The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-03-23
CHINESE DELICACIES.
Dishes IN Which the Pigtailed
Celestlals Revel.
Curious Articles of Diet for which
There Is No Name In English
Dining in n NongoliAD
HAshery-

Every day in New York you can see
score of pigtailed gentlemen in the
neighborhood of Mott street each car
rying huge brown paper bag. If you
could open these mysterious packages
you would find desiccated shrimps and
prawns, picked Annoy cabbage, delicate
little tubers known as 'ma-tai' bitter
cucumbers, dried devil fish, Awabi
CLANS from Japan, smoked oysters.
preserved sharks fins, pots of sweet
meats. funny looking sausages and lots
of dainties for which, according to the
Herald, there is no name in English.
A poor laundryman VIII spend quar-
ter or third of his income upon these
luxuries. and will devote a half day Of
his precious time to cooking them in
approved Mongolian style. The table
is a queer work of art. The china and
porcelain are superb, so beautiful that
in this land of collectors they wouli
be placed in cabinets. There are no
knives or forks. The Celestial mind re
CARDS cutting and carving a labor un-
worthy of guest, and relegates- it u
a cook. In lien of forks are chopsticzs
long, slender bars of ivory tipped
with silver or gold. The spoons are
films of porcelain; the wine glasses.
cups like those in children's doll
houses. Your plate is a saucer and
your napkin a silk towel held by a
servant. The table is handsome never
theless.- 1t is nearly covered with
dainty plates containing hors d'euvrcs
piled up in slender pyramids One pile
consists of peeled bananas, cut into
little drums; another of pineapple,
carved into tiny bars, like miniatures
~ ,,f
dwarf oranges, moistened in honey; a
fourth of fine onion sprouts and a
fifth of preserved eggs, dark green anc
suggesting cucumbers Other plate
contain sliced sausage, picked cocks
combs, hard boiled pigeons eggs
sweet picked shredded ginger, sliced
water chestnuts. dried fish segments
desiccated prawns, smoked fish roe
and n score of other equally incongru
Gus dainties.
You help yourself to any of these,
both before and during the banquet
In the meantime the waiter or the
'.sing-song girl" has filled your teacup
with fragrant Oolong and your wine
cup with boiling wine. From this
point neither cup Is permitted to re
main empty nor grow old. If ii stands
longer than the time allotted by Mon
golian etiquette it is removed and re-
placed by hot one. After a few min
utes of nibbling and slipping the
courses begin to arrive and continue to
arrive as long as there is u soul at tho
board. Soups and steps omelettcs aEG
entrees, roaSts and boiled. ra@out, and
fricassees, croquettes and vol au vents,
sweet dishes and sour follow one an
other without apparent rhyme or rea-
son. At the END OF every half hour
you take recess of from five to fifteen
minutes. Everybody lights fresh
cigarette or puffs water pipe. a
few retire to one of the hunks and
smoke a pipe of opium. The sing
song" girls perform a brief concert,
vocal and instrumental, and again the
meal proceeds. 1t is n poor dinner
that has less than twenty courses.
Some have forty and fifty, and a few
pass the hundred mark. Gou eat what
you please and as much as You please.
Scarcely any dish is simple; some con
tain twenty ingredients. The average
banquet uses pork, fresh. salt and
smoked: pigs brain. liver and kidney,
chicken. duck. pigeon, quail and goose:
fish, fresh. dried salt and smoked: egg
of at least four kinds, rice. pastry,
beans, peas, cabbage, millet, lentils.
onions. garlic, leell, cucumber, squash
melon, gourd, potatoes, white and
sweet: yam, ma-tai, bean, sprouts
spinach. turnip, parsnip, carrot, devil
fish. dragon fish, fish roe, CLAIMS, oys-
ters. crabs, sea weed, mushroom and
tree mushrooms, birds nests, shark :
nests. sharks fins, chilliSs, orange
peel, ginger. cocoanut, macaroni and
heaven knows what not.