Chung Kiwa Korean BBQ

Location: 40-06 74th St., Elmhurst, NY
Cuisine: Korean, Japanese
Hours: 24/7
Phone: (718) 478-0925
Prices: $40/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 2
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique

We had our monthly dinner a little late this time because Emily & I had a wake to go to last week. Luckily everyone was available this week as well. Last month, as Reinhard drove everyone home, they passed by a Korean BBQ place in Elmhurst that looked a like a good candidate for the February dinner. I asked Jen about it because it was closest to her place. She suggested Chung Kiwa because it was about the same and closer to the train station.


The food was great. That's saying a lot on this particular night for me because I couldn't eat meat due to Lent. I still ate a good amount of seafood and vegetables. The beef & pork were a little tempting, but I think the squid and shrimp were just as good. For more details about the food, click here to visit the Picasa album.

The service was pretty good. All of the staff members were polite and friendly. They probably didn't understand English that well because there was some confusion over a few things, but no problem at all. The effort was there.

The price was a bit high though... even for a Korean place. The total w/o tip came out to $300 for 9 people. That's almost double what we usually spend. Something to keep in mind is that it was in Queens and not Manhattan!

The space was clean and well decorated. Seating was comfortable as they were easily prepared for large groups. Each table with built-in grill can serve 4-5 people. The only minus was the bathroom lock was broken at the time. So anyone that had to go had to have a buddy guard the door!

Click here for photos and more details on the event.

Jollibee Soft Opening

On the way from Manhattan to Queens, I decided to drop by the brand new Jollibee just for a look. On the second day of business @ 2:30pm the line was still crazy. It reminded me of Ben & Jerry's FREE Cone Day except the line didn't move as quickly and they weren't giving anything out for free. It could be a while before we have our monthly dinner here!

Related: Jollibee, New York Magazine, Jollibee in Metro Manila, Coming Soon!

Bread-A

Location: 41-46 College Point Blvd., Flushing, NY 11355
Cuisine: Bakery, Chinese
Hours: SUN-THU (12pm-11pm); FRI-SAT (12pm-12am)
Phone: (718) 886-1888 x14
Website: www.breadaorganic.com

Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

A couple months ago, my Dad's friend came back from Taiwan and he brought us a bag of multigrain powder drink. We tried it out and all liked it. It became a weekend routine for afternoon snacks. More importantly, it's healthy and a good substitute for that coffee craving. I didn't know where to start looking for this product because the pouch was labeled in Chinese with no translation. I took a shot of it with my camera phone and sent it to Lewis. He directed me to a nice little store on College Point called Bread-A. They're an organic vegetarian bakery & café... a gem in the Flushing area. There aren't too many organic places there.

I checked it out today as our supply of the multigrain drink was down to a few more servings. Sure enough, Bread-A had it. I walked in and my eyes immediately zeroed in on the Chinese characters for 5-grain. The place is small, but I was overwhelmed by the different foods they had to offer. I've never seen so many organic Asian items before! I picked up a can of the powdered drink, which was a different brand, but at least twice the size of the bag from Taiwan. I also got a few of the green tea pastries. We all enjoyed the whole grain bun with green tea flavored filling. I was surprised that my Dad liked it because he usually hates anything healthy, especially wheat and whole grain breads. Maybe the green tea flavor was good enough to make up for it!

Bread-A is a small family business, so naturally, the service was great. It was also clean in contrast to its location in the industrial part of Flushing. I didn't give this place a food rating yet because it would only represent the green tea pastry... a tiny tidbit of what they offer. So I'll definitely check this place out more often.

SCAD Reunion

Ning, Lewis & I were trying to get together around Chinese New Year, but had some conflicts until this weekend. It worked out well because it gave me something to look forward to after the holiday weekend. I usually Lewis every once in a while, but haven't seen Ning & Pascal in years... and never met their daughter, Ella Nio.


We decided to meet early, around 11am so we could walk around and catch up for a bit. We then headed to Happy Buddha for lunch which was a nice, comfortable place to get a healthy meal and not feel rushed.

Uncle Vic Memorial Trip

Originally, I wasn't to blog about this trip at all, but I just spent a seemingly long week with close family members, sharing memories about Uncle Vic. Being with each other helped bring all of our spirits up at this difficult time. So I decided to document the quality time as a memorial to my Uncle Vic. As with many of my trips, I didn't have time to blog electronically after each event, so I back-dated all of these to preserve the original date of occurrence. Here's the table of contents of all related posts in chronological order:

- 29
- Riley
- Photos & Video
- Uncle Vic

I also took a few pictures with my low-res camera phone:


We gathered and bonded over the weekend, in the same manner that Uncle Vic used to lead the way with in the Philippines. I think he would be happy with this and proud of his family.

Uncle Vic

12/3/1941 - 01/28/2009

Although I haven't spent a lot of physical time with Uncle Vic, I have a pretty good sense of who his is through his actions. He's not a blood relative to me (Auntie Clarita is my Dad's sister), but as my dad mentioned in his eulogy, "Vic is more of a brother than a brother-in-law." He acted just like a blood relative. Whenever we visited the Philippines, it would be him and Uncle Mariano that organized the large family dinners and get-togethers. Every time, I was with my dad's side of the family there, someone would be on the phone asking, "hey Vic, what's the plan?" or "where are we going to eat tonight?" He treated us like his own and I always saw him as an important leader in my family. I associate those dinner gatherings with him and will always remember him for future ones. Uncle Vic displayed his charisma with a gentle, quiet demeanor. He would be the calm one in heated conversations and he didn't have a loud voice, but people listened to him.

I also know Uncle Vic indirectly through my cousins Jeremy & Kathy as we spent a lot of quality time together when they studied on the East coast. They both always reflect their father's calmness and kind-heartedness. I will miss him a lot, but am happy to know that his spirit will live on for generations.

