恭喜發財 - Or Rather, "Congratulations and Prosperity!"

No one can say the men of the Perkins family aren't culturally adventurous! A week or two ago N's preschool celebrated Chinese New Year with more activities than you could shake a chopstick at! They had their special lunch, a traditional New Year's parade with drums and costumes, and then, of course, the resoundingly reptilian climax to it all - the precession of the dragon!

N was heavily involved in all the festivities, even taking a turn at the dragon helm! Tremendous and terrifying, I have no reason to doubt!

Meanwhile a few L.A. basin municipalities away I was privy to a very authentic New Year's Dim Sum with a big group of co-workers. It was an adventure not for the squeamish. No Panda Express here! Among the delicacies being pushed around on little carts were stewed chicken feet, pickled seaweed, and dried, chopped up, and reconstituted jellyfish. I actually liked the seaweed, which actually had a noodle consistency and texture. Though I won't be seeking it out the next time I'm at Rice Queen, I was able to sample a few morsels of the jellyfish. I was expecting the texture to be seriously weird, and it was, but not in the weird way I expected - it was actually somewhat chewing - more calimari than jelly-goo. Having conqueored seaweed and jellyfish, I rather was proud of my cultural excursions, so I didn't feel too bad about telling the chicken feet to cross the road. Don't ask why.

Rosalynn, Eric, me and Vera, and yes, that is the celebrated seaweed!

There were also, of course, dozens of other offerings of various degrees of non-Westerness, and most of the were really pretty fantastic. I think Stacy would enjoy doing this sometime, but this place was really old school, and I'd be a little afraid of going there all by our lonesome. There's something to be said about eating jellyfish when you know it's jellyfish. I would definitely be a little more daunted by an untranslated mystery lump.

We whities were few and far between!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!