There once was this ramen-ya in San Jose called Do-Henkotsu. What made this place unique among a dozen or so ramen-ya in the area was its regional color and the owner’s (whose name I never got to know) pride in it.

The ramen itself was pretty good, maybe not the best, but different from most of the Kanto-style ones. The shop also displayed quite a few posters and offered magazines about Tokushima, a town in Shikoku where the owner is from (it’s where I learned about “Awa Odori”, a local festival whose dance I recognized immediately while watching “Kaze no Haruka”).

But the best part about the restaurant was the “itame”, stir-fry rice dishes. I still remember first trying the “nira itame” (stir-fry with leek, vegetables and pork over rice), then “kimchi buta itame” (stir-fry with kimchi, vegetables and pork over rice), and then finding out that “kimchi don” was the same as “kimchi buta itame”, but cheaper! :p Man, I really really loved “kimchi don”.

Then it closed, in early 2007 and is replaced by another (more generic) ramen-ya, Kahoo in March 2007. This place serves pretty standard ramen with their own “spicy” versions.

I’ve seen the chef of the new restaurant before. He used to help out the Do-Henkotsu’s owner. I think I first saw him late last fall. I was thinking he must be helping out and was secretly hoping that this new guy might be a new “franchiser”…

But alas, he was just learning the ropes, and the transition plan must have been going on for quite some time. I am just sad that I didn’t have a chance to say thank you and goodbye.

So, thanks for all the kimchi-don and other itame I enjoyed. If you ever plan to get out of a retirement, again, let me know.

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing (also known in Korea as, Jang, GukYoung) apparently jumped off from a hotel to his own death… on April 1st. The date being, there has been some confusion as to whether this was true or not. But it seems it is. Did he plan this?

Frankly, I didn’t think too much of him in many of his Hong Kong action movies. But after I saw him in “Farewell My Concubine,” I had to give it to him. He was a genuine actor.

I mean it’s truly sad not to be able to see her tea making “dances” (although she stopped making it herself several months ago). But most of all, I felt especially sad to see her little mom-and-pop shop turning into a less-character corporate franchise, à la Fantasy Tea. The price has gone up too.

Well, maybe this is inevitable… But still, I can’t help but have this great feeling of loss… even if it’s just for me.

I happened to see her at a Korean restaurant in Manhattan on the Fourth of July. I was visiting a friend in Philadelphia and we drove up to NYC to see the fireworks. And that was the last time I heard of her before I was talking on the phone with a mutual friend last March. Since I didn’t get to see her that often for the past three years, it seems nothing in my daily life has changed. But still, to think that that person who was very smart and loved mystery novels, opera and jazz does not physically exists any more on this planet… it still doesn’t feel real.

I knew she had health problems several years ago and had to take a year off studying, but I thought that was all behind her. I think I emailed her last December and at the time I thought she was too busy or went back to Korea for the holidays to reply it back.

It just came back again suddenly today. I think it’s because she was the first person that I knew well and who’s of my age who passed away, and the death was so sudden and unexpected. As resilient as the life seems to be, we are often reminded how fragile it also is.