Choices

Happy Sunday, Kids...(or are you now teens? Pre-teens? Yikes.)

What will you do today? Some of you will make warm sticky buns for your family, stay indoors to master that last pre-algebra problem, tinker keys on the piano to warm up those stiff fingers, tackle a few chapters in that (required) book by choice, or decide that today will be the day to build a rocket ship, finish writing your fancy research paper on AEROSPACE ENGINEERING or learn Arabic. Keep IT up, geniuses (and don't forget my bank account number when you make the millions!)

While the rest of you...will sleep in, scarf down a bowl of lucky Captain Crunch or crunchy Lucky Charms in front of cartoon reruns with sleep still tangled in your eyelashes and then spend the rest of your lazy Sunday playing video games in comfy pajamas. But unfortunately, most of you have strict parents that would never allow for sugar cereals, but instead give you a bitter lecture about your lack of work ethic while forcing plain soggy oatmeal, fried eggs with oozy yolks, spinach pancakes and more nagging down your throat. Prizes don't come with those healthy foods and if it did, your little brother or sister would probably have beaten you to it anyway. And if so, you are one of those students who are then dragged to church with ungroomed hair only to get another lecture in the car when you've forgotten your bibles - yet again! You will then try to keep awake during Sunday school, putting more effort in disguising those uncontrollable yawns, only to wish you were still under warm covers and slumber.

Life as a pre-teen can sure s-u-c-k.

Which kind is your Sunday? And how would it be different if you didn't have unreasonable parents and annoying brother and sisters and strict teachers and God down your back and under your skin?

Jai Ho and Jia Yo!

Miss Lou

Dim Sum for Everyone!

It's Sunday! And the perfect day for a family dim sum hang out. Where will you go? Fremont? San Jose? Sunnyvale? Oakland or San Francisco Chinatown? What is your favorite dish?

Dim Sum is literally translated to mean "a pinch or dab of heart" and the light dishes are served with Chinese tea. The meal is consumed in the morning until noon (or two o'clock for some places.) It's like the equivalent of a Chinese-style brunch. The dishes are stacked in bamboo bowls. Shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, rice noodles, onion pancakes, chicken feet, fruit, sweet or salty buns are some of the many examples for dim sum.

My fondest memory is meeting all my relatives in Oakland Chinatown for a Sunday dim sum. My dad would order a few main dishes, pour the tea and us kids would point to all our favorites. I loved the rice noodles with shrimp and all the vegetable dishes (go figure!). My dad loved the duck and oily pork. My mom would gnaw on the oxtail soup bones and my brother would eat anything. Though I was a picky eater, I still inhaled those chicken legs and spit out the bones all all once. Man, it's been a long many years since I've done that! And to be honest, I don't really miss it.

I love to go to Sunday dim sum on occasion, but not often since the food isn't necessary all that healthy. But just like ice cream parlors, fast food and all-you-can-eat buffets, it's the fun of eating and the happy family get-togethers...

Hope you're enjoying this beautiful, hot Sunday - dim sum or not day.