FAMILYNEWSLETTER ‘11// Adelsteins, Wangs, Wongs, Kuos, and Tangs.

The Pig that Traveled the World

Aaron & I love all pork products. If it comes from a pig and is consumable, we’ll eat it. Guanciale, check. Bacon, check. Coagulated pig’s blood, okay that’s Aaron preference not mine. And he won’t touch spiral ham but I’ll eat it in a pinch. For Aaron’s birthday, I sent him to a pig butchering class where in the morn-ing, he learned how to carve the distinct cuts, and in the afternoon, he was prepping coppa and prosciutto.

But there is one unwelcome pig in our lives and nothing more galling than unpacking our suitcase after a relaxing vacation and discovering a porcine stowaway tucked between clothes and souvenirs. If pigs could log frequent flyer miles, this little piggy would be riding in business class, leaving his handlers behind to languish in economy. Just imagine his plush rosy body sipping on free cocktails and stretching out his squat hind legs.

The swine in reference came to join our family in February 2009 when we visited Ben & Ashley in Ho-nolulu and they treated us to an evening at the annual Punahou School Carnival (Barack Obama’s alma mater). Ben and Aaron competitively duked it out over rigged carnival games, but they both won furry, slightly disfigured stuffed animals; Ben took home a bulldog with a bad case of elephantiasis in the chin, and Aaron an eyeless pig. Rather than bring the piglet all the way back to Seattle’s Goodwill donation center, we shelved him atop the hood range in Ben’s apartment. I think it took Ashley a week before she noticed him and declared it unfit with their decorating motif.

Since then, that little piggy has gone wee wee wee to Seattle, back to Hawaii, Thailand, New York and Taiwan, traveling with either Ben, Ashley, Aaron or myself, waiting to be safely and secretly deposited in the other couple’s suitcase and escorted safely home to the Hawaiian islands or stateside. True, the pig doesn’t really have a home since he bides his time, waiting to be delivered to his next destination. Ben and I talk about someday sending our respective kids to Hawaii or Washington to learn surfing and ski-ing, so the Punahou pig is a good primer for that plan.

At this rate, he’ll be logging more frequent flyer miles than the rest of us and maybe he’ll finally get that upgrade from the cargo hold to first class.

TINA WANG & AARON ADELSTEIN// Seattle

Wow, what a first year in New York City.

We’ve settled into the city and are loving it--the restaurants, our new gang of friends, the bars and nightlife that we never go to but have the option of going to, the museums, the parks and galleries, our apartment that’s so much more spacious than we ever thought possible in this city. It happened quite quickly, actually, settling in and feeling home, decorating the living room, throwing tons of dinner parties, going out other nights and ending up at our place with a few choice friends. The bedroom is still a work in progress and the heating pipes are fickle, but we love the bright, open layout and it feels like a place where friends and family belong.

We’re also going to start a guestbook for all our visitors. We had 18 guests stay with us in 2011: Joe; Dan & Angela; Jeffrey (for two weeks); Justin & Julia; Tina; Manmeet; Lili & Matthew; Ben & Ashley; Tovah; Tina & Aaron (again!); Jennifer Cho and her adorable five-year-old, Caden; and Bri & Chris. We also had more guests who visited but didn’t stay with us: Xiao Gou Gou, Jeff & Mel; Rinat; Andy & Par-veneh; Teresa; Lara (dan ta!); Ivana; Raul; Kirk & Aurelio; the entire Wang family clan for a fine dining extravaganza and the entire Wong family as well.

We tried over 100 restaurants in 2011--Shanghainese, an experimental Quebecois diner, molecular gas-tronomy, farm-to-table on a working farm upstate, Venetian in an underground former opium den, 20-cent dumplings, $125 tasting menus, hunts for the best fried chicken and the best ramen. It’s been a really good eating year, probably the best ever. Needless to say, we didn’t do as much cooking as we wanted to.

Connie also celebrated her 30th birthday in fine fashion, jumping out of a perfectly working air-plane and then having 23 of her best friends join her at ABC Kitchen (where Tina almost passed out from a fried chicken overdose). She also fulfilled one of her lifelong dreams and visited the Galapa-gos Islands with Rinat. Meanwhile Alex was lucky enough to see his family many times despite moving to the East Coast--Tina visited New York three times! Ben and Aaron visited twice! And of course it was great to spend that week in Taiwan stuffing our faces to a perpetual level five.

