brain barf… yum!
It’s just been a tough month or so and now I’m heading into finals for the summer term.
I can’t wait for this term to be over, but I’ve just got a few more weeks to hang in there.
I know I haven’t been writing, but don’t worry… I’m fine… just a little quiet is all.
And yeah, I do really, really miss my Dad.
(And my Mom, who is still in Taiwan.)
This picture was taken almost exactly a year ago, on the night of my cousin’s graduation celebration at Macaroni Grill. I got to sit between my parents; I didn’t realize that it would be the last time for that. Bro sat with all the boy cousins.
For Father’s Day last year, we took my Dad to a Chinese buffet place, the kind where they serve about 100 different kinds of food and you eat until you think you’re going to pop. This was Dad’s favorite kind of place to eat, mostly because there was a huge variety of foods he could choose from. The place we went also gave out Father’s Day gifts. Since Bro and I were treating, we went to pick up the gift for Dad. It was an “I love you” mug with a little stuffed bear inside, which I gave to Dad. It’s still sitting by the front door where he left it when we got home.
I can’t believe Father’s Day 2006 was the last time we were together as a family.
I love you and miss you so much, Dad.
Growing up in America with immigrant parents meant we ate food that my Mom knew how to make. In my lucky case, this meant Chinese/Taiwanese foods. (No matter what, the yummiest food anywhere is food made with love by Mom!) I can honestly say that until I was 18, I had McDonald’s less than a dozen times in my life.
It’s been 10 years since I’ve been back to Taiwan and one of my favorite parts of going back is the cheap and yummy food you eat off of carts. It was always trippy to go into Taipei and people would want to take me to McDonald’s or Pizza Hut or Sizzler because people thought I preferred “American foods.” I would oblige to be polite, but aside from not liking any of these places too much in first place, the “American foods” served there tasted weird. I did not enjoy the cut corn pieces on my Taiwanese Pizza Hut pizza. And the cheese on my Taiwanese McDonald’s cheeseburger always tasted too sweet. But hey, I know they’re catering to “local tastes,” so whatever. The point is, eating at a McDonald’s while travelling didn’t seem too appealing.
Fast forward 10 years and the knowledge from Will Work For Food’s post about special McDonald’s foods from around the world. Here’s a sampling:
HONG KONG
* McDonald’s sells chicken and pork burgers, fried chicken wings and nuggets. In some restaurants, a separate counter sells ice cream and desserts to pedestrians. Some restaurants have a section for the McCafé. Apart from the general menu, it also promotes some other foods seasonally or longer, like spicy french fries, the Shogun Burger (a pork bun served with Japanese Teriyaki sauce and cabbage), Grilled Chicken Burger, twisted macaroni breakfasts, salads, soups, pineapple or red bean sundae, pineapple pies, taco flatbreads with pork, beef or chicken, rice fan-tastic (a burger-like entree with rice patties in place of buns) and many others.INDIA
* Beef and pork products are not served to cater to Indian religious sensitivities. Chicken (that too, only non-Halal) along with fish are the only meat products used.
* The Big Mac is replaced by the Maharaja Mac, which was originally a mutton burger, but is now a chicken burger.
* In India, vegetarian and meat dishes are prepared in separate areas of the restaurant in respect for vegetarians, and cooks preparing vegetarian dishes wear distinctive green aprons.JAPAN
* Teriyaki McBurger: Ground pork sandwich with mayonnaise, lettuce, and teriyaki sauce.
* Ebi-Chiki Set: 2 shrimp nuggets and 3 chicken nuggets.
* Ebi Filet-O: Shrimp burger similar to a Filet-O-Fish.
* French Fries can be purchased in barbecue, seaweed, and Italian basil flavors.
* Ume Nuggets: Chicken McNuggets with sour ume sauce for dipping.
* Chicken Katsu Burger: Breaded chicken sandwich flavored with soy sauce and ginger.
* Salsa Burger: Breaded chicken sandwich with salsa,
* Koroke Burger: Sandwich with breaded mashed potatoes, shredded cabbage, and katsu sauce. Served with or without cheese.
* Tamago Double Mac: Hamburger with 2 beef patties, pepper sauce, bacon, and a poached egg. Served with or without cheese.
