Hong Kong, food stand in the market

It is selling sugar canes and water chestnut, a combination that can be in drinks and soup in Hong Kong.

Hi there, A note. There is a panel saying 'Hot Sugar Cane' and there are two selling price listed: Five cents and Ten cents respective. In front of the vendor there is a tin can with a wooden cover. I believe there is a boiler under it. After a customer paid for the sugar cane it would be dropped into the boiling water for a minute or so. This might soften up the sugar cane a bit, thus easier for chewing. Some other observation: 1. The stall behind the guy appeared to be selling soap; 2. There are two mannequins just behind the stall. 3. The sugar cane vendor appeared to be keeping the outer skins of the canes, as well as the left over of the fibres after customers had chewed and sucked out the sugar, likely to be sold for other use; 4. There seemed to be a pile of small bamboo or wooden frames leaning on one of the mannequins; T

Hello folks,

We used to know this joke in 1950s Hong Kong as many street vendors had very limited engish words to correctly  express what they try to mean for.

At the stall selling sugar cane, say a foot-long freshly steamed one would cost a dollar each. Since the westerners doesn't understand the price in chinese, so he or she asks in english about the price. The street vendor replies in english : just One Dollar One Look!  Now the westerner becomes so upset because that is very, very ridiculous!

One needs to understand that in cantonese, the unit for a piece of foot-long sugar cane would be one  'Look'.

Funny things do happen when the West meeting the East, always!!

Tung

Greetings.  Allow me to add ... around that time while in HK, I overheard from elders that one US dollar equates $6 HKD.  Such conversation arose when they were talking about their relatives/friends in North America who sent moneyhome to help support the family, and their impression of  the buying (USD) power.

www.hkma.gov.hk/media/eng/publication-and-research/background-briefs/hkm...

I came upon the above site after trying to find out how much a HKD was worth in USD in 1940 (this photo) and kept getting the current USD equvalence of 1,940 HK dollars.  Not smart enough how to ask.

The sugar cane price tag here shows it was the cheapest food item we could buy as was deep fried dough stick.  I preferred the green skin cane which is smaller and easier to rip and chew, and the result was the same - many tooth cavities.   Regards, Peter 

Hello Peter,

Thanks for your added information

which reminds me somethings very important when learning a foreign language. One should be familiar with, at least at a small conversation level, the street shopping vocabs and slangs, inquiry about direction, time, locations & be able to get around in-city on the public transit, and how to order the food of your choice at eatery ...etc

Of course know about the exchange rate. That's what I would do to sharpen the instinct of wisdom on every possible or necessary purchase on a foreign country!

About the hot sugar cane of my time, it was like One Dollar Two or Three Look!!!..... the thick dark-red kind!!

Tung

 

Thanks Tung for the feedback.  Notice the knives in front of the sugar canes.  They would peel off the cane's tough skin when you buy, so spending 5 cents got you a lot of goods and service.

On learning English, this may sound strange but in my learning days, for some including me, one factor that held back our enthusiasm to move our mouth to pronounce clearly and speak loudly was self-conscious of one's teeth.  Dental health was not a priority and cost was beyond some families could afford (remember my sugar cane habit).  Times have changed, and we now know better.

About time (different subject), my HK teacher said when you ask people what time it is, you have to be more specific because the person might look up to the sky, take a guess and next give you a rough idea.  He said you need to say: "Could you tell me what time it is by your watch?"  For your Wednesday morning smile.

Regards, Peter