Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
A DINNER IN JAPAN.
The Smiles of the Pretty Waiting
Maids Is the Best Sauce.
ESTHETICS FIGURE LARGELY.
Flavor of Food Spoiled to Foreign Taste by
the Universal Soy.
1SEAWEED ISN'T VERY PALATABLE
WRITTEN FOB THE DISPATCH, !

rsEAWEED ISN'T VERY PALATABLI
WRITTEN FOR THE DIspATCH.j
1t is possible to live in Japan a whole
year without ever tasting any of the dishe.
peculiar to the country. In all the large
cities, and especially in Yokohama, there
are so-called foreign hotels in which you
might dream and believe that you are still
in San Francisco; for there is the same of.
flee, the same large bar and billiard room,
the same carpeted parlor with hotel piano,
and the same spacious dining room with
scores of small tables. The food, too, is
cooked in stforeign" style, and much of it is
imported.
French wines (from California;, English
ale and German beer are on the bill of fare,
and even if you ask for tea you do not get
the yellow Japanese variety, but the black
Chinese or Indian tea, served with milk
and sugar. The only thing local about all
this is the presence of Japanese walters,
who are always addressed as ''boys" no
matter what their age, and the habit of
numbering the dishes and ordering by the
| number, because some of these "boys" are
| not experts in the use of the English Ian
guage.
Everybody Tries Native Cooking.
Nor if you leave the large cities and travel
! in the interior are you obliged to eat Japa-
nese food. For not only|in the large
! grocery stores in Yokohama, but in every
town of few thousand inhabitants, you can
| buy Chicago canned meats and California
canned fruits, besides bottled beer or ale,
condensed milk, jellies and crackers. 1t is
| well to take some of these things along, to
| provide against emergencies; but a sensible
| and cosmopolitan tourist would no more
think of limiting his gastronomic experience
to these canned goods than he would of con-
fning his tours of observation to the 'sfor-
eign" streets in Yokohama.
An educated palate delights in new
varieties of local flavor Just as much as an
educated pair of eyes does in fresh local
colors.
Squeamish persons need not be afraid of
ever being called upon to eat cat or rat
stew or roast puppy, as they might be in
China, where these animals are exposed for
sale in the butcher shops. This is never the
case in Japan, where none of the natives,
not even the poorest, eat them, although
there are very few other things they do not
eat.
Luncn Win q Naive.
My first experience in the realm of Japan.
ese gastronomy was such typical and de-
lightful affair that 1 can best describe the
whole subject by giving the details of this
feast. 1t was lunch to which Mr. Robert
Blum (wh6 was busy at that time in the
Toxic Hotel making his delightful illustra-
ticles for Scribner's Magazine) and myself
were invited by Mr.. Shugio, the amiable
and clever Japanese, who is as well-known
in the New York clubs and society as he is
in the aristocratic circles of Toxic, and who
has for many years spent half of his time in
America, SO that he speaks English like
native.
We rode in three jinrikishas (or man.
power carriages) to a restaurant near the
railway station in Shimbashi, and were re-
ceived at the door by half dozen pretty
and smiling maidens. After taking off our
shoes, so as not to soil the new white mats
on the floor, we were escorted by two of the
girls upstairs, where large room had been
reserved for us, facing garden with flow
ers and trees on two sides. Here, at the
outset, we had struck the keynote of Japan
ese gastronomy, which is not merely an in
dulgence of the palate, but quite as much,
or even more,
Here were trees and flowers outside and
trees and flowers and graceful birds and an
imals painted on the screens inside. Still
more of q feast to the eyes were the wait
ing maids, who in these restaurants are al
ways chosen from the prettiest girls in the
city, village and country.
The younger one, especially, whose name
was o Haru, or "Springtime, was perfect
beauty, with regular features, refined lips,
and large black eyes, with the merest suspi-
cion of obliqueness; just enough to give
them piquant touch of Orientalism. Her
smile was as sweet and enchanting as that of
a Houri in the Mohammedan paradise, and
it would have been difficult to avoid falling
in love at first sight had it not been for her
gait which, like that of all japanese
women, was extremely ungracefu1, the
knees being too far apart, the toes turned
in, and the loose slippers dragged along the
floor without leaving it.
In Japan tea is the beginning and end of
all things-especially at meals-so tea,
which is the aesthetic beverage par excel
lence, was served first, together with some
tiny aesthetic waters, round, of course, be-
cause our waters are square, and in
Japan everything is bound to be
Antipodal or Topsy Turvy.
The next course was again asthetic-the
hibachi, or brazier, for lighting the Gig
arettes. The Japanese use matches as
freely as we do, but not at meals, where |
they would be voted vulgar The hibachi |
is round vessel with live Goals in the GEN.
ter surrounded by ashes in the shape of
crater. This poetic arrangement enables |
the natives to fancy that they are lighting |
their pipes or cigarettes at the original fires |
of their beloved volcano, Mt. Full, which is /
worshiped by them as it lifts its |
snowy peak above the hills and dales of |
Nippon as a cathedral spire rises above the
streets and houses of city.
The next course again was asthetic-most |
decidedly so, for it consisted of two singing
girls and samisen players who had been
hired to enliven the meal with music, and
who made their appearance at this stage of
the proceedings. These music girls, like
the waiting maidens, are also chosen in
their childhood for their beauty, and they
are especially educated in the arts of fascin-
alton. They are of a somewhat more aristo-
cratic type of beauty than the teahouse
girls, and are apt to be few years older
and less given to giggling. They are bright
and saucy, however, as we soon found out.
The waiting maids, who had left the mo-
ment the music girls entered, now returned
with little lacquer tables, four or five inches
high, which they placed before the guests,
together with dainty porcelain bottle con-
tanning about
Half Pint of Hot Sake,
Or rice wine, and tiny cup of thin por-
&c lain which looked as if it were meant to
hold the cigarette ashes-mind, do not say
cigar ashes, for one must not exaggerate
IN talking of things Japanese. The gelshas,
or music girls, filled these cups for us, and
after drinking their health we touched the |