Evening star., 1901-07-11
CHINESE COOKERY A FAD
MANY RESTAURANTS SCATTERED
AROIT NEW YORK.
PatronIxed Mainly by Caucasian
Guests-ChOp-Suey.H HO-She-kianS
and other Queer Dishes.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.

New YORK s CHINATOWN, now there are nun
dreds of them scattered all over town. In
deed, it is unusual to find square half
mile of he crowded parts of town in which
there is not at least one of these places,
At first the Chinese restaurants in China
town catered exclusively to Chinese guests
Nowadays they have more white visitors
than yellow in the evenings. The uptown
restaurants minister exclusively TO white
people.
The dish usually favored by the white
patrons of these restaurants is chop-saey.
Some months later they may dare to make
further experiment far as ho-she-kial5-
soup made from dried oysters-out they are
apt to be decidedly doubtful about the or
igin of the things they find in that. Chop
suey, the visitors favorite, is a very we'll
cooked hash OF, pork. smothered in :. tasty
brown gravy and seasoned with the little
inch-long sprouts of beans (which the Chi
neSe break off and eat soon as they be
gin to shoOt, with dried mushrooms cooked
IN such way that they cannot De lo.d
from fresh ones. chopped celery and onions.
A heaping bowl of this stew is sold in the
regular Chinese restaurants for p cents 1t
is very pleasant dish, indeed, but at the
same time one full of surprises. The Chi
nese are an economical people and when
they kill pig they expect to put to ciIIi-
nary uses every part of that pig but the
bristles and the squeal In chop -sCcy you
will be likely to find bits of pig that you
don't quite recognize. but if you dip it in
the gravy two or three times and take it on
trust you will find it quite palatabIe.
Everything that the Chinese use IN cook
ing, except the fresh pork and fresh vege-
tables, has been imported from China. All
the things come in a dried shape, but the
ChlneSe are such Skillful cooks that they
can deceive even the most knowing into be-
Ieylng that they are eating fresh duck,
mushrooms, oysters and so Even OF led
pork is frequently imported from China,
for the Chinaman has an ineradicable pre-
judice in favor of the products of his own
country.
People who go to a Chinese restaurant for
the first time are usually in great fear that
they will be surreptitiously served with rat
stew, fried cat, fricasseed dog. or some
other delicacy of a kind supposed to be pc
cuiiarly Chinese They need not worry.
The difficulty of obtaining either money or
food in China compels the Chinese to eat
everything that has flesh upon its bones
Dogs and rats are easily attainable, with a
trap and little agility, and they 20 very
lar toward keeping the native family alive.
Chinese Money Makers.
When the Chinese come to this country
they find conditions entirely different
Work, of the kind they affect, is obtainable
either from their own people or from Amer
leans They can readily go into business
Tor themselves and make money Provis-
Ions of all kinds are cheap The much
priced pork. a dish of which costs a weeks
work in China, is to be obtained-so it
asking There are tastier things than dogs
rats and snakes to be obtained here, and
the newly arrived Chinaman turns to them
with avidity.
1t is very seldom, indeed that a China
man In this country eats any other animal
than those found in American butte her
SHOPS He never thinks of serving such
tnlnSS to restaurant visitors. If he ever,
In this country, eats strange food himself
II Is because he has been forced to it by
starvation.
Of ba
are strange to American eyes, but the re-
suits appeal to the taste with a force that
cannot be gainsaid- For instance no but
ter AT all is used by Chinese cooks either
In the making of pastry for any other
purpose Its place is taken by peanut oil
a most valuable product which the China
man imports from his own country
About peanut oil there fingers the faint
oder OF the peanut. but this is not at all
apparent To the taste. II is a rich yellow In
color ana seems to readily answer every
purpose to which butter can be put The
thinaman, however, uses ii for many more
purposes Ii furnishes him with light for
IL VIII burn III lamp and give clear vel
low flame that is absolutely srnokeIess 1t
Is also one OF the hottest of flames He
U.S. $ it for hairdreSsiug purposes as a
lubricant. as salad oil. as a furniture
polish and as a skin food II seems TO be
very cheap oil. for the Chinese will sell
pint bottle full for five cents-if they know
their customers TO the casual white man
prices are apt to be alarmingly high and
elastic
IL seems strange that so little is known in
this country of the valuable oil which the
peanut yields This country has the repu-
tatiOn of being the chief producer of pea-
nuts. Yet no oil seems 10 be expressed from
them in the south. according to the books
1t seems not improbable that the Chinese
import American peanuts into their own
country, extract the Oil. and then export a
considerable quantity of the product to the
Chinese residents of this country
Great cleanliness characterizes Chinese
cookery The idea that Chinaman is
filthy in all his ways is erroneous, n Won
ever Visit a big Chinese restaurant in
CHINATOWN. ask the proprietor when Won
have finished your dinner, to show YOU
through the kitchen. If he happens to like
your looks-and, above ALL If he has an
proved of your table manners-he Will
PROBABLY do so, and YOU Will see the clean
est and neateSt kitchen YOU have ever
visited Inc hoor, as a rule will have been
scrubbed and afterward worked over with
sand and heavy stone until Ii is smooth
ana whlte as paper Everything will seem to
De In Its place. even if you have been taken
In right in the middle of the rush hour
There is no litter no garbage; nothing in
sight that could offend the most fastidious
person psS-ELery ELery utensil made of metal has
been scrubbed and polished until it shines
The Chinese kitchen. in fact, can rival any
Dutch kitchen far as neatness and
Cleanliness is concerned.
No Table Linen Used
The one thing that the visitor will notice
Is the total lack OF table linen. Your
Chinaman knows two fabrics-silk and cot
ton. He has some coarse kinds of linen in
his country which he uses for stiffening
garments and for Innings He never used
table linen in his own country and he Is
not going to do so in this one. The dining
table Will be clean, but 1t will be quite
bare Of covering.
Reference mas been made to the China
mans study of the table manners of his
guests The Ch!naman himself eats all of
MS food. from grain of rice to choice
piece or stewed sharks fin as big as an egg
with pair OF chop sticks-two pieces of
ebony about eight inches long and a little
smaller In caliber than lead pencil They
are square at one end and round at the
other. The round end is the end to eat
with Because of the skill required to take
up food with these implements-which are
both held In the right hand-the Chinaman
Is a very dainty and neat eater He never
drops morsel and he never talks while he
Is eating He does not like people who come
into his restaurant to laugh and exclai.n at
everything He hates talky. gigsly girls.
He does not like to see people spill gravy
ali over the table or drop their food AS a
matter of fact. he is probably the most ex-