Before the first soup or condiments had been delivered the waitresses were already passing out big bowls of flavorless cheap white rice. The kind of rice that is so devoid of any taste that you can taste the minerals from the water it was boiled in. The kind of rice which isn't actually considered to be food but something that it is eaten with food.

         By the time the soy sauce was on the tables I'd eaten half my bowl.

         By the time there were vegetables and meat to go with the rice I was working on my second bowl.

         The food went into my mouth and was chewed and swallowed so quickly that all the sudden, perhaps ten minutes into the meal, I felt a sudden pain in my chest caused by a traffic jam in the esophagus.

         Four bowls of rice.

         Big bowls.

         Cheap rice.

         Even at fancy places with small bowls of expensive rice I've never eaten four bowls.

         So I guess I must have been hungry.