It is not for your wearing.
Nor in holy Lenten season,
Ye will neither Beanes nor Peasen,
But ye look to be let loose,
To a pigge or to a goose.
There is comparatively little strictness now as to Lenten food, but it is always an excuse for excellent maigre dining, and the cook who cannot prepare a thoroughly good appetising and satisfying maigre menu is unworthy of his calling.
One Good Friday I was dining at a very excellent French provincial hotel, the Hôtel du Chapeau-Rouge at Dunkirk, and the following most cleverly fashioned menu confronted me at dinner:—
MENU
Huîtres.
Potage Longchamps.
Bouchées Dunkerquoises.
Barbue, Sauce d’Isigny.
Pommes Nouvelles.
Petit Pois à la Française.
Salade Primeur.
Saumon à la Russe.
Ecrevisses de la Meuse.
Gâteau Pitheviers.
Fruits.
Here is another Lenten dinner, quite different in conception, but equally good in execution. It is a very artistic little production.
MENU
Caviar d’Astrackan.
Bisque d’Ecrevisses.
Truite braisée au Clicquot.
Sarcelle Rôtie.
Salade.
Petits Pois nouveaux à la Française.
Coupe Petit Duc.
Corbeille de Friandises.
Dessert.