Bartok’s Not Entirely Pleasant Chinese Meal in London, 1922

One of my occasional posts on old Chinese restaurants in London. In 1922 the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok was spending some time in London. He attended a part given by the wireless genius Marconi. A few days later he visited a Chinese restaurant in the city – sadly we don’t know which one. Bartok had some rather odd views of Chinese food, as he wrote on a postcard (of Westminster Abbey by the way) to his 11-year-old son (also Bela) in 1922 and quoted in Malcolm Gillies’s Bartok in Britain…

26 March 1922, London

 

My concert was the day before yesterday. Afterwards, someone took me to have supper – just imagine with whom – the famous Marconi, who was throwing a big party in a hotel. (It was only completely by chance that I dropped in there.) There were all kinds of good things there: oysters, fish, game stuffed with goose liver, champagne, real cognac. But you would have stayed hungry! Still, the day before yesterday I was taken to a Chinese restaurant. Of course I wanted to order dog and cat meat (if it is going to be Chinese, then let it really be Chinese), but there was nothing like that on the menu. But I still ate some rather curious things. Horses have already completely disappeared from the streets here; just once in a while you see one or two harnessed to a carriage. Bye-bye – and kisses,

 

Your Father