Embed Notice

I took them to brunch in Seaside, a neighboring city, to a Filipino American brunch spot (Butter House). Pancakes and fried rice are what they do there, so it totally hit the spot of core needs. We went to Bixby Bridge, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, and Nepenthe. It was a perfect day, not terribly cold, not foggy, just perfect.

They’re not old, but the weird thing with living 8800 miles away from them is I feel reasonably certain the next time we have a big chunk of time together like this again, there may be mobility or other travel challenges.

Later this week we go to LA. I hope what they’ll see if that the life I’ve built for myself is equal parts new things and diversity and opportunity, which is what I love about living in California, and equal parts I get to be who I am, have my people, and my food when I need it.

I’m putting us in LA near where there’s congee as good as the best in Hong Kong, soy milk and youtiao as good as Taiwan, mole as good as in Oaxaca, and kway teow goreng as good as Jakarta. I don’t feel I can share many parts of my life linguistically or culturally with them, but I can share the food that means something to me. That in a foreign land, this is how I anchor myself and give myself the courage and fuel to go out and do things I could have never done back home.

It’s a terrible time to be an immigrant, but I am so proud and happy to be here.