LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
CHINESE DELICACIES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " BFEETATOR."] have noted with some interest the criticisms passed on certain articles of Chinese food by Dr. Lansdell, whose work on "Chinese Central Asia " is reviewed in the Spectator of September 8th. Preserved eggs he strongly condemns, speaking of them as black and putrid. Putrid they certainly are not, otherwise it would be erroneous to allow that they are " preserved." They might be better described as pickled, unless indeed the process of pickling implies the use of vinegar. The white turns to a deep semi-translucent green, while the yolk approaches a dark-reddish orange, and the flavour, to my taste, is by no means bad. I do not know how the chicken, which Dr. Lansdell seems to have found so uneatable, was prepared ; but there is one preparation, known as t'ung-tzii chi, or " barrel chicken," which is simply delicious, the flesh cutting like a pound-cake, and being full of flavour. This dish, which is always served cold and sliced, is much eaten at Nanking, and probably in other parts of China. I have often tried to discover the process, but always unsuccess- fully.
I notice that many English newspaper writers are in the habit of associating the far-famed birds'.nest soup with dogs and rats, as something indescribably nasty. Now this is perhaps the costliest dainty of the Chinese cuisine, and is as much prized by Chinese gourmands as turtle is in England. It is not nasty, but it is, to a European palate, exceedingly insipid; it is a white, soft, slippery substance not unlike a badly made junket, or flummery, and the taste for it is certainly an acquired one, As for dogs, during the whole of my twenty years' residence in China, I never once heard of their being used as an article of food ; still less did I ever meet with dogs'-flesh in any Chinese restaurant, or upon the table of any Chinaman, either rich or poor.
Cookery in China is a fine art, and though some of the dishes are very much too greasy for English tastes, its general characteristic is extreme savouriness, No one who has ever eaten a shao ya-ta, or roasted duck, prepared by a skilful Chinese cook—each slice being popped into a delicate little bag or envelope of thin, dry flour-paste,—can fail to acknow- ledge its great superiority to the corresponding dish in England.—I am, Sir, SLe Bournemouth, September 11th. FREDERIC H, BALFOUR.
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