The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-10-12
WHAT TO EAT AT MANILA.
Living Is Cheap But Not Very
Tempting in Our Eastern Islands.

Tempting in Our Eastern Islands.
From the Medical News.
Cattle don't thrive in the Philippines
sheep are not found there. Potatoes
don't grow in the Archipelago. Veg
tables are everywhere scarce so it
seems, and the peas and asparagus
one gets come mostly from France or
Germany. In peaceful times, gone by,
to be sure. the Industrious Chinaman
in his little garden raised delicacies
for the tables of foreigners, but now
that most of these Acknowledged Celes-
tials have retired with their dollars to
China, tomatoes, lettuce, beans and
corn are probably scarcer. Chickens
and eggs are two great Philippine
standbys, and always seem to form a
groundwork for every meal. Beef from
poor worn out bullocks, shipped up
from Australia, likewise has it's usual
bright place to fill. but mutton and
potatoes have to come over from China
Fruits, Manila has it's plenty, and what
with mangoes, mangOsteens, oranges,
bananas, pineapples, grape fruits and
melons selling for a song, the market
is we'll supplied.
All meats in Manila and other parts
of the islands Is often eaten fresh-kill-
ed, since ice fails to preserve fish,
flesh or fowl, and game and fowl
are always sold at the markets alive.
Il is not to be denied that the tough,
stringy taste to this porion of the
menu is far from desirable, but neces-
sity seems to know no law, and one
must accustom himself almost to see
ing the chickens OF his fourth course
wandering around in the kitchen half
plucked as he begins his feast.
Living was very cheap in Manila
during my stay, and our cook got but
40 cents with which to provide dinner
for four people. And we would have
such dishes as soup fish, chops and
peas, roast chicken with POTATOES,
beans and corn, salad, dessert and
frh't-quite a rcpast for so small a
sum.
The milk available in the Philippines
rarely comes from the Jersey COW, but
is product of the "carabao," or water
buffalo, and tastes somewhat oily.
Oatmeal and cream are things un-
known, and the former is now said to
be too heating for a hot climate diet.
Chocolate seems to come under the
same category, and even mangoes-the
fruit with the smooth. turpentne taste
have to be eschewed by him who suf-
fers from prickly heat. Bread, too, is
not eaten so much as toast, and the
foreigner almost always insists on get
| tins his "pan tostada" in order that
any lurking microbes which the bread
may have absorbed during the process
of manufacture in the little Chinese
bakery NAV be DESTROYED.
AS the Manila water supply was good
l had no hesitation in drinking plenty
of Adams ale, and never found it dis
old stagers say a long glass of water
just after one gets up in the morning
doeth coed like a medicine and suf-
flee 1t to say 1t seemed to work like a
charm in my case.
In conclusion, as to food, it must be
| said that, in peaceful times, Manila
fare is not bad, though it lacks variety,
and such articles as one gets in the
| ordinary menu at the club or in the
restaurants seem amply to supply the
| demands made on the new arrival by
| the climate. Heavy or heating foods,
such as oatmeal, and the like are best
| left alone, and in my mind, the less
alcohol one takes the better. Claret
and seltzer make one of the cieanest
drinks to be imagined. and ona better
than brandy and soda, or something
of the same strong makeup.