ORIENTAL COOKERY is characterized by the use of many condiments, often making the food very "hot," and by the use of very sweet dishes. In general, the Orient prefers main dishes in which many food materials have been combined into one appetizing whole, and this means cutting into small pieces. Confucius refused to eat food that was not "chopped up prop erly," and also ruled that there must never be more flesh food than vegetables in the mixture. A Japanese rule calls for the five tastes of sweet, salt, sour, bitter and acrid in each meal, and another for something in each from both sea and mountain. The most widely used meat is lamb or mutton. In China pork is com mon. The kebob of Turkey and India is meat, fish or poultry cut small and strung on a skewer, often with alternating slices of vegetable. It is usually broiled. Pilaf or pilau, the national dish of Turkey and much eaten in India, is a dish of rice (usually browned in fat before cooking in stock), to which flesh foods or vegetables or both are added, either cooked with the rice or served on it, and the mixture highly seasoned. The Armenian Ilerissa and the Arabian couscous are similar dishes made with cracked wheat instead of rice. The Turkish dolma is a vegetable stuffed with rice and minced meat or olive oil. Vine leaves are also used for this. Birds, domestic and wild, vary the diet. Fish and shell fish furnish more of the flesh food than does meat, being in most places abundant and cheap. All flesh foods and vegetables are preserved by drying as well as in other ways. "Bombay duck" is dried salted fish. Flesh foods eaten in the East not used in the West include buffalo, cat, dog, field rat, snake, lizard, beetle, cockroach, larvae, ant, worm, shark fin and whale, some of these being held to be great delicacies.
For fat, India uses ghee (clarified butter), China peanut oil, Turkey and adjacent countries olive oil, and many sesame oil. Eggs are cooked in many ways. Bread is not in as general use as in i the Occident, though in Japan it is growing in popularity. The chapati of the Indian peasant is a thin wafer made of whole wheat flour, "pan" fried in ghee. The main vegetable food of the Orient is rice, which is almost everywhere served with every meal, and is generally cooked in stock. Cracked wheat, barley, buckwheat, sesame and the millets are used in some countries. Noodles are eaten, and Italian pastes, though not native, are now in Eastern markets. Milk is used in Turkey and kindred countries when curdled (matzoun) as a beverage and in sauces. Tea is the uni versal beverage of the Orient, and in some countries coffee is common. Turkish coffee is made from the following formula: For four small cups, 3 cup water, 3 teaspoons sugar, 3 teaspoons pulverized coffee. Melt the sugar in the water over the fire, remove from fire, add coffee, stir one minute, return to fire and bring to boiling point three or four times. This is not strained, but sipped
from the cup after the coffee has settled to the bottom.
Fruits are usually cooked, except that dates, the staple food of the lands of the Near East, are rarely cooked except in puddings and confections. In China pineapple is often cooked with chicken and other meats. Pastries, sweet with sugar syrup and often with nuts, or a sweet fruit compote, are the usual ending for a Turkish meal. The Chinese and Japanese use sweet cakes, confections and puddings, or cooked or preserved fruits. Salads are much eaten in the Near East, usually of a combination of vegetables and perhaps fruits. Seasonings used in the Orient not common in the Occident include cummin, saffron, coriander seed, tamarind, chilis in variety, curry powder and soy sauce. Vegetable foods form the greater part of the diet.
The most famous dish of India is the curry, in which material cooked with curry powder or in a curry sauce is served in a ring of rice. The epicure insists on curries made from spices ground fresh each day, but curry powder and essence may be made ahead in the home or may be bought bottled. A good formula for curry sauce, hot enough for the average Western taste, but not for that of India, uses 2 tablespoons minced onion, fried a little in / cup butter, t tablespoons curry powder, mixed to a paste with a little of 2 cups of stock or milk, 2 teaspoons curry essence, / teaspoon salt, i tablespoon rice flour, i cup cocoanut or almond milk (made by soaking an hour in I cup milk, cup freshly ground cocoanut or blanched almonds ground fine, and used with or without strain ing), i teaspoon scraped green ginger, I teaspoon currant jelly. The meat, fish, shellfish, poultry or vegetables are cooked in the sauce. With a curry is served chutney, a sauce or conserve made of sweet and sour fruits and vegetables, highly spiced.
Chinese and Japanese food are similar, though not the same. Young bamboo sprouts, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, dried mush rooms and pe-tsai (Chinese cabbage) are favourite vegetables. The soy bean is used not only in soy sauce, but for the delicate bean curd that adds an agreeable texture and flavour to so many dishes. The famous bird's nests of China are used in dishes with chicken and pigeon as well as for soup. They are a luxury, as are the equally famous ancient eggs. Almonds are used in many combinations. Chop suey is a dish unknown in China. The Japanese serve many foods cooked in deep fat after being dipped in a very delicate batter. In Japan the diner in a restaurant often cooks his own food in an iron skillet set on the dining table.
(I. E. L.)