The Household searchlight: Chinese dishes

Media

Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The Household searchlight: Chinese dishes
Creator: Kelly, Lucile
Language: English
Year: 1928
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Fulltext: 18 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1928 to say the least, we offer the idea that peihaps by returning to his former life of faith and re nouncing romance at its very apex, he salvaged his best illusions. A few moie years and the love phenomenon would have lost its finest perfection; a few more months even, philosophi cally speaking, and the long series of hideous compromises with reality would have begun. Sic transit gloria mundi. Paris at Midnight, Cine Empire. Balzac’s classic Pfere Goriot, woefully entangled with Hollywood conceptions of cut rent Parisian Bals Masques. The characterization of Pfcre Goriot is palatable enough, as is Barrymore’s of Vautrin, the criminal. The accompanying background of Ftench pension life of themeager est type, during the days when the Faubourg St. Germain was the kernel of the haut-monde, was artificial and insincere. The roles of the avaricious daughters of humble golden-hearted P£re Goriot are played with more posings and affectations than ever Molifere allowed to his precieuses ridicules. The piece is worth seeing purely for the purpose of becoming more or less familiar with one of France’s greatest fiction portraits, and one of litarature’s most difficult and tedious contributions to a reading wot Id. Rain, Cine Lyric. An appropriate film for this persistent season. The play, which had a five-year run in New York, witn Jeanne Eagels as Sadie Thompson, was far more finished and concrete than the movie, with Gloria Swanson playing the role of Sadie. From the first entrance of Sadie in the stage play, Miss Eagels made the world realize that Sadie’s swagger was to hide Sadie’s misery. In the screen version, Miss Swanson swaggers because Sadie is tough and hard-boiled, and so callous the world is certain she has never suffered much and doesn’t know how. There is no convincing mounting up of emotional incidents and flashes of what is going on inside Sadie Thompson to lead to the strange temporary metamorphosis of charactei when Mr. Hamilton, the missionary, goes through the motions of converting the hard little customer. Be it said, in passing, that this process of regen eration is much too prolonged on the screen. A play is not a life, and the art of suggestion is wittier than the grinding out of detailed action and reaction between the rise and fall of the curtain at the beginning and end. Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Hamilton is excellently repel lent and fanatical, hoiribly pitiful and hateful. His mad insistence upon sin and due retribution for it, and his tortured dreams and fancies as a result of a ruthless suppression of all joyous impulses, Barrymore reveals most impressively. Miss Swanson’s acting is much more satis factory—spontaneous, sincere, moving—as tne frightened, half-hypnotized creature grasping at anything that bears the shadow of a resem blance to a protective interest in her well-being. Of course the interest is a perverted one, as pool Sadie discovers—to her renewed disillusionment. The theme is a psychological one, honest and gripping enough to cleave through the claptrap of movieism, and hold the interest through to the utterly disenchanted end. Rain is another film play that has adhered faithfully to the original climax and denouement of the play from which it is taken. Averell Harriman, head of the American corporation holding the manganese concession in Tchitura in the Georgian republic, accom panied by Richard M. Robinson and William S. Hamilton, vice-president of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, have arrived in Moscow to confer with soviet officials and inspect their plant after one and one-half year’s operation. Prior to the conference Harriman declined to indicate the subjects slated for discussion or whether the status of the undertaking was satis factory or unsatisfactory. Since the concession was granted conditions have changed in many respects, including the new soviet selling arrange ment with German interests for the output of other manganese deposits. Labor conditions have changed also. At the same time American interests represent ed by Harriman are not averse to considering any new concession proposals the soviet author ities may put forward. The Household Searchlight: Chinese Dishes By Lucile Kelly Cookery in all parts of the world interests me immensely, and I found in China cookery in varied forms- from the most delightful, down the scale to the very worst. And I never in my life saw so many fried cakes. I have always believed that rice was the staple article of diet, but I have changed my mind. Cakes— big, little, brown, yellow, white, and yes— even black—in baskets, in barrels, arranged on papers on the streets. Every place there were cakes. In the picture you see a man with a small frying pan frying his cakes and a few spread out on the up-turned barrel. These sell for one copper apiece and make up the meal of many a small urchin. The other photograph is a traveling kitchen. Painted in red with blue and green decorations Europe White Empress Via Suez AN EXCEPTIONAL CHANCE Make Your Reservation Now On the Canadian Pacific S.S. “Empress of Canada” 21500 TONS GROSS November 23rd MANILA TO PLYMOUTH Calling at Hongkong—Singapore—Colombo — Bombay Fares—First Cabin £108 Second Cabin £78 For Further Particulars and Accommodations Please Apply to CANADIAN PACIFIC 14-16 Calle David Phone 2-36-56 MANILA Phone 2-36-57 it is noticeable even in the extremely crowded streets of China. But you could not possibly miss it; for the vendor carries with him a loud bell which he rings as he goes. And when a customer comes along he dispenses with a cheer ful smile—rice, cakes, noodles and fish and boiled vegetables. But this is only one side of the cooking. I ventured into the kitchens of some of the big hotels, and I found the chefs most pleasant and willing to help me. Strange to say, with all of the fine cooks among the Chinese, the hotel chefs were mainly French. In Shanghai I learned to make a delicious Chinese noodle. The recipe: Soak strips of pork or beef in soy sauce for 15 minutes, then add lawloo or bean shoots IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1928 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 19 and enough water to cover. Add noodles and boil until tender. At a native inn, just outside of Peking, in the Western Hills, I found this typical Chinese dish: Ciado 4 pieces of fried fish and same amount of chicken. 