Spicy Udon Salad, aka "Fire Salad"...

... is the go-to dish that I bring to every potluck/bbq when I don't feel like being creative/putting much effort into it (which is about 99% of the time). Luckily, it's a crowd-pleaser. So here you go; I'm passing it on to everyone who requested the recipe... and I'm including pictures so you know what to look for when you're navigating Ranch 99 hahaha. I learned it from my friend Jeesung, who speaks Mandarin Chinese better than any Korean person I know. :)

Ingredients:

·3 or 4 packs of frozen udon noodles

·One large container of spring mix (11 oz?)

·Red Chili Powder (I'm partial to Hsin Tung Yang's.)

·Vinegar (You can use any kind, but I use Marukan Rice Vinegar)

·Soy Sauce (You can use light/dark, depending on how salty you like it to be. I prefer Kimlan Light Soy Sauce... I really don't like the taste of Kikkoman, but go with whatever floats your boat :P)

·Oyster Sauce

· Sugar

· Olive Oil

· Sesame Oil

· Wasabi Paste (Optional)

Step 1: Boil the noodles according to package directions. Drain, let cool, and refrigerate.

Step 2: Using a large serving spoon, measure out the sauce ingredients (everything else besides the spring mix) according to the following ratios and mix accordingly. I would suggest measuring out the sugar and the chili pepper powder before everything else so you can use the same spoon.

Soy sauce 6
vinegar 6
sugar 2
olive oil 1
sesame oil 1
oyster sauce 1
chili pepper powder 1
(wasabi 1)

(Feel free to mess with the ratios according to what you like. I like to add a lot of chili powder as I am apparently quite numb to its effects. Julie, on the other hand, might want to tone it down.)

Step 3: Mix the chilled udon noodles with the sauce.

Step 4: Mix that in with the Spring Mix.

Ta-da! You're all done and ready to bring it to POCO bbq, where Samuel Mandell will ask you eagerly whether or not you brought the fire salad.

Additional suggestions: You can add other salad-y things that might go with udon... even anti-intuitive things like avocado and apples, although probably not both. I usually add tomatoes and sometimes edamame as well.

How to be a good Asian American Christian

If you want to be a good Christian and a good American, then you need to get good grades in high school, become active in clubs and student government. As a result you will get into a good college. When you get into that good college, get good grades and become active in the clubs, so that you can get into the right graduate school (law school or medical school or a master's program in engineering). Graduate and get a good-paying job. Marry a nice Christian spouse with the same values. Buy a nice four-bedroom suburban home in a "safe neighborhood." Make sure the house as a two-car garage to house a Japanese import for your everyday commute and a German import for your Sunday drive to church. All along be involved in your church just enough to remember your Christian heritage. Have good kids who will in turn go to good schools so that the cycle can begin all over again. After the cycle has run its course, do everything possible to preserve the security you have established so that the next generation will have the opportunity to pursue the same success as the previous generation.

- Soong-Chan Rah in "The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from western Cultural Captivity"

I don't think I could've said it better, except you'd have to marry a nice Christian spouse of the same race.

SFO-->ORD-->AMS-->NBO

Feeling the Love! and the Sleep Deprivation! Thanks for coming out guys!

Amsterdam here I come!

Kenya Jan 28-Feb 26

I haven't updated in what feels like years, and I don't know who reads this, or if it's anybody at all, but in the off chance that someone out there in internet land still reads my blog, here's to you:

In August 2008, I went to Kenya with eight others from Great Exchange Covenant Church (GrX) to run a Vacation Bible School (VBS) program and visit elementary schools, orphanages, and slums in the outskirts of Nairobi. After coming back, I made the decision to leave GrX and join a new church called the Highway Community. At Highway, I took a class/seminar about the upside-down nature of God’s Kingdom, which taught me to rethink my take on Christianity and view the world through a different lens: it has not only made me ruminate on racial, socioeconomic, and cultural barriers, but has motivated me to do something about it. As a result, I’ll be returning to Kenya from January 28 to February 26.

On December 3, I learned of a three-week missions trip to Meru, Kenya that eight members of Lakeside Church in San Francisco and was given the opportunity to go with them. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of decision-making and preparation. In the span of three weeks, I met with my discipler, the Lakeside team lead, and my pastor, as well as attended a Lakeside team meeting in the Sunset District of SF and communicated by email with my contacts in Kahawa Sukari, a town on the outskirts of Nairobi. On December 29, I booked my plane tickets to Jomo Kenyatta Airport.

For my first week, I’ll be staying at Sanctuary of Hope, an orphanage supporting 21 children from Mathare Valley (one of the largest slums in Nairobi), and working on Well Done’s next project at a school called Mercy Care, in conjunction with the Dignitas Project. Because Nairobi is currently undergoing a season of drought, water is only piped in to the school one day out of a week, and without an adequate method to store the water, there will be none readily available to the students and teachers there. Well Done’s mission for this project is to provide and install a large scale water tank for the school. While I’m there, I’ll be laying some groundwork for the project, like getting the water tested, as well as surveying the site for future work to be done. After that, I’ll be joining the team from Lakeside Team to head north to Meru, where we will be working with four different organizations focused on helping underprivileged children, some orphanged by HIV/AIDs. (There’s more information in the attached itinerary and brochure.)

