Yesterday, while walking the streets of Lucky Chinatown, I recalled that, some 15 years ago, I went searching there for a pack of "five grains" (corn, peas, rice, mung bean, and knuckle peas) to place in my joss stick bowl, along with ashes. A Chinese friend advised me to ask for "kien kok", which, according to him, means "five, mixed, grains".

I went from store to store asking for "kien kok". No one understood me. I may have been, of course, grossly mispronouncing the phrase.

At one of the stores, after I asked for "kien kok", a salesman brought me canned Coke.