* Green Tea-flavored milkshakes
* Macaroni and Cheese BurgerKOREA
* Has the Bulgogi Burger (pork patty in bulgogi marinade, as of 5/07), McBingsoo(Korean Shaved Ice), as well as the Shrimp burger similar to Ebi-Filet-O in Japan. Also interesting is that there is a deposit levy charged on cups (100 Won) which is refunded on return of cup to any McDonald’s location for recycling or reuse.PAKISTAN
* There is a Spicy McChicken burger that has chutney in it. There is also a McChutney Burger, a meatball sandwich called the McKofta, and strawberry custard pie. A pineapple-flavored sundae, pineapple pie, and a mango-flavored milkshake are seasonal menu items. Also, McArabia was recently introduced, with a chicken patty rolled up in Pita bread.PHILLIPINES
* McDonald’s sells spaghetti (to compete with local fast food franchise Jollibee), which is called, unsurprisingly, McSpaghetti. In 1993, a popular combo featured spaghetti with fried chicken wings. Also unique to the Filipino menu is the Burger McDo, a ground pork burger served with a Thousand Island dressing like sauce to cater to local tastes. Also sells “Rice burgers” chicken fillet or beef burger served in rice toasted to shaped like buns.
Personally, I’d like to try me a Maharaja Mac, a Bulgogi Burger, and the Ebi Filet-O. I’m not sure if they’re McYummy or not, but I’d definitely try them once to find out.
(See the whole post here.)
h/t: Ernie. Cross-posted at 8Asians.
I called my Mom to wish her a happy Mother’s Day late last night (so that it would be Sunday in Taiwan). I only got to speak to her for a few minutes, but it was nice to hear her voice. She told me she got the card and pictures my brother and I had sent earlier in the week. So glad they got there in time.
After a hellish Saturday, I woke up way too early on Sunday: 6am. My alarm was set for 9:30. Why I woke up so early, I have no idea. Since I was up so early, I thought I would try and visit my Grandma early, before I had to be at work at noon. Unfortunately, at around the time my alarm was set to go off, I go really tired and was going to take a 15 minute nap. My 15 minute nap ran an hour and a half too long, so I just got up and went straight to work instead.
After work, I had to run a quick errand to K-town, and then I got back in the car and went to visit Grandma. But not before I went to fill the gas tank and pick up an air-pot style hot water heater/dispenser (so they can make tea at my Grandma’s house without boiling a whole pot of water). By the time I got there, it was after 6pm and I had missed my Uncle and Aunt by only 10 minutes. I gave Grandma a framed picture of us (her, me, and Bro) from her birthday in 1981. Then I hung around for more than an hour.
I came home and futzed around, ate junk, and paid bills, all instead of reading Business Law. Now I’ll be up for a few more hours to try and knock out a chapter tonight.
Dave Chen wrote a thought-provoking post entitled “Why Asians are Better at Math.”
He cites a BBC article which compares questions from British and Chinese math tests. Says the article:
A glance at the two questions reveals how much more advanced is the maths teaching in China, where children learn the subject up to the age of 18.
Dave uses his own experiences as an Asian American to speculate upon the reasons he believes Asians are better at math:
1) Their parents
2) Their curricula are the hardest in the world
3) Their schools are oppressive, draconian environments from which there is no escape
While I do agree with Dave’s assessment overall, I wonder if there is more to it? One article suggests that Chinese language and English language speakers calculate problems differently; that language seems to have a role in this. We could probably make this list miles long, but I think a key factor missing from the list is effort. I think Asians just try harder and put in more effort (than say Americans). Yes, that may because their parents expect them to, because the of the level of the curriculum, as well as the oppressive school systems… the end result is more effort put into math, in my opinion.
Heck, remove something as subjective as effort, what about time? I’m sure we could pull up studies about how many more hours Asians spend in school, doing homework, or even practice calculations. (Did you ever have to do practice calculations? My Mom used to buy math workbooks and made us do tons of problems on top of our regular homework.)
(On a sidenote, Dave’s post has 732 diggs as of right now and a ton of comments there… first comment: “Too bad math doesn’t help when you’re behind the wheel.” An Asian driver joke. Nice.)
