The following menus represent the diet of a Sicilian family from
Palermo. They have been in America over twenty years, but their diet
has changed little. There are ten persons in the family--the mother
and two unmarried daughters, a married daughter, her husband and four
children. The children are seven, five, and three years, and ten
months. Food for the children is prepared separately. For breakfast
they have cereal, milk, bread, and stewed fruit; for lunch, rice or
potato, bread, milk, and the green vegetables cooked for the family if
not cooked with tomato sauce. For supper the children have bread and
milk. It is not common in Italian families to make so much difference
in the diet for children; they are usually fed on the highly seasoned
dishes the family eat, but in this family the mother prepared special
food for her children, and her daughter is doing the same and planning
their diet even more carefully.
Summer menus:
Monday, August 11, 1919: