Tat, Alex and Justin Kwan atop the Great Wall of China at Mu Tian Yu, February 2010.

I guess there’s some saying that a Chinaman isn’t really a man until he’s stood atop the Great Wall.  For those interested in my dad’s exploits… here is proof that Tin Tat is really a man!  Haha.  Just the latest among dispatches from China — a photo of Tat, Alex and Justin Kwan on the Great Wall of China @ Mu Tian Yu.

I heard all about my dad and brothers’ trip just now via Skype.  Justin and Alex connected to Skype via wi-fi at a coffee shop (where they garnish drinks with really nice whipped cream, odd for off-the-beaten-path China?) in what used to be my dad’s mud-hut-and-rice-paddy village on Three Stoves Island.  It’s interesting to hear about the growth of China in the news — but to realize it through things like a casual Skype call is really quite amazing.

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.”

Yes, each story has its largely-untold face.  Even this short story will no doubt have a set of truths that dip past the willingness of my fingers to move along the keyboard.

This post is about my mom.  She’s a really nice and generous lady who has become a friend to me more and more over the years.  I go to her for advice and comfort, as any child should.  Sadly, she and my dad are no longer married.  By the same token, happily, she and my father are no longer married.  Thankfully, they are still friends and our family — though not picture-perfect — is still a cohesive family (as cohesive families tend to go these days).

Often times she doesn’t factor into my stories about the restaurant because she left the business when she and my dad separated in 2001.  But she works at Red Moon on Fridays, which is actually fun for all of us.  It’s kind of nice to indulge ourselves in “something for old time’s sake” once in awhile.  I think it shows us that our resilience as individuals permit us to hold on to things that are good… no matter what has transpired between now and then.

So in honor of that spirit, I present to you faithful blog readers grainy photographs of my parents in their early days of being restaurateurs (grainy because I snatched them via BlackBerry from a photo album at my grandma’s house today):

My dad, Tin Tat Kwan, tending to the stock pot at Kwan's Chinese Cuisine in 1982 shortly after he and Jennifer Kwan opened for business.

Kwan's Chinese Cuisine on 54th and Penn Avenue in Minneapolis in 1982 -- Jennifer Kwan pictured.

Jennifer Kwan getting some rice from the smallest rice cooker in Chinese restaurant history. Makes it seem like they were the first people in Minnesota to serve the stuff.

Shortly after opening Kwan's Chinese Cuisine in 1982, my parents discovered they were pregnant. Oh my.

I have no way to know whether my blog posting on Yelp.com’s overly sensitive review-policing metrics had anything to do with this… but one of the previously-deleted Red Moon reviews has been restored.  I discovered this tonight after being notified that we’d gotten a new comment (another 5-star, glowing review by the way).

Not only was a previously-deleted review restored, but we've got another glowing review!

In any case, I’m very pleased that at least one of the comments has been restored.  It’s a legitimate review so there’s no doubt in my mind it should be there.

Maybe it was all a hiccup in Yelp’s system.  But I still feel the company has some things to resolve when it comes to how reviews get pulled.

Twin Cities Metro Magazine's Eden Prairie edition featured Red Moon with a full color photo and short description of our restaurant in October's issue.

During the summer I got an email from a reporting intern at Twin Cities Metro Magazine’s Eden Prairie edition — the guy had some questions about Red Moon for an upcoming feature on area Asian cuisine.  Needless to say, I was more than happy to oblige.

I arrived home at the end of October — the month in which the feature was supposed to run.  However, I could not find a copy of the magazine.  Finally last week a new customer came in with the article in-hand.  I was thrilled to see Red Moon’s blurb appearing first alongside a full-color photo of my all-time favorite at Red Moon: “Ben’s Favorite BBQ Pork Cantonese Style Chow Mein.”

It’s quite exciting to see our name in print.  I suppose it’s high time I leverage my media experience to try and get even more attention for my dad’s restaurant.  So far, our two main media appearances have been organic in origin, though — no PR peddling required.  Metro Magazine came looking for us — and last winter, a producer friend at KMSP-TV took notice of some of our Web site, Facebook and Twitter initiatives and decided it would make a good story.  I agreed.  My dad provided the soudbites:

Last night at this time I posted a new (read: re-tooled, unexpired) set of coupons on Red Moon’s Web site.  This time I included something new — an experiment, really.  It’s a coupon regular customers can give to Red Moon newbies — a one-up on good old word-of-mouth advertising.

