The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-19
Our
Town
By
ANTON SCHERRER.
ANTON sCHERRER
yx7ILBUR FEAT was born in

WTILBUR FEAT was born in
" Gilman Chengtu (pop.
100000, to be exact-and it ex-
plains everything mysterious about
the Peat household. At any rate, it
explains why his wife, Talitha, Is
the best cook of Chinese dishes in
Indianapolis.
Mrs. Peat didn't know much about
Mr.. Peat's past-least of all, the
Chinese part-when she married
him, but she knows plenty now
Enough, anyhow, to know that more
is expected of Mr.. Peat's wife than
any other kind of wife. It's another
example of the predicament some
women can get themselves into and
the triumphant way they can work
themselves out.
Mrs. Peat began in a very simple
way with her Chinese cooking but
Mr.. Peat, kept after her until now
she can serve a whole Chinese meal
She does it occasionally and always
on Mr.. Peat's birthday.
MIR. PEAT'S birthday dinner
1V1 begins with birds nest soup
The nests are a glue-like substance
which Chinese swallows get from
their own mouths and which they
usually mix with different Oriental
grasses. The flavor isn't always the
same.
The nests are peculiar to a small
island south of China and are hard
to get because they are built on the
ceilings of high caverns. To see
them, the natives wear little oil
lanterns on their heads and, to gel
them, they use vine ladders hooked
in some Chinese way to the ceiling
Mrs. Peat will not divulge how she
gets hers-not even for this column
but she isn't SO squeamish about
her other dishes. Like Tsui Pi Yu
for instance, which follows the soup
course.
TSUI Pr YU, which is broiled
u fish, can be any kind of fish,
says Mrs. Peat, provided it is scaled
alive. After the fish is cleaned. Mrs
Peat cuts gashes along each side and
rubs them with salt and wet bean
flour. That fixes it for frying which
is done in deep vegetable oil.
After which comes the Chinese
touch: To one-third of the remain
ing oil, Mrs. Peat adds a teaspoon
full of prepared pepper. a rice bowl
of water, 2 tablespoons of white soy
sauce. a tablespoon vinegar, IL
tablespoons sugar, bit of onion and
garlic chopped fine, tablespoons
salt, 1 tablespoon bean flour and a
CORN of chopped ginger. To get
Tsui Pi Yu, you boil all this to-
gether and pour over the gashed
fish.
TSUI Pr YU clears the track for
l. Giao Ma Gi, which is another
name for cold savory fowl, older
even than the Ming dynasty.
To make it, take half a chicken,
a green onion and piece of ginger.
Cover the chicken with water, mash
the ginger. tie the onion stalk about
it and throw as nonchalanty as
you know how into the water. Boil
until tender, after which cut it
into small pieces.
Next arrange the following Chi
nese still-life: One onion, tea
spoon hua jiao, some salt, 2 tea
spoons vinegar, / teaspoon sesame
oil and 2 teaspoons white soy sauce.
Chop onion and ginger exceed
ingly fine like the mills of the gods
grind ("Oracula Silbyllina," VIII:
10, add remainder of Chinese still
life and mix into the cold chicken.
Serve this over osen, which is an
other Chinese vegetable like our
lettuce, except that lettuce won't do.
To prepare osen, slice it fine, add
salt and let stand until you are
ready to add dessert spoonful of
vinegar and olive oil. Place in bot
tom of serving dish with chicken
arranged on top and garnished with
pimiento peppers. This is usually
eaterf as a salad before the rice is
served but there is no fixed rule
about it. Not even in the Peat
menage.
THE rice constitutes the bulk oil
L. of Mr.. Peat's birthday dinner
The vegetable dishes, fowl and fish
are placed on the rice and eaten to-
gether. Mr.. Peats insist on having
his rice steamed very f1aky and dry
and that's the way Mrs. Peat does
| it.
Tea is served throughout the
meal. In the Peat household it is
favored with jasmine flowers ano
served Peiping-hot.
Mr.. Peat's birthday dinner ends
with an assortment of preserved
fruits, including bamboo centers
kumqUats, ginger, watermelon and
walnut meats.
Mr.. Peat's birthday is celebrated
once every year.