Dressing up as Fake Monks

I read on the CCBA bulletin board that there are a bunch of fake monks in Chinatown begging for money.
By Fake, I guess it is that they are just people who are dressed as monks trying to get you to give them money but they don't belong to any Buddhist organization per se.

I am sort of a Buddhist, and a Christian and other stuff and an atheist.

But I kind of want to ask...what is a fake monk versus a real monk?

Today is a holiday where we all dress up and ask for candy.

Okay Candy is not the same as money but what can a real monk offer me?

In the end it's still begging right?

I guess a real monk devotes his life to reading scripture and prayer and meditating.
So A monk that doesn't and is just after your money is somehow cheating you.

But if you think about it, the dude still had to buy the uniform right?

Also I think Fake monks in Chinatown is probably a good thing for tourism.

I mean you don't give over money to some guy in Santa suit and take a picture with him because you think he is actually Odin incarnate or St. Nicholas come back from the dead right?

If a guy dresses like a monk and does some O Mi tofu but he doesn't read his scriptures or keep to a vegetarian lifestyle... does that make him fake? Or just lazy.

Wu Song was a murderer who disguised himself as a monk... but in the end he joined a temple and died there.

As for me, I do like to follow some of the Buddhist Precepts, and though I have pondered really devoting my life to these ideals, through Kung Fu, and being sort of a "non quitting monk" (But Gai Wo Serng)

I think the outfit is the last thing I would start donning. The reason is, the point of the outfit is simplicity.  And in this day and age... the uniform actually sticks out.

Maybe I should interview some of these fake monks.

What's their story? Why do they do it? How much money have they gotten?

Well today (Halloween) if they go out, they will actually look quite normal, since everyone is playing dress up tonight.  Maybe they could get a buck or two for an exorcism fake or not.

A True Call to Action. A challenge, to make "My Life In China" an American tradition during the Lunar New Year.

I went to the screening of Kenneth Eng's "My Life in China" at the Northeastern. Now in the old days movies were hard to come by, and so part of the "good old days" is that you projected your whole family history and feeling onto a certain movie or song. Even before movies you had folk songs. You know the Irish are really good at this by the way. Being really loud and pushy about their heritage being passed down. My Uncle Francis would say, "If you look at it we actually aren't that Irish. We're mostly Polish" (except he totally said Polack), "and a bunch of other stuff but the Irish were just the loudest."

Part of Kenneth Eng's documentary is to share some of the history that often gets silence. YES! this is so important. But more than that.. he made a freaking high quality movie out of it.

When I said, "Now I don;t have to make one" I know that's lazy because obviously my story is different than his... but look it took him 8 years! There was blood sweat and tears put into this project and I feel like now is the time to promote the hell out of it. It's been on PBS and it's on many a late airline flight.

 A former CCBA president was in the audience (I recognized him because my first lion dance on stilts at the August Moon festival when I was 14, he was president then, and obviously that was an important moment in my life where I sort of shifted toward Chinese-ness and actually learned Taishanese, a language that is not my own.

Anyway, he brought up the fact that through a new organization he is reviving (which I will cover once I get all the details, that Fox news (you know because of Jesse Watters and all)  in New York is having a meeting with Chinese Community leaders and that he is going to suggest that they be required to watch My Life In China before the meeting. Because if you don't understand the immigrant experience... you can't really come to the table to work something out.

Yes! I want to be like AMEN! because I might have written a piece that was sort of like, "Why be so offended?' but the reason why I feel that way is because whining is pointless. Using your fists is not only dangerous, but ultimately counter productive. Even protesting, though I know many people don't want to hear this, is a bit of a show. But I bet you I am more activist than the whole lot of whiners on Facebook. So not to belittle your anger...

But I am calling you out, straight up challenging you right now. Those who were so angry at Jesse Watters and at racist comments against Chinese that belittle immigrants....  put all that energy into going onto Kenneth Eng's site and buying the movie for $20.00

And not only that.

Bring that movie into every classroom of your child or your nephew or whatever, and have that movie shown. Chinese New Year is a good excuse. How can they say no? What would be wrong with them to say no? Don't freaking stay home from school on Chinese New Year.

Look it's lazy.

Shove our story down their throat to make them understand! It's so easy! The hard part is done. The movie has been made. It took Kenneth Eng 8 years and painful inward reflection sharing such a personal story.

Earlier I didn't have any call to action to protest Fox or anything like that right?

