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I finally called the lady I was referred to by the owner of Wing Tai Inc as someone who could connect me with a Cantonese Buddhist temple. Apparently, they taught the older kids Chinese and baby sat the younger kids while the parents were attending the service. So I brought my daughter with me on Sunday.

The temple is in a house located at 600 E and 3600 S. The temple used to be out of a house owned by a PhD student and his wife. Once they completed their studies and moved away, the congregation took over the responsibilities of the temple.

Everyone was very friendly. Everyone spoke Mandarin. The service was in Mandarin, but they did translate it into English for me and the one white guy. The group was pretty small, so I couldn’t decide if I was intimidated or not.

They spoke the Sutras rather than sang them, like I am used to. So I couldn’t tell if I recognized them. Then the leader began speaking about the 15 patriachs. That was new to me too. As I started looking around, I noticed that the statues of Buddha were different from what I was used to. Instead of the 3 Buddhas in the center with the Guan Yin on the right and another Bodhisvista on the left, the fat jolly Buddha was in the center. Odd.

I found out later that the topic of the service was special. The next weekend was the anniversary of the patriach’s death. So they were going over the lineage. They typically speak of how to live. I also found out that the sect was called Tian Dao. I had suspected that they were Taoist since they kept mentioning the way and not cultivation or enlightenment.

I googled the term and found a wikipedia entry for I-Kuan Tao. Apparently, they are not Buddhist. Their belief encompasses teachings of Buddhism, Taoism and Confuciousism. It’s not what I am used to or what I want.

When I was leaving, this lady cornered me and asked me if I wanted to have my mind opened the next weekend. The master was goign to come and could do it for me. I told her that I was not comfortable with Tian Dao as what I know is Pure Land Buddhism. She told me that it didn’t not matter. That all people need their minds opened to be truly understand the teachings, regardless of the religions. Ok. Between that and the manner in which they bow to the Buddha, I was a little freaked. I read later they are the one religion that is most accepting of all other religions. However, that one proposition told me that they were merely tolerating other religions, not respecting them, if a master for Tian Dao has to open your mind for you to understand the teachings of the other religions.

While cleaning up the basement, my husband found an old essay of mine. We were supposed to write a response of sorts to an essay by Judy Brady, I Want A Wife, in English II. This was in 1997. I am going to post it here with a few edits as suggested by my teacher.

I went to my favorite yarn store today. Soul Spun Yarn on 3300 South. They have the most beautiful yarn and I always spend too much money and too much time there.

I bought a few skeins of this sage green chunky yarn to make a poncho for my sister. I was using regular gray yarn and a size 7 needle and it was taking me forever. I switched to the big yarn and a size 17 needle and it is flying. Instead of 78 stitches per row, I am doing 36.

This store is great. There are big comfy chairs for you to hang out and knit. The girl who owns the store is really friendly and a knitter, Summer. They also have knitting classes. In fact that is where I learned to knit. My first project was a scarf. The poncho is my second project.

There is another yarn store further west on 3300 South. And their yarn is nice. Not as pretty or whimsical as Soul Spun Yarns. Also, that store only has little old ladies. Only old ladies. I prefer Soul Spun Yarn. They are my age. Not young. But younger.

This last Sunday, my husband, daughter, some friends and I went to Golden Dragon at 1500 South and Main St for Dim Sum. We have been to total of 3 Dim Sum places in Salt Lake City. Ho Ho Gourmet, Hong Kong Tea House and the Golden Dragon.

Ho Ho Gourmet was recommended by one of my husband’s Taiwanese colleagues. He said that it was not as good as we were used to in California, but it was good for SLC. He was SOOO wrong. The Siu Mai was made from Jimmy Dean sausage. At least that was what it tasted like. The Cheung Fun was awful. I have never left food on my plate when it could be eaten. It was inedible. That experience was enough for me to boycott moving to SLC. I could not live in a town where that was the best Dim Sum.

Once we moved here, we tried our Hong Kong Tea House at 200 W and 200 S. We had gone there for dinner on one of our house hunting trips. The meat dishes were ok, but the veggies were perfect. We tried the Dim Sum and it was pretty good. It’s not better than the Peony in Oakland as the waitress claimed, but it was good.

Then we met this Chinese couple at Costco and they recommended Golden Dragon. The food was similar to Hong Kong Tea House, but not as expensive. And they were right. The food is not as pretty, but it is cheaper.

This last time, we had the usual fare. The Har Gow, Siu Mai and Char Siu Bow were good. The tofu skin wrapped pork was a little salty. The Cheung Fun, Turnip Cake, Sesame Balls, Fried Meat Dumpling and Beef Balls were good. The porridge was no good though. Not enough stuff in it. Just a lot of rice. The great thing is that my daughter recognized the dim sum. When the Siu Mai came, she picked up her plate and handed it to me for some food.

Now what I need to find is a place with Mandarin Dim Sum.

It snowed on Wednesday night, 8 inches accumulated at my house which is on the bench. So my husband and I took a mental health half-day. We went boarding at Brighton.

That is what’s nice about working from home and living 20 minutes from Brighton and Solitude. We can go play on a good snow day and still get some work done. So unlike when we wanted to go boarding when we were in San Jose. It was this massive planning and coordinating thing. 4 hours is a long drive just for impromptu fun.

