Monday, August 31, 2015

CANADA BORDER WALL

In a presidential election race marked by ever-increasing levels of extremist rhetoric, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker recently injected a note of sanity and common-sense long missing from the debate.
By supporting the idea of building a wall along the Canadian border to keep out illegals.

For far too long, Canadians have been swarming the country, anxious to flee the excellent social services and complete health care of the worlds' biggest socialist dictatorship, longing with panting eyes and drooling hearts for the laissez faire oppression and exploitation of our labour market, where thousands of dish-washing and produce-picking-under-brutal-conditions job opportunities await!

This, of course, deprives white American college grads of the degrading prospects that they justifiably consider their birthright.


If it weren't for over-educated Canadians competing for entry-level work in the food and beverage industry or renascent and thriving triangle shirtwaist sector, American high school seniors could look forward to a long happy life of near-penury, instead of being forced to consider college and ever-growing levels of crippling debt.

This is a rank injustice. We must build that wall.

The entire country deserves to be like Wisconsin.


Now, the issue of finding large numbers of skilled workers to build that wall is a potential problem. But fortunately there is a ready supply of hard-working gentlemen from just south of here, who already have experience with gruelling hours and harsh circumstance........

It's a priceless resource.

We are blessed.



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Sunday, August 30, 2015

THE ANSWER IS "ALL OF THEM"

It has been a very full weekend. Naturally I only have myself to blame. After shvitzing like a pig in Marin County, where global warming has hit hard this year -- there is no airconditioning where I spend the working day, because cigar smokers smell bad already and consequently do not need it -- I ended up at another haunt of cigar smokers, some of whom are actually very nice people! So did I have enough sleep? No.

There was too much fun to be had.

Discussion was engaged upon. Subjects were mentioned.
Quizzical facial tics were expressed.

In order to finish the weekend's conversations, and like Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki ("Rashi") tie up the loose ends, this post is for six people:
M and R, S and M, K-Chai, and the world's cutest cigar smoker.

Exegetics are my nature. All of life is commentary.

Here are the links that clarify everything.


About Clan pipe tobacco:
OVERWHELMINGLY PUTRID
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2011/05/overwhelmingly-putrid.html
[WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2011]
The blend that inspired Dutch savagery.


About Erinmore Flake pipe tobacco:
MY DALLIANCE WITH A TROLLOP
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-dalliance-with-trollop.html
[WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008]
Tobacco equates to sex, tarts, and diseases.


About panties:
PEACHY OBSESSION
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/09/peachy-obsession.html
[FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2009]
Youth misguided. And souvenirs for those at home.


About pantie collecting:
A MILD OBSESSION WITH LACE, SILK, AND COTTON.
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2012/02/mild-obsession-with-lace-silk-and.html
[SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2012]
Good advice for someone on a quest. I can only hope that it was useful, and that it set him on the right path.


Crucial technical details:
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRENCH CUT AND HIGH CUT
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2012/11/difference-between-french-cut-and-high.html
[MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012]
A post for the aficionado as well as the feminine person looking for pointers. For something even more helpful, also read this post: an intellectual approach, in which the subject is given greater detail.


Probably a suitable cocktail for a pantie man:
HENRY DARGER; MAN, MYTH, COCKTAIL
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2014/07/henry-darger-man-myth-cocktail.html
[THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2014]
I suspect that the obsessive types who fetishize panties are all Bourbon drinkers. Bourbon drinkers are almost always associated with perverted tendencies, and many of them are Southern Sheriffs or Texans.


There's a Hello Kitty at the end of every rainbow.
Just remember that.


This post is also for Josef, who expressed worry and disturbed dismay when I revealed the depth of my knowledge. Especially when we were talking about the high heels he will wear when K-Chai buys them.
You always have to watch out for the short pudgy types.
Most of them are "that kind" of people.
And cause unrest.



AFTER WORD

When the world's cutest cigar smoker revealed today that she has a thirteen year old daughter and is already in her forties, you could have knocked me over with a feather. Good lord, I had her pegged at early thirties at best, and she looks like she just graduated high school!




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Saturday, August 29, 2015

EXISTENTIAL TRIVIALITIES

In the past five years I've probably changed somewhat more than in the previous twenty-one years. Life is a growth process, and more often than not we need to be pushed kicking and screaming forward.
Given choices, we leave some doors closed.

Five years ago Savage Kitten and I broke up. It was not my decision at the time, but the relationship was no longer working for her. Recognizing the inexorable, I yielded as gracefully as I was able.

Being a dick about it would not have been very gentlemanly.

Five years ago I lost a helpmeet. And gained a friend.

There have been positive results of that change.


GROWTH, I GRUDGINGLY SUPPOSE

Yes, I'm still not pleased at having become a bachelor again. I am not the easygoing shallower man I was when I was in my twenties, and not searching for superficial relationships of any kind.
That does not mean that I am in the market for constant companionship or an ever-present paramour.

I rather like having my own life. And I've seen too many couples stifling each other by doing everything together, where each asserts that they naturally must also do what the other likes.
She goes jewelry browsing, he comes along saying "yes dear" and acting interested. He watches the ballgame, she tries to chat intelligently about what is, fundamentally, a silly and pointless game. She squeals over shoes, he savours a cigar and a can of Coors, and both of them hide being bored to tears by the mundane inanities of their mate.
All of which eventually leads to irritability and paranoia.


If I were seeing someone again, I would want time alone. And I would expect the other person to be the same. Eating together and sleeping together is wonderful, but sane and normal people also need solitude.

A good relationship must absolutely include reading time.
And the quietness that that necessitates.
The privacy to dream.


DINNER AND THE SINGLE BEAST

Yes, I have been feeling a little down lately. It's inevitable at this time of year. But it's less than last time, and coloured by more cheerful evil.

The other day I left a Chinese restaurant giggling, because of something that happened while I was eating. You see, I was sharing a large table with three other single diners (each one of us separated by one or two empty seats). The waiter who doesn't like me served them, and after they finished their meals gave them complimentary tongseui (dessert soup; 糖水).

