A CENTRAL TASTE

A carefully composed/assembled lunch of HK egg noodles, curry paste (咖喱膏 'gaa lei gou'), chilies, garlic, ginger, with mustard greens, fish balls (魚丸 'yü yeun'), and a beaten egg. A more thoughtful version of lapsap min (垃圾面), without Spam® or other tinned pork luncheon meat. And a hot cup of yuen yeung (鴛鴦). Essentially a chachanteng special, home-cooked.

Things are opening up tomorrow. Places will be packed.

I'm quite ambivalent about the prospect of people ditching their masks at this early stage, as seems to be happening already, and will get worse over the next few weeks in California. For one thing, I don't know where all these diseased cretins have been, and for another, I suspect we'll lose a whole bunch of the unvaxxed. While out walking earlier with some C&D Red Carpet, the only people who one hundred percent wore masks were elderly Cantonese. Who will probably continue to do so out of a sense of civic-mindedness and social responsibility.

Naturally I intend to wear a mask for the most part, except when eating or smoking. Continued social-distancing is also in the cards.

C&D's Red Carpet is Red Virginia and Perique pressed into flakes. It's almost like C&D read my mind, and seems perfectly composed for someone with my tastes (noodles, curry, chilies, bitter veggies, and fish balls).

The tobacco in the tin has a rich fruity aroma. It benefits from a little air-drying to lower the moisture content. The smoke is tangy, slightly spicy. This is a classic in the same vein as Dunhill Flake, now under the Peterson marque, but still made by Orlik as has been the case for the last two decades plus. A decent solid pipe tobacco of a type avoided by deviants, perverts, and other aficionados of candy syrup aromatics.

Somewhat later I'll put on a sweater and go out to enjoy another bowlful.
While avoiding other human beings as best I can.
For which a pipe is perfect.

Got the pipe above at the same time as the staved teak boxes made for Dunhills in Hong Kong. Not the new store that opened in late summer 2011, which like all modern iterations of Dunhill concentrates solely on luxury goods not connected to smoking or tobacco.
Hong Kong doesn't smoke so much any more.
Almost nowhere does.


I think I'll need a hot beverage once I return.

TOBACCO INDEX


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