![]() With two small suitcases, Zhang reported to the countryside rice paddies at age 17. “I even wore my sisters’ clothes at times,” says Zhang. His mother and older siblings kept multiple jobs to survive they ate little and recycled one another’s clothes. “He was a businessman who was not fully cooperating with the Communist system,” explains Zhang. When Zhang was 2, his father, who owned a successful coffee-roasting company in Shanghai, was tossed into prison for 20 years. Don’t let the past put chips on your shoulders.”īut it’s his past that inspired the rest of his life.īefore he was sent to the countryside to work, Zhang’s family of nine children had already suffered under the Communist regime. “You have to focus on the present and what you can do now. “Honestly, the past is the past,” he says. The distant past is a more difficult subject. “Same size as the one in the White House,” he says. He is particularly proud of his office desk, modeled on the one in the Oval Office. He discusses the aesthetics of the bamboo screen walls in a conference room, the size of the fish in the koi pond downstairs, the heavy table imported from Asia: “It took seven men to get that up here!” Zhang relishes talking about that which can be summed up in a series of matter-of-fact details. He started, and later sold, the Pick Up Stix chain and Aseptic Solutions, a beverage-manufacturing company in Corona. He started the company – upcoming projects include a 299-unit condominium complex in downtown Los Angeles – after making his fortune in the restaurant and beverage-manufacturing industries. Zhang, now 60, was sitting in the board room. Yet the work amounted to forced hard labor, subjecting many youths to privations and loneliness that lingered with them the rest of their lives. The communist government promoted the journeys of the “sent-down youths” as ones of adventure and education, missions that would bind them to rural peasants and sharpen their skills. Part of China’s so-called lost generation, Zhang was one of 17 million urban youth sent to work in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s. We didn’t know what else life had for us,” he says. He played for hours, contemplating little but the melody. He taught himself a few Chinese songs – “the classical Western music you weren’t allowed to play,” he says.Īnd he stole away to the fields at night so he wouldn’t bother the other workers. When he was working for seven years in the rice paddies of rural China, digging trenches and seeding soil, and eating grass to fill his empty stomach, young Charlie Zhang possessed a single treasure: his brother’s old clarinet. Bluff City Vegan Eats: Brother Juniper's (and Ani.Peanut Butter + Oats + Buttercream = True Love.Bluff City Vegan Eats: Chang's Bubble Tea.Etre the Cow: A Review (and a Giveaway).She had the first comment! For some reason, has been picking the low numbers lately. On another note, Radioactive Vegan won the Etre the Cow novella giveaway. Guess I've got lots more Brussels sprouts in my future. In the far right corner is my Caramelized Brussels Pecan Saute, a cookbook recipe that still needs a little tweaking. Mine is obviously giblet-free (what the hell is a giblet anyway?). In case you don't know, dirty rice is a Cajun specialty typically made with chicken liver or giblets. It's a fusion of traditional dirty rice and classic Mexican rice. I served the stix with my Dirty (South) Rice - also going in the cookbook: These stix were fun finger food, and I tried dipping them in barbecue sauce, ketchup, maple-Dijon mustard, and marinara. But I have to watch my girlish figure, so some of my recipes are done up healthy-style. Trust me, I live for the moments I can nosh on deep-fried goodness. I know the value of a battered, fried slab of tofu. ![]() I'm trying to strike a good balance between fried food and healthier alternatives in my Southern vegan cookbook. I'm sure they'd fry up really nice though. Though I was tempted to fry these chicken-flavored tofu strips, I opted for baking so they'd be a little healthier. It's about my tasty new Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu Stix: Anyway, this post isn't about retro games. I was also fond of Barrel of Monkeys and Hungry, Hungry Hippo. Anyone remember that game? Pick-up sticks? Yep, that shows my age. ![]()
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