SECTION SIX
Pages 1 to 8
MAGAZINE
SECTION
VOL, XXXIII.
PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 19, 1914.
)
.3,
OH WELL (business of heaving a long sigh
of resignation)' why shouldn't we! They're
making us listen to paintings and see colors
in music, so why Instead of only looking at
them and smelling them shouldn't they make us
eat flowers?
Actually! It's no weather for Jokes or to de
ceive anyone, and we're very serious when we say
eat flowers. For that's the very latest thing they
have set before us to do In these days when every
body is lighting a Chinese candle in his own or
somebody else's head.
It's like this. You go Into some extremely ex
clusive and fashionable hotel or cafe da luxe and j
calmly ask for their flower menu. You must do it
real nonchalantly like this:
"Garcon, bring me the carte de Jour. Oh, no, no, no,
no, not the ordinary menu! The flower menu you know."
You must smile in superior manner you know, and
carry the whole thing off as if you had done it many
times before. If you do the waiter will think you are
quite it, and behave toward you in a surprisingly flatter
ing manner. If the cafe or hotel you picked out Is a
very, very de luxe, you will get your flower menu.
Now is the hardest time of all. It is the worst time
in the world to let your nerve go back on you. It is not
at all a question of ordering to suit or satisfy your ap
petite. All your powers If you still want to keep up
the first impression you made upon the waiter must
go to picking out a lunch or dinner of flowers that will
- be harmonious, both in scents and in colors.
"Now, let me see," you must say to the waiter.
"What are the bouillons today? Rose bouillon? No,
no rose bouillon? If there's anything I can't stand in
the summer time, it's rose bouillon. Better bring me
a little cold violet bouillon, waiter."
"The orchid salad Is very nice today, sir," the waiter
Is very apt to say.
"All right, a portion of that, then," yom ovght to
answer, for orchid salad Is really some very, very
salad, and especially as expenses are not going to worry
you In this meal you might as well try It.
"Npw the entree. Let's see what you've got here.
Candytuft um- zinnia, no I tell you what; bring me
some of those compressed petals of peas."
"A few French string beans with them, sir," says
the waiter.
"All right." you will proceed, not knowing what else
to say and having no good reason to dodge them. "And
then bring me violet blossom ice cream and dandelion
coffee demi-tasse, waiter," for you don't know what
you will be getting into if you order a large cup of dan
delion coffee.
Your hardest work Isn't yet over by any means.
You've got to find out Just the proper sort of tablewear
that you have to use in getting rid of these flowers.
Further, you have to pretend that you like these flower
dishes or the obsequious looks of your garcon are going
to change to the "Oh, you four-flusher" stare.
Nevertheless, the flower menu is an actuality. The
one we have just helped you order is a very good" sample
of the luncheon you can get from such a menu. You
see. we, ourselves, have never ordered or eaten such a
luncheon. All our business of helping was only a bluff.
But, nevertheless again, such menus and luncheons are
actualities.
London started the floral luncheon just this sum
mer. They have become immensely popular, these floral
luncheons have, and have spread from the de luxe
clubs and hotels to private homes of the better class
and thence to those of the middle. Those who have
partaken of a flower luncheon say there is absolutely
nothing like it. It is a new sensation in this world, in
which there are very few sensations left.
Getting down to the more practical end, the flower
lunch or dinner is healthful. In hot weather there Is
absolutely nothing that can take its place. From time
Immemorial man has used flowers and plants for cura
tive and alleviative properties. So. why shouldn't meals
of flowers be health conservators, especially if the flow
ers used have been chosen for the properties they con
tain which will do the eater's particular constitution the
most good?
Indeed, flowers and the plants they grow upon have
played a bigger part In the life of man ancient and
modern than we ordinarily think. We eat and wear
and smoke flowers and plants and drink their sap
ana juices, and find in them not only substance
and shelter, but dreams, medicine and death.
They sharpen and dull our nerves. They
support us when we are weak and refresh
us wnen we are fainting.
We find in them also oblivion and in
spiration. There are persons so sensitive
that a breath of air blowing from poison
Ivy will cause them to break out in an
unseemly manner. Indians made them
selves Immune to its outward poison by
the occasional eating of its leaf.
The floral luncheon, then, is not near so
new a thing as one might think it is. Yet
It Is something worth trying. For In
stance it would not be a bad Idea to try
a chrysanthemum salad this summer. It
is made by placing some mayonnaise sauce
at the bottom of a bowl and sprinkling it
with the petals. The result is a most
delicious dish.
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Here's a Sample
Flower Menu
Hors d'oeuvre
Spiced Clover Blossoms
Potage
Violet Consomme
Salad e
Combination : Daisy - mignonette-geranium
with sunflower
oil dressing
Entree
Nasturtiums with Buttercup
Stuffing
Dessert
Sweet Snow Drops
Frozen Apple Blossoms
Cornflower Coffee
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COPYRIGHT. 1914,
NO. 29.