The Gourmets Guide to Europe | Page 9

Gde Fine Napoléon.

At La Rue's I have felt inclined sometimes to protest when I have been
charged 2 francs for half-a-dozen prawns, and to think that the
vermillion-coloured seats are being paid for too quickly out of profits;
but I rarely pass through Paris without breakfasting there, and eating
the cold poached eggs in jelly, the _Grenouilles à la Marinière_, or one
of the dishes of cold fish which are excellently served. Some of the
specialities of the house are _Potage Reine_, _Barbue à la Russe_,
_Caille à la Souvaroff_, _Tournedos à la Rossini_, _Caneton de Rouen
au Sang_, _Bécasse Flambée_, _Salade Gauloise_, _Crêpes Suzette_,
_Glace Gismonda_, _Pêches Flambées_ and from this list any one
could choose either a little dinner or a big one.
Of restaurants attached to hotels I do not propose to write in this article,
with one exception, for there are few of the hundreds of hotels at which
one cannot get a very fair dinner; and at some, such as the Elysée
Palace, over which Caesario presides, one can get an excellent one; but
the purpose of this book is to give information to the man who wishes
to dine away from hotels. The one exception is the Ritz, in the Place

Vendôme, and I include this in my list because the Ritz is a restaurant
firstly, and an hotel secondly, and because as a dining place it holds an
exceptional position in Paris. It is the restaurant of the smartest foreign
society in Paris, and the English, Americans, Russians, Spaniards,
dining there always outnumber greatly the French. It is a place of great
feasts, but it is also a restaurant at which the _maîtres-d'hôtel_ are
instructed not to suggest long dinners to the patrons of the
establishment. In M. Elles' hands or that of the _maître-d'hôtel_ there is
no fear of being "rushed" into ordering an over-lengthy repast. This is a
typical little dinner for three I once ate at the Ritz, and as a feast in the
autumn it is worth recording and repeating:--
Caviar.
Consommé Viveni.

Mousseline de Soles au vin du Rhin.
Queues d'Ecrevisses à
l'Américaine.
Escalopes de Riz de veau Favorite.
Perdreaux Truffés.
Salade.
Asperges vertes en branches.
Coupes aux Marrons.
Friandises.

In the afternoon the long passage with its chairs, carpets, and hangings
all of crushed strawberry colour is filled with tea-drinkers, for the "5
o'clock" is very popular in Paris, and the Ritz is one of the smartest if
not the smartest place at which to drink tea. In the evening the big
restaurant, with its ceiling painted to represent the sky and its mirrors
latticed to represent windows, is always full, the contrast to a smart
English restaurant being that three-quarters of the ladies dine in their
hats. Sometimes very elaborate entertainments are given in the Ritz,
and I can recall one occasion on a hot summer night, when the garden
was tented over and turned into a gorge apparently somewhere near the
North Pole, there being blocks and pillars of ice everywhere. The
anteroom was a mass of palms, and the idea of the assemblage of the
guests in the tropics and their sudden transference to the land of ice was
excellently carried out. I give the menu of another great dinner at the

Ritz because, not only has it some of the specialities of the house
embodied in it, but that it is a good specimen of what a great dinner
should be, being important but not heavy:--
Caviar frais. Hors-d'oeuvre.
Royal Tortue Claire. Crème d'Artichauts.

Mousseline d'Eperlans aux Ecrevisses à l'Américaine.
Noisettes de
Ris de Veau au fumet de Champignons.
Selle de Chevreuil Grand
Veneur. Purée de Marrons.
Poularde de Houdan Vendôme.
Sorbets au Kirsch.