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Updated: May 18, 2025
Two young short-sighted fellows, Chang and Ching, Over their chopsticks idly chattering, Fell to disputing which could see the best: At last they agreed to put it to the test. Said Chang: "A marble tablet, so I hear, Is placed upon the Bo-hee temple near, With an inscription on it. Then he who quickest reads the inscription there The palm for keenest eyes henceforth shall bear."
The simple bed on the floor, the straw sandal on the foot, wooden chopsticks in place of knives and forks, the small variety of foods and of cooking utensils, the simple, homespun cotton clothing, the fascinating homes, so small and neat and clean in truth all that pertains to Old Japan finds favor in the eyes of the enthusiastic admirer from the Occident.
Little time was afforded for these private expressions of amiable feeling. The grand repast was declared ready, and the importance of this announcement overweighed, for a short period, the claims of scandal and ill-nature. The company quickly found their way to the tables, which, as the "Pekin Gazette" of the next morning said, in describing the fête, "literally groaned beneath the weight of the delicacies with which they were loaded." The consultations of the Ning-po cook and his confederates had produced great results. The guests seated themselves, and delicately tasted the slices of goose and shell-fish, and the pickled berries, and prawns, and preserves, which always compose the prefatory course of a Chinese dinner of high degree. Then porcelain plates and spoons of the finest quality, and ivory chopsticks tipped with pearl, were distributed about, and the birds'-nest soup was brought on. After a sufficient indulgence in this luxury, came sea-slugs, and shark stews, and crab salad, all served with rich and gelatinous sauces, and cooked to a charm. Ducks' tongues and deers' tendons, from Tartary, succeeded, with stewed fruits and mucilaginous gravy. Every known and some unknown luxuries were lavishly provided. The Ning-po cook had invented a new dish expressly for the occasion, "Baked ice
The kitchen was innocent of European suggestion; we ate with chopsticks, and fish from the lake were spitted and cooked around a fire in a sandy hearth, contrived below the middle of the room. Eggs were in abundance, but coffee was sorely missed at our chilly rising.
They eat with spoons, and they use chopsticks, as the Chinamen do. They have no water-pipes in their houses. In the towns men carry water in pails. They have no gas. For light at night they use candles. They have only one kind of coin. It is a small piece of copper. It has a square hole in the middle. They put these coins on strings and carry them around their necks.
"There sits the Chinese Ambassador with the Mandarins of his suite, Fou-choo-foo brought me over letters of introduction from the Governor-General of India, my most intimate friend, and I was for some time very kind to him, and he had his chopsticks laid for him at my table whenever he chose to come and dine. But he brought his own cook with him, and would you believe it, Mrs.
The broiled mice, the stewed shark fins and the bird nest soup made him stare. He had ordered Happy Toko to be placed at his side, and to watch him happily at work with his silver chopsticks and porcelain spoon was the only satisfaction he got out of the feast. "And what is that?" he asked, pointing to a steaming bowl that had just been placed before Happy.
Smith put down his chopsticks. I had already laid down mine. "What's the matter?" said Barkins, who kept on suspiciously turning over the contents of his saucer. "He means rat," whispered Smith in an awful tone. "What!" cried Barkins, pushing himself back with a comical look of disgust upon his face. "Yes, lat," said Ching. "Velly good fat lat." Our faces were a study.
"In which case he will or shall have been there whatever the verb is," agreed Tutt. "Anyhow they'll tax every laundry and chop-suey palace from the Bronx to the Battery to pay us." "I'd hate to take our fee in bird's-nest soup, shark's fin, bamboo-shoots salad and ya ko main," mused Mr. Tutt. "Or in ivory chopsticks, oolong tea, imitation jade, litchi nuts and preserved leeches!" groaned Tutt.
The fact is that lady Feng and Yuean Yang had put their heads together and decided to only assign to goody Liu a pair of antiquated four-cornered ivory chopsticks, inlaid with gold. "These forks," shouted goody Liu, after scrutinising them, "are heavier than the very iron-lever over at my place. How ever can I move them about?"
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