The Delmonico Cook Book: How to Buy Food, How to Cook It, and How to Serve It.

COMPLIMENTARY BANQUET
—TO—
GENERAL LATHAM,
Late Consul for the United States of America,
CRITERION HOTEL, 12TH OCTOBER, 1869.

BALL.
NOVEMBER 5, 1863, AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC.
RUSSIAN FLEET.

DÉJEÛNER
DONNÉ PAR
MME. JAMES GORDON BENNETT,
LE 3 DECEMBRE, 1861.

ORANGE BOVEN.
ANNIVERSARY DINNER
OF THE
ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY,
AT THE
ASTOR HOUSE, DECEMBER 6, 1852.

CURIOUS MENUS
OF
VARIOUS NATIONS.

MENU
FROM
Central Africa.

Through the courtesy of a gentleman who has for many years lived in Central Africa, and who has brought with him a young prince, son of one of the powerful chiefs of the Baaili tribe, to be educated in this country, the author is enabled to illustrate the habits and customs now in vogue in the Royal Kitchen there.

As a rule, there is only one principal meal, which is eaten in the early part of the evening. It mostly consists of parrot-soup, roasted or stewed monkeys, alligator eggs (also well liked by Europeans), and birds of every description. They also have moambo or palm-chops, and fish. A great delicacy, so considered by Europeans and natives alike, is elephant’s feet and trunk. They have somewhat the taste of veal, and have a very delicious flavor. To prepare them they dig a hole, about five feet deep, in the sand, and build in it a large fire. After the sand is thoroughly heated, the fire is removed, leaving only the ashes in the hole. They place the trunk and feet in this hole, covering them with leaves, and afterward with hot sand; they remain there about two hours, when they are considered done.

All carcasses of animals which are to be cooked, are placed on a block of wood, and pounded until every bone is broken, care being taken not to tear or bruise the skin. They are then boiled or roasted on an open wood-fire, in hot sand or ashes, without removing the hide or feathers.

The cooking is of a very inferior grade; the only spices used being salt and pepper.

The kitchen utensils consist of common earthen or wooden ware.

Very little time is taken for setting or decorating the table; knives, forks, napkins, &c., &c., are dispensed with.

All victuals are served in large wooden vessels. After the members of the chief’s household and his guests have assembled, each person is supplied with a wooden spoon, and selects whatever he wishes out of the different vessels, using his hands in eating it.

In the line of vegetables, they have also several dishes well liked by Europeans. N’gutti-N’sengo is a dish eaten all over Africa. It consists of egg-plant, small fish, somewhat like our sardines (N’sengo), and the roots of the cassava or manioca plant (called N’gutti), which have a knotty appearance, and often weigh as much as twenty pounds.

As the latter contains poison, they soak the manioca in water for three to four days, to extract the poisonous substance. They are cut and sliced, adding small tomatoes. All is placed in a vessel with water, and seasoned with salt and pepper, and boiled. Moambo, or, as the Europeans call it, palm-chops, is also a favorite dish. The palm-nuts are first boiled in water, until the pulpy substance loosens from the pit.

Then the shell, which contains a very delicious oil, is placed in a wooden mortar and crushed to obtain the oil. Then whatever the meal consists of, meat, fish, mussels, &c., all is put in a vessel, adding the oil and the pulpy part of the palm-nut, also red pepper and salt, and is boiled.

Roast or boiled squash (Loenge) is generally eaten with it.

Sweet potatoes (M’balla Benga) are more farinaceous, and sweeter than ours, but do not taste so good. They are boiled or roasted in the same way as we do here.

Bananas (Bitaebe) weigh about a half pound each, and are about fifteen inches long. When half ripe they are cut in slices, adding much salt and pepper, and are boiled in water.

N’sensi is a little red bean, which is boiled in water without adding salt or pepper.

Peanut bread (Chisulu): the peanuts are first roasted, then crushed. This mass is then rolled and put into the skin of a banana, adding a little pressure, forming it into a body. It readily retains this shape from the presence of the oily substance in the peanut.

Hongkong Menu.
China.

• Bow Ha Mai.
• Boiled Prawns in Oil.
• Chow Chop Suey.
• Bits of Pork Chops.
• Ham ob Dau.
• Preserved Eggs with Ducks’ Gizzards.
• Ob Gau Bow Vo Toway.
• Ducks’ Livers and Boiled Ham.
• Chow Ju Aw.
• Boiled Pork, Kidneyed.
• Show Ju N Gow.
• Roast Pork-tongues.
• Bow N Gwei.
• Cuttle Fish.
• Yen Wo’ Gong.
• Boiled Pigeon Eggs and Bird-nest Soup.
• Bow Hai.
• Boiled Crabs.
• Bow Yu Chee.
• Boiled Shark Fins.
• Yuen Tsyai.
• Rice Cakes.
• Bow Ob.
• Duck-tongues and Mushrooms.
• Ju Tow N Gow.
• Fried Roofs-of-the-Mouths of Pigs.
• Chow Ob Jun.
• Ducks’ Feet.
• Chow Gai Pien.
• Fried Chicken Wings.
• Lein Chi Gong.
• Lily-seed Soup.
• Hong Yin Gong.
• Almond Soup.
• Dein Som.
• Sweetmeats and Jellies.
• Yueh Biung.
• Mincemeat Cakes.
• Gwoy Zoo.
• Fruits.
• Kwoh Zuh.
• Seeds.
• Cha Sam Soo.
• Tea, and Rice Whiskey.