Click the image to download the "Refer a Friend" coupon yourself.

Here’s how it works: the regular writes his or her email address on the coupon.  He or she gives it to a friend who can then use it for a free appetizer on his or her first trip to Red Moon.  With that email address, I contact the referrer to thank the person and tell them I’ve got a free $5 gift certificate for them waiting at our front counter for use anytime he or she wishes.

I figured it was possibly too involved or confusing to work.  But I could be wrong.  Despite the fact that it was posted just late last night — a pair of guys this morning had the coupon.  I contacted their referrers and there are gift certificates waiting for them.   Hopefully the two guys who came in today liked the food enough to want to return — and I also hope I’ve created some warm feelings among the regulars who passed on the good word about Red Moon.

Any thoughts out there on whether this is a good idea?  Generous enough?  Any twists on this I could use in the future when this gets tired and stale?

It’s probably over-zealous to call this an “overnight success” — but in my world, these little triumphs are huge.  Here’s to hoping more friends refer their friends.

Tin Tat Kwan in the kitchen of Kwan's Chinese Cuisine in the summer of 1982.

Today, I rediscovered this fun photo of my dad and scanned it so I could share it with my blog readers and on the “About Us” page of redmoonchinesecafe.com.  What I like about it is the smile, the optimism that shines through.  My dad is 27-years-old in the photo.  I am 27 right now.  Twenty-seven years prior to that photo being taken, dad was born in a fishing and rice-cultivating village in southern China where things would only go downhill as he grew under Communism’s grip.  Twenty-seven years after the photo brings us to today… when I couldn’t imagine having the courage to open up my own little restaurant — and the wherewithal to keep it running day after day.  My mom and dad are great successes because they made it work.  That’s pretty cool.

Tonight, I got a neat little story about our first restaurant, Kwan’s Chinese Cuisine (54th and Penn Ave. S., Minneapolis), because the person who took that photo was in the restaurant tonight.  My dad’s good, good friend, Warren and his wife Andrea are in every Saturday.  Warren was one of my dad’s first customers and pretty much instantly became a good friend.

How good a friend?  Well, shortly after my mom and dad opened their little chop suey joint (and Kwan’s really was a chop suey joint — with five booths, five tables and a ‘chow mein to take home’ neon sign in the window), the friendly Minneapolis health inspector came by to tell them their place was a dump.  And what did they know?  They just plunked money down to buy it!  It had to look perfect to them!  Turns out, they had ten thousand dollars in work that needed to be done… new tile floor, wall issues that needed to meet code, etc.  So what did they do?  Not much.  But Warren and his friend John came to the rescue.  They fixed the place up — working around my dad, who I believe refused to close for the two days they asked so they could get the job done.

Tin Tat, Warren and Andrea at Red Moon in 2009. A lot has changed. Thankfully, many things have not.

So much can change in 27 years.  But I’m glad some things do not, like great friendships with people like Warren.  There are a number of instances I do not know what my dad would have done without Warren’s friendship, compassion and advice.  For that, I’ll always be grateful.

A reward for smoking cessation. If everyone got this, there wouldn't be a smoker left in the world.

I’ve mentioned in this space already that my dad has a way of making friends — his ability to do it so easily is rivaled by few others.

Just under a year ago my dad quit smoking — and has remained clean every since.  I never thought it would happen.  Ever.  After four decades puffing away, it seemed impossible.  But somehow, it happened.

Tuesday, friend Bill Clarke fulfilled a promise he made in passing, I imagine, months ago — lobsters for dinner if dad could pull it off.

Bill brought them in at lunch and came back to enjoy them with us at dinner.  You are looking at Lobster Cantonese — probably one of the richest ways to eat a lobster.  The crustaceans are chopped up and flash fried.  Then they are tossed into a thick stir fry of ground pork and onions in a black bean garlic sauce.  At the last minute, egg is folded into the mix.  My dad says it’s the perfect way to “stretch” the lobster — surely an old Cantonese trick.  He told Bill, “I bet after you eat this, you’ll never go to an American restaurant to have lobster again.”

