Visiting Leiyu Island, Kinmen(4)/ Charles Chuang

Visiting Leiyu Island, Kinmen(4)/ Charles Chuang After dinner, we, four men, went to the old restaurant at the village to have another tea party. Four were Chung Lung, the son, youngest brother-in-law and myself. The old restaurant was the first door which I was referred to and knocked on when I arrived at the village. Because all residents at the village named Fang and they were all relatives. The owner did see that I walked around the village late in the morning. He explained that how his father managed this restaurant. I was not a consumer that I admitted; however, I did have once or twice come to this restaurant with an officer, a captain in charge of the political affairs, to eat here. Let me explain. At big yellow fish season, the vendor would ride a bike to the village to solicit business. He only carried two large yellow fishes on the front handle. It was NT$20, equivalent to 50 cent for one. He, the captain, bought one and sent to the old restaurant immediately. At night after dinner, we would come to the restaurant to enjoy that fish. The restaurant would clean and cook it for him free as long as he gave second half of the fish to him. The owner was excellent on cooking that fish with many kinds of vegetable slice. The fish became a cuisine which could not be forgotten. It was as soft as a bean curd and yet unbelievable tasty. We had a kitchen at the battalion with many such fish presents from the civilian patients after they left the hospital and our big kitchen just could not match such skill. I mentioned this 41 years old story, the owner remembered how he helped his father to manage the restaurant until the army pulled out from the village. At the dinner, one guest was very good at drinking and also a relative, he invited the youngest brother-in-law for some additional bottom up. This poor young man whispered to the man’s ear for a pardon because he could no longer drink. The son came to rescue his sister’s husband and he was drunk as well, then suddenly there was a pretty woman across the table expressed that she would drink some for the two poor men. She is the only council member elected for the county seat from Leiyou Island. She might be the wife of a local man on the table or the owner of the old restaurant. She was very elegant. She explained to my question of how many council members elected to the county. She admissted one only because Kinmen took advantage of Leiyu for more cut of the budget. By observing her conversation, I believed that she was well learned politician with a good heart to serve. Her talk was in Amoy language, like Taiwanese, without any of the Mandarin, very fluent and no problem to express herself that I admired very much. A phone call came, we left for the birthday cake. At night, #3 daughter was concerned the drunk gentlemen and asked me to take an eye on the falling of them. She also arranged the transportation for me to get back to the harbor, to take the ferry, to take a taxi with her to the airport. It was very efficient. She lives at Chunghe nearby Yunghe where my rental flat was; therefore I could help her to carry one additional luggage and with my ticket she could buy a pack of cigarette free of tax for her smoker husband. The taxi driver was also their friend from Leiyu and took us to visit Hui, the younger daughter of the village head that I mentioned. She went out for routine business. A pretty senior lady recognized her, now I called her Yuki san because she learned some Japanese due to her husband was a chef at a Japanese restaurant. Yuki san is a tailor specializes in waiting dress. I listened to the conversation of these two ladies and was wondering how could I miss such beauty at a icy fruit shop back to the early 70’s. My friend’s wife in Taipei mentioned that the lady might be someone’s second wife at that time. Yuki san took me to a vege restaurant inside a chunghe market. The owner was also from Kinmen. She asked Yuki if she owned her house and she said yes. The immigrants from Kinmen came to Taiwan for a new life made me think of us to the United States. I admire them. This visiting to Leiyu has brought me so much memory.