THE VERY LONG WEEKEND

I do not eat breakfast in the morning. It takes me two cups of coffee to wake up plus a bit of reading, and only after I've shaved and showered am I ready for the day.
During the week that means heading off to work at that point, where over a period of four or five hours my stomach will gradually make its emptiness known.
On weekends I pad around in my jammies until my roommate leaves, whereupon I head into the bathroom to take a very long bath.
Warm water, luxurious soaking, and time to kill.
I lounge amid the rising steam.
Toes will be twiddled!

On Saturday I save the first pipe of the day for when I head to the office after a mid-afternoon bite in Chinatown.
Often Virginia tobacco, timed to last until I'm near the building.
Today, for instance, I indulged in a bowl of Samuel Gawith's St. James Flake, and was knocked over by how delicious it was.
In every way a thoroughly decadent and effete pleasure.
Not as good as sex, but oddly reminiscent thereof.

[Expect a full review of St. James Flake on this blog at some point, possibly in over-the-top terms, with metaphors of a very dubious nature. Pipe tobacco is for dirty minds.]


Tea at the office, plus several hours of reading on the internet.
It's a good place to stay for the afternoon - alone, but not lonesome.
Then, long after dark, off to the cigar bar for a dreamy end to an empty day.


My roommate always has a much fuller Saturday.

Even though she and wheelie boy have had some marvelous blow-ups, she's still together with that man - and she still gets that nauseating silly grin on her face whenever she thinks of him - so she will spend from lunchtime till late evening in his company.

After she's bounced around since the crack of dawn, fixed herself breakfast, chatted with him on the phone, and done various other things, she leaves the house between twelve and one o'clock to go have lunch with him.
I will not see her again till Sunday morning.
Usually only briefly then.

For a few hours at least I enjoy the peace of having the apartment to myself.
A nice long soak is profoundly good for the soul.

Eventually hunger and a longing for the presence of people combine to drive me out.


LUNCH TODAY, DINNER TOMORROW

Today I ate at a place where no one spoke English and all the dishes were in Chinese.
Because of the New Year fair and parade I decided to hunt for food further up hill, and picked this particular place entirely on a whim.
I didn't notice their extensive selection of offerings till I looked up from my shrimp bonnets and siu mai.

They are far more than just a snack counter.
This is a small neighborhood eatery that caters to a picky audience with very home town tastes, but which may not yet have quite the wealth to spend recklessly.
Their kitchen promises a number of yummy dishes.


FOR INSTANCE:

鹹魚蒸肉餅
Haahm yu tsing yiuk bing (steamed pork patty with salt fish).
姜葱田雞
Geung tsung tin kai (ginger and scallion frog).
涼瓜炒蛋
Leung gwa chau dan (scrambled egg and bitter melon)
枝竹班球
Kei tsuk ban kau (dried tofu with fish chunks).
蒜香肉排
Suen heung yiuk pai (dry garlic spareribs).
四季豆雞球
Sei gwai dau kai kau (stringbean chicken stirfry).
咖哩羊腩煲
Ka-lei yeung naam po (curry lamb in clay pot).
鹹魚茄子煲
Haahm yu kai-tzi po (salt fish and eggplant clay pot).
臘味煲子飯
Laap mei po-tzi fan (preserved pork belly and sausage clay pot rice).
冬菇雞煲子飯
Dong-gu kai po-tzi fan (black mushroom and chunked chicken clay pot rice).
鹹魚臘味煲子飯
Haahm yu laap mei po-tzi fan (salt fish and preserved pork clay pot rice).
麻婆豆腐, 黑椒排骨, 魚香雞球, 海鮮湯麵, 芥蘭肉片 ........
Mapo daufu, hakchiew pai gwat, yu heung kai kau, hoisin tong min, kai lan yiuk pien ........
[Respectively: tofu with spicy meat sauce, black pepper spare ribs, stir-fried garlic sauce chicken curls, seafood variety noodle soup, kai lan with pork...]


Many other dishes involving dried fish (鹹魚 haahm yu), bitter melon (涼瓜 leung gwa), tofu sheet (枝竹 kei tsuk), stringbeans (四季豆 sei gwai dau), preserved pork product (臘味 laap mei), in various combinations with beef, pork, chicken, whether sautéed or in a clay pot (煲子), perhaps involving ginger and scallion (姜葱 geung tsung), curry (咖哩 ka-lei).
Rice plates, noodle preparations, soup.
All at reasonable prices.

The siu mai and shrimp bonnets were utterly delicious.

It is a place that bears considerable investigation.

I look forward to going there again. Lunch or dinner.

Another person who can't read Chinese well but does know Cantonese would be ideal company at the table.
I can read everything they have on the wall, but I'm not a fluent speaker.
If there are two of us, we can share a selection of dishes.
More fun that way, and there's more to taste.
No, I'm not taking my roommate.

[Expect a review of the restaurant, probably soon. Until then I shan't mention the name or the address. But if those siu mai and shrimp bonnets are any indication, their prepared dishes are probably exceedingly tasty too.]


Dining with someone who likes trying something new is always better.
There is more that can be happily discovered that way.
And sharing tasty food is a pleasure.


Weekends mean solitude and smoking my pipe a lot.
Plus enjoying long baths and good food.

There used to be more.


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