THE WELL-STUFFED FACE

It was one of the first sunny days this year. I wandered around parts of the old neighborhood that I had not visited in ages, remembering things. That over there was where the Hakka girls from Suriname ran the family grocery store, it now appears to be a bulk rice and kitchen appliance wholesaler. This is the bar where the fat guy got stabbed; he recovered fully AND in record time, and he cannot even remember what he said to that woman.
That place didn't used be Vietnamese-Chinese..... what was it before?
Have to try it sometime.

I ended up at the new location of a familiar business, scarfing down some small items with coffee.
A tourist and her three children came in and negotiated the purchase of food, then sat down in the corner. Four identical items, four cans of coke.
How.... sad.
What is the point of eating together if you aren't going to share?
There's enough here that you can experiment.
Have a number of different tastes.

But, you know, some people aren't much used to that.
I'm sure they enjoyed their food, though.
At least, I think they did.

I'm not entirely certain about the table with old Toishanese codgers behind me either. Not 100%.
Yes, they had a selection of scrumptious items to go with their coffee, and it indeed appeared that plates were being passed back and forth. But there was an animated argument going on in which an absent party was being excoriated for his slavish adherence to Japanese merchandise, and, it was implied, 'foreign' manners, morals, and standards. The missing person had his defenders, and the resultant give and take resembled civil war. In between loud smacking sounds.
I do not understand much Toishan dialect, even though it is similar to city Cantonese, so it's impossible to reproduce any part of the argument.

However I did grasp that Japanesity was worse than acting too Western.
On that point at least there was a semblance of unanimity.
They were animated. And whoo! were they loud.
They were also sharing food and drink.
Surely they must have been happy.


得意糕點
YOU'S DIMSUM

675 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133.
Tel. 415-781-6923

咸水角, 煎堆, 芋角, 燒賣, 腸粉, 蝦餃, 糯米雞, 蘿蔔糕, 馬蹄糕, 春捲, 蛋撻, 叉燒包, 菜肉包, 雞飽 ......

Having a selection of tasty things and someone to share them with expands the pleasure of dining, there is so much more to try with another person at the table. Good company makes the food even more delicious, and vastly improves the experience.
It's fun to eat in a cheerful noisy place. Their new location is bigger and brighter than the old, and it seems the quality has improved.

As I filled my pipe, I tried listening in on the counter-woman chatting with a good friend.
Her language was more intelligible than the old guys, though at times made far less so by reason of the food in her mouth.
It was fascinating watching her stuff a meat-pao into her face, take a giant bite, then before adequately chewing, laugh and spew out a muffled response. Her friend spoke too softly to hear what she said from my table, so I have only the slightest clue what the conversation was about.
Food, possibly, as the expressions "good to eat" and "nice taste" cropped up.
Really, she should have used some of that coffee to clear her mouth.
It might not have gone well with her choi-yiuk pao.
But it would made her easier to understand.

Time fleets. One has to double-task.
Eat, drink, talk, simultaneously.
Go full tilt, woman, live life.


I'll probably go there again sometime soon. It's a much more pleasant place than the joint down the road with the frazzled grumpy waitresses, and far cleaner too.
A place to share food after a Sunday stroll.
Hypothetically.


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