I’m sure there’s more I’m not even thinking of right now. What other reasons contribute to Asian excellence in math?
As an Asian American, I grew up with parental expectations to excel in school. I did well in math, compared to my cohorts, but I always knew in the back of my mind that I wasn’t a math genius. It didn’t come easy and I definitely had to study for my grades. I knew that if I had been going to school in Taiwan; my “stellar” math performance in the US would land me at the back of the remedial class there.
I’m not sure it’s worth arguing whether or not Asians are good at math; I think there is enough evidence that shows that students from Asian countries regularly outperform Americans, including Asian Americans. That said, how does this supposed “Asian Mathematical Superiority” (my words not Dave’s) affect Asian Americans who were educated in the United States? There is evidence that Asian Americans outperform students of other races in the U.S. I believe this goes back to parental expectations; I spent my after school time studying, not watching TV. I imagine many second generation Asian Americans probably had immigrant parents who enforced rigorous studying more akin to what they had experienced in Asia. I wonder how third and fourth generation Asian Americans will fare, especially if second generation Asian Americans are more lax with their expectations?
I, for one, sometimes feel like a mathematical idiot, never having taken a class beyond calculus, especially since my major in college was based in the humanities. When I started business school, I struggled with basic calculations because I hadn’t used any math since high school (and any math I needed at work or otherwise was done by Excel or a calculator). It upsets me when people say “Oh you’re Asian, you’re good at math,” because it frankly makes me feel like some sort of fraud or maybe some sub-par Asian. I know I shouldn’t feel this way because I’m basically acknowledging some sort of Model Minority complex, but then I wonder, shouldn’t I expect more of myself? Clearly, I think to myself, if I had just put some more time and effort into math, I wouldn’t be such an math dummy.
I don’t think Asians are “inherently good at math.” I think most Asians work their asses off and develop their skills through good study habits and time and effort spent on math. Yeah, there’s that annoying math savant who can recite pi out to the ten-thousandth digit and tell you the square root of any number you name, but if you want to talk “ASIAN MATH SKILLS: NATURE VS NURTURE?” I would put a big ol’ “X” on the nurture column.
What do you think?
Related links:
::An Analysis of the Factors That Impact Academic Achievement Among Asian American, African-American, and Hispanic Students:: ::Motivation and Mathematics Achievement: A Comparative Study of Asian-American, Caucasian-American, and East Asian High School Students:: ::Confucian Work Ethic (1983 Time Article):: ::The New Whiz Kids (1987 Time Article):: ::Behind the High Achievement of East Asian Students::
I just wrote a post for blogging.la about the Rose Hills Columbarium, which is where my Dad’s ashes are interred. Check it out if you are interested.
Saturday
Sunday
Oh and even though I don’t celebrate Easter, I hope you had a good one.
Since my brother’s birthday is the day after Dad’s they have always celebrated their birthdays, except for this year, of course.
We miss Dad so much and I know I’ve been having a particularly tough time over the last few weeks as the date inched closer.
I know it’s really hard for my brother, too. He was never much of a “birthday” guy, but I know that he can’t help but to think about Dad when his birthday comes around.
Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, to my favorite (ok, only… but still my favorite) bro. I love you lots and we’ll celebrate some time when we’re not all so blue.
-Spoke to my Mom a couple of times on the day of her wedding anniversary. I miss her terribly. She is doing ok; her friends took her to relax on a Taiwanese mountain. (Why does that sound so weird? It sounded pretty normal in Chinese!) I realized this week that no matter how old I am, it always feels good to be my Mom’s kid.
-Worked at the office. Yoshi was the guest visitor for the day. Visitor in the office = Bossguy distraction so I can get lots of work done. It only kind of worked… Bossguy didn’t totally leave me alone. Bossguy also laughed when Yoshi bonked me on the head (lightly) with an empty plastic water bottle. Way to come to my defense, Bossguy!
