were no guidelines. As a result,
there were dupes—two car-
rot cakes, and two platters of
devilled eggs for instance—but
those days are a thing of the
past. At least, we hope so.
On a whim, we all decided to
challenge ourselves and take
lunch up a notch. One year, it
was dishes that start with the
same letter of the game month.
J for July and J as in jelly roll,
for example. This year, we chose
12 regions, threw their names
in a bag, and then picked out a
name at the end of the game.
So far we’ve cooked dishes that
reflect Great Britain, France,
Scandinavia and China; next up
is South America.
Speaking of China, Daisy Au,
who is originally from Macau
and has been playing the game
for years, taught the rest of us. It
was slow going at first and Daisy
would probably tell you that the
easiest part of the get-together
was the decision to throw in
some money each month and
help others in the community.
These monthly mahjong
get-togethers can be rightfully
called a win-win. Somebody has
a pretty good chance of winning
at least one of the 16 games
played during the afternoon and
some organization in the com-
munity will definitely benefit
from all the fun that takes place
once a month in and around
Lanark County.
About an hour from Ottawa,
Kingston and Brockville, La-
nark County is also known as
the maple syrup capital of On-
tario, but let it be known, there’s
more to Lanark County than
just maple syrup. There’s also
mahjong and four women who
love the game and giving back
to their community. ■
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