Note 2 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

A mode of baking and cooking in use here is ingenious. A large rice-pan is filled with water, with a fire below it: upon this is placed a kind of sieve, made of bamboo, and filled with bread or other articles to be cooked; several of these sieves one above another have all their contents cooked at the same time, the steam rising through the lower to the upper ones. The sides of course fit nicely, and prevent the steam from escaping, and there is a close cover which fits on to the uppermost one. Our common brick oven is also in use here.