Table of Contents
Hua Hsu had a bottle of wine under the table, but no wine. “It’s water and salt,” she says nearby, as she often tries to prepare a meal alone: “I think I might as well do something.” It’s funny.” My children or my friends.” That doesn’t mean he’s particularly concerned or anxious about his diet, especially when he’s traveling, as he revealed last year in his Stay True memoir (in this week’s paper). I said.” he said. Have a 5pm meal and then spend the rest of the day eating a big sushi dinner.
The Saturday, September 2
Usually we eat. When I’m alone, I peck and fall, primal experience. I’d rather eat something cold on a plate with my hands than heat it up on the computer. I always convinced myself that I could handle a handful of peanuts, figs and roasted coffee. Even when I cook for myself and others, the taste still comes through. For example, scrambled eggs, but forced to add a whole can of arugula with lots of turmeric (because I’ve read it’s good for you), complements everything. It can only be “dry”.
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Luckily I wasn’t alone this week. In 2020 we started hosting Saturday dinners with two other families and our faith in the pod has remained strong for three years. But what we have in common isn’t memories of the ’90s Bay Area scene or vintage East Village restaurants. Despite the occasional tears, they felt very connected. The last weekend before the kids went back to school, five of us went to Woodstock. I went for a run this morning and on my way home I saw a yard sale sign that said “400 LP”. I was excited as always. I have some records as well as an old typewriter. My son has always wanted one. Since I had no money, I promised to come back later.
My friend Sonja kept asking, “What do we have?” This morning it was a delicious pancake, clean, fluffy and crispy. The group had a longer bike ride than we thought and we were too tired to decide where to eat. A sandwich was the next logical choice. But we decided to take a chance and headed to Phonicas Restaurant, which serves traditional home-cooked food to the residents. Luckily the nine o’clock wait was only a few minutes, and while the kids drank water we were glad we didn’t have any sandwiches. I ordered something called “stuffed fries” because I always order that special. It was a brownie sheet covered in cheese and bacon, heirloom tomatoes and a fried egg. I asked my son to get some pancakes from one of the other kids.
Back at Woodstock, I finally went back to some kind of dog. They thought I’d never go back and begrudgingly helped me find records in the “sales” category. I bought more things to show how bad they are: Sonjia bought a nice string. My wife, Carol, wants a rug and a vase. I still have a silly silver “nut pot” shaped like a peanut. The rest of the day was spent swimming and reading. There was no basic desire to eat, so we had boys, called “girl food.” My friend Eric reported a concoction from an Asian hotel buffet: two handfuls of falafel, two stale salads, very warm bread, half a cheese plate, canned fish, a shrimp sandwich, and ice cream. My wife, who likes to eat real food, created the menu. We drank the rest of the wine from the lovely Wild Bow Farm. Everyone has eight minutes to sleep.
Sunday, September 3
I was hoping to start the day with oatmeal. But we bought it at Moonrise Bagels, a place in Woodstock that serves “stuffed bagels,” sure, but maybe better than you think. Bring the guests, the musicians and the bar. We took them apart and despite initial reluctance, curiosity won out. They were all eaten.
We went to a few local flea markets. To refresh myself by going back to one of the things I left behind, I took the opportunity to climb Mount Tremper, the Harana Market, a Filipino delicacy, and lunch from the market. bought We got some grilled chicken burgers (some of the best I’ve ever had) and tofu sisig, a bowl of tofu, peppers, peppers and onions called citrus cream sauce, cooked over a fire. … … … lazy rice I have no frame to judge how true this is, but it is very good.
We were in flat denial that summer was over, so we drowned our worries with an early dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Sylvia. Their menu includes a few Korean dishes, including excellent bulgogi ssam that will serve at least nine people, but it’s decidedly “New American” these days. We had cocktails and mocktails, oysters, an appetizer with scallops (until I was 20, I often thought scallops were other organs), and a pie served with whipped cream. Sausage oil, honey and horseradish. Peeta was incredibly nice. I saw how my son wore it, I remember, because at his age he only ate bread wrapped in plastic. A few salads (is there anything more refreshing than a vegetable salad?) and a few mains (pork, ham, chicken schnitzel for the kids). I usually like the menu more than the entree, but Silvia’s is a rare place where everything is good. For dessert I had the Panna Cotta Turkish Delight. Perfect, not too sweet.
