Stephens City star. (Stephens City, Va.) 1881-1883, 1882-02-18
QUEER FOOD.



Named.
The Germans of New York, says the
Ners of that city, have stores in which
specially Teutonlc delicacies are vended.
Dried, or rather smoked, geese is an
odd feature of these. Smoked geese
come from Pomerania, where their liv-
ing originals are raised in large hocks.
They are pl1cked for their down, and
| then killed, cut in sections, very slightly
salted and smoked. Pomaranian goose,
however, costs twenty five centsa pound,
and is esteemed great dainty among
| German epicures.
There are couple of stores here
where Spanish edibles are dealt in.
These consist chiefly of nuts and dried
fruits. Dried goatmest forms favor
! ite 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 Peculiarity of the French food
stores are beyond comparison. The
question in regard to them is not what
they do, but what they do not sell.
There is probably nothing from sec-
tion of boiler iron or cobble-stone,
down to bent pin or broken horse
shoe nail that Frenchman cannot pro-
vide dressing for to make it appetiz-
ing. An odd feature of the French
shops to an American is the horse e-meat
department. They all deal in horse
flesh, both fresh, dried and salted.
Horsefesh sausages, made, or supposed
to be made, in Lyons, and called Lyons
saisages, are very popular. Sausage,
made OF compound of asses flesh,
pork and veal, also have an extensive
sale.
Sharks ius, dried, are sold in every
Chinese shop in New York. They are
imported from China. There are three
kinds, If which the best are the fins of
the white shark. These are worth $3 so
pound. The poorest kind, which is
known as black shark fins, is sold for
half as much, and even less. Sharks
fin is popular dainty among Cinnamon.
1t is salted and dried for export, and
| looks like section of whalebone when
raw, but boiled in water gelatinous
substance is extracted, which is es-
teemed 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.
g,lltay 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. Mus
sells, 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, It is queer stuff to look at, for
it rather resembles gravel than anything
vegetable or animal, and tastes 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 $40 for the commoner
variety to $25 pound for the best. 1t
is essentially luxury, for pound OF it
will only make soup for at most forty
people, so that it rates higher than
| turtle soup in the dearest season. An.
other dainty which All Sin has to have
imported all the way from China is
dried cabbage.
Some score or SO of contributors to a
French sporting journal dined one day
upon the ham and heart of a lion, killed
by Constant o. eret in Algeria. The
flesh of the lion was found to be partic'
ularly firm and close grained, like that
of horse, but although pronounced
palatable, it only achieved what is
termed success d'estime, while the heart.
skilfully prepared with truffles, was
unanimously voted tough and indigesti'
BILE.