Because that was somewhat pointless.

This is NOT pointless.

This is the type of POSITIVE action that can truly make a difference.

And anyone can play their part.

Play the movie every year as a holiday thing, and make it so even Non Chinese families will put it on during the Chinese New Year.

What's that cost? What's $20? The price of a meal? Skip a meal. And when you watch the movie you will understand that skipping a meal, one meal, is nothing.

Tai Tung Park is Open for business

So as the cold fall weather arrives, this astro turf that absorbs heat is going to be nice. The park is beautiful. And will be comfortable for children to roll around in.

So let's make it stay that way right? No dudes taking dumps in here and shooting up?

Let's get a squad car on the corner, don't even need someone in it, just some presence. Don't want to see all this money put into the park go down the tubes.

Around Chinatown

In search of a Calligrapher

A while back someone reached out to the Chinatown Blog asking about a Calligrapher. Someone to do some work on a scroll for a gift. The Kung Fu schools go to person was Chan Bak Fahn. Who, in the 70's, would get on the table and demonstrate his Calligraphy skill by writing with his toes.

No I'm serious. I don't have a picture but once I get one it's going up here, because I just realized how big a deal that is.


He would be the one to write the characters on our schools drums and heads.

I watched him work, with the signed letters and pictures of Kennedy and Reagan in the back.

This side of Chinatown is the first thing that is really disappearing fast. In fact the New York Times did an article of a similar antique shop that a granddaughter of the shop owner is  saving by turning it into a community space and Gallery. Similar to what EMW is... and a somewhat similar version of part of the vision of 1CAC. Though I assume 1CAC, with it's location and space, has even more ambition.

But back to Calligraphy...now you can't even find anyone.

The first person I thought of was an artist from Taiwan who works at the MFA and did a lot of work for us. Paintings and Calligraphy for the kids etc. She also restores ancient paintings.

Unfortunately, she is in China at the moment.

Then I thought of a family friend.

But he wouldn't accept the job. Probably because of old school traditional kwai gui type stuff where Calligraphy is not just something you take lightly when being commissioned for work.

So, our Calligraphy pilgrim ended up going to the alley behind Chau Chau City to the KMT headquarters.

Who knew looking for a calligrapher in Chinatown nowadays would involved international politics?

Well we are still waiting to see what happens on this adventure.

This actually reminds me of another story of when I wanted to buy a bunch of brushes for a Chinese New year event I was running at a library in JP. But I'll save that for next time.

Ally Ang

Click on this link to buy the chapbook.

A lot of the Chinatown Blog has been focused on the past. Its safer to talk about things the more distance and time we put between them. In fact I still laugh when Auntie Amy, in many ways Chinatown's Matriarch, mentioned I should write more about my father, paused, and then said, "Yes it should be long enough now." She was totally talking about statute of limitations. Unfortunately, if you wait that long, sometimes the stories are forgotten or only pieces of them are left and so Hollywood (or even the news) just makes stuff up to suit themselves and that ends up being the Asian American story. 

Ally Ang is a contemporary poet and author who in a lot of ways represents the future. Now she's not from Chinatown. But I went to a couple events at EMW and the energy of the young Asians hanging around Harvard square is incredible. Willingness to share controversial poetry... but also the means, the brains the potential... you can feel in the room. We can't just let these people leave without somehow tapping into that now! In fact I think I talked to Lydia Lowe, of the CPA about this as well. That there is a ton of people who go out of Chinatown or pass through it and there is a ton of Asian Americans and also just straight Asians in Boston that are here for school or what have you and at some point they come to Chinatown to eat. Don;t just think of them as tourists. They don't want Chinatown to disappear. I mean at EMW 99% of the poems I heard were in some way related to social justice.  

I wrote about how I was kind of disappointed with the Chinese Food in Harvard square, starting with the tea, but there was no lack of Asians and enthusiasm and wealth. If you want to see Chinatown's future, for better or worse, Harvard Square is it. And if you want to get ahead of the curve and participate in these changes, and make sure that there are more improvements and culture created and changed rather than lost, I think we have to be proactive about it. 

Hey but is this post about Ally Ang or what?

Ally is a senior at Wellesley College and a Sociology major. She has been writing  poetry, as many teenagers do for a long time, but two years ago something clicked. Her poetry became more than just about herself. She has quite a following, part of which she credits to the support of the Wellesley Community. But to have a following, to actually make money as a poet, I mean what are the percentages of people that are able to do that? 

