Happy Time, a little family-run Korean eatery spot located inside El Grande International Supermarket, has been our Friday’s supper before working on our house. Happy Time’s menu features about thirty items and we are in the process of trying every one of them. If the photo looked good, we ordered it. The dishes are consistence, but my two favorites are the codfish with hot and spicy soup and the seafood and vegetables with rice in a pot. The latter dish tastes similar to our Com Tay Cam (rice in clay pot) but with Korean spices.

What makes Happy Time a favorite spot of mine beside the great food and the great price is the mannerism. I made my orders through both a man who appears to be in his mid 40’s and a teenage girl at different times. When they take my money or give me back my change, they always bowed down a little and handed me the money with both hands. I was impressed with the way they have kept their traditions.

New Orleans pianist and singer Eddie Bo passed away last Wednesday from a heart attack. He was 79. RIP

If you haven’t heard of Mr. Bo’s one-man orchestra (bass from the left hand, chords from the right hand and rhythm from the feet), check out New Orleans Solo Piano.

Thuong Vuong-Riddick’s The Evergreen Country came in the mail yesterday. The author sent me the book in a return favor of using “Bonjour Viet Nam” slideshow for a presentation. I am reading it and here is the translation of the proverb we all know by heart:

Father’s work is like the mountain Tai Son
Mother’s dedication is like a spring running water
With the same heart we must worship Mother and respect Father
To accomplish this is a son or a daughter’s religion.

“Pretty girls can do anything, but ugly girls have to do everything.” -Jack Sheldon from Benny Goodman’s Live at Carnegie Hall: 40th Anniversary Concert.

Pitchfork gets a clean, organized layout from Tangible Worldwide.

With the house still unpacking and Dana being pregnant, we haven’t had any homemade meals. We eat out almost everyday and it gets a little bit costly. So we try to cut down our budget. Yesterday we were driving around Fairfax hunting for our dinner and we came across Bombay Café with a big sign reads $5 buffet. We peeped inside and the place was filled with Indians so it has to be authentic. We went in and it was the best $5 buffet we have ever spent. You can’t even get that price at a Chinese buffet anymore. The selection was limited, but the curry chicken, barbecued chicken and rice are enough to feel you up. No tips are required since eat and you clean after yourself. I love this bargain place and it’s only five minutes from our house (in the same building with Pho Today). So next time if we don’t want to cook and don’t want to spend too much cash, we know where to go.

Pho Today has been our regular spot for the past few weeks not because the location is five minutes from our new house, but the restaurant has managed to create two delicious dishes. Both of its Pho and Bun Bo Hue taste great with not much use of MSG. I have not tried its vegetarian Pho, but I have seen many Americans ordered it. To me, Pho without meat is not Pho anymore. Lately, I have ditched the fatty cup and picked up onion with vinegar. My breath maybe kicking afterward, but the experience is so worth it.

Truong Ky, host of VOA‘s “Nghe Si va Doi Song,” passed away yesterday morning at 64. Quite a shocking news. RIP.

As a fan of Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Sarah Vaughan, Tung Duong will perform standards like “The Girl From Ipanema,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Misty” and “When I Fall In Love” in his upcoming intimate-style concert in Ha Noi. I am not sure if he can pull it off with his English barrier, but it sounds like a promising show.

A sharp piece on Jay-z at BestLife:

Staying true to yourself might stand as a succinct summary of Jay-Z’s philosophy of success. The notion goes back to Shakespeare’s “To thine own self be true,” and further back than that to the Greeks. But for Jay-Z, it has an urgently contemporary meaning. Even, or perhaps, especially, in recessionary times, amid the thousands of entertainment and lifestyle choices consumers have available to them, what separates winners from losers is a commitment to a single proposition: You are the product. If people believe in you, they will believe in what you create. Jay-Z understands this and is down with it.