The Gourmet's Guide to LondonNewnham-Davis, Lieut.-Col. (Nathaniel)
General
The Gourmet's Guide to London
Newnham-Davis, Lieut.-Col. (Nathaniel)
Restaurants -- England -- London -- Guidebooks
When the suburban train had left, a few minutes before midnight, the
stream of passengers set towards the Southend train, and I wondered
which of them were going to be my fellow-supperers in the restaurant
car. A party consisting of an elderly gentleman--I am sure he was an
uncle, for he had the good-natured look that all genuine Dickensy
uncles acquire--had evidently brought up two nieces and a little
schoolboy nephew to see some play. They were returning in the highest
of spirits, and got into the restaurant car at once, the uncle asking
whether his champagne had been properly iced. A clergyman with a paper
bag in his hand, which I think must have contained sponge cakes, looked
regretfully at the car, and told the guard that had he known that it
was running he would not have brought his supper with him. I saw nobody
else who was an obvious supperer, but when the whistle blew and the
flag was waved, and the train started, I found that in the section of
the restaurant car where my table was there were two elderly ladies at
one of the tables, a young man in spectacles at another, the good uncle
and his little party at the third and that the fourth was reserved for
me. There was on my table a little bunch of chrysanthemums in a glass
vase with a heavy foot to prevent it from overturning, and I noticed
with appreciation several devices for holding in their places cruets,
water bottles, salt cellars and glasses should the train at express
pace threaten to shake things off the table. This was the menu of the
supper that Mr Amendt had ordered for me:
Lobster Mayonnaise.
Mutton Cutlets Reform.
Roast Grouse. Straw Potatoes.
Salad.
Omelette au Confiture.
Devilled Sardines.
Cheese. Biscuits. Butter.
Watercress. Lettuce. Celery.
Black Coffee.
Like my lunch earlier in the day, the Great Eastern offered me more
than I had sufficient appetite to cope with. I found the _mayonnaise_
excellent, and did full justice to the grouse, the _omelette_ and
the devilled sardines. The young man in spectacles, I could see, had
ordered for his supper fried cod and a glass of porter; the elderly
ladies were drinking tea and eating cake; and the uncle and his little
party were, like myself, eating a sumptuous meal.wAs I ate my supper the train rushed through the East of London, and
Bethnal Green and Stratford were patches of lighted windows in the
darkness, but when we were out of the zone of bricks and mortar and in
the country there was a full moon high above, and fields and trees all
grey and shadowy in the mist that was rising.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account