A CHINESE DINNER PARTY.
(From the Celestial Empire, Shanghai.) A dinner party in China is a most methodical affair as regards precedence amongst guests, the number of courses, and their general order and arrangement. We shall endeavor to give a detailed and accurate account of such a banquet as might be offered to half a dozen friends by a native in easy circumstances. In the first place, no ladles would be present, but men only would occupy seats at the square, four-legged, “eight-fairy” table. Before each there will be found a pair of chopsticks, a wine-cup, a small saucer for soy, a two-pronged fork, a spoon, a tiny plate divided into separate compartments for melon seeds and almonds,, and a pile of small pieces of paper for cleaning these various articles as required. Arranged upon the table in four equi-distant rows are sixteen small dishes, or saucers, which contain four kinds of fresh fruits, four kinds of dried fruits, four kinds of candied fruits, and four miscellaneous, such as preserved eggs, slices of ham, a sort of sardine, pickled cabbage, &c. Those four are in the middle, the other twelve being arranged alternately round them. Wine is produced the first thing, and poured into the small, porcelain cups by the giver of the feast himself. It is polite to make a bow, and place one hand at the side of the cup while this operation is being performed. The host then gives the signal to drink, and the cups are emptied instantaneously, being often turned bottom upwards as a proof that there are no heel-taps. Many Chinamen, however, cannot stand even a small .quantity of wine ; and it is no uncommon thing, when the feast is given at an eating-house, to hire one of the thcatricalainging-boy s to perform vicariously such heavy drinking' as may be required by custom or exacted by forfeit. The sixteen small dishes above-mentioned remain there during the whole dinner, and may be eaten of promiscuously between courses. Now we come to the dinner, which may consist of eight large and eight small courses, six largo and six small, eight large and four small, or six large and four small, according to the means or fancy of the giver, each bowl of food constituting a course being placed in the middle of the table, and dipped into by the guests with chopsticks or spoon as circumstances may require. The first is the commonest, and we append a bill of fare of an ordinary Chinese dinner on that scale, each course coming in its proper place : I, Sharks fin, with crab sauce, (1) pigeons’ eggs stewed with mushrooms; (2) sliced seaslugs in chicken broth with ham. 11. Wild duck and Shantung cabbage ; (3) fried fish; (4) lumps of pork fat friend in rice flour. 111. Stewed lily roots; (5) chicken mashed to pulp, with ham; (6) stewed bamboo shoots. IV. Stewed shell fish; (7) fried slices of pheasant; (8) mushroom broth. Remove. —Two dishes of fried pudding, one sweet and the other salt, with two dishes of steamed puddings, also one sweet and one salt. [These four are put on the table together, and with them is served a cup of almond tea.] V. Sweetened duck. VI. Strips of boned chicken fried in oil. VII. Boiled fish (of any kind) with soy. VIII. Lumps of parboiled mutton fried in pork fat. These last four large courses are put on the table one by one, and are not taken away. Subsequently a fifth, a bowl of soup, is added, and small basins of rice are served round, over which some of the soup is poured. The meal is then at an end. Arince-bouche is handed to each guest, and a towel dipped in boiling water but well wrung out. With the last he
mops his face all over, and the effect is much the same as half a noggin of Exshaw qualified with a bottle of Schweppe. Pipes and tea are now handed round, though this is not the first appearance of tobacco on the scene. Many Chinamen take a whiff or two at their hubblebubbles between almost every course. Qpium is provided when dinner is over for such as are addicted to the fatal luxury ; and after a few minutes, spent perhaps in arranging the preliminaries of some future banquet,, the party, which has probably lasted from three to four hours, is no longer of the present, but in the past. ' '
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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4389, 14 April 1875, Page 3
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744A CHINESE DINNER PARTY. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4389, 14 April 1875, Page 3
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