Today’s Yoho Valley lunch menu was used on April 29, 1957, the fourth day of the Empress of France‘s voyage from Montreal to Liverpool. The menu has the usual amazing range of foods.
Click image to download a 768-KB PDF of this menu.
I am particularly intrigued by Mexicorn for an hors d’oeuvre, Scotch barley broth for soup, Irish stew with dumplings for an entrée, puree of turnips as a vegetable, endive salad, and cherry pie a la mode for dessert. I hope the ship had some exercise rooms because otherwise people would end up gaining 10 pounds on the journey.
Click image to download a 1.0-MB PDF of this menu.
The Hotel Frontenac graced the cover of the dinner menu used that same day. With its commanding presence above the city, the hotel represented Canadian Pacific’s dominance over Canadian life. At least six different photos and three different drawings or paintings of the hotel were used on Canadian Pacific menus over the years. Only the Banff Springs Hotel appeared more frequently, and that’s only if both exterior and interior views of the hotel are counted. I’ve previously shown four other menus with this specific photo, all of which were used on steamships.
Click image to download a 786-KB PDF of this menu.
Speaking of the Banff Springs Hotel, the dinner menu dated April 30th features that hotel behind someone fishing in the Spray River. We’ve previously seen at least three other copies of this menu, all of which were used on the Empress of Scotland. However, I have seen this menu cover used in the Banff Springs Hotel restaurant.
“I hope the ship had some exercise rooms because otherwise people would end up gaining 10 pounds on the journey.”
Back then there really wasn’t much of a fitness culture. Oh sure, Jack LaLanne was on TV, but his show was on at a time of day when the audience was mostly housewives who were worried about their figure.
Back in those days, our parents and grandparents intuitively understood that there was nothing wrong with eggs, meat, and dairy. Vegetables were consumed with butter – not margarine – on top. My grandmother and my mother were concerned about the family not consuming too many “starches,” what we refer to today as carbs.
Oh yeah, and a lot of people back the smoked cigarettes, which have an appetite suppressing effect.
Maybe the menu should have been titled “Diamond Jim Brady’s Luncheon.”