Tin Tat Kwan and Bille Clarke enjoying lobsters at Red Moon.

Get into a conversation with my dad, and you’ll be treated to a dose of hyperbole.  Dad continued, “Now every time you eat lobster for 20 years, you will think of mine.”

He called it “licking finger good.”

Indeed.  Thanks Bill, what a treat!  And how nice of you to reward my dad for something many of us believed would never happen.  Maybe it was the enticement of lobsters, after all.

Wow.  My head is spinning with ideas, concerns, changes, worries and more.  One week at the Red Moon and I still feel like I haven’t done much to help.  But then I’m reminded of my goal: K.I.S.S., as we’re told in storytelling: Keep It Simple, Stupid.  I am here to improve upon our strengths (like great, amazing, carefully- and lovingly-prepared food, as well as friendly, family-like service). Stick to the basics.  That alone should drive more business.

And thankfully, it’s pretty easy to keep my chin up about the process — because I get constant reminders–big and small–of how much people genuinely respect and love my dad’s food.  It’s gratification that makes me feel amazing inside — like our family has really done something successful.

Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe tweeted this pic, saying we "have good chinese food!" A day later, more than 800 people had viewed the photo.

Yesterday, Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe came in and tweeted a picture of his specially-ordered Beef, Chicken, Shrimp and Broccoli to his 8,700 followers.  Now, I wouldn’t normally go blabbing about our regular celebrity customers (he is one of them) — and I didn’t have to break the news here (Haha, “news.”)  He wanted to share that he was really liking our Chinese so he used Twitter to make that public himself.  How awesome is that?  Twitter rocks.

But there is a long list of gratifying moments from the past few days that are equally satisfying.  And they have nothing to do with NFL players.  On Monday a new customer came in for takeout — his daughter was in Eden Prairie for an extra-curricular activity.  They actually live more than 30 miles away.  Ironically, at the same time, a customer had driven 25 miles from about the same area just to pick up some takeout.  They got to chatting about a Chinese place closer to home.  Our dedicated customer said he didn’t like it.  The new customer said he loved it.  All of a sudden, I had a lot to prove to this new guy.  The test would be if he came back tonight to try something else while his daughter was back in town for her activity.  He did.  We passed the test.  He loved Monday’s order.  I cannot tell you how good that feels.

I’m grateful we have loyal, hard-working employees who’ve stuck with us through busy and slow.  But I can tell you right now, nothing beats a Kwan at the front of the house to tell our thankful customers how thankful we are, to make heart-felt menu suggestions and to make sure people are truly taken care of.  A million thanks to all of our customers.  You’re fun to talk to.  You’re enthusiastic about good food.  We wouldn’t survive without you!  I can’t wait to spend the next year chatting with all of you, new customers and old customers.

I have found the source of the five pounds I am going to gain in the next two weeks.  And I don’t know what to call it.  My dad calls it breakfast.

And before you go turning your nose up at this concoction, you must hear me out.  A note, you ought to like either one or both of the following to imagine what this might taste like: hot and sour soup and fried rice.  And not just any bowl of either, but my dad’s — which are phenomenally better than some of the crap I’ve sampled around the country.

Hear me out, before you go turning your nose up at this bowl of goodness.

So here’s what it is:  fried rice with some hot and sour soup poured over-top.  And that’s it.  Amazing.

I think I know why I like it so much.  When I was a kid, I’d go wait tables on Saturdays with my dad at our first restaurant, Kwan’s Chinese Cuisine (54th and Penn Ave. in Minneapolis — still there, same owners we sold to 14 years ago), all I would eat was fried rice with my dad’s homemade warm sweet and sour sauce on top.  This new deal is the grown-up version — with some spice, a little tofu and all the other hot and sour soup fixings.

I love the spiciness, the bite from the vinegar and the tinge of sweetness that my dad adds to his hot and sour.  Super  addicting.  Come try it sometime.

But the real question is, could I sell it?  If I did, how might I come up with a name for it?

And since I plan on eating more tonight… I made sure to workout today.  I’m trying a Gold’s Gym and I managed a two-mile run around Shakopee.