucumber rind (or some of those hairy leaves called borage and pronounced burridge) are all that the drink needs as an embellishment. At a tasting to intro- duce Pimms Nos. 5 and 6 (made, respectively, with rye whiskey and vodka) it became apparent that few of the sippers present could tell one from another, except for No. 4, unmistakably reeking of rum. And• trying to buy any formula but No. 1 ('the original gin sling') at an off- licence is difficult. Now, of course, there will be five Pimmses for these merchants not to stock.
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