When was the last time you bought a pet by the pound?
We are, I say, on an investigation.
All the tables… are filled with Vietnamese and everyone is eating the same thing. I spot an empty table under a spread of green and persuade Josh to follow me. We are, I say, on an investigation.
A young woman, also smiling, approaches us. I point to the dishes on the other tables.
“We’ll have some of that.”
Josh is worried. He has not forgotten Canton, where we went to the open-air food market. There were vegetables, fruits, rice, and sweets. Almost everything else that was for sale, except for the dried lizards on a stick (Lizard Lollipops, an idea looking for a franchise), was live. We got be the eels, fish, parrots, turtles, piglets, and baby lambs, even the bunny rabbits, but then we came to the part of the market filled with cages of live puppies and kittens. A woman was hefting three puppies onto a scale. We must have looked horrified.
“Pets,” she said. “You understand? These – pets.”
And when was the last time you bought a pet by the pound?
from Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table
by Linda Ellerbee
Image – shareski
