Time and the hour and the high price of meat, however, render it advisable, even absolutely necessary, that we work all our resources instead of only a part of them, to economize whenever and wherever we can, and the waters in our midst and around us are surely one of the most important resources not already worked to the limit.
Therefore, let us eat fish—but first let us learn of the French about fish, even as we have learned of them concerning other foods, or as we have learned fashions, for, verily, the turning out of a proper fish dish for the table has ever been regarded by the French as no less an art than the creation of a beautiful frock in one of their ateliers. Moreover, their ways with fish are so broadly inclusive that one may make up an entire menu from one end to the other, with only a cup of coffee needed as a final fillip to make a perfect meal—and all of fish.
By way of furnishing inspiration to our own appetites, herewith is a suggestion for a fish luncheon, a favorite menu of France, which its wealth and fashion delighted to have set before it in those good old days before the war. Substitutes are given for any fish not indigenous to American waters; otherwise it is just as it would be served at one of the Riviera restaurants, with the exception, of course, that on the Riviera or at any of the noted marine restaurants, the visitor himself was permitted to select the fish for each course from among the different specimens swimming in the reserves, altogether unconscious of impending fate.
No French restauranteur worthy the name ever kept dead fish in stock, for nothing deteriorates so quickly. There is rarely over here the natural reserve that the Riviera takes as a matter of course, although there is, in some restaurants, the tank of running water in which the fish are kept in condition till required.
AN ALL FISH LUNCHEON
MENU
Hors d'Œuvres. Little Necks or Blue Points.
(At Monte Carlo one would be served Clovisses.)