The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-03
WHAT PORTO RICANS EAT
F4 TORITE DISHES OF THE NATIVES
 OF THE WEST INDIES.
Are Fond ofGood Living Coffee Is Fine, Rutter is Scarce, Garlic a Treat, Rich
 Sauces Favored and Sweets Arc Nec-

| Butter Is Scarce, Garlic n Treat, Rich
 Sauces Favored and Sweets Arc Nec-
 essnry Luxury.
 MT. Otto Schoenrich of Baltimore, who is travelling in Porto Rico, writes to the Sun as follows;
 As every people has its own peculiar diet and manner of serving it, so the cookery of Porto Rico, founded on that of Spain, is distinct from that general in the United States. In his way the average Porto Rican lives well; he is great eater and quite extravagant as to his table. There are three meals a day. the desayuno, taken on rising in the morning, the almnerzo, or breakfast, at noon, and dinner in the evening. Sometimes, though very rarely, sup per is served later, For desayuno only bread and coffee are served but the deficiency is more than made up in the other meals, which are strong and sub- stantlaI.
 The first notable, difference between the coffee, which is better but much stronger than that to which we are &C., customed. The way in which it is pre- pared, utilizing nearly all of the bean. accounts for it's strength. The coffee in the first place is roasted until black, then ground to a fine powder then placed in the "eolador,' which is gene rally vessel similar to that we use in making drip coffee. or in the country often nothing more than a cloth bag; then boiling water is poured over it and allowed to filter, the result being rich coffee. Tea is never served and, in- deed, none but medicinal tea is obtalna- ble The sugar used is brown and of ten very crude, as there are no large re- | fineriea in the island
 Bread in this climate becomes dry very rapidly, so it is baked fresh every day, or even twice a day Cake as we know 1t, is rarely seen. There is no such thing as homemade bread, as cooking is done over charcoal fires and few families have an oven or stove. In many places the bakers use no yeast
 
 well, and the bread tastes and looks like the well-known Maryland biscuit. In the mountain districts corn-bread in the shape of hard, brown sticks a foot long is used extensively Butter Is not used much principally because the na- tive product is so poor and good for eisn butter is so expensive It seems strange that country which has so many fine cattle and produces such de- licious cream cheese, should give so lit- tie attention to butter making, but the reason is that the people neither have the implements nor do they know how. The little native butter is made by hand and ussd by country people It is per fectly white and almost tasteless. Most of the butter used is imported in seal tin cans, and costs from forty cents to g dollar a pound, Porto Rican money. The best comes from Denmark or the Danish Islands, and that from Holland is also good That from France would make medium good oleomargarna, while the Austrian butter from Spain might do very well for axle grease As butter it is a rank failure.
 One distinctive feature of the Porto Rican diet is the great amount of meats and rich sauces served. At every one of the principal meals two or three kinds of meats and fish are served As there are no ice boxes and in most places no ice, the meat must be of anl- mals killed not more than twelve hours before the meal Of fish the favorite kind, especially in the country districts, is codfish, imported from Spain or Can ada. Oysters there are selling at fifteen cents dozen, but they are scarcely larger than q thumb nail.
 As for vegetables, besides the native products, American canned goods are used to some extent, and would be used far more were the prices less exorbi- | tant In their stead recourse is had to | the thousand and one fruits of the is- land, and the se are prepared in as many different ways, The principal fruit is the banana of which there are two | principal kinds, large ones. called pla- tanos or plantains, and used for cooking only and smaller ones, whose many subdivisions including the kind sold in Baltimore. are known under various names. The size of the bananas ranges from one and half inches to one and a third feet, and the taste and flavor va rying as much as the sizes They are | prepared in many Ways--roasted, fried, [ boiled, stewed and as ingredients Of nu- merous dishes. A number of our fruits. ! such as pears and peaches, are un- known. Apples there are but few, sell ing at five cents each. To us apples and the many dishes to which they give rise are such matter-of fact things that { was quite surprised at first at the as- heard that apples could be fried and of the ladies when they stewed Hike bananas.''
 Among the many things Spain sent to her colony was her typical grain, the garbanzo, bean a little larger than the pea. It is used very extensively, as are also white and red beans, Rice, also a staple article of food, is consumed in enormous quantities. Tn fact no meal IS complete without bsans and rice and they are served as regularly as bread. The rice is boiled and steamed, so that each grain will stand apart from it's neighbors. By adding bacon tomatoes, red pepper, or caramal fish, during the steaming process the rice is obtained in l,fferent colors, yellow, brown, red and even black.
 One Of the Jpa sons wl135 many 5iu1,o,