Banquets of the nations

They are called okagami, and are only served on New Year's feast day and the following seven or fourteen days of the year, on the shrine of the "family god," and after the first seven days are over the family circle enjoy these cakes. When the seven days are over they are toasted and put into chicken soup. Children in Japan say that eating these mochis is adding years to their lives, and during the first three days of January they try to eat as many as their years of age. Bean Cake. (Yokan.) Boil beans or azukis in a pan of water till soft and well cooked. Mash them well and strain through a coarse sieve, the broth as well ; keep the broth and the mashed substance on the top quite still, so that the substance may settle. Pour the liquid off, and put the substance in a bag of clean, fine white linen ; close the mouth and press the bag between two boards, and squeeze all the liquid out. Then their substance is really puree of azuki. Sweeten with sugar, and add one and a half or two gills of dissolved gelatine in lukewarm water. Stir all together in a pan on a moderate fire until the compound is thoroughly mixed, after which pour it into a mould of tin or copper, and set the vessel to cool. When quite cold turn out on to a dish in the usual way. The bean cake is sometimes cut into small layers, and served with green tea, before or after dinner, or simply at tea-time. Wheaten Cake. (Manju.) Most sweet dishes are served with uncoloured tea when friends visit one another. Make some fine wheaten flour into dough by mixing with water, and spread out into a thin sheet like pie paste. Cut this paste into round pieces, and put some bean or azuki compound (which is called ana) in each of these pieces, and turn the piece of paste from all sides, which then becomes something like English tarts. Put them on a sieve set on a cloth over bubbling water, so as to be steamed through till sufficiently cooked. Rice Cake. Soy. Grind some rice, and make into a dough by mixing some water with it ; then steam and spread out into a thin sheet. Cut this paste into pieces of various sizes, and dry them by sunlight or any other heat. These dried pieces of paste are baked like English toasted bread, and served with sauce or a mixture of sugar and sauce. Take one gallon of the seed of Soya hispida (white haricots or kidney beans may be used instead) , boil them in water until quite soft and the water almost evaporated ; then add one gallon of bruised wheat. Keep the mixture in a warm place for twenty-four hours, and then stir in one gallon of common salt dissolved in two gallons of warm water. Put this into a stone jar and bung it loosely, leaving it thus for eight or ten weeks, giving it an occasional stir up. At the expiration of that time squeeze out by pressure all the liquor, and bottle it for use. The residue may be salted and soaked again for a further supply, which would not be so good as the first. LV.— JAVA Menu Nassi (Rice) Telor Assin (Salted Ducks' Eggs) Sajor lodeh (Spiced Vegetable Soup) Randeng goreng Ikan brenkis (Fried Fish) (Roast Spiced Fish) Endak syraebook (Roasted Fish Roes) Ihraepah oedang Oedang iesie Kepiting iesie (Shrimp Fritters) (Stuffed Prawns) (Stuffed Crabs) Kerrie oedang (Curried Shrimps) Kerrie Dagin dan Ikan Sesate