Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1903-04-17

food" continued the veteran customs
inspector. '"They 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 to
think of their preserves of cocoanut,
pineapple, orange, banana and guavar
made by boiling the fruit and then
adding to it brandy or strong wine
to keep it from fermenting; and their
beef, air dried. which resembles sc
much the smoked meat of our own
| smokehouses. but which differs from
1t altogether in taste and tender
ness; and to think of their Spanish
| sardines, smoked or dried, and their
various forms of anchovies, the most
pungent of all the tinny tribes; and
say, it makes me forget Lent and al
of my Catholic ancestors when J
think of these good things which are
imported from Spain by these mis-
chievous devils whom we recently
fired out of our hemisphere. 1 wish
we could shoot lot of their goo6
foods, and whole heap of the goo6
qualities of their best men across the
ocean into our midst
"The Japanese have a practical mo
| soup. And a whole lot of our people
have yet to learn that bird's-nest
soup. prepared by an American chef
is the most delicious dish of it's class
| in the world. From Japan come al
| 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 a flavor of wood bark-the com
bination making thickening for soup:
| and stews. We get from Japan every
eatable dried fish from minnows tt
surgeons and sword fish. Their dry
| ing processes are peculiar, and are
applied to the lower forms of sea life
and they desiccate- CLAIMS. musSels
oysters. prawns, shrimps, crabs an6
crawfish until they resemble stone
| Thus their foods endure all climates
''The Chinese are deeply interest
| ed in American markets, for they
send to us a long list of deiica cies
such as crystallized lines, dates. figs
watermelon rind. preserved water
melon. seed, dried chickens and ducks
which are cleaned and fiattened out
until they resemble hemlock shin
giles; tremendous sardines in oil, each
| fish foot long, and the boxes each
more than a cubic foot in dinnen
sion; sailed cabbage. of which the
| leaves are an inch wide and three OF
four feet long: sugared flowers. lai
chez nuts, matais. sweet pumpkins
and all sorts of sweetneats. made
upon the plan of the Canton ginger
being the fruit. cleaned. prepared
and boiled for hours in strained
honey. In August and September
they send US countless numbers
moon cakes curious little pieces O.
nastry used in celebration of the
harvest moon festival. They looE
like small pork pie, stuffed with
quaint mixtures of almonds. raisins
watermelon seeds, lard. ginger. sugar
rice. -four and spices"
This customs house racOnteur told
a lot more about the imported things
making ones mouth water with hope
less ereediness for goodies unobtain
able. Some day, when all of us have
plenty of sixteen-to-ones, we may
buy these importations and fully
realize all of the pleasures of intel
ligently conceived gluttony.
| SMITH D. FRY