The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-11-24
THE HAVANA MARKETS,
They Are TLrOnEed mt Dnybreak with
Cooks of All NATIONAL
tiles.

The Havana market is crowded at
day break by Spanish, French, Chinese
and colored cooks of both sexes. Some
chefs, who affect the dignity of a coat,
are accompanied by their apprentices
or solutions, who carry baskets. Span
ish cooks, who usually are employed in
secondclass restaurants, wear fiat, red
wooden caps, and shuttle along slipshod
with their baskets slung over their
shoulders, while oblique-eyed Chinese
wear all sorts of queer headgear, loose
trousers and blouses. Colored women
don bandanas, which lend dash of
cClor to the scene, as they waddle
along through the market, their fat
sides shaking With laughter, while they
bOisterously greet their friends as
they go from stall to stall, haggling
with the market Inen. Marketing is
always done by cooks in Havana, be-
cause employers are aware that they
can drive a better bargain, even taking
into account the perquisites allowed
them by tradespeople.
Golden, juicy oranges are symmetri-
cally piled on the stalls, fianked by
punches of luscious yellow and red
bananas and nutbrown Zapotoes which
outwardly resemble on Irish potato,
but contain a luscious pulp inside that
atones for their ugly exterior. Nam
eyes are a rich, dark red fruit, incased
in Il rind resembling bark. Besides
these fruits there are roseapples with
the perfume of the rose, fragrant pine
apples, pomegranates, fresh figs, red
or white guavas, star apples, almonds,
tamarinds, anocs, mamoncillOs, alli-
gator pears and guiana banas. The last
have a prickly green rind and white
pulp like cotton wool, with black
seeds, most juicy and refreshing
fruit, often used as a refreshing drink.
Cubans are fond of cooling drinks,
made of almonds, guanabanas, or tam
arinds, and rarely take any other bev-
erage for their luncheon.
Green cocOanuts contain a sweet
liquid like water as well as soft white
pulp. Other tropical fruits which
abound in Cuba are mangoes, chiri-
mOyas and ciruelas, which are juicy
and sweet. Fish caught in Cuban
waters are especially nice, and the par
go, a species of red snapper, is very
1oJthsome, as is the cherna, which
tastes like salmon. No Havana cook
will buy fish unless they are alive, and
the fish market with big tanks full of
fra tiSh Nx-ith ya e1. he Il
scales, is very picturesque. The other
sea food is also excellent, although the
shrimps, Holsters and mussels are
somewhat small. The oysters grow on
the submerged branches of shrubs and
trees on the coast. These branches are
broken off and sold in the market, but
the Cuban oysters are small and in
ferior to the American. Terrapin and
turtles are very fine, and tortoises have
handsome shells, which bring good
price in the market. Sea crabs and
land crabs are also good. The latter
grow to a large size, and their bodies
stand high from the ground on their
enormous claws. Land crabs burrow
in holes, and their locomotion is clum-
sy, sounding like that of drunken
man. Cooks feed these crabs on corn
meal for several days before they cook
them, as this makes them more palat-
able.
y favorite way of fattening poultry
in Cuba is to put them in barrels and
stuff them with walnuts and corn meal
for several days before they are killed
Just before Christmas turkeys are
driven through the streets in droves of
from 40 to 100, from door to door, for
people to make their own selection
This custom furnished the Spanish
poet, Salvador Rulda. with a theme for
a Christmas song. Guinea hens. noun
tain rats and a variety of small birds
afford plenty of game for sportsmen in
Cuba.
Beef is killed the day before it is
used, for it cannot be kept fresh longer
than one day on account of the Excess
siVe heat.
When the cook returns from the mar
ket his presence is made known to the
household by squacking ducks, cack-
ling hens or squealing pigs, for all such
live stock are brought from the mar
ket, and they eXpostulate angrily on
being carried around in such close
quarters. And pigeons and doves, with
set eyes, utter cooling, plaintive
note, as though with a sad foreboding
of the tragic fate in store for them.
American cookery is almost I'M
knownin Cuba, and the favorite cuisine
is French, Spanish or Cuban. Good
cooks command high wages. Fam
lies require two or more servants, ac-
cording to their means, because every
branch of domestic service is separate.
y cook only attends to his kitchen,
waitress to her table and laundress
to her department.-N. y. Sun.
How Men Write Their Names.