Next time you venture forth in search of something new, something different, to serve as an hors d'oeuvre with cock-tails, ask in your delicacy shop for the smoked mussels here out of Holland, packed in olive oil, packed by Mieras Adriaanse, Ltd., of Yerseke, one of Holland's oldest sea-food fisheries. These mussels are smaller than American mussels and, what's more, are cultivated in much the same way as Long Island oysters.
The importer tells us that mussels are found abundantly along the shores of western Europe, but are so irregular in size that they present a packing problem. By farm-raising, the mussels can be grown to the exact size desired. Every year the mussel firmers visit the rich, natural beds along the Dutch shores and dredge for the young to use for their seed. These are taken to the Province of Zeeland and scattered over mussel banks in deep waters leased from the government. Once again, before harvest, the mussels are dredged and scattered on new locations for a final fattening. It takes from one to two years for the mussel to reach the desired processing size.
Dutch mussel beds are inspected by government bacteriologists at regular periods, and this shellfish goes to market as our oysters do with certificates of purity. Tender-sweet the new product, considered in its homeland a great delicacy. Ask for An Gourmet or the Cresca Brand. Sold in New York by Hammacher Schlemmer, 145 East 57th Street; Ellen Grey, 800 Madison Avenue; Seven Park Avenue Foods, 109 East 34th Street; Charles and Company, 340 Madison Avenue; C. Henderson, 52 East 55th Street; B. Altman, Fifth Avenue at 34th Street In Brooklyn at Abraham and Straus; and on Long Island in Locust Valey by Perano Figari Also to be found in delicacy shops in the East in Boston, Hartford, New Haven, Princeton. Trenton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. In the South in Jacksonville, Miami, and Dallas; and in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The 3 ½-ounce tins retail for around 45 cents.
A tall and genial Englishman is the Honorable Gordon W. N. Palmer of Heading and London, England, one of the eight Palmers who own and operate the renowned biscuit company which before the war kept five thousand workers busy turning out five hundred kinds of biscuits shipped to every country on earth. Lord Palmer is president of the firm, Gordon Palmer, one of his sons. The trip to the States was made to renew old friendships and to see how Americans like their biscuits these days.
Tea with Mr. Palmer to sample the various sweets in the Huntley and Palmer line. Some forty kinds are in production again, those for export made to prewar standard, the needful materials granted by the British Ministry of Foods. Petit Beurre was the one we liked especially well, a semisweet wafer made with butter, baked quite brown and very crisp. Homey-tasting, a biscuit every English-man has known since cradle days, a biscuit to enjoy with tea as it tends to leave the tea's flavor intact.
Ginger nuts are another old-timer returned, these baked as hard as a nut, so the name. English lads carry these by the pocket load, just to have handy when hunger strikes. Oldsters like the ginger nut with the late evening tea, a nightcap insuring sound slumber, they say. A great cookie for tea dunking, it doesn't fall apart in the brew. Ginger nuts are made with Barbados raw sugar, made on machines invented three generations ago. “We don't dare modernize the ginger nuts,” said Mr. Palmer. “It might cause a revolution.”
The sweeter biscuits of the line sell best in America. One sweet assortment is made up of eight kinds including the Petit Beurre, shortcakes, the Osborne, butter wheats, sun cakes, a very short biscuit, and a similar one called Nice with a coconut sprinkling. A still sweeter box load is the Carnival. In this collection ore the cream-filled biscuits, the sandwiches, and again the shortcake.
A useful biscuit the golden puff, a round cracker about 2 ½ inches in diameter, flaky and rich, half cracker, half pastry, meant to be heated and split and used as a base for creamed dishes. In Mr. Palmer's home the family like them filled with cheese and jam to cat as a sandwich.
Just before the war, the firm's best seller in the United States was the cocktail assortment. Here it comes again. Remember those very tiny pieces, each just a bite big? The cheese crackers are the size of postage stamps. There are cheese and tomato oblong sticks and cheese puffs shaped like card symbols.
The Huntley and Palmer biscuits are in fine food shops in all of the larger cities. In New York at Charles and Company, 340 Madison Avenue; B. Altman; Maison Glass, 15 East 47th Street; and R. H. Macy.
“Find happiness from heaven” in your teacup. The Shanghai Syndicate, Inc., of San Francisco offers a line of Happiness China Teas, a perfect name for such distinguished vintages. “The leaves come up to a standard set in the late eighth century. They should curl like the dew-lap of a bullock, crease like the boot of a Tartar horseman, unfold like mist rising out of a ravine, and soften gently like fine earth swept by rain.” So insists the label.
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