La Mère and I hit Kim Phung for some last-minute Christmas Eve snacks. The owner tells us that the rice cakes with brown sugar that I've been craving aren't available during the colder months and that it needs to be warm for the culinary alchemy to work. We joke with him about how addictive the cakes are, while his son, maybe eight years old, looks on.
As we're checking out (pickled mango with chili flakes, small coconut pastries, some char siu bao-equivalents), the kid pops up from behind the counter and fixes us with a look.
"Is it true," he demands, "that if you sleep with your pajamas inside out and fill the toilet with ice, it'll snow the next day?"
Nonplussed, I blink at him. "Um. Did you try it?"
"Yes."
"Did it work?"
"NO." He sounds betrayed.
I have never heard this urban legend but am disinclined to do anything that might reduce the world's weirdness quotient. The counter staff are biting back grins.
"Maybe it takes more than one person. Maybe you have to get lots of people to do it with you."
The kid looks thoughtful and with no farewell takes off for the back of the store. We head out in search of boba coffees, and we make it about three strides before bursting out laughing.
"O villain! O rogue! O slave! O rascal!"
"I dare say that when I get out of this bed I shall do some deed of an almost terrible virtue." —G.K. Chesterton
2 comments:
Er, my memory of those cakes was that it was a blazing cold November day when we had them. The sweet caramel alchemy worked just fine!
I know--I thought that but didn't say it. The weather may have been a face-saving excuse. (Also left unsaid: Song Que's coffee is better, Thanh Son is the place for tofu, and Ba Le's ribs kick ass. KP is the place for caramel cakes and char siu baos.)
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