Tang mian: noodle soup. Patrons and staff of this little roadside eatery tried to fob a spoon off
on me. Obviously, I didn't know what I was doing with chopsticks. The older fella behind me had been
very friendly at the start, and very helpful--demanding all kinds of things from the restaurant owners.
We all had a lot of fun with it. But when the noodles finally came, I handed over the phrase guide
to him only to discover his eyesight was too poor to read the small characters. A younger guy, the
subject of the next picture and the photographer of this one, took the guide and the dynamics changed
immediately. This photograph captures an expression of sadness and loss I hadn't noticed at the time.
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