comfortable
home. The German Delikatessen, which form the "snacks" a Teuton eats at
any time to encourage his thirst, are excellent; and the smoked sprats,
and smoked and soused herrings, the various sausages and innumerable
pickles, are the best edible products of the Fatherland. The German meat
is as a rule poor. The best beef and mutton in the north has generally
been imported from Holland. The German is a great eater of fresh-water
fish,--pike, carp, perch, salmon, and trout all being found on his
menus, the trout being cooked _au bleu_. Zander, a fish which is partly
of the pike, partly of the trout species, is considered a great dainty.
The vegetables are generally spoiled in the cooking, being converted
into a _puree_ which might well earn the adjective "eternal." Even the
asparagus is spoilt by the native cook, being cut into inch cubes and
set afloat in melted butter. _Compotes_ sweet and sour, are served at
strange times during the repast, and lastly, as a sort of "old guard,"
the much-beloved but deadly Sauerkraut, made from both red and white
cabbage, is always brought up to complete the cook's victory. The
potatoes in Germany are generally excellent, the sandy soil being
suitable for their cultivation.

The cookery in the big hotels on much-frequented routes in Germany is
now almost universally a rather heavy version of the French art, with
perhaps a _compote_ with the veal to give local colour. In the small
hotels in little provincial towns the meals are served at the times that
the middle-class German of the north usually eats them, and are an
inferior copy of what he gets in his own home. As a warning I give what
any enterprising traveller looking for the food of the country from the
kitchen of a little inn may expect:--

Coffee at 8 A.M. with rolls, _Kaffee Broedchen_, and butter, and this
meal he will be expected to descend to the dining-room to eat.

A slight lunch at 11 A.M., at which the German equivalent for a
sandwich, a Broedchen cut and buttered, with a slice of uncooked ham,
lachs, or cheese between the halves, makes its appearance, and a glass
of beer or wine is drunk.

Dinner (Mittagessen) is announced between 1 and 2 o'clock, and is a long
meal consisting of soup, which is the water in which the beef has been
boiled; fish; a messy entree, probably of Frankfurt sausage; the beef
boiled to rags with a _compote_ of plums or wortleberries and mashed
apples; and, as the sweet, pancakes.

C