hot mustard

I dreamt I was an event at a hotel. I was there with lots of people I knew, like it was a family function. The hotel was away from the city, near the ocean, although I couldn't see it. It was just dark there like a story ocean side might be. The cars were pulling up in the courtyard of the hotel. The courtyard had pounded dirt ground and some mechanical thing in the middle. I went to find my room and drop off my things. Then I was told I needed to change rooms. The room I moved to was very luxurious feeling. Someone had left their suitcase in there. I was talking to a friend or my mother? and said... that must be Shawn's suitcase (a cousin, but in the dream was Gwyneth Paltrow). We were not sure, but when I opened the suitcase, it had Louis Vuitton lining and the outside of the suitcase was charcoal gray cashmere and wool, so I knew it was Shawn's/Gwyneth's. I left the room to go see what the thing was in the middle of the courtard. It was like a scientific set, but the machine was based on some ancient Asian way of doing things. There were cranks, pulleys and so on moving to time. There were these huge glass containers, one stacked on top of the other. The top one was filled with cabbage and chilies and other vegetables. The next, chickens and spices and the last, some dark green leaf vegetables. The crank would take the first one and tip it in a large pot in the middle.. it was making a soup and it knew just when to put in the next vegetables. The other side, they were making some special food for the festivities. This old Asian lady said it was traditional to make this next item. They would make it look like pastry, but pastry was bad luck. This would make people not eat it, but the people that knew the truth, could safely eat it and have enough food. The part that looked like dough was a mixture of hot mustard and brown sugar. It was made into a paste and shaped to look like a face on top of the concoction of meat and other items.

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Then I dreamt I was in a store. I was supposed to work there, but it seemed no one was coming in. It was a holiday like the 4th of July. Two other workers were inside. They were sitting on a couch and not working either. I was sitting outside to watch if anyone came in. I fell asleep while watching. One woman timidly stepped through the door. I told her it was ok, we were still open. The people inside said to leave, we are not selling anything today. She left. I felt a little bad for her. I went inside and asked why they didn't let her in. They said they would close. I told them I hoped I didn't snore while I was asleep outside.