We hope there’s many more family trips this coming year and Chez Wang Wong awaits your arrival in 2012!

ALEX & CONNIE WANG // New York City

Mele Kalikimaka from Hawaii!

2011 was a busy year for the newlyweds! We spent the first half of the year figuring out our living situ-ation as we sold our condo and found a new home to live in. We still haven’t fully unpacked but we’re comfortably living in our new digs, where we aren’t fighting over closet space or where to put Ben’s surf-boards. There’s an extra bedroom and Aerobed with your name on it, so come and visit!

We celebrated our one-year anniversary in August and having heard that the traditional first year anni-versary is paper, all Ben got for Ashley was a card. To make up for it, we also spent the weekend on the North Shore playing golf and relaxing.

Ben continues to wheel and deal at BlackSand Capital and is quickly becoming the Donald Trump of Hawai‘i. He also manages to get in a lot of surfing and golf. He didn’t quite hit his goal of surfing 100 times this year, but he came close.

Ashley worked throughout the year on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference that came to Hawai‘i for the first and (probably) only time. Her only two regrets were 1) that she didn’t get to meet President Obama, and 2) she didn’t hold up her “Free Taiwan!!” sign as President Hu disembarked his plane.

We capped the year off with our recent two-week trip to Taiwan and Vietnam, where we ate Ding Tai Feng three times and reached a persistent level-5 status for a record-setting five straight days. Other highlights from the trip included riding bikes and drinking local coffee in Hoi An, cruising in Halong Bay, and dodging mopeds in downtown Hanoi. Since Ashley hadn’t been to either country before, she closed the gap on the countries-visited competition. Ben still has her beat. We’re still undecided on where to go in 2012…Any suggestions?

Happy Holidays from the mid-pacific Wangs and don’t forget to email Ben with any last minute tax-plan-ning questions for 2011!

BEN & ASHLEY WANG// Oahu

Life tends to catch you by surprise at times. This year marks the end of the Printing Island era. As for me personally, it is a 16-year adventure coming to an end. Looking back in the past 16 years working for my brother- and sister-in-law, I feel fully content and glad that I had a satisfying position. They relied on me and gave me a lot of power, so like an interim boss I was able to make most decisions while they were golfing. With the way my bosses trusted me, I think they both deserve an award for “bosses of the year”!

I always treated Printing Island as my own business, but luckily I didn’t have the pressures of being an owner. I remembered waking up every morning and looking forward to coming into work. I know I took a lot of vacations during the last couple of years, but I never took even one sick day off because I just couldn’t stay away from work. I especially enjoyed working together with my coworkers, and I know our friendship will last for a lifetime.

The closing of the printing business really is a big surprise to all of us. My heart aches every time I think of it. I was very sad and reluctant to leave this great job and opportunity. However, it is also a closing of one door and opening of another. I had been dreaming retirement for quite some time, and this opportu-nity essentially pushed me in the right direction.

Turning 60 this year also made a mark of my life. It is a very different feeling going on 60 than when I turned 50. I feel excited and confident to take on whatever lies in front of me. I believe age brought more wisdom and excitement to life.

I am so grateful to be blessed by great friends and family. All I know is that I’ll be prepared for whatever changes that I may encounter in the future.

Shine

P.S. I was surprised to find out my bosses are great travel companions; we had a great time together dur-ing our China trip.

SHINE WANG// Newport Coast

The calm clams are fine and working hard as usual at Semiahmoo Bay! They have to dig hard and hide themselves deeper when the tide goes out, desperately avoiding becoming sashimi for the seagulls. They were pretty lucky this year as a Red Tide (an overgrowth of al-gae that results in discoloration of the water and is sometimes harmful to shellfish) bloomed throughout the summer, allowing them to avoid their fate of becoming black bean paste sautéed clams, or clam chowders for the tables. Living by the bay, we certainly learned a lot about eight different kinds of clams in the area. When Connie and Alex came for Christmas this year, they were disappointed to find no clams for hot pot, but my hand-picked raspberries may remind them of the delicious summer days of Watcom county!!

