LODGING
Macau has no substandard accommodations-the competition, in such a small space, is far too hot for that-and what's on offer ranges from grand hotels to Portuguese-style posadas (inns) and modest Chinese- and Portuguese-style guesthouses. Well-heeled gamblers (well-heeled on arrival, that is) favor the Hotel Lisboa, which has Macau's biggest casino handily on the premises-the casino is open around the clock-right in the heart of town. At the other extreme, the Westin Resort Hotel, overlooking a fine beach on the southeastern tip of Coloane, the farthest out island, has 208 rooms, each with a view over the South China Sea, and the full sporting menu: a golf course, tennis and squash courts, swimming pools, a gym with aerobic dancing classes, and a supervised children's playground. Oh, and peace and quiet, although nowhere in Macau is more than 20 minutes from anywhere else.
The Bela Vista, which used to be a broken-down Portuguese inn (I liked it then), is now one of the most glamorous (and expensive) small hotels in the world. It has only eight rooms, but you can drink coffee or sip port wine on the terrace without checking in, and watch the fishing junks homing to ports up the Pearl River. But my own current favorite hotel (maybe for sentimental reasons) is the inexpensive Metropole, next door to the government offices in the city center. Its scrubbed, old-fashioned atmosphere proclaims that the owners live on the "mainland".
The Cantonese congee breakfasts served in the Metropole's fast-food restaurant are authentically delicious, but then again it's impossible to get even a mediocre meal anywhere in Macau-there's much too much discriminating competition!
Showing posts with label Chinese and Japanese Cuisines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese and Japanese Cuisines. Show all posts
Japanese food serving
What the Japanese feel inclined to boast to the world regarding the gastronomical attractions of their country consists as much in the manner of serving food as in the quality of food. In this respect, perhaps no other nation approaches Japan in the exquisite delicacy of taste, or in the luxury and grandeur of the utensils employed. The culinary art, as practised in the olden court of the Shōgun or of the Mikado, had attained a plane of perfection comparable in its elaborate technique and art to any other art or craft.
It is possible to find even in an ordinary restaurant, at all mindful of its reputation as is a typical Japanese restaurant, that a five dollar meal is served upon plates worth fifty dollars or more. To speak of the vessels in which the Japanese food is served as plates is, to put it mildly, inaccurate. The plates, so-called, are generally white, of no particular value, always classed as crockery, which one would not regret very much, if they were broken. Of the Japanese vessels, however, there is a great variety of all conceivable shapes, materials, sizes, designs, and coloring. No two things of the same kind are allowed on the table for one person. Even about the sara (plates), we always speak of "So and So" sara, such as a plate for sashimi, a plate for vegetable, for shell-fish, for fried fish, etc., every one of them being of different shape, design and size, and adapted to its peculiar contents.
The soup is served either in a lacquered wooden bowl, used for keeping the contents warm, or in a porcelain bowl, as when it contains much fish or fowl, served hot, as the porcelain vessel can bear greater heat. Hot-boiled vegetables are placed in a porcelain bowl with a lid on, and the vegetables with vinegar, served cold, are placed in a small deep vessel, called "jar," perhaps of unglazed pottery. The elaborate kuchitori (relish) may be served on a plate of pleasing colors, probably Kutani ware, and raw fish is served on a cool light-colored plate, perhaps the color of the sea, often with a glass cushion between the plate and the sliced fish. Long slender fish such as ayu are served in long slender plates, exactly suited to them.
Nor is the arrangement of each dish done in a haphazard way; there are rules and traditions about the way each dish should be prepared that are absolutely binding. And the whole show, that is, a set of plates, jars, bowls, etc., on a tray or the table, are subject to equally inviolable rules of good taste. Each dish is a picture to please the eye as well as food to eat; it is presented sometimes in the design of a landscape garden, or a sea-and-island scene. The whole feast, apparently irregular, is none the less picturesque and artistic, if you view it closely. Indeed, it is part of a Japanese dinner to appeal to the sense of beauty as well as to the inner man.
Can this be a ceremonial banquet served on a special occasion? No, it is just an ordinary meal which may be served at the first Japanese restaurant you drop in about Kyōbashi or Nihonbashi in Tokyo. So ingrained is the sense of artistic beauty connected with the Japanese cuisine that both cook and waiter are probably unconscious of anything particularly elaborate or ceremonious about the utensils or the way of serving food. Just as the Europeans are unconsciously particular in using a coffee-cup for coffee, a tea-cup for tea, a wine-glass for wine, liqueur-glass for liqueur, etc., though one kind of largish glass may serve for all sorts of beverages; so the Japanese sense of discrimination with regard to the appropriate vessels for different kinds of food has been unconsciously inculcated. It is unthinkable that we should use the same cheap, colorless plates for all sorts of Japanese food, both hot and cold.
It is possible to find even in an ordinary restaurant, at all mindful of its reputation as is a typical Japanese restaurant, that a five dollar meal is served upon plates worth fifty dollars or more. To speak of the vessels in which the Japanese food is served as plates is, to put it mildly, inaccurate. The plates, so-called, are generally white, of no particular value, always classed as crockery, which one would not regret very much, if they were broken. Of the Japanese vessels, however, there is a great variety of all conceivable shapes, materials, sizes, designs, and coloring. No two things of the same kind are allowed on the table for one person. Even about the sara (plates), we always speak of "So and So" sara, such as a plate for sashimi, a plate for vegetable, for shell-fish, for fried fish, etc., every one of them being of different shape, design and size, and adapted to its peculiar contents.
