use real butter

Yesterday we made the requisite stop for dim sum in which all three of us declared we weren’t that hungry after the previous day’s gorging on sushi and then proceeded to gorge some more once the hot and juicy morsels were paraded past our table. Thank goodness I had sense to run and bike in the gym that morning. We did more Asian market shopping (Ranch 99) and then had some boba (bubble) tea. Grandma wanted to order it at the small eatery attached to the store in Cupertino, but Elena knew of a specific tea shop that sold boba tea around the corner. Grandma’s instinct is to save money – to order the $1.99 tea. Elena’s instinct is to go for the treat, the good stuff. I have stated before that Elena has impeccable taste, and that extends to pretty much everything – especially food! The difference in price is less than a buck per tea, but it represents the constant battle between Elena wanting to treat her mother to something good, and Grandma’s frugality that got her through her 85 years of life. I sided with Elena, of course, because as a granddaughter I can only push so much before it becomes disrespectful. Elena is the hard-headed youngest daughter whose mind, once made up, cannot be changed without much effort and grumbling.

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I’m in, you guessed it, Silicon Valley. I’m visiting with Elena and my grandma, which is kind of fun since I get to chill out with two people I really love and care about. Elena picked me up from the airport last night and we had 45 minutes to spend her birthday together. We talked until 2 am, in the dark, just sharing lots of thoughts and stories. That was pretty special.

This morning we picked up some coffee for grandma and went over to her place. For lunch, we had sushi at Umi Sushi – they remembered me and Grandma from the last time Jeremy and I took her there in December! The wife of the owner said she remembered us and that her husband (the head chef) was coming to work any minute to prepare our order (instead of letting the other chef do it). We felt so special. He loaded our order with such generous portions and special kinds of fish that we couldn’t finish all of the food (unheard of for me and Elena when it comes to sushi!). At the end of the meal, he asked if he could see the iphone – hee hee.

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Recipe: korean glass noodles

I have to admit that I wasn’t exposed to much Asian cuisine other than Chinese when I was growing up. It was a big deal when my mom started cooking more western style foods when I was in junior high. When Dad began his foray into gourmet cooking, he went for the big splashes like rack of lamb or roast pork loin – something that makes your guests go “wow!” while you serve it up with a flourish.

I had been eating sashimi since I was four or five years old, but wasabi was my only introduction to Japanese food and it was prepared unceremoniously at our house as opposed to a sushi bar. And on rare occasion in Washington D.C. my parents would take me to a Vietnamese place for pho and then they’d order all sorts of things I refused to eat like tripe… When I went to college, I began to frequent the sushi bars, Thai restaurants, and other joints around the LA basin serving up good authentic Asian fare. Imagine my surprise when I took my parents to our favorite Thai restaurant and their reaction was, “meh.”

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