No trip home is complete without getting some quality time in with Mike’s family.  The Bachs are a strange group- they are at once incredibly tight-knit but simultaneously possibly the worst group of communicators in the history of mankind.  They are hard to pin down and nearly impossible to get to commit to social engagements more than a few hours in advance, and you often have to drive across city and county lines to find them, but i absolutely adore them, each and every one.

On Friday I stopped by the surgery center to visit Mike’s mom.  I wish I had brought my good camera so you could see the serious eyelash action she was rocking that day.  It was tranny-tastic.  Oh, and the foil container in front of her?  That’s a giant pan of meat she’d been marinating all day in her office.  The meat will make another appearance later.

That night we bbq-ed at Amy’s apartment.  Again, the pictures were pretty lacking, but Amy and I slapped together a feast that included scallop skewers, bacon wrapped dates, figs stuffed with goat cheese, quinoa tabbouleh and a heaping platter of grilled veggies.

But honestly, none of that really mattered.  Whenever you barbeque with a Bach, there is one undeniable star of the show:

Remember the meat marinating in Mike’s mom’s office?  This is it- her world famous Korean bbq.  I’ve never had the stuff (being a beef virgin and all), but I’ve seen our friends drop EVERYTHING and drive 30 miles if they find out that somebody is grilling this stuff somewhere.  And it doesn’t matter how busy Mike’s mom is or what else she has going on, if you ask her for meat, she will deliver.

And sometimes she’ll even show up to the party and do the grilling for you.  Which is what she did that night.

Awesome.

We rendezvoused with the other half of the Bach clan (well, I guess technically this would be the Tran clan, since it was Mike’s dad) on Monday night in Long Beach.  We had a rather unremarkable dinner at some Pan-asian Pf-Chang’s style eatery under Chat’s apartment, but what was remarkable was that I got a picture of ALL 4 Bach siblings with their dad.  This is a pretty remarkable occurence:

amy, jimmy, tony, mike, chat

Yeah, it’s a crap picture.  And yes, it’s in an ugly parking garage, as opposed to outside with pretty scenery.  But still, it makes me smile.  I love these weirdos.