taman desa night market earlier
not taken today
friday evenings mean walking to the night market near my shoplot for chee cheong fun. i sit on one of two stools at the stall eating the meal that has also tofu, sesame seeds (i self-added more), sesame oil and sweet sauce (i requested less). i notice the man touching my coins/notes and then later grabbing a fistful of flattened fried tofu out from a plastic sack and stuffing it into the tub which contains the rest of the side dishes soaking in stock.
i am getting less shitty stomachs nowadays as roadside stalls have trained the intestines and stomach linings to resist bacteria that appear in very intense oily and spicey things now.
in front of me is a pirated dvd stall. last week i remember sitting at the same spot observing the sellers chat with each other in crude cantonese, "how many copies of pornography did you sell up to now?" - "so little, five like that...omg" - "omg you don't know how to manage a business, that is pathetic hahaha" - "you are right, it's so hard to survive now!" they sound carefree and relaxed, the wooden tables as their stalls easily portable, good when they receive a "smoke signal" in the form of a short text message about police inspections. as a highly networked community they remind me of a group of independent happy (simple?) nomads that move swiftly selling fake herbal produce or non-authentic gemstones.
today they closed early. a boy my age drives an old manual automobile to the front of the chee cheong fun stall and reverses slowly because more people were walking past now, in order for the other person to fold the table flat for the boot. a sharp three-point-turn erases their sight, just when i begin finishing my plate. the moment of sitting down and eating saw the evening arrive so fast, more people coming out, more dirty-hand fried tofu stocking in, and a pirated seller pack and leave. such was the calming friday evening food session, sitting on a flimsy plastic stool planted clumsily onto the wet grass/sand patch near the ditch.