Happy Chinese New Year! I’m in Los Angeles, spending the holiday with my family. For the past few days, I’ve been doing one of the following: Eating In the dining room pouring over my Mom’s library of cookbooks Eating In the kitchen learning new dishes from my Mom Grocery shopping at Chinese, Japanese or Korean markets Eating more Good thing I brought my fat jeans! 🙂 Mom prepared 8 dishes for the New Years feast – as the number 8 signifies “good luck”. Guess when my birthday is? 8-8! I must be a lucky gal. That nice, but that sure doesn’t explain why I haven’t won more than 2 bucks on a lottery ticket. 🙁

One of the dishes was “Tsai” – which is a vegetarian dish that is traditionally served at New Years. It includes napa cabbage, lotus seeds, gingko nuts, a black mossy seaweed that looks like hair (“fat choy”) and dried bean curd.

Each ingredient has a special meaning. I especially avoided eating anything resembling lotus seeds, as that means: “may you have many male offspring this year.” Two problems with that….. 1) I have 2 toddler rugrat boys already 2) It would look awfully suspicious if I got preggy, as I begged, even bribed my husband get snipped. And he did.

Also another alarming thing that I heard – was right before supper, my brother said he recently read that “fat choy” seaweed apparently affects Alzheimers. Hmmm….although it would explain why I often miscalculate the width of doorways and smack my shoulder on the door or think I’ve lost my keys when I am clutching them in my right hand, I don’t understand how something that the Chinese have been eating for hundreds of years could cause Alzheimers. Well, since he’s a doctor, Mom picked every strand off her plate and didn’t eat her “fat choy.”

But, this is the SAME BROTHER who told me when we were little that fat choy makes you grow smelly hairy armpits like an orangutan’s butt. I ate it! I ate it all! And it was soooooo goooooood!!!!

Now….whats my name again?!!