19 - What Would You Do To Make Your Crush Happy?

----------(JADE DRAGON STEAMBOAT DIM-SUM RESTAURANT, QILIN TOWN 6:30 PM)----------

The sky had already went dark blue by the time Master Zhi, Sunny Boy, Tiny Turnip Head, Yona and Smolder had arrived at Qilin Town under Master Zhi's guidance. To show appreciation for Sunny Boy's rescue from their demise in prison, Master Zhi thought it would be best for him (and the students) to try out the top-rated Far Eastern Equestrian cuisine, hopefully avoiding the bad food poisoning experience like the kirin students had encountered in the Dragon Skyboat restaurant. For Master Zhi and the students, it was a significantly appreciative gesture to repay Sunny Boy back for the way they attempted to vandalize his vehicle. Though at first they had perceived him as a stalker who had bad intentions to ravage Miss Starlight, during their long walk to the most popular dim-sum restaurant in time, Master Zhi and the students soon came to an understanding that the so-called thug boy was just too overwhelmed with his first sensual feelings of romantic love and had a really hard time controlling his emotions. Every adult and mature creature had experienced love and failed to make a good impression on their first try, so as long as he had no bad intentions and does not target those of prepubescent age, does that make that love-struck fellow the bad guy?

As they made their way through the bustling, street-lit road of Qilin Town, the students were amazed by the many red-lanterns, various grocery markets, restaurants, salons, bookstores and many other small town businesses lined up along both sides of the stone-bricked road. Over the course of a year, a small kirin community had been developing over the far eastern side of Ponyville and had been introducing their traditions and cultures to the Western region. The most popular culture was the delicious exotic cuisine they brought from the far east and their small family-owned noodle shops, white bun stalls, tofu kiosks and tea-houses littered the streets like a rustic version of Canterlot's restaurant row. One of the most popular kirin restaurants was the Jade Dragon Steamboat restaurant chain, in which Master Zhi claims had one of the best hot-pot services in the entire Equestrian world.

Once they had entered the restaurant, Master Zhi ordered a vacant white tablecloth-laden round-table for five creatures and ordered up a special hot-pot service special. Once they were all seated at the round-table, they were each given a napkin, pair of chopsticks and forks. They then waited for a couple minutes before waiters handed them a bowl of lettuce, a couple of brown eggs in a basket, celery sticks, chopped carrots, dried yuba1 sheets, various bowls of beans, broccoli, mushrooms, sliced onions, cubed potatoes and several other savory vegetable dishes. At first, Yona attempted to consume the dishes, but then Master Zhi had to slap her cloven hand hard enough, before scolding her about waiting for the hotpot to arrive. Saddened about the fact she does not know anything about proper kirin dining, Tiny Turnip Head attempted to cheer her up by pulling out a deck of cards for her to play 'Goldfish' with. This gave the students something to do was they wait for that special hot pot. In the meantime, Master Zhi decided to add a special touch to their hotpot dinner special by ordering a special black-painted kirin cider bottle, along with a pair of glass cups for himself and his acquaintance Sunny Boy.

"Here you go, Headmaster! One tall glass of kirin cider, freshly brewed from the finest apples in the far east!", cheered Master Zhi as he poured him a nice full glass of the alcoholic sweet beverage.

"Yeah....uhh---thanks...", mumbled the down-trodden orange-sunglasses wearing Sunny Boy as he laid back on his brass-framed white-cushioned chair, pondering about what he had experienced with Miss Starlight Glimmer back at the police station.

"C'mon, let's propose a toast---TO FRIENDSHIP!", shouted Master Zhi as he raised his own full glass of kirin cider. Feeling like he had owed them a big deal for putting Starlight Glimmer in unnecessary trouble with the police, he reluctantly grabbed his full glass and clinked glasses with Master Zhi.

"CHEERS!!", cried Master Zhi before he gulped down half a glass of the sweet tangy beverage.

Finally, after 10 minutes of waiting, the hot-pot full of broth had arrived as the waiter carefully placed the boiling pot of delicious yellow hay broth. Below the cast iron pot was a magical brass intricately-embossed two-handled bowl, with its inner surface lined with blue-glowing fire crystals. With a cast from the kirin waiter's red horn, a spark of hot jettisoning blue flames enveloped from the magical pyrogenic crystals and started heating up the black iron pot above, before the hot pot was levitated onto the center of the round table.

