Chinatown crackseed blues

After coffee in Chinatown, my friend Beth Yahp (here from Sydney to see family) and I wandered into a store full of large bags of crackseed candies, amazing piles of salted plum, lychee, and so much else. We paused at a box full of light hollow yellow objects, and wondered what they were. Spotting a woman at a computer nearby, I said, "excuse me, excuse me"; she turned and said in distinctly American English, "It is incredibly rude to ask a question of someone who is eating," which I then saw she was doing. I apologized. Beth and I turned away and were then confronted by an older woman with a Chinese accent. "What is your question?" she asked. "We were wondering what these objects are," I said. "They are fish stomachs," she responded. "What other questions do you have?" she asked, staring at me, her tone belligerent. None. We left the store.