Our 2008 US Trip, Part One

June 15, 2008 By: thenhbushman Geotag Icon Show on map Category: cooking, family, Food, grill, leisure, Lifestyle, local cuisine, party, Personal, Travel

Photos by MJ Klein Caution: Food Photos!

As most of you know by now, Hui-chen and I went back to the USA for about 3 weeks. The reason for this trip will become apparent in future parts of this series. In Part One, I want to introduce you to a few people and places.

We love taking photos from the air! We took these photos just after our takeoff from Detroit, on our way to the Greensboro airport in North Carolina. Here are 2 more shots of what I believe is one of the Great Lakes.

Once we got there, we stayed at my Mother’s new home, built on my sister’s family’s property.

Here is my Mother, looking very good at 80 years old.

And here is her very relaxing front porch – a place where I spent quite a few pleasant hours passing the time.

We went to my sister’s husband’s parent’s home (wow, that’s a mouthful!). That’s my sister Janet just behind Hui-chen. That’s her husband Mike Hunnicutt, and their youngest son Elliot to Mike’s right. Elliot loves to joke around and he’s messing around with his Uncle Don (Mike’s brother). Mike’s parents are in the forgeground to Hui-chen’s right. My mother is at the far left, and the other women are Mike’s sisters (and brother in law at the far right). The Hunnicutts are a really great family and I am blessed to be related to them all.

Hui-chen and I wasted no time before we began cooking. Mike’s side of the family came over and wanted to try some Taiwanese food. No problem! Here we see some of the famous marinade that we do back in Taiwan.

Mike and Hui-chen discuss grilling techniques. HC usually handles the grill, so this was something she was not used to!

Everyone is waiting to eat. Here’s what we served them:

Left to right: Hui-chen’s grilled pork and chicken, salad, Hui-chen’s special meatballs, fruit salad.

Hui-chen’s fried noodles. In the US, this dish is called “lo mein” and it’s a misnomer because in Chinese that means “meat noodles.” In Taiwan we would call this “chao mein” but that’s also a mis-named dish in the US. It took about 5 minutes to explain that to everyone!

The next day we went to see my father, who is now 86 years old. Here is is posing with his medals he received for his service during World War II. He never put in for his medals until someone in the family convinced him to do it recently. I’m glad that he did. My father served with the 308th Bombardment Group (Heavy). He served in the 373rd Squadron as a B-24 navigator/bombardier. I intend to write more about my father’s military service in a later article. My father is not doing well and I want to publish some details of his distinguished service, most of which I have only recently been made aware of.

One thing that Hui-chen was happy about going to the US for, is ice cream! This is 2 “scoops” at the local creamery. Wow! The portions we encountered were huge! I asked for the insulin sprinkles on my ice cream but they guy just stared at me, lol.

Stay tuned for more installments about our US trip!

Articles in series Our 2008 USA Trip:

Next in series Last in series

Our 2008 US Trip, Part Three: John Arrives
Photos by MJ Klein and Hui-chen - ATTENTION: FOOD PHOTOS! This series is a bit out of order. It doesn't really matter because we did write a ...
Our 2008 US Trip: Belews Lake Day
Photos by Hui-chen, Nancy & MJ Klein As you know from reading this series, all of us siblings get together very rarely. So now that we're ...
The End of an Era
I'm not sure how to put this, but my father James E. Klein (seen on the left in the above photo) passed away on July 3rd, 2011. Many of our r ...
Our 2008 US Trip, Part Two: Getting There!
Photos by MJ Klein "Getting there is half the fun" as they say, but I for one am not so enamored with air travel. As much as Hui-chen and I ha ...
Our 2008 US Trip, Part Six: Nancy Arrives
Photos by MJ Klein, Hui-chen & Nancy, including FOOD PHOTOS Before we continue with our series, I would like to talk about the series and h ...

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23 Responses to “ Our 2008 US Trip, Part One ”

# 1 MJ Klein Says:
June 14th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Our 2008 US Trip, Part One http://tinyurl.com/6ewfmr via @ShareThis
# 2 Sandy Says:
June 15th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Wow, that BBQ looked like fun! The food looked delicious and is of course making me hungry. Your mom looks great for her age, definitely. Your dad’s medals are very impressive.

I am looking forward to the posts to follow about your US trip.

Sandys last blog post..Recipe: How to Make Zongzi, Part 2

thenhbushman reply on June 15th, 2008 9:26 am:

Sandy » we try to warn people about the food photos! hehe
# 3 cfimages Says:
June 15th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Welcome back to Taiwan MJ and HC.

I always wondered what lo-mien was meant to be when encounter it in books and movies. Now I know. In Australia we call it chao mien, but the mien is pronounced more like ming.

