The dinner given by Mr. JAMES STAATS FORBES, Chairman of the L.C. & D.
Railway, last Wednesday, to M. EIFFEL, and the French Engineers, was a
big success. As the _P. M. G._, which, being now edited by a _chef_,--at
least, he is a man-Cook,--authoritatively informed us, in anticipation
of this feast, "The Continent and Great Britain have been ransacked for
delicacies." There is to be another banquet, we hear, and more
"ransacking." Once again will that delightfully-entertaining Chairman,
J. S. FORBES, of the Lucullus Chatting and Dining Line, present a menu
which will be unexampled in culinary history. By great favour we are
permitted to present a few of the delights of this bill of fare, in
which a SOYER would have rejoiced, a UDE have delighted, and of which a
BRILLAT-SAVARIN might indeed have been proud. No expense in ransacking
has been spared. They are sending to the prairie for prairie oysters; to
Egypt for _Pot-au-feu (soupe à la mauvaise femme)_; to Jerusalem for
artichokes, to Bath for chaps, and Brussels for sprouts. Bordeaux will
be ransacked for pigeons, Scotland for Scotch woodcock, Wales for
rabbits, Sardinia for sardines, and Turkey for rhubarb. Special
messengers are travelling through Germany in search of sausages; others
are in Ireland seeking supplies of the stew of that country. Bombay is
being ransacked for its celebrated Bombay ducks, Guinea for fowls,
Norfolk for dumplings, and Chili for vinegar. Merchant traders are
already in treaty with Madeira for cakes; and while Naples is being
ransacked for ices, the Government Stationery Office at home will yield
an almost inexhaustible supply of wafers.
The guests, led by a choir arrayed in twenty-four sheets, also supplied
by the Stationery Office, will sing a delightful compound of the
drinking chorus in _Through the Looking-Glass_, and "_The Bonnets of
Bonny Dundee_," which will go as follows, all (who can) standing:--
Let's fill up our glasses with treacle and ink,
And anything else that is pleasant to drink,
And hook the best port and let us gay free,
And hurrah for STAATS FORBES and the L. C. & D.!
We can only give these few hints, as of course, this is but a small
portion of the _menu_, a mere pennyworth to any amount of ransacking.