WHAT "POILU" EATS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 225, 10 November 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHAT "POILU" EATS.

FRENCH SOLDIERS ARE RORX COOKS.

In the French army no early morning breakfast is served. Instead, at the first glimpse of dawn, an orderly carrying a large earthenware pitcher rouses the sleeping troops with tti* shout of "an jus —sauce. The "sauce" is coffee; strong, black, excellent coffee. And at the summons each man mechanically produces from under the head of his blanket his "quart," a tin mug, which is filled by the orderly. The strong mixture soon dispels all sleepiness, and he is ready to tight or march, as the case may bo, without more ado.

The first regular meal of the day is eaten at 10 o'clock, and consists of i big bowl of what the French "Tommy" cills his "soup" but which « ieally a meat stew with vegetal-es, very nourishing and sustaining. Dinner —the only other meal—is served at six : n the evening, unci it is over this that the French soldier really "lets himself go." An epicure always, he will, if there is a tin of sardines to lie had anywhere for love or money, insist on beginning with the regulation hurs-d'-oeuvre. With the aid of a few onions .or better still from his point of view a clove or two of garlic, he will rake a delicious entree from a tin of bully beef discarded bv Tommy Atkins.

He will beg or borrow the- two cr three eggs necessary for an omelette, and he almost always contrives to finish off with dessert of seme sorthalf a pear, an apple, or a few plums.