"WOW, Yona no has seen hot pot dinner before!! Must be amazing!", shouted Yona as she stood from the ground as saw the burst of fiery upwards flame shooting up in the air.

"You really like that awesome fire show they put on, huh??", asked Tiny Turnip Head as he hovered near the edge of the round table.

"YEP!! Yona no had before see that sort of show in Yakyakistan! Me feel very excite!", shouted Yona as she clenched her raised cloven hands with wonderment.

"HEE HEE HEE, probably because you're too short to see the hot pot show on this high table! HEE HEE HEE!", teased the giggling Smolder as she showed her how Yona's eye level was below the top surface of the table.

"HEY, Yona no too short!! Me can become taller than you if Yona want!!", shouted the fat nak girl as she struggled to climb on top of the brass chair, before she was able to stand firm on top of its seat.

Held firmly by the ring of growing blue crystals cast by the kirin waiter, the boiling yellow broth was filled to its brim with a variety of delicious savory consumables. Those include the curly ramen noodles, bok choy2, fat choy3, peas, baby carrots, leeks, white radishes, spinach, tofu blocks, asparagus and many other savory foods. To help gather as many food stuffs as they can, the pot was also equipped with wired brass ladles to help pick up bundles of chopped vegetables, noodles and other delicacies, before plopping them all down on the consumer's plate.

"Uhhh, WAITER! There's a TON OF HAIR in my soup! WHAT THE HELL!??", shouted Smolder as she fumed at the nervous kirin waiter.

"That's not hair, silly! That's fat choy!", shouted Tiny Turnip Head as he pointed at the boiling pot.

"HEY, YONA no FAT! Yona big-boned!", bellowed the insecure short fat yak as she stood on her seat.

"It means 'hair vegetable' in my language, you numbskull!", briefly explained Master Zhi as he picked up his chopsticks.

"BLEEEHH, why the hell do you even have this in a soup broth?!! It looks disgusting! Did you actually served some creature's mane as some cruel joke here??!", Smolder angrily sneered as she stared at one of the serving kirin waiters.

"It's not REAL hair, you lizard brain!! It's just a colony of photosynthesizing bacteria! You know, the micro-organisms you learn in science class?---wait, does Friendship School even HAVE a lab course??", questioned Master Zhi as he pondered on that question.

"WAIT, you mean like tiny icky buggy germs I saw on Ocellus' glass slides??! That's just makes it 10 times worse!!!", gagged Smolder as her pupils started to dilate.

"FINE, if you don't want it, then I'll eat it ALL by myself!!", shouted Master Zhi towards Smolder.

The yellow stallion master then proceeded to gather up all the black hairy delicacy from the hot-pot with his pair of chopsticks in a single circular swoop around the boiling broth. He picked up a large tuft of the treat like a wet slobbering black cotton candy ball, before he sucked down and swallowed every centimeter of these 'hairs' down his gullet and gave out a satisfactory delicious hum.

"EWWWWW, YUCK!! That almost made me barf out my lunch! Equestrians from YOUR country actually eat this stuff on a daily basis??!!", gurgled the wretched Smolder as she avert her eyes from the bizarre spectacle of that hairy chow-down.

"We don't eat it ALL the time! It's a very rare dish that is hard to harvest, so it's only eaten on special occasion, usually during the new year! Not many Far Eastern Equestrians want to eat it! I don't even want to eat it, and you don't have to if you don't want to!", explained the assuring Tiny Turnip Head as he patted on Smolder's back gently.

"STILL, does he HAVE to eat it right in front of us??!! I mean, it's SOO---hairy!!", Smolder continued to gag and shudder at the mere thought of eating so much hairy vegetables.

"HEY, I don't complain about your dragon kin eating hard gems, even if the thought of it makes my gums bleed in my imagination!", shouted Master Zhi as he pointed out the little dragon girls' hypocrisy

"UUUGGGHHH, touché...", grunted the defeated Smolder as she slouched down from her seat.

"NO TALKING!! MORE EATING!!", shouted Yona before she proceeded to pick up every piece of food from the hot pot as taking it down into her slobbering mouth.

"Hey, don't hog up all the tofu skins!!", shouted Tiny Turnip Head as he raced against Yona for all the delicious vegetables and noodles in the hot pot.

"Look, I did the favor of eating all that fat choy for you! Eat up to regain your fire-breathing fuel, before your friends takes up ALL the good stuff, okay??!", ordered Master Zhi before he picked up a piece of yuba skin and dipped it into the hot pot.