The waitress who had delivered my food noticed, when she was taking away the various plates, that I had not had any, and entreatingly offered to give me some. She was clearly upset that he had excluded me -- you know, I'm almost convinced that he dislikes me because white people are not ever supposed to speak Cantonese, dammit -- and I politely declined the kindness because I was full and had thoroughly enjoyed my meal.

At that restaurant, wait-staff share duties irrespective of who took the order, and who delivered the food. He's a bit of a sneering sort, and far too good to clear clutter unless he absolutely has to. The previous time he had told me they were out of yuen-yeung (coffee and milk-tea mixed together; 鴛鴦), then I saw him fixing a tall glass for another customer.

You may be wondering why I keep going there, but truth be told I love their roast goose, and the rest of the waitstaff are far better people.

The tips left by the other three single diners amounted to less than four dollars. So much for kissing arse with free dessert.

Less than four bucks!

I left a bigger gratuity than the rest of the table combined. And waited till she was at the table again before leaving, so that he couldn't pocket it.
It's petty, but I feel very good about that.


BADGER IN HIS ELEMENT

What really dissipated my funk entirely was going to the cigar bar afterwards for a post-prandial pipe full. I had a great time.

After discussing Rashi and Ibn Ezra, Eli probably thinks I'm the closest he'll ever come to meeting an orthodox rabbi who is also a complete freethinker, an entirely fabled beast indeed. A very charming Scotch-drinking Filipina who likes the smell of cigars and pipes encouraged me to please light up, she loved the aroma. A bright and perky law student who wants a Ferrari may suspect me of insanity.


And the world's cutest cigar smoker thoroughly enjoyed our chat.
Her company is utterly delightful, for a wealth of reasons.

Because of her, I stayed longer than I intended.
It was time very well spent.













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Friday, August 28, 2015

BADGER TIMES, NOW UPDATED

As I'm sure will please the Amphibian no end, along with several other readers of my blog (e-kvetcher, Archy, Mindilicious, Dusty, Gnarf, et al), the index of all my pipe-tobacco related posts has been updated to include everything written since August of 2014.


See here:
BIG HEAP OF TOBACCO
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2010/01/big-heap-of-tobacco.html


No, Hello Kitty is not entirely included, though the Hello Kitty packpack in which I carry several briars and tobaccos on Marin County days is mentioned. There's more to Hello Kitty than just smoking.


Nor are all the visits to Chinatown with a pipe detailed; the enjoyment of a fine bowlful of Virginia and Perique was incidental, those posts are not really related to the subject of the index.


Some posts betray my more, errrm, radically randy filthy mind. Tobacco is profoundly sensual, didn't you know? I would gladly recline on a bed of fermenting flue-cured leaf wearing nothing but my charming froggy boxer shorts if requested by a suitable person. Provided a pile of leaves large enough could be found. Otherwise we'd simply sprinkle her grandmother's couch with Sam Gawith, and disport ourselves thereupon.


Many posts are indicative of the neuroses which are particular to pipe smokers, the grand habit being conducive to the development of obsessions and peculiarities.

A number of essays are very informative.

Underwear is seldom present.

There is detail.


Useful search labels, for readers in a hurry:

Aromatics
Baai tabak (Maryland ribbon)
Balkan Sobranie
Blend reviews
Chinatown
Cigar-smoking cretins
Cornell & Diehl
Dunhill
Drucquer & Sons
Germain and Son
Gregory Pease
McClelland
Milk tea (港式奶茶)
Pipe club
Rattrays
Samuel Gawith
Smoking women
Tea restaurants (茶餐廳)


Naturally, there is some overlap. Several of the articles fall into multiple categories. The post about a suitable pipe tobacco for a woman shows up under several labels. Just scroll down to what you haven't seen.


Not even seven percent of my blogposts are about pipe tobacco, btw. Tea, the Dutch, food, and warm baths are much more common subjects.
Among a multitude of such.



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THE MOST OFFENSIVE THING YOU WILL SEE TODAY

If a man said any of this about women, he'd be held up to insult, outrage, and public ridicule. Yet I suppose that having a woman say this about men is considered funny. Or, by some, perfectly justifiable.

There is no way of showing how crude and nasty it is by merely selectively quoting.

So I'll just post the entire damned thing, with attribution.



How To Train Your Man
By Gayana Sarkisova, in Elite Daily
Dec 31, 2012 • 10:23am



This may sound demeaning and a bit harsh; so I don’t want you thinking I’m referring to all men as dogs. They are more like loveable puppies that need simple potty training. No matter how crass the methodology may be, the end results will likely perpetuate the making of the perfect relationship that will make all of your friends jealous.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: That right there paints the author as a monodimensional, opportunistic, and slutty sack of shit.]

As per usual I should say that not all men are inconsiderate assholes that need direction; but based on the constant estrogen fueled bitching all over the world, I’ll say that yours probably is. So, for arguments sake, I’ve complied the necessary measures every woman needs to take to train her mutt into a pure bred.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: Inconsideration goes both ways, sweetheart. Some women are selfish, self-impressed, manipulative, and insane. You seem to be the embodiment of that type.]

Before I get into the methods of training, it is important to mention that in order to successfully train your man he must never find out that you are training him. This is crucial because if he finds out, not only will it threaten your project, but it will also threaten your entire relationship.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: If you find a man who can't see through what you think you are doing, you've probably landed a dummy or a fratboy.]

Below are the methods of properly training your man:

Holding Out:

As some really smart guy (who I can’t remember the name of) once said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Meaning, every time your man fucks up, he should experience some form of punishment. Since beating the shit out of someone is illegal in this country, I’ve concluded a different and somewhat more effective solution. What better punishment is there for a man than withholding sex? I’m not telling you to use sex as a weapon … actually, yes I am.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: Should you think that's your best "weapon", it says an awful lot about you. And the basis of your relationships. Are sex and greed really the only reasons for you two to be together? If so, you are both beyond pathetic. And rather loathsomely repellent.]

