Midnight Meals

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 865, 8 January 1930, Page 7

Midnight Meals

Foreshadowed by Woman Writer CHANGING FASHIONS Most ot us eat the meals we can afford at the times which are convenient to us, and that is all there is to be said about it. Yet there are fashions in meals and in meal times which change just as fashions tn dress change, and some people who cannot be in the fashion may sigh because they are out of date. Let them not sigh too deeply, however, but euiti vate the philosophical attitude. “The times for eating shift a great deal from century to century, and in novations such as luncheon have occasionally to he introduced to fill up an awkward gap created by fashion. If one reads in chronological order a series of biograhies or novels covering a hundred and fifty years, one can watch the fashionable time for I dining gradually move onward from j two o'clock till half-past eight—our j present modish hour.” writes Doris Langley Moore in "Pandora's Letter 1 Box" (Gerald Howe, 7s 6dl, a book j which takes the form of a series of j letters to be read twenty years hence by her now two-year-old daughter. “ ‘Night-life’—to use the popular expression for habitual nocturnal dancing and drinking—has resulted in an immense partiality for late suppers.'' Pandora's mother continues, “and I think it is not impossible that between the retarding of the dinner hour and the increasing need for supper the two meals may eventually be merged into one, the appetite being postponed till midnight, or thereabouts, by means of snacks, as indeed often happens today. It may be that when my dear Pandora is a middleaged woman, people who take seven or eight o'clock dinner instead of a midnight meal will be smiled at super ciliously, as foolish snobs smile today at the humble family which takes 'high tea.’ The magnificence of one age is often the shoddy of another." Although it is good style to appreciate fine cooking and expensive delicacies, a concentrated interest in food is not the characteristic of a modern “fashionable,” says the author . . .

“the elegant attitude toward the delights of the table is distinctly casual ' Unless they be characteristic, fashions lingering on from other periods are not described, "however popular they remain. Cocktail parties are at pres ent held only by a small number of people, but that number is ever increasing; tea parties are still given by a vast section of the populace, but that section is ever growing smaller. That is why I have written of the one kind, of which I bluntly disap prove, and ignored the other, which I find quite as interesting and much less perilous.” The letters written to Pandora cover the field of fashionable life and manners, discussing the present vogue in dress, morals and amusements, and possible developments are touched upon with stimulating frankness. ARTICLES IN SETS In the small rooms of today, the more the furnishings and appointments are in unison the better. Manufacturers are realising that to an increasing extent, for they are making things “en suite” that never matched before. A recent example of this is a set which comprises table runner or sideboard cloth, tea cosy and cushions. They are made in art taffeta in a wide selection of furnishing colours, and decorated with bands of tapestry to harmonise. Each article is sold separately so that the sets may be made up to suit Individual requirements. PREVENTING TARNISH In these days when most women ace anxious to save as much labour as possible, little used silver is stored away in cupboard or sideboard. But that means when it is desired to use it, a considerable time must be spent removing the tarnish that results from storage. This labour becomes unnecessary if the silver goods are stored in special tarnish preventing tissue paper. It should be well wrapped in this covering, and its generous use is not an extravagance. Not only silver and plated goods benefit by its protection, but fabrics in which metal threads are woven. Thus metal brocade dance shoes and even dresses in which silver and gold tissue is woven may be prevented from getting dull and discoloured.