It would be foolish to publish any strict dietary code as descriptive of the food of the people of the vast region generally known as the Chinese Empire, for apart from the difference in the products of the various sections of that diversified country, it must be remembered that the numerous tribes, which when amalgamated centuries ago formed the Empire, have retained most of their original customs, owing partly to the paucity of transportation facilities and the consequent impediments to an interchange of ideas, partly to the conservative nature of the people and partly to the influence of climate and surroundings. Furthermore, as, excepting a few fruits which are of comparatively recent introduction, such as the pineapple, the foods of Chinamen to-day closely resemble the foods of Chinamen four thousand years ago, it will not be necessary in this volume to keep very strictly apart the past and the present.

Until quite recently it was customary to regard the Chinese as uncivilized and degraded heathens who voraciously devoured all kinds of vermin and other miscellaneous tit-bits which to most people of the Western Hemisphere are repulsive even in suggestion, hence it may be well to repeat here that, although it remains true that cats, dogs and rats occasionally serve as articles of food, this happens only when provisions are scarce or among the very poor, who (as in all civilized countries), linger always on the threshold of starvation.

The Chinese, in spite of the doleful tales of some writers, are on the whole a well fed race. Beef and mutton are not plentiful except in the north, but hogs, poultry and fish, with vegetables, fruits and rice are within the reach of a majority of the population. Wrote a Chinese sage: "The scholar forsakes not his books nor the poor man his pig." Furthermore, in the preparation of their national dishes the Chinese cooks (especially those in the cities and in the households of the rich) display a high degree of skill.

Wheat, several varieties of rice and sweet potatoes are grown in all parts of the Empire, and barley, sorghum, cabbages, beans and other vegetables and sugar cane are also raised in large quantities.

Rice is seldom ground except when made into cakes.

The sorghum, or hauliang (extensively cultivated in the north), is not used as in America for the manufacture of sugar, but the seeds are ground and made into a coarse bread or used for the preparation of some brands of whiskey.

Sweet potatoes are sliced into coarse strips and dried in the sun. It is, though, considered a sign of extreme poverty to be seen eating them at any meal other than a lunch or hurried repast.

Of the vegetables, the petsae or white cabbage is the most widely cultivated.

Beans grow luxuriantly. Fully one-half of the crop is crushed for the sake of the oil, the residue being pressed into bricks and used as a fertilizer.

"Bean curds" is a very popular dish, especially for breakfast. The beans are ground to a flour, which is passed through three strainers of coarse, medium fine and very fine linen. This is boiled for an hour over a slow fire until the proper consistency is obtained.

Salted beans form quite an important article of commerce. Four catties of beans are put in a jar with one catty of salt, half a catty of ginger and a few taels of almonds and spices. The jars are then sealed and left untouched for about a month.

A more novel way is to put the beans in earthenware jars filled with very clear spring water, changing the water every four hours. In seven days tender shoots have appeared and the beans are then sold as a delicacy.

Peanuts are grown for the sake of their oil.

Hsiang-yu is a fragrant oil made from peanuts and beans, which is used for the toilet and by the poor for cooking. Castor oil answers the same purposes.

The juice of the sugar cane is extracted by crushing the stalks in two perpendicular cylinders, kept in motion by a yoke of buffalos, the juice being received in a tub placed beneath. Lime is added to the juice and it is then immediately boiled.

A Chinese poulterer's shop.

Within the limits of Chinese territory are found almost all known varieties of fruits, some of which are indigenous to it.

The whampee is a yellow skinned fruit about the size of a grape which hangs in clusters from the glossy-leaved trees which produce it. The flavor is tart and its three or four stones are of a greenish color.

The li-chi has a rough red exterior. Inside is a white film which incloses a watery translucent pulp of a sweetish taste and a brownish black ovoid stone.

The lo-quat is a species of medlar.

Oranges, ginger, etc., are preserved in sugar.

Ducks are raised in almost incredible numbers. Their eggs and those of fowls are frequently hatched by artificial heat.

Eggs that have been preserved in lime for several, sometimes a great many, years are much esteemed. After a quarter of a century, the yellow assumes a dark brown color and the whites have the appearance of meat jelly—strange though it may seem, they are really excellent in that condition.

All foods served at a genuine Chinese dinner are previously cut into minute particles. The large roast pieces which adorn the tables at dinners given in seaport towns to foreigners of note are placed there merely in deference to the customs of the guests.

A Chinese dinner party.

Rice and soup are brought on to the table in large vessels from which individual saucers are filled. Other dishes are partaken of by all present directly from the common bowl.

It is considered a token of hospitality on the part of the host or friendliness on the part of an acquaintance to take an especially choice piece of meat or vegetable from the bowl and to place it on the plate or in the mouth of a fellow diner.

The two chopsticks are both held in the right instead of separately in each hand as ordinarily believed. They are maintained by the thumb and ring finger and manipulated by the index and middle fingers. One stick remains motionless, the other is so manoeuvred as to entrap with ease a morsel of meat or even the smallest grain of rice.

