The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-09-10
Housekeeping In California

When in San Francisco, which was
not often, we sometimes went on a
tour through "Chinatown," which if
not sweetly odoriferous, is very pct-
uresque and interesting. The Chi
nese provision shops are Of the most
curious character, but what they do
not turn to account would be hard to
mention. Like the Indians, they
dry great deal Of fish and meat.
One sees dried fowls gizzards
strung like pepper pods, dried ducks
and the entrails-I take it-of ami
mails no worse then sausage stuffed
in the same way. Among the she'll
fish they dry, is the abelone-each
vowel should be pronounced-and
they were the first, | think, to eat it,
it is not generally considered a fit
food for tastidious palates. But one
day friend said to me that she had
eaten it dried and that it tasted very
like dried beef, so few days after
wards, when we were at Monterey
driving along the bea CHI we came up
on Chinese camp where these abe
tones were drying in the sun, and we
bought two. They asked for them
five cents q piece, After Anaximan.
der had pared off the outer surface
thoroughly, we proceeded to eat,
and the general verdict was that if
the meat had been sailed and then
smoked and dried, and had tasted a
little less abelonish, we should have
liked 1T. But it was not bad by any
means, and whole abelone will m AXE
dried, or fried a full meal. The shells
the fish live in are magnificent, and
the Chinese sell them for five cents
each. We found some beautiful ones
on the beach, where they abound,
growing on the rocks but often
washed in while alive.
Another food of the Chinese con.
sisL of sprouted seeds. They take
evidently any kind of seed that is
cheap-beans for example-and
sprout them in water. How they
cook them I do not know, but they
are always to be seen in buckets in
their markets. Possibly they are
cooked and served something after
the manner of spinach and make a
dainty dish.
While we were at Monterey, we
found ourselves overtaken by hunger
in one of our tramps, and so we
dropped in at the first restaurant we
came to. 1t was clean and had a
sanded floor, the white, fine sand of
the beach being we'll fitted for the
purpose. 1t was the laddie's first
sight of such a floor, and l had only
seen one once before in an out-of-the
way place in southern Ohio. The
waiting maid brought us beefsetak,
black beans, bread and butter, coffee
and most delicious water. We were
hungry enough to relish almost any,
thing and thought the black beans
delicious. | concluded that they
had been cooked in that excellent
way-hoiled until tender and then
baked "a hours in closely covered
earthen pipkin buried deep in hot
ashes. But 1 was silly enough to
ask how they had been prepared,
and the maid said, "boiled until done
then fried in lard, and water added
for gravy" a regular mess; but they
tasted good, neyer-the-l less. At
Monterey there is place called Pa
cltic Grove, planted with cottages.
where families come at all times of
the year to rent cottages for month
or more, or put up TENS in summer
time. 1t is one of the most delight
full places | ever was in, with no end
of natural interest on sea and land.
Every year the Methodist conference
and the Chatauqua Assembly meets
here. l asked the wife of Metho
! dist preacher how it happened that
was stated place of meeting for the
conference. ut is because of the
difficulty of finding suitable place
elsewhere, sufficient accommodations
for so large body of men. Californ.
ians are very inhospitable, and in.
deed, they do not know in what true
hospitality cons SITS. They think
that when preacher enters the
house they should put everything in
the larder on the table-instead OF
simply adding another plate, an
serving whatever they themselves