Wichita eagle., 1889-06-16
~SSNLI~
z:ai1Y Eas1e
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
WHERE FIFTY Municipalities EN-.
JOY THEIR FOOD.
You Can Become Delirious with Joy in
Eating a Malay Dinner If You Are q
8Ialay-GarIic, 1Iarnalade and jam Of
the Spaniards.
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
NEW York, S-Nothing can give the
siehtseer better idea Of the cosmopolitan
character Of the city of New York than its
army of restaurants, in which every nation
ality and known school of cooking Is adnlira-
blv represented There is little Of interest in
the dining rooms Of the great hotels or in the
famous oyster and chop houses Of the metrop-
oils A few, it may be, are possibly hand
soner and better appointed than those Of
other cities, but the majority average about
the same as in Boston, Chicago, London, Paris
and Berlin. But it is those establishments
which cater to the foreign elements OF the
population which please, amuse and astonish
the native American.
There are at least fifty nationaities or
races upon Manhattan Island, ranging from
the Chinese japanese and Malays Of the far
east to the Belts and Firms of northern
Europe and the Slovaks ind Lithnaks Of the
Black sea- Each is represented by restau-
rants. The Chinese, for example, have six
good eating houses; the Italians not less than
forty; the French hundred; even the color
ed man, the Malay, Arab, Spaniard and
Czech have places where they can buy tho
favorite dishes Of their native lands.
No one knows this better than the inlmi
grant himself The moment he leaves Castle
Garden he finds on every hand, in the little
streets that draw living from the Battery,
restaurants boarding houses and insignif-
cant hotels in which, no matter whence
his coming, he can talk his own language
and eat the same as at home. Not only is
every country represented here, but nearly
every principality, county and city Of the
Old World. These restaurants do what is
known as transient trade They care little
for permanent customers, and are interesting
only on account Of the guests with which
their dark and dirty rooms are filed.
Going up town the sightseer encounters
what may legitimately be termed restau-
rants, places whose business, management and
custom are permanent in character. The
same cosmopolitanism is visible here as IN the
Castle Garden quarter, only now it is quieter,
decenter and far more modified by surround
ing circumstances Yet under this veneer
the foreign ideas and habits are everywhere
visible and pronounced According to his
tastes the man of leisure can breakfast in
London, lunch in Pekin, dine in Paris and
sup in Sebastopol. At the least computation
he can take four meals day for thirty days
and have each made Of strange dishes, served
in a strange dialect and eaten with strange
men and women as bis convives.
In Nassau street the caller can enjoy the
bill of fare of the English peasant and have
Yorkshire dinner cooked and served in the
exact style as in the old country. The beef
and mutton are exposed to view and when
ordered are wheeled on table up TO the
customer for him to make and take his own
cut Along with the dinner he can drink of
the ales, beers and porters for which England
is renowned.
In Thirteenth street patriotic Irish boni-
face has started Bacon and Greens club, !"
where all the viands characteristic of the
Emerald Isle are to be had. The fare is
wholesome and to a hungry man appetizing,
but it is coarse, clumsy and unsightly.
1t requires strong nerves to sit in front of
q huge hogs head lying in bed Of cabbage
and holding a boiled carrot between his Sod
den lips, and good imagination to find pleas
ure in potatoes and point" even when
washed down by goats milk or by the awful
potato whisky which is brewed In the boys.
On the west side a son Of Scotia provides,
for those who enjoy such fare, the peculiar
dishes Of his native land, including HaggiS,
porridge, bannccks, fried oat and barley
cakes and, of course, oatmeal OF the three
races that make up Great Britain it seems
strange that the Scotch have the simplest,
smallest and poorest fare. Perhaps there is
some deep lying ircompatibility between
metaphysics and gastronomy.
On the east side which Is now densely over
populated with Roumanian, Austrian, Rus
sian. Polish and Lithuanian Jews, are several
hundred restaurants patronized by those
types of humanity All ore powerful COM
mentaries .>,on the poverty and oppression
10 which the Hebrew is subjected In the
southeastern countries of Europe. The best
of these eating houses is but fourth rate,
while the poorest are so miserable as to ex-
cite mingled pity and disgust. A sample
Austrian establishment is on tho Bowery, not
far from Chatham square 1t occupies the
cellar of large building, and though una
voidably dark Is cheerful, neat and e1quis-
itely clean. The cooking and service are diff
ferent from those approved by fashion, but
are in the main praiSeworthy.
4 typical meal consists of chicken soup
with nudels, well prepared but swimming
with grease; small fish baked until they are
as dry as sawdust and served with potatoes
cooked with goose fat; an entree of cold roast
beef stewed with currant jelly and Worces-
and carrots cooked together with rock candy;
some tough roast duck; Munster cheese; pie
whose soggy crust is made from chicken
grease; coffee and beer, and costs fifty cents.
A feature Of the bill of fare is its orthodoxy.
Not dish nor an ingredient is used but what
is Kosher" While the result is orthodoxy
incarnate, it is very far from being artistic.
The patrons enjoy it, nevertheless nearly oil
In
where such foods were undreamed of lux
uries and TO have succeeded enough in bust
ness to at last realize their gastronomic
dreams
In Hester street and the cross thorough
fares are the Roumanian and Russian restau-
rants. These in the main are poverty ma
terialized. They usually occupy dark cellar
or the ground floor Of one Of those tall and
narrow wretched tenements which disgrace
New York. The proprietor, bis wife, chill
dren and employees live in the apartments be-
hind the dining room, which Is often sepa-
rated from them by low board partition.
The aroma OF cooking, of refuse anu OF for
eign humanity that results is more easily
imagined than described. Some of these
eating houses set table d'hote for fifteen and
twenty cents This meal consists Of very
thin soup in which swim pieces Of dough or
of toasted stale bread, meat preparation
made by boiling the necks and shanks until
the bones come out and then allowing the
contents of the pot to sohdify, potatoes or
cabbage, a cake that tries unsuccessfully 10
be tart, fresh rye bread and coffee.
More business is done ID carte than with
the table d'hote. The patrons are chiefly
poor tailors, cobblers, peddlers and clerks,
and can seldom afford 10 spend twenty cents