CHINESE DELICACIES IMPORTED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25248, 29 July 1947, Page 6

CHINESE DELICACIES IMPORTED

CUTTLEFISH AND LILY FLOWERS Dried cuttlefish, lily flowers, and dried shrimps will be unloaded from the steamer Hartlepool, due at Lyttelton next week, for the Chinese community of Christchurch. The Hartlepool transhipped considerable quantities of the cargoes of several vessels which had loaded at Hong Kong, Bombay, and Colombo, while she was in Sydney, and some of her hold space was devoted to mixed herbs, jute, coir-matting, carpets, rattanware, and almonds, as well as to the exotic foods. According to a Chinese resident of Christchurch, it has been the custom for centuries in the coastal areas of China for the inhabitants to supplement their diets with such foods as lily bulbs and dried sea Creatures. The staple diet of the maritime Chinese, he said, was usually pork, vegetables, and fish, and to relieve the monotony the water-lily bulb (or flower), which is not unlike a sprout, was eaten as a delicacy.- Dried cuttlefish was considered a great delicacy, especially when it was used as a base for soups or boiled. The dried shrimps were a species of prawn which in a dehydrated state, as those in the cargo of the Hartlepool would be, were made into prawn omelettes.