CALIFORNIA, Day 5, June 25, 2011
Hello, again, friends and relatives,
Good news! I was able to add one "follower" today--Nancy Teague-Horner! Welcome, Nancy, and congratulations on being able to post with no difficulty. Nancy and I are going to be co-travelers in Italy, our next travel segment for the summer. Greetings, and good to hear from you, Nancy. Thanks to others like Marie and Eddy who have commented on my blog via e-mail. I appreciate your confidence in my making my travels come alive for you. I look forward every day to reviewing, like a film, the reel of travel in my brain and spinning it out for you once again.
Today was a non-travel day. Maureen and I met Maureen's son Randy (a cellist), her daughter-in-law Shu (a pianist, from China), and her three grandchildren (Isabelle, Isaac, and Irei) in Cupertino today. Shu is a grand cook and very well versed in southern Chinese cuisine, as she is from Guiyang, in the state of Guizhou. They were to meet us at a restaurant called Joy Luck Palace, in Cupertino, home of Apple computers. It was in a shopping center with nothing but Chinese, Korean, and Japanese establishments. Since Maureen and I had the time, we visited the Ranch 99 supermarket, which was an East Asian grocery store. There were rice cookers, woks, and many different types of vegetables and fruits I had never even heard of before--about 20 different varieties of mushrooms, various types of bok choy, etc. etc. All kinds of different fish (including salmon heads), mussels, crabs, eels; many different preparations and cuts of pork; Chinese birthday cakes, and hardly a word of English to be heard anywhere.
After a tour of the grocery store, we were off to the Joy Luck Palace, where we met Randy and company. All of us sat down at a table which sported a lazy susan, and all the dishes were brought, tapas-style, and we partook. There were maybe two Westerners in the restaurant besides Randy, Maureen, and myself. Dishes included the following: Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce; siu mai (dumplings with pork and shrimp); chicken feet (I tasted them, but they were the only thing really not to my liking); congee (rice soup with chicken and preserved egg); barbecued pork in a baked bun with sesame seeds; sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf; and xian shui jiao (fried glutinous rice bun with pork).
Afterwards, Maureen and I took her grandchildren back to Maureen's house for games and swimming, while their parents did some errands. They met us afterwards for more swimming and for dinner, which Maureen and I prepared on the barbecue pit on her backyard patio. We had hamburgers, Brats, zucchini salad, carrots, oven-roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, and homemade peach ice cream for dessert. The little ones are watching TV right now, and Randy is doing a few repairs for Maureen, and all of them are about to depart for the evening, since they are driving back to SF, where they live.
Tomorrow is Sunday and the day of the Gay Pride parade in SF. Maureen and I are taking BART, the rapid transit metro, to the Embarcadero tomorrow, as we are going to attend a performance of Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" at the concert hall nearby, so we might just see some of the parade or at least the revelers themselves on parade. I shall give you a blow-by-blow description tomorrow night, when I return. Another beautiful day in Mountain View, with excellent prognosis for tomorrow.
My best wishes to all of you for a great weekend. Write me and let me know how all of you are doing and take care! As ever, Sylvia
Good news! I was able to add one "follower" today--Nancy Teague-Horner! Welcome, Nancy, and congratulations on being able to post with no difficulty. Nancy and I are going to be co-travelers in Italy, our next travel segment for the summer. Greetings, and good to hear from you, Nancy. Thanks to others like Marie and Eddy who have commented on my blog via e-mail. I appreciate your confidence in my making my travels come alive for you. I look forward every day to reviewing, like a film, the reel of travel in my brain and spinning it out for you once again.
Today was a non-travel day. Maureen and I met Maureen's son Randy (a cellist), her daughter-in-law Shu (a pianist, from China), and her three grandchildren (Isabelle, Isaac, and Irei) in Cupertino today. Shu is a grand cook and very well versed in southern Chinese cuisine, as she is from Guiyang, in the state of Guizhou. They were to meet us at a restaurant called Joy Luck Palace, in Cupertino, home of Apple computers. It was in a shopping center with nothing but Chinese, Korean, and Japanese establishments. Since Maureen and I had the time, we visited the Ranch 99 supermarket, which was an East Asian grocery store. There were rice cookers, woks, and many different types of vegetables and fruits I had never even heard of before--about 20 different varieties of mushrooms, various types of bok choy, etc. etc. All kinds of different fish (including salmon heads), mussels, crabs, eels; many different preparations and cuts of pork; Chinese birthday cakes, and hardly a word of English to be heard anywhere.
After a tour of the grocery store, we were off to the Joy Luck Palace, where we met Randy and company. All of us sat down at a table which sported a lazy susan, and all the dishes were brought, tapas-style, and we partook. There were maybe two Westerners in the restaurant besides Randy, Maureen, and myself. Dishes included the following: Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce; siu mai (dumplings with pork and shrimp); chicken feet (I tasted them, but they were the only thing really not to my liking); congee (rice soup with chicken and preserved egg); barbecued pork in a baked bun with sesame seeds; sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf; and xian shui jiao (fried glutinous rice bun with pork).
Afterwards, Maureen and I took her grandchildren back to Maureen's house for games and swimming, while their parents did some errands. They met us afterwards for more swimming and for dinner, which Maureen and I prepared on the barbecue pit on her backyard patio. We had hamburgers, Brats, zucchini salad, carrots, oven-roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, and homemade peach ice cream for dessert. The little ones are watching TV right now, and Randy is doing a few repairs for Maureen, and all of them are about to depart for the evening, since they are driving back to SF, where they live.
Tomorrow is Sunday and the day of the Gay Pride parade in SF. Maureen and I are taking BART, the rapid transit metro, to the Embarcadero tomorrow, as we are going to attend a performance of Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" at the concert hall nearby, so we might just see some of the parade or at least the revelers themselves on parade. I shall give you a blow-by-blow description tomorrow night, when I return. Another beautiful day in Mountain View, with excellent prognosis for tomorrow.
My best wishes to all of you for a great weekend. Write me and let me know how all of you are doing and take care! As ever, Sylvia
Sounds like you are having a wonderful time in California! Glad to hear things are going well. I look forward to hearing about the Pride Parade in SF . . . should be a blast!
ReplyDeleteAnd apparently I have a blog profile under here. Right, so, Patrick W is The Midnight Writer.
ReplyDeleteDear Patrick,
ReplyDeleteThanks for being a follower on my blog. I have just posted the one for today, commenting extensively on the Gay Pride Parade. Looking forward to hearing more about the events in your life. Take care, Sylvia