I asked her which poets she gravitated toward. "Franny Choi, Fatimah Ashgar, Safia Elhillo, Danez Smith...When I started writing poetry I was reading more T.S. Elliot, Sylvia Plath... the more Classic stuff. But after highschool I made it a point to read more contemporary poetry and queer poets of color.. people who were generally under represented."

A good deal of the people in the room when Ally read at EMW (our Malden Correspondent Adriana Li was there.) In fact there was talk of recruiting from the masses of Asian women that showed up for a prominent Chinatown women's group. "90% of the people who showed up at EMW for my event were from Wellesley. Even people who don't know me are very supportive about showing up for other Wellsely people. It's a strong community."

I wanted to ask if she considered herself an Asian American poet or a queer poet, or how she categorized herself. But as I was saying these words I realized how stupid and ignorant I was sounding, like I might as well have been Jesse Watters asking dudes if they did Karate on the street. And this is part of the reason why we need more contributors on the blog, my ignorance of a lot of things. 

"I mean I write about being Asian American. My father is an immigrant from Indonesia. My mom is an American who was travelling in Indonesia and met my Dad they started dating long distance. My Dad came to America in 1989."

Indonesia, has always had anti-Chinese incidents. My mother said when she lived there she often lived with Chinese and that the girl she shared a room with always slept in her clothes just in case. Later, in the 90's Chinatown and the Kung Fu Federation was involved in a protest that went down to Fanueil Hall and the Shoah Memorial because of a government sponsored pogrom against Han Chinese. 

"I write about that. But I often write about not knowing about it because my father is too traumatized to talk about it."

I asked her what her plans for the future were. 

"I'm applying to Grad school and Sociology PhD. I eventually hope to be a Sociology Professor. But I definitely want to continue writing poetry." If you would like to show your support and buy her book, again click on the link at the top of the post. 

But the most exciting thing for me is.... Ally Ang agreed t get involved on the blog. So we may be hearing more from her in the future. Maybe she can bridge the gap between Chinatown and the young Asian Americans that are all around the Cities of Boston and Cambridge.

And this would be the perfect time to do it. Again, 1CAC, which will be a live theater and gallery housed in One Greenway, is totally going to be working with EMW. All that energy in Harvard Square? All those Wicked Smahht Asian Americans with dreams, goals, means and storng well connected futures... we could be having them in CHINATOWN reading poetry, in CHINATOWN going to art exhibits, in CHINTOWN getting boba tea lattes and fau yuk and gon chau ngau hau and yes Taiwanese Dumplings. 

Do you feel me now?

 I think it's a big deal. I mean my Dad ran gambling houses yeah and I guess that paid the bills, sort of, though from what I here... actually not at all. Maybe even the opposite. And okay we have successful Asian Americans in all sorts of lo fahn gung (white people's careers). But it's like they have to make a choice between Chinatown, and their future... and with 1CAC we can be bringing people in new blood who have the ideas and the careers already.

Ally Ang is one of those people, and a leader at that. 

We are lucky to have her. 

Ponding- Send in your pictures of holes in the Sidewalk.

So one of the things we have been doing at the Chinatown Blog is taking pictures of holes in sidewalk in Chinatown. I had a picture I wanted to share, but I can't find it... and it's ugly so whatever. But this is actually going to become an issue as the weather gets colder and water collects and puddles... and then freezes, making the sidewalks slippery. We are doing this in conjunction with AACA's clean up Chinatown committee.

The goal is to let the City know so that they can come down and fix the problem before water starts freezing.

So come to think of it if you sen me a picture of a hole in the sidewalk and an address

a) you can just send it to 311 yourself.

But you can also post it in the comments or e-mail it to me and I will pass that along to Mary Chin who will pass it along to the city. But again. 311 totally works too and is probably easier.

Speaking of 311. USE IT! because the more 311 complaints the city gets about a pot hole or heroin needles or whatever, the more it will take notice. They get a lot of complaints from other neighborhoods like Bay Village. And stuff gets done because the complain often. Oh yeah... and they all vote.


So complain and vote. It does matter. It does work. Just not in the way you probably think its supposed to.

Epoch Times article on the Harvard Seminar

So the Epoch times covered the Harvard Seminar. Noah got in the picture up there.
I figure it's good marketing for Noah later on if I bother to save this stuff. Like, "Look Noah studied lion dance with all these people, etc etc."

