The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1916-04-21
A SINGAPORE DISH
RiCetafel Is Not a Mere Meal: II
Is a Whole Banquet.
A SORT OF CULINARY MARVEL,

II Contains About Everything From
Fish TO Dessert, but Its Great and
Growing Delight Seems to Be the
Highly Odorous Bombay Duck.
On trip around the world from New
York, Singapore is just half way. The
ships part here and flow both ways.
Drop letter in the postofice for New
York and 1t may come across the Pa
cific; drop another and it may cross the
Atlantic.
More odds and ends of humanity are
thrown together here IN Singapore than
in any other city in the world Singa-
pore is halfway between Arabia and
Japan. halfway between India and
China. On the street they stream past
-Sikhs, Tamils, Parsees, Armenians,
Arabs, Malays, Mohammedans. Filipi-
nos, Chinese, Portuguese, Siamese.
japanese, Jayanese 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 of fare
in Singapore you find dish called rice
tafel. which will live long in my men,
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 1t 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 | ordered it in reck-
less, care free moment r had never
heard Of 1t before and supposed that 1t
was just an ordinary single dose dish,
but In a few minutes began to find
out that it was tafel Of another color.
An ordinary sized boy came up bear
Ing plate. Of rice and gave it to me.
Hardly had the boy turned aside when
another boy came up with some meat.
piled on the meat, but just as l was
picking up my knife and fork IA larger
boy came up bearing Il plate divided
off into sections piled to the cargo line
with spices, cinnamons and other trop-
zeal products. | looked to see il there
hadn't been some mistake, but his conf
dent manner and bearing showed plain
ly that l was to put Them ON too.
did, even though 1t looked rs If l were
going on cruise, and had just leaned
back to study the Ia6und when an
other bun bearer came ND. | began
on his dish and worked my way
around, helping myself to the more
prominent articles and after he had
gone on | picked up my spoon and
was just wondering which side to
make my first encroachments on when
another outrider came up with another
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 / threw on and rounded up
until 1t began to look as If the mound
builders had gone back into business
again. Afte the tail of the procession
had gone by, | located favorable
spot and went to work.
These are some Of the actual things
that were in the final draft: Rice cur
rted meat mincemeat balls, fried on
ions, shredded onions, white onions,
banana frltters, hard boiled eggs, snc-
ed cucumbers, Chinese macaront, pea
nuts, French beans, Indian chutney,
cocoanut, red fish, shrimps, fried fish,
fried chicken, goose liver, chilli lines
and Bombay duck
III take my word for 1t that every
single one Of these destroyers was In
my rice tafe
put Bombay duck last, for l know
that the other ingredients would rather
not associate With it. You could read
lily understand their attitude ii you had
once tasted Bombay duck. for there Is
| no other thing lis size in the world that
makes such an impression on you. Ii
has the worst odor of anything l ever
went up against, and without wishing
to boast l have smelled some things
that were highly praised in their line
but for hard, consistent smelling day
in and day out Bombay duck has them
| all III the Yankee division. In compar
ison with it limburger cheese has q
delicate perfume
How it ever got that name is more
IAoA hAONs II Is IGdltN Il uEleu uSn
which. broken and powdered, lends q
| seasoning, but as for myself | would
rather take my seasoning in some Other
| form Old residents and missionaries
| who have been in the country Iona
time say that after a time person
comes to be very fond of it, but per
sonally / know that there could never
| be anything between us unless 1t was
| distakce. 1t is all that | can do to stay
at The table where one of the parties Is
an old resident or missionary a Ions
time in the service.
The people in Singapore do not cal
ricetafel a dish. They consider it 6
meal. And that's what it is. 1t looks
as If it had been meant for the noon
day repast at Woodmen log rolling
! Many and many a person here has
| ricetafel at noon and nothing else II
fact, after eating a ricetafel there ism
room for anything else. A person theI
wants to crawl off and go to sleep
And that Is what everybody does il
/ the suburbs Of the equator The shop:
all close at noon for couple of hours
while everybody lies down and sleep,
off the effect of the ricetafel.-H Home
| Croy In Leslie's.
Cruel Cor, ,r1anS