The Meals Got Mixed

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 80, 3 January 1941, Page 5

The Meals Got Mixed

AS the troopship was nearing England, the topic of talk among the junior officers was what we hoped to have to eat for our first, meal on arriving home. My choice was very simple- pea soup, cottage pie (as made in Cornwall) and apple and blackberry tart and cream. The ship was expected to call at Plymouth only a short distance from the little Cornish village in which we lived, but at the

last minute instructions were received to proceed to London Docks. This required a complete change of plans for my parents and relations. They managed to get up to London just in time to meet me. Imagine my surprise on stepping off the ship to find my brother and his wife also on the wharf. They had only arrived from India by a passenger boat. an hour before me. His

wifes relations helped to sweli the reception Cormmittee. London was crowded out for King Edward VII’s coronation, and accommodation was hard to get. We dispensed to our various billets, with instructions to forgather after we had had our meal. So far so good, except for my first meal in England. It consisted of oyster soup, which I had never tasted before, and naturally didn’t have, then came roast ptarmigan, which I knew was a very much prized game bird-but alas it was too game for me, and finally apple and cranberry tart. This looked all right, but the cranberries were so tart that they refused to be sweetened. Altogether, an unfortunate meal. When we all "rendezvoused" later on, my brother was much annoyed about his first meal also, Here he’d been looking forward to ptarmigan, oyster soup, etcetra, and all he got was pea soup, cottage pie and blackberry tart. Our tastes in food had not been forgotten, but we had mixed up our hotels. This was put right shortly afterwards and everyone was well satisfied-(" Just Welcomes," by Major Lampen, 3YA, December 26.)