Photos & Video

Since this trip was for bereavement, I did not bring along any cameras. Even though I was going to spend time with relatives I rarely see, I didn't want to record the somber events. At first I was surprised that Kathy asked me to take photographs of the event when I asked her what I could help out with. It was the same gut feeling Jeremy had, but in our day and age, it made sense after all. Many of our communications these days are through the Internet and ease of sharing/duplicating electronic files. There were also many relatives that could not make it overseas. So a complete photo & video documentation of the events was necessary. My dad took most of the video, with myself just handling the portions where he was involved in the ceremony. Because of limited battery power and DV tape space, we went through 2 different cameras. Jeremy & Chris are going to do the DVD conversion for the overseas relatives. I took still shots with Kathy's camera, documenting the viewing, eulogies, burial and reception.

Riley

We got to the hotel around 9pm and ate some takeout sent over by Auntie Clarita via Uncle Mariano. Then we checked to see if Auntie Clarita & family were still awake and they were happy to have us drop by. As I entered Kathy & Chris' house, I was expecting a very somber mood and was surprised to see bright lights and hear lots of laughter-filled talking. There were already some relatives over to provide comfort and everyone was playing with Kathy & Chris' 4-year old Daughter, Riley.


Having a child around after a major loss to the family is a huge help. They certainly help ease the mood and even make us have a few laughs. Riley, who in my eyes looks like an exact clone of my cousin Kathy as a child, reminded us of the cycle of life. The passing of Uncle Vic was very sad for all of us, but everything he stood for lives on in Kathy, Jeremy & Timothy. And all of that translates to Riley (both in values... and appearance!), who is at the beginning of the cycle.

During that evening at Kathy & Chris', the cousins, aunts and uncles had a chance to catch up on the past year. We also got a bit of work done for tomorrow's services, deciding on eulogies to be read and I helped out in fixing up a photo of Uncle Vic.

29

A Thumbs Down to AA

My Dad, Emily and I header out to Orange County, CA today to be with our family out there after our Uncle Vic passed away. He had a heart attack a few weeks ago, but the passing was still a bit sudden because many of us were expecting a recovery. When our family first heard the news, we all naturally tried to get flights out of our hometowns as soon as possible, so none of us really coordinated. My Dad & sister booked first on AA. I was fortunate (at the time) to get on the same exact itinerary on American Airlines to John Wayne Airport (SNA). Uncle Albert took a flight to LAX via Virgin Atlantic. Cindy booked about a day later, but was able to get the same schedule as her father. Uncle Mariano flew out of Philippines a day earlier and was scheduled to arrive a bit earlier.

Our flight was scheduled to arrive mid-afternoon, plenty of time to check-in to our hotel, get settled in and visit the grieving Auntie Clarita. When we first arrived in Laguardia, the schedule was looking good. Flight 313 to Chicago was cancelled and all passengers were moved to a flight an hour earlier. That didn't do anything for our final arrival time, but it meant less of a rush to get to our connecting flight. We got there on time and made it to our gate with plenty of time to eat a meal an make a few phone calls. Things were still good as we boarded the plane, but we got a sense that something was wrong when we were sitting in a closed cabin for 30 minutes. The finally announced that there was a problem... the control panel was missing a bushing (a silicone or rubber piece used to stabilize 2 or more hard components). The estimated time of repair was 30 minutes. After that time, they made a second announcement that they were unable to get the missing part and had to take the plane out of service. We quickly called the 800 number to rebook the flight. There were 2 options at the time:

1. 3pm flight to LAX
2. 5pm flight to John Wayne w/ Dallas connection

Though the LAX flight was better for our schedule because it was where the rest of the family was headed, we couldn't take it because AA wouldn't send our checked-in baggage to that location. So we were stuck with the much later flight (arrival @ 10pm). The agent at the booking desk was able to help us a little bit. She actually put us on a later, but direct flight to SNA in order to get the arrival time down by an hour. It was pretty obvious that there was no real mechanical problem on the original plane. They were just making a head count at first and when the total was lower than some limit, they decided to take the plane offline to save money. The issue with the bushing was fabricated. I've heard that AA does this kind of thing a lot and many passengers aboard mentioned that they've had a similar experience before. Other clues were:

1. Ground crew was emptying the check-ins before the announcements
2. The plane had no problems arriving
3. How could they be so ill prepared to not have spare parts readily available? A missing bushing is also easily MacGyvered.

So we eventually made it. Because of our late arrival, Uncle Mariano had time to get to LA first, pick up Uncle Albert & Cindy and then drive to Santa Ana for us. Cancelling an entire flight should've at least warranted some kind of bonus for all of the passengers... especially since we saved the airline money by not flying out a whole plane. AA offered nothing... not even a free meal! Also noteworthy is the overall friendliness of the staff was not as good as other airlines I've been on. They didn't do anything particularly bad, but it was just the was they talked and answered questions that evoked a feeling of rudeness. We were already stressed and anxious to be with and comfort our family. AA did nothing to help. From now on, I will certainly pay attention to airlines while shopping and never fly AA again!

What a long day... a 29-hour one to be exact!

Chinese New Year 4707

It's Chinese New Year weekend and it occurs earlier this year (actually 1/26). Our family dinner was a few days earlier because we wanted to do it on a Saturday so there would be no rush to go home and get ready for work the next day.


I mentioned last year that I felt weird celebrating holidays early, but I guess it's OK this time. It'll just feel like it's lasting longer. I had a fun time with my family tonight. Tomorrow, I'm going to do some cleaning and visit friends. I took Monday off to observe the actual date of the Lunar New Year. The parade in Flushing will be next Saturday... something to look forward to next weekend.