The sticks (square at the top and round for the rest of their length) are made of bamboo or more precious woods, ivory or silver. On the upper portions, poems and pictures are often engraved.

Spoons are used for liquids.

Chopsticks and bowl.

An ordinary meal among the middle classes consists of eight dishes—two vegetables, eggs, fish, shell fish, bird and two meats (pork and goat; or, in some parts of the north, mutton and beef).

With this will be served a large tureen of soup with rice, the latter taking the place of bread.

When eating rice, the bowl is raised by the left hand to a close proximity to the mouth and the rice is rather scooped than picked up.

The importance which is attached to rice as a life-sustaining article may be judged from the exclamation of a Chinese sailor when he was informed that it was held in but secondary repute in America. Throwing up both hands with an expression in which were combined horror and pity, he cried: "Oh, the sterile region of barbarians which produces not the necessaries of life; strange that the inhabitants have not long ago died of hunger!"

Two good meals a day, the customary number, and a light luncheon, will in the average native home represent the expenditure of about ten cents in American money.

Wine is served only on special occasions.

The hotels in the large cities are distinguished by titles as in this country, though the Chinese proprietor gives freer rein to his imagination, choosing such titles as "Cum Lee" (Golden Profits), "Cut Shing" (Rank Conferring Hotel), the "Cut Sing" (Fortunate Star), etc. They are often comparatively tall structures and are usually clustered together in one quarter of the town.

A Chinese distillery.

The ground floor of the ordinary hotel is reserved for the proprietor's apartments and the kitchen. The first floor contains one public and several private dining-rooms; and the second and upper floors are divided into sleeping apartments—the partitions of which are so thin that even a whispered conversation is intelligible to a party in the adjoining room.

There is not much comfort to be obtained in the villages, and the accommodations are worse in the south and central districts than in the north and Mongolia.

The country caravansary is built in the form of a quadrangle with the walls, in the North, of mud or clay.

In the one public room, the traveler perforce mingles with cattle drovers and muleteers, but the private apartments are fairly comfortable.

The stables are usually attached to the building, with large compounds for sheep or cattle. Some of the larger establishments boast separate quadrangle stables, while some of the smaller have none at all, the animals being hitched to troughs or racks in the centre of the quadrangle.

A Chinese restaurant.

The beds (cangues) are shaped like furnaces. The occupant, protected by a thick coverlet, reclines on the top of a stratum of chunam or asphalt, with an opening similar to the door of a furnace, in one of the perpendicular sides, by means of which a small fire is in cold weather built directly beneath the bed.

The poorer travelers sleep in the public hall.

In some cities are khans which act as depots for the goods of traveling merchants, who are boarded and lodged without charge until they have disposed of their stock, the landlord then receiving a small percentage of the sales.

The proprietor of a public inn is compelled to furnish the authorities each month with a list of the persons whom he has lodged or fed, and women are not received at all in the public hotels in the South.

The restaurants in the cities are often quite large, running to two and three stories in height.

On the ground floor is the kitchen. On the first floor at the head of the first staircase is the public dining room where a good cheap meal can be obtained, and on the second and third floors are the private and more select chambers. In each room is a bill of fare.

An ordinary first class restaurant dinner comprises from ten to thirty dishes, and for any special occasion a hundred or more are often served.

Below is the menu of a dinner which, if served to eight or ten persons at a good public city restaurant, would cost about seventy-five cents per head.

The diners are usually seated at square tables in groups of eight.

Chinese whiskey or wine is served in small double-handled cups, which are constantly replenished by the attendants from vessels resembling silver coffee pots. Pipes of tobacco are also passed around at intervals.

Before eating, the host or most prominent guest pours out a libation. His table companions follow his example and all bow politely to each other.

Chinaman spearing fresh water turtles.

Pastry is brought on between courses. If salt, a cup of chicken broth; if sweet, almond milk is furnished with it.

No napkins are provided, pieces of coarse brown paper being used in their stead.

The last is a sort of "trial of appetite" course. It consists of large dishes—sometimes eight or ten arranged in pyramid form—and the ever forthcoming refusal to partake of it announces the termination of the meal.

The attendants then bring in towels and bowls of hot water. They immerse the towels in the water, and after wringing them out present them to the guests in the order of their importance.

On special occasions the water is scented with otto of roses.

One habit of the attendants which is especially surprising to the novice is that as their labors during the meal increase the temperature of their bodies, the waiters divest themselves of the greater part of their clothing!

One restaurant in Canton which caters for the cheaper class of trade, feeds on an average five thousand persons daily. Each patron is served with portions of regular size, and allowance is made for any pieces which he may not eat.

The tea saloons are divided into two large rooms furnished with stools and tables. Cakes, preserved fruits and tea are served. The cups are usually covered so as to prevent the aroma of the tea from evaporating.