Turns the Master's true focus, where he makes his bread and butter, is drum making.


Man! I want to learn how to make drums! Because that's the one thing I can't male.

I mean I know that my lion heads that I made myself are not the prettiest. But it's okay. They exist.

But a drum... I don't know where to start.

I guess I could just do bucket drums.

But I would like to see someone go through the whole process in person and ask questions.

Malden 88

So I knew that Malden was up and coming in terms of having Chinese people. But frankly so does Roxbury. So does JP in fact. But I didn't realize that Malden had an 88. Adriana Li put me onto that point and educated me. 

This Lion doesn't look like it was brand new. Was it used for the store opening? I know that they have the Lion flying oover the aisles in Allston's 88 as well. 

At the Kung Fu school where I lived, and which to some degree is almost like memories of an adult womb now that it is gone, the Lion's watched the doorway...and of coursse were backed up by me. 

Altar's at restaurants and supermarkets are something i always noticed, but only now care enough about to take a picture of. After all, not every store has it as a given But Malden isn't just Chinese. It is super, old women walking the Confucian steps behind old men Chinese. Totally going to Bai sun everyday Chinese. OPening supermarkets buying houses and really starting a community Chinese. So when Adriana's past post turned in to a Universal hub tweet that said she was announcing the emergence of Chinatown North... as crazy as that sounds since Chinese have been there for a while...it's right.

A friend of mine I just bumped into who lives in Melrose compared it to Quincy. It's not just about percentage of Chinese or Asians. Again Roxbury and JP and Brookline is full of Chinese and other types of Asians. But a Grocery store is actually one of the biggest signs of a true community, because it supports the home cooked meal. 

Speaking of meals, this 88 does not have a food court (which was unfortunate for Grace who I promised take out too and then couldn't deliver.) 

Adriana, who has wanted to get more into home cooked Chinese food, asked me to show her how to shop a bit. I actually wrote a rough draft of a book, "Kung Fu and Cooking" which is a sequel to "Kung Fu and Love" that mocks my cooking style a bit. But the thing is, my heavy handed ways are easy to pass on and pick up. So, (I'm not saying Adriana doesn't know how to cook!) but I am saying my tips and tricks are easy for someone who just wants to start eating healthy, or Chinese home style like, but doesn't have time for recipes and timing  or hours of slowly cooking down herbal soup. 

Corner Cafe opens in Chinatown

In the heart of Chinatown, the Corner Cafe has opened. Where the Herald once decalred grounds for concern over the closing of Maxim's Coffee house now stands a slick new bakery which opened today with ceremonious pomp and circumstance that rivaled the Double Ten Parade in terms of political importance. 

Check out the video above.

Changing Hearts and Minds through film

(From left to right: Kenneth Eng, Arthur Dong, and Chris Hastings.)

You might think to change the world you have to get out there and  run for office, protest, make a Billion dollars... but honestly, you really can help change the world by going to watch a movie. It just depends which movie you go to watch. There are so many complaints about movies and media in general nowadays with regards to race, prejudice, and cultural insensitivity. I can't argue enough that going to the Boston Asian American Film Festival will support a way to create change. Because change starts with hearts and minds. And hearts and minds are controlled by those who tell the story.

Kenneth Eng, whose film "My Life in China" was featured at last years Boston Asian American Film Festival is supporting the filmmakers of this year and the festival itself. "BAAFF was instrumental in helping me build interest and momentum in securing my PBS broadcast." 

Similarly, Good Luck Soup is working with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These screening smean something and they help the films go somewhere. 

Hopefully next year Chinatown will have it's own theater at the 1CAC site that can be involved in this festival as well. 

Good Luck Soup post screening discussion

Opening Night for the Boston Asian American Film Festival

This is the opening film tonight that is going to show at the Brattle theater. Unfortunately our main contributors are going to miss this one so anyone who sees it and wants to write about it please let me know!

What we did catch was Good Luck Soup which was a movie about a mixed race Japanese American man's experience growing up in Cleveland Ohio. But the film did focus heavily on his grandmother who was in the internment camps. 

More on that too come. 

