In my hunt for daai paai dongs I came across this li'l restaurant in Mong Kok. It's easier to read the menu if you click on the magnify button to view the photo in its original size. For those who can't read Chinese, the 3 spotlighted items all basically mean 'whatever.'

I love how the 3 different whatevers on the menu all have different prices  ^_^

My mom felt very strongly that whatever country it is you're living and growing up in, you must be able to speak their language and appreciate their food. So every morning while I was in kindergarden she would take me to one of those alleyway dai pai dongs for breakfast. My little jok and cheung fun joint was at the entrance of this dingy, surely rat and cockroach infested alleyway on Tak Shing Street in Jordan. Sadly, I have had a difficult time locating this type of 'In Blatant Violation Of Health Code' dai pai dongs since moving back to Hong Kong from Korea. The photo above was a street woon jai chee place that I used to frequent A LOT..but it too died at the hands of Big Health.

During my mom's recent visit to HK she and I were having a bit to drink and were talking about those street dai pai dongs and the both of us got a craving for some jok..so off we went!

Yeah, it was nice..but when you see the dudes in the kitchen with their shirts on? It's just not the same. I'll even settle for wife-beaters. Well, what can you do eh?

What do you mean what can you do? Take them to Temple Street of course!

Look at that smile! I found it incredibly cute how happy she was haha.

I don't remember this, but apparently she used to take my brother my sister and me to Temple Street quite often when we were kids to eat. She took minimal hygiene precautions by bringing our own chopsticks and such..but we basically grew up on Temple Street dai pai dongs. That night was the first time in over 20 years that I went to a proper dai pai dong with my parents. It was great.

So if anyone reading this know of any good street dai pai dongs please let me know. I want to be a good son by taking my parents to the cheapest eateries I can find ha

And it's quite sesquipedalian in nature

The music on this page is a demo of my band Trim recorded 9 years ago when I was living in Korea. Bono gave us that name..more on that later.

Most musicians would say they have an eclectic taste in music and I was no exception. Having gone through dozens of bands playing (or attempting to play) the gamut of genres available, my American-Korean friend Jerome and I decided to form a band where we just stripped things down a bit, keep it simple and, most importantly, try to write some songs. The thing with a lot of bands was they were all too busy being 'alternative,' doing weird shit and avoiding the mainstream. I myself was guilty of that (for those of you that don't know, my favourite musician of all time is Frank Zappa..I have 45 of his albums) until I realized there have been countless bands that had genuine integrity and yet were very much part of the mainstream. So we formed a band putting more emphasis on sing-along-able melodies in the context of nice, simple songs.

Like every band, internal troubles soon ensued resulting in our drummer and us parting ways and me switching to the guitar (I was on the bass when we formed). During this time a friend of ours in Japan handed out our very rough demo to a whole bunch of her friends until it ended up in the hands of one Toshi Kasuga, a well respected session drummer in Tokyo, who liked it enough to fly to Korea with his own money and help us record a better demo. Although he came empty handed with none of his gear, as soon as he called Yamaha and Zildjian (he endorses their products) and told them exactly what he wanted they came running with brand new shit. This impressed and humbled me to no end ha.

The following is actually a very long story but in the interests of keeping it short..we sent this demo and a press kit we put together ourselves to hundreds of labels worldwide (we actually got offered a deal in Korea but it turns out the government won't let me make any money until I've fulfilled my military obligations..so no thanks). We eventually landed a deal with Toshiba EMI in Japan...but! Seeing as how I haven't been to the army yet the Japanese embassy wouldn't issue me a visa of any kind, fearing that I'd stay in Japan illegally to evade the draft. Same story in England and the US. We wrestled with this problem for about a year before we decided to break up and go our separate ways. Jerome currently resides in NY.

Oh, also...it was a Sunday afternoon in March, the first sunny day in months. Jerome was sitting on a bench in St. Stephen's Green Park, Dublin, Ireland, when who should walk by with his wife? Why, it was none other than Bono himself. Without another thought Jerome made a beeline straight to them and started talking..

Jerome - It's pretty much just rock n' roll. Kinda like if you took a motown singer and gave him the Pixies as a backing band.

Bono - Hmm. Sounds cool. Sounds..really trim.

Jerome - Sorry?

Bono - Yeah. Sounds trim. Sounds simple.

Jerome Kim - vocals, rhythm guitar

Joe Choi - guitar, bass, backing vocals

Toshi Kasuga - drums

Fun factoid: Jerome was a professional skiier and was in line to represent the US as a member of the Olympic ski team until he tore his ligament, sending his career down the drain..or slope, as it were. It was while bedridden in the hospital that he learned how to play the guitar.

footnote: I just realized the uploaded songs are incomplete. I have sent the administrator the full versions so hopefully they will be replaced soon haha

toenote: the complete songs are now uploaded ^_^

I just saw my parents holding hands walking down the street. I have never seen them holding hands in public before, and because they had their backs to me walking away, they didn't know I had just seen them. I fought my immediate urge to jump in front of them yelling 'busted!' and just watched them for a while. My initial reaction to laugh turned very quickly into an awww~. It was nice to know they have someone to hold hands with in their old age.