-Dinner at Yamashiro to celebrate JeniJeniJeni’s birthday. I haven’t been to Yamashiro since I was a teenager. Gorgeous night and a beautiful view of L.A.; the winds blew all the crap out of the air so we had a clear view all around. And the food was delicious… after eating fairly well for about a week, I pigged out. We shared a ton of sushi, an order of black cod, and a New York steak. Sealed the night off with 3 desserts: warm chocolate souffle cake, strawberry preserve filled donuts with whipping cream, and a banana rum cake with cashew brittle. Plus the birthday girl got a special birthday panna cotta-like dessert. (Notice how I describe the dessert in detail.) If it wasn’t so cold, I’d have swung by pinkberry on the way home.
*Written on March 3, 2007
I don’t know what I should say to my Mom when I call her.
I don’t want to make her sad.
I’m sad just thinking about it.
I got the update from Mom about stuff happening in Taiwan. Lunar New Year is coming up soon. Time flies, doesn’t it?
I was talking to Mom about my Dad this morning and I was struck by a stinging sadness. All of a sudden I realized that I finally understood something about my Dad I never truly did before today. I always knew that he had sacrificed a lot for us, but suddenly I had a true epiphany about the depth of his sacrifice and love for us. That’s all I want to say about that.
I don’t like to talk about it, but lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my Dad. Is it sinking in? Dad’s not in Taiwan; Dad’s not coming home.
There’s all this stuff that still needs handling. It’s up to the three of us to figure it out, I guess.
What else?
Finally finished the book I started before we left for Vegas, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. I’d have finished it sooner had I not been running around Vegas. Or if I hadn’t left it at work yesterday. I look forward to seeing the movie. Mostly because Kalpen Modi (Kal Penn) is the lead.
Called my Auntie for her birthday. Had a long talk with her about random stuff.
Big changes at work today; no one was fired or anything, but it involved some big announcements and lots of work ahead for me. More info to come, I’m sure. I left the office stressed out and irritated.
School: Behind in my reading. Behind in my 15 page paper. Behind in my assignments due on Monday. And I just realized I deleted a bunch of important files off my desktop and I have to re-download them. Yikes.
Blog: Frustration. It’s not writer’s block. The truth of the matter is, I’m a pretty private person. At one time in my life, I’d have put it all out there. I’m not the same person I was a year ago, much less when I first started my blog. Before the days when everyone and their mothers had blogs, I was doing something unusual. Now everyone has a blog. I feel so ordinary. I’d have quit a long time ago, except that I do like knowing that if I write it in my blog, I can probably go back and find it again. That, and I would miss hearing from my friends via blog, since I’m so terrible at replying to emails.
Ok, sorry about the melacholiness of this post. I’ll try to end it on an upbeat note. Do you see the little icon that shows up before the URL on my site???
…I’m ok. Thanks for all the calls, emails and IMs asking if I was ok.
I’m just a little blue. I got something in the mail this week that reminded me that it’s been more than six months now since Dad’s passing.
My days have been so incredibly full and busy, I have been avoiding reality by watching mind-numbing television after work at night; probably not the best use of my time or energy. Also, there’s been a flurry of stuff happening with family.
-Grandma has been recovering from her surgery. She’s been home for over a week; I haven’t been able to go and visit yet.
-Bro and his friend from out of town came to visit last Saturday night. I had class all day Saturday (8:30am - 4:30pm) and then worked most of the day Sunday, so Saturday night was the only time I had to see them. Went to dinner, then a movie (Curse of the Golden Flower, which is possibly the bloodiest movie I’ve seen in a while), then stayed up past 3am talking.
-Mom called me earlier this week before I started my Monday night class. Miss her; worry about her.
-Uncle Peter called me Wednesday about stuff happening in Taiwan. Had to get Mom and Uncle Peter in touch with each other.
-Talked to Mom again Wednesday two separate times about two different subjects. Found out my Uncle S (her older brother) had gone to the ER the night before.
-Spent a few hours trying to track down my aunt/cousins to see how Uncle S was doing and to pass a message on for my Mom. (As of Thursday, Uncle S was doing OK; getting better after having been admitted to the hospital. I didn’t get check if he was released to go home yet.). Got updates from my cousin S, and my aunt that night.
-Also talked to briefly to Nina, glad to have her number in my cell.
-Good news: Heading to Vegas this weekend to spend time with Yoshi’s parents. Not sure if I’m going to do any gambling, but I doubt it. Ask anyone; I’m a scary gambler.
