Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1882-03-18
Queer Food,

The Germans of New York have stores
in which specially Teutonc delicacies
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
tlocks. They are plucked for their
down, and then killed, cut in sections,
very slightly sailed and smoked. Pome-
ranian goose, however, costs twenty-five
cents a pound, and is esteemed a great
dainty among German epicures.
There are couple of stores here
where Spanish edibles are dealt in.
These consist chiefly in 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 cooking what they eat than on any
popularity of the food itself.
The peculiarities of the French feed
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
section of boiler-iron or cobble-stone
down to a bent pin or broken horse.
shoe nail that Frenchman can not pro-
vide q dressing for to make it appetiz-
ing. An odd feature of the French
shops to an American is the horse.meat
department. They all deal in horse
flesh, both fresh, dried and sailed.
HorSe-hesh sausages, made, or supposed
to be made, in Lyons and called Lyons
sausages, are very popular. Sausages
made of a 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 So 80
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 China
men. 1t is sailed and dried for export,
and looks like section of wha'ebone,
when raw, but boiled in water, gela-
tinous substance is extracted which is
esteemed very savOry. A species of
stew made of sharks fin, dried oysters,
rice and peppers 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 clans
are preserved by him in the same way.
The famous birds nest is also feature
of any respectable shop in Mott street.
1t is queer stuff to look at, for it rather
resembles gravel than anything vegeta-
BILE or animal, and tastes a little like
gum arabic, The nests, it seems, are
dried and rubbed into these fragments
in the hand, when they are packed for
transportation. Birds nest is worth
from $40 for the commoner variety to
S25 pound for the best. 1t is essen
TALLY Il luxury, for a pound of it will
only make soup for at most forty peo-
pie, so that it rates higher than turtle
soup in the dearest season. Another
dalnty,whlch All Sin has to have import
ed all the way from China, is dried cab
bage.
Some score or so of contributors to a
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 n horse, but although pronounced
palatable, it only achieved what is
termed a success d'estime, while the
heart, skillfully prepared with truffles,
was unanimously voted tough and 'ndi-
nnstihln " Y Ncina -