The
real work was to begin the following morning.
The dinner was both a revelation and a surprise to the majority of
the company. All were well travelled, and all had eaten of the
mongrel French dishes given at the "Grand" hotels of the principal
Italian cities, and some of them, in search of adventures, had
dined at London restaurants with Italian names over the doors,
where--with certain honourable exceptions--the cookery was
French, and not of the best, certain Italian plates being included
in the carte for a regular clientele, dishes which would always be
passed over by the English investigator, because he now read, or
tried to read, their names for the first time. Few of the
Marchesa's pupils had ever wandered away from the arid table d'hote
in Milan, or Florence, or Rome, in search of the ristorante at
which the better class of townsfolk were wont to take their
colazione. Indeed, whenever an Englishman does break fresh ground
in this direction, he rarely finds sufficient presence of mind to
controvert the suggestions of the smiling minister who, having
spotted his Inglese, at once marks down an omelette aux fines
herbes and a biftek aux pommes as the only food such a creature can
consume.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54