I picked Alan up in Stamford and we rode down together to the City. We got talking about old friends, the hoshin ryu, and family and ended up missing our turn. Hence we missed Herbie's shingyi class. So we wandered over to this Chinese restaurant I think Alan owns shares in. It's a seafood place, called the Chinese Seafood Restaurant, where the fish and clams are in large tanks around the room. Since I was running single, we skipped the rockfish this time. (makes you very very yang - last time we had a table of young Chinese girls giggling at us and teasing about how our wives would be "tired") and had the shrimp dumplings, chow fun with squid and pickled vegetables in gravy, and razor clams in black bean sauce. On the side, the local chili paste - which is a tart acidic version unlike the smoke flavored one Hunan Taste in San Jose makes.

Alan is still waiting for his "got it" moment, he says, but his motions have a solidity not there before. One of my teachers said that it happens whether you believe or not, as long as you do. He's doing and while he can't see it, I can. I think he'd eat most of my students hearts althro he'd never believe it.

As happens a lot with us, while we talked over everything under the sun and I got another finance lesson, the talk turns at some point to the hoshin ryu and of course, Glenn Morris. Alan belongs to both ryus that formed after Glenn's death as a result of the succession mess. I belong to neither. Alan had some interesting takes on the future of Glenn's system -  interesting to me as many of the senior people are either unreconstructed or are inactive thro listed as members of a ryu. Unlike with Gong Sifu, Glenn's organizational approach was hierarchical to some degree and that made things interesting.

There seems to be a major problem with martial arts in this country that was best summed up by some tai chi teacher: "Americans do not want to learn tai chi, they want to teach tai chi." It was true in my youth, when Lovert comment "I wanted to be able to sit like that" rang a chime in my head. It happened with me and meeting Tom-sifu when I asked Sellers "how long do you think it takes to learn to move half that good?" In comparison, many people wanted to know how long before they could teach. Tae-bo's great sin is that - you can be a teacher after a weekend and people think it is martial arts. I remember the look of horror on a savate maitre's face when some little hottie aerobic teacher asked how quickly she could get an instructor's certificate.

Most modern martial art schools survive by degrading the system. In the system I know where that is not true, the number of people involved tends to be small. My Savate teacher graduated 2 silver gloves as of this writing. My Shing yi teacher has allowed three people to teach. His class-brothers who taught seem to average 2 each. I've seen people quit within weeks or months of completing the silver for all sorts of reasons. I've seen tons of people talk a lot but never really practice. Like anything, being good at it takes work and we culturally seem to have missed that. It seems that working class kid without college was more likely to actually stick thro the hardships that happen in life or leave and come back than a middle-class guy who drops when his life gets inconvenient. And since everything really does have a price, some people just aren't prepared to pay for it. (and surprisingly they don't understand that the refusal sets a tone in their relationship. You get back what you give in a lot of things.)  So if you want to make a buck, you dilute everything so it fits in the attention span of a caffeinated ferret. Hoshin was a hobbyist's art and even then, most people don't want to spend what it takes to be good at a hobby. Glenn really didn't mind but I think it shows in this generation.

Anyway, after all the deep thoughts, we ended the night with a trip to the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Sadly they were out of ginger but they still had green tea and red bean flavors.

Chow fun with Squid and Pickled Vegetables:

1 lb dry rice noodles (1/2" wide)
1 pound squid, cleaned, cut flat and crosshatched*
4 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp oyster sauce**
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce***
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp garlic, pressed
1 tsp ginger
1/2 green pepper, sliced thin
2 green onions, sliced thin
1/4 cup pickled vegetables

Cook the noodles to al dente by covering them in warm water and letting sit 30 minutes. Drain, rinse and drain again.

With the squid tenacles saved for frying, mix the squid bodies in half of the cornstarch, salt and white pepper until evenly coated. Let sit 10 minutes.

Mix the oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, and sugar into a bowl.

In a pot of boiling water, add squid and cook about 2 minutes until white.

Add 1 tsp oil to hot wok and swirl. Add noodles and cook until heated though, tossing frequently.  Remove noodles to plate. Add remaining oil and ginger, garlic, and green pepper. Cook until pepper softens. Add pickled vegetables. Add squid and immediately add sauce mixture and remaining cornstarch. Cook until slightly thickened and pour over noodles. Sprinkle with green onion. Serve.

* this generates the little tubes you see. Cut the cleaned squid body open so it lays flat. Then cut slice into the squid about 1/2 way thru so they form a diamond pattern on the body. You can also use shrimp, scallops, or a mixture in this.  Replace the soy sauce with dark soy sauce and use hot black bean paste and you can then use beef. You skip the boiling for the beef and cook it in the wok before the noodles, removing it and then returning it where the squid was added to the wok. I'd cook the noodles a little more until they brown a bit too.

**Oyster sauce can be replaced with either black bean sauce, chili garlic sauce or hoison sauce.

*** for beef, this is replaced by dark soy sauce as discussed above and also 2 tbsp of chili garlic sauce is added. See * above.

It's still not as good or as tart as the one we had in NY but its close.