XXXIII Edward W. Bok
Asparagus
The food I like?
The dishes I really crave?
The things off which I would dine every day of my life?
I never see them. I never have them.
Why?
Because Mrs. Bok says there is not a digestible dish amongst them.
But I often think of them,—wistfully, oh, so wistfully!
Here they are:
Soft-shell crabs, done in hot olive oil; or hard-shell crabs; deviled.
Lobster with mayonnaise.
Filet Mignon; panned in brown butter.
Veal loaf.
Roast pork tenderloin.
Fried eels.
Sausages; never had enough; ditto scrapple!
Currants with a hot roll lightly wound through them.
Hot fresh doughnuts.
French pancakes of a thinness like unto gauze.
Strong black coffee.
Chocolate meringue glacé.
But as I never had the good fortune to know the above foods at first hand, I cannot well give you the recipes for them.
Perhaps you might like to know my favorite way of serving asparagus in my home, Dutch fashion, as I remember it in my native land of The Netherlands.
The asparagus bunches are placed in a double boiler upright, the tips being above the water, and thus cooked by steam. Passed at table, with the asparagus, is hard-boiled egg, put through a ricer, a small quantity of finely ground nutmeg and a dish of hot, melted butter. It always has to be explained to guests, but once the introduction is over the convert is made!