‘The travels of Sig. Pietro della Valle, a noble Roman, into East-India and Arabia Deserta. In which, the several countries, together with the customs, manners, traffique, and rites both religious and civil, of those Oriental princes and nations, are faithfully described: In familiar letters to his friend Signior Mario Schipano. Whereunto is added a relation of Sir Thomas Roe’s voyage into the East-Indies’ [‎407] (428/508)

A Voyage to E A S T-I N DI A, &c.
For boy ling of flefh in water, or baking
are pieces of Cookery (if lobferved well) thev know not - hnV
they ftew all their flefh as their Kid and other Venifon &c cut
wto fippets, or flices, or little parts, to which they put Onions
and Herbs, and Roots , and Ginger, ( which they take there
green out of the earth) and other Spices, with fome butter
which ingredients when as they are well proportioned, make a'
Food that is exceedingly pleafing to all Palats , at their firft ta-
Itmgthereof moft favoury Meat, haply that very difh which
jaceb made for his Father ifaac, when he got the bleffins
Gen, 27. o , 55
With their flefh and herbs, &c, they fometimes ftew Hens
and other Foul cut in pieces^ which is like that the Spaniards
call an Oleo^ but more toothfbme.
But their great common ftanding difh there is Rice, which
they boy I with more Art than we: for they boyl the grain fo as
that it is full, and plump 3 and tender, but not broken in
boyling} they put to it a little green Ginger, and Pepper, and
Butter, and this is the ordinary way of their drefling it, and
fb 'tis very good.
Sometimes they boyl pieces of flefh, or Hens, and other Fowl
cut in pieces in their Rice, which difh they call ?iUavp\ as they
order it, they make it a very excellent, and a very well-tafted
Food*
Once my Lord Ambafladour had an Entertainment there by
Afaph Chan^ who invited him to dinner (and this was the only re*
fped in that kind he ever had , while he was in Eafi-India )
That Jfaph Chan was a Man made by his great Alliances, the
greateft Subjeft and Favourite in all that Empire ^ for his Sifter
was the Mogol's moft beloved Wife, and his Daughter was mar
ried unto Sultan Caroon the Prince, and very much beloved by
him, but of allthefe, more afterward.
This Afaph Chan entertained my Lord AmbafTador in a very
fpacious and a very beautiful Tent, where none of his fol
lowers befides my felf, faw, or tafted of that Entertainment.
That Tent was kept full of a very pleafant Perfume in which
fents the King and Grandees there take very much delight. The
floor of the Tent was firft covered all over with very rich and
large Carpets, which were covered again in the places where
our dinner ftood, with other good Carpets, madeof ftitch'd
Leather, to preferve them which were richer 5 and thefe were
covered again with pure white and fine Callico Clothes, and all
thefe covered with very many difhes of Silver, but for the
greater part of thofe Silver dilhes they were not larger than our
largeft trencher-plates, the brims of all of them gilt.
We fate in that large Room as it were in a Triangle, The
Ambafladour on Afaph Chan's right hand a good diftance from
him, and my felf below 5 all of us on the ground, as they there
all do when as they eat, with our Faces looking each to the
other.
4 0 7
UK
1
11
%