Although drastic, not putting out will condition him to never repeat the same mistake twice, or at least repeat it far less. Yelling at him can be a temporary solution, but he’ll never actually understand the repercussions of his actions unless he feels truly deprived. Also, if you are feeling a little deprived and think you can’t hold out any longer, go invest in a pocket rocket.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: That type of manipulation, once it becomes a recognizable pattern, leads in a fairly direct line to a break-up. As it should. Because it says that there is no other basis for the relationship than what the woman believes she can get out of the man. There is no love or even friendship there, he's just useful, and being played for a sucker.]

Living Space:

This one is for the girls who are living with their man. Men are gross, we all know this; but in reality, they like things clean and neat just like we do. The difference is that they don’t want to lift a finger to do anything about it. So, I’m going to let you in on a secret that my mother taught me ages ago.

If you see that your man is lazy and doesn’t want to help out around the house (doing dishes, vacuuming, etc.) sit your ass down and let the house go to complete shit. Yes, it will drive you up a wall looking at the mess, but it will do the same to him. As the dishes pile up and dust collects, start mentioning how tried you are from work, or don’t feel well, or whatever other bullshit you can come up with. One of two things will happen; he will either get his ass up and start cleaning or he’ll hire someone to do it for him. Either way, you win. Repeat behavior as needed.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: Sweetheart, move out! If you are relying on him to "hire someone to do it", you are obviously looking at him in terms of financial windfall. Yes, someone has to support your spending habits as well as your spoiled brat emotional neediness, but have you considered renting yourself out to a fat elderly tycoon instead? Or two or three, just to be on the safe side?]

Lack of Romance:

When you feel that your man is lacking the romance gene, there are a few things you can do to spark the fuse. It’s a biological fact that men are competitive and all strive to be the alpha male. It’s also known that men, like dogs, aim to please. When you use these two together they can pretty much sway him to do anything.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: Quote: "men, like dogs, aim to please". Sorry, we aren't here for your amusement. Either it's a mutual endeavor, or it should be heading for break-up. It takes two to tango.]

Scenario: “Oh my god babe, you’d never believe how sweet [insert name here] boyfriend is. He did [insert action here] for her.” Most women will compare their man to other men when they are mad to try to provide a point; this will only get your man angry. However, if you compare him to other men in a neutral environment, it will spark his competitive nature and get him thinking how he can outdo the other man that you think is “sweet”.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: This is a transparent tactic far more likely to misfire than you could possibly imagine. But I encourage you to employ it, because being manipulative and whiny, more than almost anything else, is as good a reason for a break-up as any.]

Rewards are just as important:

Experience has taught women that men will always, without question do stupid shit. So in those scarce instances that men do amazing things, we often don’t comment on it in the fear of driving the behavior away. Therefore, we often forget that some of the most important training comes from praising him from time to time.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: Quote: "do stupid shit". Like blowing three thousand dollars on a handbag, or buying Jimmy Choo footwear, or smearing three-hundred dollar a quarter ounce wrinkle remover on the laugh lines (wait, does this woman have any?!? Shouldn't those be ghoulish scowl lines?), or getting entirely unnecessary plastic surgery, or acting in any way at all like Kim Kardasian and every single one of the 'Real Housewives', or throwing hissy fits in public, or ...... yes, you were saying?]

Not all training needs to be handled with punishment. If your man does something nice for you, and treats you well, don’t forget to reward him for it. Nothing has the power of influence quite like boosting a man’s ego. By rewarding him it will reinforce his behavior and likely make it a constant occurrence. Remember ladies, nothing says thank you like a steak and blowjob.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: That is probably the most disgusting thing you've said yet.]

Sucks in the sack:

I probably shouldn’t go there, but I’m going to go there. It’s such a goddam shame when a man is perfect everywhere except for where it actually matters; your vagina. It’s an even bigger shame when he has the equipment but doesn’t know how to use it. Don’t get discouraged, darling; there’s a way to fix this hot mess as well.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: Oh boy, I can barely wait. Be still my beating heart.]

Think of it this way: no trainer expects their animal to behave properly without training them to do so, right? So, if your man isn’t great it in bed, just teach him how by telling him what you want. The mistake many women make is just faking it and pretending everything is okay in fear of scaring their man away. On the contrary my dear, like I said, men aim to please. So, if you tell him (in a nice way) that what he’s doing isn’t working, there’s a 100% chance that he’ll do everything in his power to make you happy; and by happy I mean orgasm.

[BLOGGER COMMENT: And your job is to just lie there like a petulant bump on a log, because nothing is required of you, and you won't take responsibility for your own bang. You know, there's a reason men prefer the company of other men, or women who aren't romantically involved with them, and the advice above illustrates why: far less attitude, far less entitlement, far less arrogance, far less vicious bitchy manipulative behaviour, and far less spitefilled egomaniac New York princess.]

Closing thoughts:

I’m going to tell you all a little secret. Nobody’s perfect, including you. So rather than jump the gun and discard a man for his lack of perfection, take the time out to train him into becoming the man you want him to be. Also, if he is perfect, that usually means the bitch he was with before you did all the work (and that’s not a good thing either).

[BLOGGER COMMENT: Give him time to discard you instead. Because you deserve it.]

Gayana Sark | Elite.

[SOURCE: http://elitedaily.com/dating/train-man/.]



You know, it is because of women like Gayana Sark that men stay at the office rather than go home. Those people unfortunate enough to be married to such a woman, if they have the further misfortune of getting her pregnant before finding out what a shallow and putrid gene puddle she represents, will probably count the minutes till the kid is fully employed, then file for divorce and get the hell out of the marriage. Often the end comes far sooner; women like Gayana Sark are in it for what they can get, and how much they think they can control their victims. Far too often a challenge they cannot resist comes along, or a fish far too tempting to pass up.
Either they compromise themselves, or they foul their own nest.
Sharks are, in the long run, more likable.

Fortunately, most females like that are far too busy being bitches to ever settle for one man. Many of them deliberately stay single until remaining so is no longer a matter of choice.

There was an entire section of such prizes at the office. Remarkably, one or two of them got married in the last decade. And one or two men were clearly the long-suffering veterans of such situations.



