ABSTRACT
In his Musings o f a Chinese gourmet, F. T. Cheng (1954) singles out for attention ten of China’s most renowned delicacies. We have considered certain of these already, and here we focus on four of the remaining ones: bird’s nest, shark’s fin, bear’s paw, and beche-de-mer. We choose these four because, unlike some of Cheng’s delicacies, they fall clearly into the category of foods that highlight important occasions, costly foods that add to the status of those who eat them (E. N. Anderson and M. L. Anderson, 1977: 373).
