Wednesday, December 25, 2024

 

My 2024 Holiday Letter

December 2024

5 Alban Mews

New Albany, Ohio 43054
Email: roderickchu@att.net


A holiday note to my family, friends, and colleagues —

The past year has been a relatively quiet one for me, ending with our traditional family Thanksgiving at Laura & David’s in BOLTON, MA, with a stop in NJ on my drive home to see old friends for their big anniversary. During the year, I took other quick trips to CHICAGO and TOLEDO to see other friends, and to ITHACA for my annual Cornell meeting. 

Minor medical issues kept me around COLUMBUS the rest of the year but they didn’t keep me from joining my church group trip to SPAIN in May, where 23 of us took a two-week bus tour seeing the major sights of 18 cities around that country. Locally, my friends and I took advantage of central Ohio’s many pleasures including magnificent dining and performing arts experiences. 

No one braved coming to visit me in the wilds of Ohio, so I didn’t do much to clean out the stuff still cluttering my house from Laura & my emptying out Mom’s house last year. I’ve kept my guest rooms clean, though, in hopeful anticipation of friends and family coming by for visits, especially with numerous publications like Forbes Magazine rating COLUMBUS as America’s Fastest Growing City And A Wonderful Place To Visit! Here’s hoping these recollections will entice you to come visit me in 2025!

Sincerely,
Rod

My blogs:     http://rchu.wordpress.com                                                       http://www.choosygourmand.wordpress.com 

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Family Gathering








NOV: I drove to Laura & David’s in BOLTON, MA. Dinner out at the new Seoul Kitchen in Leominster before Laura set to work for our Thanksgiving gathering with Karen & Gian and A.J and Alexandra. Sadly, Steven & Shari again couldn’t join us for Laura’s delicious feast.

In Alban Mews









JUN, JUL, AUG: I joined my wonderful ALBAN MEWS neighbors at 4 of our Gatherings on the Green – our monthly summer pop-up cocktail parties in our neighborhood park. As ever, yummy nosh to go with our drinks – I made pan-fried wontons for one of the gatherings. 









JAN: Several of my orchid plants brightened my winter by blooming again. JUL & AUG: My Night Blooming Cereus plants had me concerned, with no buds through June. But then they gave me 6 rounds of flowers with 11 total blossoms that I shared outdoors with Amy Bowling, her family, and other neighbors before I moved them to my Sunroom for a final round of blooming indoors and their warm winter’s rest.

World-class Performing Arts Around Columbus









Dec. ‘23, FEB, MAR, APR, OCT: Enjoyed BalletMet’s masterful performances of The Nutcracker (with guests Paul Mackenzie & Dana Anthony), Alice (Blake Compton), Asian Voices (Craig & Lori Mohre and Jim Miller), Romeo & Juliet (Doug & Lara Warburton), and Dracula (Jon Tafel & Sandy Miller). FEB: Pianist Claire Huangci with the Columbus Symphony for Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. DEC’23&APR: The New Albany Symphony for their Holiday Spectacular and with Branford Marsalis. OCT: Joshua Bell’s performance in NEW ALBANY’s McCoy Center.

Peace Lutheran Church Group’s Spanish Fiesta Journey: A 14-day, 1,949 mile bus tour of Spain, with stops in 18 cities

If you’d like to see more of the 2,500 photos I have of our trip, please check them out in my Smugmug photo website at https://rgwc.smugmug.com/2024/Spain, password=Warburton










MAY 5-9. After over a year’s anticipation, I joined our Peace Lutheran Church’s motor coach tour of Spain. I booked my own business class ticket from Columbus to Charlotte to Madrid on the group’s American Airlines flights. MADRID: Stayed at the 4-star Hotel Riu Plaza España. Bus tour stopping at the Plaza del Toros and the Prado Museum (where I snuck this one photo). Later, I went out on my own to find churros with hot chocolate. On to SEGOVIA and its magnificent Roman aqueduct. BURGOS: Majestic entrance gate and empanadas with Lara & Doug Warburton. Shopping for chocolates in VITORIA. BILBAO’s Guggenheim Museum with Jeff Koon’s Puppy made of flowering plants. (I saw its sister decades ago in NYC’s Rockefeller Center.) SAN SEBASTIÁN, so overrun with tourists, all I got to eat was a soggy tapas.











MAY 9-11. PAMPLONA: We walked the route “Encierro” of the famed 5-day Running of the Bulls, had a beer at Ernest Hemingway’s hangout Rincón, and dinner with jamón tapas. SARAGOSSA’s Pilar Basilica, where the Virgin Mary's apparition appeared on a pillar to St. James in 40 AD. BARCELONA’s Ramblas and La Boqueria food market. Up to MONSERRAT and its Benedictine monastery and basilica housing The Black Madonna. Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia Basilica now with stunningly colorful stained glass windows. More Barcelona sights: cruise ships in the harbor and scenic overview before dinner in its converted former bullring (since bullfighting has been banned by the city).











