Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1857-11-04
WHAT HECHINESE EAT.

In general the diet of the Chinese is various
wholesome and well cooked. Many of theil
dishes, it is true, are unpalateable to Europe
they are cooked, and the garlic that almost
universally taints them. But, judging from
the exhalations that assault ones olfactories
| in passing American restaurants and kitchens
| about dinner time, our countrymen would be
likely to make no serious objection to taking
dinner with Celestial on account of the alli-
aceous plants, with which the viands are fla
vored. As for the other offensive Ingredients
in the dishes of John Chinaman, namely, the
vegetable oil, if it is of any other kind in the
world but the product of the castor bean, we
| cannot imagine it to be more disgusting than
| suclr strong hogs fat and rancid butter as
mingle so plentfully in almost all American
attempts at the culinary art. The very per.
fume Of the ingredients mentioned, is fire.
quently strong enough to bear up an egg, and
| for that reason are everywhere used to 'sraise''
pie crust and short cake.
In bills of fare in the Middle Kingdom, dogs.
cats, rats, snakes, worms, &c, figure more
prominently than in ours. But the nation
which enjoys the highest reputation for its
cuisine in the world, has an equally authentic
claim to pre-eminence for its comprehensive
appropriation of the bounties of nature to the
sustenance of man. Fricassees are rarely or
never professed to be composed of canine
hams, grimalkin loins, rats, snakes and worms.
This the elegance of neither the French nor
American taste would permit. But who knows
of faI &c
hidden under the sweet, suspicious word ragout,
or is disguised in humble refectories by the all
embracing name of soup? Reptiles and semi
reptiles, such as eels and frogs, are not arti-
cles of food in China alone. Even creatures
of a lower order, so low indeed that they can
hardly be said to live at all, such as muscles,
oysters and CLANS, are greedily eaten by some,
and strange to relate, the two latter bear an
exceedingly remunerating price, though not
withstanding their inward graces, they must be
classed in outward semblance among the most
repulsive naturally Of the works of creation.
If the Chinese have been detected occasion
ally in pressing into the service of the kitchen
creatures which have not yet earned a favora-
BILE European or American reputation, it will
be simply candid to remark that these cases
are probably occasional, where people have
been caught with their-we mean, in disha-
bile. Another thing must be said in their ex-
cuse. According to Barrow, there is wider
difference perhaps between the rich and the
poor of China than in any other country. The
wealth, which if permitted would be expend-
ed in fiattering the vanity of it's possessors, is
now applied to the purchase of danties to
pamper the appetite.
The animal food consumed by the Chinese
is probably less in proportion to the whole,
than that of other nations of the same latitude.
One dish of fish or flesh, and sometimes both,
is the usual allowance on the tables of the
poor. Rice, millet and wheat furnish most of
the cereal food. It's long and common use is
indicated by the number of terms employed
to describe it, and the variety of alusions to
it in common phrase ology. Rice is cooked by
steaming, and bread, vegetables, and other ar
ticles in the same manner. Wheat -four is
boiled into cakes, dumplings and other arti-
cles, not baked into bread but foreigners at
Canton are supplied with baked loaves of
pretty good quality. Maize, buckwheat and
barley are not ground, but the grain is cooked
in various ways alone, or mixed with other
dishes.
China abounds in culinary vegetables. Le-
guminous and cruciferous plants almost fill
their gardens; peas, beans, cabbage, broccoli,
kale, caulifowers, cress, colwort, lettuce,
southistle, spinach, celery, dandelion, succo-
ry, sweet basil, ginger, mustard, radishes, ar
temsia, amaranthus, tacca, pig weed, (cheno-
podium,) pursawe, shepard's purse, Glove, gar
lies, leeks, scallions, onions, chives, carrots, !
gourds squashes, cucumbers, watermelons to-
matoes, turnips, brinjal, pumpkins, okers, and |
a multitude more are cultivated and used as
greens or otherwise. Beside these, several
kinds of water plants are in request, as the ne
lumbium, taro, water caltrops and water ches-
nuts, the last, when boiled, tasting like new
cheese. The sweet potato is the most COM
mon tuber, for though the Irish has been cul-
tivated in the vicinity of Whampoa for scores
Of years, it has not entered into common con-
sumption.
FEMALE LABOR IN CALIroRNIA.-The San
Francisco (Cal.) papers say that there are
hundreds of servant girls in that city worth
rom one to ten thousand dollars each, their
ordinary wages being now twenty-five dollars
month. In the splendor of their dresses
hey far eclipse their mistresses, and as the
aging is, they "can take Broadway down.
without an effort.
SENT HoME--About fifty persons, male and