Recipes for some of the elaborate Indian
dishes cannot easily be got, as the native cooks are extremely
jealous of their knowledge, which in all likelihood has been
handed down from father to son for many generations.
The Mussulmans, barring pig, have no restrictions as to
ix
INTRODUCTION TO THE MENUS
food. They dine on the floor facing the centre of the room,
but they are seated on planks or plats of wood covered with
rugs or cushions. When all are seated, two servants enter, one
with a handsome pitcher filled with water, to be poured over
the diner's hands, which are held over a silver basin carried
by another servant, who also carries a towel so that the hands
may be dried. In the centre of the room a rug is laid, on
which a large tray with bronze and silver dishes containing the
different kinds of food is placed. In front of each diner a
bronze tray is put, with a brass vessel of drinking water, and a
number of silver dishes from which the food is eaten. Though
the whole of the food is brought in at once, the Mussulman
only takes one course at a time, and finishes up the repast
much the same as do the Hindus, with a chew of betelnut, a
little attar, and a smoke, while the dancing-girls are performing.
Mussulmans or Mohammedans all over the country follow the
foregoing pretty closely.
The Burmese dinner service is a mixture of customs taken
from China, Japan, and India. The dinner is either set on
the table or on the floor. Nowadays, it is only the very poorest
who have it on the ground : the better classes sit round a
table on benches or chairs, but some of the very well-to-do
people still prefer to have their dinners laid on the floor on
a mat, and they sit round it on rugs, with their legs flexed.
All the dishes are served at once. Each of the diners is
given a small bowl into which he puts a portion of one or
more of the different kinds of foods, which he eats either with
the help of his chop-sticks, fingers, or a spoon, The favourite
x
INTRODUCTION TO THE MENUS
food of the Burmese is " high fish " — very high. After the salt
dishes have been partaken of, fruit, pastries and sweets, generally
bought from a confectioner, are eaten. As with the Hindus
the gentler sex are not excluded from the dining-table, and
after dinner both sexes may indulge in a smoke, chewing of
betel leaf, or areca nut slaked with lime, or have tea.
In Tibet the natives are anything but cleanly in their habits,
and their culinary arrangements are exceedingly primitive. They
have a strong dislike to fish except in a cured form. The meal,
as a rule, begins with boiled eggs and finishes with sour curdled
milk. Diners squat on the floor, and most of the dishes are
placed on the table at once. Towels and a basin of warm water
are supplied after the eating is done with, then the diners with-
draw to another room, where they drink a cup of tea without
milk or sugar, and afterwards tea made with salt and butter
is handed round, and all smoke the water pipe.
Page 3
Presented as published in 1911. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Recipes for some of the elaborate Indian dishes cannot easily be got, as the native cooks are extremely jealous of their knowledge, which in all likelihood has been handed down from father to son for many generations.
The Mussulmans, barring pig, have no restrictions as to
food. They dine on the floor facing the centre of the room, but they are seated on planks or plats of wood covered with rugs or cushions. When all are seated, two servants enter, one with a handsome pitcher filled with water, to be poured over the diner's hands, which are held over a silver basin carried by another servant, who also carries a towel so that the hands may be dried. In the centre of the room a rug is laid, on which a large tray with bronze and silver dishes containing the different kinds of food is placed. In front of each diner a bronze tray is put, with a brass vessel of drinking water, and a number of silver dishes from which the food is eaten. Though the whole of the food is brought in at once, the Mussulman only takes one course at a time, and finishes up the repast much the same as do the Hindus, with a chew of betelnut, a little attar, and a smoke, while the dancing-girls are performing. Mussulmans or Mohammedans all over the country follow the foregoing pretty closely.
The Burmese dinner service is a mixture of customs taken from China, Japan, and India. The dinner is either set on the table or on the floor. Nowadays, it is only the very poorest who have it on the ground : the better classes sit round a table on benches or chairs, but some of the very well-to-do people still prefer to have their dinners laid on the floor on a mat, and they sit round it on rugs, with their legs flexed. All the dishes are served at once. Each of the diners is given a small bowl into which he puts a portion of one or more of the different kinds of foods, which he eats either with the help of his chop-sticks, fingers, or a spoon, The favourite
food of the Burmese is " high fish " — very high. After the salt dishes have been partaken of, fruit, pastries and sweets, generally bought from a confectioner, are eaten. As with the Hindus the gentler sex are not excluded from the dining-table, and after dinner both sexes may indulge in a smoke, chewing of betel leaf, or areca nut slaked with lime, or have tea.
In Tibet the natives are anything but cleanly in their habits, and their culinary arrangements are exceedingly primitive. They have a strong dislike to fish except in a cured form. The meal, as a rule, begins with boiled eggs and finishes with sour curdled milk. Diners squat on the floor, and most of the dishes are placed on the table at once. Towels and a basin of warm water are supplied after the eating is done with, then the diners withdraw to another room, where they drink a cup of tea without milk or sugar, and afterwards tea made with salt and butter is handed round, and all smoke the water pipe.