Final thought: This is all frighteningly like the advice Christian women receive in some of the more conservative sects, where the smirking semblance of devout wifely obedience hides twisted vagina-based manipulativeness and marital strong-arming. Many fundamentalists never escape, and become so brainwashed that they have no judgement when it comes to sexual matters. Unsurprisingly, adultery and whoring around are rampant in such circles; the products of that environment cannot resist forbidden fruits or the taste of freedom, and are deviant from birth.
Isn't that right, mister Duggar?




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Thursday, August 27, 2015

PERSPECTIVE IS A FANFICTION REQUIREMENT; OR, WHY I LIKE VENN DIAGRAMS

As Gene says in Bob's Burgers, "what kind of maniac wakes up an hour early to write erotic fanfiction?" Tina Belcher admitted she did. Proudly.
I have a confession to make at this point. I have never written erotic fanfiction. Don't know if I even could. Not at five in the morning.
Tina has a complicated thing for zombies.
That may have some bearing.
Also buttocks.

Apparently, females will notice buttocks.

The fanny pat was invented by a woman.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. If some person of the girl persuasion were to yell "hey studmuffin, nice ass", I would assume that someone else was the target and keep on walking. No, I wouldn't turn around to see who she yelled at, or what pair of glutei maximi so excited her.
Because, after all, it's unheard of to yell something back.
A note of agreement and approval, for instance.
Yes, that welder does have great buns.
So round, so denim, so firm.
We can all agree.

Hear hear!

The buttock thing, of course, explains why all the girls are down at the football field watching practice, instead of assiduously swotting their algebra homework. Geometry and physics are much more thrilling than dry mathematical logic. The only overlap is the Venn Diagram, which is what some bottoms look like.

[The Euler Diagram is difficult to fit into this scheme. I would be keenly interested in other people's thoughts on this issue.]


Being masculine, quite naturally I have my own perspective on the rump. Unfortunately, being a single man, I never get really close enough to have a good perspective. Likewise breasts, waists, the delightful curve of the belly, thighs, collar bones, velvety skin, or small warm hands and kissy cheeks. This interferes with my ability to form an educated and informed opinion on these matters.

If I did actually get close enough, I would need to wear my glasses. My vision is perfectly fine for everything between three blocks and twelve inches away. It's those last crucial twelve inches that count. Without reading specs, I cannot tell the time, and have more often than I care to admit hit myself in the face with a teacup. Or a rice bowl. Or a coffee mug.
Stabbed myself fiercely in the cheek with a briar pipe.
And sometimes I've tried to light my thumb.

It's a lack of perspective.

I can imagine myself being smacked in the face by breasts.
Or thighs, and the delightful curve of the belly.
Small warm hands and kissy cheeks too.

There are worse problems.



If you are up an hour early, please feel free to write some fanfiction in the space provided. I'll approve it for publication, or respond to you privately, when I get back.




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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

CHASING THE DRIFTING SMOKE

One of my most favourite doleful ballads is the lament of a songbird in a brothel, as sung by Chou Hsuen. It dates from sometime during the thirties, and features three instruments: the Pipa (Chinese lute), the Erhu (Turkic fiddle), and wooden clackers (which you remember from opera performances).

The lute and fiddle are of barbarian origin, and consequently appropriate for disreputable tunes, laments of separation and exile, and the plaintive complaints of oppressed women.

The theme of unhappy femininity is classically approved.
Celebrated in prose, poetry, and song.


青樓恨 ~ 周璇 
['CHING LOU HEN']
SADNESS IN THE BORDELLO, SUNG BY CHOU HSUEN
[Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga7VDTy0dFA.]

雨聲兒潺潺,風兒送著炊煙,
獨自懷抱琵琶彈著哀怨。
人頭兒攢攢,笑聲兒聽著心煩,
睜眼顧盼,只覺得一片黑暗。

尋不到,知音的人,
找不見,找不見,同情的良伴。
只歎懦弱的人兒,在曲中時還要,
還要,還要,還要裝笑臉。

Yǔ shēng-er chánchán, fēng-er sòngzhuo chuīyān,
dúzì huáibào pípá dànzhuó āiyuàn.
Rén tóu-er zǎn zǎn, xiào shēng-er tīngzhuo xīnfán,
zhēng yĕn gùpàn, zhǐ juédé yīpiàn hēi'àn.

Xún bù dào, zhīyīn di rén,
zhǎo bùjiàn, zhǎo bùjiàn, tóngqíng di-a liáng bàn.
Zhǐ tàn nuòruò di rén-er, zài qū zhòng shí hái yào,
hái yào, hái yào, hái yào zhuāng xiàoliǎn.

Paraphrased:
Rain clatters down and gusts chase the drifting smoke,
solitarily I clutch my lute, plucking sadly;
Though the assembled guests are merry, I am troubled,
my eyes stare and find only darkness.

Searching I cannot find any one who knows my heart,
I look but do not spy a compassionate companion;
Sighing I know failure, in the middle of my song I still must,
still must, still must, still must pretend to smile.


Perhaps I ought to ask the gentleman with the erhu who occasionally plays in Portsmouth Square if he knows this tune.
This is not Budweiser music; you will not find it at a karaoke joint.
It's a veritable celebration of being alone in the world.
Besides being heart-wrenchingly lovely.

A bit old-fashioned nowadays.
Times have changed.


苦瓜豬肉炒麵
['FU-GWAA CHÜ-YIUK CHAAU MIN']

On a related note, being a single man for the last few years has meant that I have enjoyed my own cooking more often than not. Yesterday's evening meal was chopped German pork sausage with bittermelon and fermented black bean over kuanmiao oil-noodle (台南關廟油麵 'toi naam gwaan miu yau min').
Touch of garlic and ginger, small jigger apple cider vinegar (in lieu of lime juice), large squirt of Sriracha, and a drizzle of fish sauce.
It was delicious!

Many Chinese Americans do not like bitter melon, because it was a taste that they hated as children, which their mothers forced them to eat. And, growing up with MacDonalds, they had the same yearning for sweet greasy crap that their Caucasian classmates did.

Not being Chinese, I am not so cursed.

Bitter melon is available all over Chinatown at this time of year.

The single man feasts abundantly.

Yes, he bitches about his damned solitude, but he feasts abundantly.




