My first restaurant review: Mao's Kitchen in Venice Beach

This week-end I decided it MIGHT be fun to write reviews of the restaurants my boyfriend and I have been going to. Lately we decided to try to get out more and try all kinds of new places. So to start out with, yesterday we went to …

Mao's Kitchen – 1512 Pacific Ave. Venice, CA 90291 - one block from Venice Beach.

Getting there: We rode our bikes from West LA (my apartment is a couple blocks from Westwood, near the UCLA campus.) Only taking about 30 minutes, it was an easy ride – especially once we made it down to the bike lanes that line the beaches of Santa Monica, Venice and Marina Del Rey.

Service: “C” for “average”…that is, not especially bad, NOR especially good either. The lady who served us was in a big fat hurry, and so, as my boyfriend said, she was “not a very good listener.” Even though she was in a hurry, it took 4-e-ver for our food to get there. Also, for what it's worth, the entirely non-Asian/predominantly Latino staff created a rather off-kilt sensation amidst the so-called “Chinese proletariat” cafeteria atmosphere.

Atmosphere: Quirky, clever and fun. The menu was amusingly original, for example, offering dishes such as the “Eggplant Pamphlet” (five eggplant-bound volumes filled with shrimp or tofu propaganda), the “People’s potsticker,” and the “Model citizen noodle soup.” Rounding out the sense of our sharing a "workers’" dinner at the commune were the restaurant’s long rows of wooden tables and benches where we customers sat shoulder to shoulder awaiting food for the masses.

Food: What I liked best about this “Chinese” restaurant was that the food was definitely not typically the type of Chinese food you get in United States. That is – there was little to no taste of MSG, and the food did not seem as oily or rich as what I might normally expect. The restaurant seemed to live up to its adverts, which promise “country-style Chinese cooking with Red memories”- although, given the prices, I am not sure what was so truly “Red” about it. If they meant "Red" for communist cheap - then they were way off base. But if they meant you'll see Red because the prices are kinda ridiculous - then maybe. Especially given that we just wanted a snack/lunch, it was a little "pricey." On the other hand ... and to be fair, really... given the gigantic quantity of food we got, it WAS really worth it.

We ordered two noodle dishes (one was technically under the soup list, but anyway…) which were both excellent: #7a, the model citizen noodle soup with beef (long long long noodles), and #14, Bock choy over chow fun with chicken. Yummmm…! I'll definitely go back for sure – but next time I will bring a snack to tide myself over for the long wait until my food gets to the table.

My Brother the Daddy Homemaker

Cooking with Baby
Jack
Originally uploaded by
Eric and Kim

As a women's studies kind of chick, I think this photo is just AWESOME. What an example for the "modern" man. My brother is a role model!

I fell in love with this picture a couple of weeks ago when Eric put it up on his flickr site. At the time I had a hard time getting it up on my blog - but I never forgot about it, and so came back to it today.

As for updates on baby Jack (whom I like to refer to these days as "Jock-san" a la japonaise): driving all the way from Virginia to Wisconsin, my mom and dad just visited little Jack last week. Eric says Mom is just fantastic with the baby. I wish I could have been there to see my parents as grandparents for the first time.

Eric says that Jack is starting to smile, which, I can tell, just delights my big brother. He says you can tickle him and he will give you a little grin. It won't be long now before he will be able "to smile on demand," as the proud father puts it.

Visiting Violet. My great aunt? or my Great-Aunt?

My Auntie Violet, 97 years old
Originally uploaded by annmerry

Over the week-end on Saturday, I paid a very enjoyable visit to my great aunt, Auntie Violet, a remarkable woman of 97 years. Auntie Violet is the younger sister of my maternal grandfather, Arthur Varian.

I went with my boyfriend Scott, who kindly and pleasantly agreed to drive me there. It was a great coincidence to find out recently that my Auntie only lives 8 miles down the road from Scott's apartment in Huntington Beach -so the visit was not only "hyper" convenient, but a MUST.

When I told Scott thanks for taking me, he said "Of course, we're going to be elderly some day too!" Proving just how amenable he was to accompanying me, as we were heading home afterwards, Scott said to me, "That was fun." Apparently he enjoyed the visit with Auntie as much as I did. (What an awesome guy!) (hehe smile)

But back to Aunt Violet. At age 97, she is doing remarkably well. When we showed up to her house, she came outside to greet us and directed Scott how to park his car better! We spent about three hours together - she brought out all of her old photos of the family - including pictures of literally hundreds of extended family members living all over California and the Philippines. I was pretty overwhelmed by all of the relatives...

Scott talking with Arthur before we say good-bye

One of the pleasant surprises was the unexpected visit of Violet's son Arthur, my mom's first cousin. I had not seen him or Violet for 15 years. I told him that my parents would be visiting in September and that I hoped we could have a small reunion then. After Arthur showed up, Auntie pulled out some apple pie, made coffee and served donuts also. I showed her some pictures of my parents, Grandma (Arthur Varian's wife, Maria, who is now living in the Philippines), and of my new baby nephew. I had an extra photo of Jackson which I gave to her, which seemed to make her very happy. We wrote his name and "Helen Varian's grandson" on the back so that she could remember who that new face in the long family line was.

Among other things, I learned that Aunt Violet is the oldest girl of Morris Varian and Ana Flamor Varian. She was their third child and six years younger than my grandfather. She confirmed what everyone often says - that my grandfather was not very talkative - and so apparently, he didn't talk much to his younger siblings. I also learned that Aunt Violet moved to the United States with her husband, a surgeon, Dr. Bringas, in 1952. Her husband passed away only fourteen years later in 1966. The family lived for some time in Gary, Indiana where Dr. Bringas worked for the American Steel Company....

Aunt Violet was quite animated talking about her family and the past! I remember thinking that I wanted to get everything she was saying on video. I did have my video-cam with me, but I ended up deciding not to bring the camera out because I didn't want Violet to hesitate or stop telling us the stories so vividly. I wasn't sure how she would react to the idea of being taped - and I was expecially concerned that she might not stay so candid if I did try to record our conversation... I hope I can visit her again soon to try to talk to her some more - next time for sure, with the camera ON!