It was wonderful, even though it made her cry.
I love her and miss her.
Can’t wait to talk to her soon.
I was awakened around 8 this morning by a phone call from Mom in Taiwan. I think she’s feeling lonely and sad in Taiwan and it makes me sad that she’s feeling that way. She says she can’t come back until she takes care of a few things there… how long that stuff takes is beyond her control. Anyway, I talked with her for a bit and then she began to worry because she could tell I was sick (my voice was all wonky), and then she started to worry about my health. I told her not to worry, but you know how Moms are.
Anyway, after talking to Mom, I decided that I should eat something and take some meds so I would stop coughing so much. I was heating up some food in the microwave and *poof!* I blew another fuse in the kitchen. Did not know that the slow-cooker being on at the same time as our microwave would cause a blow-out. Ooops.
I was futzing around the place we keep the extra fuses and realized that we only had one fuse left. All this noise woke Yoshi up who told me that since I have blown the fuses in the kitchen 3 times, that I need to go to Home Depot BY MYSELF and get replacements. Needless to say, I began whining and pretending that I wasn’t the one who blew the fuses. (”Nice try,” says Yosh.) For the record, I did change out the fuse, all by myself. Unfortunately, I accidentally turned the power off in both the bedrooms, so our computers/server got rebooted and all the clocks were flashing 12:00 after that.
Anyway, after all that, I decided to go back to bed. Which was probably a good idea because I crashed out and slept until 5:30pm (at least 6-7 hours) when some inconsiderate telemarketer(?) called my home number and woke me up. Since we don’t have a phone in the bedroom, I ran out of bed and into the office to get the phone.
“Hello?” I answered groggily.
“Mrs. (Joz’s last name)?” came a wimpy male voice.
“Huh?” I asked.
*click*
I got hung up on.
GRRR! Not only did I get awakened, I got hung up on! Doh!
So I’ve been up since then, waiting for Yoshi to get home. We were supposed to try to make it to our friends’ holiday party, but since I am not 100% and Yoshi called a few minutes ago saying, “I think I have a fever,” the party is probably not a good idea.
So that’s another holiday party I am going to miss out on because I’m sick. Booooooo!
I’m sick. That sore throat I had a few days ago has officially blossomed to full-blown sick.
The worst part about this is that I definitely can’t visit Grandma now. I can’t risk passing anything on to her.
It doesn’t help that I’ve been working 10 hour days at work to get all the holiday crap at work done.
Threre are 3 holiday parties I’m supposed to make an appearance at tomorrow + a retirement party.
Plus there are a pile of several hundred (work) holiday cards that I have to get out tomorrow.
Not to mention the other list which I wasn’t supposed to have to work on, but somehow got stuck doing.
Calling in sick is probably not an option. On the bright side, nobody will want me around the food, so I will probably get away with not having anything to do with food tomorrow.
And another thing… Mom called me at 2pm (my time) from Taiwan. She had been up all night and was really upset over something and needed someone to talk to. I worry about her a lot and it really sucks that she has to be so far away right now (basically) all by herself.
Going to bed now. Can you believe it? It’s not even midnight yet…
…this time for Chris & Ponzi’s wedding.
I just found out the dress I was going to wear is sitting inside the pile of clothes to be dry cleaned. Oops. Gotta find something else, I guess.
Still not packed and have a million things to do before we head out to the airport. This time, I’m in charge of making sure we have all our confirmations/info. My head will probably explode if we recreate the experience we had at the airport for our Orlando trip.
Two other notes:
1) Got a call from Mom on Thursday morning. It was good to hear her voice again. I miss her so much.
2) Good thoughts go out to the family and loved ones of James Kim, who used to work with Chris back in the TechTV days. What a tragic loss and my heart goes out to Kati, Penelope, Sabine, and their families.
Gobble gobble!
(That is exactly what we did tonight…)
We had our entire Thanksgiving feast, including 4 different kinds of pie + 1 birthday cake.
And I got a call from Mom and everything.
Not quite a perfect night, but all in all, it all worked out.
Now time to succumb to the food coma.
