Post by nzbc on Nov 14, 2021 21:43:01 GMT 12
A CHINESE DINNER.
BIRD’S NEST SOUP.
SHARK’S FIN A DELICACY.
The visit of th e Chinese footballers and the dinner tendered to the members of the team by the Chinese Nationalist Club of Auckland is an event likely to be remembered by the eight Aucklanders who were privileged to be present. Chinese food, or “chow,” to give the proper name, requires an acquired taste before its delicacy is appreciated, but once acquired few dishes would be preferred to any or ma'ny which go towards a complete Chinese dinner.
In the big restaurants in Hong Kong or Shanghai business is not at its height till somewhere about midnight, and from then on till the early hours of the moijnlng the restaurants which are a mass of electric lights, present an animated and gay scene. A Chinese dinner, without being lavish, could run into twenty courses, but even so a European not skilled in the use of chopsticks would find it difficult to satisfy his appetite unless he paid considerable attention to the soup, when he has reason to feel at home, being provided with a sthingy. The majority of restaurants are divided into small rooms, which can be booked up and arrangements made for a party of diners. On arrival, and after being shown to a room by the Chinese waiter, a set of Mah Jongg is immediately brought in, and the, rattle of the pieces can be heard .throughout the building. The waiter next brings in pots of tea, a dish containing watermelon pips, and maybe a few packets of dried meat. The Chinese are experts at extracting the kernel from the melon pips, which they crack with their teeth. The dried meat is eaten in the same way as a dried fig. In the meantime Chinese sing-song girls will enter the room, one girl for each member of the party. These girls, well dressed, sing songs in Chinese, being accompanied by a girl on an instrument which might be anything, but is something in the nature of a onestring violin. The girls then prepare opium pipes for the Chinese members of the party, and, reclining on a couch, with their heads on a small box,, not a pillow, the smokers give themselves up to the enjoyment of a pipe. Each pipe contains but half a dozen “whiffs,” and so soon as it is finished the girls refill it. Mah Jougg and opium smoking continues till midnight, when tjio table is cleared and laid for dinner. All sorts and manner of dishes are then brought in, but what the contents are only the Chinese know. Soup made from swallows’ neats gathered in Borneo is placed upon the table in a large metal bowl, under which is placed a lighted spirit lamp. As the soup comes to the boil various vegetables are chopped and thrown in, also pieces of bacon and fowl, while another ingredient are the petals of chrysanthemum blooms. When the soup is boiling a large dish containing uncooked fish is brought in and placed oh the table. The guests then pick up, with chopsticks, pieces of the fish and dip them in the boiling soup. Being cut into very thin slices the fish is cooked instantly and eaten. Pried rice,, fish poultry and numerous other foodstuffs are served up in a large dish, the guests helping themselves, while one of the delicacies is shark's fin.
MANAWATU TIMES, VOLUME XLIX, ISSUE 2489, 2 OCTOBER 1924,
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MT19241002.2.56?items_per_page=100&query=chinese+dinner&snippet=true
BIRD’S NEST SOUP.
SHARK’S FIN A DELICACY.
The visit of th e Chinese footballers and the dinner tendered to the members of the team by the Chinese Nationalist Club of Auckland is an event likely to be remembered by the eight Aucklanders who were privileged to be present. Chinese food, or “chow,” to give the proper name, requires an acquired taste before its delicacy is appreciated, but once acquired few dishes would be preferred to any or ma'ny which go towards a complete Chinese dinner.
In the big restaurants in Hong Kong or Shanghai business is not at its height till somewhere about midnight, and from then on till the early hours of the moijnlng the restaurants which are a mass of electric lights, present an animated and gay scene. A Chinese dinner, without being lavish, could run into twenty courses, but even so a European not skilled in the use of chopsticks would find it difficult to satisfy his appetite unless he paid considerable attention to the soup, when he has reason to feel at home, being provided with a sthingy. The majority of restaurants are divided into small rooms, which can be booked up and arrangements made for a party of diners. On arrival, and after being shown to a room by the Chinese waiter, a set of Mah Jongg is immediately brought in, and the, rattle of the pieces can be heard .throughout the building. The waiter next brings in pots of tea, a dish containing watermelon pips, and maybe a few packets of dried meat. The Chinese are experts at extracting the kernel from the melon pips, which they crack with their teeth. The dried meat is eaten in the same way as a dried fig. In the meantime Chinese sing-song girls will enter the room, one girl for each member of the party. These girls, well dressed, sing songs in Chinese, being accompanied by a girl on an instrument which might be anything, but is something in the nature of a onestring violin. The girls then prepare opium pipes for the Chinese members of the party, and, reclining on a couch, with their heads on a small box,, not a pillow, the smokers give themselves up to the enjoyment of a pipe. Each pipe contains but half a dozen “whiffs,” and so soon as it is finished the girls refill it. Mah Jougg and opium smoking continues till midnight, when tjio table is cleared and laid for dinner. All sorts and manner of dishes are then brought in, but what the contents are only the Chinese know. Soup made from swallows’ neats gathered in Borneo is placed upon the table in a large metal bowl, under which is placed a lighted spirit lamp. As the soup comes to the boil various vegetables are chopped and thrown in, also pieces of bacon and fowl, while another ingredient are the petals of chrysanthemum blooms. When the soup is boiling a large dish containing uncooked fish is brought in and placed oh the table. The guests then pick up, with chopsticks, pieces of the fish and dip them in the boiling soup. Being cut into very thin slices the fish is cooked instantly and eaten. Pried rice,, fish poultry and numerous other foodstuffs are served up in a large dish, the guests helping themselves, while one of the delicacies is shark's fin.
MANAWATU TIMES, VOLUME XLIX, ISSUE 2489, 2 OCTOBER 1924,
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MT19241002.2.56?items_per_page=100&query=chinese+dinner&snippet=true