The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-25
CHINESE RESTAURANTS.
$50 for First Class Spread, and Two
Days Required to Eat 1t.
From the C0Sn1OnOIifnn


10 There are eight thriving Chinese restaur-
ants which can prepare Chinese dinner in
New York, almost with the same skill as at
the famous Dan quay Cha Yuen" del
monico's) of Shanghai or Canton. These
places are most thronged on Sunday, when
the Chinese laundrymen of New York and
neighboring cities come in for a general
good time.
Unlike Americans, the Chinese do not gen
orally pay by the dishes ordered, but by the
tables or spreads, called by the Chinese
'Gzuh." A first-class spread includes about
forty courses and it takes two days to fin
ish the feast. 1t costs $50. A d-hand
spread, with twenty-eight courses, costs
$40. third-claSS spread, with eighteen
course, costs S25. The cheapest spread con-
tains eight courses for IS. This is the low
est price for which man can order a
formal dinner in first-class Chinese restaur-
ant. But then the spread is made for any
number of people within twelve.
If q man simply wants to eat short meal,
for himself and a friend or two, he can get
ready-made dishes of fish, chicken, duck,
pigs feet, rice, tea, ETC., cheaper than in any
other restaurant, beside many dishes
peculiar to Chinatown. The prices run
from cents to 25 cents. The foods are all
chopped in small pieces, rendering knives
and forks unnecessary. The Chinese table
implements are chop-sticks of ivory or bone,
tiny little teacup and a porcelain spoon.
A staple dish for the Chinese gourmand is
chow chop svey, a mixture of chickens
hvers and gizzards, fungi, bamboo buds,
pigs tripe, and bean sprouts stewed with
spices. The gravy of this is poured into
the bowl of rice with some - the proto-
tye of Worcester sauce, making delicious
seasoning to the favorite grain. The tea is
made by pouring hot water over the fresh
nnlnt1rr IT, nit
small saucer to draw. Then pushing back
the saucer little, you pour off the fluid
INTO smaller cup, and add more
hot water to the grounds again. This
may be repeated five or six times, and
the last cup will be nearly as strong as the
hrst. The Chinaman always takes spirits
with his meals, pouring the rice whisky
into tiny cup from pewter pot. But he
always drinks moderately, and never apart
from his meals. For this reason drunken
Cinnamon are very rarely seen. When a
party of Cinnamon sit around a table, one
dish Of each kind of food is served, and all
pick from the same dish with the chop
Sticks When there are several courses the
earlier dishes are never removed, and by
ue time good dinner has been served the
table is literally buried with dishes.
The stoves, il they can be called such, are
curiosities in themselves. They are long
ranges built Of low, broad bricks. In the
top are great pits, into which are firmly
built iron gridirons imported from China
for frying, boiling, or steaniing purposes.
Two of the brick ranges have only open
pits, and there are places where the whole
hogs are occasionally hung upon iron bars
and roasted. They provide very quick and
sure facilities for turning out large roast
OF any kind III beautifully brown and crisp
Style. Coal Is never used in these Chinese
Kitchens; only hay and hickory
wood. At least 500 Americans
take their meals regularly In
chinese restaurants In orthodox Chinese
fashion with chop-sticks. This may be
partly because Chinese diet is skillfully pre-
pared, so that certain dishes work certain
medicinal results. The hygienic functions
Of soo!Sing elevate the kitchen director in
ChinS 20 high social status. Many of these
Americans hayo acquired Chinese CASTRO
nomical tastes, and order dishes like Chinese
mandarins, but as a rule the keepers do not
cater 70 any other trade than Chinese, be
cause ths Chinaman frequently orders 81
and W dishes, while the American seldom
pave more than 80 or 70 cents for his Chi
neso dinIer.