Monday, September 4th
In the night a bear tore him to pieces, so he spent part of the morning walking in the woods, collecting old butter-boxes, wet rags, and peach-peels, which were indeed worth salting. We stopped at a McDonald’s on our way back into town and I briefly convinced my son that I was in New Jersey. I find it encouraging that despite my son’s rich and thoughtful lifestyle of “natural” foods, he still loves the junk food he made as a child. His name was Umar and we knew nothing about him. He coughed out his usual pain. Since 1995, I’ve resisted that cheeseburger for the millionth time and had the Filet-o-Fish (or “Fish-o-Filet” as my parents called it) because it seemed healthier.
Thoughts return to Man vs. Bear and The Fox live broadcast. Bear the Best Back Shorts arrived in Brooklyn, my son and I ran a few errands, including grocery shopping for the new school year. He was a junior and I was starting my second year at Bard College after 15 years at Vassar College (so I spent a lot of time upstairs). He loved the fresh fruit snacks and I had to refill the snacks on the desk when I was too lazy to get out of my office mess. I bought breakfast bars, energy bars (one egg white, four apples, seven blueberries, things like that), tons of sardines and clams, and hours of work. Buy Japanese glue.
I personally traveled that day with the intention of eating as little as possible. At some point this week I decided to make some oatmeal and have dinner. But old friends came over and my son secretly gave my daughter a breakfast plate full of delicious food that she really wanted to eat. He invited her to dinner. We ordered it from Dynasty there because it was one of the few places that delivered on Labor Day. I want hot white rice. I insisted on ordering Taiwanese sausage with chunks of raw garlic. I also had noodles, crepes (“Chinese pizza” for my son) and spicy fried fish. My friends work in the legal field and introduced me to the terms “leash” and “suspension” or “statesman” in the legal sense. I decided to give it a try in this week’s conversation.
Tuesday, September 5
For the fifth day in a row, I decided to start my day with oats. But I was hungry as I prepared lunch for my son, who would be spending the day at camp. Apart from coffee, I didn’t eat until 01:00. m., running errands in Manhattan. If you could only eat at one restaurant in town, what would it be? For a while my answer was East 10th between First and Second, where you can find Japanese curries, sushi, shabu-shabu and even desserts. But then there was nothing to talk to me about. As my appetite grew, I resolved to eat nothing but what I wanted. In such cases, I’ll go ahead and eat anything that’s a B+.
I realized what I needed and ended up at Sundaes and Cones, one of those ice cream places that never fails, and had the best meal ever: an Orange Creamy Cone (their cream). . I was so happy when I got on the subway in Brooklyn. I wasn’t hungry so I decided to buy some onigiri with kombu from a Midoriya shop in Japan to eat on the way home. I wanted to drink green tea, until I remembered that I drank thousands of bottles and only filled them once or twice. I chose watermelon soda.
I checked the future of everything I bought at the store the day before it went bad, so I made mushrooms and onions and added spinach at the end, then butter and a box of cheese. As a result, I threw away the pasta while my son ate chicken broth, which he eats 90 percent of the time. I was hoping to eat a few spoonfuls of pasta or maybe a handful of figs. My wife then gave me leftovers from Via Carotta (pasta, lemon with lemon and capers, grilled mushrooms), which I ate cold, before realizing that this was one of the best restaurants in town. There is one. I put everything in the microwave for about 20 seconds because I didn’t have the patience to heat it up and prepare my pasta.