You should have served them grilled squid on a stick and oyster omelette – or am I just saying that because they are my favorite TW foods.

cfimagess last blog post..Flight of the Egret

thenhbushman reply on June 15th, 2008 2:39 pm:

cfimages » in the US, “chow mein” is what they call the slop made with celery and onions with crispy noodles on top. back when i used to work in a Chinese restaurant in the US, the chef called it “pig food.” at least in Australia they got the words right, if not the pronunciation. it really should be called “pan fried noodles” to make it clear in English.
# 4 Brunty Says:
June 15th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
MJ. Thanks for the great pictures and introducing your family to us. Your mum does look great. When I am young as her I want to be doing half a well.

That was a feast you served up and looked delicious. The Chao Mein looked a winner, my mum used to amke the best chao mein and if you could post the recipe I wiould be a happy man

I look forward to reading the future posts my friend.

Bruntys last blog post..An exciting weekend and a new baby, Thailand.

thenhbushman reply on June 16th, 2008 12:03 am:

Brunty » thanks for your kind comments. i’ll see what i can do about getting the recipe out of HC, hehe. lots more to come in this series. this is going to be perhaps the most personal series i have ever done, as i talk about my father’s condition….
# 5 Todd Says:
June 15th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
That’s some very delicious looking BBQ and ice cream. Welcome back to Taiwan!

Todds last blog post..Several Additions

thenhbushman reply on June 16th, 2008 12:04 am:

Todd » those particular foods were very good, Todd, but i’m sick and tired of burgers, steak and baked potatoes! i’m also sick of fake cheese melted on everything – yuck! it’s great to be back in Taiwan. thanks!
# 6 mike01905 Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Geeee.. I hope my BBQ pics next weekend will look better than these Hopefully the weather is going to be great.

Looks like chocolate chip or maybe oreo on top there mint chocolate chip Did you go to an “ice cream chain” or did you go to a local place??? There is a chain called Cold Stone Creamery in which… if you look at what they have (different ice cream flavors, candy/cookie pieces, etc)… they say they can make anything you want. Mmmm… the thought of it is probably sending my blood sugar up.

Insulin sprinkles… never heard anyone call them that before. I’m sure if you asked for “kimmies”… the guy would’ve just stared at you as well (since calling those sprinkles “jimmies” is a Boston/New England thing).

mike01905 reply on June 16th, 2008 7:40 pm:
Grrrrr… “kimmies”… I need to learn how to type… should be “jimmies”

thenhbushman reply on June 16th, 2008 9:13 pm:

mike01905 » no, i meant sprinkles made from actual insulin! a joke of course, referring to the high sugar content. these days i really avoid sweets as much as possible.

cfimages reply on June 16th, 2008 9:19 pm:
These days high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is used instead of sugar in a lot of things. HFCS is so bad for you that it makes large amounts of white sugar look like health food. Avoiding sweets is the only way to go.

cfimagess last blog post..Omega 3

mike01905 reply on June 17th, 2008 7:56 pm:
Well… “sprinkles” is what they are called in most of the USA (and probably most of the world) and “jimmies” is what they are called in New England (or just the Boston area).

Doesn’t matter to me if they are made from sugar, high-fructose corn syrup… and so on. As a diabetic… all are bad for me

thenhbushman reply on June 17th, 2008 10:19 pm:

mike01905 » they are bad for everyone, Mike.

thenhbushman reply on June 17th, 2008 10:29 pm:

mike01905 » i saw those Cold Stone Creamery stores but never went inside one. the ice cream in the photo is from a local shop. the ice cream is quite good, actually.
# 7 Ashish Says:
June 17th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Hey MJ, its good to have you back. Man I could have spent hours sitting at the front porch. It looks very relaxing indeed. Its great to know your family and I’m looking forward for the follow up post. Take care friend.

Ashishs last blog post..Weekend excursion to Hualien Part 1
# 8 Stephen Roland Says:
December 4th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
beautiful photography! i bet the ice cream was delicious!

Stephen Rolands last blog post..Things you probably need to know about the Fed.

thenhbushman reply on December 5th, 2008 10:25 am:

Stephen Roland » thanks. yes, it really was – and inexpensive also. Hui-chen still talks about it.
# 9 TheNHBushman.com | Our 2008 US Visit: Taiwan, Via Detroit Says:
December 8th, 2008 at 2:25 am
[...] Series Our 2008 USA Trip (20)Riding (2)Thailand, Fall 2008 (12)Ubon Ratchathani (8)Weekend Parties [...]
# 10 Vrbo Says:
February 17th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Those buffalo wings or chicken wings look absolutely delicious! MMMMM!!

Any secret recipes we should know about?

thenhbushman reply on February 17th, 2009 4:32 pm:

Vrbo, the meat on the plate is sliced pork and Hui-chen marinaded it in a Thai/Taiwanese style mix of ingredients that only she knows! i can tell you 2 things about it: 1: the mix contains lots of Thai spices like cilantro and lemon grass; 2: it’s damn good!
# 11 Getting There Is Half The Fun | We Blog The World Says:
September 14th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
[...] and I headed back to the US recently to visit our family there. We went a bit later in the year than we have in the past, so our flights were different. Also, Delta has merged with Northwest and so the trip routing was [...]