In food Washington took what came with philosophy. “If you meet with collegiate fare, it will be unmanly to complain,” he told his grandson, though he once complained in camp that “we are debarred from the pleasure of good living; which, Sir, (I dare say with me you will concur,) to one who has always been used to it, must go somewhat hard to be confined to a little salt provision and water.” Usually, however, poor fare was taken as a matter of course. “When we came to Supper,” he said in his journal of 1748, “there was neither a Cloth upon ye Table nor a Knife to eat with but as good luck would have it we had Knives of our own,” and again he wrote, “we pull’d out our Knapsack in order to Recruit ourselves every one was his own Cook our Spits was Forked Sticks our Plates was a Large Chip as for Dishes we had none.” Nor was he squeamish about what he ate. In the voyage to Barbadoes he several times ate dolphin; he notes that the bread was almost “eaten up by Weavel & Maggots,” and became quite enthusiastic over some “very fine Bristol tripe” and “a fine Irish Ling & Potatoes.” But all this may have been due to the proverbial sea appetite. Samuel Stearns states that Washington “breakfasts about seven o’clock on three small Indian hoe-cakes, and as many dishes of tea,” and Custis relates that “Indian cakes, honey, and tea formed this temperate repast.” These two writers tell us that at dinner “he ate heartily, but was not particular in his diet, with the exception of fish, of which he was excessively fond. He partook sparingly of dessert, drank a home-made beverage, and from four to five glasses of Madeira wine” (Custis), and that “he dines, commonly on a single dish, and drinks from half a pint to a pint of Madeira wine. This, with one small glass of punch, a draught of beer, and two dishes of tea (which he takes half an hour before sun-setting) constitutes his whole sustenance till the next day.” (Stearns.) Ashbel Green relates that at the state banquets during the Presidency Washington “generally dined on one single dish, and that of a very simple kind. If offered something either in the first or second course which was very rich, his usual reply was—‘That is too good for me.’” It is worth noting that he religiously observed the fasts proclaimed in 1774 and 1777, going without food the entire day.