Great Britain and drank our newest cider, our cheapest ale, and rawest whisky would go away with a poor impression of the liquors of our country. Drink the wine of the district where they make good wine, but do not grudge the extra shilling which makes all the difference in quality. I have been gently reproved for saying, in the first edition of this book, that the lunches on the big express boats of the Rhine are a scramble for food, and am told that the 3-mark meal in the middle of the day is a triumph of organisation. I bow to correction, and must have been unfortunate in my experiences. Perhaps I was unkind to the fast boats because I was once most kindly treated on an old-fashioned slow boat. I have a pleasant memory of an old head steward, a fatherly old gentleman in a silk cap shaped somewhat like an accordion, who provided the meals on a leisurely steamer which pottered up the Rhine, stopping at every village. He gave us local delicacies, took an interest in our appetites, and his cookery, though distinctively German, was also very good. In a land where all the big hotels fill once a day and empty once a day, and where the meals are a heavy-handed imitation of French cookery, that old man with his stews and roasts, and pickles, veal, and pork, sausages big and sausages small, strange cheeses, and Delikatessen of all kinds, was a good man to meet. Homburg The “Homburg Dinner” has become a household word, meaning that a certain number of men and women agree to dine together at one of the hotels, each one paying his or her own share in the expenses. During the past few years, owing to the desire to spend money shown by some millionaires, British and American, who are not happy unless they are giving German Towns loi expensive dinners every night to a score of guests, this pretty old custom seems likely to die out. In no German town are there better hotels than at Homburg, and one dines on a warm day in very pleasant surroundings, for Ritter’s has its world- famous terrace, where tables have been reserved at one time or another for most of the crowned heads of Europe, and some of the other hotels have very delightful open-air restaurants in their gardens. Sim- plicity, good plain food well cooked, is insisted on by the doctors at Homburg, and therefore a typical Homburg dinner is a very small affair compared to German feasts over which the doctors Ritter’S Kaiser do not have control. This is a dinner Friedrich Pro- of the day at Ritter’s, taken haphazard menade from a little pile of menus, and it may be accepted as a typical Homburg dinner : — Potage Crecy au Riz. Truite de Lac. Sauce Genevoise. Pommes Natures. Longe de Veau a la Hongroise. Petits pois au Jambon. Chapons de Chalons rotis. Salade and Compots. Peches a la Cardinal. Fruits. Dessert.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Great Britain and drank our newest cider, our cheapest ale, and rawest whisky would go away with a poor impression of the liquors of our country. Drink the wine of the district where they make good wine, but do not grudge the extra shilling which makes all the difference in quality. I have been gently reproved for saying, in the first edition of this book, that the lunches on the big express boats of the Rhine are a scramble for food, and am told that the 3-mark meal in the middle of the day is a triumph of organisation. I bow to correction, and must have been unfortunate in my experiences. Perhaps I was unkind to the fast boats because I was once most kindly treated on an old-fashioned slow boat. I have a pleasant memory of an old head steward, a fatherly old gentleman in a silk cap shaped somewhat like an accordion, who provided the meals on a leisurely steamer which pottered up the Rhine, stopping at every village. He gave us local delicacies, took an interest in our appetites, and his cookery, though distinctively German, was also very good. In a land where all the big hotels fill once a day and empty once a day, and where the meals are a heavy-handed imitation of French cookery, that old man with his stews and roasts, and pickles, veal, and pork, sausages big and sausages small, strange cheeses, and Delikatessen of all kinds, was a good man to meet. Homburg The “Homburg Dinner” has become a household word, meaning that a certain number of men and women agree to dine together at one of the hotels, each one paying his or her own share in the expenses. During the past few years, owing to the desire to spend money shown by some millionaires, British and American, who are not happy unless they are giving German Towns loi expensive dinners every night to a score of guests, this pretty old custom seems likely to die out. In no German town are there better hotels than at Homburg, and one dines on a warm day in very pleasant surroundings, for Ritter’s has its worldfamous terrace, where tables have been reserved at one time or another for most of the crowned heads of Europe, and some of the other hotels have very delightful open-air restaurants in their gardens. Simplicity, good plain food well cooked, is insisted on by the doctors at Homburg, and therefore a typical Homburg dinner is a very small affair compared to German feasts over which the doctors Ritter’S Kaiser do not have control. This is a dinner of the day at Ritter's, taken haphazard menade from a little pile of menus, and it may be accepted as a typical Homburg dinner : — Potage Crecy au Riz. Truite de Lac. Sauce Genevoise. Pommes Natures. Longe de Veau a la Hongroise. Petits pois au Jambon. Chapons de Chalons rotis. Salade and Compots. Peches a la Cardinal. Fruits. Dessert.

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