BILOUX -- BILU -- YYYUUMMMMMM!

Hey, here's a family myth on the chopping block.  In a minute it is going to be gone.  You bet!  See these guys in this picture?  I'm sure that you do.  They are called Bilu-bilu.  Pronounced Bee-loo.  There is also a word that is known to many people in French speaking North America that is spelled biloux.  This last word is a favorite word of the children of our family, even though these children have reached some fairly impressive ages.  They would not like me to divulge what those numbers really are, but I will tell you that they can be counted in multiple decades, divisible by 10.  I can also tell you that when we get together around the same table once per year, someone will always be polite enough to ask if it is now OK to talk about "Biloux?"  Now, we do not have a drunken uncle left in our family, so the nasty, daring question is always left silently under the table until one of us has the crust to bring it up.  Always a boy, of course, generally not the eldest, of course, leaving "you-know-who" out to dry.  Those of you who are not of the French Canadian, Canuck dialect persuasion have no idea what this is all about.  I have no driving inclination to tell you in graphic terms what is at hand here, but I will say that it is generally regarded as rather disgusting.  Especially at table, and especially since it usually ends with the soiled hand being wiped on the thigh part of the trousers of the practitioner of the art of relieving himself of said nasal excrement.  That having been said, I proceed to the introduction of the Bilu-bilu which is the true [I think] topic of this piece.  I even accompany it with a historically correct photograph which I leave until the very end in order to have an exciting climax to this story.  Bilu-bilu are round, slippery balls of sweet rice flour, found mixed in a glue-y syrup of sweet rice flour, sugar, sometimes slices of a tropical fruit called jack-fruit and coconut milk.  They are soft and do not lend themselves to be chewed since they stick to the teeth and require some tongue and jaw gymnastics in order to be dislodged and sent down the tube to the stomach.  So, they are to be slipped on to a spoon with some of the syrup, placed gingerly in the mouth as they are generally served hot, savored, gently massaged between tongue and teeth and allowed to slither comfortably down past the epiglottis and into the upper chamber of the stomach thereby completing a sensual. concupiscent gustatory experience of supreme quality.
I leave you then with this thought of the day.  If you live in enough countries and are exposed to enough languages, even the bad stuff you have come to loathe will be turned into something sweet and lovable.

BILU-BILU -- EVEN AUNTIE EM WOULD SAVOR THIS