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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

CLEAN EATING DISORDER

This blogger welcomes the new food intolerance. Particularly the trend by "concerned" consumers to avoid dairy, gluten, and animal-derived protein (meat). The reason is because such dietary paranoia inevitably leads to malnutrition, and the lord knows we do not need those obsessive mental defectives poisoning society. Or breeding.

Far better that the intolerant crowd be too wan and energy-less to leave their dens filled with macramé.

There is an Italian restaurant in Sausalito that promises gluten-free pizza and pasta. This is absurd.

Uninformed diet-gurus spouting nonsense are the new Christianity, and I want no part of it.



Go ahead and starve yourselves.


More for the rest of us.


Today I shall have pastries made by people who live better and longer than you, and think you are all nuts.






Tags: #wellness #eatclean #nourish.
Further tags: #neuroses #dingos #Vani Hari is meshugge


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BRITISH TOURIST SHOWS HOW IT'S DONE

To the grizzly white haired gentleman with the almost unintelligible Cockney accent who got up and insisted that an elderly Chinese woman sit, on the bus yesterday evening, sir, you rock.

And why is it a tourist whom I noticed doing that? Instead of the physically buff professional people from the Financial district, in the prime of their lives, and probably members of various gyms and healthclubs?

Could it possibly be that many white Americans are rather uneducated?

Come from dysfunctional families, and weren't raised properly?

Believe that decency is an artificial construct?


The explanation is probably far more mundane. They all had cellphones, or colleagues with whom to chat, whereas all he had was a banana for distraction. I am mildly allergic to bananas, so of course I noticed that.

I smelled masticated banana for twelve blocks.

Ick.


Because I do not own a cellphone, rather fervently dislike cellphones, and object to people who use their cellphone when there is no earthly reason to do so, and furthermore despise cellphone users who use their cellphones to tune out everyone else and so "do not even notice" elderly Cantonese ladies all wobbly on their arthritic pins, naturally I also registered the cellphones.

The irony is that whenever I'm on the phone, I'm probably speaking with someone who has a cellphone.

My apartment mate and I share a landline. Whenever she's talking to her boyfriend, she takes the phone into her room. Technology is so advanced nowadays that there are very long phone cords. They actually exist.
The modern age has made our lives so much easier; now, no one has to listen to their apartment mate yacking with Wheelie Boy for an entire hour, boruch Hashem.

The last time I was on the phone for over an hour was with tech support several years ago. I do not do that socially.

Despite actually being rather fond of tech support.
They're very nice people. Altogether decent folks.
Remarkably knowledgeable about Indian food.


Unlike financial district professionals on the bus.


Who probably don't know bananas.



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Monday, August 24, 2015

HASSIDS DON' TANGO

It is probably inadvisable to have coffee and watch mitzva tanz videos before bed time. Too much stimulation. My dreams were filled with music, and had peculiar things going on.

The shtreimel is a snazzy piece of headgear, and at some point a celebrity, undoubtedly female and of dubious moral behaviour, will sport one at a Hollywood event. This will not be good.

A bekeshe is not a fit garment for vigorous exercise.

White socks indicate a married man.


FYI: In Hassidic terms, the mitzvah tanz is a celebratory hippity hop in lieu of any actual vigorous movement, done by elderly rabbis, as part of a wedding celebration. They are dancing with the bride, but without touching her. She stands stock still, and a long ribbon connects her to the aged gentleman who is cheerfully and happily doing a backward-forward shuffle. It is a mitzva to dance at a wedding and increase the joy of the couple, but modesty forbids contact with the woman, and circumscribes her presence. At some point she will retire to the area where the ladies are celebrating.

At no time does the music get too lively; the arthritic joints of older guests would not tolerate it.

These are not Panjabi Sikhs. I have seen super-annuated old sardarjis energetically dancing the bhangra and having a fine old time, and the only similarities are big bushy beards.
Oh, and bronfen.

For some reason, weddings worldwide often involve a man, a woman, and alcohol.

A bekeshe is not the same as a kapote.

Beards are icing on the cake.





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Sunday, August 23, 2015

GO AHEAD -- LIGHT BOTH ENDS

This blogger is keenly looking forward to Tuesday, when I shall be off for a day or two, and at leisure. It isn't that I seriously mind catering to the several nicotine-addicted middle-aged paunchy gits ("da solid bidniz men") whom I see at work, it's that there are times when I wish to play old timey communist songs full blast just to spite them.

As you may gather, many of them are right-wing.
A few make Donald Trump look sane.


I am a total expert at insanity. It's part of my psychological toolbox, because I live in San Francisco, and know far too many cigar-smokers.
There is, in this modern day, something peculiar about the breed.

Fifty years ago smoking cigars was fairly common, and in that era even respectable SANE people indulged. That was the day and age when the only crazy people smoking cigars were elderly troll-like men with their pants cinched up to here, and trilbies on their heads.
They often reeked of tuna salad.

All those precious old dears have passed, and nowadays many tattooed freaks and foaming Republicans huff stogies. Plus, I discovered recently, chunky e-commerce pudge-pots celebrating a bachelor party.
Which is probably a good thing; the likelihood that one of their friends will be pulled away from his video game and conceivably have sexual relations with a real live flesh and blood woman must fill them with gladness.
There's hope for the tribe yet!
Procreation may occur!

Multiplication they understand. But simple addition baffles them.
Man plus woman equals does not compute.

May the force be with you, little Harry Potter. Be fruitful.
Nanoo, nanoo.


As an insane expert, I can only conclude that some of the women in this city are completely nuts. Either that, or they figure that a baby elephant seal can't wriggle very far, and can be trained to be a good monkey.

That explains the e-pudge bachelor party far better than biology.
Some women don't have a strong survival instinct.
They take unnecessary risks.


Anyhow, one more day, and then I can refresh my self among sane people. Smoke my various briars without being considered eccentric. Speak happily of voting for a Non-Cro-Magnon candidate in the next presidential election with no fear of a misguided cheroot-sucking parasite chortling about "liberals" and wetting himself with glee.

I like cigar smokers, I honestly do.

It's just that sometimes I get tired of the reek of bananas.

Or the flying poo.


