Looking For A New Dish
Chinatown. Mid afternoon. Sunny, crisp, cool. Autumnal, changeable. Harvest season is coming in, streets are busy, stalls are overflowing with unrecognizable dried herbs and creatures, plants and fungi. A Ford F250 covered pickup with three Mennonite women huddled intently around the back latch is parked in front of the giant Chinese housewares emporium. Bonnets, aprons, full length muslin dresses, whispering as they struggle to unlock the back hatch. Three different attempts, three disparate ideas gently being negotiated. Inside, aisles team with glassware, pottery, housewares, $600 blenders, an assortment of rice cookers. The wide brimmed pilgrim-like fedora dwarfs the Mennonite man's head as he pushes his cart down the aisle of mops, brooms, rat poison and wastebaskets, weighing his options for cleaning supplies. Rumspringa for adults involves retail therapy at asian owned and operated kitchen supply stores. Who knew. The next aisle over a twenty something man dressed for a Febr...