The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1892-01-20
A CHlNAMAN AT DINNER,
THE FOOD HE EATS AND HOW HE
TAKES IT.
Dinner Begins With Tea-Favorite
Viands-A Great Variety of Vege-
tables--Unpleasant Dainties.

Viands-A Great Variety of Vege-
tables--Unpleasant Dainties.
A Chinese dinner begins, as we would
think, at the wrong end first. As the
first course we were served with tea in
dainty little China cups. The second
course consisted of small dishes of water.
melon seeds. These are favorite deli
cacy among the Chinese Next came
sliced oranges, served in individual
dishes. The oranges were small and
very sweet and juicy. The fourth course
was the dinner proper and contained the
substantials. Rice was the principal
Wand and was served in large center
dish, each person being given bowl.
There were several smaller dishes of diff.
ferent kinds of meats and vegetables to
eat with the rice, such as duck meat,
pork, mutton and curry, bean curd,
stringed cocoanut, etc. This course
completed our dinner, since we did not
paTtake of the rice wine with which the
Chinese frequently end their meals.
Rice is the Chinamau's staff of life and
forms the principal article of diet
throughout the country. 1t is cooked
steaming in basket or sieve suspended
over a shallow iron kettle partly filled
with water. The other articles of food
are cooked in the same way and at the
same time, as many as four or five
steamers being fitted nicely over each
other and covered to keep in the steam,
which the water be ow supplies to all at
once. Baked bread is not used; neither
is milk, butter nor cheese. At first it
seemed strange to me to sit down to a
meal at which these familiar dishes were
lacking.
Perhaps the greatest variety in the
Chinese bill of fare is found in the
vegetables, and certainly much of their
agriculture consists in raising them.
Bean curd or bean jam, such as we had
at the hotel dinner, is made by
boiling and grinding black beans
and mixing the flour with water,
gypsum and turmeric. There are
twenty or more kinds of beans and peas
raised in China and they are prepared
for food in many different ways. Cab
bage, broccoli, kale, caulihower, cress,
colewort, lettuce, SOW thistle, spinach,
celery, dandelion, succoIy, sweet basil,
ginger, mustard, radishes, artemisia,
amaranthus, tacca, pig weed, bursaue,
shepherds purse, clover, garllcs, leeks,
onions, scallions, ailantus and chives are
some of the principal greens, many of
them decidedly odoriferous during cook
ing and after eating. Carrots, gourds,
squashes, cucumbers, watermelons, to-
matoes, turnips, radisbes, brinials,
pumpkins and okers may be named as
most common among the score or more
garden vegetables. Sweet potatoes are
very plentiful. The Irish potato has
been grown for a good many years, but
has not come into general use among the
people. Fruits of most varieties are
abundant all the year, oranges being the
most common.
The few puppies and kittens that are
sold for the table are fed on diet of rice
before hand. Rats may be eaten in some
few cases; in fact believe saw a string
of dried rats hanging in a market in
Canton, but they are neither common nor
cheap, and ought not to be considered a
distinctive part of Chinese diet any more
than frogs legs and snails should be Of
American diet. Birdsnest soup is eaten
occasionally by those who can afford it.
1t is very expensive, costing a dollar an
ounce. | was fortunate enough to taste
some once, and thought it the most deli
cious soup l had ever eaten. Sharks
fins are also eaten now and then by
epicures.
At frequent intervals along the streets
in the city there are what might be
called restaurants, ght out into the
street. The keeper may be seen squat
ting on the stone pavement on low
stool. He has little earthen furnace,
or "fuugelow," on which he cooks
various kinds of food. On low counter
by his side are trays of food and in front
of the counter are stools for customers.
The Chinese generally have only two
meals day, breakfast about nine or ten
o'clock in the morning and dinner at
four or five in the afternoon. Husband
and wife seldom eat together, and never
do so when strangers or guests are pres
ent. The females eat by themselves,
after the men have finished. The rice is
placed in a large dish in the centre OF
the table and each person helps himself,
filling his bowl by means of "A ladle or
large spoon. He then holds his bowl in
his left hand near the chin, aud pushes
the rice into his mouth by means OF two
chop-sticks, both held between the
thumb aud the fore and middle fagers
of the right hand. Knivesan1 forks are
not used at meals. Whenever bit Of
fish or ,getablc is wanted, it is selected
from the common dish and conveyed to
the mouth by the use of the chop-sticks.
Tile Voice.