Tet and the Year of the Tiger

Danny and I just came back from our trip to California where we stayed with my cousin Chi and her family in Arcadia (20 minutes from Pasadena -- 40 minutes with traffic). I flew out early and then Danny came in a couple of days later. We left the cold and snow of the east coast to be greeted by sunshine and 70 degree temps. NICE!

Tet (the Vietnamese New Year) is the same day as the Chinese New Year but for the rest of you gringos it landed on Valentines Day this year. There is one word to sum up our trip: FOOD. Lets just say I never lost the 7 pounds I wanted to BEFORE the trip and then proceeded to gain an additional 3 while I was there.

I've never ingested so many carbs and so little veggies, I am sure my body went into shock. But my mouth and tongue seemed quite content.

I have many stories to share about our experience and will be posting them as I remember, because many are funny and meaningful to me. This year was especially meaningful because of my mother's passing. I know my cousin and my aunt both "felt closer" to my mom because I was there.

If you've never been to this part of southern California, let me tell you --- it really IS like being in another country. At one point, I said to my cousin, "I didn't know I'd needed a passport." EVERYONE is Asian. But its very specific. In Arcadia, they are Taiwanese, in Alhambra they are Chinese and Chinese-Vietnamese. That is to stay they are Chinese who lived in Vietnam and can speak Vietnamese but are NOT Vietnamese. Who knew? Then of course there's Santa Ana, which is all Vietnamese. Everything reflects which ever Asian culture is dominant. And for the rest of us half breeds and non-Asians, they kindly put English translations in small type.

When Danny arrived, I said "You're the first white person I've seen in days."

Below are pix from my first couple of days. I literally put my bags down and we began preparing and cooking Vietnamese dumplings and of course consuming them.

My mom's older sister, my Auntie Oanh (sounds like "one").
She calls me her "Princess."

I make a mean dumpling!

These can be boiled or fried. I seemed to gravitate toward the fried ones.

In addition to cooking, Auntie Oanh crocheted me 2 scarfs.
My cousin Chi also made me one while I was there.
Considering the weather was 77 degrees there
and 32 degrees in Raleigh,
they are much more useful here.

I asked my cousin to crochet a bunch of little circles and then
string them together to make one long scarf.
She thought I was crazy and thought the scarf was ugly but I loved it.
While doing it though, she complained incessantly
about how awful the yarn was to see
and she'd never do another one for me again.