"Yeeaahhh, THANKS....maybe next time when you order a hot pot special, DON'T include the throat gagging 'hair veggie'!", shouted Smolder before she dipped her brown eggs into the pot of boiling broth with her claws. Since her dragon physiology was able to handle molten lava back in her homeland, she is not negatively affected by the intense boiling heat emanating from the broth. However, she was told beforehand to wash her claws in the washroom before dinner, just in case the students end up experiencing another food poisoning disaster.

"Siiigghhh, it's not fair! She's way too obsessed over that nut case!", mumbled the upset Sunny Boy as he stared into space with his arms tightly crossed.

"Uhhh, Headmaster!", cried Master Zhi as he shrugged his shoulders. "We didn't order ANY kind of nuts to the table..."

"But if you WANT---", shouted Tiny Turnip Head. "I could order you some cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, chestnuts, hazel nuts, coconuts---!"

Sunny Boy immediately interrupted the fast-talking white pegasus boy and shouted

"NO, I don't mean THAT kinda nutcase! I meant the nutcase that Starlight Glimmer can't recall!"

Master Zhi and the students gave out a confusing "HUH?!" as they immediately stopped eating and stared at the depressed Sunny Boy.

"I---I know that I'm not the perfect romantic sort of guy....but---I just can't abandon my godfather over some random beautiful mare I barely even know...", Sunny Boy explained as he stuttered his words.

During his expressive soul searching, Yona, Smolder and Tiny Turnip Head began fighting each other with chopsticks, while arguing among each other over who gets to take the next food bit from the hot pot, while Master Zhi attempted to break up the fight and threaten to eat ALL the food if they don't stop fighting like fussy diaper-wearing foals.

"Do you realize how much my godfather had to go through to raise me into the adult stallion I am now?", questioned Sunny Boy as he pulled out and held a necklace of blackened pearls in his right gloved fist.

"When I was only a month old, my godfather was a pauper handyman who didn't have enough money to buy milk directly from the farmer's market", Sunny Boy continued on with his quiet ranting. "He was able to get a healthy cow for the free milk, but...only dear Celestia knows how he was able to procure such a pricey domestic animal like that..."

As soon as the students stop fighting and started to agree on taking turns on taking the food from the hot pot (based on the alphabetical order of their names), they soon began to enjoy their hearty meals as they quickly took each food bit from the hot yellow hay broth. After a brief talk with Master Zhi, they soon realized they could also dip the raw vegetables and eggs into the hot pot and wait for them to simmer into a hot food bit, thereby adding more extra savory supply of deliciousness to their broth.

"And there's more to this past story that my godfather told me of...", continued Sunny Boy as he stared at his plate of dried yuba sheets. "He also didn't have money in his stash to buy me proper diapers"

Master Zhi and his students suddenly stopped eating all together once again upon hearing Sunny Boy mention the word 'diaper' at the dinner table.

"Uhhhhh, WHAT?", questioned the confused Smolder before being shushed by Young Master Zhi.

"When I was a foal, my godfather would often sneak into public washrooms to gather up all the used paper towels and dirty toilet paper, before heading home with his stash to clean out the dirt for his own use.", said Sunny Boy as he used his telekinesis to pick up a pair of chopsticks.

"HHUUHHH???!!", hummed all of the other patrons at Master Zhi's table as they gaze at the spaced-out Sunny Boy.

"He would then used the money he saved to buy fresher ones for me to use as diapers", continued Sunny Boy.

"DUDE, c'mon! Not during dinner! It was bad enough for me to see the Master eat a giant hairball!", shouted the disgusted Smolder before she dipped in another brown egg into the pot.

"Is that be true??!! WOW!", shouted Yona as she gazed in wonderment of Sunny Boy's alleged life story.

"Sounds like a load of baloney! You SURE your papa's telling the truth??!", questioned Tiny Turnip Head as he held a piece of boiled yuba with his chopstick.

"He worked SO hard to raise me to who I am, that I felt like I could NEVER pay him back for all the rough hardships he had to go through!", proclaimed the strongly inclined Sunny Boy as he lowered down his chopsticks onto the table with his telekinetic magic.

"Wow, such desperation!", pitied Master Zhi as he shook his head. "AH, well! Let's get back to eating, shall we??!"

