The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-13
QUEER FOODS FOR SALE
BROUGHT TO NEW YORK FROM ALL
QUARTERS OF THE EARTH.
Each Foreign Colony Imports It's spe-
cfaI Native stapIe-Birds' Nests,
shark Fins and Snails.
New York Evening Posi-.

ton that the food Of all the races of the
earth is TO be had in this city for the seek
sng: nor is it hard 10 find. The peoples
who make their way here from every quar-
ter OF the globe. and from little colonies
when their number is sufficient. leave or
their native dress and change their GUS
toms; but they hold fast TO their religion
and import much of their food. There are
native restaurants in every one Of the
quarters. and in most there are little stores
where. with all sorts of odds and ends that
can be found nowhere else in the city,
the home food is on sale for the house
wives. 1t is possible, on successive even
ings, TO be served with meat and drink
from France. Egypt, Germany Syria, Rus
STA. Spain, China, Italy. Japan, Turkey
and other countries, and to eat and drink
in the company OF men from each and
within hearing of the language.
The imported food is often native to this
country. The French import peas and
mushrooms and Holsters, for instance; the
Germans, cranberries and potatoes; the
Syrians. onions. The cooks are fully pur-
suaded that the foreign products have a
quality that cannot be approached by the
American. The proprietor of a little
French restaurant said peas? yes they
grow peas here. But, ahl they are as
tough For a sweet and tender pea you
must look to France" An old German who
keeps a delicatessen store exclaimed ::
surely, potatoes grow here; but they are
not good 10 the German. And cranberries?
Yes, but they are like peas for size, and
they have poor flavor" A cook in a
Syrian restaurant said: Onions grow
here. Yes; bat it have not the taste. Sy-
Tian no IKE IL. 1t no good" The people
seem 10 be willing 10 pay the greater price
for the sake of getting the flavor with
which they were made familiar in child
hood.
In many of the foreign eating houses,
dark and tInattractive as they may appear,
these imported foods are cooked to please
the taste of epicures. The Chinatown
cooks are celebrated but the best of their
work Is never put before the sightseer.
Anything is good enough for the who
goes in more to observe than to eat what
he pays twice over for. The dinners in
private. given by the rich to their friends
in festival times, are not soon forgotten
by the American guests. In one of the
Syrian eating houses they employ a man
who was ten. years cook to the Turkish
ambassador in London; an American sell
dom enters this place; the best the cook
can do is put before the people of the
quarter, who many times have dinners of
seven courses. In such unexpected places
good, II somewhat strange. dinners are
sometimes TO be found. The exterior may
be forbidding, but the kitchen. as in this
place, may be as clean as pin.
FROM FRANCE AND ITALY.
The characteristic food imported from
France is snails of large growth, which are
served hot in the shell. with fork of pecu-
liar form to get them out. In some of the
restaurants they are advertised 'for home
consumption at 80 cents a dozen. The
French import them, fish caught in the
Mediterranean sea and preserved in oil;
chicken, candied cherries, peas, pickles,
Holsters. mushrooms, beans. and so forth.
It was pointed out that they brought even
spinach from the home land: cook said
that the imported canned vegetables were
much better than the fresh ones grown
here. In the Italian and Spanish restau-
rants the dishes are similar 10 the French;
In the former the imported spaghetti
is the characteristic food. The Spanish
restaurant keepers import very little food
from their native land; practically nothing
that differs materially from the French
The Chinese import more varieties OF
food than any other people. The character
of it is illustrated by the following list OF
delicacies: Sharks fins, birds nests, air
bladders of ellis, snow-moss. rock-moss
dried oysters The sharks fins have the
skin and musoulSr tissue removed; they
and the birds nests are used chiefly In
making soup. A dish OF sharks fins, air
bladders. or birds nests cost 81 in some OF
the restaurants. Beche de mer, or tripang
a sea slug, which looks like spoiled cucum.
Der. and is found near the coral islands in
the Southern Pacific, is sold at the sam,
price: some varieties of the tripang sell fol
$500 ton in the Chinese markets. 1t i:
imported, skinned, dried, cleaned. anC
smoked. When stewed for a long time. il
becomes gelatinous mass. and tastes like
a well-e0oked calf's head. Dried fish OF var
fcus kinds are imported: a most uninvitins
food they are. when exposed for sale in
the stores of Chinatown. Some. as they
hang in the windows. still contain the cut
tlefish bone with which canary-bird cage:
are often supplied.
DRIED FRUITS FROM CHINA.
Nuts. sweets and vegetables are i'm
ported from China in large quantities. Pre-
served pears, apricots. star fruit, dragons
eyes. citron and pineapples are all to b,
found on the bills of fare. usually at Il
cents dish. Dried Ii chez nuts, sweet anC
palatable. tasting like dried fruit. are of
fered to all tho sightseers who stray int,
the quarter. Concerning the liquors. IL Il
sufficient TO mention the white-rose wine
palm-root wine and white-rice liquor.
The food imported from Germany is al
most all familiar. There are little store:
on Second avenue where there is hardly ;
native product for sale Potatoes brough
all the WY across the Atlantic because O
the flavor are doled out by the pint. Sau
ties, cranberries. cheese. sailed goose
breast gingerbread, preserved fruits, anC
one hupdred and one other articles OF foo,
(of which Bismarck herring is not the leas
importantly are for sale in these places, al
prepared in Germany. The Russians impor
caviare In great quantity: IL is a distinc
lively Russian dish prepared from tn
sailed roeS of the sturgeon or some othe
large fish. A sort of candy. called khalva
also comes from Russia The importation
of Russian tea are very large. and Of Rus
sian tobacco and spices. Much of all thi
comes from Odessa In Essex street, which
Is In that part OF the Ghetto where tn
Russian Jews live, there are severa
Odessa stores" They contain all the arti
cles mentioned and many others OF a SINH
lar character. There are so many things
Russian said. that 1 cannot begin I
think OF them all.
The Syrians cling 10 their own food Xix
the Chinese, but they have no such strang
dishes as birds nests on their bill OF fare
They serve mutton and rice with every
thing: both they buy here. They import
vegetable which looks like large red per
per- apparently for the sake OF the ski
only, for they remove the contents an
stuff IL with chopped mutton, rice an
nuts IL IS pleasant TO the taste of a
American They import also the leave:
which they wrap about boiled rice and fin
meat and serve hot out OF the water. The
scorn the coffee which Americans buy
their own comes from the East in IN
bean. and Is ground here. Such a del
- - l. - a.. -. An1