Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-02-20
FOOD AND DRINK.
As the Traveller Finds them i'm For
Cign Lands.

As the Traveller Finds them in For
oign Lands,
A letter from abroad TO the Chicago
Inter Ocean says: In japan, China and
the Eastern insular colonies, you eat
three meals per day; good substantial
meat breakfast, light tiffin of bread,
cheese and fruit at 1 o'clock, and q
heavy dinner at or s. The fruits of
Singapore make tiffin the most enjoyable
meal of the day there. Memories of pine
apples, bananas, oranges, mangosteens,
pomoloes, cocOanuts, etc., make my
mouth water even now. In India the
same rule holds, but 1 think the tiffin is
nearly always referred to as lunch. When
you strike Egypt the abominable French
system of cafe au lait in the morning is
encountered, varied sometimes as a
special luxury by two soft-boiled eggs. l
stopped at one Leyantine hotel where
this most unsatisfactory breakfast was
charged extra. Even on the French
steamers to the Orient two regular meals
day is the rule. In the Himalayas
there are six meals day-hazree, chotie,
hazree, .tiffin, lunch and dinner. Verify,
the round-the- world stomach has to en-
uure everything.
Until Egypt was reached, enjoyed
that distinctive Oriental dish, rice and
curry, at least once day, and usually
twice. Everything in the way of meat
is curried in India, from shrimps to wild
goose.
The butter and milk supplies were the
most unsatisfying. Timed butter and
condensed milk from Switzerland or
California, prevail almost exclusively
throughout the Orient. The local goat
and buffalo products are even worse. In
some places great stroke of enterprise
has resulted in diaries, as at Yokohama,
but the supplies are expensive and de-
cidedly inferior. The orthodox COW
does not flourish where punkahs arc
swung. The butter is invariably white,
like lard, and unsalted. 1t is a taste
less compromise between tallow and
axle grease, and most of the hotels do
not attempt to put it on the table more
than once a day-at noon-if they do
that often. Otherwise the resident for
eign people live well, and three or four
meat courses are enjoyed by those in the
most most moderate circumstances. l
enjoyed genuine pumpkin pies at one or
two missionary tables in Japan and
China, and other American delicacies
Iserved without an ocean of crockery) at
the hospitable boards of some of our
representatives in Syria. Oatmeal, grid
die cakes, biscuits, genuine pies and Gus
tards are unknown out of America, save
in few London and Paris restaurants,
where they are sometimes counterfeited,
without the success that might be de-
sired.
Papered rooms are unknown in the
East. Frescoes are known only in the
best hotels and public buildings The
fort is to exclude the fierce heat, and
to this end bare walls, ventilators, win
dowS without glass, lofty rooms, and all
sorts of thermantidotes are provided.
The water supply is poor, save where
the municipalities have been at enor-
nous expense to construct waterworks,
as at Hong Kong, Singapore and Cal
cutta. Citizens of Canton buy water by
the barrel, which is brought from the
mountains by natives or up the river
from Hong Kong on steamers. The local
wells contain only brackish water, which
may be used in washing clothes and
dishes In the principal Indian cities it
is no longer necessary to drink boiled
water owing to the excellent supplies
furnished by the public waterworks. In
Jaffa the water is intolerably brackish.
In Roustchuck the muddy Danube is
filtered and sold to the Bulgarians.
The Vienna waterworks are very extern
sive, and the water the best l know of,
being nearly ice cold on the hottest day.
In Alden and a few similar torrid mum
dane remedies of the wicked men, the
public water supply is obtained by con-
densing and distilling common sea water
by means of large engines. The IN
palatable product is then sold for as
high as eight cents a gallon. Rains are
too rare to depend upon.
Filtered water is used in Jerusalem,
and if you want enough for bath you
must pay for it extra.
Drinking water seems to be furnished
nearly everywhere outside of America in
a faring bottle with a neck about an inch
and half in diameter, and long enough
to be comfortably grasped. In India
these ewers are made of pottery in order
to keep the water cool, and it is wonder
full how well they accomplish this, con-
sidering the climate. Elsewhere the
bottles are of glass, varying somewhat in
shape.