I’m sure you will be disheartened to know that American Airlines has discontinued their nonstop service from Chicago O’Hare to Rome.

I was probably leaning toward Northwest’s Cedar Rapids > Detroit > Amsterdam > Rome route anyway, since it’s over a hundred bucks cheaper per ticket, but the nonstop nature of the American’s midwest-to-Rome leg was very appealing.

Plus I hate the Amsterdam airport. It seems like I’m always running like hell to get through customs and make a connection there, and then when I finally get to my gate, there’s a miles-long (make that kilometers-long) line to board the plane. They don’t use any of that “now boarding rows 45-60” nonsense; they just let everybody try to pile in at once. Ah, the Dutch. If it weren’t for Anne Frank, I’d have nothing good to say about them.

Actually, that’s not true. My second cousin used to be married to a Dutch guy, and I liked him. I guess it’s just the airport I don’t like.

I was doing my morning surf just a few minutes ago, and I really enjoyed this New York Times article about a new breed of Asian fusion cuisine: hyphenated Chinese.

It’s kind of funny; I’ve had Chinese food in just about every country I’ve ever visited. After a week or so of eating local cuisine a lot of times I just get in the mood for a change, and Chinese suits. These places all seem to have a local spin on Chinese food, probably to appease the local palate. For example, the egg rolls at a Chinese restaurant in Portugal tasted strongly of olive oil. This article, though, talks about actual purposeful cross-overs, like Chinese-East Indian, Chinese-Jamaican, and Chinese-Peruvian.

It makes sense, really. The Chinese have been some of the most successful immigrants in history. Just about every democracy has a thriving Chinese immigrant population, some of which have been established for many generations. It’s easy to see how a kid born in Peru to Chinese parents would pick up tastes and eating habits from both cultures.

The most interesting random fact I learned from the article: Naomi Campbell’s father is Chinese-Jamaican.

The second most interesting fact I learned from the article: many scholars believe that the origin of ketchup is the “intense Chinese sauce” ke-tsiap. It seems to have mellowed considerably across the continents.