Oh, What a Night...

FOOTBALL and stuff

So, da Bears FINALLY won a preseason game. Oh, great, raise our hopes before dashing them during the first weeks of the regular season...really, 5-11 would be a good year for da Bears.

Rex Grossman looked good last night, but then he always performs well when he's not under any sort of pressure/stress. Put him under stress and Bad Rex shows up and tosses the ball to the other guys.

Caleb Henie looks really good. I hope the Bears keep him and develop him...oh for a Jim Zorn-like coach. Henie could be a good QB for the Bears future.

Saw a little of the Redskins-Jag-u-wires game. Whoo boy, Jacksonville is going to be really good this year. Jack Del Rio, one of my favorite coaches, has done a really fine job building that team up to where it is now. Garrard is a good QB, and they have a nice running game.

Colt was good last night, but then he was playing with the 2nd and 3rd teamers. Gotta see who they have to cut, by tomorrow, I think. He's good enough to be the 3rd QB, but whether that's practice squad or on the team remains to be seen. He will be their starter in a few years, guarantee...

College football also started. Good to see the 'ol Ball Coach win his opener against NCState. I love to see Spurrier get all upset when his team screws up or doesn't perform. Fun to watch.

OH, and when I went to bed, the Cubs were behind 4-1. Imagine my surprise this AM when I woke up to find that they had beaten the Phillies 6-4. Aramis Ramirez had the "game winning" hit, a grand slam. Wow. They may actually make the playoffs. But then, you have to remember that they're the Cubbies and they WILL BREAK YOUR HEART!!! And THAT'S a guarantee.

FUUD

Go read Serious Eats today. There's an article by Ed Levine about the Slow Food Nation get-together in SF. The part that struck a chord with me was the slowly disappearing individual food producers. Seems they're quitting the food business because they are getting old and retiring, the kids don't want to take over the business, food tastes are changing and they can't/won't keep up, etc.

This is exactly what's happening "back home" in Hawaii. You see, after WWII (da big one), many families started up family food businesses to support themselves, build a better life for their kids, you know, the American Dream.

Now, most of these folks are old and retiring. Their kids are usually college educated and not interested in working the long, hard hours their folks did to make money, and, they probably have better paying jobs than what they could earn running the family business.

As a result, some "historic" food places have closed, including some "local style" plate lunch places, Chinese bakeries that produced one-of-a-kind candies and pastries, and other food vendors.

In one case that I read about in the Honolulu newspapers online, the lady who owned the little plate lunch place said that she didn't want her kids to have to work like she did, and that she worked so hard so that they would not have to take over the business.

Sadly, Hawaii is becoming more "homogenized." Olive Garden, Cheesecake Factory, and the ubiquitous Morton's and Ruth Chris' steakhouses are the norm. More kids eat fast food burgers than the old style okazu-ya plate lunches which were one step away from your mom's home-cooking...and they were probably more nutritious meals, too.

I've got my mom's old composition book full of her hand-written recipes and recipes that she cut out of the local newspapers. I've also got some of the old Women's Club cookbooks that are compilations of local women's recipes. I actually started writing a "cookbook", but soon realized that only celebrities and celebrity chefs get published. My hope now is to finish it and give it to my kids, so that some of the old style local food survives into another generation. My contribution to the Slow Food Nation movement.

Still, it's really sad to realize every time we go back to visit, that fewer and fewer of the food places that we grew up with will be there, waiting for us. Ah, where have you gone Hon Kung, with your Crispy Gau Gee Mein with Medium Fried Noodles, Shrimp Canton, Manapua and Fried Rice? Where are you now, Wong's Okazuya, with your long rice, teriyaki beef, musubi, mac salad, and vegetable tempura? Where are you Patti's Chinese Kitchen, with your pot roast pork, char siu with tofu, chow mein noodles and moon cake? Where are you...

A hui hou...