I needed a bit of cheering up today so I thought I’d look up a clip from a long-forgotten show, Muppets Tonight. and thanks to the wonders of youtube and its users, I found it. It’s a shame that the series isn’t on DVD.
The way both Seymour and Pepe have to explain the joke is simply priceless. It still makes me laugh after all these years.
I’ve tried to stand my ground
I’ve tried to understand but I can’t seem to find my way
like water on the sand or grasping at the wind
I keep on falling short
please be my strength
please be my strength
I don’t have anymore
I don’t have anymore
I’m looking for a place that I can plant my faith
one thing I know for sure
I cannot create it, I cannot sustain it
It’s Your love that’s keeping me
please be my strength
please be my strength
I don’t have anymore
I don’t have anymore
at my final breath I hope that I can say
I’ve fought the good fight of faith
I pray your glory shines through this doubting heart of mine
so my world would know that You
You are my strength
You and You alone
You and You alone
Keep bringin me back home…
written by Michael Gungor
UrbanSpoon is restaurant review site that I’ve been recently relying on to find new places to try while eating out. I like the fact that you can select different categories (i.e. Mexican, Italian, seafood) and sort the list by popularity/rating.
Since a lot of “foodies” use the site, I thought I could trust the rating system on UrbanSpoon but it turns out that we have to take the ratings listed on the site with a grain of salt. It seems that the problem that plagues other review sites like TripAdvisor and Citysearch, applies here as well. My guess is that savvy restaurant owners are skewing the ratings on UrbanSpoon in their favor. How else can one explain the reason for “Peking Garden” being listed as one of the top Chinese restaurants in Raleigh??
Until this past weekend, I had never been to Peking Garden since it looked to be one of those run of the mill old-school chinese restaurants from the 1980′s. But still it’s listed as one of the top picks in the area, so I thought I’d give it a try. bad idea.
I should have went with my instincts and stayed away from this place. It’s definitely old-school. From the bamboo decor to the koi fish pond, the place looks to be frozen in time, with no intention of updating their look or their food. And boy, is the food old fashioned and sad to say, just plain awful.
The General Tso’s was basic and passable. But the more expensive “gourmet” (not!) Hawaiian shrimp dish – was a joke. essentially prepackaged shrimp drowned in a “sweet & sour” sauce. oh and don’t get me started on the “Chicken in Garlic Sauce”. It’s more like GARLIC and more garlic with some chicken in it. I’m going to be smelling like garlic for days. oh and whatever you do, don’t ever order the double pan fried noodles with chicken. what a waste of money.
Two obvious tip offs that I unfortunately chose to ignore:
1) the place was far from crowded during dinner
2) we were the only asians dining there during our visit. So, if other asians won’t come to eat your asian food, what does that tell you??
This is no damn “hidden gem”, I can honestly tell you that right now. Obviously the owners (and friends/family etc) are tech savvy enough to know how to place these bogus votes/ratings on the various review sites like UrbanSpoon. Either that or these local yokels have absolutely no idea what good asian cuisine is supposed to taste like!
Read more…
It’s tough scheduling family outings when you have kids on different school calendars like we do. Two of our boys are in year-round schools and our oldest is under the standard traditional calendar. So whenever their vacation schedules eventually do overlap, we make an effort to do something worthwhile together.
This time around we went up to D.C. to visit with family. While there, we took advantage of the splendid weather and went museum hopping at the Smithsonian. Coincidentally it was time for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival so as you can imagine, it was pretty darn crowded in and around D.C. over the weekend.
random tidbits from the visit…
- can it be any MORE expensive to eat at Mickey D’s than at the Air and Space Museum? yikes. for a group of nine, it took a large bite out of the wallet!
- the kids loved riding the Metro even though it was slam packed. our six year old loved standing up while riding. in fact, he insisted on it even with a seat available.
- speaking of the Metro, from what I heard on the news, I think ridership on thurs/fri broke records. something like 900,000 trips were taken on both days. You may remember that the highest recorded riders was over 1 million trips on President Obama’s inauguration.
- with the huge crowds, we just did our best to see what we could at the Air/Space and Natural History museums. we barely scratched the surface since there’s SO MUCH to see there but enjoyed what all we saw nevertheless.
- barely got a glimpse of the hope diamond.. simply too many people congregated in that section of the exhibit. but the diamond/gem exhibit was probably the favorite part of the museum for the wife and her sister. heh.
- Roxy Paine’s Graft, a huge steel sculpture of a tree at the Sculpture garden was neat to see. it’s the first contemporary sculpture installed in the garden in the 10 years since it opened.
- definitely have to come back to see more of the Smithsonian. hopefully when it’s LESS crowded.
- before we left for home we made sure to visit our favorite korean noodle shop for some jja jang myun. for $4, you can’t beat the price PLUS it’s better than any I’ve tasted in the VA/NC area. definitely check out Choong Hwa Won if you’re any where near Annandale.
- another favorite eatery in the area is Spartan’s Family Restaurant (located in Burke, VA). Fantastic gyros, souvlakis and salads. it’s not much to look at but the food is always great.
As a typical asian american growing up in the U.S., I had the notion that I could actually fit in with the rest of white america. I was what you’d call a “banana”. you know, white on the inside, yellow on the outside. also known as “twinkie”. I desperately wanted “acceptance” and even dated a “white girl” for three years as a teen.
But sadly, now that I’m older, I’ve come to the realization that I’ll always be labeled “asian-american” with an emphasis on ASIAN. It’s obvious that we as a nation aren’t color-blind and I can’t really see the day ever happening. I’m not sure if living in the “south” has tainted my view but from my experience, it feels like I’ll always have that “scarlet letter” scrawled on me. “A” for asian! I’m looked upon as “different” and will never be a part of white society. As the years pass me by, I feel even more disconnected and isolated from the community in general.
The way I see it, people simply categorize you as either “white”, “black” or “other”. No matter if I’m rich and successful, I’ll always be looked upon as an outsider. and I hate it. I hate the fact that people look at me and my family as “some foreigners”. I get the feeling the folks around here only have had limited contact with asians and quickly base their opinions about us via their dry cleaners and asian restaurant workers. I also have to blame high profile comedians like Bobby Lee and Ken Jeong for teaching middle america to laugh at short, weird looking korean people. thanks for perpetuating asian stereotypes, dudes!
I see this type of “racism” (subtle and not so subtle) every day – at work, at my kids’ schools, in my neighborhood (yes, I’ve got racist assholes for neighbors unfortunately), among parents at kids’ activities, and even out and about around town.
I sometimes wish I had those “blinders” on like I did as a teenager. Where I had some sort of faith in the world. some glimmer of hope. But with age, all I see now is the cruelty, bigotry and the prejudice in people.
I suppose this rant against white america makes me prejudiced as well. oh well. I don’t know. I’m just feeling down and had to vent.
give me some perspective here. anyone?
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