Lunch at the S&P

S&P is not a cafeteria, like the K&W or some of those other alphabet restaurants we have in North Carolina, this is a chain of fast food restaurants. 

It offers paper place mats with Disney characters imprinted on them.

That’s probably enough said about that.

One thing that we notice here is that there are more durable goods used than disposables. Even street side vendors will give you food on a real plate, with metal utensils (or chopsticks). You don’t wander off with the good china – you eat there and then give it back to them.

We have seen them washing the dishes in buckets early in the mornings as they set up the stalls.

Not later in the day, though.

It would seem this would lead toward eating one’s meals a bit earlier in the day, before the lunch rush.

While going from one place to another, Sam bought us a treat from a stall. At first, it looked like those little packages of Kleenex. It came out of the fridge, though, and when you opened it you found a damp washcloth with lemon scent.

Given the heat that prevails here most of the time, it was extremely refreshing. But where it would have been a paper towel for us, it was a wash cloth (think the bundles that you buy really, really cheap to send to summer camp with the kids).

There are green signs on the roadside in some places, probably 18 x 24 inches, that have a symbol that looks like the bottom half of the scales of justice, or maybe like 2 flower pots hanging off of a lamp post.  We learned that these mean that street vendors are allowed, and the symbol goes back to the traditional way in which these goods were transported -- in baskets on a pole over the shoulder of the vendor.

Surely nobody still does that, do they?

Turns out we were wrong.  This lady, was toting her fish off for sale.  No refrigerator.  No ice chips.  Just fish ready to go on the fire and walk away as lunch or a snack. 

As we walked through the sidewalk market, we found out that you can buy just about anything here.  It wasn't clear whether this denturist was offering the goods in his display case as an example, or these were available for fitting should they happen to meet your needs, or if they were merely examples of the quality of his work.

Fortunately, all of our dental needs are currently fulfilled and we didn't have to find out.

Amazingly enough, there were several booths like this offering partial or full uppers and lowers.

It's a different world!