she doesn't mind me having dinner out, said my cousin of her mother, as long as i go home and drink soup.

these cantonese mothers are all the same! they are so insistent on soup, and soup, as far as i am concerned, is filed under bad news. cuttlefish and peanut is the worst, although i also don't like black chicken, or pork bones and red bean. melon varieties, like winter melon and hunanese ham soup, is okay, or that sharkfin gourd, or lotus root and peanut. but in general i do not like soups, not even if they have been double-boiled for twelve hours and has twenty different kinds of chinese medicinal herbs in and would add ten years to my life and cure arthritis and heart disease. i'm sure my mother and i would get along much better if she would give up trying to make me drink soup. cantonese mothers are very acceptable if not for this.