The soup is served either in a lacquered wooden bowl, used for keeping the contents warm, or in a porcelain bowl, as when it contains much fish or fowl, served hot, as the porcelain vessel can bear greater heat. Hot-boiled vegetables are placed in a porcelain bowl with a lid on, and the vegetables with vinegar, served cold, are placed in a small deep vessel, called "jar," perhaps of unglazed pottery. The elaborate kuchitori (relish) may be served on a plate of pleasing colors, probably Kutani ware, and raw fish is served on a cool light-colored plate, perhaps the color of the sea, often with a glass cushion between the plate and the sliced fish. Long slender fish such as ayu are served in long slender plates, exactly suited to them.
Nor is the arrangement of each dish done in a haphazard way; there are rules and traditions about the way each dish should be prepared that are absolutely binding. And the whole show, that is, a set of plates, jars, bowls, etc., on a tray or the table, are subject to equally inviolable rules of good taste. Each dish is a picture to please the eye as well as food to eat; it is presented sometimes in the design of a landscape garden, or a sea-and-island scene. The whole feast, apparently irregular, is none the less picturesque and artistic, if you view it closely. Indeed, it is part of a Japanese dinner to appeal to the sense of beauty as well as to the inner man.
Can this be a ceremonial banquet served on a special occasion? No, it is just an ordinary meal which may be served at the first Japanese restaurant you drop in about Kyōbashi or Nihonbashi in Tokyo. So ingrained is the sense of artistic beauty connected with the Japanese cuisine that both cook and waiter are probably unconscious of anything particularly elaborate or ceremonious about the utensils or the way of serving food. Just as the Europeans are unconsciously particular in using a coffee-cup for coffee, a tea-cup for tea, a wine-glass for wine, liqueur-glass for liqueur, etc., though one kind of largish glass may serve for all sorts of beverages; so the Japanese sense of discrimination with regard to the appropriate vessels for different kinds of food has been unconsciously inculcated. It is unthinkable that we should use the same cheap, colorless plates for all sorts of Japanese food, both hot and cold.
Chinese and Japanese Cuisines
Broadly, the world of eating may be divided into the three great systems: European, Chinese and Japanese. Each has been influenced by the other, though perhaps in an indirect and intangible way. The oldest, if not the best, is, of course, the Chinese, of which one of Charles Lamb's famous essays on Roasted Pig is a good illustration. There is an historic relation between the Chinese and European foods, as there is between the Chinese and Japanese. Marco Polo, visiting China in 1257, must have introduced into Peking something of the Italian culinary art, and taken back to Europe much of the Chinese cuisine. The Roman Empire, just before its downfall, had attained its zenith in luxurious eating. Indeed some persons are inclined to think that the great Empire went into decay through too much luxurious eating. There is little doubt that Rome had taken the best from Persia, which in its turn had been enriched by importations from China. It was this Roman cuisine representing the best cooking of the age, that came to France, spreading from there to the rest of Europe.
On the other hand, Japan received the first food envoy from China, along with her Buddhist preachers, in the 6th or 7th century. Of course, Japan had her own splendid native materials--its delicious rice, and its innumerable "auspicious" pro. ducts of mountain and sea. But her culinary art, at the dawn of history, was in a primitive state. The Chinese who had already attained a high plane of material civilization, could, therefore, influence the almost virgin field of Japan's inexhaustible fine materials, so that it took but little time to develop in this country both a taste and an art of food. In the classic Engishiki, published in the reign of Daigo Tenno ( 8 99)- 930), mention is made of Soy, Miso, Tōfu--highly-developed food stuffs which came without doubt from China. It is a notable fact that all these foods have been not only greatly improved since their acclimatization in Japan but have become, as has miso, all but extinct in the land of their origin. On the other hand, China herself has taken much of the land and sea products of Japan, as she is still doing, to prepare the so-called Chinese food. The debt is mutual.
Japan also knew something of European cookery, centuries before the Meiji era, of which the most conspicuous evidence is what we call "Nagasaki cuisine." Nagasaki, needless to say, was the first city in Japan to engage in foreign trade, and even during the centuries of national seclusion, enforced by the Tokugawa Government, was privileged to keep a loophole at Dejima, through which to trade with the Dutch and other European merchants. Thus came into Nagasaki something of the Dutch style of cooking. One characteristic of Nagasaki food, still kept, is in the manner of serving food upon a raised table shared by a number of eaters, instead of the orthodox Japanese style of providing a small tray, flat or raised, to each individual diner.
On the other hand, Japan received the first food envoy from China, along with her Buddhist preachers, in the 6th or 7th century. Of course, Japan had her own splendid native materials--its delicious rice, and its innumerable "auspicious" pro. ducts of mountain and sea. But her culinary art, at the dawn of history, was in a primitive state. The Chinese who had already attained a high plane of material civilization, could, therefore, influence the almost virgin field of Japan's inexhaustible fine materials, so that it took but little time to develop in this country both a taste and an art of food. In the classic Engishiki, published in the reign of Daigo Tenno ( 8 99)- 930), mention is made of Soy, Miso, Tōfu--highly-developed food stuffs which came without doubt from China. It is a notable fact that all these foods have been not only greatly improved since their acclimatization in Japan but have become, as has miso, all but extinct in the land of their origin. On the other hand, China herself has taken much of the land and sea products of Japan, as she is still doing, to prepare the so-called Chinese food. The debt is mutual.
Japan also knew something of European cookery, centuries before the Meiji era, of which the most conspicuous evidence is what we call "Nagasaki cuisine." Nagasaki, needless to say, was the first city in Japan to engage in foreign trade, and even during the centuries of national seclusion, enforced by the Tokugawa Government, was privileged to keep a loophole at Dejima, through which to trade with the Dutch and other European merchants. Thus came into Nagasaki something of the Dutch style of cooking. One characteristic of Nagasaki food, still kept, is in the manner of serving food upon a raised table shared by a number of eaters, instead of the orthodox Japanese style of providing a small tray, flat or raised, to each individual diner.
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