On Tyler Street

Top: Millennium Tower hovering over Chinatown
Bottom: "Our Land" found on the sidewalk outside Parcel R-1

Thoughts:

但見新人笑，
那聞舊人哭。

Translation:

This is a line taken from Chinese poet Du Fu's "A Fair Lady". A man takes a second wife and he spends his time attending to her smiles and has no time to hear his first wife's cries. We usually use this phrase to describe relationships, but I thought it was fitting to use it with this photo. As you may already know, Chinatown is slowly (or rapidly, depending on which way you prefer to see it) being surrounded by these new skyscrapers. And then you have folks who are leaving this short but powerful message on the sidewalk. Our land. Public land, public good. (last part is not pictured)

The question is, who will be heard first? Luxury building developers or Chinatown's residents and the public? Who will be attended to first?

Lion Dance Seminar

The Lion Dance Seminar at Harvard's Yen Ching auditorium was pretty fun. Almost like a family reunion in lecture form. We should do more stuff in the Universities on the weekends. 

The Master is demonstrating the Buddha here.

Noah went up to drum

And demonstrate Lion King. 

Here is GK member and Boston Chinatown Blog contributor... Adriana Li! Sorry I didn't get a good picture Adriana.

There was an audience of attentive students and Sifus. 

And then there was Noah and his friend looking at Pokemon cards. 

Actually when you think about it, there is a correlation between Pokemon and Lion Dance right?

More to come on this seminar and details and contacts made. Hopefully Adriana got better pictures than I did. There is some footage too but it was a lecture more than a performance so we shall see what I can turn it into in terms of a video to post. 

All in all, a good time though! I feel like this should be done more often.

Good Luck Soup Review

Post viewing update:

I will figure out how to deal with the footage I took of the post screening discussion afterward. But some quick things that stood out to me:

This was an extremely powerful movie for people who are of mixed race heritage and I was surprised at how much of the audience was mixed race and the variety of their looks.

Secondly, the heritage of the director's grandmother is so important because as he mentioned, the Japanese culture that his grandmother passed on to him is actually 19th century Japanese culture. Japan has changed. He addressed this saying that modern Japanese have corrected him letting him know that many of the thing sin the film are no longer true. But to me that makes his families lineage that much more rare of a jewel.

I want to share this movie with SHOWA Boston because I think it is very important for modern Japanese students to know a little bit about the Japanese American experience and this movie is beautiful in that it is so much about everyday life.

It's an American story more than a Japanese story or an immigrant story.

I wanted to tell the director that his grandmother and these Youtube videos you are making of her after the movie are gems in themselves as well. he mentions the culture itself possibly dying out in his family with each generation. But from my experience Grace has definitely connected with the cooking of Chinese food through Youtube. In other words, for other people that have been separated from the culture, the videos could be a way back. Of course people not part of the culture at all could learn which means more subscribers and money. But also, it could be a way to preserve the culture and pass it down.

I also wanted to talk about my experience as a mixed race child in Chinatown, but so many others spoke I figured what was the point. The interesting thing for me (and I have written on this before) is that in my older son's kindergarten class, I think one of the major segments of "ethnicity" in the class were people who were not only mixed, but specifically mixed with Asian. So not to say that he won't have his challenges growing up. But being made fun of for being part Asian just seems like it will be ridiculous at my children's school because so many others are also from the same background.


here is a link to Mathew Hashiguchi's ongoing project online.


Adriana posted about this earlier.


 Oct. 18 Tuesday, 7:00 PM, 'Good Luck Soup' Community Screening, FREE

Bright Family Screening Room at The Paramount Center, 559 Washington Street, Boston, MA
http://www.thebostoncalendar.com/events/good-luck-soup


And the 18th is tonight! going to check this out soon at the Paramount!

A Jade Pendant in Boston's Bracelet of jewels.

Right no, every day, people walk home to the Ink Block from the Financial District. Or perhaps they are even coming home from South Station

In any case they walk this little path along the highway past One Greenway.

A site that over looks an older section of Chinatown. The back of the CCBA building, Nai Lun Association, where my father used to take me along on gambling adventures as a toddler.

This spot will soon be BCNC's 1CAC.  A live theater, a gallery and a space where Bunker Hill be offering classes.  

On the edge of traditional Chinatown, where there once was just highway, and before that a community that was knocked down by that highway, there will be a 5,000 square foot community space to showcase artwork. Cutting a space along the highway, this could be the cutting edge jewel that attracts the attention of Ink Blockers and tourists from south station to the benefit of Chinatown. If it is able to showcase art with that controversial flavor that brings in people who say, might not feel comfortable joining a Family association...then it could really trumpet in a new era for Chinatown that benefits ALL members of the community. I mean if 1CAC is able to replicate some of the success produced by Boston's ICA for instance.... imagine the possibilities for Chinatown Businesses and Asian American Culture in Boston as a whole.

