Nag, nag, nag

Awright, awright. I'll write something! I've been getting a little nagging from friends who haven't seen anything new here in awhile. Sorry, but on top of still teaching English every day, I haven't had much excitement in my life to write about! But I can muster up a little bit now.

Best this is that this week, due to a visit from Singaporean friend, David, I got to have dinner with some of my favorite people: Natari, Charlene, Dino, Carrie, and another friend who must remain un-named for the time being. The bonus guest was Dino's son, Alex, who is here visiting from California. Nice kid, 18 years old, looks so much like his dad (despite the bleached blonde hair), and has eyelashes so long and thick that women everywhere (including Carried) were trying to figure out how to steal them. I won't be posting any photos of Alex, because I don't think it's a good idea to put the children of stars into the public eye, but here's a cute pic of David with Dino. Dino is demonstrating how he copes with frustration.

David is a huge fan of Dino's and is currently studying drumming. He was able to pick up a few tips from Dino during our evening out. He also scored a pair of Dino's drumsticks, the ones he used during the Singapore concert at the beginning of the month. As you see, Dino must have suffered a lot of frustration to leave the sticks in this condition!

After eating a little bit at Din Tai Feng, famous for their xiao long bao, we moved over to one of the whackiest restaurants I've ever seen: Indian Jurassic Park. You have to check out the photos of this place: Indian Jurassic Restaurant

It was a very noisy place, and rather smoky, but lots of fun. We had some tasty food there, including fried rice, deep-fried squid, Three Cup Chicken (三杯雞), some clams in a yummy sauce (炒海瓜子), some veggie (空心菜), and some fish. The fish was beautifully presented that I had to take a photo. If you can work your way through the Chinese at the above link, you can see some photos of other food. We of course also had beer.

I was happy to have some time to spend chatting with Dino's son. He was a little jet lagged, so he wasn't too lively, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. We share some of the same heritage, American Indian and Italian. And we've both lived in Wyoming, him in Laramie and me in Cheyenne. He's not too interested in becoming a drummer, but he might want to be an equestrian veterinarian when he grows up. He just graduated from high school, and now he's trying to figure out what he should study in college.

Anyway, that's about the only really fun thing I've done. My Korean friend, Kayun, has begun studying English with me and is coming twice a week. After class sometimes we watch movies, which is fun, especially now that I have the new Pioneer DVD player and surround-sound system. This week we watched a great Korean movie called "Welcome to Dongmakgol." A big thank-you to Cheryl for passing that one along to me. And last week I finally got to see "Old Boy," a movie I've had for over a year and a half but never watched. It was just as intense as all the reviews had said.

Let's see, what else? Well, my friend/student, Aaron, left for his year of study in the UK. His family invited me to a goodbye dinner, and the food was excellent. His mom and dad are both fantastic cooks, and I really appreciated them asking me to join the rest of the family that evening. I'm going to miss Aaron, and I hope he adapts well to life in England. At the end he said he really didn't want to go, but it was too late to change his mind.

I've started trading English lessons for Chinese ones. Ye Ying, one of the teachers who had been at CLD while I was there, is planning on going to Holland to study Chinese culture. Personally, I think that's a bit weird, going to a European country for Asian studies, but she said the school is famous for it's courses. She wants to improve her English, and my Chinese has been regressing, so we're doing a trade. It will be good for me to get back into the study habit before I start at Shi Da in December.

I'll be heading back to Singapore on October 2 for a three-day, four-night stay. I spent some time yesterday online making a list of places I want to see, and I'll mostly be alone on my journeys. But, that's how I like it! I was able to find a very inexpensive hotel (only $156US for four nights), so I won't be spending too much. However, I am a little miffed that I didn't know earlier that Wu Bai & China Blue would be in Macau for a show on 9/30, because I would have gone there instead! Dammit, they never make these announcements early enough. Also, my friend Maddy from Florida will be in Hong Kong while I'm in Singapore! Again, had she told me sooner, I would have gone back to Hong Kong so I could see her. Rats rats rats!

I've completely avoided discussing the political situation here in Taiwan, because I really do hate politics and politicians. I'll briefly say that a bunch of people who have their heads up their collective ass are currently doing a sit-in protest to try to convince the president, Chen Shui Bian, to step down. They're all riled up because of alleged corruption. I think they should read this informative editorial in the Taipei Times: Taiwan's Color-Coded View of Corruption

If I have to choose between two evils, I'll take the lesser, and Ah Bian certainly qualifies as that. No, he's not perfect, but he at least wants Taiwan to be an independent, democrat country, while the Kuomintang would rather give it back to China and lose all the freedom we have. Idiots. And I can't even begin to explain how incredibly stupid Taiwan's vice president is. Root around in the editorial archives of the Times for some interesting stuff, if you have the time.

I'm done now. I have to prepare for my afternoon class now. I'll try to be better about posting, but no promises!

Table for Four, Please

Before I left for Hong Kong on 7/31, Dino had called me to say that he was going to be working at a restaurant (English name is roughly "Chrysanthemum") in San Zhi for about 10 days in August, and he wanted to make sure we'd come have dinner there while he was cooking. His fiancee, Carrie, works at this restaurant, and she and Dino have become friends of the owners, a Taiwanese gentleman with a Japanese wife (or vice versa, I can't recall). Dino had cooked some of his Italian specialities for them, and they liked it so much they asked him to run the restaurant while they were on holiday in Japan.

The announcement sign basically says that from 8/1 through 8/12 the restaurant would be under the control of China Blue's Italian drummer, Dino, who would be cooking Italian food and not to pass up the opportunity to eat it!

