Sunday, September 18, 2005

Bad Moon Risin'

I started out with the best of intentions. I wanted to start a new tradition for our soon(kind of) to be mixed race family. I got the bright idea that we should celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival today. The plan was to go to Chinatown in Boston and eat lunch and then watch the moon rise at our house.

The day started well. We actually got up and were out of the house by 10:30. We got to Boston in time for lunch and decided to try out a dim sum place that someone on one of my internet groups suggested. We had never had dim sum before and it seemed a little exciting to try something new. So we get a table, get some directions from the waiter who brought us some dishes and chopstick. I'm getting excited because they don't give you silver ware so this is a "real" Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately it was so "real" that all of the servers were from China with very heavy accents. I have a horrible ear for accents, especially those of people from Asian countries. It embarrasses me terribly that I cannot understand a word that people say to me when they are speaking English. Today, some of them may as have well been speaking Chinese to me since I couldn't understand them either way. We got along pretty well considering. There was only one thing that we never figured out. Everything tasted great, but the fun began to end before we even left the table. David and I were both sick for the remainder of the day. Alex was fine because he refused to eat anything that we offered him. The place was packed the entire time we were there, so it must have just been us trying new things that did us in.

So we leave there and stop by a bakery to pick up some mooncakes. I didn't think the two boys in our family would like them (and I was right), but I bought them anyway. We tried them earlier. Alex refused to try them once he found out what was inside and David took a very small bite of each and then drank a huge glass of milk to get the taste of his mouth. I think the bean paste ones are pretty good, but didn't care for the ones with lotus seeds and egg yolk inside.

So the big moment comes, we waited for the sun to go down so the moon could rise. The clouds all cleared and it was going to be great. I didn't take into account that we are in New England and surrounded by trees. So we are going to do the moon thing in the morning when we leave for school.

Hopefully next year will work out better. We are planning on spending the day on the beach, having a picnic, and making a cake shaped like the moon. As long as we ar together, I guess that is all that matters.

Carrie

2 comments:

Johnny said...

Good Lord! The first rule of dim sum for rookies is to have a native guide pick for you! Good thing (I hope) you didn't select the chicken's feet. Pretty disgusting, even for a "native". Hey, you're trying!

Carrie said...

We luckily didn't get offered the chicken's feet (I dont' think so anyway). I have this secret fear that our one unknown item was something with shark fin in it. I think our bill would have been alot higher if we had stumbled into that one. I love sharks and can't stomach what they do to them in order to get the fins.

We warned the waiter that we were rookies when he brought our drinks so he at least gave us the ground rules before the carts started to roll around.