New York Visit - February 2019

Chin and Li sisters at MOFAD

Chinese Restaurant, MOCA

I missed last week's entry as it was my first full day back from my week long trip to celebrate the birth of my nephew and celebrate Lunar New Year with the family.
Other than my 3 1/2 year unemployment phase, I usually visit New York and/or Columbus about once or twice a year.

This trip was almost like the past family cruises to Western Europe in 2017 and Alaska last summer. Day begins with a big breakfast (Sherman's father-in-law cooked every morning), sight see with loads of walking, big lunch, big dinner and retire around 10 or 11 pm. For me, it isn't until 1 to 1:30 am as my internal clock is firmly affixed in Pacific Time.

Day 1, Saturday: nephew's 100-day/Red Egg and Ginger party in Flushing.
Day 2, Sunday: Museum of Food and Drink in Brooklyn (MOFAD), early dinner and Kinky Boots Broadway show in Times Square.
Day 3, Monday: Girls lunch at Tamarind Tribeca, Lunar New Year Eve dinner at home with the family.
Day 4, Tuesday: Afternoon tea in the Gotham Room at The Peninsula Hotel in Midtown, near Rockefeller Center.
Day 5, Wednesday: Museum of Chinese in America, dinner at Scalini Fedeli.
Day 6, Thursday: stroll around World Trade Center
Day 7, Friday: 9/11 Museum, visit Vera, Jill and Chanterelle Sung at IMentor in Financial District.

A great visit. Lots of family bonding time, including bedtime readings to the irresistibly cute nephew. Learned a ton at the museums, especially at Museum of Food and Drink (Chow exhibition) and Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) which included an exhibit of Kip Fulbeck's Hapa Project.

Lunar New Year 2019 - What Is Peppa?

thanks Rika for the cool image

Lunar New Year (Year of the Pig) is less than a week away. Thanks to a Facebook shared post from Jeff's brother Bill, there's a video that's gone viral about a grandfather looking to find Peppa, the pig his grandson wants for his Lunar New Year gift.

It's a short, charming video which shows the lengths a grandfather will go to find Peppa for his grandson.

Below is the video. Happy New Year!

Lunar New Year of the Horse

Listed below are sweet, heartwarming and touching tweets and instagrams from those in the San Francisco Bay Area celebrating the Lunar New Year. George previously included my tweet this past October remembering the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

Thanks again, George Kelly (Twitter name: @allaboutgeorge).

As previously I tweeted on January 30, "...this unmarried, 'jook sin' still graciously accepts red envelopes."

I wish you all a healthy, happy and prosperous Lunar New Year.

Chinese New Year Parade - Butte, Montana

image source: Wikipedia

Global metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, Sydney, London, New York, Vancouver, Toronto and San Francisco are known for their large and festive Chinese New Year parades. I learned today there is a smaller, not so well-known city in the western United States that holds a short and very loud version people from afar come to see.

No, it's not in California, Washington or Nevada. It's in Butte, Montana, hosted by the Mai Wah Society. Between 1850 and 1900, a sizable number (in the thousands) of Chinese settled in Montana Territory. As listed in George Everett's "Butte's Far Eastern Influences", there were 1,949 Chinese (total 20,000) living in Montana Territory in 1870.

Below is a YouTube video of the parade in 2011:

For 2013, Mai Wah's parade takes place on Saturday, February 16. San Francisco will host their Year of the Snake parade on Saturday, February 23. I'll be parked in front of my 47" flat screen TV watching the parade in HD.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. Gung hay fat choy.

Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year Weekend

For me, this weekend is not only President's Day, it is also Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year (Tiger), and Jeff's birthday. Felt it only fitting to take today off and fully take advantage of all that's going on this weekend.

While on my way to pin desolation at the lanes, I was listening to KFOG's 10 at 10. Today's theme of course, was Valentine's Day, sweet and sour. One of the sour tunes that got me laughing pretty hard was Sam Kinison's cover of "Wild Thing". The YouTube video is here:



Hope you'll get a laugh out of it too. Sun nien fai lok, Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Birthday, Babe. I love you so much.

Chinese New Year Parade - San Francisco

On Saturday, March 2 at 6 p.m., San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose FOX affiliate KTVU (channel 2) will broadcast live SF's Chinese New Year parade.

This year will be viewed much more closely than in years past. My friend and former co-worker Sherri (from Gymboree) will have her son Christopher performing as a part of the Lion dance from the Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy.

As Sherri has e-mailed to her family and friends, "Unless the line formation changes, Christopher will be the 2nd little piggy (nose, tails, ears and all!), from the left in the 2nd row."

Or, as the famous nursery rhyme reads, Christopher would be the piggy that stayed at home. In reality, that piggy is Sherri's daughter Lauren, who is anxiously waiting until she's old enough to perform in the parade as well.

Good luck and best wishes on your performance Saturday, Christopher.