Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Things I Learned While Visiting My Folks In The Bay Area This Weekend

Yeah, so that's where I've been. Anyways, I made a few mental notes during my visit and here they are:

1) When someone says "I need you to do an important favor for me while I'm on vacation," it doesn't always mean picking up mail or watering the plants. Just take my uncle, for instance, who is leaving for Hong Kong for a few weeks. He's given my other uncle the pressing task of going shopping at
Costco for him while he's gone just so he doesn't miss out on all the savings from the newest coupon book.

2) Never, ever refuse a
bahn mi sandwich from your parents to take with you on the plane again. Because you might just have some cologne and cigarette drenched guy sitting next to you in 9E whose smell offends far more than pickled daikon and pate. If I'd had that bahn mi, I woulda breathed in and out of its bag hypervenhilation-style just so I wouldn't have to smell this dude.

3) Sometimes people compensate for what they're lacking by driving big monster trucks; sometimes they just start carrying huge daikon in the produce section. Check these out...



4) It doesn't matter if the box of fruit weighs the same; if one box has one more piece of fruit than the other, then that one is better.

5) Nothing shows true love more (or makes you feel more guilty) than your
favorite homecooked dishes.

Steamed pork with preserved duck egg. Looks like an outer space galaxy doesn't it? The salty, velvety yolk is my favorite...



Dried bean curn soup. Hearty but simple. I love the chewy bite of the dried bean curd...



Fuzzy melon with bean threads and dried shrimp. The fuzzy melon are refreshing, while garlicky bean threads and salty dried shrimp add pungency...



6) When asked why I am taking pictures of the food, it will do me more harm than good to tell them that I write about my eating adventures on the internet (a slew of questions will follow: Why do you need to do that? Do you spend all your money eating out?). Instead, it is much better to say, "Oh, that's just so I know how these dishes are really supposed to look when I try to cook them myself!"

I miss them tons, but it's nice to be back in LA!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Pam - I like this. Next time take Ong Choy with HarmHa (fermented shrimp paste) on your flight, maybe you'll get bumped up to first class - or isolationclass if they have it! As for taking the pictures..."I seldom eat out, so that this is a very big event for me, that I need to memorialize it"

Daily Gluttony said...

Kirk! OMG, I loooove Ong Choy w/ Ham Ha! Next time, I should ask my parents to cook it and then bring it on the plane just so I can do a write up. Imagine the faces!!! (Unless nasty stanky people are sitting next to me again...then my food won't be as stanky! LOL!)

Anonymous said...

Seriously Pam - We take "bentos" on any flight longer than 4 hours - you should see the envious glances we get - I guess we're Sooooo Asian - I've even taken a whole Costco Rotisserie Chicken once - that was interesting. Especially when I sent my carry-on through security!!!