CHINESE COOKERY.
The housekeeping was likewise simple. My grandmother was the head
of the family during her husband’s absence, and she had always the
management of the minor affairs of the entire establishment. She it was
who assigned the duties and superintended the work of the servants, and
the employments of the daughters, and the daughters-in-law. We had a
hired cook, several maid-servants and a man-servant, so that there was
never a need that the ladies of our family should soil their dainty
hands or weary their delicate feet. My grandmother, however, had her
own ideas about work, and used to arrange that her daughters should not
be idle or ignorant.
The hour for rising was between six and seven A. M. The
children of the household had to go to school at seven; and the men
had business to attend to.
As soon as day dawned, the servants were stirring. They swept the brick
floors, and having heated some water, they would go to wake their
respective mistresses, placing the warmed water before them for the
morning toilet. As each emerged from his or her slumber, greetings were
scrupulously exchanged. We Chinese say “Early morning!” instead of
“Good morning!” The servants were then sent out to market to buy the
materials for breakfast. Let us follow them.
After winding in and out through narrow streets flanked with blank
walls, the monotony broken only by doorways, we come to the business
portion of the city. We emerge into a scene of life and animation.
Men and servant-girls are either on their way to market or returning,
carrying wicker baskets of eels, fish, pork, vegetables. Here are
incense-shops, butcher-shops and grocery-stores, fish-stalls and
vegetable-stands. The stone pavement is slippery with mud. The din is
deafening. The present stage in the development of trade in China does
not admit of one price for one’s wares. The seller and buyer must
wrangle for minutes over a few mills. Time is of no consideration. A
man will go through and through the market, listening to what others
are giving, pricing everything for himself, and at the same time
beating the price down so low that the hawker will not agree to sell.
Our servants having, after much haggling, procured the wherewithal for
breakfast, let us return to our kitchen and see the meal prepared. Your
first exclamation is sure to be, “How smoky it is! Oh, stifling! Let us
come away!” Well, this kitchen certainly is not so cosey and neat as
American kitchens usually are. The smoke does not go out by chimney,
but through the skylight and wherever it finds an outlet. The walls
are black with the accumulation of years of soot. That large stove in
the corner is built of brick. The smoke issues through an aperture in
the back and curls upward through the opening into the clear sky. On
the top of this stove is a large round iron spider about three feet
in diameter. In this rice is cooking. Straw being cheaper, is burnt
in this stove instead of wood, and some one is required to feed the
fire constantly. Turning to the left, we see little clay stoves, on
which food is frying in spiders, or boiling in earthen pots, over a
wood fire. Grandmother and her daughters are superintending the various
preparations. Vegetables are cut into bits and boiled with pork or
mutton, making a soup. Greens are boiling. Fish is steaming, frying, or
stewing with or without vegetable. Meat is cut fine; when the spider
becomes heated lard is put in it, then pieces of onion, then the shred
meat, and all is stirred till well embrowned; then turnips, potatoes,
and sometimes other vegetables are added and, after boiling water is
poured in, the whole is left to simmer and stew. All food, we observe,
is cut in pieces before being cooked, or else before serving. For no
knives, no forks, are used.
At ten A. M. the tables are set; those for men either in
the wings, or in their rooms; those for the women in their common
sitting-room or parlor. Each table will seat eight persons. No table
linen is used. Chop-sticks and spoons are placed before each place.
The food is brought in large bowls or plates. Rice is carried to the
table in a wooden pail or wicker basket, from which it is served in
small bowls. The servants summon the inmates to breakfast. The younger
ones do not presume to sit till their elders are seated; then after
making a show of asking permission to eat, when the elders gravely nod
assent, the breakfast begins. Soup is taken first; then each person,
holding the chop-sticks in the right hand and the bowl of rice in the
left, lifts his food to his mouth, pushes the lumps in with the sticks,
alternating this motion with picking meat, fish or vegetables from the
dishes which are common to all. One must take only from that side of
the plate which is nearest to him, however. It is a breach of etiquette
to reach over to the opposite side. When one finishes, he bids the
rest to “eat leisurely,” which is our mode of saying, “Excuse me!” The
Chinese invariably wash their hands and faces after every meal.
Tea is drank about the same time. It is taken without milk or sugar.
Coffee is not common in China, and we are not accustomed to drink cold
water. Tea is the national beverage and is taken to assuage thirst at
all times and occasions as water is in America. At noon a lunch of
cakes or pastry may be served. The majority of people are satisfied
with two meals a day. Supper, or dinner, is served at five P.
M.
In the interval between the two meals, the ladies of our family sewed,
spun flax, embroidered or received company, that is, their lady friends
who come in sedan-chairs, some to make short visits, some to spend the
day. Guests were regaled at noon with confections and pastry, but tea
was always presented to a guest soon after arrival. It would have been
uncourteous to omit it. In the evening, after the lamps were lighted,
the ladies, young and old, would sit down to a game of dominoes, tell
stories, or gossip.
A peculiar feature in Chinese domestic arrangements is that when sons
are married they continue to live with their parents, while daughters,
when married, are expected to live with their husband’s parents. Such
an arrangement often causes a deal of trouble, and most of the domestic
infelicity in Chinese home-life is ascribed to it. But the custom has
been handed down from time immemorial, each succeeding generation
being educated for it. It sometimes happens that the mother-in-law
and the daughter-in-law are suited to each other and live pleasantly
together; but this presumes that both entertain exalted views of duty
and are blessed with forbearing natures and yielding dispositions. The
Chinese say that all depends on the son and husband; if he be dutiful
to his parents and strict in family discipline, he can prevent domestic
broils; if he only shut his ear against the complaints of his wife,
peace will be preserved. But the son and husband is apt to lean to one
side or the other, so either harbors resentment towards his mother or
acts unjustly towards his wife. The father usually steers clear of the
trouble, though he sometimes acts as peacemaker. Then again if the
mother-in-law gets along well with one of her daughters-in-law, it is
not certain that she can with the rest, or that the latter can get
along peacefully with one another.
“Every family has a skeleton in the closet,” it is said here in
America. It is no less true of Chinese families. My grandmother’s was
a character that inspired respect; so she had little trouble in the
management of her large family. She had administrative talent of a high
order, and therefore a fair share of household happiness fell to our
lot.