A visual representation of "At the Daipaidong" by Kate Rogers
WONG Chung Sing Michael
South Tuen Mun Government Secondary School
This drawing is about a girl who goes to a Daipaidong for the first time.
There is a party of flavours dancing in her mouth.
She finds the noodles amazing and reminiscent of her favourite homemade dishes cooked by her mother in her childhood.
Most people may think that one’s mother is the best cook in the world, and mum’s food is sent from above.
To the poet, although the noodles are good, they still do not stand a chance of winning when compared to her mother’s dishes.
There is nothing better than going home for a delicious meal made by her mum.
Other things may change you, but you start and end with your family.
No matter what, your family will always be there for you and support you.
Home is where the heart is.
You are always welcome home as you are loved by your family.
At the Daipaidong1
Noodles bite me back
with garlic and chilli,
singe my palate.
Take that, yearning tongue,
they whisper as they slither by.
Dumplings fold plump hands
in their laps.
At night I dream of pinching shut
the gaping mouths of perogies2,
stuffed not with pork and leek,
but cheese curds and sauerkraut3.
They dive into boiling water
to do somersaults.
Chow fan4 could easily fill cabbage rolls:
Those Holubsti5 my mother made
to line my winter stomach.
Char Siu6 is as sweet
as the crackling on her pork roast.
If she were here she’d say,
Don’t talk with your mouth full.
It isn’t clear what language
You are speaking.
She grips English syllables
carefully between her teeth—
enunciates each morsel of sound.
The instrument I hold by the throat
in Tom Lee’s Music
looks like an Er-hu7,
but could have been a mandolin.
There may be eight tones, or nine.
In Cantonese, words are sung
more than said.
Mother didn’t want me to learn
the language of her childhood.
In Ukrainian my only phrase is,
Ya ne znayu: я не знаю8:
I don’t know.
Kate Rogers
1 a casual street restaurant
2 Ukrainian or Polish dumplings
3 sour fermented cabbage
4 fried rice
5 cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and meat
6 Cantonese roast pork marinated in a sweet sauce
7 a traditional Chinese two-stringed musical instrument
8 Cyrillic script for “I don’t know.”
“At the Daipaidong” was published in Foreign Skin by Kate Rogers, p.27. Copyrights© 2015 by Kate Rogers. Reprinted by permission of the poet.