MAY 12-15. From VALENCIA’s Serranos Gate and Roman walls to its ultra-modern Arts & Sciences Complex. GRANADA’s Alhambra: Famed fortress and palaces, started in 1238 by the Moors with its spectacular architecture and taken over by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492. TORREMOLENOS and the COSTA DEL SOL where we stayed at the seaside Hotel Meliã and toured the village of MIJAS and its Shrine to the Virgin of la Peña before dinner of salt-baked cod and paella at Restaurante Juan. To nearby MÁLAGA with its Roman ruins and sighting the penthouse apartment of native son actor Antonio Banderas; tapas lunch at the popular Bodegas el Pimpi.











MAY 15-17. Enjoyed sunbathing on the TORREMOLENOS beach before a delicious seafood dinner at the beachfront Restaurante Casa Antonio with Mary & Rick Wayman, who shared my foodie tastes. Our visit to GIBRALTAR required us to walk through Spanish and British immigration and board minibuses to tour the community of 35,000 residents. Explored the gaudily lit caverns of St. Michael’s Cave and emerged to commune with the Barbary Macaque monkeys. In SEVILLE, learned about bullfighting in its majestic Royal Bullring and museum. (Sadly, it wasn’t bullfighting season.) Arose early to explore the lavish Plaza de España – built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition – before other tourists flocked in. Another Roman wall, then the 15th century Casa de Pilatos, and the largest gothic church in the world: the Cathedral of Seville with Christopher Columbus’ elevated tomb (encasing just 4.4 ounces of Columbus’ remains), numerous reliquaries, and 80 chapels adorned with an estimated 88,000 pounds of solid gold. Flamenco dinner show at La Catedral.










MAY 18. CÓRDOBA, home of Jewish philosopher and scholar Maimonides, and its immense Great Mosque started in the 6th century AD – one of the most beautiful examples of Muslim art in Spain with 850 arched pillars into which a Cathedral was built in the 16th century. Walked across the Roman Bridge to the Tower of Calahorra to meet our bus. On to MADRID, with sightings of more Ozzies along the way – roadside trademarks of Osborne’s Spanish Brandy. Closing dinner at Las Cuevas del Duque where I finally got to have roast suckling pig and lots of sangria with Pastor Doug & Lara Warburton, Pat & Steve Rocca, and our group before our flights back home the next morning.

Short Visits











MAR: A weekend drive to see Michael Richardson in CHICAGO and find MinHin Cuisine for wonderful dim sum in Chinatown. JUL: Jon & Sandy Tafel, Garry & Sylvia Walters, and I drove up to TOLEDO to celebrate Tom Noe’s 70th birthday. OCT: On my annual trip to ITHACA for Cornell’s Trustee-Council Annual Meeting, Henry Shum (up for the weekend from Connecticut), invited me to dinner at The Heights. Joe & Marney Thomas again hosted my stay, featuring a fabulous dinner with magnificent wines in their home with Jack & Linda Muckstadt visiting from Ann Arbor. We savored their gorgeous view above Cayuga’s waters. NOV: Surprise 50th Anniversary party for Tom & Marby Senker by their children at 3 West Restaurant in BASKING RIDGE, NJ with the extended family, to whom I’ve been their Uncle Rod.

Enjoyed Eating Well With Friends Around Columbus











Many dinners with friends around COLUMBUS. Highlights: DEC’23: Dana Anthony & Paul Mackenzie at Speck for Chef Jay Kleven’s memorable Short Rib. JAN: Ambrose & Irene Ng, Theresa & S.L Lee, Ping & Christine Chen for Dim Sum at Ty Ginger. FEB: Tally & Midge Krumm at Rocky Fork Hunt & Country Club for Exec. Chef Bill Glover’s creative cooking. Weilin Chan (at OSU for her ophthalmology residency), her fiancé, and classmates for real Cantonese food at Ming Flower. David Glisson & Jim Miller at our nearby favorite Asian Taste. JUL: Ping Chen & Ambrose Ng for phở at MiLi. Garry & Sylvia Walters and Sandy & Jon Tafel’s haute French dinner by Chef Richard Blondin at The Refectory. NOV: Rich Petrick for crispy Korean fried chicken at CM Chicken. Joined Lisal & Don Gorman, Bob & Linda Gorman, and Vivian Davis for New Albany Country Club’s Rosh Hashana buffet. Introduced Cally & Sean Meers to KPot’s Korean Hot Pot.