Most for your money cookbook

When we had a room down near the market in New Orleans we never paid anything for either ice or head lettuce because the Negro boy who did odd jobs for us used to pick both up free around the cars loading up for the North. For Louisiana lettuce in season is almost worthless, except by the crate. Likewise our market boy brought us bananas from the fruit docks, where the ripe ones are cut out of the green bunches and thrown away, since one ripe banana will spoil a whole green bunch, just as a rotten apple will ruin the entire barrel. Although this is off the subject, it was in our New Orleans Creole-quarter room where we first tasted the chit- terlings of kid as prepared by the Italians downstairs, and these 142 RABBIT FOOD 1 43 were much more delicate and nicer in fragrance and taste than calf chitterlings. Likewise we supped absolutely free on luscious oyster crabs for which millionaires have to pay I5.00 a quart. These were smuggled out and brought home by underpaid oyster openers who lived in the next room. But to get back to vegetables: buy in big city markets and direct from the truckers if you can. In wholesale auctions of food-stuffs two sets of books are sometimes kept, and the one jeeringly called "The Farmer's Book" shows prices paid to him that often are be- low the cost of production. In retail markets, the best bargains are late Saturday night or before holidays when perishable foods can't be kept over; not that we wish the marketmen any bad luck or ex- pect that everybody will wait till the last minute for the price to come down, but just to point out that since most of us have got to buy cheap or starve, the time and place for marketing must be care- fully considered. The early bird gets the pick of the market, but has to pay a high price for it. Likewise, usually it's foolish to make journeys into the country to buy from farm stands, since nowadays most of these are supplied from the city wholesale market and you pay the middleman's profit just the same. But the best way to buy at a fair price is to organize and boycott, as east-side Jewish women fight the rising cost of kosher meat and the middle class New York League of Women Shoppers pickets with market bags tacked on poles to convince dealers that they'd better exert pressure on the middleman and get that profit down or be forced out of business. Also, to get your money's worth it's necessary to know how to judge quality, so here are some hints on picking out prime vege- tables. Anise, or Finocchio. The sweet anise, called Florence Fennel, or Finocchio, in Italian, is a large blanched bulb of fine flavor, something like licorice. The best type is big, crisp and tender, known in Italian markets as "Mother Anise." You seldom get a bad one. The chief thing to look out for is withered outside leaves or too spindly a shape, which shows that the seed core has begun to develop. The bulb should be compact like celery and the top spray of leaves fresh and dark green in color. It's best eaten raw; try cut- ting one in eighths and dressing it with olive oil, lemon juke or vine- 144 MOST-FOR-YOUR-MONEY COOK BOOK gar, beaten together with salt and freshly ground pepper and then pepped up with a palmful of poppyseeds heated crisp as popcorn in a frying pan. We perfected this salad by adding the poppyseeds and are mighty proud of it.