The fact that the beverage itself was forbidden to me--I cadged sips from my older brothers--only enhanced the bottle caps'authority as agents of mystery.
In the legislature on a normal day a lawmaker may have his head back, mouth open, snoring loudly in his chair, while next to him another sips from a beer-can wrapped in a piece of paper.
Even street food is being gentrified: at Quan An Ngon in Ho Chi Minh city, bejewelled ladies wash down their stuffed pancakes and hot-and-sour soup with sips of chardonnay.
Instead of drinking stale coffee from a Styrofoam cup while leaning over a salesman's desk, the Maybach customer relaxes in a rich leather chair and sips from a china cup as his virtual car comes to life on a 50-inch flat plasma screen.