I spoke to Mom this morning for 25 minutes. I love hearing my Mom’s voice, but don’t like being so groggy that I don’t make any sense.
I had called her the other night when I was so frustrated, but she wasn’t able to talk for more than a few minutes that day.
Mom and I are coordinating a number of things so it’s been frustrating facing bureaucracy and stupidity (by others) at every step of the way.
Anyway, I forgot to mention a very important highlight from my Orlando vacation… I received my Mom’s first email while I was there! (My Mom has never sent an email on her own before). This morning, I asked her about the email and she started laughing. I guess she was at the library and there was an open computer, so she decided to try sending a message to me (she couldn’t remember my brother’s email address) without any help. She said it took her SO LONG to peck it out on the keyboard. I told her how happy I was to receive it, that I already replied to her message and that she’ll get the response from me the next time she checks her email… whenever that will be!
I know that my Mom prefers to hear our voices on the phone over emails, but I’m so proud of her for trying a new way of communicating with us!
I had to update my voter registration, which I did in the appropriate time frame.
I sent in for an absentee ballot for myself, my mom and my brother (at the same time).
Received sample ballots for all.
But we realized today that my Bro is the only one with an absentee ballot. Therefore, he’s going to be the only one of us who can vote (since Mom and I are both going to be out of town on Election Day). Ironically, he is the only one of us who didn’t actually NEED the absentee ballot.
The morning started with another wake-up call from Mom. (She had called last weekend, but I didn’t hear the phone ring when she called.) We talked for about 20 minutes.
I was going to try to get out of the office a little early today but I ended up working my full 8 hours.
Oh well.
Now to come up with some research for a report I’m doing for my Finance class… due to my classmates at a meeting at 9am tomorrow.
Is it bad that I wake up earlier on weekends than I do most weekdays?
Is it lack of time? Laziness? Not being in a festive mode? The avoidance of candy? Sad that Dad isn’t around for another holiday? Missing my Mom because she’s in Taiwan?
I don’t know why I’m not in the Halloween-y mood this year, but I’m not. Instead of going out tonight I’m going to hide out at home and avoid trick-or-treaters.
But that doesn’t stop me from revisiting a post I wrote 2 years ago about some of our special Halloween traditions. Enjoy below…
When we were kids, we learned about a lot of American traditions for the first time on television or in school. Since our parents came to the United States only a couple of years before I was born, they learned about American holidays pretty much at the same time my brother and I did.
Halloween was something fun and exciting because my Mom understood the concept of “dress up” and although she claimed that she didn’t know how to sew, she always came up with costumes for us for Halloween so we could go trick-or-treating and come home with a bag full of candy that we were later not allowed to eat, since it would “rot our teeth out of our mouths.”
Since we weren’t allowed to eat the candy we got from trick-or-treating, often the strategy was to send us out early & to give away the candy that we had received earlier in the evening. We didn’t mind; that was just the way we did things.
As we got old enough to go to school (and have neighbor kids in the same classes with us), we began to become concerned about what candy was being given away at our front door. One year, my Mom informed us that our cousins were planning to come to our neighborhood so we could all go trick-or-treating together. Although this was exciting, it also meant that Mom would actually have to prepare treats in advance for my Dad to pass out while we were out.
I still remember how horrifying it was when Mom returned from the supermarket, proudly announcing that she had purchased “the BEST trick-or-treat goodies” for the neighborhood kids.
My Bro and I excited went through the grocery bags but we didn’t find any Smarties, M&Ms, candy corn, or little Snickers bars.
“What? Where? Mom?”
Continue reading ‘Reprise of “Trick-or-Treat Goodies (our way)”’
…and she called from Taiwan.
What a treat!
I don’t even mind that it was 2am when she called.
I just realized that the end of the month is coming sooner than I’d thought. Geez, there is a lot to do!!!
Mom just called from Taiwan. She’s been there for about 24 hours and has done a lot already.
It’s 3:20am. She thought it was 3:20 in the afternoon here, for some reason. At least she didn’t wake me up from deep sleep. I’m pretty grumpy when that happens.
She got my Dad’s old cell phone # working again, so now she’s reachable.
Good to hear her voice. I miss her already.