ELAINE WONG// Semiahmoo Bay

Semiahmoo Bay at high tide during one of Mrs. Wong’s spring morning walks.

Studying sand dollars during low tide.

Hi family,

Aside from experiencing the holiday seasons as an orphan, things are going really well. The last few months have been full of changes--I just moved into the bottom floor of a house with two college friends, and it’s fantastic having a full kitchen to experiment in. (I made fried mac and cheese with marinara for our housewarming.)

I also started a new job mid-November, so I’m officially done making less than minimum wage (one of the perks of two City Years). I had to quit three part-time jobs and stop volunteering with two different non-profits, but now I get to focus my attention on the Downtown Women’s Center. DWC provides permanent supportive housing, case management, meals, healthcare and job-training programs for women on Skid Row. As a development manager, I’m overseeing individual giving, corporate relationship management, fundraising events and our in-kind donations. The learning curve is pretty intense, but I love what I’m do-ing and the people I work with.

In my free time, I’m also joining the core planning team for Tuesday Night Project, which organizes free community shows highlighting Asian-American artists and performers. We had a meeting last week, and it was incredibly energizing to be sitting down to dinner with a group of incredibly talented, community-oriented artists who are committed to making the world a better place through creative expression and collaboration.

I miss everyone, and I’m excited to sit down together with relatives and delicious food next winter.

AUDREY KUO// Los Angeles

2011 was the year that brought me many positive changes. Armed with a new position at work in the be-ginning of the year, I still wasn’t truly satisfied with how life and work were unfolding. Was this it, was this all I had to look forward to? After much contemplation, and the sensible guidance of family and friends, I finally gave in to the little voice in the back of my mind telling me to go back to grad school. During a 2-month business trip in Hangzhou, I happily accepted the opportunity to attend Fudan University in Shanghai to pursue an IMBA degree.

It is quite a shock to return to studies once again. (And here I thought the culture shock would be my big-gest challenge!) It took my biggest effort to remain in my seat and focused on studies rather than doing something immensely more productive such as organizing, cleaning and Swiffering my entire apartment.

Nonetheless, I’m quite proud of how quickly I’ve adapted to the new environment. I’ve made incredible friends and have organized a few trips and events, which have taught me valuable lessons about leader-ship, compromise and patience. We’ve learned not to the let the stench of the street linger too long, how to bravely cross the street with cars and scooters flying by, and especially how to deal with the different mindsets and attitudes. Patience is key.

I am also taking this opportunity to focus on myself. It is time for self-reflection and soul-searching, and a rare opportunity to be independent, adventurous and to courageously put myself out there in a brand new environment. Every stranger or friend I interact with, I always try to take away valuable lessons that may help me as I’m continuing to evolve and improve everyday.

Was it hard to leave everything behind? I keep telling myself that two years will pass by before I know it. Everything will still be there once I return--family and friends, Mexican food, the beach, temperate weath-er. Even now, a semester has already whizzed by, and the experience is already starting to slip through my fingers. I’m optimistic, and eagerly awaiting new adventures that are in store for me.

STEPHANIE TANG// Shanghai

2011 came and went. My 27th year of living proved to be a very thought-provoking year. I made domestic trips to New York and San Francisco, enjoying both cities to death for 2 weeks at a time. In NY I stayed with Alex and Connie and we had a great time almost living like a mini family. I sampled all the grimey Chinese food that Chinatown had to offer. In San Francisco I combed the city for a good iced latte, rode a friend’s bike around Golden Gate Park, did some yoga, made our own pasta, and really soaked up the Indian Summer.

In between that, I had an art show in Costa Mesa, shot a fashion spread for lookbook.nu at Coachella, started assisting weddings in the summer, and camped 7 places: Malibu Creek, Sequioas twice, Anza Borrego, Salton Sea, Death Valley, and Pismo Beach.

So what did I take back from all of my travels? That exploring and having an inquisitive outlook on life is the only way to stay young and live a fulfilling life. But enough of me, I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

JEFFREY TANG// Costa Mesa