"YES SIR!!", shouted Tiny Turnip Head before he and Yona began eating from the hotpot as fast as their chopsticks and ladles could gather.

"You know, I'm starting to think this godfather must be an accomplished pathological liar, don't you think?", Smolder whispered to Master Zhi, as the yellow stallion continued to gather as much boiled vegetables with his chopsticks onto his steamy rice bowl.

"UAARRMM!!" garbled Master Zhi as he gulped down a huge piece of bok choy into his mouth. "Can't talk! Eating now!"

Quickly as he responded to her, Smolder then proceeded to join with her other peers in the indulgence of hotpot food, picking and plopping down as many noodles and random vegetables into her maw.

"Hmmm mmm, so yummy!"

"HMMM, so good! So savory!"

"Hmm, must eat more!! Eat more!"

"Yum yum yum yum yum! Delicioso!"

As every creature at the table (except Sunny Boy) continued to express their wonderful delight of their special meal, Smolder was about to take the biggest tofu block from the pot, when she suddenly felt her claw being slapped down by Yona's hard cloven hand!

"OW!! HEY!!", shouted Smolder as she rubbed her slapped claw.

Yona then proceeded to grab the boiling iron pot by the magic brass fire bowl it was sitting on. As the pot was dragged closer to her vicinity, Smolder started to strongly grab the heavy pot and drag it to herself, before Yona pulled back in retaliation. Soon, it became a screeching tug-of-war between the insatiate dragon girl and the gluttonous nak girl.

"In fact, I may have to owe him my WHOLE life to my godfather someday, for saving me from that terrible orphanage...", muttered Sunny Boy before he used his telekinetic magic to pick up a piece of yuba sheet with his chopsticks.

"Stop hogging the pot, fatass!!", shouted Smolder as she grabbed the pot to her side.

"Yona no want you taking all noodles!!", shouted the fat nak girl as she pulled the pot to her side.

"Well then, QUIT taking all the good onions!", shouted Smolder as she once again pulled the pot back to her side.

"GIRLS, shut the hell up!! Just set it in the middle and QUIT being so greedy! There's plenty of food for every creature here, all right??!", shouted the angry Master Zhi, before the girls quickly set the hot pot at the middle between their personal spaces.

"REMEMBER, sharing is caring!", shouted Tiny Turnip Head as he popped out from below between the two ladies and took another quick bite of the food bit from the pot with his chopsticks.

"Still---I do really hope----that maybe someday------I could be Miss Starlight Glimmer's devoted boyfriend", quietly muttered the depressed Sunny Boy as he levitated his yuba over the center of the table, where the hotpot originally was located. He was too distracted in his own daydreaming reality to notice that his yuba wasn't boiling in the hotpot, which was now pulled to the edge near the hungry students.

Just as he was about to take a bite of his raw soy skin meal, Master Zhi immediately clasped Sunny Boy's chopsticks with his pair and shouted, "WOAH THERE, headmaster! That yuba's still too raw for you to eat!"

"Does it really make a big difference though?", asked Sunny Boy as he pondered about whether it is moral to alter his crush's fidelity for her long-distant boyfriend, just so he could have her all by himself.

"Of COURSE it does, Mister! It doesn't taste good when it's raw! That's why you have to leave it in the pot for a few minutes longer!", shouted Tiny Turnip Head as he raised his pair of chopsticks to point at the boiling broth mix.

"More importantly, is there really a big difference between that cur and me?", questioned Sunny Boy as he pondered upon his own life morals.

"Weellll, if you really think about it, eating bean curd robes raw or boiled doesn't make THAT much of a difference. I mean, it has already been dried of all the microbes beforehand...", speculated Master Zhi as he pondered upon such possibilities of eating foods in peculiar ways outside of cuisine norms.

"FINE, eat it raw if you like! So long as it doesn't send you running for the toilet...", said Master Zhi as he quickly released his grip on Sunny Boy's levitating chopsticks as they held the raw yuba. Sunny Boy took a short look at his droppy raw soy skin dangling from his pair of chopsticks.

"BAH, I'm not hungry anymore!", scoffed Sunny Boy as he released his magical hold on his chopsticks and place them on the table. "You can have the rest of the meal for tonight...thanks anyway"

"WELL, better eat it all quick, so Headmaster can head home soon!", ordered the happily delighted Master Zhi as he sped up his eating habits and munched on as much brocolli and potatoes from the boiling hot pot.