Pipe smokers, such as myself, are completely sane and normal, and have very few peculiarities. I feel I must point this out. Compared even to non-cigar smokers, we are balanced, and refreshingly even-keeled.
You can introduce us to your parents. Always.









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Saturday, August 22, 2015

HOW SMALL ANIMALS GET STUFFED





















Yesterday afternoon I bought bananas for the monkeys. One small dwarf gorilla, one sock monkey, and a wily gibbon with only one leg. Urasmus (the one-legged monkey) desired the fruit all for himself, but grudgingly accepted my diktat that they be shared among the three of them.

There are over three dozen small critters in this apartment in addition to the two humans. It has always felt a little crowded. My ex has half of them in her room, and sometimes I hear their voices strenuously arguing, before the she-sheep steps in and exercises common sense. They quiet down, and eventually there's just one voice, gently snoring.

People might consider it crazy to continue living with one's former significant other after the breakup of a relationship of many years, but remarkably, it works.


I cannot imagine another person putting up with either of us as well as we tolerate each other.

She speaks with the voices of the stuffed creatures, my space look like a bookshop shagged a tobacco store and together they made a Rosemary's baby.

The stuffed creatures do not like my mess, and keep trying to steal stuff. But they are easily distracted by criticism they feel compelled to make of each other, resulting in fierce quarrels.



I like the idea of eventually having a girlfriend again, but so far there have not been any suitable candidates (and please don't refer to them as "targets", "victims", or "crazy ladies").


Sure, half of this city is female, and many of them are splendid people.....



Not all of them are searching for Mr. "Resembles-a-defective-tweedy-academic-with-enough-peculiarities-you-can-shake-a-stick-at-AND-a-reek-of-pipe-tobacco-adhering", or young master "Makes-a-damned-fine-cup-of-tea-and-then-withdraws-into-a-book-for-the-rest-of-the-evening". If any suitable feminine persons are looking for either of those two characters, I have yet to be informed of it, and possibly they are looking in all the wrong places.

A trail of cake crumbs doesn't work.
I don't eat cake off the street.

It's a big city. Peculiarity abounds. I limit my perambulation ("infesting") to the Chinatown - Northbeach neighborhoods, including Nob, Russian, and Telegraph hills, and a very small part of the financial district.
There are just too many nuts elsewhere.

Compounding the issue, I haven't been looking. Longing, yes, looking, no.
I am a realist. Very few women would be satisfied with a man who stolidly refuses to raft down the Amazon or climb Annapurna, and whose idea of an ideal date is sharing a steamed fish at a comfortable restaurant where food is far more important than décor.

Plus pie or cake. If the occasion arises.
Pastries are very important.

But that's not all! The ideal date naturally includes a walk with a pipe.
No night-clubbing, no overindulgence in alcohol, no public snogging (otherwise known as disgusting displays of affection, or canine rear end sniffing), and nothing that could even remotely be called hip.
I still believe a bunch of nice flowers is a nice gift.
Shared cappuccinos or milk-tea.
Roses or tulips.


The various stuffed creatures have more active love lives than I could possibly imagine. The small black kitty mistakenly believes that the big black spider is her paramour, and will not admit that he and the little she-sheep with the pink bows are an item. The dwarf gorilla is goo goo over the senior teddy bear. And mister Froad has not yet realized that his caddish behaviour has ended his long-standing affair with the kitten, who would far rather draw blood than play cave or sailor with him ever again. The cow is a bit of a loose woman, and tries to snag the Froad, any one of the monkeys, the orange beaver, as well as the big black spider. She is French, and therefore considers herself irresistible. As all French bovines are.
One of the Totoros (there are three of them; one is taciturn, the third is missing) is determined that we shall have either gigolos or sailors!
He grins when he says that, and sounds utterly enthusiastic.
He probably thinks both of those things are candy.

"Cinnamon gigolos are the best!"

They're sweet and spicy!


It is rarely a quiet apartment, certainly not when both of us are in.
Such as, for instance, right now.

It would get very complicated if a third human were to enter this scene. My ex has just finished arguing with Louise (the four inch tall bovine), and is resplendently indignant in a red bathrobe in the television room.
I believe the discussion was about dairy products.
That cow has NO standards.
She's 'French'.


Kindly imagine a strange young lady reclining on my bed (but properly dressed!) trying to read while this racket is going on. No book can keep one occupied for long when small furry creatures riot.

A woman of spirit and resolve would feel compelled to plunge right on in. Neither she nor I would ever get any reading done. The tiny roomies have way too much energy.

There are times when I need to go outside just to collect my thoughts;
if I remain in the apartment they will be scattered.

It would be ungentlemanly to leave a sweet thing (who is trying to read) by herself to face the conversational and social mayhem of the roomies.
She would stand no chance against the one-legged monkey or the cow.
The small black kitty would run roughshod over her.
A gallant man stands by his companion.
And faces the approaching storm.
The terrifying distraction.
Arguing animals!





Let us not even mention Hello Kitty. She's a dangerous shit disturber, AND she has opposable thumbs. I have seen her eyeing the knives.

The Froad likes to strike poses with my pipes occasionally but hasn't figured out how to use pipe tobacco, matches, and a tamper.

I must strenuously deny that I used to rob banks with the jaunty hippo. He has an over-active imagination, and isn't clued in to reality.

That's MY wallet! Keep your paws off it!

No, I shan't buy you vodka.


SANITY BREAK!

Surely you can now understand why I head into Chinatown for delicious snackipoos and warm caffeinated beverages around tea time.
It's for peace and quiet and a smoke.


Mid-morning to early afternoon, on days off, are usually a good time for novels and tea, by the way. Sometimes the crazy furballs are still asleep. And remarkably, they don't say much when my apartment mate isn't around anyway. They're plotting mayhem and anarchy for later.


Sometimes I am not a very social man.
Or just want humans around me.
Not savage furballs.







Are there any questions?

And is there any cake?



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Friday, August 21, 2015

DON'T TOUCH OUR FANCY BOX!

The internet works in ridiculous ways. Somewhere a spambot trolling for sites to seed found an old post of mine, and forwarded the link to all of its little electronic kinfolk. In consequence of which devices all over electro-golus know that my computer has a kippah.