As to the Chinese, at their formal dinners or feasts no menus are used. The bill of fare consists of an interminable list of dishes, and which has been arranged by the author in the form of a menu card. The tables are laden with such dishes as shark-fins, bêche-de-mer fish, fish-soup, chicken-soup, duck-soup, rice, rice, rice, and tea, tea, tea, and tea; not forgetting the edible birds’ nests, candies, and cakes. One’s appetite is almost taken away on entering a Chinese house at which a banquet is to be given—the effect of burning incense and other vile herbs. The Chinese can be extremely polite. Champagne is a favorite drink among Chinese officials at the Treaty Ports, and is always brought out when they have a foreign guest.

Yokohama Menu.
Japan.

• Cha.
• Tea.
• Luimano.
• Fish Soup.
• Shiru.
• Bean Soup.
• Ohira.
• Vegetable Soup.
• Sashimi.
• Raw Sliced Fish.
• Nizakana.
• Boiled Fish.
• Teriyaki.
• Roast Fish.
• Shiwoyaki.
• Roasted Fish.
• Muchitori.
• Boiled Vegetables.
• Umani.
• Fish and Vegetables.
• Trubonomoni.
• Vegetables.
• Gozen.
• Boiled Rice.
• Tsukemono.
• Pickles.
• Shoyu.
• Sauce.
• Saki.
• Rice Whiskey.
• Cha.
• Tea.

A most delicious sauce, called “Shoyu,” which is the basis of Worcestershire sauce, is also used to give spice to the food. Throughout the repast the guests are served from time to time with “Saki,” a pale liquor made from rice, and which tastes very much like sherry. It is served hot, and is a most insinuating tipple. In a large party you are expected to exchange cups and drink with every one present. The result is that, in nine cases out of ten, you leave the house just a “wee bit fu’,” as they say in Scotland. Like the Chinese, no knives, forks, or napkins are used—“chop sticks” only. To smack your lips or belch during the feast is, strange to say of such a supremely polite people, not considered bad form.

Corea Menu.

• Cha.
• Tea.
• Fou Yoon An.
• Finely Chopped Ham, with Eggs.
• Whey Sum.
• Bamboo Shoots, with Mushrooms and Bêche-de-mer Fish.
• Chow Kai Goot.
• Dice-shaped Spring Chicken-bones, Served in Sweetmeat Pickles.
• Chow Lok Zeow.
• Finely Sliced Green Peppers, Fried with Cut Beef and Celery.
• Gow Jee.
• Finely Chopped, Spiced Pork, Wrapped in Thin Dough, then Steamed.
• Chow Mien.
• A Kind of Boiled Macaroni, Fried with Thin Strips of Chicken, Pork, Mushrooms, and Celery.
• Bing Lon.
• Betel-nuts Preserved in Rock Candy.
• Cha.
• Tea.
• Sam Soo.
• Rice Liquor.

In Corea Chinese fashions are very closely followed. Greasy messes and appetite-destroying smells are their most characteristic features. The food is always conveyed to the mouth by the aid of “chop sticks,” and during the progress of a meal the mind becomes catered to by an animated conversation.

Kanaka Menu.
Hawaiian Islands.

Among the Kanakas, the food eaten for breakfast, luncheon, and dinner is about the same, and consists chiefly of the native dish called “POI,” which is eaten whenever they (the Kanakas) are hungry.

“POI” is made from a root called “Taro,” and in shape and size resembles a raw beet, it has a dark skin, and the vegetable itself has a variety of colors—pink, gray, purple, and white.

The “Taro” is cooked in the ground, after the manner of a “New England clam-bake;” after obtaining the softness of a cooked potato it is peeled, and beaten with a large stone or iron, made for that purpose, into a pulp. It is then mixed with water until it forms the thickness of paste (and which makes very good paste, as it is often used for sticking bills, etc., when a theatrical company arrives), and after standing for a few days, to allow it to ferment, it is ready to be eaten.

The “Poi” is always eaten out of a “Calabash” (a large gourd about the size of a pumpkin), the natives always eating with their fingers, this being done by sticking the two fore-fingers into the “Calabash,” giving it one or two twists, and dexterously turning it around in front of their faces, until it looks like a ball of “taffy on a stick” (no pun intended).

“Taro” is sometimes cooked and eaten like potatoes and is considered very wholesome food.

The next important dish is “Raw Fish,” which are caught along the coast and eagerly eaten by the natives. Fish is also cooked in the ground, and is served on large leaves about the size of palm-leaves, called “Ti” leaves. Raw meat, raw liver, and a fragrant sea-weed form delicate side-dishes.

Coffee, within the last few years, has to a great extent been drunk as a beverage, but not so much as the Hawaiian tea, which tastes and smells like medicine.

Vegetables are also eaten, but sparingly, comprising sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, cabbages, etc.

Fruit, the product of the Islands, is very much eaten and relished, such as guavas, mangoes, bananas, mountain-apples, oranges, etc.

The Hawaiians when eating always sit on mats. All eat out of the same calabash. After eating, it is the custom to pass the pipe of friendship, which is a small pipe made from shark’s teeth.

INDEX.