Column brought back
fond birthday memories

Robyn’s Hood
By Robyn McCloskey

I just recently had a birthday. Not a significant one, but I figure if I’m still around to celebrate it, that’s significance enough. I’m not big on acknowledging my own birthday, and frankly am happy to ignore the fact that another year has passed me by.
I don’t want waiters singing to me at restaurants. I don’t need presents, and I’m not sentimental enough to appreciate those sappy Hallmark cards. I am perfectly content with just a piece of cake and some of those sarcastic cards from the "shoe box" division of Hallmark.
But a few years ago my husband ignored my pleas of "don’t do anything for my birthday" and surprised me by planning a special day for us in Philadelphia. I was reminded of this when I read Melissa S. Treacy’s column in The Trend, my local weekly paper.
She wrote about a gentleman named Joseph Poon, a well-liked, well-known restaurateur and chef in Philadelphia. Joseph conducts the "Wok ‘n’ Walk" tour of his beloved Chinatown. He leads groups of people everywhere from a Chinese bakery to a Buddhist temple to a fortune cookie factory.
My husband had heard of this through a friend who had taken his wife for her birthday. Knowing my love for food, especially Chinese, he thought it was a great idea and signed us up for a tour.
Mr. Poon begins the day by performing a cooking demonstration in his so-clean-you-could-eat-off-the-floor kitchen. He then leads the group on a three-hour tour of Chinatown enthusiastically volunteering all sorts of little-known facts about the place, the food and the people.
He periodically quizzed us throughout the day to make sure we were paying attention. And got a little ticked off if we weren’t. He is a ball of energy, a wealth of knowledge and laughs just as heartily at his own jokes as he does someone else’s. He reminded me of Jackie Chan, just a little older, but in no way slower.
At one point he took us to a Chinese supermarket, and he somehow found out it was my birthday. He pointed to a live fish in the tank purchased it himself, handed it to me and said "Happy Birthday."
So for the rest of the tour I was carrying a squirming floundering (no pun, or should I say Poon, intended) fish with me wherever we went. The tour ended with a specially prepared lunch in Mr. Poon’s very own restaurant.
Once we got back, sat down and had a cup of tea, Joseph took the fish from my hands and disappeared into his kitchen. A few minutes later he served it to me, cooked to perfection. I was a little hesitant to try it since he had neglected to remove the head, and those creepy glassy fish eyes were staring straight up at me. But after everything the man had done for me I thought it rude not to partake.
So I took a bite, and it was so delicious that I took another and then another, and I shared it with everyone else at the table, and they all took a bite and then another and then another. And before you knew it, our bellies were full, our feet were tired, and Joseph, well, Joseph hadn’t slowed down a bit.
This year I had the nice low-key birthday that I prefer. But I would like to thank my husband for the year he ignored my pleas of protest. And "Thank You" to Melissa Treacy for reminding me of the fun-filled Wok ‘n’ Walk tour, and most especially "Thank You" to Joseph Poon for making it so very memorable.
I still don’t like a fuss made on my birthday. I still prefer candles on a cake as opposed to candles on a fish. But I guess every once in a while it wouldn’t kill me to celebrate with more than just cake and sarcasm. ••
Robyn McCloskey’s column appears each week in the Northeast Times. She can be reached at crmccloskey@verizon.net