A Japanese Dinner.

Otago Witness, Issue 2391, 28 December 1899, Page 56

A Japanese Dinner.

He who does not like the way the Japanese cook fisn. must be hard to please, says Harper's Magazine. They are better fish cooks than the French. The Japanese waters are very prolific, and the natives seem to have learned in cooking to preserve the inherent flavour of the fish, while their sauces are very simple. And as for eels, as they are cooked at the kandagawa, a leahouse in Tokio, he who has tasted them has established a standing in his mind by which to judge other eels. Seaweed we had, too, as thin as paper, and crisp ; it is the weed of the sea that is left on the rocks, and scraped from them by the fisherwomen with shells, and then dried in the suiv. It is eaten as a relisu, and has a delicate flavour suggesting cinnamon. Rice we had in abundance ; it was served in a bucket (not unlike ours, but not quite so deep) of unpainted white pina, with a little wooden shovel somewhat like those our children use in playing at the seashore. Our rice bowls were filled again and yet again, and when we covered our bowls it mteant we had finished our dinner. I have seen the Japan-" ese look with indifference at a fish cooked in a way that made my mouth fairly water with desire, but when they are served with rice, it receives their immediate attention. With our dinner sake was served. It is the national spirituous drink, and has been described as looking like sherry, and is seived warm. It is made from rice, and is not sparkling, neither is it strong, and its effect is very gentle and agreeable. I do not know just what we drink in America that has a like effect ; it does not give that happy exhilaration that champagne doe?, nor that feeling of rosy respectability of Burgundy. It has not the stolidity of lager beer nor the concentration that our cordials haA r e.