"HOORAY!! More for us!!", cheered Yona as she ploppled down more boiled baby carrots and peas from the wired ladle.

"HMMMM, so tasty!!", muffled Tiny Turnip Head as he munched on his boiled tofu balls with his pair of chopsticks

"Best meal I had in Kirin Town!", complimented Smolder as she slurped up more noodles from the broth from her wet soggy claw. In an attempt to reach in more food stuffs from the serving dishes on the other side of the table and plop them into the nearby boiling broth, Yona positioned her right wide cloven hand onto the edge of the round table.

Then, without warning, Yona's immense concentrated weight onto the edge caused the whole table to flip over and launched every dish from the table up into the air, before falling straight down to the carpet floor and the flipped table top! Even the glass of kirin cider that was meant for Sunny Boy got tragically spilled and shattered across the floor. As for the surprised patrons, Yona suddenly fell backwards on her chair and found herself landing hard on the red carpet floor, while Smolder instinctively covered her head and duck for cover. Tiny Turnip Head though, with his instant fast wing reflexes allowed him to quickly dodge the flying dishes like a ninja hummingbird, thereby avoiding possible injuries to himself.

Every creature in the restaurant, including Master Zhi, Sunny Boy and her students were caught off guard by the catastrophic table flip that sent all of the raw foods catapulting onto the carpet floor!

After the catastrophe was quickly over, Yona found herself lying on her back with the edge of the fallen tabletop planted onto her face, while Smolder was still sitting at her seat and was completely unharmed (though she was covered in lettuce, spinach, broth liquid and yuba). Master Zhi, who was at his seat, quickly look up to the sky and saw the catapulted hot pot that was about to crash onto the ground! Fortunately, he rapidly reacted just in time to get off from his comfy seat, scooted over to the landing spot and caught the hot-pot by its brass bowl handles in time!

Feeling very devastated about what she had done, she quickly lifted up the tabletop from her face and got back on her two hooves, shoving away the chair she was sitting on, before bellowing

"OH NOOO!! Yona mess up big time----AGAIN!!"

"Don't worry, Yona!! I saved hot pot JUST in time! It's a good thing this broth didn't spill all over the carpet floor!", shouted Master Zhi as he tightly gripped onto the brass handles of the crystallized fire bowl.

"Wait a minute, isn't that still hot??!!", shouted Tiny Turnip Head as he pointed at Master Zhi's cooking hands being viciously heated by the red-hot brass handles. As soon as he realized it, Master Zhi quickly released his grip from the hot-pot, set it over the flipped tabletop and immediately places his blistering hot steamy hands onto Smolder's yellow horns!

"HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!!!!", screamed Master Zhi as he attempted to transfer the heat onto Smolder's horns.

"HEY, get your damn furry hands off my stinkin' horns!!", shouted Smolder as she yanked Master Zhi's hands out of her horns.

"You're a dragon! You can take on the intensive heat way better than ANY creature!!", shouted Master Zhi as he attempted to grab Smolder's horns again, but was stopped as Smolder grab a hold onto his wrists.

"I can't move well with you taking a deadlock hold onto my head!", shouted Smolder as she vehemently wrestled with Master Zhi, before puffing out a intimidating purple flame to force his release from her wrists.

"JAYSUS, Smolder! You're gonna burn the whole place down!!", shouted Master Zhi as he winced back away from the purple flaming breath.

"AWWW, look at the mess you made, Yona!! There's no WAY we're gonna eat all that food off the floor now!", complained Smolder as she saw allt he scattered food stuff that was thrown off the table.

"Smolder wrong! Yona can take food from ground and dip into hot pot before eating!", exclaimed Yona as she took a piece of fallen yuba on the flipped table and proceeded to dip it into the intact hot pot for a couple minutes.

"YONA! You're going to end up pooping a lot from eating food off the floor! It probably has too many icky germs on it by now!!", shouted Tiny Turnip Head as he tried to warn Yona about the dangers of food poisoning.

"Yona no wanna throw away food!! Hot water kill ALL germs! Blue horse buggy say that! Even if still icky, Yona will risk life of tummy ache to eat delicious food!", shouted Yona as she proceeded to dump in more fallen yuba into the hot pot.

"You SURE that's really worth the sacrifice, Yona??", questioned Smolder as she stared unamusingly at Yona.

