CAUSE A RIOT

鹹魚茄子煲 ('haam yü ke ji pou') is a classic Cantonese dish which I am not very enthusiastic about getting my fellow Caucasians to love, reason being that many of them act goofy about eggplant already, and the dish smells a bit strange by our standards. When a rabbinic friend from the East Coast was in town several years ago he opined that something stank of skunk. "Yeah man, here in California we keep skunks as pets, and allow them in restaurants in lieu of guide dogs." He was inclined to believe me. California was a foreign place.

Things were unsettled here. Downright wrong at times.

By the way, either of the main ingredients in the name can be replaced with thick-sliced fatty pork for something equally delicious, and that may be added for extra oomph anyway.

It stands to reason that you cannot serve 鹹魚茄子煲 anywhere in the suburbs. Except perhaps Mountain View, which is largely Chinese. You need a sufficiency of Cantonese people for something like that.

Might cause a disturbance otherwise.


Salt fish and eggplant casserole.

Great with rice, and if you add sliced hot chilies on top, you won't need sambal. So we're assuming that folks at the table might be Cantonese from Malaysia, yes? Or S'pore, or Jakarta. Or Indies Dutchmen. Possibly a person of Italian ancestry I know.

Now, all of this came to mind because someone asked who was playing today, it being the superbowl. And given that I normally don't give a ratsass about the game anyway, and the SF team wasn't in it, I had no clue. My answer was "riot city against something Texas". Actually, that first indicates that I did know who one of the teams was. Philadelphia, where irrespective of the outcome fans will destroy civic property and set trash cans on fire. And even though it's presently after midnight and the game must be presumed to have ended, I haven't checked to see who won.

You are all winners, bunch of dingoes, every single one of you sportsfans.

Celebrate! Buds, hamberders, and a big BIG bag of Doritos.

Sleep late tomorrow; you deserve it.

'Murica! Freedom!



Neither my rabbinic friend nor I are sportsfans. But we both own sports-themed clothing celebrating the great achievements of orthodox yeshivoth. I'm wearing something with the respected name of one of the biggest kollels in the world right now, superimposed over a pigskin. Go team!

May the best team win.



PS.: Not relevant entirely, a recent article mentions that some of the favourite eateries of movie star Chow Yunfat are Yung Kee (鏞記酒家; Central District) for roast goose, Hoover Cake Shop (豪華餅店; Kowloon City) for dan taat, Saigon Pho (西貢真味越南粉專門店; Sai Kung) for noodle soup, Tim Choi Kee (添財記粥腸粉茶餐廳; Kowloon City) for congee and cheung fan, Tai Ping Koon (太平館餐廳; Sheung Wan) for chachanteng dishes, and Rainbow Seafood (天虹海鮮酒家) on Lamma Island for "very normal" fish dishes. This is all valuable information, though if you're not in Hong Kong it's rather beside the point when deciding where to eat.

Having seen most of Chow Yunfat's movies, I find it rather fascinating.
Please note that I do not model my dining habits on his.
But that would not be a bad idea.



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