Dino started cooking while I was in Hong Kong. Among the first guests to partake of the wonders of Chef Dino were Wu Bai, Da Mao, and Xiao Zhu. Dino reports that they were suitably impressed with the fare. He said Wu Bai was so cute, first looking at the English side of the menu, then flipping it to the Chinese side. He jokingly ordered three of everything on the Chinese side, flipped back to the English, and began to order three of everything from that side. Then Dino had to tell him both sides were the same. ;-) Natari, Charlene, Betty, Xiao Niu, Shun, and PJ also made a trip there (and it takes over an hour from Taipei, you know!). I had, of course, whined about being left out, and Nat had promised we'd go when I got back from Hong Kong. And Tuesday night, we went.

Nat made reservations, because she said Dino found it difficult to handle a big crowd and wanted to limit the number of diners in order to better serve them. It was totally cool - we got there a little after 8:00 p.m., and we were the only ones in the restaurant! Dino greeted us with his customary kiss on the cheek and led us inside.

The restaurant is quite charming, with a balcony facing the ocean (but since it was typhoon weather, we ate inside). One of Dino and Carrie's neighbors was playing waitress that evening, while Dino and Carrie handled the kitchen.

There were only four dishes on the menu - Spaghetti and Meatballs (which had been handmade by Dino that very day), Pumpkin Pasta with Pesca (a type of fish), Dino's Famous Eggplant Parmesan, and Meatball Sub. Dino said he also had two other dishes, one of pork fillets rolled around onions and spices and then pan sauteed, and a spicy-sauce pasta dish. The meal included garlic bread, salad, and choice of beverage, and for dessert - Dinomisu! OK, so it doesn't resemble tiramisu, but it was really tasty, and I'm going to try to talk Dino out of the recipe (he owes me, as you will see below). I'd baked a Kahlua cake on Saturday, and I brought along pieces for Dino, Carrie, Charlene, and Xiu Chun. Nat has to wait for hers, because I didn't know Xiu Chun was coming along, and I hadn't brought enough.

Xiu Chun and I went for the spaghetti and meatballs, Nat ordered the pumpkin pasta but requested meatballs in place of the fish, and Charlene decided to try the pork with a side of spaghetti sans meatballs. Dino kindly gave us a couple of the pork rolls to try, free of charge. I was tickled when Carrie told me Dino was using my recipe for the garlic bread. I still laugh when I remember him calling me to ask me how I made it - it's so simple! Soften a couple cubes of real butter, use a garlic press to squish up a whole bunch of fresh garlic, mix it all together, slather it on the French bread, sprinkle the top with some Parmesan (fresh grated is best, but Kraft will do), and stick it in the oven until it's hot.

Let me say a little about Dino's spaghetti sauce. He learned how to cook from watching his grandmother when he was a child. Dino is, as he told us, FBI - full-blooded Italian. Me, I'm only one-quarter Italian, and although I consider that I make my sauce from scratch, I can't come close to Dino's masterpiece. Why? Because he really makes it from scratch! I use canned tomatoes and cook it all day, because that's how Mom taught me, but Dino actually starts with fresh tomatoes. He said he used four kinds in this sauce, cooking them up with garlic, onions, and green pepper before adding the tomato paste and tomato sauce near the end to thicken it up. And the meatballs, painstakingly rolled by hand, were the perfect complement.

The salad (thankfully) came with Italian dressing and not the ever-present Thousand Island that the Taiwanese love so much. It had chunks of what I think was pumpkin and also some jelly-like cubes that Nat said came from a plant. And lettuce, Chinese cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes, naturally!

After everyone was served, Dino and Carrie joined us around the table, chatting and joking. Dino said the new CD is going to be just fabulous, so we're all anxious for it to be released. They've been doing some recording, and the word is a September release, but I think it might take longer. This CD will be in Mandarin, no Taiwanese songs.

Dino is such a funny, entertaining guy, and he was dancing around the restaurant singing along with the music that was playing, making us all laugh, even getting Carrie to join him briefly. I wish we had more opportunities to just hang around with him, because we always have so much fun when he's around. I like Xiao Zhu and Da Mao, too, but they're a little more reserved than Dino and not so much at ease being friends with the fans. And although Dino has told us that Wu Bai is really a fun guy, I just can't imagine him being as silly as Dino. But, maybe he is - not that I'll ever find out!

It was around 10:00 p.m. when we finally left for the hour-long ride home (well, shorter for me, because I live so close to San Zhi). It was raining but still quite warm, the incoming typhoon having done nothing to relieve the heat. Nat dropped Xiu Chun off at Zhuwei station so she could get the bus back to Lu Zhou, and I got car-to-door drop-off service, which I appreciated because of the rain.

So, I guess if Dino ever gets tired of being a big rock and roll star, he can quit and open a restaurant. I'm sure he'll have good business if he does. Truly though, I'm hoping that day is far, far in the future, because I can't imagine not having him on stage, wailing on those drums.

Complete set of photos can be found here: Dino Does Dinner

Wedding Bells!

Last night's performance by ABS, All Blues and Soul, otherwise known as CHINA BLUE, was just fabulous. Not only were the guys even better than at their last two gigs, we were treated to something incredibly special. During the show, Dino stood up and said, "OK, it's the right time, I can't stand it anymore." He walked off the stage, grabbed his beautiful girlfriend, Carrie, by the hand, and brought her up on stage. After introducing her to the crowd, he fumbled around in his pocket, pulling out some coins and other things, before finally finding the ring he was looking for. He got down on one knee and asked her if she'd marry him.

What a great moment! Carrie was completely stunned, and she began to cry, and the rest of the guys were playing "Here Comes the Bride" while the crowd cheered. Of course, said "yes" to Dino's proposal, and we also got to see a lot of smooching from the two of them.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! We're all so happy that Dino has finally found his love.