Everyone to his Taste.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 17, 24 April 1902, Page 6

Everyone to his Taste.

Under the above heading a contributor writes as follows in the A ye Maria :—lf: — If you should travel around the world, you would learn to eat your dinner in a good many ways. la Turkey you would learn to sit on the floor, cross-legged, and eat off a round tray, without knives or forks, plate?, glasses, or napkins. All the guests eat with their fingers out of the same dish. If you dined with the Arabs, you would pee no knives or forks ; and if your host offered you a choice bit of meat, you would be expect d to open your mouth and let him put it in. The Arabs use only the right hand in eating ; and, what is still more funny, they will pull apart or carve turkeys and fowls with only one hand and without a knife. If it is hard to separate, one of the guests will lend his right hand. In Siam you would be treated to ants' eggs ; and in Burmah to locusts, stuffed and fried. All you young folks would like to eat in Japan ; for they serve candy and sweet things very often, and what one can't eat one is permitted to take home. At all grand feasts guests are expected to bring servants, with baskets, to take back the leavings. In Abyssinia it is a mark of good-breeding to smack the lips while eating ; and I'm sure you'll not be surprised to hear that Abyssinians eat their meat raw. In South America you would eat lizards and snakes, and among our American Indians you would be treated to roasted grasshoppers. In Otaheite you would have your dinner alone, in a basket ; and if you were in the fashion you would sit down on the floor, turn your back to everybody and eat. It is there considered very improper to eat with others. But the funniest dish you would see, I think, would be in China, where they serve up little crabs — alive ! Just as they sit down to dinner the tiny crabs are put into a dish of vinegar, which makes them very lively. Then they are put into a covered dish and placed on the table. When everyone is ready the cover is snatched off, and instantly the table ie covered with scampering crablets, running for their lives. Now come4the fun I The guests, with both hands, grab right and left, and stuff into their mouths these lively, wriggling craba and eat them down with great relish.