p in cups
2. Eggs
3. Meat and vegetables
4. Salad
5. Dessert

or

1. Fruit
2. Soup
3. Meat and vegetables
4. Salad
5. Dessert

or

1. Fruit
2. Soup
3. Eggs
4. Fowl or "tame" game with salad
5. Dessert

An informal lunch menu is seldom more than four courses and would
eliminate either No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 5.

The most popular fruit course is a macedoine or mixture of fresh orange,
grape fruit, malaga grapes, banana, and perhaps a peach or a little
pineapple; in fact, any sort of fruit cut into very small pieces, with
sugar and maraschino, or rum, for flavor--or nothing but sugar--served in
special bowl-shaped glasses that fit into long-stemmed and much larger
ones, with a space for crushed ice between; or it can just as well be put
in champagne or any bowl-shaped glasses, after being kept as cold as
possible in the ice-box until sent to the table.

If the first course is grape fruit, it is cut across in half, the sections
cut free and all dividing skin and seeds taken out with a sharp vegetable
knife, and sugar put in it and left standing for an hour or so. A slice
of melon is served plain.

Soup at luncheon, or at a wedding breakfast or a ball supper, is never
served in soup plates, but in two-handled cups, and is eaten with a
teaspoon or a bouillon spoon. It is limited to a few varieties: either
chicken, or clam broth, with a spoonful of whipped cream on top; or
bouillon, or green turtle, or strained chicken, or tomato broth; or in
summer, cold bouillon or broth.

Lunch party egg dishes must number a hundred varieties. (See any cook
book!) Eggs that are substantial and "rich," such as eggs Benedict, or
stuffed with pate de foie gras and a mushroom sauce, should then be
"balanced" by a simple meat, such as broiled chicken and salad, combining
meat and salad courses in one. On the other hand, should you have a light
egg course, like "eggs surprise," you could have meat and vegetables, and
plain salad; or an elaborate salad and no dessert. Or with fruit and soup,
omit eggs, especially if there is to be an aspic with salad.

The menu of an informal luncheon, if it does not leave out a course, at
least chooses simpler dishes. A bouillon or broth, shirred eggs or an
omelette; or scrambled eggs on toast which has first been spread with a
pate or meat puree; then chicken or a chop with vegetables, a salad of
plain lettuce with crackers and cheese, and a pudding or pie or any o