The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-04
A CHINESE DINNER.
An Account of One Given In Pel1in
Proves That There Is True "LOcaI
Color Here in Chinatown.

An account or one Given In Pektn
Proves That There Is True "LocaI
Color" Here in Chinatown.
From the New York Times.
That there is great deal of Chinese
local color in the Chinese restaurants in
Chinatown in this city, is the general opin-
ion of most people who have to take their
trips to the orient in an expensive fash
ion, and find Chinatown is satisfying in
the way of Eastern customs as anything
TO be found so near home. And occa-
sionally, when some one writes directly
from China, giving a description of Gus
toms there they find them very similar
A young German of distinguished fam
lily, who is representing his country an
China, writing to a young girl cousin in
America, gives a description of a dinner
he had given in Picking, which has some
familiar features.
Il viii give you to-day" he says, IAN
account of Chinese dinner I gave yester-
day to friend of mine and to my two
Chinese assistants in the foreign Office
of the college. The dinner was prepared
in a Chinese restaurant The general be-
lief is that Cinnamon dine upon rats pup
Ply dogs and birds nest soup In fact,
the first dish, except among the lowest
class of Chinese, and only in the South
is totally unknown, and the other two are
very expensive dishes.
In entering the dining room you find a
large round table with four-legged square
chairs. Before each guest lies a pair of
chop sticks, a wine cup, a small porcelain
spoon, a small plate with two divisions
one for melon seeds and one for almonds,
and some square pieces of paper for clean
those IN he mid Of
the table are sixteen small dishes with
four kinds of dried fruit; four kinds of
fresh fruit, four kinds of candied fruit
and four dishes with preserved eggs, ham,
sort of pickle and some kind of sar-
dimes. These sixteen dishes are on the
table during the whole dinner, and you
eat of them whenever you like.
1T is not as easy as one might imag CINE
to eat with the 'kneitze or chop sticks
Take two round sticks. each about a foot
long, hold them like a penholder or rath-
er like two penhoIders. in one hand, and
try to tisn little piece of ham out of a
small dish. OF course, it makes a lot of
fun seeing the vain trials a 'greenhorn'
makes trying to get something to eat, but
for politeneSs sake one may not use the
foreign fork. In case of need you have a
little piece of wood that you sharpen and
spear herewith the required food.
After many bows and ceremonies, when
GNGl y DOAJ - SSdNGu, dCCOIQiLB 10 age ana
rank-the place of honor is TO the east-the
host-that was I-gets up, takes a cup of
wine and pours it himself in each guest 9
little porcelain cup. making a bow to the
guest and Offering him the drink. You give
then-as hostile signal to drink. The
cups are empued at once, and to show that
each man does his duty, turned topside
down to prove that nothing is left. The
first wine is 'Huang chin, that means yell
| low wine, and is not bad at all. 1t tastes
! something like our sherry.
Now we come to the real dinner, which
| consisted of quite a number of dishes.
which 1 viii name you all for fancy's
! sake:
Il. Shark fms, with sauce.
''2. Soup, with pigeon eggs.
20. Seaslugs. sliced and broiled, with
ham.
"a. Wild duck.
g. Fried fish.
"6. Indian birds nest soup.
~. Boned chicken in oil, fried.
IS. Mutton, roasted in pork fat
''9. Vermicelli, with pheasant.
10. Stewed lily roots.
III. Schrimps in sauce.
! '12. Duck. with a sweet sauce.
'I3. Orange soup.
IA. Almonds and peaches in gruei
'15. Steamed buildings.
'16. Sailed cake.
"a second wine, which is called mel
kneilu, is served. The name means rose
drop, and the wine is very similar 10
| kirsch wasser: the only difference is that
II is not made from cherries, but from
roses. A third sort is 'wu CHA pi chin I
don't know tho English for it, but the
taste resembles rhubarb very much. and
| II is not very pleasant"
Mrs. Harriet r. Stafford of Cottage
| City, Mass Is said to have in her pos
session the flag of the United States frig-
ate Bonhomme Richard, first displayed
| bv Cnuaraodora Paul Ioncs in the famous