Consuming Interest
Party Pieces
By LESLIE ADRIAN Yet I had been under the impression that even if drinking habits had changed at the cocktail hour, eating habits had remained the same: nuts, olives, cheese- flavoured biscuits, canapes (is there, incidentally, any more loathsome morsel than a mass-produced shop-bought canapé?) and sausages on sticks. Occasionally the American influence asserts itself with a 'dip', and some hostesses go in for fairly elaborate hot snacks; but I had no idea, until I was having a word with a Fortnum's representative lately, of the existence of so many possible variants for anybody who foresees a sticky party, and wants to give the guests something to talk about until the dry martinis (or whatever they are) get to work and make such aids un- necessary.
The Japanese, in particu.ar, have been playing this market, particularly with quails' eggs. The demand for them has been so insistent, Fortnum's say, that Mitsui and Co. are soon going to import them in blue and pink shades, to supple- ment the present dun-coloured version.
There is also a lively demand for kobu nuts; a booklet on the subject actually praises their conversation-piece quality— the conversation, presumably, revolving around the fact that they consist of two nuts tied together with a savoury filling, hand-tied by a Japanese girl with kobu leaf. Fortnum's are also offering another new Japanese cocktail item; biscuits called 'gomaton' and `sakura', soy flavoured and moulded into decorative shapes. And Selfridges recommend a Japanese soy biscuit, 'dunkies', whose popularity appears to be surviving its repellent name.
At Selfridges I also found a tin of smoked sparrows on skewers—the last of a consignment of 250 tins, I was told. This made me curious; the Italian cook of a friend of mine goes out and traps sparrows occasionally, for his dinner; but who, I wondered, buys them in tins? And who buys the chocolate-covered ants, the caterpillars, and the fried grasshoppers,
at Fortnum's and Selfridges? Mystics? Zanies? Gourmet-degenerates?
According to a Fortnum salesman, the explanation is simple: 'You know,' he said, '—the kind of customer who buys bees and ants is the one who likes to give you two or three strong drinks, offers you hors d'oeuvre, and then asks, when you have swallowed it, did you like it? You say you did, and then he tells you what you've eaten, and gets a fit laughing'. Is there, somewhere in London, a vast, hidden army of chuckling, spluttering, convulsed practical joker hosts?
Hong Kong is doing something to compete with Japan with tins of large shrimp slices, stocked at Jackson's, Fortnum's and most other de luxe food departments; and Persia too, has something new (to me) in the form of dried sturgeons' insides, called Visiga. They festoon the walls in one section of Fortnum's: I have not yet heard how they are doing.
Ordinary Russian caviare is still a steady seller, and its purchasers are not by any means confined to the tiara-bedecked and the mink-clad. In spite of the expense (4 oz. of Ocietrova, for example, costs 65s.) a little of it goes a very long way, covering large numbers of biscuits, and leaving some for decoration.
One other surprise, while I am on the subject: Bourbon's, the French grocery store at 81 Wardour Street, have a brand of sardines packed with truffles and achards at 3s. 9d, a tin. I tried one out of curiosity, and was rather impressed; the truffles seem to dull both the over-fishiness and the oiliness of the sardines, making them a very palatable dish.
Or perhaps it is the achards which are responsible? I am ashamed to say I did not know what they were. So I looked them up in an English-French dictionary; it said 'achards'.
THERE ought to be a law about tipping or, at any rate, a general understanding about it to avoid an unnecessarily embarrassing part of our relations with waiters and other People who provide us with a service. I would like to commend the Royal Hotel in Southampton for its solution to the Problem and to offer the idea to other hotel Proprietors. The Royal gives each guest a small card which lists the services provided by the hotel and indicates that no service charge will be added to guests' bills. A note headed 'Staff Gratuities' reads: 'Staff are Paid wages in accordance with the Statutory Regulations and therefore there is no obligation to offer gratuities. Tips should only be given where the client desires to reward efficient, courteous and personal service and such tips will be retained by the employee to whom they are given.'
I can think of no clearer, fairer, more Precise or less embarrassing way of putting it. I would only add one word to it and that for the benefit of the many hotels and restaurants where the service is deplorable: lri such places tips should only be given to reward particularly efficient, courteous and Personal service.
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