The Chinese all follow a certain set of strict health rules that have essentially become second nature. One with bad eyes eats fish eyes. If one's skin is bad, drink flower tea. For a rash, drink hot things to draw the fire away. Every possible consumable substance has some benefit or must be consumed at a certain time, or with something else, or only under certain circumstances. Right now, both of my brothers are getting coughs, so they must not eat salt.
However, both have a penchant for salty food, which has only been amplified since its ban. So this evening, we had two fairly salty dishes: a fish and and egg pork concoction. Its interesting, we have had these two dishes for dinner countless times, yet I have never seen either one express such passion for either one. Its usually only eaten when my host mom put it in their dishes and says “吃！吃饭！ 吃！ 快 一 点！ 快 一点！” "Chi! Chi fan! Chi! Kuai dian kuai dian!" (literally, eat, eat rice, eat, faster, faster)
Whenever my host mom would start to eat her own food and become the slightest bit distracted in conversation with me (with requires almost every bit of energy and attention from both parties) the oldest of my two brothers would snake his chopsticks past the barriers of non salty dishes, and snatch a piece of forbidden fruit. While bringing it back to his dish, my host mom would whack the ends of his chopsticks with hers, thus making the food fall from his clutches, then both pairs of black wooden fingers would kick and poke at each other, at which point my youngest brother would notice that this was a fun game and became involved. He prefers a hands-on approach, extending his fingers directly into the match and grabbing whatever. Somehow, my host mom managed to reach her chopsticks into his claws, and pull the remaining bits of what was once food out into the arena, where once again, they were fair game.
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