THAT RICHLY DARK SAUCE

Reading matter today included Malayo-Polynesian linguistics, articles about coronaviruses, Netherlandish history, and part of Commentarii de bello Gallico by Gaius Julius Caesar. From one of those: "E-Proteine bezeichnen in der Virologie Strukturproteine, die Bestandteil der Virushülle von Coronaviren sind" (E-proteins mean structural proteins which are components of the viral envelope of coronaviruses). Which is all super exciting stuff! Yes! Yet, remarkably, while napping I dreamed of a Shanghainese place which closed years ago, long before The Bund on Jackson Street shut down. The only Shanghainese foodery in Chinatown now is a dumpling place, of which I am very fond. But Jimmy O. Yang (歐陽萬成) would be disappointed in this city.

For some reason in my dream the Shanghainese place was closed and dark but both doors were unlocked. Which has nothing to do with what I ate recently. Yesterday was something everybody in Hong Kong would know, today it was stirfried beef rice noodles with shrimp sauce (蝦醬牛肉炒米粉 'haa jeung ngau yiuk chaau mai fan'), With dollops of chili paste. Can't get more Canto-Netherlandic-Indo than that. Mie goreng, San Francisco style.
Hah, take that, Gordon Ramsey and Uncle Roger!

Half a dozen years ago my Chinese Indonesian regular care physician tried to persuade me to eat healthier. Dude, I'm a single man with Breughellian food tastes living on the edge of Chinatown. Truly healthy eating might be an impossibility. At best. There's actual food here. Like, real food. It isn't as if I'm torn between deep-fried fast food garbage and a head of lettuce, which explains by the way why people out in the suburbs become vegans.
They're absolutely desperate. I've got choices.

But I no longer eat North Indian food three times a week. Which has the equivalent of a stick of butter in every serving, not counting the lovely tandoori breads which are well slathered to boot. And it has been years since steak-frites-Bearnaise.

Jimmy O. Yang would also find me rather wanting. I've had xiao long bao (小籠包 'siu lung baau') several times but do not regard them as the be-all and end-all of gustatory delights. More partial to lions head meatballs (獅子頭 'si ji tau') and red-stew pork (紅燒肉 'hung siu yiuk'). Soup noodles (苏式面 'sou sik min'with duck on top too.
Plus melty pork fat and soy.


And, of course, everything is better with sambal.



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