Birthday Extravaganza

Mothers are wonderful.

My forever friend Kel's Mama turned over a new year today! I brought my mom and we dug into lots of food and learned lots of history about the golden olden days. Some of that history involved how much Chinese people love Kendeji (Kentucky Fried Chicken). Yay! Kel and I ate some of kick-ass spinach dip she made from a recipe that Autumn tagged a long time ago, and it was the king of the spread.

Off to a game of sushi cat! You are a squishy cat without useful feet. You eat as much sushi as you can as you fall, pinball style, amongst some toggles. It is peaceful and the cutest game since Zombie vs. Plants.

Dumplings and Mantou!

My mom let me know at the last minute that I was expected for lunch today with one of my grandmothers, poste haste. I responded with petulance - more over the lack of communication than about seeing granny. My sighs were rewarded, undeservingly, by a great meal at a relative's.

Today was a belated celebration of the New Year with my granny in another state. My uncle made dumplings per my other grandmother's specs. My hostess granny is unable to cook for herself anymore, but my other granny was kind enough to send the ingredients and recipes that she likes best. The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that my uncle had bought the same flour used by one granny, a brand made in Hong Kong. Both grannies are very particular about the flour used in dumpling skins - the brand is important for a pliable dough that doesn't break easily under water. Apparently, Wegman's all-purpose works really well for these, too.

I was surprised to see mantou (steamed buns) at the table as well. No one, and I mean no one, I know makes their own mantou like my grandmother (the one supplying the ingredients). It's truly a lost art, since mantou are generally too humble to be served in restaurants. Everyone else I know buys their mantou frozen at the H-mart, the product of moisture-controlled factories that taste faintly of freezers. If you make a bad mantou, there is no hiding it with sugar, a crust, nothing. It is either a pillowy roll of flour and steam, and touched with oil at the surface, or a gummy mess in your steamer. It also takes hours to get it done. A friend of mine, who loves China more than some people love their spouses, once asked me what the big deal about mantou is. He'd had some steamed bread in China's northwest. Hours of labor, for what? I really can't explain it. Everyone has their own bread. Mine happens to be incredibly labor intensive and plain, and hard to make without sucking big time. Mantou are the pandas of the bread world. Eating one made by hand is revelation only to people like me (spoiled) and older Chinese people, who remember what it is like to make every meal from scratch. Needless to say, my tummy is very happy right now.

Banish Winter Blahs with Headbands by Bambako

Sometimes it's fun to be a girly girl.

My dearest Kel's Christmas presents arrived recently. After I returned from Denver, she surprised me with not one, but two (!!) beautiful headbands by Bambako. There was a small mixup, so these Christmas presents were delayed a bit, given the holiday rush, but the crafty seller/entrepreneur Abigail Ricarte corrected this snag promptly, with extra headbands thrown in gratis. I have a girlcrush on her already.

Here are images of the 'bands I received from Bambako's website, http://store.bambako.com/.

Top - Bottom: Headbands in Rouge and Blues in Orbit. Aren't they sweet?

I am wearing the Rouge today, and it's keeping the bangs out like a champ while looking bright and sassy. You know you have a good friend when she knows, intuitively, what colors you like. Major props to my stylish friend.

Tea

Today I'm drinking my umpteenth cup of Tazo tea. I like Tazo teas because like me, they are never content to be plain. Every single flavor is "infused" with something. Green tea "infused" with ginger and lemon. Red tea "infused" with vanilla. Today I'm drinking Passion, a red-colored tea with a whole buncha stuff. And I don't question why I like such complicated teas, really. Of course my grandmother swears by her jasmine-scented Foojoy, and my upbringing tells me that the best tea does not come in pretty, geometric paper packages. It comes in sacks or tins labeled "Produit de Chine: Fujian." There is certainly no lack of tea snobbery in my background!

But if I like tea that has floofy infusions, so be it.

Tea has a very special place in my heart. It reminds me of contemplative times with my grannies. Today I stopped by a Japanese food market in Sakura Square in Denver, in the hope of procuring some Meiji chocolates. When I walked in, several things astounded me.

The announcements in this Japanese food/import store were made in English.

They had Meiji chocolates in several flavors, not just strawberry.

A woman with hair in brown halo asked me if I knew whether the food mart accepted food stamps. Sadly, I did not know.

I saw two older ladies, estimated in their late 70's to 80's, conferring about their health and exchanging tips about what they should buy. Commonplace occurance for me. But what astonished me is that one of them was Asian with a certain accent, and the other was white and had a southern accent. They were talking about hydrocortisone. I have always felt that I was liberal, but I have never in my life seen an older Asian lady commiserate with a non-Asian. I don't know why. I guess because my grandmother doesn't speak English, I've never seen it before. Whenever I have gone out with either grandmother, I've had to translate for her. It was so nice to see two such ladies like besties. Just like me & Kel, except our accents will be different and we will have automated strollers.

I found several books that looked promising in a makeshift Japanese American library. Some of the titles were, "How to be Japanese American: A Guide for Nisei and Issei"; a book called "The Story of Tea" - beautifully-presented and researched volume on tea cultivation and drinking, published in 2007; "Japanese Resettlement Through The Lens" - a photographic collection of the Japanese American internment, as collected by public works photographers, distilled from images in the National Archives, published in 2009 - just amazing how much history is in the public domain; and a book which I bought , "Voices from Colorado: Perspectives of Asian Pacific Americans", by Nestor Mercado, Elnora Minoza-Mercado, and Alok Sarwal. Part anthology of individual stories, part facebook, I think it's a great resource for understanding the APA movement in Colorado. It would be hilarious if I actually recognized someone from this book, like, OMG - You're Jam Wong - the painter profiled on pg. 243! (Note: Jam is a great name. I do believe I will be stealing it.) I like the variety of people profiled, from students to professionals, and glad that Asian American includes Southeast and South Asian as well. Their stories range from shocking to inspiring - Colorado seems like a very different place from the hubs I've visited (New York, D.C., even Chicago.) Insularity is not an option, as it might be if you lived in a place where a lot of Asians are densely packed together - many people express what it's like being the only Asian in their respective schools. I was delighted to learn that there is a huge variety of civic organizations in Colorado dedicated to Asian American concerns, from faith-based groups to organizations specifically focused on Asian American cultural exchange, adoptions, humanitarian projects, veterans affairs, etc. It's a grassroots kind of book that was made with a lot of love, and I'm happy to own a copy. There's also an accompanying site http://www.voicesfromcolorado.com/.


Good tea, good book, good day.

Fondue - Not Just For Two

During the past week in Denver, I've had a lot of fondue.

There was the lamb fondue appetizer at Elway's (more about the lamb, and less about the cheese, which was like chowder).

There was fondue for an appetizer everywhere in Vail, picking up perhaps on some Swiss influence or congruence of tastes amongst ski chalets.

And there was fondue at Le Chateau/La Fondue in Denver, which was by far the best and the most respectable fondue according to my true wubs.

Fondue is fun because it's meant for sharing. One, two, four people. I guess I'm just thinking about sharing generally. What other foods are there where the more = the merrier?