5 ripe tomatoes Soy sauce. 2 tablespoons of fat. 1 onion. Heat the fat and add chopped tomatoes and onion, then the sauce. Add a very little water to make a liquid sauce and pour over fish and chicken. The Chinese method of cooking rice: Wash the rice thoroughly, then put it in a heavy kettle, adding 114 cups of cold water to each cup of rice. Cover tightly and allow to cook until tender, about % hour over medium heat. Do not disturb while cooking and on no account stir it. This is the secret of dry, well-cooked rice. In the inn which has been established in the more or less deserted Summer Palace of the late Empress Dowager, I ate meat balls and chicken, a la Chinese. Meat Balls: Chopped steak and onions, formed in balls and dipped in soy sauce. Then fry in a little lard, adding bamboo shoots and soy sauce to taste. Chinese chicken: Cut a young chicken into small pieces and soak in J4 cup of soy sauce; add pepper to taste and 2 teaspoons of sugai. Fry in lard until brown, then add just enough water to cover chicken, chestnuts, and bean sprouts. Cook until all is tender. Way up in Mongolia I found this recipe and watched an old lady prepare it in an iron pan and broil over a deep iron pot of glowing charcoal. Goorda: Cut lambs kidneys the broad way and lay in a mixture of oil, vinegar, sliced onions, chop ped greens and pepper. After soaking for an hour, broil" slowly, basting with fat. Serve with any cooked greens. Fish is well liked and part:cularly popular and cheap around Chefoo. This is their method of cooking: Clean, salt and pepper fish and soak in soy sauce for % hour. Then fry in fat until brown. Add soy sauce left from soaking the fish, and 2 cups of water, cover and boil 15 minutes. Peas and Shrimps are also a popular dish. The shrimps are cleaned and cooked with peas in water, soy sauce added and often flour to thicken the gravy. Cabbage, celery and bean sprouts are used as vegetables. Celery is often cooked in this manner: Cut celery in small pieces, and fry in hot fat. Add J4 cup soy sauce and then cook for 5 minutes. Cabbage and bean sprouts are boiled until tender; soy sauce added to taste and gravy thickened with flour. I hope some of you will try these. Perhaps you will enjoy them as much as I did. And next month I will send you some Japanese recipes. Paralleling the improvement in cotton goods has been activity in rayon and to a lesser ex tent in silk. ‘ Last year the rayon industry showed all the indications of over-expansion and prices had to be cut several times, the last cut, made as late as December, bringing them to the lowest point on record. With the gen eral revival of the textile industry this year, rayon has taken a new lease of life and manu facturers are sold several months ahead and having difficulty in satisfying the demand. Prices have been advanced once since the first of the year and are holding strong at the higher levels thus established. Bank of the Philippine Islands The Oldest Bank in the Philippines. (Established 1851) Authorized Capital - P10,000,000.00 Paid-up Capital and Surplus - - 9,000,000.00 GENERAL BANKING OPERATIONS. Telegraphic Transfers, Commercial and Travelers’ Letters of Credit, Travelers’ Checks, Drafts, Collections, and every description of exchange and banking business. All kinds of administration, fiduciary and trustee business. Safe Deposit Boxes for. Rent. Interest is also allowed on Current Accounts, Time Deposits and Savings Accounts. CORRESPONDENTS: BRANCHES: Thruout the World. Iloilo, Cebu and Zamboanga. HEAD OFFICE: No. 10 Plaza Cervantes, Manila. P. O. Box 777. One of the interesting developments in con nection with rayon, and one which reflects the promising condition of the industry in this country, was the recent incorporation of the American Glanzstoff Company as American subsidiary of the Vereinigte Glanzstoff Fabriken, one of the largest rayon producers of Ger many. This company, it has been announced, proposes to erect a large plant, representing an ultimate investment of possibly $50,000,000, near Johnson City, Tenn. The American Bemberg Corporation, an affiliated organization, already has a plant in that locality and is re ported to be commencing the second of five units originally planned, each costing in the neighborhood of $3,000,000. The silk industry continues to labor under the handicap of slow retail demand due to the bad weather, and the season has thus far been some what disappointing. Consumption of raw silk in May dropped 2,367 bales as compared with April, to 45,486 bales, the smallest for any month this year excepting the short month of February, but was still considerably higher than in May a year ago. —National City lianl" Current Report. SOVIET BUSINESS BUREAU George Piatakov, one of the six minority leaders in the recent squabble in the commu nist party, has been chosen general director of the “Amtorg” (soviet state trading corporation) with headquarters in New York and supervision over the corporation’s activities in North and South America. He will start for his post as soon as Washington approves his passport. Piatakov is considered one of the ablest business men within the party. He comes of an old Ukranian family which owned great sugar refineries near Kiev before the revolution. When the bolshevik government was establish ed Piatakov was placed in charge of the Dombacoal mines, and subsequently became vices chairman of the supreme economic council. Piatakov’s experience is expected greatly to facilitate trade relations between the United States and Russia. He is the third member o( the Trotzky-Zinoviev minority to be exiled to a position abroad. Leon Kamenev has been sent as ambassador to Rome, Gen. Mikhail Lashevitch, assistant commissar of war, has been sent to Harbin as general manager of the Chinese Eastern railroad, and Gregoire Sokolinov, former commissar of finance, is proposed as ambassador to Great Britain.—Junius B. Wood in “Chicago Daily News.” IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL