CHINESE DELICACIES. 283 



STAR- FISH. 



EAT'S TAILS, fried. 



COMPOT OF STUEG EON'S GILLS. 



SEA-SLUGS, with spices. 



The Chinese pay extravagant prices for bird's nests ; 

 to my taste the soup had an agreeable flavour of 

 weak chicken-broth. The Sea-slugs, also called Sea- 

 cucumbers, are the French heches de mer {Ilolothunce), 

 sometimes a foot long. For food they are boiled 

 until soft, then dried in the sun, and served disguised 

 by an enormous quantity of aromatics of all sorts. 

 Amonofst the fruit, I thouirht the 



Lychee (Nephdium litchi) (Plate XXII.) very 



pleasant in its dried state ; it is enclosed 



in a thin brown shell, and has the appeai-- 



ance of a largfe raisin of a sweet sub- 



acid flavour ; eaten fresh it is very luscious. 



Warm sam-chow, distilled from rice, and some other 



similar concoction of a rose colour, where handed round 



during the meal in little porcelain cups, and, after 



dinner, tea and cigars. I am glad to have steadfastly 



gone through this delectable menu as a matter of 



curiosity, but should not care to repeat the operation. 



