Saturday, May 17, 2003
Continuing the food theme from last time: I really miss good Chinese food. Despite a vast selection of Chinese restaurants all over London offering "authentic" Hong Kong food, there are only a handful of places that even come close. So when my uncle and aunt visited and decided to take us all out to a Chinese restaurant, it was with some relief and much celebration that they took us to one of the only good places. And then proceeded to stuff all of us -- "us" being myself and my five London-based cousins (Kavi, Haneal, Krsna, Reshma and Shaman) as well as a visiting uncle -- with course after course after course. I don't think I was alone in being full after the appetizers.
It was good to pig out and see my uncle and aunt... or should I say grand-uncle and grand-aunt? The family tree is too convoluted to explain it properly, but either way my grand-aunt is like a grandmother to me, so it was good to see her. She's also having her driver bring over a bundle of chocolate tomorrow. How can you not love that?
(Speaking of which, that was typical me, really. "I'm going shopping to get foodstuffs for you kids tomorrow. What do you want?" she asks. "Ooh, how about noodles?" someone says. "Can you get me some Indian cooking ingredients?" another asks. Me, cook? Noodles? Yeah right. "I want... chocolate.")
After saying our byes and with their car safely around the corner... the men in the group spontaneously decided to go out drinking. Don't ask how, or why, we just thought it was a good idea at the time (though the official reason was something like "Last time before exams!" or something). Cue three drunken hours at Leicester Square tourist-y joint Tiger Tiger, full of 30-somethings and far too many men. Seriously, the man/woman ratio there was something stupid like 80/20. Still, since we were ostensibly there to spend time with each other, we just stuck to our drinks and conversation, and it wasn't a bad night overall. I don't tend to enjoy nights out anymore -- not entirely sure why really, but it's not a London/HK thing since I feel the same in both places. Maybe I'm looking for something new?
I heartily recommend everyone check out the film Old School, by the way. Incredibly funny movie with the ever-brilliant Will Ferrell (as well as a couple of bit-parts for two 24 actors, bet you can't find both!).
And nobody talk about the Lakers, please. Thanks.
Posted at 2:54 PM
