New Year’s Eve is always very quiet around here. At our age are really not up for much partying. As a matter of fact we have never been up for much NYE partying. Most of our New Year’s Eves were spent with kids or grand-kids hanging around. We’d play games or watch movies, and at midnight we would bang on pots and pans. And lot of times it wasn’t really even midnight because we’d often set the clock ahead when the grand kids were little and it was getting close to their real bedtime, tell them it was midnight, do the pot banging and then shuttle them off to bed.
Now the older grand daughters are way too old to come over, one’s a Freshman in college, and the other a Junior in high school; and the youngest, at 2 1/2, is still a little too young for the overnight.
So for the last two years we’ve just gone out to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants for dinner. Sun Wah has Chinese barbecue, ducks and pigs, and ribs and such hanging in the window. Tonight there was also a cuttlefish. But it is probably best known for it’s duck.
We love this restaurant because the food has always been top notch and cheap, even if the ambience leaves a lot to be desired. We always thought of it as one of those undiscovered treasures, a hole in the wall kind of place with great prices and excellent food. But, in the last three years or so, more and more people have discovered it so it’s on the rise.
Part of this is due to food critics finding out about it and part due to the owner’s daughter who graduated from a culinary school couple of years ago. She is now working hard to update the restaurant, adding dishes to the menu, one of which is Beijing duck which has gotten a lot of accolades and publicity. We have not had it yet, but we plan to try it soon. There is a great pod cast with an interview with her and her father, called “Duck School”. You can find it here at Sky Full of Bacon.
If you are in Chicago, you should try Sun Wah now, before it gets more expensive and crowded. That is, if you are not bothered by the complete and total lack of ambience. Or, wait until they move to a new location next Spring.
Sadly, for us, I think our little restaurant is going to land on the map, and their prices will go up and a bazillion people will come and I fear it will not be the same for much longer. While I do wish them the best, selfishly, I still wish it could have remained the little secret it was, especially since we were right in the middle of establishing a new New Year’s Eve tradition. I wonder what the restaurant will be like next New Year’s Eve?
Then again, I imagine next year we may be just as happy to get out the pots and pans to resurrect the old tradition with the new grandchild. And there’s always take-out.
Happy New Year! Oops, did I set the clock forward again?