DRAGON TONGUE

The great thing about several of my favourite places that have reopened is that, because they cater specifically to Chinatown and Hong Kong preferences, they do not appeal to Caucasians. Seeing as every single bus journey this week has had white people not wearing masks OR wearing them incorrectly, you can understand that despite myself being so white I glow in the dark, I have become quite racist towards whitey. If you see someone without a mask where masks must be worn, it's usually a white person. Blithely, ignorantly, and arrogantly.
Many Caucasians are irresponsible and quite unconcerned about infection.
Children, old people, the unvaccinated?
Bah, humbug.

Unfortunately I must often deal with white people.

On my days off I largely avoid them.

Typhoid Marys.



I'm rather obsessive about a few things. Besides masks. If you've read other essays on this site, you may have discovered pork chops, chachanteng environments, and pipes.

A very good friend who buys pipes off the internet, sometimes groups of them, recently gifted me a beautiful piece that needed a bit of restoration. It wasn't his shape (he's fascinated by GBD shape 9438), but he knows that I have a great affection for squatty bulldogs.
The restored pipe is shown above. It smokes very nicely.

After lunch and milk tea at a chachanteng where I have never seen other Caucasians, thank heavens, I loaded up a bowl and headed into a Chinatown alley for some quiet time. The same white people who do not eat at my type of restaurant seldom venture far into the alleys, as they fear opium, voodoo, the yellow peril, new things, the unknown, and being by themselves.

Lunch was garlic and parsley butter fillet of sole baked in aluminum foil (蒜蓉焗龍脷 'suen yong guk lung lei') with rice, and broccoli. The common Cantonese name for sole (龍脷魚 'lung-lei yü') translates as "dragon tongue". Frequently, instead of 脷 the more standard term 利 (profit, merit) is used. It's a homophone, and 脷 (animal tongue) is a strictly Cantonese term that many people can't remember how to write. I myself often write 唎 (sound, final particle) instead; the difference is the flesh radical 肉 ('yiuk', often written as 月) versus the mouth radical 口 ('hau'; often meaning that the word of which it is part is a phonetic.




AFTER THOUGHT

The most important terms in the pandemic era are 口罩 ('hau jaau'; "mask"), 佩戴口罩 ('pui taai hau jaau'; "wearing a mask"), and 番茄薄餅 ('faan ke pok peng'; "pizza").

The first two are essential for avoiding infection yourself and not passing along germs to other people, for instance children under twelve, elderly people or folks with weakened immune systems, and anti-vax idiots. The last term is what many people are eating during this period. It's convenient, can be easily ordered for pick-up or delivery, and requires no exceptional cooking abilities, AND it's infinitely variable. You can even add pineapple!


In case masks and mask wearing are unclear concepts, here's a handy video.

防疫診症室 - 口罩篇

[SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yobJIvRUzs4.]

See? It isn't that difficult! Even the two stupid elderly white women on the bus today would understand it. Try it sometime. You might like not infecting people.

Enjoy your pizza.



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