We decided to FINALLY take some lessons. We were not making any progress and friends advising us are just driving us nuts. While we were waiting for the lessons to begin, we started talking to this guy visitign for the week. He works for a company in Palo Alto and works a lot with production engineers in China, all from his home in Arkansas. The great thing was he asked if I have read “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman. Which I am reading, about 3/4 through. Now, he is a great example of how the world is flat.

We stayed at Brighton until 2:30pm. A little more than we anticipatded. But I was anxious to try out my new skills and didn’t want to wait for another hooky day to do so. So the key thing is to look where you want to go. And pivot your lead knee in that direction. I get going really fast downhill when trying to move from heel to straight and can’t get onto my toe edge, mainly from fear of death. So I am working on my turns. And apparently, just because you go on the blues, does not mean you are a blue. You have to be able to link turns on the blue. So, I’m a green. But, my goal is to do moguls.

Also, new snow is not always great. Because it was so cold yesterday morning, the snow was really slow. The snow was not melting under the board so there was a lot of friction. But to be honest, I didn’t need to be going that fast anyway.

Happy Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, instead of cooking, I decided to pick up some take out from Thai Orchid. I have been wanting to try out the place since I spied it when pulling into the parking lot for The Store at 6200 South and 2000 East. It would be great to have a good Thai place close to where we live. Unfortunately…

I paid $42 for a meal that was not even so-so. I ordered Tom Ka Gai, Mussaman Beef, Pad Thai and a cashew chicken dish.

Let’s start with the soup. I thought it was ok. until I did more than sip. There was a lot of cabbage. It’s the first time I ever had Tom Ka Gai with cabbage. There was too much coconut milk and not enough mushrooms. Let’s move on.

I then tried the Pad Thai. Interesting, has this kind of pink hue. No matter, sometimes weird looking things taste good. Look at the Durian. After taking a bite, I realized where the pink was from, vinegar. Lots of it. Ok. 0 for 2.

I moved on to the Mussaman Beef. It was not as bad as I expected. But I make a better one using the spice packages I find at Dan’s. It’s passable.

On to the cashew chicken. Mine is better. This one has baby corn and pineapple for interest, but it’s essentially the same as my recipe. Coincidentally, it was the only thing aside from rice that my kid would eat. Hmmm. Pretty discerning kid.

Net-net. Don’t go there. It is not good enough for lunch and certainly not worth $42. Instead, spend it at Monsoon Thai on Foothill Blvd.

So I was mistaken about the Chinese New Year festivities. The day time one happened 3 weeks ago. So we went to the night time one.

My husband, daughter and I met up with some friends (all white) for dinner at Noodle and Company before heading to the event. Noodle and Company is like this trendy fast food noodle chain around here. The first time I ate there I ordered a chicken noodle dish reminiscent of Thai (there was a peanut sauce). It was ok, but not worth the $8 I paid for it. On Saturday night, I ordered a pasta dish with spinach, feta and a wine sauce. It came to about $6 and needed more spinach. I ordered a mac and cheese for my 16 month old, which she didn’t like. She preferred my meal. The mac and cheese was elbow pasta with grated cheese on top that you are supposed to stir until it melted into the pasta. $4. We were not impressed, but we needed something fast that was not McDonald’s.

We then headed to 800 South and 1300 East, East High School. It was the most black haired people I have ever seen in one place after moving to Utah. We took some seats in the back because a) it was closer to the area in where our kid could run around and b) this place was PACKED. Had we not gotten there when we did and taken those seats, we would have been sitting on the floor.

The first act was a lion dance. I didn’t think about it until some pointed it out, but all the performers were white. Hmmm. I guess that makes sense since the owner and master at the martial arts place the troupe was from is named Smith.

The next act was a bunch of girls from Beijing dressed in Semi-Chinese gear dancing to pop music. It was weird. I turned to our friend Steve and said that what he was seeing did not represent Chinese Culture. But it sure indicated that there is a Western influence.

The rest was a blur. This is the point at which my daughter started acting up. There was a girl playing an Er Hu. A girl dancing with ribbons, actually they were more like long sashes. More dancing from the group of girls from the beginnign, except this time they were in cowgirl outfits. And this one white guy from BYU who was singing a traditional chinese song, with a beat, and with 4 back up dancers. Weird.

The whole thing was in Mandarin, no Cantonese. There was a little English. Oh, I almost forgot, Governor Huntsman showed up. Apparently, the Governor of the great state of Utah speaks fluent Mandarin AND has an adopted Chinese daughter. He is well on his way to being an egg.

All in all, it was interested. Iwas heartened to know that there are a lot of Chinese in Salt Lake City. Now I just need to tap into it so that I can find a Chinese speaking day care.

Who knew? There are Chinese New Year celebrations in Salt Lake City. My family and I are going to check out the afternoon event this Saturday at the library. I’ll report back on what I see.
www.utahchinese.org

This market is at Redwood and 3500 South. It is largely a Vietnamese market with a lot of Chinese stuff. I was just there this weekend and got some spareribs, ground pork, mustard greens and gai lan.

Saigon is the only Chinese market I have found that has fresh meat. I get my ox tail there and stuff for gnul nam. The selection of vegetables is good, they have oong choy. But the quality is not so good. When I took out the gai lan on Monday, the leaves were slightly wilted and the flowers were in full bloom. The vegetables are in plastic bags so you can’t see them clearly until you ge them home. The mustard greens were not that great either. It looks like I will stick to Great China for the veggies and Saigon for the meat.