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
Melon Glacé.
Consommé Froide or Crème d'Asperges.
Filets de Sole Dejazet.
Quartier d'Agneau à la Broche.
Pommes Fondantes.
Petits Pois au Beurre.
Cailles de Vigne Casserole.
Salade Romaine.
Bombe Fraisalia.
Croustades Maltaises.
Dessert.
There is also a grill menu and a long list of cold joints. To make the
list of menus complete, the manager showed me that of the two-shilling
dinner, which is ready at six o'clock, served in the dining-room of the
Press Gallery. Later on in the evening I was shown the separate kitchen
which serves the dining-room of the Gallery and saw that it was as well
organised as is everything else in the kitchen department of the House.
Looking through the wine list, I noticed that some of the sherries have
come from Windsor Castle, Marlborough House and Sandringham; the most
expensive of these being that--bottled 1875--from Windsor, for which
12s. 6d. a bottle is charged. But a glass of Amontillado costs no more
than 4d. Sixpence a glass is the lowest price charged for any port, and
the most expensive on the list is Cockburn's 1847, bottled 1850, which
is a guinea a bottle. There are some 1898 champagnes still on the list,
and some 1900. The wines of 1904 make the longest list, Veuve Clicquot
heading the roll at 13s. 6d. a bottle; Heidsieck Dry Monopole, Pommery
and Greno, Pol Roger, Moët and Chandon, Krug and Monte Bello varying in
price from 13s. 6d. to 10s. a bottle. The brand Deutz and Gelderman is
represented by pints at 6s. 6d., and the magnums of Monte Bello cost
18s. 6d.
Our dinner finished and all the questions that I could think of asked
and answered, my host took me out on to the terrace to drink our
coffee. All the light of the sunset had died out, and the long lines
of lamps on the Embankment across the river were shining brilliantly.
Across Westminster Bridge the tramcars, all blazing with light, were
passing and repassing each other, an effect I commend to Mr Arthur
Collins for use in some future Drury Lane production. The terrace
itself is dimly lighted by gas lamps, but this half light, pleasant and
in keeping with the solemn mystery of the great, dark river that flows
past, seems to frame fittingly the brilliance of the wonderful night
scene. Little groups of ladies were about the tables in that centre
space where members may dispense hospitality. The talk of the men who
came to speak to my host was all of what was in progress in the chamber
of debate upstairs, of the pity of it that no agreement had been come
to and that a division was necessary, of the admirable speech that Mr
Balfour had made in the afternoon, and such-like matters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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