Oink! Oink! Toronto Pig Lovers celebrating
Year of the RatA 5-hour Pot Luck Lunch-a-thon! (Part 1 of 2)
On the freezing cold Sunday morning of February 10, 2008, I found myself racing up north on the city’s busiest highways heading to the hottest pot luck luncheon in town. With my left eye on the crazy winter driving, my right eye constantly glued onto the big glass bowl of just-made jiggling, colourful agar dessert (filled right up to the rim). I finally located a cosy mansion in the burbs, 25 Earl Grey Court in Richmond Hill. A gem mansion with the cleanest driveway?? I called Tsui Sun Man on my cell, “Hello, Sun, is that you? If so, can I please park on your driveway?” “Oh, yes! Absolutely, where about are you now?” “Hey, I’m right here, sitting on your driveway!” Before I flipped my cell down, in the chilly cold air, Sun stuck his neck out of his big front doors for a quick second to welcome me in.
Baby, baby, one more time! Lo and behold, he did it again! Fay Lo and his family’s surely in town, hidding in Sun’s cozy living room among the familiar Toronto faces (Ho Kit May, Cheung Kwok Ying, Lau Yuk Hing and Chui Tak Shing). “GUNG HAY, GUNG HAY, GUNG HAY FAT CHOY”, said everyone! Fay Lo got up from his comfy seat, all smiles on his HO SIC HO JU baby sun-tanned face; his beautiful wife, Vicki, and cutie-pie daughter, Juliana, all standing around him to exchange Chinese New Year greetings.* Time flies, it has been exactly a year since they last paid the Toronto gang a fun visit.
Bright red Chinese lanterns hanging down the ceilings and walls, beautiful table displays, Sun and his sweet sixteen wife, Josephine, were busy popping back and forth the kitchen and the living room in a remarkably harmonious manner. They’re such superb host and hostess. There’s fine red wine from Australia, pina colada with the touch of the tropics, the aroma of awesome freshly prepared Chinese food, such as Ho Kit May and her daughter, Christe’s best tasting Budha’s Delight, Taro Cake and Water Chestnut Cake, Red Bean Cake; Cheung Kwok Ying’s healthy stir-fried Choy Sum, my modest contribution of of partially home-made colourful agar pudding dessert, Josephine’s genuine home-made miniature shrimp cakes (HAR DOR SEE), the top-notch Form 1B student couple’s soy duck (LO SHUI duck). Lau Yuk Hing spent her whole evening defrosting and cooking that duck, and hubby Chui Tak Shing had gotten up in the middle of the night to do his theatrical carving on that famous duck. No joking, he took pride in his carving job and certainly gained his reputation on that day. As I continued to lay my eyes on the awesome dishes…………Rring! Rring! Door bell! “Will someone go get the door, please!”
“Excuse us, we are coming through!”, Lau Ki Chun’s wife, Fedelia, said softly as they walked into the house. The couple were bundled up like 2 little Eskimos, arriving with such charming smiles, delivering a hot, sizzling suckling roast pig to the party animals. “Slow, slow……..take it EEE-Zay, take it EEE-Zay..”, Fedelia, being the driver, kept talking to herself throughout her entire trip on the highways, protecting and making sure the crispy, chopped up suckling roast pig would arrive intact and still piping hot for us. Apparently, Lau Bok and wife had picked up a secret contract from Fay Lo to be his faithful, trustworthy delivery agents while he was cruising in the Antarctica. The couple did a superb job, picking up Fay Lo’s order, transporting that yummy baby from the oven of the best Toronto Chinese restaurant to Sun’s fine dining table. Somehow, that smart cookie, Fay Lo, could tell that the Toronto Gang’s made up of ‘real’ pig lovers. No kidding, we are CSA (Canadian Standards Association) certified ‘true’ pig lovers!!! Haha! We were so thrilled that he had pampered us with such a welcoming huge sizzling tasty dish. You know, when it comes to entertaining, Fay Lo and Vicki have always been utmost sincere, stylish and super generous. Lau Bok was also bringing his honest home-cooked veggie dishes to the party. I heard through the grapevine on that day that he would only cook for his Jubilee buddies, and zitch for others. What an obnoxious guy, eh? But, we’re so proud of his attitude.
