Friday, December the 3rd, 2004
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“I do not think we should like to dine with a Chinese gentleman, or Mandarin, as he would treat us to strange dainties, as a roast dog, a dish of stewed worms, a rat pie; or, perhaps, a bird's-nest. But the bird's-nest would be the best of the list, for it is not like the kind of bird's-nests which you have seen, but is made, I believe, of the spawn of fish, and looks something like isinglass. It is the nest of a sort of swallow, is about the size of a goose's egg, and is found in caverns along the sea shores; so it is not so bad as it seems at first.” — Anonymous, The World's Fair : Or, Children's Prize Gift Book of the Great Exhibition of 1851; Describing the Beautiful Inventions and Manufactures Exhibited Therein; with Pretty Stories about the People Who Have Made and Sent Them; and How They Live When at Home