Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05

Japanese friend Interpreted as Il thought
you were at least 49," Mr.. Shugio thought
: this was 'good one" on me, but he, too,
was fated not to escape The girls were
trying to recall the words OF certain song,
but did not succeed, and finally appealed to
Mr. Shugio, who, by the way, is only SO.
"Why do you ask me?" he inquired.
"Oh, was the answer, sit is a very old
song, and we thought you might remember
it from your youthful days"
Perhaps L should add that persons age
: Is favorite topic of conversation in Japan
ese Society. On being introduced to q young
lady it is good form not to talk about the
weather, but to ask her age; to which the
girl usually replies that she is 16 or II,
which is the fashionable age for marriage.
But must hasten on to the solid part of
our lunch lest the reader should fancy that
japanese gastronomy is entirely matter
of esthetics-of trees and flowers, and tea
and waters, and miniature craters and wait
| ing maids and singing girls and banj o play
| ing On the contrary, it is a most sub
stantial affair, consisting of several courses,
each of which includes one OF two kinds of
soup, fish (raw or cooked), various kinds of
sea weed, vegetables (warm, cold or
pickled), radishes, mushrooms bamboo and
lotus roots, potatoes, chicken or other meats,
Salads, and finally rice.
They Drink Their Soup.
| The soup is generally served in small
| lacquer bowls, black or red, and usually has
| an egg or slices of omelette or seaweed or
| fish or bits of meat floating on top These
solids are fished out with the chopsticks,
and the soup is then drunk out of the bowl,
no spoons, knives or forks being provided
unless a foreigner calls for them. The girls
at first laughed at my attempts to use the
chopsticks, and said that ate like baby;
but they willingly instructed me in the use
of them, and before the end of the meal
| had made considerable progress, although I
never acquired the skill of the natives, who
| use their sticks as deftly as storks do their
bills in fishing solids out of the soup, corral
| ling the coy rice, and picking a small fish
| clean to the bones, which is the most won
derful feat of all
The seeming difficulty of eating chicken
or mutton without knife or fork Is solved
by the custom of having all meat cut up
into small bits before it is sent to the table.
The Japanese are decidedly of the opinion
that all carving" should be done by the.
servants.
Sea Weed as a Food.
japanese soups are often excellent, es-
pecially when they contain fish or eggs, but
/ cannot say much fog the sea weed which
and too marine in flavor. was told that
in these restaurants only the best kinds of
sea weed were used, but T could only say to
myself in reply, 'If these are the best,
what must the others be ?" An enormous
amount of sea weed is consumed by the
poor in city and country, and in travelling
along the seashore, one often sees the beach
green for miles with this stuff where the
fishermen have spread it in the sun to dry.
The sea is indeed the hungry Jap's best
friend, for it provides him not only with
many varieties of sea weed, but with no
fewer than 400 distinct species of fish, the
ocean between Japan and China being re-
puted the richest in fish of all known
waters. Of mackerel alone there are 40
varieties, and the salmon fisheries in
Yezo rival those in Oregon and Alaska.
Of the fish peculiar to the country some are
delicious, and the natives know how to cook
them in a savory manner. Among the best
are those kinds which they eat raw, and
which are served at almost every meal of
any pretensions. They are cut into very
thin slices and, dipped into little cup Of
soy, they are found very palatable by "for-
eign" epicures I soon got very tired, how
ever, of the brown
Bean Sauce Known as Soy,
into which the natives dip not only their
raw, but their cooked fish and every kind of
meat, the consequence being that you never
know what you are eating. The soy is
often put on the meat before it is cooked,
wherefore it is advisable, unless you wish
all your dishes to taste alike, to give orders
as soon as you arrive at an inn that the
meat should be served plain.
Whether it is owing to the neutralizing
effect of soy, or to climatic conditions, the
fact is that the natives do not care much for
meat. For. more than 900 years, during
the reign of Buddhism, vegetarianism was q
matter of religion, ,fsh, however, being ex-
cepted, as in Catholic countries; and it is
said that those who were willing to shut
one eye could always get venison under the
name of mountain whale" But the de-
cline of Buddhist influence and the intro
duction of foreign customs, has not yet had
the effect of making meat eating more popu-
lar, at least among the mass OF the people
This is the more surprising as Japan has not
much to boast of in the way of vegetables
and fruits. Indeed, the fact that most vege-
tables in use have foreign names, indicates
that they are recent importations
The Egg Plant Rules.
The favorite vegetable is the egg plant,
which is used as the standard Of COM
parison, tomatoes, for instance, being called |
'red egg plants" Tomatoes are not liked, |
and are only slowly making their way to |
popular favor, which need not surprise US |
in view of the fact that even in America |
this delicious vegetable has been in general |
use only few decades, and has not yet be- |
come popular in Eur6Pe
Of vegetables peculiar to Japan the most
are bamboo and lotus roots
They seemed to me rather insipid, but that |
may have been due to the soy in which they
were cooked. In truth, all vegetables, and |
still more, all imported fruits, soon lose
their flavor on japanese soil, and sometimes
on taking an apple, pear or melon 1 felt like
asking for Worcestershire sauce or horse
radish, to give them at least some flavor,
even if incongruous. Under these circum-
stances we can hardly wonder that rice and
other cereals should play so great role in
Japanese gastronomy. To us rice also seems
insipid-without cream and sugar; but the
natives prefer it to bread and require no
other seasoning for it than pickle or cup
of tea poured over it to warm it. "The
Land of Rice" is one of the names adopted
by the Japanese for their country.
Rice a Luxury With the Psor.
The word meshi which means rice, also
means meal, breakfast being morning
rice" and so on. A bowl or two of plain
rice is eaten after the most sumptuous meal.
But the general notion that rice is the
staple food of the poorer classes is an error
Rice is too expensive for them, and they
have to put up with millet and seaweed.
To the poorer classes rice is holiday
luxury like the Sunday chicken of the
laboring classes in Europe. Mr.. Chamber
lain relates that he once heard an old bel
dame in country village remark to an
other, with a grave shake of the head;
L. - L l