happy birthday!

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I made a birthday card for my mom!

you offend me you offend my family

This blog is one of my favorite blogs of all time, Asian-American or otherwise. It's run by director Justin Lin, who made his name with the all Asian-American ensemble movie Better Luck Tomorrow and a bunch of his friends, who all live and work in Los Angeles. They cover topics on everything under the sun, from Charlie Sheen to sex to why there are so few Asian Americans in Hollywood to sex and food. I love them because they're irreverent, and politically incorrect in the best sense of the phrase - not being assholes, but making their points efficiently with great humor.

Some of my favorite posts:

How to Survive the Holidays Chinese American Style: Don’t make other plans: The purpose of such family trips is not to see your friends from high school, do a little shopping, or that activity my mother dreads most – “hanging out” which basically means her kids running off to have fun off-the grid of Oakland Chinatown and away from her surveillance. The holidays is to pay homage to relative after relative after relative and help mom keep up appearances by talking about the dissertation you just finished at Yale, your internet start-up that just went public, your spouse’s upcoming trip to Oslo to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize and oh, almost forgot – the third child you are about to give birth to…

Hardcore Chinese Motherpedia Part 1: I’m glad to help out but, should warn you that deconstructing Chinese parents isn’t completely straightforward – there are there are quite a few varieties of hardcore Chinese parents (HCCP) who share primarily the same traits but have different concerns. These differences relate to issues of immigration (straight off the boat 1st generation vs. well assimilated 4th generation), class (working vs. upper class), and level of education (village grade schools vs. Ivy League).

My 8 Most Romantic Movies: John Woo’s Plain Jane always has a special place in my heart as I saw the movie as a kid with my parents in the cinema. I laugh every time I re-watch the awkward romance between Plain Jane (played by the brilliant Josephine Siao) and the Hong Kong everyman Ricky Hui. So much of romance is about awkwardness, and this movie captures it perfectly in the 80s era of colonial Hong Kong.

5 Asian Americans Who Seemed to be Cool But Turned Out to be Assholes:
When Chinese American writer Frank Chin burst onto the scene in the early 1970s, he changed the literary landscape forever. His play Chickencoop Chinaman became the first by an Asian American to be produced on a New York stage, he helped found what would become the Asian American Theater Company, he co-edited the groundbreaking anthology Aiiieeeee! and re-discovered pioneering Asian American writers like John Okada and Carlos Bulosan. But then he became fixated on attacking authors he considered to be “inauthentic” like Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan and our own David Henry Hwang. And while he raised many valid points about issues such as “racist love,” his attacks started sounding more and more like a broken record. The times changed, people moved on, but somewhere along the line, Chin turned into the equivalent of a bitter dinosaur. OK, those other guys are fakes and they should burn in literary hell, blah, blah, blah–yeah, we get it. Now, stop whining and give us some kickass writing again.

Saito's Sushi

4339 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90029-2111

Every time I come here I'm reminded of why I love sushi so much. This place is for true die-hard sushi lovers, not you California-roll loving wimps. Saito is there every day, preparing some of the freshest sushi around, in an unassuming strip mall on Sunset Boulevard. It's a worthy splurge. The menu is simple - just straight up nigiri, for the most part, and a few great appetizers. Our suggestions: get the salmon nigiri, the eel nigiri, and the salmon skin roll. There's a great yellowtail (I think) collar appetizer. Delicious! It's often patronized by regulars, so make your trip on non-busy days.

KyoChon

KyoChon takes the cake in fried chicken options. Almost as good as my dad's fried chicken - their soy garlic fried chicken is to die for. The right amount of crispiness combined with an explosion of garlicky flavored goodness, it just blows any commercial fried chicken out of the water. Not to mention, their sides aren't bad either. The potato wedges taste delicious, and their combos even come with salads. Granted, the broccoli one comes with bacon, but you can kid yourself that at least you're eating some vegetables to make up for the fatty goodness you're consuming.

We go to the one in the Glendale Galleria. It's become an obsession, where we go to the mall just to eat here. Who could blame us?

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