September 6, Wednesday
It was my first day of school, so after dropping my son off at camp, I drove a few hours to Bard. I ate the leftover pasta on my desk and thought about Via Carota. We had a department meeting, and since it was early in the semester, there was a wide variety of cheeses, fruits, and desserts. I drank very hot coffee and slowly worked on a recipe for oatmeal cookies, which are not my favorite type of cookie, but always seem to be the most reliable in food situations. I left for my class an hour early and it was incredibly hot in my office. I suddenly remembered that in the last week of last semester I had bought vegetables from my seminar, left the leftovers in the college fridge and told my friends that they were always welcome to help. He was very grateful to the old man for doing this. There was a pineapple chili left over that I ate on the outside counter.
I gave a seminar in the afternoon. I prepare so much on the first day that I forget to do the basics, like introducing myself or explaining why the problem exists. Like Snow, I asked the class what their favorite dishes were, and the options were so unique and innovative (ceviche, moules frites, “roasted chicken with schmaltzikoal”) that I immediately regretted spending the night. A fig bar is good for eating and thinking. After class, I grab a snack at my desk for an energy bar. I ate some cookies and a pack of cigarettes, which made me hungry. We stayed most of the weekend and returned to camp the next day, but had to fly on Amtrak in the morning.
September 7, Thursday
After a few hours of sleep, I headed out the door to head to the Bay Area for the night. I brought yogurt, which I quickly devoured at TSA, along with leftover pasta and small Ziplocs of nuts and dried figs. I think I ate everything I brought in the first hour in the air, then drank coffee and ate cookies, which tasted great on a Delta flight.
Every time I return to my parents’ house in Badia, it’s fun to reminisce about what I’ve experienced in my 20 years of life. She doesn’t live in my childhood home, but she reveals a lot of my bad past. I quickly put on Spencer’s old t-shirt. I have an old tape of a friend called “Please Come Into My Forest.” One day I thought California stuff (music magazines from 1991 to 1999) meets elementary school poetry, high school magazines, and New York stuff.
My mom also cooks dun tai mushrooms and hong shu ru or leftover red pork, which I eat every time I get home. You like a degree of control (we often eat plate-sized plates) and have all the health beliefs of your generation: cold drinks are unbalanced, you say every meal should be prepared with gloves. . Dessert on TV should never be dessert (in fact, they’re right about that), always coffee beans under the bed (something we can avoid). But he showed interest in this interview as a journalist. We ate normal food.
I’m Home Stay Real is part of an Authors Series presented by the San Jose Literary Arts Center. Most locations are in the Bay Area and are always within walking distance. After lunch, I walked into downtown San Jose to meet up with my old friend and conversation partner who was visiting me that night. He took me to Phil and I had a mint mojito. There are many children outside listening to the public address system. And some stripped down indie rock, which could be described as “angular”, which we don’t see much of. We’re so excited I’m going to be late for the first game tonight.
After a professional talk with the students, some San Jose State professors took me to lunch at a mezcal restaurant in downtown Oaxaca. I had Oaxacan enchiladas, which looked terrible, and a spoonful of guacamole on the table, which was surprisingly spicy. That night, my interviewer, writer Vanessa Hua, brought me my favorite snack, Huang Fei Hong Szechuan Pants. That night I was joined by old friends from high school and KSCU, where I was DJing. It’s a good thing that every time I’m back in the South Bay, I try to get more apple slices at the Donut Wheel, a 24-hour restaurant in Cupertino that I’ve been going to since I was a kid. I’ve always loved apple donuts, even now I rarely find them in donut shops in New York. Anthony, my college roommate, met me there and we went out and saw all the young actors and wondered who they were.
Friday, September 8
My friend Sean and I went to Berkeley for dinner at Steve’s Korean BBQ, one of the restaurants operated by the Durant Food Court. The main course was typical Korean food as we valued quality over quantity. The average college student has a lot more interest than they did in the 80s or 90s. There is no place on campus that randomly serves “Chinese food.” Everything is domain specific. Each has its own specialty.
As I thought, there are lines I will not cross. I still have clothes from 1993, but I never felt the need to go back to grocery stores after 1997. Durant Dining Hall was a heavenly experience during my first few weeks of college, but when I got there it was like a disaster. … … Jr. Steve… was good. It was better than I expected, but I don’t think Koreans have a brand of barbecue. The kimchi was important, but not as smart. Sean decided to try his best. On top of Steve’s plate, he received a plate of gyros and falafel from another survivor before dinner. I still don’t know the name of the place, but the runner proudly mocked any student who suggested they knew how to handle hash. Red and white sauces are the same. But this is no longer true, if it is true at all.
