The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-02-16
Queer Food.

The Germans IN New York have
stores in which specially Teutonic del
icacies are vended. Dried. or rather
smoked, goose is an odd feature of these.
Smoked geese come from Pomerania,
where their living originals are raised in
large hocks- They are plucked for their
down, and then killed, cut in sections,
very slightly sailed and smoked. Pom
eranian goose, however, costs .25 cents
pound, and is esteemed great dainty
among German epicures.
There are a couple of stores here
where Spanish edibles are dealt in. These
consist chiefly of nuts and dried fruits.
Dried goatmeat forms favorite feature
1t is prepared very much as our dried
beef is. The Spaniards seem to rely
more on their peculiar methods of cook
ing what they eat than on any popularity
of the food itself
The pecu1iarities of the French fosd-
stores are beyond comparison. The
question with regard to them is not what
they do, but what they do not sell.
There is probably nothing from a Sec
ton OF boiler-iron or a cobble-stone down
to a bent pin or a broken horseshoe nail
that Frenchman cannot provide a
dressing for to make it appetizing. An
odd feature of the French shops to an
American is the horse-meat department.
They all deal in horse-fiesh, both fresh,
dried and sailed. Horse-fesh sausages,
made or supposed to be made, in Lyons
and called Lyons sausages, are very
popular Sausages made of compound
of asses flesh, pork and veal also have
an extensive sale.
Sharks fins, dried, are sold in every
Chinese shop in New York. They are
imported from China. There are three
kinds, of which the best are the fins of
the white shark. These are worth $3.50
a pound. The poorest kind, which is
known as black shark fins, is sold for
half as much, and even less. Sharks
fin is a popular dainty among Cinnamon.
1t is sailed and dried for export, and
looks like a section of whalebone, when.
raw, but boiled in water gelatinous
substance is extracted which is esteemed
very savory. A species of stew made of
sharks fin, dried oysters, rice and pep
pers is champion Chinese dish. Dried
oysters are ordinary bivalves, extracted
from the shell, dipped in salt and strung
on strings to dry in the sun. They come
from China. and look for all the world
like figs. John Chinaman infinitely
prefers them to the freshest of fresh
oysters he can buy here. Mussels, conks
and CLAIMS are preserved by.him in the
same way.
The famous birds nest is also fea-
ture of any respectable shop in Mott
street. 1t is queer stuff to look at, for
it rather resembles gravel than anything
vegetable or animal, and tastes a little
like gum arabic. The nests, it seems,
are dried and rubbed into these frag-
ments in the hand, when they. are packed
for transportation. Birds nest is worth
from SO for the commoner variety to
$25 pound for the best. 1t is essen
TALLY a luxsry, for a pound of it viii
only make soup for at most forty people,
SO that it rates higher than turtle soup
in the dearest season Another dainty,
which All Sin has to have imported all
the way from China, is dried cabbage.
Some score or so of contributors to
French sporting journal dined one day
upon the ham and heart of lion, killed
by Constant Cheret in Algeria. The
flesh of the lion was found to be partic-
ularly firm and close-grained, like that
of a horse, but although pronounced
palatable, itonly achieved what is termed
a satcces -G estine, while the heart, skill
fully prepared with truffies, was unani-
mously voted tough and indigestible.-
NeSo York Meas.