Ports of the world - Canton/"Rats, Cats, and ..."

by the United States Bureau of Naval Personnel

"RATS, CATS, AND——"

ERY probably the credulity of the reader has been sorely tried at times in the reading of previous chapters, for, having lived the fairly well-ordered life of the occidental, he finds it difficult to believe in the authenticity of some of the incidents intended to show something of manners and customs in Canton. In the present chapter his faith will possibly be even more sorely tried, and perhaps his credulity will turn to incredulity, because this is the strangest and most unbelievable chapter of them all. Still, he may accept the customs described in the following—as well as those described in the preceding chapters—as the entire truth, for that is what they are. Canton, surely, has earned the name of "Canton the Unbelievable!"

This chapter has to do with the culinary tastes of the Cantonese. One thing which surprises the traveler in Canton is that chop suey and other presumably native Chinese dishes are not native Chinese dishes at all, but concoctions prepared by Chinese restaurants in the Occident and intended almost solely for American and European consumption. The percentage of the people in Canton who eat chop suey is probably not as great as the percentage of occidentals who eat it in their own countries.

In all probability the foods most favored—in Canton at any rate—would find little favor with any American, and were the Chinese restaurants in the United States to serve food most highly relished by many of the Cantonese, they would find themselves without patrons in short order. And so for that reason,

 

Imperial Post Office, Canton

 

perhaps, the Chinese restaurant keepers in the United States are justified in inventing their special preparations and serving them to trustful Americans, who labor under the delusion that they are dining on native Chinese foods.

 

A Fuchow Maid on the Bund, Canton

 

The reader has already learned that cockroaches in honey and snakes in broth are favorite foods with some classes of people in Canton, but these strange dishes are not the only ones of their kind enjoyed by the Cantonese. Rats, cats, and young dogs are highly prized by epicureans of one class or another in Canton; and so the old jingle about "Rats, cats, and puppy-dog tails" is not very much amiss when applied to Canton.

In recent years rat eating has been forbidden in Canton, since the authorities have come to realize that the creatures spread several dangerous diseases, the most dread among them being the bubonic plague; but even now, many of the people in the lower classes find it impossible to resist the temptation offered by the sight of fat, gray rats, and go ahead and eat them despite all laws and regulations to the contrary.

The upper classes never favored the common gray rat particularly, but ate a species of field rat—quite different from the other kind and declared to be most appetizing. However, the practice of rat eating is not so general in China as formerly. As a rule, it is indulged in only by people who can not afford other kinds of meat. Young dogs and old cats are still relished by the Cantonese, who value them as delicacies suited to the most particular palate, and the lives of dogs are as insecure in the city as the lives of dogs in Indian camps during times of famine, while many a cat has sung its midnight song on a Chinese fence and gone to make a Chinese stew before the night again succeeds the day.

Despite the popularity of rats, cats, and dogs as food in Canton, there is another creature whose flesh is considered as being even more delicious by many of the natives, both high and low caste, and that creature is the snake, which has been mentioned in previous chapters. Some of the Cantonese prefer to have the snakes served in broth, while others prefer them roasted to a crisp. It is a moot question among travelers as to which style of cooking is most highly favored by the natives. Nonpoisonous snakes are the most popular, the finest specimens bringing $8 or $9 in the markets.

The people of Canton understand perfectly well the gastric qualms of occidentals who hear of some of the favorite

 

The Old Executioner and His Knife, Execution Grounds Canton

 

Chinese dishes; but they do not permit such gastric qualms to change their eating

 

Government Officials who Coin China's Fifty-cent Silver Dollars, Imperial Mint Gardens, Canton

 

habits. "Some American and European foods are as revolting to us as snakes, dogs, and cats—as food—are to you," they say, "and there is no more reason why we should deny ourselves these culinary dainties than you should deny yourselves your favorite dishes because they may happen to be out of harmony with our sense of tastes."