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| Mountains around Hiroshima, Watercolor on paper, Lucey Bowen, 2003. |
According to Ruth Reichl, New York was especially tense, trying to find cheer in the opening of Jean-George Vongerichten's 66, his homage to Chinese cooking. On the West Coast, Caroline Bates found Singapore's Nonya Cuisine in, of course, Los Angeles. Nicole Mones extolled Juon Yuon, one of the world's hot spots for Chinese food, located in a strip mall in the San Gabriel Valley, east of L. A. Mones' first contributions to Gourmet were her twin pieces on Beijing and Shanghai in 1999. Mones, a New China hand, had done business in China since 1977, and written two novels, Lost in Translation and A Cup of Light. The heroines of both novels are Caucasian women, fluent in Mandarin, experts in their fields of Chinese history or culture, and conflicted about their assimilation into Chinese society.
My own voyage into the East had begun. In 2003, San Francisco had a Japanese language station, KTSF broadcast two Japanese television series, Kinpachi Sensei and Sakura. The former dealt with a middle school teacher's character lessons for his teenage students, a group with issues recognizable to American audiences: demanding parents, sexual identity, drugs. The latter followed an Hawaiian-born-Japanese-American girl teaching English in a small town in Japan. Both shows introduced me to contemporary Japan, and were broadcast with subtitles. The Japanese epic Mushashi, a tale of meditation and swordplay, was also featured. KTSF showed Project X, a documentary series about the inventions which helped Japan recover and advance after World War II. The theme music was from China's 12 Girl Band.
New York:
66 at 241 Church Street is closed.
Los Angeles:
Nonya at 61 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, is closed.
Juon Yuan at 140 West Valley Boulevard, No 210, San Gabriel is till Juon Yuan.
Green Village at 140 West Valley Boulevard, No. 206-207, San Gabriel, is closed.
Chung King at 206 Garfield Avenue, Monterey Park is still Chung King.
Fuschia Dunlop, another New China Hand, contributed a piece on restaurants in Chengdu, in Sichuan province in China's southwest; a bit farther afield than your average tourist might travel.
My own voyage into the East had begun. In 2003, San Francisco had a Japanese language station, KTSF broadcast two Japanese television series, Kinpachi Sensei and Sakura. The former dealt with a middle school teacher's character lessons for his teenage students, a group with issues recognizable to American audiences: demanding parents, sexual identity, drugs. The latter followed an Hawaiian-born-Japanese-American girl teaching English in a small town in Japan. Both shows introduced me to contemporary Japan, and were broadcast with subtitles. The Japanese epic Mushashi, a tale of meditation and swordplay, was also featured. KTSF showed Project X, a documentary series about the inventions which helped Japan recover and advance after World War II. The theme music was from China's 12 Girl Band.
It was all new to me, and I began trying to absorb it all. My notebooks began to fill up with watercolors of the most basic of characters, those for infinity and water. Soon I was hooked on Asian culture. My husband instigated my first trip to Asia. Japan was our destination, with a stop in Hawaii on the way home. Here's why: my father-in-law worked on the atomic bomb in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. My husband thought it was important that our children see Japan first hand. Hiroshima was the must see, as was Pearl Harbor on the way back. Connor and Fiona were game; Japanese pop culture was ascendant in their world. Dick and I studied Japanese at a nearby high school. I purchased tapes for the children and me to practice with as we commuted to school and sports.
Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hida Takayama, where Sakura taught school, all were on the itinerary. Friends from Dick's work in high technology sent us to their favorite restaurants. We stayed in a ryokan, an old style inn. We rode subways and bullet trains. With or without husband and children I visited museums and shrines, places I'd read about, although not necessarily in Gourmet.
I remember: Tokyo's heat, the pond covered in blooming lotus in Ueno Park, the deafening noise of cicadas in Kyoto, groups of the elderly practicing tai-chi in the early morning, or dancing bon odori in festivals.
Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hida Takayama, where Sakura taught school, all were on the itinerary. Friends from Dick's work in high technology sent us to their favorite restaurants. We stayed in a ryokan, an old style inn. We rode subways and bullet trains. With or without husband and children I visited museums and shrines, places I'd read about, although not necessarily in Gourmet.
I remember: Tokyo's heat, the pond covered in blooming lotus in Ueno Park, the deafening noise of cicadas in Kyoto, groups of the elderly practicing tai-chi in the early morning, or dancing bon odori in festivals.
New York:
66 at 241 Church Street is closed.
Los Angeles:
Nonya at 61 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, is closed.
Juon Yuan at 140 West Valley Boulevard, No 210, San Gabriel is till Juon Yuan.
Green Village at 140 West Valley Boulevard, No. 206-207, San Gabriel, is closed.
Chung King at 206 Garfield Avenue, Monterey Park is still Chung King.
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