A CONVERSATION LARGELY WITH MYSELF

Over the years one starts writing posts, or finds something interesting which really deserves comment, and then, halfway through the mental digestive process, sets it aside.

Herewith excerpts from drafts. In essence, these are unfinished conversations.


1. Kajun Kake   2. Bengal Slices  3. Three Nuns  4. Blood Red Moon
[An essay about popular pipe tobaccos]
The first is a zesty pressed Perique product, the second is Russ Oullette's interesting repro of a classic, the third is a Danish attempt at an English favourite, and the forth is a reprehensible aromatic.


FUN GOO
[Chinese mushrooms]
Found dried coprinus comatus fungi (雞腿菇 'gai teui gu'; "chicken thigh mushroom") at bug grass city (蟲草城 'chung chou seng'). Keen to try them. They also have hericeum erinaceus (猴頭菇 'hau tou gu'; "monkey head mushroom"), which are good to eat.


DIM SUM
[Wonderful eating]
The Lin Heung Tea House (蓮香樓 "Fragrant Lotus Pavilion") is located in the Tsang Chiu Ho Building (曾昭灝大廈), 160-164 Wellington Street at the corner of Aberdeen in Central. People fight for seats in the morning.
Which is very much worth doing if you go to Hong Kong.
Hand to hand combat, then breakfast.

Here are some things they do exceptionally well:

Breakfast:
雞球大包 Steamed Chicken Bun
蓮蓉包 Lotus Seed Paste Bun
腐皮卷 Steamed Chicken Wrapped with Bean Curd
牛肚燒賣 Siumai Made with Beef Liver
豬膶燒賣 Steamed Pork Meatball
馬拉糕 Steamed Chinese Sponge Cake
奶皇包 Steamed Custard Buns
鵪鶉蛋燒賣 Quail Egg Siumai
千層糕 Layer Cake

For dinner:
京都焗肉排 Grilled Pork Ribs
八寶鴨 Steamed eight treasure Duck
冬瓜盅 Winter Melon Soup


琵琶豆腐、金錢雞、鳳爪、醬燒骨、雞扎、霸王鴨、臘腸卷、魚翅餃、牛肉球、魚肚扎、炆斑翅、蓮藕餅、叉燒腸、綿花雞、奶黃包、釀鯪魚、糯米雞、與其他。


Troost, Flying Dutchman, Captain Black, and several Danish products.
[Peculiar pipe tobaccos that smell like cheap candy]

Arno said…
"The rotten thing about letting young attractive girls smell nice aromatic tobacco is that they then almost all the time go like: Oh! That smells nice! Reminds me of my grandfather!"

Response:
Do NOT let them smell ‘nice aromatic tobacco’. Try good natural tobacco instead, and just pray that it reminds them of their favourite professor in college, or some nice fellow student with an admirable sense of style.
Attractive aromatic girls are probably the best of both worlds.

A correspondent in Boston opined: "Real men do not gad about naked whilst smoking Clan and admiring themselves in the mirror. Real men shovel snow several feet deep. Real men hack away at ice dams and icicles bigger than they are. Real mean carry several cords of firewood in howling blizzards and subzero temperatures. Real men do not live in whingeing, self-absorbed, double soy milk latte sipping, tofu braising, earth mother channeling San Francisco."

Well now! Soy milk does not agree with my stomach. And Starbucks lattes are more than average nasty, Braised tofu stuffed with fatty minced pork, garlic ginger fish paste, drenched with sambal, qualifies as the breakfast of champions. Firewood? We have "central heating" here, this isn't England.
Snow is for wimps.

Nowadays I do not admire myself naked in the mirror. It's no fun when you're the only one doing that.



And there you have it. Tobacco. Food. Casual and depressing nudity.
Plus the weather. That's mostly what I talk about.





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