Egg Rolls Radio Away!

Mellow. That's a good word for where I'm at right now. Both kids are sleeping. Sasha's out with a friend. I just had some awesome Cheeseburger Pie for dinner (it's a Bisquick recipe), picked up a game on the major-cheap, finished watching some of my shows...

Yeah, it makes me mellow.

BPM is on again in the background, but I'm going further back. Somewhere around 1980.

The first time I remember eating Chinese food was at a restaurant that went by the name of China Palace. I remember it being a dark restaurant, with low lighting. The occasion is forgotten to me, but I was allowed to choose what I wanted from the menu. The dish of choice? Lemon Chicken.

Lightly breaded, with bits of lemon peel as garnish. Then a delicate, sweet lemon sauce coated the chicken breast. When eaten with rice it resulted in a wonderful flavor that filled my little 10 year old taste buds with joy.

Later, it was the Mu Shu Pork that was a favorite. This was eclipsed by the hot and sweet Spicy Beef. The Hot and Sour soup at China Palace was something to enjoy in it's savory sinus clearing goodness. But then there was the Egg Roll.

The China Palace Egg Roll was a constant through out all my dining experiences there. The thick won ton wrapper was always a rich, golden, crunchy shell that held a mix of cabbage, pork, shrimp, and that extra bit of juice. Their homemade sauce for the egg roll was not a mere sweet and sour, but shades of the Lemon Chicken sauce that complemented the heavy, hot egg roll's contents.

When I worked at Manpower from '00 to '03, we would go there for the lunch buffet fairly frequently. One of the servers eventually assumed I would have that second egg roll that came with the buffet. No, it wasn't good for the waistline, but it was a damn good egg roll.

I have never found a restaurant that topped the egg roll that was served at China Palace. There were times when I would swing by there just to pick up a couple egg rolls to go with my dinner - which often was not Chinese food. For a brief time period, I would call in for fried rice and an egg roll for dinner.

As you can guess by all the past-tense, the China Palace has closed down. Several months ago, they closed their doors, as a developer offered the owners enough money for the building to allow them to hang their aprons and retire. The florist across the street had heard they were getting tired of the business aspect, and having watched them in action over the years, I could certainly believe it.

I wish them well in their retirement. The Egg Roll will be missed.

Something that won't be missed is the old format of WKTI 94.5. They underwent a massive format change this past Friday, and are now known as 94.5 Lake FM. This is a good change to me, as I rarely tuned into their station except for Casey Kasem and the top 20 on Sundays. However, it is a source of memories that stretches back nearly as far.

They had a morning radio team, Bob Reitman and Gene Mueller, that were the funnest guys on in the mornings back in the 80's. I remember them being casual and friendly. They had "Coach Ed" who was television news man Ed Hinshaw, who would speak the lyric to songs current at the time in a dry voice. The biggest hit was Coach Ed doing Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. It was the funnest thing in the world for a 12 year-old boy.

Now the are no personalities on the station at all. Just an announcer letting you know that you're listening to Lake FM and who know what they'll play next. It's an eclectic jumble of songs that all made the top 40 at some point in the past 50 years. I've heard early Beatles and Pink on this station, so it will be interesting to see how they pan out.

Tonight will be a double-post night. Understand that Marcus just turned one yesterday, so he deserves the top of the blog page.

He tops in my book in so many ways anyway.

Be seeing you,

Jon