The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-03-05
WHAT CHINAMEN EAT.
ALL THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE RAN.
SACKED TO PROVIDE FOOD.

SACKED TO PROVIDE FOOD.
A Long List of Culinary Vegetables
Catalogue of Fruits-Beverasss-F
Flesh and FowI--Insects and Other
Miscellaneous ArticIes--SereaIs.
The proportion of animal food consumed is
probably smaller among the Chinese than
other nations in the same latitude. Rice in
the south, maize, millet and wheat In the
north, furnish the cereal food. The first is
emphatically the staff Of life, and is con-
sidered indispensable all over the land. 1t is
thoroughly cooked without forming pasty
mass, as is too often the case with us. The
diet Is sufficiently varied, wholesome and
well cooked. Much vegetable oil is used in
its preparation, which makes 1t unpalatable,
as a rule, to Europeans until accustomed to it.
Italian millet or canary seed furnishes a large
amount of nutritious cereal food in the north.
The flour is yellow and sweet, and might with
advantage be imported into this country, and
in our diet, alternated with oatmeal.
The Chinese have a long list Of culinary
vegetables, and much Of their agriculture
consists in rearing them. More than twenty
different sorts of peas and beans are culti-
waited, and occupy the largest part of the
kitchen garden. Soy used as a universal
condiment instead Of butter and JAM is made
from beans. Bean curd takes the place Of
cheese, gypsum being employed to precipitate
the casein of the beans. The consumption of
cabbage, cress and cruciferous plants Is enor-
NOUS Garlic, onions, leeks and others of this
class are eaten by all classes, detected upon
all persons, and smelt in all rooms where they
are eating or cooking The variety of cucur-
bitaceous plants extends TO nearly twenty
that are cultivated among garden vegetables.
Water chestnuts are extensively consumed.
The sweet potato is the most common tuber.
The Irish potato is not eaten except ON the
borders of Mongolia. 1t is considered food
only fit for famine periods
FRUITS AND NUTs-TEA AND SPIRITS.
The catalogue of fruits Is indeed formida-
ble. Grapes are plentiful in the north, and
are preserved all the year round. Among
common nuts are the chestnut, walnut, and
ground nut The first and last are largely
eaten The former, roasted or used as meal
in soups, forms a valuable and nourishing
food. The jujube Is largely grown, and eaten
in dumplings etc. Preserved fruits are COM
mon. Ginger, LOTUS roots, bamboo shoots,
and even the common potato and other vege-
tables are thus prepared for export as well as
domestic use.
The Chinese have no butter, milk, or
cultural purposes, which has made them COM
paratively dear, and therefore meat from this
source has fallen into disuse except among
the Mongols and Manchus. The European
is dissatisfied with meal with neither bread,
butter, nor milk, and he is disgusted with
the oily and alliaceous stews set before him.
The Chinese would be equally shocked at the
cheese we sometimes eat, which can almost
walk. Womens milk is sold on the streets i'll
some cities for the sustenance of infants and
old people, it being believed peculiarly nour-
ishing to aged parsons.
The common beverage Is tea. Our sitting
down to tea meal seems strange to them,
and they can not understand our spelling the
beverage by making it so strong, black, and
adding sugar and milk Tea is never in
dulged In as a meal-it is a constant restora-
tive beverage during the day taken very
weak and hardly allowed any time to infuse.
Hot water is largely drank and the good ef-
fects Of this custom are worthy of q trial by
U.S. The mouth is rinsed with hot water or
tea after each meal. Cold water is seldom
drank. Cold liquids Of any kind are not con-
sidered wholesome. The people boil all their
water, and this renders them careless and in
dependent as to its source. Coffee, chocolate,
and cocoa are unknown, as are also beer,
cider, porter, wine, brandy etc They have
coarse fiery spirit called samsboo, distilled
from sorghum, and a mild wine fermented
from rice, which is drank hot. The badness,
want Of fragrance, and paucity of kinds Of
spirituous liquors have had something to do
in keeping them sober.
FLEsH-EATING-PIsH AND INSECTS.
The Chinese eat larger variety Of meats
than the people of other countries, and at the
same time very little land is appropriated to
ri amin 10 tor u paae 10, ,1,,
when it can be had, by the very lowest classes.
No respectable person eats so useful and
sacred an animal Buddhistic prejudice
against killing has had a powerful effect in
restraining the fesh-eating propensites of the
people. Mutton, except in the extreme north,
bordering on the lofty grass plateau Of Mon
golia, is dear and poor. There is u large Mo-
hammedan population in the north. The flesh
OF the buffalo and goat are still less used. Pork
is the principal meat consumed, and surpasses
all Others and no meat can be raised SO eco
nomically.
The Chinese are perfectly omnivorous with
respect to aquatic production Here nothing
comes amiss. AL waters are vexed with their
fisheries. Every possible way of catching
and rearing fish is practiced. Fish are usually
sold alive in tubs in the streets, so as
to guarantee their freshness. All sorts
Of crabs, prawns and shrimps are very
largely eaten, either fresh or simply
dried in the sun. Both salt and
fresh water shelf are abundant There il
much insect food consumed, such as locusts,
grasshoppers, grubs, and silk Worms. We
can not mention all the different things the
people eat, the products of earth, air, and
sea. The gelatinous birds nests are well
known. Sharks fins and fish maws are
boiled into gelatinous soups that are both
nourishing and palatable, and different parts
of animals are sought after as delicacies
To sum up, let lis generalize by saying that
the everyday ordinary food Of the Chinese is
plain, simple, light, non stimulating, and
cheap The people are mast frugal and
economical, making use of substances which
would meet with culinary contempt in our
country. A poor man In Glasgow would
starve on the food which keeps poor China
man and his family, AN the kingdoms OF
nature have been ransacked to provide food
for this remarkable people. Everything
that lives and grows from the animal and
vegetable world is laid under contribution
Cor Glasgow Herald