STRANGE NEWES FROM CHINA By Townley Searle
So far as one can gather from this First Chinese Cookery Book (Strange .Neves from China, Alexander Ouseley, 6s.) Mr. Searle has never been to China, and if this is so he is to be congratulated as much for his enterprise and resourcefulness as for his exploration of Chinese restaurants in this country. He gives the addresses of twenty of these, and particular accounts of meals which may be eaten in many of them, discusses their proprietors, and comments on their food. Also he gives a priced catalogue of " all that seductive; delicious, ambrosial, luscious and lickerish belly-timber " that may be bought in England. Having whetted -our appetite with descriptions of meals enjoyed in restaurants, he gives instructions for the making of a hundred and one Chinese dishes, including fish fried in five perfumes, water angels cooked in honey, and apple and cinnamon fritters in cloth of gold. Each recipe—and they nearly all sound excellent—ends with a Chinese proverb. The book would have been worth its price, and much more satisfactory to direct-minded readers, if all the illustrations and whimsicalities, as well as some of the matter contained in the preamble, the prologue, the prelude, the proem, the precursor and the prospect had been omitted, but Mr. Searle deserves our gratitude.
Previous page
