Growing Shitake Mushrooms OT OOP (was Re: SC - Mushrooms)

[Jehanne Argentee]

Etain1263 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 3/24/00 2:33:43 AM Eastern Standard Time, stefan at texas.net
> writes:
> 
> << Even the peasant eating a porridge or gruel had to have something, I
> think.  >>
> 
>  The chinese solved this problem easily:  serve "liquid" foods in a small
> bowl...pick it up..and drink it!  No utensils necessary!  (ever wonder how
> they eat egg drop soup with chopsticks??)
> 
> Etain

Grasp the bowl firmly in the left hand, the chopsticks carefully in the
right, place the chopsticks down on the table, preferably on your little
porcelain chopstick rest, or perhaps a napkin, pick up your spoon, dip
it into the bowl... .

Well, you're right, to some extent liquidy foods are eaten/drunk
straight from the bowl, but the issue is one of expedience and the
interesting fact that such foods, when hot, cool off faster at the edges
of the bowl. You can actually get a bowl of jook or congee [rice
porridge, occasionally millet] at various shops that sell such stuff,
and be out the door again, full, in under five minutes (assuming you
wanted to do that). You drink from the edge of the bowl, rotating it
occasionally as empty spaces near your mouth fill up with the hotter
stuff from underneath. By the time you've reached a full circle the hot
stuff that filled the space is now cool enough to take in (with a bit of
air to help the cooling; slurping is less of a problem for the culture;
for everyday eating it is not bad manners but a practical necessity at times).
  
But the Chinese do, and have used spoons for centuries. They just don't
eat large solids like pieces of meat or dumplings out of their soup with
them. This _is_ considered bad manners. For that they do use chopsticks,
at least as much as it's possible to generalize in a place so huge and diverse.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com