Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/181

 commonly called—which is apt to ensue if nothing be eaten before breakfast. The general hour of breakfast is between nine and ten. Bread and butter and tea or coffee satisfy some; others have rice and fish, with eggs and butter, or cold meat and curries. Tiffin is served about two, and often consists of merely a glass of wine and a biscuit; dinner is served after dark, and consists of nearly the same materials as seen on an English table. Some prefer dining at three p.m.; most married parties do. The milk in use is either cows', goats', or buffaloes. Butter is made every day, the milk being churned as it comes from the cow. In the cold weather it is very good; in the hot white, curdy and insipid, resembling concentrated foam. Bread is in general excellent, and is leavened by being kneaded with the juice of the date palm tree, which ferments immediately after being drawn from the tree. Very good bread is made by flour and water kneaded into a thin cake called a chou-patty; and if an egg and a bit of butter be added, it is still better. Beef, mutton, and pork are very good; all being carefully fed on grain some months before being killed. In the hot weather it is necessary to cook the meat the same day on which it is killed, for it will not keep two days. English preserved provisions are common, and Stilton or Dunlop cheese always has its appropriate corner. Fish is universally to be