Two Rou Jiamou for Me

My stepson brought back two rou jiamou for me, which was kind.  Slather them up with gritty spicy sauce and pick up all the little bits that fall out and stuff em’ back in to make the last bites meatier than they’d otherwise be.  I’ve had Shanxi food more than I knew I could.  It’s the pick-of-the-litter among the bric-a-brac assortment of places there, across the street from this compound’s east gate.  I’ve only been here a week and the waitresses all recognize me.  We gotta do something else tonight. 

The news doesn’t get better.  Yesterday the Times had an article about how some idiots were questioning the CRC subway car deal in Chicago, as, well, who knows, they might be spy-subways that snoop on people as ride around on the L train.  Foolishness.  Is it so hard to see that this is hysteria?  I did a training once to a bunch of young managers from CRC who were going overseas, talking to them about leadership.  I remember telling them to be brave, these young people whose forefathers went to the U.S. to build railroads as coolies and who were now going to employ and manage Americans.  How frail the U.S. appears, unable to compete on its own two feet without crying ‘foul.’

Then, today the Washington Post has an article suggesting Chinese internet success Bytedance, the world’s largest internet startup with a $75B valuation, wildly successful in the U.S. with the brand Tik Tok, is actually an “effective weapon” of the Chinese government, because of what the choose to censor, e.g. Hong Kong protest videos.  Surely, they do censor what China Inc. deems to be sensitive content, they wouldn’t survive if they didn’t.  Nothing wrong pressing them to be more transparent about it.  But one suspects the next stop is banning such Chinese ‘weapons’ in the U.S. in much the same way Twitter and Facebook are banned in China, further balkanizing things, further bifurcating the two civilizations.  

I’d been posting things on my blog all day long.  Need a break.  Please, not the Shanxi place again.  This time we enter the mall and head to the fourth floor.  It’s late but there is still a couple sitting there in the Mexican place.  The lady back in the kitchen is still willing to serve us food.  There are a few ponchos hung from the wall, a cactus and a cowboy hat for decoration.  The music has nothing to do with Mexico.  The “avocado salad” is served without any avocados, but the Ying Li Chan Ge (chimichanga) isn’t bad.  My stepson and I though debate whether or not it’s OK to put corn kernels in the filling.   Keep them out of mine, thank you.

Monday, 9/16/19