The partridges are generally of the red
sort; large as pullets, and of a good flavour:
There are also
some grey partridges in the mountains; and another sort of a
white colour, that weigh four or five pounds each. Beccaficas are
smaller than sparrows, but very fat, and they are generally eaten
half raw. The best way of dressing them is to stuff them into a
roll, scooped of it's crum; to baste them well with butter, and
roast them, until they are brown and crisp. The ortolans are kept
in cages, and crammed, until they die of fat, then eaten as
dainties. The thrush is presented with the trail, because the
bird feeds on olives. They may as well eat the trail of a sheep,
because it feeds on the aromatic herbs of the mountain. In the
summer, we have beef, veal, and mutton, chicken, and ducks; which
last are very fat, and very flabby. All the meat is tough in this
season, because the excessive heat, and great number of flies,
will not admit of its being kept any time after it is killed.
Butter and milk, though not very delicate, we have all the year.
Our tea and fine sugar come from Marseilles, at a very reasonable
price.
Nice is not without variety of fish; though they are not counted
so good in their kinds as those of the ocean. Soals, and flat-fish
in general, are scarce. Here are some mullets, both grey and
red. We sometimes see the dory, which is called St Pierre; with
rock-fish, bonita, and mackarel. The gurnard appears pretty
often; and there is plenty of a kind of large whiting, which eats
pretty well; but has not the delicacy of that which is caught on
our coast. One of the best fish of this country, is called Le
Loup, about two or three pounds in weight; white, firm, and well-flavoured.
Another, no-way inferior to it, is the Moustel, about
the same size; of a dark-grey colour, and short, blunt snout;
growing thinner and flatter from the shoulders downwards, so as
to resemble a soal at the tail. This cannot be the mustela of the
antients, which is supposed to be the sea lamprey. Here too are
found the vyvre, or, as we call it, weaver; remarkable for its
long, sharp spines, so dangerous to the fingers of the fishermen.
We have abundance of the saepia, or cuttle-fish, of which the
people in this country make a delicate ragout; as also of the
polype de mer, which is an ugly animal, with long feelers, like
tails, which they often wind about the legs of the fishermen.
They are stewed with onions, and eat something like cow-heel. The
market sometimes affords the ecrivisse de mer, which is a lobster
without claws, of a sweetish taste; and there are a few rock
oysters, very small and very rank. Sometimes the fishermen find
under water, pieces of a very hard cement, like plaister of
Paris, which contain a kind of muscle, called la datte, from its
resemblance to a date.
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