The last time I went to Kenya, I went with no expectations. The dirt roads, lack of reliable plumbing, and mosquitoes were things that I had prepared myself for. What I didn’t realize would happen was a personal transformation. (Coincidentally, I was given the Luo name Akinyi, which means “born in the morning.”) I don’t know how to describe the kind of love that God showed me there, except that it was a pervasive, no-strings-attached kind of love that I didn’t know what to do with except respond in kind. I want that again, but this time, I want to come back with that same attitude and be able to apply it to my life here. I plan on starting law school in the fall in pursuit of a career in public interest and a life immersed in social justice. To be honest, I’m not sure how to apply my Kenya experiences, or how to keep the momentum going, but that’s where I’d like to ask for your help.

I’m writing to you for several reasons, some of which might be immediately obvious. Yes, this is a support raising letter. The trip will cost about $3500, which will cover the plane ticket, lodging, meals and field costs. If you could support me financially, I would greatly appreciate it. More importantly, I’ll be needing support in other ways, especially through prayer. More than I’d like to admit, I’m scared. I’ll be going to Kenya alone, and although I’ll join up with the Lakeside Team a week into the trip, I have not met any of them more than twice for brief meetings. Also, because of the sudden decision I made to go on this trip, I feel inadequately prepared. The last time I went, I had months of preparation time, and a team comprised of eight people I had become close with. I’m looking for a group of people to pray with, share with, and have accountability with, both before and after the trip. If you’d like to partner with me financially or through prayer, please fill out the form at the bottom of the letter.

Thank you for reading through this letter and I hope you’ll partner with me on this missions trip. I hope to share so much more with you, including my seemingly never-ending prayer requests and novel-like updates from Kenya.

For His Glory,

Dorothy Emily Wu

With Stacy, one of the kids at Sanctuary of Hope

Some Relevant Links:

Sanctuary of Hope www.pambatoto.com/sanctuaryofhope.html

Dignitas Project http://dignitasproject.org/

Well Done http://welldone.org

Ripples International http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ripples-International-African-Childrens-HIVAIDS-Orphanage-Kenya/74883260221

If you'd like to donate, please make checks payable to The Highway Community and write Kenya in the memo line. All contributions are tax-deductible. You can send it to me at 6230 Plymouth Ave. San Jose, CA 95129. (Or you can just hand it to me if we’ll see each other before January 28.) Thank You!

Fallapalooza

Can't get these photos posted to FB for some reason... let's try posterous :P

Superstitious Fruit

My mom came home from Taiwan last Friday after my grandmother miraculously recovered (Praise God!) about three weeks ago. She came back with jetlag, pineapple cake, red envelopes, and hair accessories from the National Palace Museum gift shop (incidentally, I had bought one in the TPE airport shop before I left, but lost it when I wore it for the first time when I came home... I love it when my mom knows exactly what I'll like).

As we were discussing my grandmother's condition, my mom told me about how my uncle, who follows this specific 'black' sect of Buddhism, would cut the rind off the top of an orange and stuff it into a red envelope and carry it around in his shirt pocket. Why? Orange in mandarin is pronounced ju (橘) and it sounds like ji (吉), which means "luck."

Of my other maternal aunts and uncles, one is devoutly protestant, one is catholic, and one is atheist. When we would gather around my grandmother's bed in the hospital to pray, all of these other uncles and aunts would do so with fervor; all of us wanted my grandmother to be saved, whether it be physically or spiritually. However, after I had left and my uncle from Germany had arrived, there seemed to be this tug-of-war between him and my mom. When my mother would arrive at my grandmother's apartment from the hospital, my uncle would scramble to hide all the rindless oranges he had cut up. The oranges didn't bother any of my mother's other siblings and it wasn't just a matter of religious toleration; they put some store in the orange rinds as well.

Is it simply following culture/tradition? In her delirious sleep, my grandmother had called out to her children that they needed to set out fruits and vegetables on an altar to my grandfather, who had passed away when my mother was 20 years old. My devoutly protestant aunt was about to comply when my mother stopped her. A couple years ago, I was staying at my Catholic uncle's house during my internship in Taiwan and he asked me if I wanted to eat a pear. When he cut it up, he set aside one piece because we couldn't share the fruit between us. Pear in mandarin is li (梨), which has the same phonetic pronunciation as 'to leave' (離). If we finished that one pear between us, we would supposedly leave each other and never see one another again.

It makes me wonder... did my aunts and uncles believe that those orange rinds really had something to do with my grandmother's recovery? They participated with us when we prayed over her, but maybe their faith is in the ritual/language and not actually God. It's easy to say they're crazy based on Western sensibilities, but I might be just as guilty as them. It's time to examine my own faith. Do I really believe in God's power? Or am I putting my store in just the words?

When I rushed back to Taiwan in August because of my grandmother's emergency hospitalization, I left 10 days later, disappointed because she never once confirmed that she was a believer during her brief moments of lucidity. Now that her mind has recovered, she promised God that she would go to church when she could, thinking that's what she needs to do. It's kind of bittersweet.