Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/190

178 eating flesh, such as existed under the old regime, obtains now. But the custom of abstaining from it remains pretty general; and though beef and pork were introduced at the time of the late revolution, the fondness for them soon waned, as did that for bread which was the rage among the lowest class in 1890. The piles of loaves then displayed at every little cook-stall in Tōkyō, for the delectation of jinrikisha-men and other coolies, have vanished and been replaced by victuals of the orthodox Japanese type. Probably the poor quality of the bread, and the nasty way in which the meat was cooked, had much to do with this return to the ancestral diet.

Of beverages the chief are tea, which is taken without sugar or milk, and sake, an alcoholic liquor prepared from rice, whose taste has been not inaptly compared to that of weak sherry which has been kept in a beer-bottle. It is generally taken hot, and at the beginning of dinner. Only when the drinking-bout is over, is the rice brought in: at a long dinner, one is apt never to reach it. When dining quietly in the home circle, the Japanese habitually drink tea only. Besides that drunk out of a cup, it is rather usual to have a little poured over the last bowlful of one's rice.

The following is a specimen of the bill of fare at a Japanese banquet. The reader must understand that everything is served in small portions, as each guest has a little table to himself, in front of which he squats on the floor:—

, served with sake:—suimono, that is, a kind of bean-curd soup; kuchi-tori, a relish, such as an omelette, or chestnuts boiled soft and sweet, or kamaboko, which is fish pounded and then rolled into little balls and baked; sashimi, minced raw fish; hachi-zakaa, a fine large fish, either broiled with salt or boiled with soy; uma-ni, bits of fish or sometimes fowl, boiled with lotus-roots or potatoes in soy and in a sort of liqueur called mirin; su-no-mono, sea-ears or sea-slugs served with vinegar; chawan, a thin fish soup with mushrooms, or else chawan-mushi, a thick custardy soup.