CHEN FAMILY: ONE LOVE.

I'll write more about my trip to Taipei eventually, but here's one of the most important pics of my life that was taken towards the end of my 1-week trip to Taipei for my grandpa's funeral. Above is our Chen Family, 30+ strong, at the end of our dinner one evening in Taipei during the trip. This is our tribe!

Thanksgiving 2007 a la Restaurant Michael Mina = NO ONE HAS TO DO DISHES!

With my parents away for Turkey Day and the lil sis still in LA cooking up an ambitious meal with cousin Alb [ambitious = roast duck, braised short ribs, turkey meatballs, grilled polenta with gorgonzola, cornbread stuffing, brusselsprouts with balsamic and bacon, savory sweet potatoes, pumpkin bread pudding, and more] , only Kat and Bee were around along with cousin Lib. With only 4 of us here and after careful consideration of our options, we decided to ditch cooking an elaborate meal ourselves and have someone else whip it up, make the mess, and take care of everything Thanksgiving 2007 while we take backseat. With the only responsibility to show up and eat, we made rezzies at Restaurant Michael Mina in San Francisco at the Westin-St. Francis Hotel. After doing a pre-tasting two days before at MM (Lucky, gals, I know!) we were ready for T-day. Our Thanksgiving Dinner was a 3-course tasting menu with our combined samples of white truffle risotto, a trio of autumn soups, foie gras 3-ways, nantucket bay scallops seared and ceviche'd, turkey 3-ways, premium beef 3-ways, lobster pot pie, and desserts of squash trio, chocolate - smore, chocolate ice cream, chestnut bread pudding AND FINALLY, 18 bon-bon's between the 4 of us. Following our dessert, we all went around and shared what we are thankful of this season on video as Liberty provided us with a long-winded 2-minute momento of her moment of thanks - we loved it! hehe.

After our incredible dinner last night at MM, we just might have begun a new tradition where we don't have to do the dirrrrty dishes at the end of Thanksgiving night. Below are some of the fab pictures from our evening.

Thanksgiving 2007: pre-dinner drink at Chez Studio Vic's. Nothing like a ice cold glass of Hangar One Buddha's Hand with Soda. Bee, Lib, Me, Daj aka Kat.

The Ladies of Thanksgiving......

At Union Square in front of the X-mas Tree - in Height Order

Dinner at Michael Mina's - Turkey 3-ways: Breast -Stuffing with Sausage and Cranberry, Leg Roulade - mashed potatoes, haricot vert, Confit - yam puree, brussel sprouts.
The X-mas decorations are up in the lobby of the Westin-St. Francis. The siblings with the Teddy Bear we snatched from under the tree.
Cat-fight over the Teddy Bear. Jess, Lib, Kat = WIN, Teddy Bear = T.K.O.!
Out at Union Square in SF with many people wandering around on a perfect Thanksgiving evening.

Recapturing X-mas 1997, Lib and Bee reenact their James Bond adventures of "Tomorrow Never Dies"

DJ Rob Chen on the 1's and the 2's teaching a Mixin' Clinic @ Chez Daly City to Daj and me. Clinic involved mixing the EP's of Beyonce's Crazy in Love into Chaka Demus's Murder She Wrote.

Wannabe-DJ Jazzy Jess trying very hard to mix the 2 songs together. Beginner's Luck It Was Not. =( But so much fun! I'll keep practicing. Thanks for the clinic, Bee!