NOT PRESUMING

After greeting the woman who works there I ordered my food, and while I sat down and arranged my coat over the chair and tobacco pipe, pouch, and a few other things on the table in readiness for a long casual smoke afterwards, she kvelled to an older couple that I spoke excellent Cantonese and was entirely self-taught. To which I naturally responded that I would not dare to presume: 喺邊度？我唔敢當。真嘅。

Quite formulaic politeness. But entirely accurate. My Cantonese is not fluent enough, it was acquired without much thought over the years, and I learned a lot of it from gangster films.
Which probably explains why my Mandarin is totally lousy.
Not nearly as many gangsters.

A perfectly unremarkable man having very normal food.
But I like dumplings. Which were on the wall.
Written in Chinese only.
九菜餃湯。

Worth pointing out, perhaps, that chives (韭菜 'gau choi') are sometimes written as "nine vegetable" (九菜 'gau choi'). It's much easier and makes things a little more complicated.

Nine vegetable dumplings (九菜餃子 'gau choi gaau ji') are very good.

Eight delightful chive and pork dumplings semi-submerged in a broth with some bright green leafy mustard stalks. Each one eaten with a small dab of chili paste. Absolutely divine.
Chopped scallion for garnish, of course.


This morning, while walking around the lower slopes of Nob Hill smoking the first pipe of the day, I sincerely wished that that eatery were much closer, instead of on the other side of the hill, and opened at the crack of dawn. Or closer and open much later. They close at six. Dumplings would be very nice after dark.

Or before it is light out.


Dumplings with that lovely ruffled fold probably do not freeze very well.
So buying some to take home for a rainy day is not an answer.



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