Archive for March 31st, 2008
Nixon’s Chopsticks, and Peking Duck Diplomacy
Monday, March 31st, 2008President Nixon’s chopsticks on display at the Nixon Library. Of course, his historic 1972 visit to China spurred a huge interest in Chinese food, especially Peking duck. Restaurant owners told me, with only slight exaggeration, that lines outside their restaurants formed overnight as a result of his visit. Â I actually added this photo to my […]
The deluge….just catching up.
Monday, March 31st, 2008If you’ve noticed an insane number of blog posts today (I count at least 10, which is a record), that is because I am hurrying up to catch up with all these events that I have pictures fromt (also the Nixon Library gave me an insane number of separate blog posts). I also didn’t have […]
The butt-to-seat ratio, the key to readings
Monday, March 31st, 2008I’ve discovered at my events that it’s really not about the absolute number of people who show up (though that’s important), but more, it’s about the butt-to-seat ratio in the room. See above at Skylight Bookstore in Los Angeles. There were probably only 30 seats, but then a lot of people showed up from hearing […]
Libraries versus publishers…how business models change
Monday, March 31st, 2008When I spoke at the San Francisco Public Library, the woman who arranged the event (Joan) mentioned that the book had been very popular in the Bay Area. They had ordered about 40 copies of my book and all of them were out. Plus there were 71 holds (i.e. a waiting list) on those copies, […]
Fortune cookies find their way back to Japan (and Mexico and Iraq)
Monday, March 31st, 2008Tomoko, who played an important role in the Japan section of the book (and the wardrobe advice for the book launch) sent me this email today: yesterday, as i was headed out of office, i noticed one of my colleagues had a bright orange book in her bag. i thought to myself, ‘wow, that […]
No MSG @ the Nixon Library
Monday, March 31st, 2008The Nixon Library, now run by Tim Naftali (who is a pretty snappy dresser) took the fortune cookie talk and really ran with it and had fun. They had a huge amount of promotional material. The poster they designed was adorable, with the No MSG! promise
The passing of Dith Pran, a legendary colleague
Monday, March 31st, 2008One of our inspiring colleagues, Dith Pran, passed away early Sunday morning. He was the subject of the film, The Killing Fields, and the founder of the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, which aims to educate people on the Cambodian holocaust. Dith Pran was one of those legendary people you were honored to meet when […]
Bravo’s Asian Top Chefs at the NYC Asia Society on Wednesday
Monday, March 31st, 2008So the Asia Society, where I am speaking on April 16 with Fucshia Dunlop, is hosting an event highlighting the Asian Americans in Bravo’s Top Chef series on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Among the speakers is Hung, the Vietnamese American who won Top Chef. Details below. The popular Bravo reality series “Top Chefsâ€, along with […]
Genghis Cohen…this tops Shalom Hunan even.
Monday, March 31st, 2008Oh my god. When I saw this, I made Josh turn the car around so I could take a picture of Genghis Cohen (which opened in 1983 as a Chinese restaurant, but also now serves as an acoustic lounge). The Jewish-Chinese connection marches on.
Nixon Library vs. the Nixon Foundation, who controls the hallways?
Monday, March 31st, 2008The Nixon Presidential Library (run by the National Archives, note the .gov) and the Nixon Library Foundation (run by his friends and family, note the .org) have this very odd relationship, where they co-exist in the same building but have slightly different goals (truth/history versus honoring the man). The saga of the federal government […]
Fortune cookies are not a “food’ (according to our federal government
Monday, March 31st, 2008Fortune cookies are not necessarily food, at least, according to the federal government The Nixon Library made these adorable custom-made fortune cookies to promote my talk on Saturday (above). But the library is part of the National Archives which is part of the federal government which is not allowed to give out “food†as presents […]
Fortune Cookies, the Hollywood version…
Monday, March 31st, 2008Since I was in Los Angeles, I met up Hollywood folks who are interested in optioning The Fortune Cookie Chronicles for a television series about Chinese food. Optioning of course, is a looooong way from anything ever happening. I’ve had other things optioned (Man Date), so know that there are many ways for projects to […]