UPDATE: I just added a Taiwan clock to the bottom of my blog. Now I’ll be able to tell what time it is so I know if it’s ok to call Mom.
The entire weekend was such a blur, I barely remember it.
It started with my Mom and Bro coming over early on Saturday morning and having a quick and simple breakfast before heading to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) office to take care of some paperwork. THREE+ HOURS LATER, we were back at my place again, debating on how the rest of the weekend was going to proceed. I had to do some paperwork and work on a few things before leaving for the weekend, so it was a few hours before we left my place and headed toward Grandma’s to visit her.
We were all hungry by that time, so we stopped off at My Way Deli/味佳冷飲小吃 again for some Taiwanese grub. Mom and I ordered most of the same things from the other night, but since Bro was with us, we ordered a few other dishes including Pork Intestine and Blood soup and (my Mom ordered this) Pig Uterus. My brother and I ate it because we kind of didn’t know what it was. I mean, we were already eating pig intestines, so we figured they were some other kind of intestine. It was when Mom was talking about how the texture was different than that of the intestines (kind of firm and bordering on crunchy) and that how you can’t buy them in the supermarket and that only female pigs had them… when my brother goes “Uterus! Uterus! We’re eating uterus!”
I kind of flipped out, but we had almost finished them at that point and I realized I’d eaten these before and didn’t die, so I figured it was ok not to flip out. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss. Also, if I ever go on Fear Factor, I know I can probably eat anything if they give me chopsticks and a dish of soy sauce.
Anyway, we visited Grandma (who is home from the hospital now, recovering from a bout with pneumonia) and then my Brother and I waited for a repair guy to come over to see if he could figure out what was causing a leak in my grandma’s closet ceiling. After that, we headed back to my parents’ house in OC. Since we had two cars, my Mom had taken one to go visit with her sister and her husband. Bro and I drove back home on the 5 in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Even though I was exhausted, I stayed up to wait for Mom to get home. Then we did some random housework and stayed up until 3am. I was immersed in a stupid game of Bomberman on my Brother’s Nintendo DS. (It was acting up and wouldn’t save my Nintendog Shih Tzu named Bob.)
On Sunday, my Mom made us brunch (hot pot) and then I tried to continue cleaning more of my old junk out of the house, throwing away a lot more stuff that had been packed away for well over 10 years. Instead of meeting some classmates for a much-needed study session for another Finance exam, I stayed and hung out with Mom and Bro, which was a good decision. When it was time for me to leave and go back to my place on Sunday night, my Mom couldn’t let me go. And the truth is, I didn’t want to let her go either.
My Mom left for Taiwan on Monday. None of us are sure how long she’ll need to be back there, but it’s pretty clear it’s going to be for at least a few months.
My birthday is coming up in November and she kept apologizing that she wouldn’t be here for it. I had wanted to have a big party for this birthday, but that was before my Dad died. Now that my Dad’s gone, I don’t much feel like having a party for myself. Really, all I want is to spend my birthday/Thanksgiving with my family. And even though there was more than one year when we didn’t get to spend the holidays together with Dad, this year it’s not just because he’s in Taiwan. Now that my Mom is going to be in Taiwan during my birthday, I’m not sure what I want to do for my birthday.
Anyway, I’m kind of whigging out about my Mom being in Taiwan. It didn’t freak me out that much when she was there almost all of last year (my goodness, that feels like it was sooo long ago!), but I guess I just want to be closer to family all the time now.
And now that I’ve done enough procrastinating, it’s (really) time to hit the books for my test on Thursday night.
It’s now about 2am on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
I just realized I’ve had a grand total of 4 hours of sleep since I woke up Friday morning. No wonder I’m beat.
The Ethics seminar is now over, thank goodness. While I appreciate the importance of stopping and thinking about ethics (I didn’t want to say “learn about ethics,” because can you really “teach ethics?” Maybe, but probably not in a 2 day seminar), it’s just kind of a drag to spend your weekend sitting in a classroom debating hypotheticals.
