The Lunasia in Pasadena has a grand piano on the floor.
To draw attention away from the lack of service and the food.
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Had some good garlic fried shrimp the other night.
Morning Summit, Monterey Park
They make baozi to order! So give them about 20 minutes. There is plenty of variety to choose from. If you were to get one thing from here it would be this.
Salty soy milk and scallion pancakes were fine for me.
Jiu Ji, Alhambra
Tong sui spot. It’s fine I guess. The best imo is the Chiu Chow restaurant Seafood Palace. Those taro paste balls might be one of the best desserts in SGV.
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Chopin Noodle House, an East Coast chain opens up in Monterey Park with a grand piano in the dining area, waitresses in elegant black outfits, and violins on the wall. Good knife cut and hand pulled noodles, replacing 1919 Lanzhou Express In Atlantic Times Square
.
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Hmmm. Not as big as Lunasia’s grand piano. Is this some new thing for restaurants?
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There is a love for classical piano in Chinese community.
Obviously I am a music lover but on the flip side that piano also means forced lessons, the image of “higher” culture bs, and perceived higher status. Also let me say there is benefits being able to speak musical language.
But keep music as a hobby to impress others and colleges Buddha forbid you make it a career unless you are Yo Yo Ma prodigy but continue to take lessons because you may be the next Yo Yo Ma prodigy but realistically you will NOT. Does that make sense?
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Arguably it also teaches conformity – you’re supposed to practice this Bach piece over and over again so that you can play it exactly how it’s written. I took piano lessons for years, and I’m grateful that I developed the technical ability to play anything I want, but I regret all the hours of repetitive practice, and if I were ever to have my own kids (unlikely…), I would rather they focus on improvisation and experimentation – creativity skills with application beyond music. I guess this is a little hypocritical, though, because we go to a lot of classical music concerts.
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I think the owner of Chopin was a music professor or something like that.
i’d be curious to ascertain the brand; i imagine it’s more a PSO (piano shaped object) than a quality instrument given the temperature fluctuations it’s likely to be subjected to there (which has an impact on intonation). before i downsized i had a kawai GE-2 in the living room (being more jazz/pop/improv oriented than classical made the brighter sound and lighter touch a better fit for me - try playing the opening to billy joel’s angry young man on a european or a wurlitzer/baldwin/steinway and you’ll see what i mean Billy Joel - Prelude/Angry Young Man (Live from Long Island)) that had been a demo for kawai so it had been fully regulated at time of purchase.
i knew someone who had TWO classical pianists in the family and they had a bosendorfer and a steinway (not to mention a tree encased in a glass cabinet growing through the middle of the house). that bosendorfer was nice. my sister has a steinway (and yes, she made all three of her kids take lessons even though the girls hands were too small to span an octave) and it’s like playing a brick after decades of playing japanese pianos.
i’d also be curious to ascertain its age; what they don’t tell you is that soundboards need to be replaced after about 30 years or so. i once had access to a steinway square grand and it sounded awful.
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I am tone deaf so I cannot distinguish good from average music.
My next door neighbor across the street is none other than UCLA’s Professor of Piano Vitaly Iosifovich Margulis. Professor Margulis has a dual grand piano set up in his living room to perform and to teach his piano students.
Professor Magulis often invited his neighbors to enjoy his home piano performance, His pianos were worth millions after he passed away. But again I am tone deaf.
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Scrolling FTC for lunch inspiration this morning.
Jin Hai / Beijing Pie House is much better than I remembered. The lamb and leeek meat pies arrived at the table without the glistening sheen of meat juices and oil we had prior. These arrived nice and crispy with ample soup inside.
The three ingredient dumplings were supple and balanced. The thick looking wrappers were deceptively fluffy.
Putting this spot back in the rotation.
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