All posts by Arnie

Gung Hei Fat Choy

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Chinese New Year – January 31

Chinese New Year typically falls during late January or early February.

The Chinese calendar is partially based on the phases of the moon and is also referred to as the Lunar New Year. It’s celebrated in countries where there is a large population of Chinese. Having been raised in a large, extended Chinese family, we’ve always known the celebration as Chinese New Year.

In China, the full celebration lasts a full 15 days. However growing up in New York we didn’t have the luxury of sitting it out for the full holiday.

Our’s was an acknowledgement of our Chinese heritage. We would drive from our home in the suburbs to Chinatown in the heart of New York City to experience the colorful dragon dance and ear-shattering fire crackers. We hosted a gathering with as many relatives that were able to travel to my Grandmother’s (Paw Paw) house. Paw Paw would prepare two or three special dishes unique to the holiday. We trekked in a small procession from the house to the cemetery carrying a boiled chicken, oolong tea and burning incense to honor our deceased ancestors. The chicken and the tea came back to the house and were served with a dozen other traditional home-cooked dishes at an elaborate family meal. Afterwards, the elders passed red envelopes containing dollar bills or silver dollars as gifts to all of the unmarried children. As children we were elated.

Delicious dishes like this one would grace our kitchen table as dozens of relatives surrounded us younger kids. These dishes were only for special occasions.
The adults gifted the children these little red envelopes filled with dollar bills and/or silver dollars.

This was a time to visit with uncles, aunts and cousins. This was a time for hugs and kisses. This was a time to leave the bad fortune behind. And this was especially a time to wish good fortune to everyone.

For us, January 31, 2014 is no different from other years. We continue to celebrate Chinese New Year as we have since I can remember. And while Paw Paw passed long ago, the food aromas from her kitchen of fifty or more years past remain familiar to me today.

It’s our sincere hope that good fortune will continue to bless our grateful family and all of our friends during this new year.

So to all of our relatives and friends in the year of the horse – “Gung Hei Fat Choy.”

The Big Freeze

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Making My Way to CES

It’s early January – time for the Consumer Electronics Show.

I’m always excited to go to CES and see the new devices from hundreds of manufacturers – devices that are waiting to dazzle us. For the past 30+ years I’ve been attending this whiz-bang exhibition.

But this year it is very interesting getting to Las Vegas. Beginning on New Year’s Day the weather services warns us of heavy snow and frigid temperatures for the next week. Two days before my scheduled travel date, I receive a notice from United Airlines that my Monday flight is cancelled and that I should call to reschedule.

I spend six hours on hold to United’s reservations center and when I finally get through to an agent I make an alternative reservation for later in the day on Monday.

An hour later, I receive another United notice that this flight too is cancelled. Back on the phone, this time for more than four hours, and they reschedule my flight to Wednesday evening. This flight is not going to work since I would miss two full days of CES.

So I look for alternatives.

I know that Allegiant flies directly to Las Vegas so I check their schedule. To my surprise there is space available on Monday and so I immediately book the flight. Of course the weather will ultimately determine if the flight actually take place.

Driving to the airport is hazardous with the zero-degree temperature over snow and ice-covered roads.

As I view the airport gate assignments I see most of the other flights from Grand Rapids are cancelled. Most likely they fly to Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago – cities where the airports are shut down.

The incoming flight from Las Vegas is 30 minutes late. But despite the drastic weather my flight to Las Vegas departs an hour late. Here’s a vote for air service city-to-city rather than the hub and spoke service used by most airlines.

A short three and a half hours later, I’m in the desert without any snow and enjoying the 60 degree temperature. I am lucky to get out of the big freeze.

Today I hear that the temperature in Grand Rapids is -10.

I had to use my sunglasses in Las Vegas.

The Fix

humor, personal, techniques, , , , , ,

I’m a frequent visitor to Chinese restaurants. You might say that I’m a big fan of Chinese food.

But something has been bothering me for the last several years. Let me explain and then you can judge for yourself whether it bothers you too.

When the server seats us, she brings the usual: a napkin, a tea cup, a plate and chopsticks. Of course the bamboo chopsticks are wrapped to keep them sanitary. By the way, I hate those plastic chopsticks because they’re slippery, but that’s not what bothers me. You’ve undoubtedly noticed that the chopstick wrapper usually has printed instructions explaining how to use the chopsticks, but that’s not what bothers me either.

Actually, the thing that bothers me has nothing to do with Chinese restaurants at all. What bothers me has everything to do with the non-Chinese restaurants.

What if someone went into a restaurant, say to have a meal of spaghetti and this person doesn’t know how to use a fork? How would he get those long strands of pasta into his mouth? Of course, this dilemma isn’t unique to Italian food – think German sauerbraten, French coq-au-vin, English roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and Spanish paella – the food has to make its way from the plate to the tongue.

To be fair, this isn’t much of a problem with pizza, tacos or hot dogs since you can always eat these foods by hand. But by and large, the culinary world doesn’t look kindly on hand-food.

So I’m proposing an easy fix for those guests who have not yet mastered the art of consuming food with a fork. For the benefit (and non-embarrassment) of these guests, the restaurant establishment should consider wrapping their forks with the following instructions:

So now it’s your turn. Did I hit the nail on the head?

Written by: Arnie Lee