"Dog and cat" restaurants consist of one large public apartment, with the entrance to the dining room through the kitchen.

Soup stalls are found on the street corners of the cities. They sell luncheons of fish, pork, soups, vegetables, fried locusts, etc., from one to two cents.

The oven, or, to speak more accurately, the baking apparatus, of the average establishment is somewhat singular. It consists of a furnace resembling a copper in shape, built in the center of an outhouse. The hollow part (which is shallow) is filled with charcoal. A lid, which fits the aperture, is so suspended by chains from the beams above as to be capable of elevation or depression. Upon this lid, pastry and cakes are placed and kept directly above or at any distance from the fire, according to the heat desired.

The bakers often manufacture their bread without the use of shortening of any description.

A very popular cake consists partially of mincemeat. The baker before commencing to make it, places a pile of dough on one side and opposite it a heap of mincemeat—a mixture of pork, sugar, spices, etc. He then pulls off a piece of dough, rolls it into a ball, flattens it, covers it with the meat, rolls it into a ball again, shapes it into a ring and flattens it by a stroke of the hand into a cake of definite size and thickness.

Among other dainty dishes of Chinaland are the "t'ien ya tzu," a species of delicately flavored fat duck; "feng chi," salted chicken; a dish of amber gelatine; a salad of bamboo shoots; "huo t'ui," a dainty ham of the appearance of veal; "yÜ ch'ih," shark's fins, and "hai li tzu," devilled oysters with mushrooms.

Other items are salted earthworms, pigeon's eggs, pounded shrimps; bird's nest soup, a gelatinous article; beches de mer (sea slugs), water beetles and silkworms, the last named fried in oil after they have made their cocoons.

A much admired soup, prepared for an imperial feast, was of blood and mare's milk.

Oysters are very cheap in winter, selling at from five to six cents per pound.

The following receipts may be of interest as literal translations from a genuine Chinese cook book:

Steamed Shark's Fins.

Take the sun-dried shark's fins, place in a cooking pan, add wood ashes and boil in several waters. Then take out and scrape the roughness from the fins. If not clean, boil again and scrape again until clean. Then change the water and boil again. Take out and remove the flesh, keeping only the fins themselves. Boil again and put in spring water. The frequent changing of the water is necessary to take out the lime taste. Put the fins into the soup and stew until quite tender. Dish in a bowl, placing crab meat below and a little ham on top.

Chicken with the Liquor of Fermented Rice.

Bone a chicken and steam until just right; take out and let cool, then cut into thin slices. Next, take gelatinous rice which has been fermented with yeast and water; cook this for two hours, add a little of the juice expressed from fresh ginger, soy, sesamum and oil. Mix together with peanut oil. Dish and add fragrant herbs.

Genii Ducks.

Take a fat duck; open and clean. Take two mace of salt, rub it both outside and inside and put into an earthen dish. Take one cup of fan spirits and put (the cup with the spirits) inside the duck—only the vapor of the spirits is wanted. Steam over water until quite tender, then lift out the wine cup and put the bird into a bowl.

The most common native liquor are "suee chow," a rice brandy; "shas chin," an impure alcohol made from kauliang or sorghum; "huary chin," a yellow wine made from millet, and various spirits extracted from plums, apples, pears, etc. All liquors are drunk hot, and some of them are steeped with spices or the leaves of flowers.

Although spirits are plentiful and cheap, drunkenness is rare.

Tea, of course, is consumed by all classes.

A curious custom annually observed is the propitiatory offering to the God of the Kitchen, who is worshipped in all parts of China, and who is supposed to report his observations to the Pearly Emperor Supreme Ruler.

Family Offering to the Kitchen God.

He is represented in each kitchen by a slip of white or red paper (changed each year as a rule) bearing his name and title and sometimes his portrait, pasted on the wall in some convenient part of the room.

Among the better classes the kitchen god is also known as the superintendent or inspector of good and evil.

On the evening of the twenty-third day of the twelfth month a special sacrifice is made in his honor by about sixty per cent. of the population. Meats, cakes, fruits and wines are offered with candles, incense, mock money, etc., and all members of the family then kneel reverently before his representation and bow their heads in homage.

On the evening of the twenty-fourth those who have not participated in the ceremonies of the previous day, make a vegetable offering in a similar manner.

A Chinese kitchen boat.

Many of the wealthier classes make both offerings on the twenty-third. The poorest use only incense and candles.

The numerous sailing vessels on the rivers and lakes are as well fitted to supply the wants of the traveler as the hotels on shore.

The houseboats and some of the passenger boats rely for their meals on the kitchen boats, which are really admirably managed.

The fishing boats make use of a very primitive heating apparatus—a large boiler in an earthenware furnace set in a part of the deck, serving as the general cook book.

A great many pages might be covered by treating on the curious festivities which celebrate so many occasions, but they have been so often described in other works that a description of them here would perhaps savor too much of needless repetition.