Dan ta (yes, I really love my dan ta)

Chao sao su

Going home means automatically gaining 3-4 lbs. You can thank dan ta and chao sao su for half of the weight (oh, and lack of exercise). Nothing tops the crispy layers of pastry wrapped around an egg custard or barbequed pork from Oakland’s Chinatown.

My parents got a boxful of these treats right before they came to pick me up from the airport. I was finished with half of them before I got home – the survivors were saved by the fact that they were more photogenic than the others.