Manchurian Books

The dinner is composed of turtle-soup, curry, roast
meat, hashes, and pastry. All the dishes, with the exception of the
curry, are prepared after the English fashion, although the cooks
are Chinese. For dessert there is cheese, with fruit; such as pine-
apples, long-yen, mangoes, and lytchi. The Chinese affirm that the
latter is the finest fruit in the whole world. It is about the size
of a nut, with a brown verrucous outside; the edible part is white
and tender, and the kernel black. Long-yen is somewhat smaller, but
is also white and tender, though the taste is rather watery.
Neither of these fruits struck me as very good. I do not think the
pine-apples are so sweet, or possessed of that aromatic fragrance
which distinguishes those raised in our European greenhouses,
although they are much larger.
Portuguese wines and English beer are the usual drinks--ice, broken
into small pieces, and covered up with a cloth, is offered with
each. The ice is rather a costly article, as it has to be brought
from North America. In the evening, tea is served up.


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