Dad Being Dad: Dinnah Taim

For the past week, Dad and I have been taking a vacation from work and that usually means we can stay home and sleep all day like the vampires we are. For the past week, my brother, Mom, Dad and I have been eating dinner together at the same time like a normal family does on television. My family and I would do the typical four five dishes on the table with our little bowls of rice on the table and we just quietly eat while we watch television. It may not sound super special, but it was pretty special to me because when I was growing up we had family dinners, but I don't remember much about them. My family and I don't really actively talk, but my mom and Dad have the time to talk and catch up on their stuff now that they are home at the same time for dinner now.

There are some days where not everyone is home, but when Dad and I are home, he is usually pretty excited to make something for dinner.

For this week, one night on top of another dish, he chose to heat up some totinos! And the other night, he made mapotofu. For those who don't know what that is, it is basically like a soft tofu in a spicy sauce kind of dish. I do look forward to see what kind of dishes my Dad will make for dinner because I rarely see him cook and its good to know more about Dad anyways.

Message to all of you who don't eat with your family for dinner. I say eat with them as much as you can, you never know what you will be missing.

Parentnamese Episode 6: 5 Dolla Okei?!

This semester, my Dad suddenly became like the morning driver for my brother, myself and my mom. I guess whenever we miss the bus for school, he would give us a ride to school. So my Dad is part of a car service company that lets him use his own car to drive people around. I don't y'all stalking my Dad because I will come and find you and eat you if you do ! (Just kidding) Anyways, for the sake of the happiness of his customers, he likes to put a lot of snacks in his car, by a lot, I mean, enough to throw a picnic for our whole family. I think he has enough snacks and drinks in there for two or three picnics and considering that my brother, Dad and I eat alot, that is a whole lot of snacks. And I am just talking about the stuff that is in the front.

Almost every time Mom rides with us to the bus stop, she will grab a couple of snacks, maybe even a drink, like a can of soy milk, THAT'S RIGHT, SOY MILK. Dad turns around and says, "5 dolla, 5 dolla okay? Customer only!" Mom says, "here your 5 dolla!" She high fives him down low.

Message to Dad: 5 dollars for a tiny bag of craisins? You cray cray!

Dad Being Dad: No Shaky Leg

Two nights ago, my family finally got enough time to actually sit down and eat dinner together. It made me think about all of the old times when I was kid, when Dad use to come home to eat dinner with my mom and my brothers. We were just quietly eating dinner while watching Right This Minute, and he said to me, "Why is the leg shaking the table? Are you shaking the table with your leg? Stop it!" He said to me. I was utterly confused because I wasn't shaking my leg. So for a moment, I had to actually lift the cover of my dinner table and check my legs to see if I am shaking them. I had the biggest realization ever, my legs didn't even touch the table. Why you ask? It is because I am so short that when I sit down, my knees are about a good ten inches away from the table.

I am happy that my Dad still thinks that my knees can touch the table, but sorry Dad, I'm super short. Now I will never grow to be taller than you :'(

Classic Dad: Part 13: The Secret Chef

Whenever my  family has a party for like someone's birthday or a party for the holidays or whenever a relative comes over for the first time in a while, my Dad would always make flan. Dad isn't one of those professional chefs or anything like that. He is a regular Dad who can cook, but since he is rarely at home because of work, he rarely cooks. Dad is a night owl, so he makes his flan around midnight after coming home from work and in the morning we would have about 20 bowls of flan in the fridge. It's like Christmas morning, but with just flan. He doesn't make the flan from scratch, but instead he uses the Jell-O brand flan. There's no shame of using instant stuff. I think Dad changed the recipe a bit. For example, instead of milk, he would use half and half for taste and texture. Everyone loves them to the point where they would go for seconds or even thirds. Looks good right?

Happy Birthday Dad!