Cape Verdeans in Macau

Here is a link to Hong Kong author Sergio Monteiro's article about the Cape Verdean community in Macau.
Cape Verdeans have a huge population in Boston, specifically in Dorchester near "Little Vietnam" at Filed's Corner. Since there aren't a lot of visibly Cape Verdean restaurants per se, a lot of non Cape Veredans who live in Dorchester don't necessarily know that  it is a Cape Verdean Community.

A plan to do much more on "Little Vietnam" in the future. In fact I heard there are a coupld of Martial arts schools there that teach Vietnamese Martial arts, something I would definitely be interested in covering for the blog.

If you build it, they will come

In the One Greenway building there is a dream right now that will soon becone a reality.

A Chinatown Theater and art gallery that Bunker Hill is also going to expand into to offer classes in Chinatown.

Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center is the organization on the lease and come November 6 will be attempting to raise 1 million dollars for the project through crowd funding. 

With the upcoming Boston Asian American Film Festival the importance of a space for live theater and film screenings and art installations for the community is important for the neighborhoods soul. But could also be extremely important for the City as a whole.


This could be more than just something that opens up in Chinatown. It could have the potential to add a whole other dimension to the community and draw people from all over the world to come in and be a part of the Chinatown experience.

Pailin Plaza: Lowell's Little Cambodia

After seeing post after post on Facebook friend of Food from Cambodian restaurants in Lowell, the Red Rose among them, Grace couldn't take it any more and we took a family trip to try it ourselves.

The signs say that they serve Cambodian, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai food. With so many options I actually didn't know what to order or what I wanted. Grace got the Red Rose Noodle soup for herself,

and Lo Mein for the kids.

I got the beef lok lak. I picked it mainly because I didn't know what lok lak meant and I think I could smell beef and I saw other people eating something similar. In the end I am glad that's what I got. I only wish that we had gotten this dish fro the kids as well instead of the trying the "safe" lo mein because Dai Dai ended up grabbing things off of my plate anyway. Grace thought she would like to try some of my dish but after looking up from her noodles, the dish was gone. Grace said that she think the "lok lak" means twice cooked and that basically the beef if deep fried and then stir fried again. She had had this dish at Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown and usually the beef is quite hard. The beef at Red Rose however was very soft. 

This dish also came with a soup. The broth was fresh. There was that home cooked feel to everything in Lowell, from the bakeries and deserts to the restaurants. 

I am again, noticing a rule. Lower rent usually equals higher quality ingredients. But the fact that Lowell is close to the farms might have something to do with it too. 

I liked the art work hanging up in here too. Paintings, and a photograph of people in costume performing a scene from the Ramayan. I recognized Hanuman... but I sort of realized how ignorant I am about Cambodian culture in general. There were also a lot of Chinese decorations as well, and like I said, Chinese food is also served as well as Vietnamese and Thai food. 

This area is known as Little Cambodia officially. I was going to call it that in the title of this post anyway, but talking to a friend I found out that this was a very big deal for the community. Politicians and ribbon cutting that sort of thing. And that it might even be the first Little Cambodia in the United States. I was told to fact check that though.  

I didn't find anything that said it was the first. It seems like there was something in Long Beach California since 1959 but friends that have been there say there seems to be a community but not a town per se.  This Little Cambodia had that feeling of having strength of numbers and will power. With shops that were selling fresh produce, crabs in plastic containers, and VCDs. It really did make you think of what Chinatown used to be.  

Later we went over to University Ave to get Bubble Tea at Eggroll Cafe, where you can also get Bento boxes, egg rolls and rice plates. A hip Fusion  place. 

Noah and Jonah ordered their Bubble Tea Latte...

And watched as the Boba was poured into the strawberry shake eagerly awaiting the sugary drink they would share. There were also striking photograph's of Iran hung around the Cafe gallery style. I didn't think to take pictures but you should definitely check it out.

A word of advice? Always get a Boba tea per kid. You think they can't finish one by themselves. But they can and they'll fight over it too. 

Well that was our little weekend adventure trip to Lowell. We tried to go apple picking as well, but all the apples were picked. We'll be back for more Cambodian food and Boba for sure though.