Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-11-25

of table luxuries, she is able to produce
fine class of chocolate CONNECTIONS and
cocoas as are produced anywhere.
With the exception Of tea, the Japanese
contribute nothing to the American table.
unless It be paper napkins and orange
wood toothpicks - articles hardly to be
classed as edibles. japanese tea Is gener-
ally of higher quality than the Chinese
1t is nearly all grown in the Yamshiro
province, considered the best tea district
in Japan. The Japanese colonies in New
York, San Francisco and other large Amer
lean cities import foods for their own use.
The most common kinds are dried nsn OF
all sorts and sizes. Almost every KIND or
fish and form of sea life is dried nara ana
stony by the Japanese, from sturgeon to
a minncw, from clam to crab Other
odd dishes are made from tree mushrooms
and sea mushrooms.
The Chinese cling to their native diet by
importing dried sharks fins, dried chickens
and ducks, preserved watermelon SEEDS
crystallized dates and figs, sugared flowers
sweet pumpkins and sardines in oil. Thelr
sweetmeats are delicious. They are usu-
ally made by boiling fruits, as tamarlnos,
lines, green dates and ginger, IN STRAINED
honey. This is put up in glazed carmen
ware jars covered with rattan wickerwork.
Other curious bits of pastry are moon
cakes" eaten in commemoration or the
harvest moon, and ''lu-chee nuts. only
the rich can afford bird-nest soup, the ma
terial for which is a seaweed mastlcated
by the birds to form their nests
where Tea Comes From.
Three-tourths of the tea imported into
the United States not only comes from
China, but from Shanghai alone. OF course,
nearly all of 1t is "up-country" tea that Is,
it is grown about Hankow and other In
terror cities, but 1t Is all shipped to Shang-
hal and from Shanghai to the United
States. When the tea is in season the
whole Yang-tse river is crowded with great
numbering junks, their decks to the water s
edge loaded with tea in veritab'e mountains
of boxes, all bound for the Shanghai go
downs" or warehouses. The men who nam
die this immense traffic are millionaires
many times over and they run Shanghai
pretty much as they want to.
OF late years we have been getting some
tea from India and Ceylon, but the trade
with the East Indies has been mostly con-
fined to Great Britain. The Ceylon and In
dia teas possess fowery flavor not uni
versally liked by Americans.
Brazil sends US the greater part of the
coffee consumed in the United States. 1t
may be called Java or Mocha, but it Is
nevertheless, Brazilian coffee.
While the amount of Arabian coffee i'm
ported into the United States is not equal
to that from Brazil, yet it Is by no means
small. L. S. Consul Cunningham, at Alden,
in late report to the State Department,
says:
From the following table taken from the
invoice books at this consulate and the con-
sular agency at Hodeida- there have been
irvoiced for expectation to the United
States during the year ending June 80,
1899, 80 1916 bags QGn pounds each, equal to
OH, O6O pounds of Mocha coffee"
Coffee and Spices.
Real Java coffee is almost a thing of the
past. Very little is imported for it is
different article from what 1t was twenty
years ago. when the blight killed nearly all
of the Arabian or Mocha coffee trees Since
then the coarser and harder Liberian cof-
fee trees have been planted almost entire
~. As the culture system" or forced la
Dor on government plantations, has been
done away with recently, there is no such
thing as "old government Java" coffee in
any sense in the market now. Many old
coffee estates have been replanted to tea
and kina or circhona plantations have
proved other more profitable ventures. The
traveller would suffer a surprise at the cof-
fee served him at breakfast in lava hotels
A strong extract made by cold filtration Is
brought In a cruet to be diluted with hot
water and milk. as in Mexico. and there
results a sad, gray fluid that disheartens
one entirely.
Our spices seem to be imported from
every quarter of the globe. From Mexico
we get a spiced meat called Chill Con
Carne." and also Chill Colorado" There
Is also red pepper made in Hungary
called ROSA pa prika." From Bombay
India, come Chutrey sauce and currie,
both in the stick and powdered form. Cey-
Ion sends us allspice: the Straits Settle
ments, nutmegs and mace; Saigon. Indo-
China, cinnamon: Borneo and Jamaica, gin
ger, and Natal, Africa, pepper.
To show the singular extremes in the
variety of edibles imported from foreign
cimes We need only mention in concIu-
sion mackerel from Norway Fard dates
from Egypt, "Taganroka" wheat from Sibe-
ria red beans from Australia. arrOwroot
potatoes and onions from Bermuda, beef
extract from Uruguay "stichies" from Pal
estiue. and prtCkly pears and edible lizards
from Central America.