Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-11-16
CHINESE GROCERIES.
AN ORIENTAL STORE WITH QUEER
KINDS OF EDlBLES.

What q Chinaman's Dellcatessen Is Like.
Veritable Museum of Gastronomy-A
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 Il laun-
dry, but it isn't. The sign in front of
the store says "Chinese and Japanese
groceries. Sun Yah Sue & Co. 1t was
at one time fancy goods shop, but the
owner concluded groceries would pay
better. People are compelled to eat
he says, i'll 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 Yee, and he put "& 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 a
motto chosen by Mr. Yee. Its literal
meaning is believe in Jesus" so that
any one passing along the street and
translating the sign would be surprised
to see grocery store run by 'Believe in
Jesus & Co."
Mr.. Yee sells groceries, but none of
the kind that are seen upon the table of
an American, if we except a 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 a
foreign look about them. When the
boxes were opened, however. and some
of the goods taken out, the foreign Gp-
pearance was increased many times over.
Everything was stored away in a 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 lilies-the
root forming the nut-had the soft black
fhai,. cto ha,,,a cfi1 oil
ing aronnd them. When cut open with
a knife the juicy white meat was evi-
IDENTIFY as fresh as it was the day it had
Deen taken from the faraway banks of
some lonely swamp.
There were dozens of kinds of dried
mushrooms, numerous kinds and quail
ties of macaroni, jars of the most de-
licious C0 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 SO
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. kegs of
long, slender cucumbers in a thick,
black sauce; VeScUoUioS s~----t-.o IT,
beets and carrots and potatoes. but
really like none of them: black seagrass
or seaweed, which. when "wash' 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-atfo four
dollars per pound.
Indeed, while the amount of each kind
was not very great the variety seemed
almost endless, and the prices were a
revelation. The water nuts, which
looked like buckeyes, sell at thirty cents
a 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 a pound, and the best
kinds dollar They are shipped in
great numbers during the summer
months, when other meats cannot well
stand the journey. There is a kind Of
duck, however, whose legs are dressed,
placed in tin cans, which are filled with
oil, and shipped to any distance. Packed
in this oil these legs will keep fresh in
definitely and are considered wonder
full delicacy, retailing at ten cents each.
The black seaweed which is cooked with
meats sells at seventy-five cents a pound
and other things in proportion, while
the little yellowish sticks known as
birds nests bring four dollars pound.
Mrs. Yee says it is an excellent thing
for children and a magnificent ingredi-
'ent for soups, as no doubt it ought to be.
In explaining the different articles and
their characteristics Jeu Hon Yee had to
Show considerable dexterity with the
English language. He would call over
the name "ho she" some little time before
he could explain with clearness that it
was an oyster. When he picked up a
chung jo" neither its name nor its appear
ance gave any evidence of its being a
raisin, which it was. "Gum gum chui" is
a sort of caulihower kind of vegetable,
which is not a gum at all, nor is it meant
for chewing, except incidentally in soups;
while "cha gua," a little box of four wax
balls containing medicine Selling at
$3.50, never did secure its English name
while the writer was present. In fact,
the entire shop, with everything jammed
up close together, and with its strange
appearance, name and odors, has an un-
mistakable foreign air about it. One
can close his eyes and with but slight
effort of the imagination find himself in
some faroff oriental village.-St. Louis
'Globe-Democrat.
Still There.
There's gas escaping" said Bunting.