Page:Wood - Foods of the Foreign-Born.djvu/84

68 start fermentation. Cover vessel with blanket to keep the milk warm during the process of fermentation. In from two to three hours it will be done. It may be served hot or cold, and some people add sugar.

For the dinner or evening meal shish kibab (lamb cut in walnut-sized pieces and roasted on skewers) is a favorite form of serving meat. All vegetables are first fried in a small amount of olive oil or other fat, then boiled in meat stock. Sometimes tomato is added to give more flavor. Okra is never slimy, and vegetables lose their green taste when first cooked in oil or other fat.

When these people settle in America, their dietary customs are continued to a large extent, but milk becomes a luxury and fruit less plentiful.

Many of our finest fruit stores are owned by Greeks, Armenians, or Syrians. The men are seldom laborers; almost all choose commercial occupations, usually starting with a push cart of fruit, frequently bananas, and gradually working up a trade, buying a horse and wagon, then establishing a small store. Others are waiters in restaurants or have shoe-blacking stands. Some sell antique rugs; they also clean and repair them.

It was interesting to find during the war that these people were still able to secure wheat in its different degrees of coarseness. They use a large amount of fat in the preparation of many of their dishes, but as no butter is eaten on bread, they do not have an excess of fat in their diet.

The amount of milk used when there are children is generally insufficient, because of the expense. They rarely if ever buy it in their home countries, and if they do have to, the cost is but a few cents.

A Syrian woman who had tuberculous glands was