They are presently as enchanted with that datum as they were years before with a post I had written about the Chofetz Chaim.

Unfortunately, their comments about how delightfully unambiguous my post was, and the unexpected preservesnessocity that reminded them of their old college room mate and how he was always looking into things of this nature are as transparent now as then, and easily recognized as attempts to ascertain whether coming back later to leave links to penis-enhancing chemicals or hacking popular computer games will be worthwhile.

Computers may have mastered chess. But they are not yet human.

Their little fuzzy brains don't work quite right.

Sadly, neither does mine.


OH, THE INNOCENCE!

A real reader, almost certainly flesh and blood, neither a computerized search-bot nor a lizard, forwarded a link to an essay on Mark's Smoke Blog in hopes that I might find it exciting. Probably because I have in the past indicated that I like the idea of women with pipes and cigars.

Yes, I like the idea. But not quite that way. It's the boldness and independent-mindedness of a woman choosing a pipe or a cigar that appeals to me. The image of stubbornness and spirit.
Not the actual smoking.

That's why despite there being a subset of erotic pictures on the internet devoted to women clenching a briar or posing with a lit cheroot (while possibly doing other things), those photos do not do much for me.
Especially not when there is an attempt at sultriness.

I am a clean-minded man.

Instead:

"The light outside was already fading by the time she finished writing. She went into the kitchen to fix herself a cup of strong tea, and wondered where she had left her favourite pipe. Oh, there it was, next to the pot. When the tea was ready she returned to the living room with the steaming cup and the briar, curled up in the easy chair, and grabbed her well-thumbed copy of The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era: Theology and the Art of Christ’s Passion (Cambridge University Press, 2001), and started reading where she had left off the previous night.
Almost without thinking, her small deft fingers stuffed a wad of Rattray's Hal O'The Wynd into the Comoy. As fragrant smoke drifted towards the ceiling, and twilight outside faded to darkness, the conceptions of fraught iconography in the middle ages took hold of her imagination. Oh, how she wished she had had the chance to major in mediaeval art history, rather than something so mundanely practical as biochemistry!"

You can just picture it, can't you? She's an elfin woman, probably dressed comfortably albeit at-home sloppy. The apartment is quiet, and there is no one else around, nor does she expect anyone to come home and disturb her. Her feet are probably bare, slippers kicked off so she can pull her feet underneath her in the barcalounger.

To continue:

"Crisp page after crisp page, her thoughts encompassed the magic of the tome: "the interpretations that Christian, Hrabbanus, and the anonymous exegete propose of the Barrabas episode, which express in some ways similar ideas while highlighting different portions of the story ... "
'Hrabanus' commentary, probably written in 821-822 and consisting chiefly of blocks of excerpts from Patristic sources, stresses Old Testament prophecies of the passion and its divine ordination.'
Fascinating stuff! Her brow furrowed, and the fragrance of the aged Virginia in her pipe seemed almost to recall the frowst of the feverish unwashed mobs demanding of Pilate that HE be crucified; herbal, yeasty, tangy as if with ancient sweat; manifestly the ancient world reeked."


Okay, that may be a little too detailed. But what I wish to stress is that the young lady I describe is thoroughly involved, mentally active. All senses are ringing, all burners are on. Tea, tobacco, and a book, all enjoyed in an environment where, though sexual activity might be a part of her life, there is not even a hint of that. Even food (and let us imagine that there is enough delicious charsiu noodle soup for two later in the evening) is not mentioned, despite her needing to eat at some point.

Lord knows, food excites me.

The enjoyment of good tobacco is incidental; it's just something you do.

She's probably wearing a plaid skirt that reaches slightly below the knees, which makes her seem more girlish than any PhD candidate is really supposed to be. A man's shirt, two or three sizes to large, and not tucked in, complete the ensemble; she has spectacles which accentuate her bright eyes though that is not their purpose, and her hair is slightly mussy; she scratched her head pensively several times since early morning.

Further details: The table next to her seat is one of those rickety-seeming rattan constructions, with two or three more books upon it, one of which is almost certainly a dictionary of a dead tongue. The ashtray (necessary!) is a big porcelain object with a cigar brand blazon prominently displayed (consider the irony AND common sense of a pipesmoker using that!), and the kitchen beyond the living room is rather functional and constricted, like many apartment house kitchens are. Woodwork painted white, slightly yellowed from age and fumes.

Possibly this is the second floor of a building on a San Francisco hill, overlooking an unkempt garden. Or on the street-side of the building, with trees outside.

Ficus microcarpa, purple leaf plum, gingko, red bottlebrush, chestnut, carrot wood, arbutus, quito palm....

There may or may not be a Persian carpet somewhere in the dwelling, and the hallway has a clutter of coats and shoes (sensible flats, loafers, and deck shoes).

We shall not speculate about what is or may be in her bedroom.
That must remain entirely private, and none of our business.


Like Eve, there is an apple core on her bedside table.


I might be able to suggest other books for her.


Some innocent. Some a little less so.




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Thursday, August 20, 2015

ARE WE TALKING ABOUT POTATOES?

There are times when the mature badger (or weasel) comes home to San Francisco from his job in Marin and just wants a nice soothing cup of coffee, and perhaps a foot rub. The latter might be hard to find, as I do not know any foot fetishists I would let into my apartment, but the first ought to be easy, right?
Well, coffee shops are right out; they all have wifi, and are filled with the deafening racket of people yacking on their cell-phones. My favourite hang-outs in Chinatown are closed at this hour because strangely the Cantonese don't swill coffee after dinner.

Home?

My apartment mate is Aspy, and she's got a mouth on her.

[Aspy: this means that she has Asperger Syndrome, also known as "high-functioning autism", a common affliction of geniuses and obesessed types. Basically, it means that there are flaws to her socialization. While I myself am marginally Aspy, she is a case. A dear sweet woman, brilliant and witty, but also capable of going on and on and on and on about a subject, expressing the same set of thoughts in different ways until it has been completely clarified ....... without realizing that after the third or fourth (or fifth) time it had jumped the shark, been beaten to death, had become monotonous, veered into repetition territory, started to pall, ceased to thrill, no longer engaged, acquired a matte finish, made eyes glaze over, become a ringing in the ears, started eating its own tail, paled to white noise ......']

