CHINESE MEALS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19512, 10 June 1933, Page 11

CHINESE MEALS.

A Chinese family keeps to the national “chow” with a number of additional varieties (states a London correspondent). But when European guests are invited there is generally a Western menu, though, as a matter of fact, most foreigners prefer well-cooked Chinese food for a change. An English woman traveller remarks that she liked it very much and, astonishingly, did not find it hopelessly impossible to use the chopsticks. Green tea is always served with “chow,” not in cups, but in small porcelain bowls without handles and a top which requires special manipulation. It is etiquette for your host or hostess to taste her tea before the guests do so, but on ceremonial and official calls the signal that the visitation has lasted long enough is the sipping of the beverage by the person called on. You know then it is time for you to depart! A FINGERLESS GIRL.

Miss Carrie Rivett, of Neckinger Street, Bermondsey, London, who was bom without fingers on either hand, has just won a scholarship to the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, where she will pursue her studies in the craft of lettering. Miss Rivett, who is seventeen years old, holds her brush between her wrists. Holding a pen in this way she can write as fast as most people. She can knit, paint, sew, crochet, and play the piano. FOUR FIGURES FOR GOOD NOSE. It was stated that in the scent-mak-industry, in Britain, a trained and cultivated sense of smell can command a four-figure income, states an exchange. But it must be very keen to begin with, and the training takes time. The blending of perfumes is an art, and the tiniest drop too much or too little of any one of the elaborate ingredients of a special scent may spoil it. This is where the expert comes in. His nose tells him at once whether a scent is right—or, if not, what it requires. Another expert who earns a living by his sense of smell is employed by brewers to examine empty barrels returned. He can tell by the smell whether it is safe to put new beer into a barrel, or whether it would spoil it. The sense of smell also plays a part in the wine trade. A good nose is worth money—though, it requires training to become marketable. AN INN OF FLOWERS. In one of the many sunny, sheltered valleys of California, that corner of America so justly famed for its fruit and flowers, there stands one of the most unusual and alluring wayside hotels in the world—the Santa Maria Inn (states an exchange).

It is a cool, spacious, restful old house, set well back in a wide, flowery open space sheltered from the dusty highway by a protective girdle of magnificent shady old trees. But it is the wealth of flowers, inside and out, which constitutes its unique form. The owner is an ardent garden lover, and has made his passion for flowers the keynote of his establishment. Pillars and verandahs and porches are hung with roses and wistaria, and the acres of

“picking flowers” which surround the inn keep every table and every room supplied with masses of fragrant bloom all the year round. One of the employees on the staff is a woman whose sole occupation every day is to fill with fresh flowers the glass and china, copper, brass and pewter bowls which are to be found in every bedroom and on every table in the various dining and living rooms. A fine collection of pewter pots and antique jars and pitchers in other metals is another of the proprietor's hobbies, and forms a charming setting for the beautiful fragrant blooms he loves.