, 1888-12-19
All noY,s SHEET Market.
Queer Vegetables, with Odd Names. ThHa
Cinnamon Delight In.

Cinnamon Delight In.
Lee Fong is the pioneer Chinese truck
gardener and farmer in America. His
brother, Lee Foo, is his partner, and to-
gether they cultivate a thriving little
plantation of two acres in the far of and
beautiful region of Astoria, L l..
Three mornings every week Les Fong
or Lee Foo drives down to Chinatown
from the Ninety-second street ferry,
perched high on the seat of an old wagon
whose ribs and spokes still bear linger-
ing trace of former beauty, and pushing
on reins connected with a bay horse that
is not given to shyiEg, curveting IT caro-
coling to any great extent. They supply
Chinese vegetables to the Chinese store
keepers in Mott, Peii aud BayaTd streets,
and to Mr.. Yuet Sing, who maintains the
big grocery under the joss house at No.
10 Chatham square. These Chinese vege-
tables all come from seeds that Fong n
o imported from china Last winter
when they made up their minds that
farming was the proper thing for them to
try. They are called long qua" 'la qua"
and "bak tot" Tho principal customero of
b Lee Brothers Agricultural company
Qimited), is a modest young gentleman
named All Moy, who does business on
the curbstone on Mott street, in the heart
of the Chinese quarter. He is a coy
youth and an honest. He is afraid to
answer many questions about himself or
his vegetables, but he deals honestly
with his customers and gives them fair
weight. No kind of food is sold among
the Chinese by measure or by count
Everything is bought by weight.
An artist did some quiet marketing in
order to establish confidential relations
with the proprietor, whose chief charac-
teristic was a perpetual tendency to say
"sik cent pound" to every question that
was asked him. Every one of his vege-
tables, including a big invoice of sugar
cane from Louisiana and some New York
state apples, was held at that figure. He
weighed everything he sold ON a quaint,
old fashioned scale, whose rod was ma
hogany, very old and muchp polished by
long friction. The chances are that with
IL hoy's ancestors weighed out food to
500 Chow citizens long before the United
States were heard of. The weight is a
clumsy hunk of rusty iron, and the di-
visions of weight are indicated along the
rod by hundreds of fine brass nails, which
are driven SO skillfully that the rod is not
cracked anywhere. The vegetables sold
by All Moy attract large crowds of China
men every morning after Lee Fong has
driven sway. The greatest of all these
is ong qua which is n squash with odd
c~onvolutions and of weird, grayish green
coloring. There is a bloom on it like the
bloom on a peach, and its rind is very
tender. Him good to cook" explained
All Moy. Cook, boil, belly nice TO eat
an good for pickle"
La qua and cha qua are distant rela-
tives of ong qua. Cha qua is a cucumber
covered with furry spines and about four
times IS big rs our ordinary gherkins. 1t
is boiled and eaten like squash or picked
with spices. La qua is q small squash
much used for the making Of sweetmeats.
1t Is candied and put away dry in boxes,
like candied ginger. Bak tot is an odd
sort of vegetable. To an American 1t Is
a combination of cabbage, celery and
~cauliflower. All Moy says, you cook
him, fry a little or boil, which are prob
ably as good us any other ways of serving
bak tot. The heart of the vegetable is like
the heart of the caulifower. Its stalks are
white and resemble celery stalks, n at
the top they broaden out into a very fair
imitation of n cabbage leaf.
There is another variety of tot known
as gal tot. This is like the other, with
the exception that it's stalks are green.
1t is used for boiling, cabbage fashion,
and Is also put in soup like okra. The
sugar cane, called gam chiah, is a fine
thing for n man to eat who wants to ave
luck. Fan tan players arc very fond of
it. The zane may be eaten raw, but 1t is
best picked and fried In lard. All Of
the distinctly Chinese vegetables nave
the peculiar taste that all Chinese foods
show when brought into contact with
the American palate. They are usually
bought up and cooked before they have
time to decay.-New York World.