saterrday...

was a lot different than friday. i accompanied my mom to a funeral. a man named ben, who used took cook at our restaurant in the mid-70's passed away, leaving his young wife and two children behind. or should i say survived by them...

anyway, ben was always a heavy smoker. i'm assuming he had lung cancer. all i can say is that his open casket was not very flattering. granted, mortuary science does its best...and mebbe the deceased shouldn't look too natural...but he was just plain purple!

it's sad that some of the people whom i grew up with, i only see at funerals. for example, san and jeff are cousins whom i saw regularly for fifteen to twenty years. however, i've only seen them a handful of times over the last 5-10 years. you grow apart...find new things...and conversations become innocuous time passers. what's even sadder is that we all still live in the same zip code!

oh well, i guess it's just the mortality that we all feel as we get older, eh? i know 36 isn't that old but i'm starting to go to more and more funerals for people who have known my family for years...50+ (years) for some. i wonder how my dad feels? i think i mentioned that he's probably the oldest of the ex-restauranteurs who came out of the 'New China' school of cooking in the 40's and 50's. at 87, he's gotta have a few more mortality issues than i...but he's probably at a lot more at peace with his life too. i hope i make it as far as he :)


after the services, we all gathered at China Jade restaurant. it's in the far east center on federal and alameda. unfortunately, this pic is of the vinh xuong bakery next door. i think there were 40 people. we ate steamed fish, crab, boiled chicken, fatty pork, seafood soup w/ tofu, rice, and thin rice noodles with veggies and fried tofu. yeah...lots of seafood. if you're from southern china, you eat a lot of soup, rice, veggies, and seafood. surprisingly, i didn't grow up on that much seafood even though my parents are from that area. part of it is due to the cost of getting seafood in a landlocked state and the rest of it is due to the time constraints...most banquet seafood dishes aren't easy to prepare. BUT i can tell you that i grew up on a LOT of steamed chicken, roast duck, bbq pork, soup, and veggies (like chinese broccoli).

it had been quite a long time since i had eaten at china jade. it was the only place that my parents would eat in the late 80's early 90's. that is, until the Empress Seafood Restaurant opened a couple blocks away. if you're looking for cantonese style food, the Empress and Kings Land are considered two of the best for mainstream chinese food. now, if you want REAL chinese food (some that i didn't grow up on), you'd have to go to places like JJ's or Super Star Asian. these places have the country style innards that were usually thrown away by my parents (even though they'll eat it on occasion). yeah.

i can't believe that i started talking about a funeral and ended up blogging about chinese food. geez. where's my mind?!?


well, ben, i hope you're resting peacefully. your sons are good kids who are going to make you proud. i'll always remember your big smile and laugh whenever you joked with dad.