Happy to see a few friends start new blogs, especially excited to read Kim’s.

Very proud of the work Kyle has done at the ArcSource Blog.

Lee was one of my freshman-year roommates at Cal. He and I used to go to King D multiple times a month all through college. Sometimes just the two of us. Sometimes with four, six, eight or eighteen people. Sometimes with the Cal Rugby team. We went before finals and after finals. Before, during and after Cal games. Winter, spring, summer and fall. I took family there. I took international visitors there. I took dates there. We were convinced that KING Dong was, hands-down, the best Chinese food in Berkeley.

No single restaurant in Berkeley has so many memories for me. My all-time favorite dishes were Hunan Chicken, Mongolian Lamb, Sechuan Beef, and Dry-Fried String Beans. The waiters knew what we would order before we sat down. Going to dinner and eating their butt-kicking spicy dishes was a great treasure of life in those days. I loved sitting around the table seeing grown men weeping at the amazing tastes. And laughing at each other’s faces as we ate.

It was also a great place to get take out back then. They served huge portions of those same dishes we enjoyed dining in. I survived my first year in grad school relying on king-dong-to-go.

And then things changed. Real fast and real bad. King Dong was sold. Twice. The menu stayed the same, but the food was totally different. The magic was gone. I remember being served rotten green beens. It was over in an instant. I have driven by the restaurant countless times over the years. So sad and tragic. I heard someone on the street talking about King Dong take out about a year ago. The Yelp reviews were OK. Not sure what it would take to get me back inside.

Alas, great restaurants don’t last forever. But great memories do. My current vote for best Chinese in Berkeley is The Great China on Kittredge.

I’ve been thinking a lot about health this week.  And about how fast life is moving by.  My friend Eleanor almost died from cerebral meningitis seven days ago.  Her husband got her to the hospital just in time.  In fact they told him she was not going to make it.  Hanging out with her in the hospital after she got out of ICU brought me very close to the situation.  Her totally unexpected brush with death reminded me of the frailty of this life.  It isn’t only disease and poor health that can get us.  Even a health nut can be killed in an accident.