The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-11-12
CHINESE GROCERIES,.
An Oriental Store with Queer Kinds
Of EdibleS.


ST. Louis Firm That Sells Things That
the Chinese Eat.
On the corner Of Tenth and Locust
streets is a little Chinese shop that has
about it the red and white air OF a laun-
dry, but it isn't. The sign in front OF
the store says 'sChinese and Japanese
groceries. Sun Yah Sue u Co. 1t was
at one time fancy goods shop, but the
owner concluded groceries would pay
better. "People are compelled to eat,
he says, in explaining the change. The
owners name is not Sun Yah Sue, how
ever, and there is no company to the
concern at all, but it is run by single
proprietor. The proprietor's name is
Jeu Hon zee, and he put 'sdS Co." on his
sign because he saw it on several other
signs in the neighborhood, and thought
it had an air of business about it. AS
for Sun Yah Sue, that is not the name OF
any parsonage whatever, but is simply
motto chosen by Mr.. zee. Its literal
meaning is ssBelieve in Jesus" SO that
any one passing salong the street and
translating the sign would be surprised
to see grocery store run by "Believein
Jesus u Co.
Mr. Yee sells groceries, but none OF
the kind that are seen upon the table OF
an American, if we except little rice
and tea. The kinds he sells are those
which tickle the palates of the jewellers
in the land of Confucius.
The writer yesterday had the pleasure
of witnessing shipment of freight I'M
packed which had just completed its
long Journey from China. The ten or
twelve large boxes covered with the odd
but well known green paper and mimi
table characters, all securely wrapped
with strips of cane, had at a glance
foreign look about them. When the
boxes were opened, however, and some
of the goods taken out. the foreign APP
pearance was increased many times over.
Everything was stored away in very
careful and compact manner, each arti-
Gle being separated from every other by
| little improvised but effective partitions
in the large boxes There were strange
looking nuts of all sorts-some from the
marshes along the Yellow and Blue
! rivers, and some from the rugged upland
! region between the Yangtze and its great
tributary, the Min. The water nuts
from the low lands, growing in the
ponds and the swamps like llies-ths
! root forming the nut-had the soft black
| mud from their eastern home still cling
| ing aronnd them. When cut open with
knife the juicy white meat was evil
IDENTIFY as fresh as it was the day it had
some lonely swamp.
There were dozens of kinds of dried
mushrooms. numerous kinds and quail
| ties of macaroni, jars OF the most de-
licious O. sauce, boxes of queer red
rasins, casks of dark brown oysters
which, it is said, swell to many times
their size when cooked; ginger root 50
| strong and biting that none but an ac-
| customed tongue can endure its taste.
| dried fish in endless variety and appear
| ance, sticks of sugar cane, which were
really quite palatable, beautiful little
| bamboo baskets Of the finest tea, kegsof
long, slender cucu1nbers in a thick.
black sauce; vegetables something like
beets and carrots and potatoes. but
| really like none of them; black seagrass
or seaweed, which, when 'swash' wi
flesh WATER" is supposed to become a
most luscious auxiliary cooked with
| stewed meats; and last, but not least lin
price,, the inevitable birds nests.
wrapped in tissue paper and inclosed in
delicate half pound paper boxes-at four
dollars per pound.
Indeed, while the amounto each kind
was not very great the variety seemed
almost endless, and the prices were
revelation. The water nuts, which
looked like buckeyes, sell at thirty cents
pound. They are used, sliced up very
fine, to cook with meats, etc. The
mushrooms are eighty cents to dol
lar pound, and look very much like
our own. The lowest priced dried fish
! are thirty cents pound, and the best
kinds a dollar. They are shipped in
great numbers during the summer
months, when other meats cannot well
stand the journey. There is kind OF
duck, however, whose legs are dressed,
placed in tin cans, which are filed with
| oil, and shipped to any distance. Packed
in this oil these legs will keep fresh in
definitely and are considered a wonder
full delicacy, retailing at ten cents each.
The black seaweed which is cooked with
meats sells at seventy-five cents pound
and other things in proportion, while
the little yellowish sticks known as
birds nests bring four dollars pound.
Mrs. zee says it is an excellent thing
for children and magnificent ingredi
emit for soups, as no doubt it ought to be-
In explaining the different articles and
their characteristics Jeu Hon zee had to
show considerable dexterity with the
English language. He would call over
the name ssho she" some little time before
he could explain with clearness that il
was an oyster. When (he picked up
chung jo'' neitherits name nor its appear
ance gave any evidence of its being a
raisin, which it was. ''Gum gum chui" is
sort of cssulihower kind of vegetable,
which is not gum at all, nor is it meant
for chewing, except intellectually in soups:
while "cb3 crla." a little box of four WAX