Then we went around the campus and discussed if we could ride bikes. We bought frozen yogurt from our old Yogurt Park, and it was just as good as I remembered. We watched the kids go to the grocery store, where I remember once learning that vegan juice was an option and being proud to show that I was vegan… it’s cliché, But it is and ore.
When I got back to my parents’ house, I realized that I hadn’t had much to drink all day. I saw a small bottle of Coca-Cola in the back refrigerator. Can more be done? They are angry. He said I brought it to my old house because I said it would be a collector’s item one day. I checked and it appears to be from 1993. But I’m dry. He found that cold drinks change the body’s balance. Undaunted, I opened the bottle and asked if there was any gas left. Eventually it turned out that it wasn’t a collector’s item and I reluctantly stopped drinking the hot water.
Before dinner I went to Streetlight Records, a great store in San Jose, and looked for old CDs. I stopped at Taco Bravo on Bascom Ave. In a noisy, legendary, typical Mexican fast food joint where records were once bought. It wiped out much of Silicon Valley. I bought a bean burrito and watched as the guy dyed the refried beans, covered them with shredded cheese and scallions, and stacked everything. Imagine a Taco Bell bean burrito, but at room temperature. I wanted a bite but I didn’t want to spoil the hot sauce so I ate most of it. By the time I got home, it was time for dinner. I didn’t tell my parents about the burrito and pretended to be very calm and healthy and we just ate the leftovers. Some of my favorites were picked up from Daily Dream Tofu in Cupertino, Taiwan. I had fen tuan with marinated tofu skin.
Saturday, September 9
Until maybe 2010, I never said I was from Cupertino because no one knew where I was; It was much easier to say San Jose or “Bay Area.” Apple (and specifically the iPhone factory structure) has changed. However, for those who grew up here in the ’80s and ’90s and remember that nobody cared about Apple, it’s not a surefire success. Maybe that speaks to my age and not why I should be here. I can still see the floor plan of the old renovated Burger King sign in the Pho Saratoga-Sunnyvale area. I can see a ghostly version of my favorite bookstore, a clean and well-lit place, in a new housing development on Highway 85.
We went to where Dame Sim Sizzler was. It still has that black roof that looks like cloth from a distance. It was a good one. This process of revising the old foundations proved unsuccessful. The sesame was a bit oily, the fried dumplings were also firm. The beetroot cake never had a crisp corner to begin with. “It’s not that good,” my father said, pushing some fried ribs to the edge of the table. Then we went for donuts. I spent the day sorting records and magazines to send to New York. But I found some things to be good in California and most things were done the next day.
For dinner, my parents wanted to go to Main Street Cupertino, a new restaurant near Apple’s headquarters. I remember when I was a kid, it was just a few offices. They installed Koi Palace Contempo, a modern outpost of Daly City’s popular restaurant. I have eaten a lot of Chinese food in my life, as have my parents. At one point, it felt like we went to every Chinese restaurant in an hour. We ate out with our family several times a week. Lunch and dinner options can be found throughout the South Bay, some hidden behind strip malls or around the corner from seedy motels. Someone heard this place is good. We followed the chefs from restaurant to restaurant, my grandparents handing out red envelopes to their favorite chefs to celebrate the New Year. Today, there are many restaurants, but fewer places to eat.
The menu at Koi Palace Contemnor was full of things I had never tried before. We kept checking other tables to see what we had. Serve with boiled potatoes and onions and scrambled eggs. Sorghum, tofu and mushrooms are cooked in buttermilk. Everything was amazing. The dry tofu and noodle and pepper dish was so delicious that even my mother couldn’t stand it. I haven’t seen him in a while. He laughed and continued eating. It’s easier to order a dozen than three. But it was good enough. That meant we had to come back one day. It was fun to try something new.