Consuming Interest
Interfauna
By LESLIE ADRIAN
EDIBLE luxuries nearly always make a good Christmas present. They also absolve the shopper of that perennial doubt about every gift from the Gardeners' Annual to a jade Buddha, 'have they got it already?' But there is no such worry about a pâté en croate or a raised game pie from Fortnum and Mason (84s. and 27s. 6d. respectively), and it would not matter if someone did get a duplicate jar of some exotic honey made of Dalmatian spring flowers or Chilean elm (5s. 6d. a lb., also from Fortnum and Mason). Likewise, most people witkeell-ordered livers would prefer a tin of Devonshire cream or a jar of pdtd to any number of ill-chosen ties, ash trays or itsy-bitsy ornaments. Miranda of Chag- ford, Devonshire, can supply the cream (I lb. 6s. and 1 lb. 1 ls. including postage and packing), and an excellent liver pâté comes from Cotswold Pate Ltd., Chipping Norton, Oxford (11s. for two 21 oz. earthenware jars, sealed to last three to four weeks in a larder or several months in a refri- gerator, 32s. for six jars).
Is it aristocratic associations or merely magni- ficent feathers which makes a pheasant such a glamorous gift? Whatever it is, MacFisheries, who have adapted the Interflora idea to some of their more luxurious merchandise (such as game and oysters), have made it very simple to send such a present to a friend in another part of the country. You can order and pay for a pheasant at your nearest MacFisheries and arrange for it to be delivered to anyone who lives within de- livery range of any other MacFisheries shop.
It would be appropriate to be able to report that the message is carried from one shop to the other by carrier pigeon, but unfortunately MacFisheries find it necessary to use the more conventional means of communication provided by the PMG. So they need a few days' notice of such an order, especially at Christmas time. It is advisable to make the arrangement with the manager of your local shop so that there is no danger of geographical slip-ups. He will also arrange for a greetings card to be included in— I mean with—the gift. MacFisheries pheasants cost about 35s. a brace.
For a small family, incidentally, a pheasant makes a sound alternative to a turkey for the Christmas feast. Although turkey breeders have developed compact birds grown-to-measure for today's compact families, two or three people, fitce to face with an 8-10 lb. bird, may find that ingenious ideas for using up les restes are likely to be exhausted long before the bones are bare. As well as being more interesting to eat, a pheasant costs less, cooks quicker and is simpler to prepare than a turkey. An ounce of butter and a handful of cheap white grapes—stoned- is the only stuffing required.
Poverty and oysters are poles apart these days, but oysters are not exclusively reserved for expense-account eating. If it might be rash to suggest giving oysters to anyone as a Christmas present, for parties and festive cooking generally they add an easy touch of opulence for relatively little cost. Oysters stuffed into a bird for instance, or oyster soup, oysters in pastry cases, on horse- back (wrapped in bacon and disguised as angels), oysters in sauces, steak and kidney pie or even hidden inside a thick piece of steak—there are numerous ways of refuting Sam Weller's social observations.
I am not, of course, suggesting that expensive natives be used for such high jinks, any more than I would tip vintage claret into a saucepan to be mulled. But anyone living in London can get oysters for £1 a hundred (delivered free in Cenfral London) from the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Co. (39 Fish Street Hill, EC3, MANsion House 5521). And MacFisheries sell oysters bred in their Helford River hatcheries from 5s. 3d. a dozen.
I hope that Mr. Thomas Coates, the new general manager of the Egg Marketing Board, who comes from the North-West Electricity Board, will prove himself to be a live wire with the minimum of delay by doing something about the infamous way that Lion-stamped eggs are now so frequently washed. The packing stations do not do the washing themselves; but though they are supposed to discourage it, there are no effective steps taken to penalise farmers who do wash their eggs—and washing, as every hen-boy knows, removes things from the shell which help to keep the eggs fresh. If the Egg Board really want us to respect that lion, a guarantee that no Marketing Board eggs had ever been more than dusted would go a long way towards reassuring US. Wood seems to be a speciality of Betty HoPe farmhouse-in-Knightsbridge shop at 19 champ Place, SW3. A carved mahogany wich board, over a foot and a half long, exel ing its fish-tail handle (£3 4s. 6d.), an African carving board (57s. 6d.), a Chesham SP (8s. 9d.) 24 in. long, and the largest wood' spoon made in Britain, I'm told. It would be ful for mixing bran mash for the chickens Christmas pudding for the family. Unusual interesting were the various hanging she! made of waxed English pine, some shaped to into corners and others to hang on the wall (ko upwards). They would blend into any room entirely furnished either with Formica stainless steel or rosewood and silk damask.
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