19: Shen Li (Min)

I watched all Shen’s computers booting up. What did booting up mean? I could not think of a link between computers and heavy duty footwear. He did something incomprehensible to them, incomprehensible to me, but probably vital to their computery well being.
“The food here is very good,” I told him. “You can ask for anything you want but give them a day or two if it is something special. By that I mean something you or I or someone not American might eat. There’s a good choice of foods available. If they are not too busy they can cook to order, their steak is very very good. Sometimes they will have a cuisine week, so people can try food from other countries. The Korean week was pretty good and they did a passable juk, with chicken. I miss porridge sometimes. What they call porridge here is made with oats, and they only have it for breakfast. And they smother it in sweet stuff. An egg would never occur to them. It’s disgusting.”
We had been walking down to the refectory, there was plenty of food available and most of it looked fresh. I had no idea how the kitchen managed it. I asked Danny on the counter for some noodles, knowing they had Ramyeon packs available, he suggested some pork that had come out of the oven a few minutes before. And an egg.