Then, suddenly, it dawned on Sunny Boy. As a bright crepuscular holy ray of light was shone onto this body, Sunny Boy said to himself...

"Sacrifice?-----Of COURSE.....how could I not see it?"

He took a long pause before reaching an epiphany...

"I have to do what makes Miss Starlight Glimmer happy, not what makes ME happy. As long as Miss Starlight Glimmer is living her fullest life, I will sacrifice everything in my life for the mare I love so much, even giving up my pursuit for her. If she really wants to be with that sniveling cur so much....then I'll do everything in my power to find her long-lost love and bring him directly to her..."

"For PETE'S sake, Yona!! You don't live on a farm!! Let's just pay our bill and leave!", scolded Master Zhi as he continued to wag his finger at the hungry Yona by the hot pot.

"Hey...Master Zhi, is it?", mumbled Sunny Boy as he spoke to his ear.

"WAAHH, don't scare me!", cried Master Zhi as he got caught off guard by Sunny Boy's close presence.

"I got a request for you to do. It's nothing major or criminal, all right?", said Sunny Boy as he pulled out a piece of modelling clay from his pant pocket. "If you help me, I'll pay for the damages of the table AND the whole bill for you..."

Master Zhi strangely looked onto the sunglasses-wearing Sunny Boy, but as soon as the kirin restaurant manager came rushing in and yelling to every creature about what the hell was going on, Master Zhi swiped the clay from Sunny Boy's hands and said...

"So...what do you need?"

----------(CASTLE OF FRIENDSHIP, STARLIGHT'S BEDROOM, 9:30 PM)----------

As Master Zhi was carefully levitated to the top balcony by Sunny Boy's telekinetic magic, he quietly crept around the castle on the second floor, wearing his carbide lamp cap4 to help navigate the crystalline hallways in the pitch-black dark. After lurking across the red carpeted halls for several minutes, he was able to find Starlight Glimmer's old small bedroom behind the wooden door with Starlight's name hanging on the center nail.

Laying on the green-painted cedar bed was Starlight Glimmer, who was fast asleep with her violet blanket covering her whole body. She was nicely snugged within her pink-background white-polka-dot pajamas and was grasping very tightly on the edges of her blanket, laying peacefully on her left side of the bed.

As Master Zhi crept towards her and examine his burning bright directed lamp light, he saw Starlight's key with the acrylic sun decal, hanging underneath the unlit phoenix-red lampshade by its chain. The electric battery lamp was standing top of the gray drawer, where the sleepy-eyed comforted Starlight Glimmer was facing. Slowly but surely, Master Zhi crept towards the key with as little noise as he could make with his lower hooves. Then suddenly, Starlight Glimmer shifted her sleeping position to her right side, causing Master Zhi to instantly crawled underneath Starlight's bed like a cockroach, thankfully avoiding his fiery gas light from igniting the wooden bed frame, mattress and blanket!

As soon as Starlight Glimmer had stopped moving around on her mattress, Master Zhi crawled out of his hiding place and proceeded to position the clay underneath the lampshade and press the clay against the patterned ridges and notches of the key blade, making sure he made a copied impression of the key for each side of the blade. After he was done with the job, he quickly crept his way out of Starlight's room and back towards the balcony, before signaling the grounded Sunny with a dimming and brightening of his own head lamp via gas valve turn.

Upon throwing the clay mold with the dual-sided imprints of the key blade, the street-smart Sunny Boy caught the clay with his telekinetic magic and head off into the moonlit hills to plan his next chivalrous move within the next morning.

"......SO uhhhhh, I'll-----just get back to my apartment before Starlight figures out I'm here.......yeeaaahhh, maybe I should've told him to bring him down from the balcony with his telekinesis first......"

---END

Author's Note

1. Yuba: Soybeans processed into a film-like sustenance that is often dipped in boiling broth before being served (also known as tofu skin, bean curd skin, bean curd sheet, or bean curd robes)
   

2. Bok Choy: Colloquially known as "Chinese cabbage", those vegetables do not form heads and have green leaf blades with lighter bulbous bottoms instead; popular within southern parts of Asia
   

3. Fat Choy: a hair-like colony of photosynthetic terrestrial cyanobacteria (Nostoc flagelliforme) that is eaten as a vegetable in Chinese soups; has a fineness and texture of vermicelli (literally means 'hair vegetable' in Cantonese)
   

4. Carbide lamp hat: powered by acetylene gas and often used by miners in the early 20th century