Hey, it's Francis. With the holiday season upon us, I am reminded of how grateful I am for

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I'm Francis Lamb and this is the Splendid Table from APM.

So I don't remember what age I was exactly, but I remember this birthday party I had when I was

five or six or so. You know, when I was a kid, we didn't really have play dates or invite

friends from my school, over to our house very much. So it was a big deal for me to do that.

And I remember going outside to the yard to play with them and my parents setting up a table on the

deck for a proper meal. They had never heard of just ordering a pizza I'm calling it a day.

And I had much fun it was. And I also remember how nervous I got when it was time to bring the

food out. Like where all these kids is going to be weirded out by Chinese food. But actually now

that I'm thinking about it, it's sort of funny because I say I've remembered playing and have a

good time. But really what I remember was the feeling that I was having a good time and that I

didn't want that feeling to turn weird when the food came out. That's the thing I really remember.

That nervousness about our food and how my friends who weren't Chinese would react to it.

Well, it turns out they liked it. My grandmother mercifully decided not to steam the whole fish,

you know, with the eyeballs on the head and everything. And instead just made a massive pan of fried rice

sand. It turns out everyone likes fried rice. So disaster-averted. But right around that time,

...