Wichita eagle., 1888-10-23
CHINESE COOKERY.
KITCHEN SUPPLIES OF A REsTAU-
RANT ON MOTT STREET.

A Great Variety of Spices and Condi-
ments-A Stock of Standard Foods,
Many of Which Are Not Familiar to
Americaps-Sauces.
Long before LucuIlus immortalized him
self by regaling the jeunesse doree OF Rome
with his hundred thousand dollar dinners his
prototypes were indulging in the same pleas
ures on similar scale in Pekin and Fook-
Chow, for gastronomy has been among the
fine arts in China almost from the beginning
of Chinese history. The Chinese chef has an
official status of at least forty centuries du-
ration. Two thousand years before the Chris
tian era he was esteemed as highly and paid
as literally as he is today, and now he is ex-
ceedingly well paid
For example, the chef in restaurant in
Mott street came to New Y ork from San
Francisco under contract by which he re-
ceives 800 a month, besides his board and
lodging, for his services All things consid
cred, this salary is fully equivalent TO the
Sc, 900 year paid to such chefs as preside in
the kitchens of the Hoffman house, Delmoni-
co.'s, the Union League club and the Wander
bilt mansion The Mongolian chef, to judge
by Lee-Ah, who IS the distinguished individual
mentioned, is curiously Ike his Caucasian
colleague in that he is dignified, egotistical,
petulant and thoroughly independent. I'm
like the Caucasian, however, the great man
of the Chinese kitchen believes in working
himself at the simplest tasks in order to keep
himself in practice
In taking charge Of the kitchen Of great
restaurant his first work is to supply himself
with a great variety of spices and condi-
ments, and in this particular he is fully
qualified to give points to the jaded sy barites
of the Occident. In his stores will be black,
white and red pepper, as well as the pimento
of the tropics; curry, chutney, mustard,
ginger the favorite spice Of the east, green,
dried, picked, sweetened and pulverized; !;
see-yu, which is the father Of soy and the
grandfather of Worcestershire sauce; olive
oil, peanut oil, cotton seed oil, clarified butter
Ghe ghee of India; onions, shallots, chives,
leeks, garlic, fu-qua and su-qua thighly cul-
tivated bitter cucumbers); NATAL for which
there is no English name; orange and lemon
peel, vinegar, lemon juice, powdered crab
and lobster shells, a curious preparation con-
tanning iron, half dozen forms Of dried
mushrooms, and not less than fifty powerful
condiments and spices unknown to Americans
and having no English names.
In every kitchen is q stock of standard
foods, but a few of which are familiar to the
American eye. Among the more interesting
are smoked chicken, duck and pigeon, which,
unlike our smoked meats, retain the natural
color and appearance; shrimps, prawns,
oysters and clans which have been dried by
some mysterious process, unknown to US,
until they are as hard and durable as wood;
a fish that suggests sardines in oil, but which
is foot in length, from two to three pounds
in weight, packed in sardine box cubic
foot in size; dried fishes which range from a
tiny sprat smaller than but similar to the
English whitebait, to monster eight feet
long, two feet wide, and two inches thick
preserved cabbage, which is rolled Up so as to
suggest ball Of yarn: bean, pea and wheat
gluten in long candy like sticks, which are
made by crushing the cereal and removing
the starch by often repeated washings; odd
sausages, of which each one is. suspended by
brilliant colored cords, and is stuffed, not
with an indistinguishable hash or paste,
but with alternating dice of fat and
lean meat; hugo cans filled with the
famous edible bamboo tips, which look
and smell like huge asparagus, but taste
unlike anything in Christian markets;
water lily leaves, which are used both as a
food and as coloring material, imparting a
beautiful green to any white food with which
they may be cooked; preserved eggs, o5
which each one is embalmed in a rough mass
of quick lime, charcoal and fisk glue; sea
sprouts, which resemble string bean two
feet in length.
in tba yraaIthiast ecta IIist-
ments may be seen the celebrated birds
nests, which look for all the world like irreg-
ular masses Of coopers glue; sharks fms,
which are greenish white pieces of desiccated
soft cartilage; beche-de-la-mer, q mollusk of
a high order, which is a first cousin of Victor
Hugo's devil fish; and dried sea anemones,
which bear the same culinary resemblance to
birds nests that swapping turtles do to the
diamond back terrapin. Some idea of the
luxuriousness of the Mongoi is afforded by
the prices he charges for these delicacies.
Dried CLANS cost 81 Ipund; dried oysters,
$780, sharks fins, 81 to 50, according to
quality: beche-de-la-mer, from 10 cents to So,
and birds nests, from $40 to $50 dozen.
In Chinese cooking sauces play as import
ant part as in the cuisine at Les Freres
Provenceau. For the preparation Of these,
as well as for the thickening OF soups and the
concoction of made Dishes" there viii be
bowlfuls of the finest wheat -four and
starch, and of that finest of ali amyleceous
foods, rice -four. In this and in other re-
spects the stores of the kitchen contain the
samo articles as first class American restau-
rant kitchens Whatever is to be found in
our larders finds a place there, and the
numerous articles mentioned add the variety
which is the main distinguishing feature Of
the Chinese cuisine.
The furniture of the kitchen presents q
curious instance of the invasion of the east
by the west, for the cast iron stove or range
is found beside the brick bench used in
China, which greatly resembles the one rec
commended by Count Rumford in his famous
studies at the beginning OF the century. This
bench is about four feet high, four feet wide
and from ten to twenty feet in length. At
one end OF it is large fireplace cylindrical
In shape, two or three feet in diameter and
three feet deep. This is used in roasting.
The remainder of the top OF the bench has
several circular openings of different sizes
In the sides and ends there are smaller Ere
places, seldom more than eight inches square.
The fuel used in cooking IS kiln dried wood,
hickory CT some similar variety being Pre-
ferred.-Earper's BazaT.