Yearning for Buffet? Let This Punny Chinese Poem Drive You Hungry!

It was Thursday, April 21st. The mind had been in a whirl for a while now, having started the day with 2 wickedly amusing lines (in Chinese!) playing in my head.

So I shared them with my boy as we walked to his school that morning. I told him: “一天不吃,饿得要命.” He seemed amused, which was always a good sign.

I’d often bounced early WittyCulus ideas of this little guy — he’s going on 11 soon — and got him to read my blog posts first before anyone else sees them. Notwithstanding the gap in our language skills, I am sure at the very least he is intrigued and gets the chance to improve his English writing 🙂

Immediately, I saw the possibility — and the satisfaction it’ll bring, thus — of adding more to those two lines to make a complete 1-to-10 kinda poem. A punny one, that is, playing with the sounds of those Chinese numbers. And most likely on the topic of food and feasting.

And so the mind fired away wild, exploring various ideas of creating a numbered sequence of witty lines. Yes, a fun and punny Chinese poem was in the making; a first for me I might add.

With that in the backdrop, I switched modes and started writing my latest blog post about letter-play. A rather short one though, which I published in the next hour or so. There’s a teaser in that one, so make sure you read it here.

Something happened afterwards, which pushed me straight into higher gear. I had just seen the latest Mediacock meme and it happened to be teaching ABCs using the local context. In their usual funny way, of course.

I thought: “This is it! They are teaching the English alphabet; why don’t I supplement by teaching numbers in Chinese, just for fun?” And so there was no turning back, once I’d flipped that mental challenge switch…

I’ll jump the gun here to show my punny Chinese poem in meme form — allow me to bathe in a little unabashed self-aggrandizement, lol 🙂

Much amusement was to be had along the way, as I worked hard to complete the poem. That thick Chinese dictionary of yonder years was beckoning — I started flipping it and learning about words and phrases which lend a hand at rhyming with numbers and bringing forth meaning coherent with the eating theme.

In fact, an idea had sparked inside the head…

Yes, I was going to put a spin on buffet eating! And there was indeed an opportunity for a fun part: sneaking out during office lunch hour to enjoy a good meal — a buffet escapade 🙂

It all came together quite fast. By the next morning, everything was polished and ready — my companion to Mediacock’s ABC lesson went online on our WittyCulus Facebook fan page. And I shared it as a comment on their meme post, so others would take notice.

Since I’m writing this blog post later, after the Chinese poem has been published on FB a few days ago, I have the liberty now to dedicate it to GoroGoro, my new-found Korean steamboat buffet — yes, buffet 🙂 — place at Orchard Road. Gorolanders and buffet lovers out there, think WittyCulus and don’t stop feasting!

In keeping with what’s popular online, I created a meme today to carry the Chinese poem, as displayed earlier. Who knows, maybe I’ll struck gold and get to experience what a viral post feels like. Yes, it’s wishful but fingers crossed, nevertheless 🙂

To recap, this is what was posted on our fan page:

And here is that same poem, my very first Chinese one, with accompanying explanations in English — nope, not quite a poem here — for better appreciation of what I wrote and intended to convey…

I hope this quirky poem brought a smile to your face. Or was that you on the floor laughing out loud?

Let me know by commenting below this post. And if you are going to GoroGoro any time soon, let me know as well 🙂

And remember to share the joy with friends, ok?