Napkins

My sainted Mother had a napkin fetish. The entire extended family and all our best friends knew about it. The kitchen had a stack of cheap Zee napkins which you were to use and a stack of napkins, one or two each, from everywhere, which you were to admire. "You writing a letter to Aunt Betty? Make sure you tuck in the napkins we saved for her from the Hard Rock in Hong Kong...There's a spot on one? Perfect. She'll love it." She was the only person I knew who reused paper towels. She was the only person I knew who could make a single paper plate last for a month. She would love the Lao ethic which regards less paper usage as being for the greater good...Except in the case of napkins. Only the better establishments have them (after all, what's the back of your hand for?!), and they're in a circular container with a hole in the top. They pull out of a roll from the middle like toilet paper in reverse. My favorite are hot pink. They have no perforations so they tear in a jagged fashion and they're single ply so they're not very sturdy or absorbent. Lao folk use them, when they're available, for any and every wipe job you might imagine in a restaurant setting. Then they toss them on the floor under their table. Aunt Betty definitely would not approve.