QUICK LITTLE FELLOWS

It has been a very long time since I had home-made jook. Or, for that matter, home-made darn-well anything, other than the weird late-night snacks I prepare for myself.
Grazing in Chinatown for pastries, jook, and noodle soup – which describes my dining habits now – was briefly interrupted by Passover.
Two seders. Good conversation, excellent food, and splendid company both nights.
Plus a matze brei feast a few days later.
But both before and after that I haven’t really dined.
A proper meal requires diversity; it isn’t just a bowl of noodles with vegetable matter and protein added.
And more than that, eating well depends on company.
Cheerful and considerate co-eaters.

To put that differently, supper means four chopsticks in play. Not two. Four.
At least four, possible more than four.
Maybe six, even eight or nine.
But, as a minimum, four.

If using forks, half that number. And be wary of stab wounds.


FAAI-JI  筷子

The term faai-ji (筷子) is a fairly modern construction, utilizing the word for 'quick' (快) with the bamboo radical (竹) on top to create a separate character, and followed postfixally by ji (子) to make a noun.
A pair of chopsticks is 一對筷子 (yat dui faai-ji: 'one matched set of chopsticks') or 一雙 (yat seung: 'a pair').
The single item is enumerated with 'gan' (根). So "yat gan faai-ji" (一根筷子) is merely one chopstick, while "leung gan faai-ji" (兩根筷子) is properly yat dui (一對).
你明唔明呀?
The older term 'chyu' (箸) is still used in Japan, and also among one or two Chinese linguistic groups that didn't get the memo.
You might see it in writing, as it is still more correct and fully vouched. But it is seldom used in speech, except among the Japanese (和) and Min (閩).
噉,你識用筷子嗎?

SIK-FAN  食飯

Cooking a good meal for oneself is both pointless and frustrating. In addition to being very much like drinking liquor alone - a dangerous first leap towards alcoholism - it means looking at leftovers in the fridge the next day, and realizing that there are hardly any good memories attached to the dishes. How depressing!
.....It seems an awful lot.   Why did I cook so much?   And that fish was too bony, and is now past its prime.
Shortly after those thoughts you realize that few markets in this day and age sell a single chop, and there's stuff in the freezer you haven't looked at in ages. Shopping for one person is hard, far far better to simply go across the hill and enjoy the bright lights and noise.

I'm glad I know how to use chopsticks.
All good things come in pairs. Or as matched sets.
Nowadays I rarely talk while eating.
But I've gotten much better at listening.

On a related note, this afternoon I happened to sit at the same table as a young father and his infant, and ended up hearing a patient conversation in Mandarin about little shrimp bonnets (蝦餃) and rolled sheet noodle (腸粉). Judging by the gentleness of his father, that little boy is very lucky and will have a wonderful childhood.
Plus he has a truly splendid example to grow up being like.

I enjoyed my meal very much.


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================