After class, I made the mistake of not listening to Yoshi (who told me “Don’t get on the 10 freeway! There’s a Dodger game right now”) and sitting in more than an hour and a half of traffic on the 405 and 10 to get to the San Gabriel Valley. This mistake had been followed by the mistake I made of drinking 4 cups of coffee in one day to stay awake during the seminar… this coming from someone who generally doesn’t drink coffee at all. I felt nauseated after being stuck in stop-and-go traffic for 45 minutes and I could feel the caffeine coursing my system. I could actually feel the blood pumping in my head! (Note to self: coffee is not a substitute for sleep!) Needless to say, I was grateful to finally get to Grandma’s house (meeting place for me and Mom). I was also grateful to my friend Jim from high school, who listened to me rant for 50 minutes while stuck in the car. And I was grateful to Yoshi again when I called for more company for the last 25 minutes of my drive from hell.
I met up with Mom to take care of the stuff I’d worked on late last night, went to the hospital to visit Grandma (she was sleeping), and then go out to a late dinner.
My Mom had been busy all day today, too but we got to Grandma’s house at about the same time. And after visiting Grandma, we realized neither of us had eaten dinner yet. We wandered around Monterey Park a bit in the car and ended up at a Taiwanese “deli” (casual kind of diner-type place) called “My Way Deli” (味佳冷飲小吃). Turns out that the place is owned by a close friend of one of my Mom’s close friends so my Mom ended up chatting the folks up a bit. We ordered waaay too much for two people (click the links for pictures): deep fried pork intestines dipped in salt and pepper (don’t judge! they are soooo yummy), an order of small steamed “dragon” dumplings (“xiao lung bao”/小籠包), thin vermicelli/rice noodle soup with goose meat (found this picture just posted on flickr with the comment “NT$50/US$1.51. More expensive (usually these go for NT$30/$0.90 at a nightmarket stand or maybe NT$40/US$1.20 in a bigger shop) but not more tasty. It was okay.” I think it cost NT$180/US$5.45 here… cheap for L.A. Astronomically priced vs. Taiwan!), and a “ba-wan”/肉圓 a kind of a meat “circle” (see the wiki on “ba-wan”).
I can’t believe the two of us almost all this food at one sitting. I don’t think it was so much that we were that hungry. It’s that we wanted to sit and talk and taste some authentic Taiwanese flavors. We reminisced a lot about our family in Taiwan, about trips we had taken there (it’s been almost 10 years since I was last there), about all the different things I broke in Taiwan (including something –I forgot what– at Nina’s Dad/Grandparents house in Taiwan and a glass table at my grandpa’s house I cracked as a fat toddler when I stood/jumped on it), about how my Grandma (Mom’s mom)/Grandpa met each other, and also (of course) about Dad. It was nice to just sit and talk to my Mom and feel close to my family and Taiwan for a little bit.
I didn’t get home until past 11pm. Though I was tired, I knew it had been totally worth it to go out and spend time with Mom/Grandma even after the long couple of days I’ve had.
When we were kids, we learned about a lot of American traditions for the first time on television or in school. Since our parents came to the United States only a couple of years before I was born, they learned about American holidays pretty much at the same time my brother and I did.
Halloween was something fun and exciting because my Mom understood the concept of “dress up” and although she claimed that she didn’t know how to sew, she always came up with costumes for us for Halloween so we could go trick-or-treating and come home with a bag full of candy that we were later not allowed to eat, since it would “rot our teeth out of our mouths.”
Since we weren’t allowed to eat the candy we got from trick-or-treating, often the strategy was to send us out early & to give away the candy that we had received earlier in the evening. We didn’t mind; that was just the way we did things.
As we got old enough to go to school (and have neighbor kids in the same classes with us), we began to become concerned about what candy was being given away at our front door. One year, my Mom informed us that our cousins were planning to come to our neighborhood so we could all go trick-or-treating together. Although this was exciting, it also meant that Mom would actually have to prepare treats in advance for my Dad to pass out while we were out.
I still remember how horrifying it was when Mom returned from the supermarket, proudly announcing that she had purchased “the BEST trick-or-treat goodies” for the neighborhood kids.
My Bro and I excited went through the grocery bags but we didn’t find any Smarties, M&Ms, candy corn, or little Snickers bars.
“What? Where? Mom?”
Continue reading ‘Trick-or-Treat Goodies (our way)’
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