Happy Lunar New Year!  Today we ring in the Year of the Tiger.  We don’t really have much going on at the restaurant in honor of the holiday, however, I did buy a couple of lobsters for our employees to enjoy after work tonight.

Tin Tat Kwan cooks Chinese in China.

As for the “dispatch from China,” I am referring to a few photos from my brother Justin — and not actually a posting from China.  My dad is currently there with my brother Alex, too — and the three of them are spending Chinese New Year together in my dad’s hometown.  I’m doing what an oldest son does best — keeping things in line back here at the restaurant.  Normally, I’d be really jealous.  But I’m not this time — as my dad deserved a break and I volunteered to watch the restaurant.  It just so happened that Justin lives in China and Alex has the time (and apparently the money?) to travel for a couple weeks.

Here’s the funny part of the story:  Who goes all the way to China to cook his own Chinese food?  That would be my dad.

“Its funny, dad is so picky about eating,” wrote my brother Justin in an email.  ”I thought it was just about pizza and Mexican but he is fussy. It’s understandable though, he is a damn good chef.”

Justin flew in his own personal chef for some Chinese New Year entertainment.

Apparently the week my dad spent in Beijing didn’t do too much to satisfy his palate.  Justin reports that they went to a market one day and came back to Justin’s flat to cook, among other things, Cantonese-American “Shrimp in Lobster Sauce.”  Haha.

“He liked Peking duck and the mao tai white wine but wasn’t impressed by the kao yu or Sichuan-style bbq fish, said it was a failure!” Justin wrote.  ”So last night dad cooked! We went to the restaurant market and got a bunch of stuff for shrimp and lobster sauce (heaven), tomato chicken wings, choi sum, fish, black mushroom and bean curd, and lotus root. It was amazing and of course impressive. I guess it’s the best Chinese food I’ve had in China, haha.”