The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-23
DINNER A LA JAPANESE.

A Repast That Is Certainly Picturesque
and May BE Digestible-tedlous Elk
perience.
To an American given to stiff joints
and corpulency a Japanese dinner Is
tedious experience, especially when he's
used to business lunches and the like,
But 1t is worth trial and discontinue IL
one is fortunate enough to be the guest
of a rich man, for in Japan hospitality
is one of the cardinal virtues.
Western customs and usages have
found their way into many homes of
the wealthy. whose dinners and lunches
are the counterpart of those with which
we are all familiar. But real japanese
dinner. including chopsticks lacquer
trays and tiny cups is thing never 70
be forgotten.
japanese houses are made up of slid
ing screens instead of our solid partl-
tions and in summer are all left open,
so that seated at dinner one looks out
over the gardens, seeing the lights or
the city in the distance and the scent
! of q thousand sweet flowers blows In
with every breath of air.
The guests remove their shoes on en-
terlng the house. and except when pro-
vided with q pair of Gotten overshoes
must spend the evening in stocking feet,
unless happily the host has an extra
pair. The wife of Japanese gentleman
does not preside at his table unless
| there are ladies in the party, but APP
pears with the tea and sWeetmeats
which always precede dinner, as do
our cocktails and sherry etc She mere
" greets the guests and appears again
| only when the good-bys are said. Silk
en- cushions are scattered about the floor
and the guests are arranged according
to rank, for the Japanese are, Of course,
great stlcklers for form and ceremony.
Little tables. some six inches high are
placed before each one and barefooted
waiting maids in graceful and prettily
| tinted klmonos bring in lacquer trays
with several tiny covered bowls. Before
leo wing the trays on the tables they set
them on the floor, and dropping on their
knees make their best bow, touching
their foreheads to the floor. Chopsticks
take the place of knives and forks, but
unlike cur weapons of attack are made
of wood. They are never used twice,
unless family heirlooms. when they are
cerved ivory of the most exquisite work
manship, as are also the lacquer trays,
bowls and cups
| The host sets an example by removing
the covers from the tiny bowls and the
guest doing likewise, finds an asosrt-
,nent Of food quite new and generally
most distasteful MASTERING up much
skill one attempts getting the food on
chonsticks from the tables to ones
two ,act ~
falls on the floor or on ones lap. The
wretched sticks wabble and cross each
other as if focused. When almost des-
perate the good host is apt to come to
the rescue by suggesting lifting the
bowls and with the aid Of chopstick
shovelng the food In, as one would po'
tatOes into a barrel
In each course there are half a dozeH
dishes and the host tells what they are
First suimono, bean soup; kuchitorl
chestnuts boiled and crushed into a
mush; kamaboko, fish picked fine and
rolled into little balls and baked sasnf-
mi, raw fish cut into thin slices ano
covered with ice. This is dipped into
rich sauce called soy, and is really very
good Little cups of warm saki, the ma
tive brandy made of rice, are served
with each course Napkins and bread
are unknown quantities.
! The second course is a small fish boil
ed whole. One has a chance here to ge
in some fine play with the chopsticks
umani, bits of fowl boiled with potatoe:
or lotus roots; a salad Of onions, pea,
and string beans, with few leaves o
lettuce; sunomono, sea snails served
with eggplant mashed and chaman
mushi. thick soup made Of fish ant
vegetables, with mushrooms for re
lish.
The third course is a curry of rice am
| picked vegetables; and for fourth an
final course you have soho a sort o
1 | buckwheat vermicelli served with so
' and sweet liqueur called mirin; shiru
, ko, rice cakes, sawed and confection