Consuming Interest
By LESLIE ADRIAN rLASTICS, packaging and the car boot (when it is big enough) have, I see, liberated the picnic meal. No longer is it necessary to make do with squashed tomatoes, dainty dry sandwiches and Cups of clay-coloured tea from the top of a vacuum flask. All over the country it is possible to see families dining in the open continental fashion with folding seats and tables. It is much simpler for the hostess to attend to her guests when they are seated around a table; and, I sup- pose, better for the digestion; and if you like the idea of picnics in this fashion, you can now buy a folding wooden table and four stools for £5 19s. 6d. a set in most big stores.
Even if you still prefer the old-style, rug-on- the-grass picnic, I believe it is worth spending money on good and adequate equipment. As mostof it is unbreakable, it lasts for years and easily justifies the initial outlay. Some of my own picnic gear is now serving a, third generation.
Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find exactly what you want; and most of the picnic and camping displays in the stores are very un- enterprising. There are, for example, many elaborate packs containing vacuum flasks • and cups and saucers (surely the most expendable piece of picnic equipment), but only the most costly 'wedding present' hampers contain large plates. These are also difficult to find at reasonable prices as odd pieces. The best value I have found are some concave, non-spill plastic plates from Woolworths for Is. 6d. each. If you are prepared to pay more, Harrods have them in vivid primary colours, which are a change from the usual insipid pastels of most plastic ware, A large plate in this range costs 3s. 4d.
I have been searching for a long time for an efficient way of carrying butter and keeping it cool in the boot of a car. A wide-necked vacuum flask is one solution, but this is both bulky and expensive for the purpose; the best I have found is a neat little aluminium container with an inner plastic bowl for 3s. 6d., from the Army and Navy.
This firm are also agents for the new conti- nental Butane gas pocket stove, which, with Butane cartridges, boils one pint of water in four minutes. It costs 59s. 6d., and the cartridges (last- ing for one and a half hours) are Is. 11d. They are on sale at sports shops and Shell agents in most European countries. Another 'simple and efficient way of boiling water is a chromium electric kettle working off the car battery which boils a pint of water in fourteen minutes from a twelve-volt "battery, in, twenty-five minutes from six volts. It costs 39s. Ild. at Gamages.
Alternatively, there is an ingenious water carrier and heater which burns newspapers, twigs or leaves from an inner flue in approximately three minutes: the 'Volcano.' It is on sale at most sports shops for £2 10s. , I know of no picnic meal that is not improved by a cheap claret, even when it has to be drunk out of a plastic mug. Those transparent plastic glas.ses which are used on aircraft are on sale at the Army and Navy; but the price-5s. each —is a bit much. Woolworths have a transparent plastic tumbler for Is., but it is less elegant.
On the old question whether plastic poils- or at least alters—the taste of drink consumed out of it, I am still in some doubt. In my experience certain drinks taste very different in aircraft (my last week's subject, gin and tonic, for one); but is this due to the plastic or to some characteristic of the aircraft?
This is not so odd a suggestion as it may sound. If our sense of taste is dominated, as we know it is, by our sense of smell, then it would not be surprising if the slight odours peculiar to air- craft combine in some way with the bouquet of certain drinks to give them a different flavour.
Nor would it be surprising if this were the reason why some people find that drinking out of plastic changes the taste, for many plastic con- tainers have a distinct smell of their own. But perhaps' some scientifically-minded reader can supply a more reasoned explanation.
To return to picnics : it will be worth your while, if you can, to pay a visit to Soho and browse' around the continental shops there, keeping an eye out for such things as the new tube mustards, mayonnaises, sauces and so on which seem to last indefinitely in a refrigerator.
Finally, salads. After various attempts to pre- serve lettuce in polythene bags, and even in air- tight aluminium containers, I have given up the struggle; I now take Belgian chicory (which is plentiful at the moment) as a salad base instead.
W. Bentley Capper's Dining Out (Rockliff, 5s.) has some useful stuff in it, including a number of things which I should have given, and did not, in my recent list. He lists most (though not all) the prominent London restaurants, along with such useful information as address, telephone number, opening (and closing) days and times, and whether there is music. He also has separate lists giVing restaurants by districts (the Chelsea list is ludicrously inadequate) and by nationality.
It would have been better if Mr. Capper had tried to give either a comprehensive list, with no attempt to evaluate merit, or a much smaller list concentrating on quality; as it is, any stranger trying to use his book, except for such practical purposes as finding whether a restaurant is open on Sunday, will find it less helpful than it at first sight appears. For example,mo attempt is made to differentiate between the prices, so that Bertorelli and Boulestin, Schmidts and the Savoy jostle each other without indication of price range.
Incidentally, I am glad to see from an article by Lena Leger in the Manchester Guardian that the Relais &milers organisation—whose sign that a restaurant is good enough for a French lorry- driver to eat in is also an indication that it is excellent value for the tourist—is setting up in England; and that 'about forty restaurants have now qualified for this lorry-drivers' Michelin.' For anybody who trAvels around Ap, country, tat list should be worth getting hold of,
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