Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1889-01-02
A4 MoYs srREe1 MARKET.
Greer Vegetables. with Odd Names. Tha
Chinamen Delight In.

Il
Lee Tong is the pioneer Chinese truck
gDrglencr AID farmer in America. His
4 brother. Lee Foo. is his partner, and to-
ri Ter they cultivate a thriving little
! pl4..tation of two acres in the far Off and
/ beautiful recon of Astoria. L. l.
| Three mornings every week Lee Fong
I or Lee Eco drives down to Chinatown
from the Ninety secoHd street ferry,
eerched HIGH ON the seat of an old wagon
whose ribs and spokes still bear inger-
ing traces of former beauty, and pushing
on rcins connected with bay horse that
IS ret given to shying, curveting or caro-
| cOling to any great extent. They supply
Chinese vegetables to the Chinese store
keepers in G1ott, Pell and Bayard streets.
and to Mr.. Yuct Sing, who maintains the
! biz grocery under the Joss house at No.
! 10 Chatham square. These Chinese vege-
| talk. Gil come from seeds that Fong and
Foo imported from China last winter
when they made up their minds that
farming Yves the proper thing for them to
try. They L. &C. llea long qua, ia qua
and ..lak t. i. The princ1 5s1it customer OF
tie Bee Erc.acr5 Agricultural company
(...4itc<i(, i; :; i-.GGCGtt young gentleman
named All Hoy, wi,n does business on
the curhstone en- Nc sntreet, 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 c,:atUncr3 ard gives them fair
weight. No kind OF food is sold among
the Chinese by measure or by count.
Everything is Fought by weight.
An artist did some quiet marketing in
order to establish confidential relations
| with the proprietor, whose chief charac-
| teristic was perpetual tendency to say
''sik' cent pound to every question that
was asked him. Every one OF his yege-
tables, including big invoice OF sugar
cane from Louisiana and some New York
state apples, was held at that figure. lie
weighed everything he sold on quaint
old fashioned scale, whose rod was ma
| hogany, very old and much polished BY
long friction. The chances are that with
it Moy'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 CGl-
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 ALI 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 squash with odd
convolutions and of weird, grayish green
! coloring. There is 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 cucumber
covered with furry spines and about four
times as big as our ordinary gherkins: 1t
is boiled and eaten like squash or picked
with spices. La qua is a small squash
much used fer the making of sweetmeats'
1t is candied and put away dry In boxes,
like candicd ginger Bak tot is an odd
sort Of vegetable. To an American it is
a combination of cabbage. celery and
caulihower. All Moy says, ''4ou cook
him, fry little or boil" which are prob,
ably as good as any other ways of serving
baE tot. The heart of the vegetable is like
the heart CT the caulifower. Its stalks are
white and resemble celery stalks, and at
the top they broaden out into q very fai1
imitation Of cabbage leaf.
There is another variety of tot known
as gai tot. This is like the other,. with
the exception that it's stalks are green
It 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 man to eat who wants to have
luck. Fan tan players are very fond o.
it. The cane may be eaten raw, but it il
best picked and fried in lard. All o.
the distinctly Chinese vegetables have
the peculiar taste that all Chinese foods
show when brought into contact will
the American palate. They are usually
bought ND and cooked before they have