3) Job market pressure really sabotaged my networking attempts at first.
It took me until around Saturday night to start letting that pressure go. And it's a lot easier to talk to someone when you're genuinely excited about their work, rather than feeling like you "have to" build connections.
It took me a while but I got there. And now I can follow up with folks over email. Not so scary after all.
A few thoughts I guess. Why not.
1) You all weren't kidding when you said #ASA was huge. The number of sessions is ridiculous and there are so many I wish I could have attended. But a good problem to have.
2) I really felt the impact of #covid. 2020 would have been my first ASA and I couldn't help but imagine how different my networks would be today if I'd started regularly attending ASA then, particularly in my specific area.
Lunch at La Chinesca today, a Mexican-Chinese fusion restaurant north of the convention center. Lunch veers more towards the Mexican side; all of us ordered some variation on birria tacos and everyone went away very happy. Not a place to get huge gobs of food for cheap, but it's good. Ambiance is extremely unique; try to reserve a spot on the patio. Great place to hang out with old friends for a couple of hours.
Bottom line:
If you order from DanDan, get the DanDan Noodles or Dry Pepper (Chongqing Chicken).
If you order from Emei, the family-style tofu and the kung pao chicken are both good. (the Dan Dan noodles, interestingly, are not)
If you order from Yi Pin, do *not* order the Kung Pao Chicken. Chongqing Chicken / Dry Pepper Chicken is a better idea. Dan Dan Noodle is also good.
Ordered takeout from Yi Pin tonight. Dan Dan noodle was very good, but Kung Pao was unacceptable. I kind of want to give this restaurant an incomplete; I should known it was a gloppy Americanized mess from the description. If I had ordered the Chongqing Spicy Chicken I probably would have liked this more.
Ordered takeout from Emei in Chinatown tonight with @john_zinda.
I got the kung pao chicken, John got the family-style tofu. They were very good. We saw Yong Cai while we were there; he said his food was also excellent. Spice level is much closer to what I expected from Sichuan food; what I got was a "1", moderate-to-high heat and numbs the mouth a bit. A "3" is only for the brave. Definitely recommend.
One more sichuan restaurant left to try here...
I ordered Dan Dan Noodles from the restaurant called "DanDan" near the convention center in Philly.
Just from googling around, I am pretty sure they are nothing like "actual" DanDan noodles since it has peanut butter in it, but they're still very good. They have a good kick to them, not too much. Won't be spicy enough if you like ordering authentic sichuan cuisine and exploding your brain, but it's the right level of hot for me.
Monica Heilman 지혜
Jonathan Horowitz
Dan Hirschman