A little over two months ago, Dad just turned old! By old, I mean one year older than he is now. Knowing Dad, he just spent his birthday just sleeping then going out for dinner. Dad and I are usually the night owls in the family anyways. The night before his birthday, he went to the bar as usual to play pool, where his pool buddies surprised him with, flowers and a big old bottle of champagne. Since that idiot Rudy ruined Dad's no drinking rule, and since it's a special birthday for Dad, he drank like a small cup of champagne that he shared with his friends. I'm glad that he and a bunch of people split the champagne because I would prefer to have a Dad who is like 99% alcohol free.

I am not sure what Dad did for his birthday during the day. But since my mom had the day off, they probably spent the day shopping for groceries in Chinatown because that's what Asian parents do when they have the day to themselves. Haha. So I did spend some time on my Dad's birthday just going to dinner.  For reasons I still can't figure out, Dad wanted to go to Olive Garden for dinner. Maybe it's because he is an Asian dad that I think it's totally weird that he wanted to try to eat at Olive Garden. Don't you guys feel weird about that? While we were waiting for our table, Dad and Mom looked over the menu and their eyes grew three times wider when they saw the prices for just one dish. Dad said, "7.99 for one piece of cake? What?" In Dad's mind, if the dessert is expensive, then the food will be even more expensive. Being the polite person my Dad has always told me to be, we told the waiter that we were sorry and we had to leave.

Our new destination was this cute little place in Westlake in Daly City called, Little Fire Hot Pot. If you guys want to try it out, be my guest because Dad, Mom and I approve of that place. It doesn't really matter if I approve because I like food, but trust me, if Dad approves, then you will like the place. Once I update it, I will have a separate post of the restaurant and post a link at the end of this post if you want to see a detailed review of the place.

This restaurant was really nice because each person got their own individual pot with their own choice of soup. Dad was quite pleased about that because the food was neatly arranged on the plate and we ate  until we could not eat anymore. And Dad being the parent that he always was and will be, he was the designated trash can. By the end of the dinner, we had about two and a half plates of meat leftover. LOL

Classic Dad: Part 12: Who's Old Now?

Dad has been joking about his age on and off. By that I mean, he would accuse me of being old, and I would accuse him of being old, then he would accuse other people of getting old. According to Dad and I, being old means forgetting things. I always forgetting things to the point where I can't remember things to save my life, for example, homework. As for Dad, he would forget the little stuff, like his phone or glasses or his coffee.

The other night, when Dad was driving me home from work and he noticed that this car had a bag full of groceries on top of the trunk, but, nobody was around to carry that bag back into the house. So Dad pointed it out to me and said, "they waste their time and money for grocery shopping and they left it outside? Man, who is getting old now?"

Yesterday, Dad and I were working dinner and when two nice guys come into the restaurant and order one beer. Dad accidentally gave them two beers. Dad was like, "Oh you didn't order two?" The two guys were nice enough to take the beers after Dad rejected their offer to take the beer. Dad, the non drinker, said, "Sorry, I don't drink." I overheard the conversation while I was trying to eat my dinner and I'm like, "what's going on?" The two guys offered Dad a drink, they explained to me. I straight up said to Dad, "you're too old to drink." Then Dad said, "It's not that I am too old to drink, I'm just not old enough." LOL

Classic Dad: Part 11: That's My Line

Dad has all of his signature catch phrases and for some reason, he needs to take one of mine. I am a total klutz. Whenever I drop something, spill something, or accidentally break and or tear something, I just pretend like it never happened and say "nothing happened," and look away. Dad has seen me do this hundreds of times in the past five six years I have been working at the restaurant. Lately, for the past couple of months, I have been having these strings of bad luck, like spilling coffee or fish sauce. I guess I said, "nothing happened," enough times to the point where Dad started to say it. But, he uses it in two ways. Whenever he does something like drop a chopstick, he will say, "nothing happened," but, when he knows that I did something wrong, then he will say, "nothing happened," for me.

I guess that is another way to bond with your Dad, have him steal your catch phrase. But that's still my line, Dad D: