Eat soy with noodles

Welcome to the appendix. Three short classes I owe you. The first one is the one my grandmother taught me on my fifth birthday and the one I still mutter under my breath when I'm tired at a real table. It's a mnemonic. Four words. Eat. Soy. With. Noodles. That's the order of the winds.

Eat is East. Soy is South. With is West. Noodles is North. East, South, West, North. Around the table, that's the order play moves: East discards, the next player to East's right is South, then West, then North, then back to East. It's the opposite direction of a compass map and it tripped me up for years. Eat soy with noodles. Say it once before each round. You'll never get the rotation wrong.

Why drill this? Two reasons. First: only the player to East's right (so SOUTH on the first round) can call sheung off East's discard. Get the rotation wrong, you sit there trying to sheung when the rules say you can't. Second: seat wind scoring depends on knowing your own seat wind, and seat wind rotates EACH ROUND. If you can't say which wind you ARE, you can't say which of your pongs pay a wind bonus.

Three more words and we're done. Eat soy with noodles. Whisper it under your breath next time you sit down. It'll be there when you need it. Class eighteen complete.

Class eighteen complete. Eat soy with noodles — East, South, West, North.