Bitter gourd

Last Saturday Jack and I went to this Indian restaurant in Sunnyvale, which was highly recommended by my picky Indian colleague to be the best Indian buffet in town.

We were very happy with the choices of food, despite having to wait for 30 minutes for the buffet to open. Jack's favorite, to my surprise, was tandoori vegetables. It was similar to tandoori chicken but had marinated crunchy vegetables instead of chicken.

We came across this tiny strips of fried green vegetable in the tandoori, which we had never had anywhere else, but Jack liked the taste. I tasted it, and to me, it was bitter, and I didn't like it at all. I told him I thought it was fried bitter melon, but Jack didn't think it was possible, because he disliked any kind of melon, not to mention the bitter ones.

I smiled. Deep down, I knew how bitter melon tasted like, because it was one of my favorite exotic green vegetables! Deep fried, tandoori flavor or otherwise, I know how bitter melon taste like.

I told Jack: why don't you ask the server what it is.

Jack seemed to be as curious as I did, so he said OK. He went to where the dish was placed and asked his question.

When Jack came back, he said: "It was bitter gourd." I laughed with satisfaction. Then he continued: "The first waiter didn't know what it was, so we asked the waitress, and she said it was bitter gourd. Then the Chinese lady asked if it was bitter melon, and the waiter told her, 'no, it's bitter gourd.'"

How does the saying go? "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Random

We are watching 27 dresses to test the Roku configuration.

Jack: is it interesting that New York has a Central Park and San Francisco has a ...
Ying interrupted: Union Square?
Jack: Golden Gate Park.
Ying: oh, Central Park is actually a park?
Jack: haha, Yes. :)
Ying: I always thought Central Park was like some kind of a square.

Smile

Allowed

Last night I watched the 10 o'clock news. While the advertisements were on, and I was dozing off, I was reminded that we have been in the middle of the holiday shopping season. It was actually refreshing for me to see Christmas shopping commercials, listening to Christmas music, watching pictures of snow and festive colors.

Usually between Thanksgiving and New Years, I would be totally overwhelmed by various holiday ads from different channels, and pulling my hair out. 

It helped that I just came back from a 3-week trip to the Far East. I have been reacquainting myself with my day to day life, while unmistakeably soaking in and appreciating every moment. It was as if my "cup" was some how being emptied, filled with my Asian experiences, then it was emptied again and now it was being filled again, slowly, happily and steadily.

Once in a while, it's nice to be able to choose to allow commercials to amuse me, instead of being frustrated by them. The question is, how do we "drain our cups" once a while, so that we can look at things, even possibly annoying things with a child-like innocence?

Missing

I have been missing myself lately.

I just came back from an international trip, and over the last few days, I had been exclaiming: how nice it is to be back!

It's nice to have clean toilets which flush properly. A toilet flush is like melody to my ears.
It's nice to be out and about where there is no cigarette smoke, nor people talking loudly.
It's nice to be able to plug in to electric outlets without worrying about destroying my gadgets.
It's nice to have Internet access at my palm using my beautiful new iPhone, without worrying about wifi availability.
It's nice to be able to drive myself to places in my own car.
More importantly, it's nice to be home!

While I'm shaking my Asia blues, I seemed to remember why I didn't make these trips more frequently. On the other hand, it's nice to be truly appreciative of what I have once in a while.