mh zh
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Ta-eem
Il romanista
Clusi batusi
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Cameroonian! Yeah, good place.
For me, it’s the Old Country Cafe in Alhambra. Not so much just the food, but for just being a homey, kick back and relax place.
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This is the place where I learned that “taro” and “fish head” sound really similar in Mandarin…
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Haha did you get fish head instead of taro?
I miss 2 of hot pot places one was near valley and San Gabriel blvd maybe?
And Atlantic and Garvey
No, thankfully not. 
I ordered in English since I don’t really speak much Mandarin (as the story makes clear). Cashier keps saying taro in Mandarin, which, for all the non-Mandarin speakers on the board, in only distinguished from fish head by the tones. I knew how to say fish head but not taro in Mandarin. So I kept saying “taro,” and she kept answering in Mandarin.
I gave up but was in my mind thinking, “She can’t honestly be thinking of giving me a fish-head smoothie?” But then she got up to go to the fridge, and I was like, “OH.MY.GOD. She really IS going to get a fish head. Is this some sort of crazy a$$ Taiwanese thing???”
But, thankfully, she pulled out a taro root. And that’s why I went to this place; they use the actual root, rather than the purple powder.
I went home asn asked my mom, “Do ‘taro’ and ‘fish head’ sound similar in Mandarin?” Her: “No… [and then pauses] Oh, well, maybe to someone stupid like you.”
Thanks, mom! What a typical Chinese story from start to finish. 
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Eat them up, yum…
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Ha great story and love the tiger mom response lol.
Not to side with your mom but I do think taro and fish head do sound pretty different in mandarin even though they are using the same base tone lol.
Not the same tone:
芋頭 (yù tou, 4th tone) is taro
魚頭 (yú tóu, 2nd tone) is fish head
Maybe I don’t have the parlance right but what I am trying to say is that the two yu’s sound very different to me even though through rominzation they are spelled with the same letters
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TaEem is gone?!
I have no doubt that, to a native and fluent speaker, they do sound different. But, um, that’s not me. 
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I do agree that the “yu” sound is identical.
Rerail to mention Belle Vie
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If he ever does a pop-up again, I’ll mention it here (did you go?). It brought back some good memories…
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Summertime and no almond jello from Needle =(
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We did go to the thing at the Draycott.
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that rent mustve been like 12k… that’s a lot of shawarma slicing
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This is my number 1 no question
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