Top TL memories:

1. Going out every night in my Malaysian batik pajamas to walk Cookie before bed. Always being praised for ‘my beautiful dress’

2. Being invited to the back of someone’s car to select fresh fish he’d just caught. He only invited the Vietnamese aunties and I was allowed to come along

3. Seeing the homeless woman who used to live in a tent behind my house on the street, now housed, standing on the street at Thanksgiving giving out free food to people

4. Buying galangal in my pajamas and sandals (and a Arcteryx jacket), all the time

5. Solving an international sausage mystery: my neighbors wanted me to buy Chinese sausages from their favorite Saigon sausage maker, who was now in LA. They didn’t know anything about its name, had no distinguishing features or even a description beyond ‘it was very good but then war.’ I corralled a bunch of Vietnamese Chinese LA food writers who all asked their grandmas and they led me to Quang Tran in Rosemead. I brought them back to SF and the neighbors were delighted.