Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-19
JAPANESE DIET PRAISED
SIMPLE But SUFFICIENT FOOD OF
THE NIPPY LITTLE PEOPLE.

| Toxic Corr. of the London Express.
Now that the race for supremacy be-
tween the great peoples of the world is be-
coming keener, and each nation is taking
infinite pains to provide itself with such
means and appliances will enable 1t to
| be first at the goal, there are certain les
| sons of eastern as opposed to western nab
/ its which deserve more consideration than
| Is customarly accorded them.
| Now, in the matter of eating and drink
ing. to deal with the foremost of these les
sons, John Bull easily holds first place
among the nations. The British workman
is at the apex of prosperity, an apex which
is indicated by plenty of roast beef and
plum pudding, meat three times day.
beer oftener, good house. good clothes,
| finery for wife, and something to spare.
| He will decline from that apex.
| l first became convinced that he would
| when came to the far east and saw the
| innumerable swarms of coolies who VIII
| work for half-penny day, the Sklll1ui
mechanics who will raise family on 2i2d
a day, the tailors wood carvers, painters
shoemakers, etc, who, while quite as good
on the whole, as their European confreres
! do not get n hundredth part of the wages
| earned by the latter.
| With peace. the development Of the back
ward parts of the world, and the opening
|
ment, capital will inevitably flow to those
regions where 1t can be most proftably
employed. and, in view Of the speedy open
Ing up Of the middle kingdom, American
manufacturers are already talking of es-
| tablishng in Japan factories which will
very soon have branches all over the neigh
| boring empire; for, of course, it is China
and not Japan which will bring the British
workman down from his roast beef apex.
Cheap Living and Hard Work.
| nr{a fo1 jo6 fIgo
| to his simpler mode Of living.
| Now, / am living, and have lived for
some time past. In purely Japanese style
and on purely japanese food, and my ex-
perience in this direction has firmly con-
WINGED me that European custom makes us
| eat too much.
| The British workman Will doubtless scott
| at this dictum and point to the small stat
| ure of the Jap,$as evidence of the made
| quacy of an almost vegetarian diet.
| Will he not remember, however, that It
| was precisely this simple food that enabled
| the Japanese soldier to achieve such dis
tnction on the battlefield; to teach the
| fighting. men of Europe lesson in endur-
| ance which they wifi not readily forget; to
demonstrate that all climates were alike
| to him, and that no conditions. however
| arduous, could check his cheerful, sturdy,
| onward march?
The whole secret lies in this question of
| diet and any one who tries to live as the
Jap does will quickly see for himself that
| it is so.
He will lose that inpatience and nervous
ness in which some Englishmen take a GER
tain amount of pride, and those fits of de-
| preston which have been called the Eng
| lisb malady" will disappear as well.
| The japanese eat thrice a day. and each
| time they take much the same kind of food
rice being always the principal item, ac,
! companied, as rule. by fish, eggs and
vegetables. either fresh or picked, especial
| ly beans.
| Hardly has one awakened in the morning
than one of the girls of the hotel brings
| into the room--dining room and bed room
| are all one In japanese house, the former
| being converted into the latter at night by
the spreading Of a mattress on the thick
| straw mats which cover the fioor-a port
| able native stove on which she places a ket-
| tie, which is soon boiling.
Quaint Breakfast.
One then makes tea for himself in a tiny
| teacup by the simplest of processes. name
| ly by pouring the hot water on to the tea
leaves, and then pouring the instantaneous
" produced tea into a tiny cup about the
size of q cookie she'll This is japanese tea,
! and as 1t Is taken of course, without milk
| or sugar, foreigners are not. as a rule, fond
| of it.
| When one has thus taken few drops Of
! tea the breakfast is carried in by the maid
on little red-lacquered table, which looks
| like a chidS toy.
Upon it are tiny black-lacquered vessels,
| with funny little pounded lids.
One Of these contains a shiru, a soup
| which may be made of bean curd, of fish,
of seaweed or of some other material; an
| other o-hira, small piece of boiled fish
| hoa ting in weak soup; another contains an
| infinitesimal omelet, and fourth. which
| is shaped like teacup and is of almost
the same capacity. is empty.
| For this latter vessel the girl, who has by
| this time squatted down on her heels on
/ fl,a Hnnr I'd IL, fra1y
| which you place your empty cup, for it is
| contrary to Japanese etiquette for a girl
| to receive anything directly from the hands
| of one of the opposite sex. She then fills
! the little vessel with steaming hot rice
| which she takes from a well-scoured wood
en- receptacle, with bright brass hoops and
a cover, looking like very much dwarfed
| butter tub.
| AT dinner what Is to all appearances the
| same dish makes it's appearance on the
| festive board, and in all probability one
sees it again in various ingenious forms a
| dozen times in the week. 1t must be con-
fessed, however that the Japanese have a
| great variety of fish in their seas and
| rivers, and that they have many ways Of
dressing thenl-aL of these ways good
| This singularly monotonous diet is not
| one that temptS person to eat to excess
and, as matter Of fact, few Japanese of
| the better class can negotiate at a meal
| more than two small cupfulS of rice weigh
| ing few ounces.
| Some Strange Dishes.
Once in a while there is, as might be ex-
| pected, change, and at such times one
tastes of suimono. a kind of bean-curd
soup; kouchi-tori, a relish such as an ONE
| let, or chestnuts boiled soft and sweet. or
kamaboko, which is fish pounded and then
rolled into little balls and baked; sashtmi
minced raw fish: hachi-zakana, a fine large
| fish, either broiled with salt or boiled with
soy; uma-ni, bits of fish, or sometimes
| fowl boiled with lotus roots or potatoes in
| soy and in sort of liQueur called mirin:
| sa-nomono sea ears or sea slugs, served
with vinegar; chawan. a thin fish soup,
| with mushrooms, or else chawan-mushi. a
| thick custardy soup.
/ am not a vegetarian, and do not think
| that Englishmen should abandon either
| their roast beef or their BEER but I do
| think that force Of circumstances will vet
| compel them to be more temperate in the
| use of these good things of life and to copy
| in many respects from the oriental.
| Any of your readers who chance to visit
| Japan should certainly try the food for
| themselves. One week. or at most two
will accustom them to the new style of diet
| and then they will see the real japan. and
| smile in a superior manner at the impa-
| thence, the oeevishness and the imbeciiity
| of rtb fnra " III