Practical gastronomy and culinary dictionary

A member of a Bremen trading house lately had the honour of taking dinner with a Chinese magnate in Pekin, and has given the following appetising descrip- tion of the feast. The table was set with twenty-two dishes, and was lit with ten large lanterns, the light of which shone clear through brightly coloured shades and CHINESE DIET AND CUSTOM 61 ornaments. Instead of being served in courses, the dishes were brought in one at a time and passed to the guests severally, beginning with the most distinguished. His comments are as follows : — 1. Doves with mushrooms and split bamboo sprouts. Delicious. 2. Fat pork fritters or something like fritters. Splendid. 3. Pigeons' eggs in meat broth, the whites hard but transparent. Very good. 4. Chinese birds' nests, with ham chips and bam- boo sprouts (a mucilaginous dish). Excellent. 5. Poultry, different kinds, cooked with mushrooms and bamboo sprouts. Very agreeable. 6. Duck, with bamboo and lotus fruits, the fruits tasting and looking like an acorn without its cup. Toler- ably good. 7. Hog's liver fried in castor oil. Bad. 8. A Japanese dish of mussels, with malodorous codfish and bacon. Horrible. 9. Sea-crabs' tails cooked in castor oil, with bits of bamboo and ham. Would have been palatable but for the wretched oil. 10. A star made of pieces of fowl, bacon, and dove, covered with white of egg. Very juicy. 62 PRACTICAL GASTRONOMY 11. Slices of sera-fish and sharks' fins, with bamboo and mushrooms. It was hard to tell what kind of a dish it was, but it was rather bad than good. 12. Giblets of poultry with morels. The morels helped the giblets down. 13. Ham and cabbage. Not very good. 14. Ham of sucking pigs, cooked in their own juice. A pause now ensued, during which pipes and tobacco were brought in. The pipes held about a thimbleful of tobacco — enough for two or three pufi's — and we were kept busy filling and lighting them. 15. Land- turtles, -vvdth their eggs, in castor oil. 16. Ends of ham. Good. 17. Breast of fowl, with sour cabbage. No delicacy. 18. Stale eggs (these eggs had been kept one month in salt and two months in moist earth). The whites looked like burned sugar, and were transparent. The yolks had a greenish colour, and the embryos appeared dark, rolled together, and perfectly recognisable. Dessert : Conserve of sitzon, a red fruit that looks like a shadberry, and tastes like a currant. Good. The only drink was tea, very weak and without sugar, and Jamion, a rice wine, which is drunk hot like tea, and is wretched stuff. 63 Culinary Telephone. " Do everything at the proper time." " Keep everything in its proper place." " Use everything for its proper purpose." '* Always study your master's interest, place yourself in his situation, and then consider what you would expect from him if he were in yours." " Strive to embrace every opportunity of learning anything which may be useful to yourself, or which may be beneficial to others." " Never think any Little part of your business too trifling to be well done." " Study all ways of economy, and endeavour to make the most of everything." " In cooking meat do not throw away the water, as it will come in useful for stock, for soups and sauces." " Remember that plated dishes and coffee-pots are injured if left on the stove." " Do not use table-napkins and table-cloths for dish- cloths."