Remembering Holiday Meals Past

On Christmas day last week, Pinar and I went over to San Francisco to eat dinner at Shalimar on Jones street, a great Indian/Pakistani hole in the wall restaurant. It’s so much the hole in the wall that if you didn’t know it was going to be great, you’d run away from it. But you shouldn’t. It’s really quite tasty. The experience for me, however, was more than just eating yummy food. It tied into a very fond memory I have of eating non-traditional food on Christmas day with my father a long time ago.

I forget the reasons why, but it was just the two of us on Christmas afternoon in Tulsa, Oklahoma one year. We were out looking for an open restaurant. Any open restaurant. We must have driven around at least half of the town, but eventually we found an open Chinese restaurant. Not a fancy place, mind you, just your typical midwest/great plains Chinese restaurant that serves food altered somewhat for American tastes on paper place mats with the Chinese zodiac printed on them.

The restaurant wasn’t very busy at all. In fact, there were only two other occupied tables besides our own. At one table was a Mennonite family that must have been on the road. They were dressed in their traditional plain clothes and I remember the kids were so very well behaved. At the other table was a Catholic priest, eating alone. He was wearing his black shirt and the white clerical collar.

And then there were the two of us. Dad and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were happy to be eating a good meal in a rather notable situation. The food wasn’t half bad either. I seem to remember hot and sour soup, pepper steak, and sweet and sour chicken. Even after we left, we talked about that meal for the rest of the day.

This happened a long time ago. I can’t remember exactly when, but if I had to hazard a guess, it was 1990 or so. In the years between, I’ve ended up eating at a non-American restaurant on Christmas day a few times. Every time I do so, including this year, I remember that one time with my Dad very fondly. I’m not too big on typical Christmas traditions. But, I think I’ve stumbled into one here that I’ll be happy to keep to in the years to come.