The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-25
NEW YORK'S CHINATOWN.
A Dinner in MOng Sing Wah's ReStau-
rant-A Celestial Delmonic0.
Not Altogether an Affair of Dogs and Rats
The Joss of the Kitchen-HOW to
Order Chinese Dinner.
Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journab

mlan tendencies the other evening. But knew my
| man, and was aware of his penchant for housing
into all sorts Of out-of- heway quarters of the
city where he fairly reveled in dirt and mystery.
and strange viands, so 1 lit another cigarette
and lazily drawled:
"Where2p
| "Oh over at Mong Sing Wah's IS Mott
| street He is a celestial Demonico" was his
| reply
Thanks awfuly. But my palate is not edu-
Gated up to rats and dogs yet Let me take
| course in some French restaurant, where these
things are disguised before brave them In their
native honesty, I answered.
''rm surprised to find this prejudice in you,'
| he exclaimed, rather petulantly. IA Chinese
dinner is as clean as an American dinner, only
far better I'll tell you what I'll do You come
with me to Mong Sing Wahs tonight and I'll
| show you his kitchen. If it is not as clean as
that Italian place where you eat spaghatti. I'll
pay for the best dinner for two you can order at
| Delmonico'sn
| accepted, partly because I believed him, but
| principally out of curiosity l knew that he had
thorough knowledge of the Chinese in New
| York, and had many of them for his clients 1t
was bitter cold night when we boarded Third
avenue car and rode to the corner of Chatham
| and Mott streets. We turned up Mott street and
at No. 18 assembled flight OF narrow stone steps.
stumbled through anarrow. dark hallway, across
j an open court yard, up wooden stairway and
we were in the restaurant. fat good-natured
| looking Chinaman. who sat behind counter
smoking diminutive tobacco pipe, favored us
with benign smile as we entered "Hulema,
/ hopang- vow" remarked my legal friend as we
passed. "Hola," murmured the benign-looking
1 M, Anflx manly an
learned that the greeting signifed "How do you
1 do, my good friend, and the answer is equivalent
to our pretty we'll, how are your don't know
| If l have spelled it right, but 1t is as near as
can come to it Theoretically.
We seated ourselves at one of the little round
i tables, and neat Chinaman. clad in immaculate
/ white linen jacket, brought US two rather large
| teacups set on leaden stands, with a saucer Gov
i ering them, and two smaller cups. This is the
4 way the genuine Chinaman drinks his tea the
dry leaves put in the larger cup, hot water is
poured over them it is allowed to draw, and
then it is dexterously poured off into the smaller
1 cup, and drank from that One supply of leaves
! will make about four cups of most delicious tea.
] No milk or sugar is used with it, and it is OF
much lighter color than the tea usually served
! in American restaurants.
'Chow-chop suey, chop ,seow, laonra-an, san
suigoy, no,na,das,' gby ordered my friend
and the white obed attendant trotted off and
began to chant down adumbwaiter. 1t sounded
i as if he was informing service to some mys-
wasn't; he was ordering our dinner. In the course
/ of my many subsequent visits to Chinatown
discovered that this was one of the greatest
difficulties in learning the Chinese language. its
varying infections. A word with rising in
donation may mean one thing and with falling
information quite another. But the dinner came
in jiffy and was served on ornamental blue
china | took up, my chopsticks, two
/ bits of black wood about as big round
as lead pencil and twice as long,
and proceeded to struggle with them. A
| quiet Chinaman seated at the next table with
bowl of rice in front of him, perceived my diff
| Guilty and politely showed me how to use them.
/ 1t is not difficult when gets the hang of
| them. You must hold one rigidlv, letting the
/ upper end project over the hollow of the hand
as the average school boy holds his pen, and
! gripping it firmly between the second joint of the
| thumb and the ball of the fourth finger. The
/ others held lightly as q good penman holds his
pen, between the fist and second finger and the
| ball of the thumb. Chow-chopsuey was the first
/ dish we attacked. 1t is toothsome stew, COM
] posed of bean sprouts, chickens gizzards and
livers calves tripe, chagon fish, dried and i'm
ported from China pork, chicken and various
other ingredients which [ was unable to make
! out. Notwithstanding its mysterious nature, it
| is very good and has formed the basis of many
| good Chinese dinner have since eaten. Chop
seow is perfumed roast pork. The pork is
roasted and then hung in the smoke of various
| aromatic herbs, which gives it most delicious
flavor. 1t is cut into small pieces as indeed, is
everything at Chinese restaurant that it may
/ be readily handled with the chop-sticks. No
bread is served with Chinese dinner but its
place is taken by boiled rice, or fan. it is
! called in Chinese. A couple of bowls of rice is
lanoka- an. the F being dropped when the num-
/ Der is prefxed, and such rice-white. light.
snowy Fish is delightfully."- cooked, baked in
sort of brown sauce, and masquerades under the
name of sau-sul-goy. The only condlment is
/ seow, sort of celestial cousin to Worcestershire
/ sauce. and, in fact, its probable original The
evolution of worcestershire sauce was some
what as follows:.. Seow was taken
from China to India, where hot spices
were added to tickle the palates and livers of the
English East Indians who reished Chill sauce,
army powder and red pepper; there it was known
as soy. From the East Indies to England, where
| it was still more spiced and favored and patriot
ically called Worcestershire sauce. But the aver
1 age Chinaman uses but little iavoring in his
1 food; he prefers the natural taste The whole
/ dinner was washed down with many cups of
tungta, as tea is called, and small cups of
dec, or Chinese whisky, which is distilled from
rice and poured over figs and prnnes giving 1t
! sweet fruity flavor more like cordial than our
notion OF whisky. No-madeo is served in COM
| ical little china tea pots, and is most insidious
| fluid You drink it from little cups holding
about tablespoonful, and it seems so mild and
| sweet that the intoxicating result comes over
! your senses like a thunderclap
'sYeu-ti,' ordered my friend as we finished our
meal, and the courteous waiter brought a small
| tray of cigarettes These last undoubtedly of
| American make The dinner was not only
novel, but it was good, and to cap the climax the
| bill was only GO cents
| From the restaurant we visited See Chung, the
| barber, at % Mott street, and where we under
went the experience of Chinese shave. To the
American this is even more novel than the
restaurant The barber is an artist in his line,
and uses an assortment of razors that would puz-
| gle the American tonsor. He first fathers the
/ face with a tooth brush, and then attacks the
| beard with broad short-blad razor, set sol
| idly in its handle like an ak He
scrspes away with this for awhile, and
| changes it for q narrower and lighter blade
| until he fairly shaves the nose and inside
| the ears with thin, flexible bit of fnely tenn
! pered steel about as broad as a match. He wig
/ ged this thing around in one of my ears, and
sat in blsful Inconsistencies, supposing it to be
bit OF bamboo. ! caught sight of the bit of
steel and asked if it was sharp. In answer he