...Saturday Night Noodle Soup
It was a quick jaunt to Dinkytown for the traditional cantonese fare. Chicken feet, squid, shumai, taro root, plenty of jasmine tea and conversation all around. I grew up with dim sum being a staple Sunday morning get-together for family and business friends. I'd crawl under the table, pop-up for roast duck or dumplings, and talk with my full-blooded cousins. My sibs were always the odd ones out. As best I recall we usually went to a place named Pearl River near what is now hwy 394 and 100. Today, there are many choices: My Village on University, Mandarin Kitchen in Bloomington, and Pagoda on the U of M(n) campus.
My companions were old college friends. In the golden gopher days I was their May Term leader to China. It was one of the first times I drank heavily overseas; hitting bars and clubs every night with a few asian brothers, sick and sweating in the morning. For the largely americana section of the group whose stomachs didn't acclimate to the spicy Szechuan, I was a total ass. To them my favorite quote was "don't feed the bears", addressing the many vendors on the Great Wall, while hypocritically taking a noontime piss off the northern face.
Yea, that was fun...
One of my favorite directors: Zhang Yimou, has a trailer up for his newest 2009 film, A Simple Noodle Story. Its a retelling of the Coen brothers 1984 thriller Blood Simple. There's no doubt I'll be watching it in theaters if it comes over.
-JKG
