An Asian Prom

The Suburban Grind

My first prom as a teacher was the 2005 Fountain Fort Carson High School Prom. I was a rookie teacher.
My main impression of the evening: lap dances and grinding. There were students dry humping each other. As a French teacher, most of the kids were unknown to me. I just let it go. But sometimes I'd see one of my students doing it, and I got the urge to stop them.
I sat back and watched though, and none of the veteran teachers or admin was stopping it. The parent chaperons seemed OK with it. It was a military high school, and even the uniformed officers in attendance weren't stopping it. Some of them were joining in!
So, in American proms, that's what you're dealing with. Simulated lap dances. Kids humping each other from the corner of the ballroom, to center stage, all the way out into the parking lot.

Sweet Asian Kids

At this prom, it was the opposite problem: getting kids to participate in any way was the obstacle. They are all too shy. So cute. There wasn't much dancing at all. There was one dance when the Prom King and the Prom Queen danced. He was such a gentleman, that his trailing hand, the one that usually hugs or at least touches the lady's hip, was hovering in mid air. He was too demure to even touch his partner. His hand was floating three or four inches off her hip.
At the end of their dance, the extolled their friends to come join them. Nobody would. Eventually, after some awkward pleading, a few groups did join, but most weren't dancing co ed; it was just friends dancing in awkward, disparate groups.
There was one strange element. They had the girls do a catwalk. At first I was offended, and the girls seemed uncomfortable.

Afterwards, though, they made the boys do the same thing. There went my sexism complaint. It was just doubly awkward; although, power to the boys, they did better by and large.

These kids give me hope for this generation. Two of brightest and best students I've ever taught.

Another bright star on the rise. This was the Prom Queen. Emma Rose.
Maybe it's the name, it makes me biased, but I'm a huge fan of this girl. Kids like this, and the couple above, they give me hope that this generation might be just fine, may even fix some of our mistakes. 

Overall, I think a prom in the middle would be the best. The American kids were out of control, and it doesn't make me too hopeful for what they'll do in just a few more years when they are in charge.
The Asian kids are so smart, so well-behaved, but, at the same time, there is a problem getting along well and easily with each other. It shouldn't be so hard to get kids to mingle.
If I had to bet on one group of kids doing better than the others, hmmm. . . tough to say. Something to ponder.

Chef Rose's Debut Meal

Like Father, (Like Mother) Like Daughter. . . . . . 

People always tell Rose how lucky she is because of the cooking she gets to eat. I met Yokie when I was Sous Chef at MSU in Bozeman. I paid for a lot of my studies rolling sushi. Some of you even got to try the noodles at my old hawker stand on Jonker Street in Melaka.
Yokie is one of the best cooks in the world. Her classic Cantonese food is insane. She's a world class baker.
Rose gets some amazing homecooking. Outside of the Ramsay family, there probably aren't many kids who get such good food at home.
Well, the other day she started to pay us back. She prepared for me the most amazing lunch snack.

Visually, it was spectacular: bright, tropical colors. Served on the ironing board, because, come on, what a background for the meal! And she added a nice Rose for garnish.
She took good passionfruit. Did you know that the good ones are the wrinkled, sad looking ones? Don't buy the tight, full looking ones. Buy the ones that look like they are a few hours away from full blown raisination.
She scooped out the seeds and saved the juice. Then she took some really good in-season lychees. She peeled them all for me, and piled them in a perfect pyramid in the center of the plate. She covered them with passionfruit seeds, and topped it all off with passionfruit juice.
It was a tropical explosion of flavor. Delicious and ultra healthy,
A perfect first meal from a perfect young chef!

Breaking Tea

This Country Is Going to Pot

I've been coming to Malaysia since 2003. It's been about six trips, total time spent here is approaching two years. I can say now, without a doubt, Malaysia is getting worse.

National Treasure (Lost)

A small but telling example of this declination is Teh Tarik: Malaysia's national drink. It's a simple tea, usually Lipton Yellow Label black tea, or instant powdered tea. It's mixed with sugary condensed milk. It's as sweet as it is omnipresent.
The preparation of Teh Tarik used to be a visual and auditory ritual from the heart of KL to the most rural kampung. In theory, the tea is brewed, mixed with the condensed milk, and then poured from one pitcher to another in a tall, bartenderesque performance. That's where the name Teh Tarik (pulled tea) comes from. It was like the tea was pulled from the sky.
The bold gestures and splashing, slurping sound used to highlight a visit to a restaurant.
Then, somewhere along the way between worlds, people stopped pulling the tea.
Now, it's just Teh. No Tarik. They still call it that, you still order that, but nobody tariks the teh anymore.
You can tell right away, because it's hot. Teh tarik should be lukewarm. The pulling of the tea used to cool it. It also used to be frothy, bubbly, the head of the tea a testament to the love poured into the drink from the person who made it. And it used to be mixed.
Now, when you get it, there is no head, it's hot, and it's often unmixed, with a telltale layer of condensed milk on the bottom.
Rose and I got two cups the other day at a new hawker centre, and it was real teh tarik. Old fashioned, frothy, delicious teh tarik. It shocked me into melancholic stroll down Jalan Memorie. A cup of times since passed, moments of my young adulthood that I can never recapture.

We went back the next day. And we've been back several times since. Never again did they tarik.

Shrek's Big Modeling Breakthrough: Bikerumor.com Pic of the Day

Shrek's a front page model today. I submitted a pic for the pic of the day feature on bikerumor.com a couple of months ago, and they surprised me by posting it today.
He's one handsome son of a biscuit. Must run in the family. . . . .