Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions

feature to this liberal entertainment, that, for the first time, I began to understand the reality of the Oriental luxury so much vaunted by poets. Wine, though abominated by the Moslem, flowed in profusion. Excellent Bordeaux, Champagne, Madeira, &c., was freely passed round and quaffed with gusto, to the number, I should say, of several gross of bottles. The children of the Crescent drank as freely as ourselves. The sheep and lambs, dressed up whole, were placed upon the table, and every guest helped himself _à la Turque_. The meat was pulled from the animal by the Hadji Bachi, with his fingers, in presence of the company, placed in a large dish, and handed round to the gourmets, who also helped themselves with their fingers. The lamb was admirable; an Apicius would have gone to Turkey to dine, had he known such delicacies were to be obtained there. That worthy left Rome in a vessel, specially chartered by him, to go to Greece, in order to obtain some crayfish rumoured to be larger than any Rome could produce. On arriving, he found they were only the same. He asked the fisherman, who had been some time expecting him, “Have you never caught larger crayfish than that?” “No, signor, never!” was the reply. Rubbing his hands with delight, he ordered the captain to sail back at once, saying, “I have left some at home larger than these, and they will be spoiled if the wind is not in our favour.”[17] The other dishes were eaten in the European fashion, with knives and forks. The fête was under the management of a gentleman I had the pleasure of knowing well, Mr. Ralli, a large proprietor at Kadikoi and a Greek merchant, who, to oblige the Pacha, took upon himself all the responsibility of carrying out his excellency’s liberal ideas. London, or even Paris, could not have produced more effect or given more _éclat_ to the entertainment, though, of course, in a different style. Healths were proposed, and toasts given. The speeches were short, but to the purpose. The music was very original;