It's that mouth.

How can two such delicious lips spew such problematic stuff?

She's currently reading a murder mystery that involves a severe woman-hating protestant preacher whose wife supports him in his in his clerical vocation. No one's snuffed it yet, but if any one gets whacked, it should be the man of god.

My apartment mate is a bit of a women's libber.

And holy Jesus does she have a mouth.

The minister is a right xxxt.

Like many such.


I used to think it was because she was Cantonese, seeing as when those people talk among themselves almost every other phrase contains a reference to 'amagehai', or a creative variant of burying someone or slaughtering their whole family, but I've since then recognized that even if she weren't Cantonese there would be still be buckets of appalling stuff coming out of her mouth.


She and I used to be a couple (that ended five years ago), and during the years that we were in that kind of relationship it sometimes bothered me that once she had gone off on a tangent it was hard to change the subject back to something more mutually appealing. Honest, sweetheart, I did not need to hear then about your crazy bitch boss and her reprehensible attitude towards whatever the heck it was for forty minutes, just like right now when I would rather not discuss the misogyny of Saint Paul and the early church fathers and how they consistently misused quotes from scripture for their own hate-filled AND nefarious purposes, thus making the Christian Creed the horrible repressive and barbaric instrument of tyranny which it still is today, in all of its multifaceted byzantine ghastliness.

None of which have any connection with body fluids, menstruation, phlegm, and the peculiar symbology of blood in Nicene ritual.

Besides which, talking shxt about Christians is MY job.

I am the guilty white liberal, remember?



Yes, I did have that soothing cup of coffee. It helped me recover from the conversations I had overheard earlier in the day while in Marin. Though I'm still baffled how the subject there changed from the babies born to illegal aliens to the best way to roast potatoes (rubbed with olive oil and rosemary, oven at four hundred degrees, and I am now certain that at least one of those gentlemen is also Aspy), and how any of that related to the size of Hillary's backside (which seems quite immaterial to either the issue with illegals OR kartoffel cuisine).

Someone also brought up problematic wiring. At which point I snapped that that was precisely what illegal aliens were good for, many of them understood electricity far better than high-school graduates OR the self-entitled dildo-heads of Marin.
But the game was on, and none of them reacted.
Someone had scored or hit a homer.
Or else it did not compute.


One of these days, as a refreshing change, I would really like to have a sprightly conversation about nipples. Not with the men in Marin, as their thoughts about that subject are probably pedestrian in the extreme, nor with my ex-girlfriend and present apartment mate, because it would be thin ice as well as hugely uncomfortable.

Nipples are a subject for a good-natured private discussion.
Not a public place, and with no prying ears about.

Nipples are a fascinating subject, I think.
Better than strong coffee after work.
A perfect subject for relaxation.
Nipples are a happy word.


Nipples, coffee, and cake: The perfect way to unwind after work.




I think I'll head out to the Oxxy tonight after all. The surreal twittering of cigar-huffing bozos seems like just the ticket. I've got the day off on Friday, so getting up at eight in the morning won't be a problem.
A bowl full of Virginia flake will do me good.
Perhaps I'll have congee around noon.
With a nice fried dough stick.
And a beverage.


But unfortunately, no nipples.
Can't have everything.










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TRULY CANTONESE: 鹹魚茄子

Sometimes it distresses me that my ex is so thoroughly Americanized, despite being Cantonese from San Francisco's Chinatown, and having had all the childhood exposure to fun food. She usually eats very white.
I am not like that at all. No, I will not claim that I am Cantonese in any way. But good heavens, American Wasp Cuisine is not, strictly speaking, very interesting.
Everything with potatoes and overcooked vegetables.
Deep fry that sucker and put it on a stick.

The mature and discerning individual wants something else. Something better. Something you can eat with chili paste (sambal).

Like, for instance, dried fish eggplant. Over rice.

Gotta make it a bit saucy.


鹹魚茄子 HAAM YÜ KE JI

Ingredients (材料 'choi liu'):
About two or three Asian eggplants.
Between a half and one tablespoon dried fish (梅香鹹魚 'mui heung haam yü').
One clove of garlic, chopped.
A piece of ginger, chopped.
Half a teaspoon hot bean paste (辣豆瓣酱 'laat dau baan jeung').
Jigger of sherry or rice wine.
Dash soy sauce (老抽 'lou chau').
Cooking oil for sautéing.
The merest pinch of sugar.
A little cornstarch made pasty with water.

Cut the eggplants into thick wedges lengthwise. Heat up some oil in a wok, and fry these till gilded but no further, drain. Crumble the dried fish, and boil in a little water. When the dried fish is thoroughly softened, strain it over a bowl (reserve the liquid), and dump it into a greasy pan to sizzle, along with the ginger and garlic; when it starts smelling fried, add the soaking water, hot bean paste, and a pinch of sugar, then cook till dry. Dump in the eggplant, stir around, and add the dashes soy sauce, rice wine, and a splash of water, plus the cornstarch paste. Cook till liquids reduce to a sauce consistency, about three or four minutes.
Garnish with chopped chives, serve.

You could substitute shrimp paste (鹹蝦醬 'haam haa jeung') or fish dew (魚露 'yü lou') for the dried fish, perfectly acceptable (call it 海味茄子 'hoi mei ke ji'), but plum fragrance salty fish (梅香鹹魚) has that real sexy flavour.

And you might add ground pork at the appropriate stage.
Or preserved pork belly (臘肉 'lap yiuk').


I guess the reason why she eats so Waspy is that there are plenty of Chinese eateries near her office, whereas I work in Marin, where the nearest Chinese restaurant is Panda Express, gottenyu, and everything else is equally washed-out. I am desperate four days a week.
Actually, disappointed. Culinarily unexcited.
Marin is white cotton sponge.

乜都唔好味,無可口嘅。
清湯淡茂茂。


She also eats Indian food on occasion (yes, I introduced her to that!), but if you think about it, that too is frightfully Anglo.




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