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They grill hamburgers, onions, fish cakes, pineapple slices in the backyard and the food is so good. Mrs. Yee surely knows how to prepare all the ingredients. At first everybody is very interested in what Mr. Yee has to say. He tells one anecdote after another, to his own amusement and to the delight of his audience. However soon everybody realizes that he’s only interested in food.
At first the guests are quite polite towards their host, but after a while the fatigue about food topics set in and the guests start to block Goh Yee’s attempt to talk about food. Realizing the general attitude, Goh doesn’t back down. If anything, it perks him up. He fights to drag other people’s topic back to food.
For a while there’s a tug of war going on. His guests are doing their best to talk about the pandemic, children’s school, where to go to find the best hairdresser for Asian hair in New Jersey, soccer games. Goh Yee, the host, tries to talk about planning a group trip for saltwater fishing and where to go to pick fresh peaches. However people are deliberately not showing interest in him, which drives Goh a little mad.
After a while, Goh discovers an opportunity. His 12-year-old son Loong is talking with Lulu, the acknowledged scholar among them, about American Revolution. Goh budges in and says,
“The American Revolution starts from tea leaves, you know?” Goh says.
“Yes, but that’s just a symbol. The Revolution is not about food and drinks.” Lulu says to discourage Goh’s food talk.
“But I don’t believe the revolutionists really dumped the tea leaves. Like what you said, it is a symbol. They just dumped the empty tea chests and carried the tea leaves back home. It’s insane to dump precious tea leaves. I just don’t believe it.” Goh says, who can’t be easily discouraged.
Nobody responds to him and after a brief pause, people are set to go back to talk about other things. Goh is a little desperate in his attempt to attract people’s attention and he says,
“Do you know what kind of food those American revolutionaries ate?” Goh asks. “Anybody knows?”
Now he gets the attention of all his six guests. Goh smiles triumphantly. And he asks the question again, but nobody can answer.
“What do you mean? They ate meat and vegetables and bread. I guess.” People are bewildered.
“Meat and vegetable? That’s too general. I am asking for the specific kind. So you don’t know. You don’t know what kind of food they ate.” Goh says. And with an exaggerated gesture, he pours himself a new cup of rice wine.
Now all eyes are on him and he starts to enjoy himself.
“Now let me tell you. And listen carefully. They ate organic food.” Goh says and gulps down the rice wine, which tastes better than any cup he has ever drunk before.
Haoyan Do 
He sounds like my aunt and uncle. They behave like this at every family gathering and we usually go out of our way to avoid them lol.
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Yes, some relatives are annoying. And your are right. Sometimes it is the annoying couple. I don’t want to say this but I have to admit that my own parents are the most annoying of all. I only hope that their annoying genes haven’t passed onto me.
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Lol my parents can be annoying sometimes too and I occasionally find myself saying/doing something they would and I have to stop myself.
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Me too. I can be as bad tempered as my mom sometimes, which really freaks me out since my whole life is a testament of living a life different from my mom.
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I get my temper from my dad but I got my stubbornness from my mum.
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😜😊😍
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I enjoyed the story. That Goh very interesting, lol. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you. Goh is an interesting guy and very focused guy.
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Goh is the kind of person introverts would passionately avoid 😅
Great story, as always!
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You are so right. As an introvert myself, I had the misfortune of being dragged into such one-sided conversations. LOL. Thank you.
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Oops! 🤭🤣
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LOL. That’s true.
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Mr. Yee does have a point. Back then tea was expensive and British merchants had to use silver to buy from the Chinese. That was part of the reason why the British started selling opium in China.
Tea is all sorts of intoxicating.
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Yes, he likes food so much that he wouldn’t want to waste any. LOL. And tea is the root cause of the Opium War. You are right.
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Goh should Blog. That way he can dominate a conversation but others do not have to listen.
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Yes, that’s a great idea for him and his friends. He’s so friendly and gregarious, but his eyes are only on food. He would drive a long distance to Maryland or Boston just for the food. It is so baffling to me.
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It makes me nervous that words and food are are two of my most favorite things!
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I think Goh may have had too much rice wine. Organic?
Is that the best he could do? Lol.
I love how you’ve wound him up in this story. Just won’t stop talking about food. Have seen a few people like him. On and on…no one really cares to listen.
Great story. 🙂
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That’s so true. Goh is such kind of people–boring and domineering and non-stop talking. He’s the kind of one topic guy. In a group gathering, a one topic guy can be a turn off. LOL.
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Mr. Yee when he wanted to convey one way openion he must not have asked tgat questions to guests. ha ha…there are people like that.
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Yes, there are people like that who will talk regardless of other people’s fatigue on the topic.
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I don’t think I would enjoy spending a lot of time with Mr. Yee.
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Hahaha, he does have the eagerness to dominate a conversation, which is rather annoying.
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