EATING LIKE A BIRD

Often on days off I head into Chinatown for lunch at a chachanteng. At some such places people watching can be very enjoyable, such as the two ladies with their chickens one table over (Hainan chicken and Portuguese chicken), the mother and her teen daughter at the next table (the girl didn't say a word, looked like she'd rather have aburger instead, and stared at her screen the whole time), and the small birdlike lady beyond that dining alone.
Who inhaled an entire steak (鐵板牛扒) with rice and gravy by herself.

NOTE: Hainan chicken (海南雞 'hoi naam kai') is a very fresh chicken poached gently to keep the flesh from stiffening, served with chicken flavoured rice, a bowl of plain chicken broth, and some ginger mince-mashed with rendered chicken fat. And, in S'pore or Malaysia, a sambal. Portuguese chicken rice (葡國雞飯 'pou kwok kai faan') is a mild coconut curry chicken on top of rice with a little cheddar shredded cheese melted on it under the broiler. Portuguese (葡國嘅), in this context, refers to Macau (澳門 'ou mun'), where it isn't actually from, precisely like Swiss chicken wings (瑞士雞翼 'seui si kai yik') have absolutely zero connection with Switzerland.

I had the club sandwich, as I often do at that place. Which, to me, is almost the absolute quintessence of "Chinese food". Seeing as the club sandwich is offered at every single chachanteng to which I go, is never ordered by tourists or suburbanites but frequently enjoyed by little old ladies, and pairs extremely well with Hong Kong milk tea.

Smoked my pipe afterwards as is my wont. Home in time for tea. Shortly after wich my landlady came up with a box of delicious pastries for my apartment mate and me. What's amazing about that is that she often does so, different excellent bakeries each time, but remains spry, slim, and birdlike despite her endless appetite for the good buttery sweet things in life.

My apartment mate is also spry, slim, and birdlike. But she works at it.
I too am reasonably trim, but that's because I don't over-eat.


So I had a flaky jam-roll for tea.
Don't worry, it was small.



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