The ‘real’ pig lovers kicked off their party upon the arrival of the sizzling hot suckling pig . No time wasted on introduction of such dish. All 14 of us gathered around Sun’s long table relaxingly to enjoy the most delicious hot dishes. Surprising, we were not crammed but experiencing the sincerity and intimate timeless friendship among us. Over the delicious food and drinks, we talked about everything, you name it. We didn’t really have an agenda, it was funny random talks, but millions of things popped up, spontaneously one after another. We turned Sun’s quiet kitchen into a colourful, noisy marketplace, filled with non-stop laughters for hours. Two seconds of pause followed by the next 3 min of loud laughters, that seemed to be the set pattern all afternoon. I was surprised that nobody had a dislocated jaw from opening their mouths so wide, showing all teeth and no eyes for such long hours. Obviously, we covered topics inside and beyond the old classroom doors. We were little history buffs who were busy cracking jokes, re-learning old facts and re-living the good old times. Fay Lo took us down the memory lane. He innocently served Lau Bok a few simple questions pertaining to the highlights of his Jubilee daily rituals. Stories after stories,……….Lau Bok’s frequent trips to Temple Street with the boys, Fay Lo’s unrecorded Hit and Run incident in Gym class. All the girls could remember Fay Lo’s famous sweaty white shirt spilling out of his uniform pants everyday, and how he had totally ignored the girls but had his eyes only on his orange baby in his hands all day long. Ho Kit May commented that Fay Lo was so cleverly ahead of his time, leading the fashion trend even some 45 years back with his all time wet, untugged uniform shirt. Fay Lo tried to unlock the mysteries of Lau’s interesting past, but poor Lau had to handle his fragile answers with great care, taking all kinds of detours from point A to point B, because….. Baby On Board (his wife was sitting next to him!). Haha! Mind you, we were the common thread throughout all the distinctive dialogues and vivid funny stories of the past. Everyone laughed so much that afternoon. We were engrossed in our own unique fun world of the past and our carefree happy present. As Fay Lo got more and more inquisitive about Lau’s old school days (everything you have always wanted to know but were afraid to ask), Lau chuckled, nodded and ducked his head behind his half full glass of red wine, tried to straighten his already flawless pressed shirt, his shoulders slumped at times, then stared up and down his drink, tried to come up with a decent answer. It was totally funny. He then rubbed his bare forehead to begin talking again, but Fay Lo kept on serving him with more funny scenarios and questions. Poor Lau had such a hard time to organizie and reorganize his words before they safely came out of his mouth. Again, he had to leave something unsaid because once again, Baby On Board. Haha! We just loved our class clown. He then re-routed his answer to Lee Wing Shek’s Taekwondo skills by tilting his chin to show us LWS’s endorsement on it. Surely, under his chin, we saw Lee’s engraved name, “Big Stone”. Hahaha! Then, out of the blue he started to tell us he’s got it all figured out…. the real age of one of our Jubliee’s teachers. And by doing so, he has successfully won the MAA Award (Mathematical Association of America Award). You asked me how so? Well, for more than 5 consecutive stubborn minutes, he strongly believed and even did a substantial illustration to convince us of how 57 (our average age) + 3 = 68 !!! Haha! He could actually get himself stoned before he even took a first sip of Fay Jai’s fine wine. Hey, Lau Bok, Ho Yeh! Ho Yeh! We truly knew how to have fun with our friends. It was a magic Chinese New Year party, platefuls and platefuls of good food, great company and happy hours all afternoon.
Folks, don’t go away!!. I will continue to report the other juicy half of our fun-filled 5-hr lunch-a-thon from Toronto to you. Part 2 should come out momentarily. Thanks for tuning in so far.
Picture of Toronto Pig Lovers will be shown on Part 2
Irene Tsai Yan Ying, reporting from Toronto, Feb 16, 2008
