The report of the dinner that I have for
you today suggests that these guests may have not, however, have always taken
the process quite as seriously as we tend to believe.
The tradition of London’s “Ceylon
Dinners” continued for many decades in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, as a celebration of Britain’s imperial motives and achievements in
the country we now call Sri Lanka. An article in the Hindu Organ, of 29th January, 1908 briefly summarises
the rationale for the tradition:
The Ceylon dinner in England brings together all Ceylonese young
men who are at that time residents in the British Isles as also such
Britishers, retired officials and others, as have the welfare of the Ceylonese
at heart, and sympathise with their aspirations. The function affords an
opportunity for the sons of Ceylon scattered over in different parts of Great
Britain and Ireland not only to become acquainted with each other but also to ventilate
the grievances of their country in England before the British public.
Hindu Organ, 29th Jan. 1908.
The Ceylon dinner for which I am going
to give you the menu details today took place on January 22, 1875, and was duly
reported in the Ceylon Observer
(Colombo) a few months later – because the British folk doing their colonial
service in the far reaches of Her Majesty’s empire were ever keen to know what
was happening “at home.”
The writer begins:
For, there was a Ceylon dinner at the Criterion last night. Thirty
Ceylon men sat down to feed, in number two of the establishment at the corner
of Piccadilly Circus, John Anderson, Esquire, in the Chair; and there were the
Patriarch of Uva, the Patriarch of Dimbula, other Patriarchs and merchant
Princes, and last, though not least, Mr. John Capper, Prince of Editors. To begin with the beginning, this, what
follows was the
MENU OF THE BILL OF FARE.
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(FREE
TRANSLATION)
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Hors d”oeuvre.
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Over-worked horse.
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Chablis
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Stable liquor.
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Potage
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Pottage.
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Tortue
liée
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Tortured
lie.
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Ponche à La
Romaine.
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Roman Punch.
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Poissons.
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Poisons
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Saumon
– sauce homard
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Some
one’s saucy Hoer with
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Turbans
de merlans piqué
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Turban
and a marlin spike.
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Marcobrunn.
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Mark and Burn.
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Entrées.
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Entries.
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Suprême de
volaille à la financière.
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Supreme
wool oily tal de ral de ral de rido.
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Heydsieck.
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with its probe unopened undamaged Height:
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Theme:
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MPN:
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Manufacture:
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Hide and Seek.
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Ris
de veaux piquéaux petits pois
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Riddle
and woe of picked clean and skinned planters.
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Dry Monopole.
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Dry mon and pale
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Relevé
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Relief.
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Quartier
d’agneau.
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Hind
quarter of Agent with
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Salade.
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aiyo
salad and sauce.
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Rots.
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Faisans.
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Raw
Peasants.
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Pluviers
dorés.
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The
goose that lays the golden eggs.
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Entremets.
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Intermezzo
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Savarins
chaudes au curacoa
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Savvery,
hot, in curacao.
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Charlotte
à la
Parisienne.
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Parisian
Charlottes.
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Heidsieck.
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Hide and Seek.
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Dry monopole.
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Dry mon and pale.
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Ramequins
au fromage parmesan.
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Raman
comes into the garden, Maud of age.
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Boudins
glacé au
fruits
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Buddha
glazed and fired.
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Liqueurs.
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Liquors up.
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Dessert.
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Dessert.
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Château
Giscours 1864.
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Port old and tawny.
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Café
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Coffee.
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I have not come across such a “free
translation” of a standard menu of the era before, and I do wonder at the
motivation for it being provided. What do you think?
As for the recipe for the day, I have
chosen from Savouries à la Mode (London,
1886) by Mrs. De Salis (Harriet Anne.)
Ramequins au Fromage.
Crumble a small stale roll and cover it
with a breakfastcupful of milk, which must be quite boiling; after it has well soaked, strain and put it in the
mortar with four ounces of Parmesan and four ounces of Gloucester cheese
grated, four ounces of fresh butter, half a teaspoonful of made mustard, a little
salt and pepper, and a saltspoonful of sifted sugar. These ingredients must be
all well pounded together with the yolks of four eggs, adding the well-whipped
whites of the eggs. Half fill the paper cases or china moulds with this, bake
them in a quick oven about ten to fifteen minutes, and serve hot as possible.
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