Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Thai straw technology, and deeper problems such as bent chopsticks

There is a fabulous straw culture in Thailand. Very sophisticated. The one I'm presently clutching has the bore of a snorkel plus it's bendy too!- you can pretty much shoot anything you find in a coconut soup across the street with it.... food fights have universal appeal, right?

And speaking of bendy: bent chopsticks, what's that all about, eh? Fine when straight, oh yes, but not so good for soup, rice, or even gardening when they're bent, and there are tasty morsels of chicken-on-the-bone lurking. Fingers might be considered rude, but so is not finishing yer meal, me mum always said, beating me with a wet tea towel.

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Later, having reflected on the mystery of the bent chopsticks, and undertaken some research, these feesh have concluded that this is an early Chinese, probably Han, invention, and almost certainly the Emperor's ingenious response to famine.

Politics is relentless and unforgiving, political solutions borne of desperate necessity often surprising in their daring simplicity. Emperor Weech Wei, realising his peril, directed the nation to employ only bendy ones thenceforth, the peasantry -and his Kingdom- saved in an instant as a hundred million families sat down to dinner that night, each nosing a half dozen grains of rice up and down the side of each of their bowls for an hour, momentarily distracted from rebellion by the frustration of achieving the impossible.

3 comments:

  1. Halloe skatties. Lovely to read your news and chuckle along. You're not missing much this side. CT is back in its business as usual routine after the slow winter school hols. Take good care and enjoy! Liefde dien x

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  2. Jeez, sounds like you are having an awesome time! So pleased to hear you've signed up for a thai cooking course - yay - looking forward to sampling your trials back home. Give an elephant a few bananas from me please. Missing you guys! xx Kerry

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  3. OK! Thai massage and massaman curry party at ours on September 27th. Who's in?

    xx

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