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:

Dad Be Trolling: Episode 9: Hair Mop

Lately at the restaurant, it has been a ghost town. Barely anyone shows up for take out and dine-in. I blame it on the daily events that happen in the city, like a parade, sports game, giant flash mob, or even one of those night bike rides where half of them are naked. One day in the restaurant, I got bored and randomly went up to Dad and said, "I need a haircut." Here's what he has to say:

Dad: "Not long enough. Restaurant requirement is to have hair either to the knees or the floor, so we can use it as a mop. xD"

The thought of having really long hair, like down to my hips long, is just as frightening as the image that Dad gave me when he air-mopped the floor. I think that Dad values the life of hair almost as much as I do because he never cuts his hair unless its Chinese New Year. Dad is at the point where he loses hair and his hair line is receding, so that is probably another reason why he values the life of hair almost as much as I do.

How many people can say that their Dads have a ponytail?