WHALE WITH GREEK PEAS. A New Dish to be Occasionally Found on the Table.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 378, 19 June 1889, Page 3

WHALE WITH GREEK PEAS. A New Dish to be Occasionally Found on the Table.

Them; are obvious difficulties in the way of selling a whale over the counter in a fishmonger's shop. Nevertheless we may yefc see bits of whales being thus purchased and carried away. There was a time in ' Merrie England' when whale with green peas was considered a delicacy. History, ib is said, repeats itself, and some of us who now strut the stage of life may,' ere we die, indulge in the same feasfc. In Barbados, when obtainable, the flesh of humpbacked whale (Megaptera Americana) is eaten by all classes, being preferred to beef, -which is there tough. A South Sea harpooner will tell you that, excepting the delicacy of a draught of the yellow, creamy milk taken from a freshly speared she whale, whale fins properly cooked are the greatest of conceivable dainties. A single cetacean, ib is calculated } will supply 500 pounds of extract, and a pound of extract makes 100 pints of nourishing soup. Thus it can easily be seen that one whale is capable of "satisfying the hunger of 50,000 persons if they were content to have a meal of whale soup alone. An average whale converted into extract would suffice for the daily dinner of man all through his life, even if he lived to the age of 140 years. As he would not be likely to accomplish thab feat, there would be plenty of whale over for breakfast and supper, when — as he might be expected to tire of soup — the cetacean might appear on his table in the form of cutlets, of mince, ov even risoles.

Man is the universal animal. Ifc is estimated thab there is 1,250,000,000 of him on the globe. The sheep rank next with 500,000,000. Three hundred million cattle 100,000,000 hogs (the four-foobed variety) and 60,000,000 horses continue the list, q