The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-05-13


greater or longer period Of time
nearly all the meat that is afterward.
SerVeu up as roast or stew. All
boiled meats are boiled in this kettle
50 long as to come out absolutely
tasteless and comparatively worthless
Tor food. Nearly every PARTICLE OF
nutriment has been extracted foI
soup. Some restaurants have "a trick
OF serving up roast beef in an almos;
raw state. This is done so that wha,
Is left on the roast can be broiled and
served up as fresh beef steak.
And so the list might go on by the
column. The custard pie is a fraud
and q delusion. 1t should be made OF
milk and eggs, but it is not; il is made
OF cornstarch with about one egg ia
the gallon-just enough to swear by.
one Will often see sardines on the
bill OF fare, but they are not sardines:
they are small herring, candle fish,
ana sometimes even smelt, put up in
cotton seed oil in San Francisco,
the fish being caught by China
men with Illicit nets Inside of
the Golden Gate. The true sardine
is a much smaller fish, and, if the
writer correctly remembers, is only
caught OFT the coast of France and in
few other parts of the Mediterra-
mean. The French sardine is put up
IN olive oil and cannot be sold at less
than double the price ofthe California
article.
Alum is used largely by the Chi
nese bakeries in bread and pastry, in
the place of a good cream of tartar
baking powder. Alum costs four
cents pound by the barrel, while
cream of tartar is worth from thirty
five TO forty cents. The former is q
powerful astringent and its continued
use, even in small quantities, is
highly deleteriOus to the human
stomach Some bakers use carbonate
of ammonia to puff up their pastry,
but as most of it is evaporated by the
harmful as the baking powder adver-
tisements would have us be lieve.
The city of Honolulu is literally in
tested with Chinese ''cold drink"
establishments. They are on every
corner 9nd at every few doors be-
tween the corners, and they pop up
in the middle of the streets. If peo-
pie only knew what they were drink
ing at these establishments, they
would sooLi cease to exist. Although
soda water, as it is called, is gener-
ated from sulphuric acid and carbon
ate of soda or marble dust, still as
carbonic acid water - its correct
name-it is harmless and even bene-
fetal, provided it be mixed with a
pure fruit syrup. But the latter can
only be obtained at first-class drug
or confectionery store, and, let the
writer whisper in the readers ear, not
at all of them. A glass of good soda
with pure fruit syrup and pure cream
cannot be sold in honolulu or else
where for less than ten cents. Let
the reader remember that, and eschew
all five cent establishments hereafter.
The syrups used by these cheap places
are often adulterated with glucose to
save the sugar, and that is cheap
enough now, heaven knows. They
are favored with artificial extracts
made from butyric, amylic and other
AMI iemon. The vanilla bean is worth
n the neighborhood of SIG pound,
but a tonqua bean, costing about
S1.50, is used as n substitute in max
ing cheap vanilla syrup. In making
cheap lemon syrup, which is oftener
used than any other, turpentine is
used as an adulterant of the oil of
lemon with which the syrup should
be favored.
Ice cream is supposed to be iced
cream in Honolulu and elsewhere, but
III Is uOC. LII aLOuC OI the
where it is sold it is
more or less adulterated with corn
starch and condensed milk, and when
the condensed milk is also adulterated,
as many well-known brands are, it is
rather rough or the ice cream con-
sumner, to say the least. IL anyone
wishes to verify this statement, let
them call for dish of ice cream of q
Chinaman, let it melt in the dish and
see what is left.
The above is but 1.-THE of what
could be mentioned, but, before con-
the writer desires, in view of
the possibility of a visit from King
Cholera to this city, to call the atten-
ton of the board of health to the uni
versalIy filthy condition of the kitch-
ems at the rear of these Chinese
restaurants. The refuse is thrown on
the floor under table or sink, and
shoveled out enthusiastically when
it accumulates to such an extent as to
be in the way. The tables, shelves
and utensils reek with dirt and filth,
the stencil is almost unbearable, the
walls are covered with spiders and
other noxious insects, and are abso-
lutely void of any vestige of paint or
and yet in such miserable
holes as these the food for half the
working population of Honolulu is
daily dressed and cooked. What
would become of the patrons of these
if cholera germs
once obtained a lOdgment in these
and were disseminated
every meal sent out,
as they surely would be? Should
not public opinion compel our health
officials at least to have these foul
and loathsome kitchens thoroughly
and periodically cleansed and purified
with carbolic acid and whitewash.
It is we'll known that cholera germs |
find their first lodgment in impure
water and food; consequently, to keep |
put of their reach, one should drink |
perfectly pure water, that IL, water |
that has been thoroughly well boiled,
and eat only well-cooked and whole |
some meals. But how are these to be !
obtained, asks one of the many me- |
chanics who will read this letter? 1t |
cannot be obtained at q reasonable |
cost in any restaurant in Honolulu. |
Private boarding houses are too eX- |
elusive and expensive for the Ordi- |
nary wage-earner, and there are not |
enough of them anyhow. The only |
way out of the difficulty that the |
writer can see is to have an increase |
in the number of weddings. There |
are hundreds of young men in Homo |
lulu who ought to be married, instead |
Of which they are staying out late at |
night, complaining that they have no |
place to go to, that they can't get a |
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