August, 1 907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



299 



Chinese Chestnut-flour Macaroni, a Most Nutritious Food 



these are dingy brown in color and are used as a curry. 



Famous the world over is the Chinese birds' nest soup. 

 The twigs from the edible birds' nests cost from $1 to $10 

 per ounce, so that it is the dearest food known to man. The 

 nests are not found in China, hut are imported from Java. If 

 you are familiar with the taste of cooked blood albumen you 

 can surmise the taste of these edible birds'-nest twigs plus the 

 taste of dried cherry tree gum and stale bread crumbs thrown 



Sun-dried Chinese Compressed Seaweed Mat, Used in 

 Soap- making, Etc, 



in. 1 hardly believe it has any more nutritix e properties than 

 calf's foot jelly or beef extracts. 



The birds'-nest twigs can be cooked without previous soak- 

 ing, although it is the practice of good cooks to soak them for 

 days. They retain their form (like high grade macaroni), al- 

 though swelling to about double their si/e, after an hour's 

 vigorous cooking; this is proof of their purity, showing 



freedom from adulteration. As a matter of fact, it has never 

 been found practicable to imitate or provide a substitute for 

 this singular product of the saliva of the Java swift bird. 



In China tea is not only drunk, but also eaten. A most 

 palatable salad is made from the leaves. The salad is made 

 from the exhausted full leaf of the biepjcki-chai (virgin tea) 

 — the entire pure unfired leaf — the same tea you drink in an- 

 other crumbled form, the debris. After the silk-tied little 

 bunches of pure tea have done duty in the teapot they are 

 lifted out by the silken thread intact and suspended in a glass 

 vase full of water-white vinegar for a fortnight. They are 

 then ready for the cold meat lunch table. They make the 

 most exquisite and rarest of salads. Only the tender leaves 

 are edible; the stalks are thrown aside. 



Another delicacy is the cuttlefish, which appears mostly on 

 the table with rice dishes. I he Hsh itself is caught for two 

 important reasons — for its sepia or ink-bag, from which is 

 derived the perma- 

 n e n t China or 

 India ink of com- 

 merce, and for 

 food. It is per- 

 haps the most 

 solid and satisfying 

 of fish foods. Un- 

 fortunately, it is 

 quite a gritty food, 

 the fine sand which 

 has been drawn 

 into its thousands 

 of suckers being al- 

 most impossible to 

 wash out. 



Strawberries 

 with stones ! Such 



is the peculiarity of the Chinese white strawberry. As it is 

 seen growing, it is red, like our own ; as found in commerce, 

 preserved in jars, it is almost snow-white, with a delicate 

 pinkish tinge. For preserving, the stones are first removed; 

 these are quite solid, about the size of a small filbert nut. 

 This white strawberry is reputed the most luscious fruit in the 

 domain of Oriental fruit luxuries. Even with the big stones 

 removed it is still a meaty fruit, large as our largest straw- 

 berries. Its taste is a peculiarly exotic one, totally unlike the 

 American fruit, but a good deal like the most luscious 

 muscatel grapes. It is never served with cream, but, in 

 China, with the freshly pressed juice of the sorghum sugar 

 cane, itself a most delicious juice. It is preserved in glass 

 vases and cans in the same pure sorghum undiluted juice. 



Many Chinese culinary curiosities do not admit of illus- 

 tration, or are too difficult to procure — as the roast monkey 

 of extreme southern China; the potted alligator, or Kaman, 

 imported as a great delicacy; the diseased dried goose livers; 



The Peculiar " Water-chestnuts " Used in Making the 

 Chestnut- macaroni 



Sun-dried Earth-worms from the Padi (Rice) Fields 



