They use
very few made dishes, and I never saw any that would be approved
by our savants. They have an excellent wild duck, called the
Canvass Back, which, if delicately served, would surpass the
black cock; but the game is very inferior to our's; they have no
hares, and I never saw a pheasant. They seldom indulge in second
courses, with all their ingenious temptations to the eating a
second dinner; but almost every table has its dessert,
(invariably pronounced desart) which is placed on the table
before the cloth is removed, and consists of pastry, preserved
fruits, and creams. They are "extravagantly fond," to use their
own phrase, of puddings, pies, and all kinds of "sweets,"
particularly the ladies; but are by no means such connoisseurs in
soups and ragouts as the gastronomes of Europe. Almost every one
drinks water at table, and by a strange contradiction, in the
country where hard drinking is more prevalent than in any other,
there is less wine taken at dinner; ladies rarely exceed one
glass, and the great majority of females never take any. In
fact, the hard drinking, so universally acknowledged, does not
take place at jovial dinners, but, to speak plain English, in
solitary dram-drinking. Coffee is not served immediately after
dinner, but makes part of the serious matter of tea-drinking,
which comes some hours later. Mixed dinner parties of ladies and
gentlemen are very rare, and unless several foreigners are
present, but little conversation passes at table.
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