Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1883-12-22
CATHAYS CUISINE.
Celestial Bill Of Fare---Other
Delcacies.
pekin Cor. 81 Petersburg Messenger.

Pekin Cor 81 Petersburg Messenger.
Excluding beef and dairy products, China
men sat everything that is edible-horse and
ass flesh, snakes, rats, mice, dogs, grasshop-
pers, spiders, worms, cocoons, sea cucum-
bers, swallows nests, etc. Once while living
in villa near Pekin, saw a very strange
scene. There appeared a cloud Of grasshop
psHs. Suddenly the field was covered with
Cinnamon, who ran frantically hither and
thther gathering them in. They filled large
sacks and bags with the insects. They car
ried portable stoves, on which they roasted
their curious game Other Cinnamon greed
lily devoured the grasshoppers, paying a
penny for ton.
At the head Of all meats Cinnamon put. of
course, pork. In their opinion, to the hog
belongs the first place in the list of domestic
animals. II yeu ask a Chinaman why, he
Will answer you proudly: because it was
the hog from whom the Cinnamon descended"
Don't you see, the Celestials have beaten
Darwin ON the theory Of the descent Of man.
II Is only natural then, that among China
men hogs should enjoy full rights Of citizen
ship Like dogs, they wander wherever they
please. A Chinese street without a number
OF hogs is an impossibility. Are there many
hogs in Chinai / should think so. On .
single holiday in memory of their ancestors
not the original ancestors, the hogs, but
merely human ancestors-the Celestials eat
fully $50, hogs. must admit that Chinese
pork is superior to any found elsewhere on
the globe. Poor Cinnamon, who can not
afford to buy pork, eat meat Of dogs, asses,
horses. rats, mice, rabbits, hares, goats and
sheep. But never saw them eating cats.
Of birds the Chinese eat silver pheasants,
ducks, geese, chickens, jackdaws, crows and
many others. Curiously enough, the so
called Cochin China fowls are very rarely
sssn here. Salt eggs are in great use here.
Among the choice delicacies Of the Chinese
must be mentioned the fins of sharks and
the nests Of sea swallows Under the latter
Is understood not the whole nest, but only the
mucilaginous inner coating Of the nests. It
Ii believed that the swallows who build their
nests ON the sea rocks cover their nests and
glue them to the rocks with the juice of sea
cane, which, on being dried, looks like mucil-
aginous membrane. On the market these
nests are found in the shape of hemisphere
OF the size Of half orange peel. The nests
are sold here at from SIS to S25 per pound
They are used principally for making broth,
to which they give peculiar aroma and
taste, much varied by astronomers.
Rics stands, Of course, at the head Of vege-
table foods. Without rice Cruel no meal is
served here. "Fan" means both ''to have q
aaealn and ITO eat rice Cruel" The brown
rics. which is common rice, but heated and
nsusty, Is much liked. There is also a red
variety Of rice.
Honey is much used here, but chiefly as a
cosmetic After being mixed with flour it Is
used by the women in their hair-dressing.
With their hair saturated, sticky and shining
with honey. they must be, indeed, sweet
As everybody knows, the Chinese are
passionately fond of tea, which they cult
vats for the rest of the world. They drink
it at every meal, at home and out, when idle
and work, in shops and in ofices-in short,
everywhere, and at any time of day or night.
The red, black and green sorts of tea they
prepare only for export, while they them
selves uss exclusively yellow tea. They take
tea in small cups, and without sugar.
Though in China there are excellent sorts
Of grapes, yet no wine is prepared there The
Chinese make two kinds of whisky-of sarge
and Of rice-and drink a good deal Of II.
Women also drink and smoke here A tin
gin of the shape Of an hour-glass is used for
whisky drinking. They had no glass-works
here until recently, when an American
gentleman taught some Celestials to make
glass. During my thirty years residence
here have never seen a single drunken
Chinaman on the street. No coffee or choco-
hate Is usad here.
The unusually fertile soil of this country
yields products enough to satisfy the appetite
Of all the Celestials, and in view of their
peculiar philosophy of the stomach they
ought to be able, all of them, to reach the
blissful state Of safety. Yet how many of
them are lean, hungry, with wistful eyes and
hollow stomachss What heartrending
tragedy each Of these thin fellows presents,
whose all-absorbing idea is to be thick!
When look upon the crowd of hollow
checked Cinnamon and then upon the few
who are in the blissful state of corpulency,
can not help thinking Of the lean-heshed and
the fat-Heshed kind of Pharaoh.
A Quaint Old City.
Quebec Letter.
This is one Of the most curious old cities
ever SEEM Everything is narrow and con-
tracted. Although there are only two or
three Of the real old houses left, yet there are
none modern. Quebec is much given to the
use Of board plankings for sidewalks; and
these are generally in state Of chronic di-
lapidation. There are two lines Of horse-cars
Qittle dull-looking cars), one for the upper
and one for the lower town, and the horses
wear a regular string Of sleigh-bells, which
always remind one of winter. Riding in ono
the other day, a woman wanted to 60 into
store and get something, and the driver wait
"a for her.
Everything has French twist. There are
no Chinese laundries You never see col
Orsd parsonage And there is just one person
who asks aims He sits at St Johns gate
his gate beautiful-and has bis limbs tied up
hksthe one Raphvel has immortalized Sill
yer and gold gets he none, but plenty of cop
pers. In the city there are a good many
houses for sale and to let, also vacant stores,
which does not indicate much prosperity.
Another way they have of neglecting to pull
down walls after q building has burned, 30
that there are good many of these blackened
monuments. The walls Of the parliament
buildings, burned out seven or eight weeks
ago, stand up gaunt, and ragged, and bid
fair Co stand.
The Maiden OF the BAD Lands.
Cor, Detroit Free Press.
Eight miles distant from Little Missouri
station there shows up from the side Of one
of the buttes large vitrifed mass of rock,
| tinted with red, and seen in pofile perfectly
resembling theshead, face and bust Of
woman. 1t is Of great size, sphynx-like, the
upper portion of the figure visible, the rest
buried in the earth. It isdesignated as ''The
Maiden Of the Bad Lands"
The Indians looked upon it with dread And
as their traditions run, the maiden" was the
daughter of q great spirit-the spirit of storm,