35o
Martinique
Sketches.
ters into domestic consumption in quite remarkable ways. People put sugar into fresh milk, English porter, beer, and cheap wine ;—they cook various vegetables with sugar, such as peas ; they seem to be particularly fond of sugar-and-water and of d'leau-pain,— bread-and-water boiled, strained, mixed with sugar, and flavored with cinnamon. The stranger gets accustomed to all this sweetness without evil results. In a northern climate the consequence would probably be at least a bilious attack ; but in the tropics, where salt fish and fruits are popularly preferred to meat, the prodigal use of sugar or sugar-syrups appears to be decidedly beneficial. . . . After Cyrillia has prepared my cocoyage, and rinsed the bathing-towels in fresh-water, she is ready to go to market, and wants to know what I would like to eat for breakfast. "Anything creole, Cyrillia ;—I want to know what people eat in this country." She always does her best to please me in this respect,—almost daily introduces me to some unfamiliar dishes, something odd in the way of fruit or fish. II. C Y R I L L I A has given me a good idea of the range and character of mangê-Crêole; and I can venture to write something about it after a year's observation. By mangé-Créole I refer only to the food of the people proper, the colored population ; for the cuisine of the small class of wealthy whites is chiefly European, and devoid of local interest :—I might observe, however, that the fashion of cooking is rather Provençal than Parisian ;—rather of southern than of northern France. Meat, whether fresh or salt, enters little into the nourishment of the poorer classes. This is partly, no doubt, because of the cost of all meats ; but it is also due to natural preference for fruits and fish. When fresh meat is purchased, it is usually to make a stew or daube;—