Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1916-04-20
A SINGAPORE DISH
RicetafeI Is Not a Mere Meal; 1t
Is a Whole Banquet.
A SORT OF CULINARY MARVEL.

It Contains About Everything From
Fish to Dessert, but Its Great and
Growing Delight Seems to Be the
Highly odorous Bombay Duck.
On a trip around the world from New
York. Singapore is just half way. The
ships part here and flow both ways.
Drop a letter in the ~postofice for New
York and 1t may come across the Pa
cifc; drop another and it may cross the
Atlantic.
More odds and ends of humanity are
thrown together here in Singapore than
in n other city in the world. Singa-
pore is halfway between Arabia and
Japan, halfway between India and
China. On the street they stream past
Silks, Tamils, Parsees, Armenians,
Arabs, Malays, Mohammedans, Filipi-
nos. Chinese, Portuguese, Siamese.
Japanese, Javanese-as If they were
made up for a procession. some with
no clothes and some swathed in them.
Every day at noon on the bill offare
in Singapore you find a dish called rice,
tafel, which will live long in my mem
DRY. 1t Is the most fearfully and won
derfully made dish in the world. 1t
staggers the Imagination to think of
what it is composed. An ordinary In.
tellect stands appalled, when it begins
trying to figure out what the dish is
made of. Only a Kelvin dare try to re-
solve it into its elements.
The first day l ordered 1t in a reck.
less, care free moment. had never
heard of it before and supposed that it
was just an ordinary single dose dish.
but in a few minutes l began to find
out that 1t was a tafel of another color.
An ordinary sized boy came up bear
ing a plate Of rice and gave 1t to me.
Hardly had the boy turned aside when
another boy came up with some meat.
l piled on the meat, but just as l was
picking up my knife and fork a larger
boy came up bearing a plate divided
off into sections piled to the cargo line
with spices, cinnamons and other trop-
1cal products. I looked to see If there
hadn't been some mistake, but his conf
dent manne and bearing showed plain
ly that 1 was to put them on too. l
did, even though 1t looked as If l were
going on a cruise, and had just leaned
back to study the mound when an
other bun bearer came up. / began
on his dish and worked my way
around. helping myself to the more
prominent articles, and after he had
gone on i picked up my spoon and
was just wondering which side to
make my first encroachments on when
| anOfhnr ntIfridar nm Nth ,,o&lou
dish Of odds and ends. After him came
others, some little and some old, some
shy and some bold, the line forming
at the left and rhythmically tramping
by, while l threw on and rounded up
until 1t began to look as II the mound
builders had gone back into business
again. After the tail of the procession
had gone by, l located a favorable
spot and went to work.
These are some Of the actual things
that were in the final draft: Rice, cur
ried meat, mincemeat balls, fried on
ions, shredded onions, white onions,
banana f~ritters, hard boiled eggs, slic-
ed cucumbers, Chinese macaroni, pea
nuts, French beans, Indian chutney,
~cocoanut, red fish, shrimps, fried fish,
fried chicken, goose liver. chill, lines
J and Bombay duck.
III take my word for 1t that every
single n of these ~destroyers was In
my rice tafel.
l put Bombay duck last, for l know
that the other ingredients would rather
not associate with 1t. You could read
lily understand their attitude if you had
once tasted Bombay duck, for there is
no other thing its size in the world that
makes such an impression on you. 1t
has the worst odor of anything I ever
went up against, and without wishing
/ TO boast l have smelled some things
That We're highly praised in their line.
3; but for hard, consistent smelling day
in and day out Bombay duck has them
; all In the Yankee division. In compar.
ison with 1t limburger cheese has a
delicate perfume.
How 1t ever got that name Is more
than l know. 1t is really a dried fish,
which, broken and powdered, lends a
seasoning, but as for myself l would
rather take my seasoning In some other
} form. Old residents and missionaries
VINO have been In the country a long
, time say that after a time a person
! comes to be very fond of it, but per.
sonally | know that there could never
be anything between us-unless 1t was
distance. 1t is all that l can do to stay
at the table where one of the parties is
an old resident or a missionary a long
time In the service.
The people in Singapore do not cali
r1cetafel q dish. They consider n .
meal. And that's what 1t is. 1t looks
as II 1t had been meant for the noon.
day repast at a Woodmen log rolling.
Many and many a person here has
ricetafel at noon and nothing else. In
fact, after eating a ricetafel there isn't
room for anything else. A person then