For group serving, layer the wafers into log formation, resting them on their sides, allowing six for a portion. When serving the log, slice diagonally, an place on chilled plates.
Those Strasbourg geese are buried in darkness, now that the last of the famous pâte de fois gras made of their fattened livers moves from the shop shelves. But domestic-made pâtés move in to fill the widening gaps. A new one from the kitchen of Old Denmark, 135 East 57th Street, selling in bulk and unrationed, is made with 60 per cent chicken liver, 20 per cent goose liver, and 20 per cent calves' liver, the price ＄1.20 a pound.
Something else from this shop that travels to the White House is the smoked salmon, fresh Nova Scotia salmon delicately smoked, not a trace of salt to the flavor. The smoking is done under the direction of the shop manager, and so proud he is of this product that he'll slice you a bite if you so much as ask the price. The price, by the way, is a little less than average for such a fine luxury—＄1.80 a pound. But you won't need a pound. Half that will spread toast fingers for a cocktail party of twelve. The thin bland slices may be used as ham was once, to roll up cooke spears of asparagus, these to serve under a Hollandaise blanket.
That royal pudding of the Danes, the red berry pudding called Rodgrod og Flode, is made again by Old Denmark kitchen. It is made as usual of strawberries, raspberries, lingonberries, currants, cooked slowly for two-and-a-half hours with sugar until they come to a pudding-like consistency. The fruit is strained to remove all seeds, then chille to a tingle, and served with plain cream. Single portions are 30 cents, but one portion serves two.
Perennial salad favorites return for the warm weather—summer salad an leaf-thin cucumber slices. Summer salad is a blend of cream cheese, pot cheese, and sweet cream combined with finely cut radishes and scallions, all beaten together to a velvety texture in an electric mixer. The mixing goes on for almost two hours. The price is 80 cents a pint at Old Denmark's salad bar. Back again, also, is the cucumber salad, just cucumbers sliced paper thin and then soaked for two days in lemon juice with a dash of herbal vinegar. The cucumber slices are a translucent vehicle to carry the taste of the simple but exquisite dressing.
Largest and best of the Atlantic Coast mussels are dredged along the Maine Coast. These Lucullan beauties are meticulously cleaned, their edges ruffled by steaming, then are packed in their own broth. Gristede's Bon Voyage Shop, 12 Vanderbilt Avenue, sells the Maine mussels, 49 cents and one point for the 11-ounce jar. A quick salad: drained mussels on crisp lettuce in Russian dressing, sprinkled with minced parsley.
Juice of the passion fruit waits the tall drinks of summer at Bloomingdale Brothers, 59th Street and Lexington. Centuries old, a native of Brazil, now grown in Southern California, the passion fruit is the size of a plum, purple in color, with a tough hull; but inside, the small black seeds are surrounded by an aromatic yellow pulp and a rainbow of flavors. Here is something of the peach, the apricot, the pineapple, the guava, the banana. Underlying the sweetness is the slight acidity of the lime.
The word passion as applied to this fruit has a religious significance, an was used by the early Spanish missionaries to South America in describing the purple and white flower which is supposed to resemble the instruments of Christ's crucifixion. The corona represents the crown of thorns; the long white fringe of the flower, the halo; the stamens and pistils represent the nails of the cross; the sepals and petals, the faithful apostles.
The juice will give exotic flavor to any soft drink, or to one more spirited. It lends enchantment to punch. It may be used as a sauce over ice cream or pudding. It makes a different syrup to drizzle over the Sunday morning waffles.
The venerable and dignified firm of H. Hicks & Son, 660 Fifth Avenue, have crossed the border into Mexico for ideas to bedeck their basket department. Such an outburst of color and infinite basket variety! And not all are baskets. Enormous sombreros are filled with salted toasted Mexican squash seeds, with the Mexican coffee essence black, thick, and strong. There are other delicacies, both Mexican and domestic, tie up in Mexico's national colors—red, white and green. A little love of a covered basket of Mexican palm is filled with nuts and summer candies. There are door knob baskets stuffed with fresh fruits. A tall woven basket in red, green, blue, yellow—a waste basket perhaps—comes filled with sweet oranges. Straw buttons dangle from gay packets, these to be clustered like a bouquet of flowers for your coat lapel.
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