Newport daily independent., 1903-04-03

food" continued the veteran customs inspector. "Thcy import guayada and guayabada, which are made from the guava fruit alone, or are mixed with other fruit and boiled down so hard as to justify the use of the Castilian knife and fork when served upon the table. They also bring in the red and green peppers which have been canned in 10 or 20 pound tin boxes. Then there is their Andalusian cheese. Its flavor can only be accounted for on the good ground that the cows were dieted on garlic and onions.
 But it makes my mouth water tc think of their preserves of cocoanut, pineapple, orange, banana and guava, made by boiling the fruit and then adding to it brandy or strong wine to keep it from fermcnting; and their beef, air dried, which resembles so much the smoked meat of our own smokehouses, but which differs from it altogether in taste and tender ness; and to think of their Spanish sardines, smoked or dried, and their vario@s forms of anchovies, the most pungent of an the tinny tribes; and, say, it makes me forget Lent and all of my Catholic ancestors when I think of these good things which are ihlnorted- -frppl-Spain by these--nsa<~- e}-gsous devils w1ior1-##e> recently fired out of our hemisphere. I wish we could shoot a lot of their good foods, and whole heap of the good qualities of their best men across the ocean into our midst"
 "The Japanese have a practical mo- nopoly of the nests used in making soup. And a whole lot of our people have yet to learn that birG G's-nest soup, prepared by an American7 chef, is the most delicious dish of its class in the world. From Japan come all of the armies of dried devil fish; also tree mushrooms and sea mushrooms. which are deliciously favored too. The sea mushrooms boil away like marine glue, and the tree mushroom has flavor of wood bark-the com. bination making thiclSening for soups and stews. We get from Japan every eatablc dried fish from minnows to surgeons and sword fish. Their dry ing processes are peculiar, and are applied to the lower forms of sea life, and they desiccate clans, rbussels, oysters, prawns, shrimps, cr4bs and crawfish until they resemble N stone. Thus their foods endure all clitpates.
 "The Chinese are deeply interest ed in American markets, for they send to us long list of delicacies, such as crystallized nes, dates, figs. watermelon rind preserved water melon seed, dried chickens,and ducks which are cleaned and fiattened out until they resemble hemlocll shin cles; tremendous sardines in oil, each fish a foot long, and the boxes each more than a cubic foot in dimen- sion; salted cabbage. of which the leaves are an inch wide and three or four feet long; sugared flowers. lai- chee nuts, matas, sweet pumpkins, and all sorts of sweetmeats, made upon the plan of the Canton ginger, being the fruit, cleaned, prepared and boiled for hours in strained honey Tn August and September. they send us countless numbers of moon cakes, curious little pieces of pastry used in celebration of the harvest moon festival They look like small pork pie, stuffed with quaint mixtures of almonds, raisfns. watermelon seeds, lard. ginger, sugar, rice, four and spices"
 This customs house raconteur told n lot more about the imported things, making ones mouth water with hope less greediness for goodies unobtain- able. Some day, when ali of us have plenty of sixteen-to-ones, we may buy these importations and fully realize all of the pleasures of intel ligentIy conceived gluttony
 SMITH D FRY