The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-09-18

mandarin. We skirted the old wall of
the Tartar city at high speed, for our
coolies sure of good payment, shouted
peremptorily to the. coolies of more in
significant rickshaws to clear the way.
Near the Chen Men. the principal gate
of the city, over which towers a new
and gaudily painted pagoda. we turned
| abruptly to the left and rushed madly
up an alleyway that was just wide
enough to admit a single rickshaw. Our
boys stopped out of breath. and dropped
the shafts on the steps of wide stone
porch, on either side of which stood a
huge carved stone ornament.
Telling them to wait. foldyou pay. but
81 (Mexican) II you hire a cart for a
whole day, we CROPPED our way through
small bare courtyard dimly hghted
with an ornamental. red-tasfeled lantern,
until we found an opening IN one OF tie
walls. A corridor. as dark as the yard
outside. took up to the general eating
room, furnished only with a few wooden
tables and stools. The manager and his
staff of assistants in long, crumpled, dirty
blue linen coats, bowed to each of us
in a curious little jerky fashion, bending
at the knees and waist.
Into Uncanny Passage
Then the head boy, a pockmarked.
lanky creature. took us into an I'M
canny looking passage which seemed as
IL It led to the den of 40 thieves. After
feeling our way cautiously for several
internainable minutes and stumbling over
steps in the dark, we eventually climbed
down through a small circular opening IN
a wall and saw with relief our most ana
his guests assembled in a room that was
lighted only by couple of oil lanterns
And as there were walls it was easy
though not expedient to look into the
regions whence issued the doors of
cooking as host of pigtailed, grimy
fellows prepared the delicacies of the
evening.
In one corner of the room was an
opium dfvan covered in dark blue linen,
while a dozen low wooden stools were
placed near a small round table. This
latter bare of cloth, was Uttered with
sweetmeats and set for seven people.
After the customary salutations and IN
Productions our host genially waved us to
be seated and to partake of such ap-
petisers as met our fancy
Before each of us lay minute plate,
howl and microscopic cup from which
to drink the hot rice wine which was
served throughout the meal. There
was also a pair of ebony and silver
chopsticks, an ebony two-pronged fork
and a round-bowled, long-handled spoon
resembling a soup ladle. Underneath
every plate were a dozen tiny squares Of
coarse paper on which to wipe our chop
sticks after dipping them in one or other
of the two cups of not water set for the
purpose. When the water resembled soup
1t was replaced by a fresh supply, which
think must have been purely European
innovation and intended for our benefit,
as I noticed that our host dispensed with
the water altogether, and only occasion
ally remembered to wipe his crOpsticks.
Best Part of Menl
On looking back upon the meal 1t
seemed to me that the best part of it
was that which was now upon the table.
There were plates of roast melon seeds
and peanuts, of fresh nuts and nuts in
sugar; there were sweetmeats of lotus
root, which looked like fondants and
tasted like the food of the unearthly;
there were squares of apricot jelly, hard,
watery pears, small green bananas the
size of a pea pod and oranges which had
been made bitter by soaking in water:
there were, too, raw beans in Oil, onions,
pulverized meats and unknown salads.
After we had spent a polite 20 minutes
in sampling these CONNECTIONS, our host,
with sheer sucking In noise and spoon
uplifted, cordially invited us one and all
to dip with him into the central bowl.
The contents looked like a white soup,
but proved to be a stew of sweet pota-
toes. Having secured a spoonful with
some difficulty, it was still harder to
get rid of it, for the top edge Of the
Ispoon caught the end of your nose. Con-
sequently there was nothing to be done
but to lick out the bowl as gracefully as
possible or throw what remained into the
cup of water.
Plate after plate and bowl after bowl
now followed each other in bewildering
succession; and each time we helped
ourselves simultaneously or our host Sc
lected a choice morsel with his own chop
sticks and graciously put it on our
plates.
At one moment we were eating ducks
eggs, whose blackened, lime favored
whites indicated that their age was I'M
impeachabe; the next we were graphing
with seaweeds macaroni and slippery
sharks fins that persistently eluded our
clumsily manipulated sticks. Now we
tackled not without fear, unknown meats
and vegetables cooked in sugar, fresh
shrimps. mushrooms from Mongolia,
young bamboo sprouts, pigeons eggs,
and hundred different foreign tasting
messes.
First Change of Plates
At this crisis of the meal orr plates
were changed for the first time, and
bowls of sickly pink colore1 sirup,
sweet potato and Indian corn cakes of
dusty hue were set before each diner;
but these were only the crevice filters
and concluded the first and lighter por-
ton of the dinner, in which every dish
had an accompaniment of smaller por-
tons, in which to dip the morsel taken
from the center bowl was yet to come
Jokes. laughter and gayety were the
order of the evening, and many were the
little cups Of rice wine that disappeared
on our hosts repeated invitation TO
make yourselves at home" Then came
bowl of stewed duck, cooked without
salt, roast sucking pig, forcemeat balls
and chicken, followed by a grilled fish,
which, according to custom. was help
ed from the top side only, for China
| man remembers his servants There were
soups of birds nest, of mushroom, of
vegetable and of sea slugs and finally
the inevitable small Fowl of rice and
rice water was set before each person.
thus concluding the meal, which had
lasted about three hours.
With feeling Of thankfulness that all
WAS over we retired to the dtyau, where