CHINESE CHANGING THEIR FOOD HABITS OF MANY CENTURIES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6804, 7 January 1929, Page 3

CHINESE CHANGING THEIR FOOD HABITS OF MANY CENTURIES

MILK NOV/ COMMON PART OF DIET. TOMATOES AND ASPARAGUS GAIN IN FAVOUR, PEIPING. The food habits of the Chinese people have been changing rapidly during the past two or three years, owing to the growing popularity of foreign foods The most important of these changes is tho introduction ot milk into the nation’s diet. Milk and cheese have always been staple food products among the Mongolians, and the Manchus have enjoyed a clabber delicacy, but milk was unwelcome in China proper until quite recently, when foreign advertising and tho recommendations of Chineso who had lived abroad finally became effective.

Tomatoes and asparagus arc two foreign vegetables which have become an integral part, of tho Chinese menu within the last few years. Canned asparagus is especially liked when served in soups. Oranges and lemons from California arc in great demand in the China seaports. .Sweet potatoes and peanuts/indigenous to China, have been greatly improved by tho introduction of foreign stock. Together with com on the cob, in season, they now form a cheap and substantial part of the national diet. Peanuts are also an important export.

Tending against the general popularity of foreign diuners is ll.e fact that Chinese cooking is excellent and varied, while good cooks trained in the Occidental manner aro rare. As a result, many Chineso arc led to believe that all foreign cooking consists solely of soup, fried fish, beefsteak, salad and icc cream. ‘ Naturally such a restricted menu cannot compare • with an old-fashioned Chinese banquet of 40 courses, but its effect is being noticed indirectly in the simplifying of modern native dinner parties.