Tea Lunch at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Tea Lunch at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget  

I first learned about tea lunch with bite-size dim sum dumplings made with seafood, pork, and vegetables in Hong Kong as a teenager before going on a 3-week study tour in the People’s Republic of China with the Detroit Youth Tour to China in 1979.

I loved it that the waiters in Hong Kong all spoke English and could tell me what the dim sum in the steam carts they rolled among the tables were. They also showed me how the billing worked by placing a red ink round mark on the bill with the number of dim sum taken of each kind. At the end of the meal, they would total up everything along with the tea and you would pay at the table. That was a first-class introduction to tea lunch with dim sum dumplings in Hong Kong. 

Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California continues this type of positive intercultural food experience. The menu has a photo of each dim sum, which is sold 4 to a basket along with a description of what the dim sum is in English. The dim sum arrive in a waiter robot powered by a waiter in so-close-to-Silicon-Valley Salinas. 

My daughter Florence Paget and I shared the following dim sum and jasmine tea: 

-shrimp dumplings steamed in rice flour pastry shells that looked like small, squinched, clutch coin purses. The gooey rice flour pastry makes the shrimp inside retain its salty, sweet flavor, but the texture of the steamed pastry shell might put off people trying dim sum for the first time. 

-deep-fried shrimp balls 

-pork dumplings coated in creamy and spicy hot peanut and red pepper sauce from Sichuan 

-Chinese donuts that resemble long Mexican churro donuts. The donuts come with a super sweet dipping sauce. 

The dumplings at Dim Sum Inn are not bite-size like the ones in Hong Kong. It takes about two bites to eat the dumplings in this great deal restaurant in Salinas, California that has: 

-a large parking lot 

-a large banquet room 

-easy to understand menus with photos 

-vegetarian dim sum and lunch items 

-easy access from Highway 101 and Highway 68 

Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California merits a detour as the Michelin guidebooks say. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Insurance Adjuster Interview by Ruth Paget

Insurance Adjuster Interview by Ruth Paget 

When I started high school, I attended a private Friends School in Detroit (Michigan) to learn about my Quaker ancestors from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

The Friends School taught standard high school subjects as well as electives such as non-violence workshop where we read the works of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, non-violent games that promoted happiness for all such as caring for an egg for a week, meditation and journaling for conflict resolution, and the World of Work for vocational training. 

For World of Work, we began our studies by reading Working by Chicago writer Studs Terkel, who interviewed people from all sorts of jobs about job satisfaction and the skills needed to perform them. 

We all took the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory which tests on which kinds of jobs that are suited for you based on skills and interest. I wanted to be a writer, but my quantitative skills came out first and writing came out second. The best job for me was listed as accountant. I was mortified. However, my Quaker teacher told me, “Just use math when you write.” 

After the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory, I set up informational interviews. The first one I did was with an insurance adjuster: Mr. H. acts as a liaison between the insurance company and its claimants. He works for xxx, which is an independent insurance adjusting company. Mr. H. settles insurance losses for the company.

He wishes he made more money, but what he receives is fine with him. Mr. H. does not think he would go into another field of work. 

He feels his job is interesting. It is not a get rich scheme. To Mr. H. work should be challenging, rewarding, and something you can get a lot of satisfaction and pride out of. He could have a better paying job, but does not want to sacrifice time with his family. He enjoys working. He likes meeting people everyday, the competition, and the satisfaction of helping people. 

An insurance adjuster position requires a college degree, but most of the training is done on the job. He suggests taking courses in economics and business. 

In his free time, he spends time with friends. He will talk about work, if he is with friends from the office. Aside from that, he talks about sports. Mr. H. likes his boss and thinks that he has his best interest at heart.  

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Accountant Interview by Ruth Paget

Accountant Interview by Ruth Paget 

When I started high school, I attended a Friends School in Detroit (Michigan) to learn about my Quaker ancestors from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

 The Friends School taught standard high school subjects as well as electives such as non-violence workshop where we read the works of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, non-violent games that promoted happiness for everyone such as caring for an egg for a week, meditation and journaling for conflict resolution, and the World of Work for vocational training. 

For World of Work, we began our studies by reading Working by Chicago writer Studs Terkel, who interviewed people from all sorts of jobs about job satisfaction and the skills needed to perform the job. We all took the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory which tests on which jobs that are suited for you based on skills and interests. I wanted to be a writer, but my quantitative skills came out first and writing came out second. I was mortified! However, my Quaker teacher told me, “Just use math when you write.” 

After the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory, I set up informational interviews to find out about the world of work. I found some of my write-ups recently and wanted to share what I learned during my teen years, because the jobs still exist with some changes brought about by technology. I had a very good interview with an accountant from Coopers and Lybrand – Certified Public Accountants. This is still a position that exists in the 21st century and might interest readers studying business. I retained my ninth grade English: 

Ms. S. likes her job as an accountant. She has worked at Coopers and Lybrand since last May. She graduated from college in April. She works Monday through Friday. She has been expected to work overtime and accepts that as part of her job. She says 55 hours a week is a lot. 

Ms. S. told me certified public accountants work with facts. They go out and review clients’ systems, document them, and make sure they are functioning as documented by the clients. The accountants perform various tasks to make sure that the clients’ business functions as documented. 

I asked for more details. Ms. S. said accounting is a recording of what is happening at the business. Businesses have cash coming in and goods going out. These activities are recorded. This is where business begins. This is the exchange of goods and services. 

For two years, she was a liberal arts student at the University of Michigan. This course of study consisted of art, history, calculus, chemistry, and French. Then, she applied for business school. At the University of Michigan, you need approximately 21 hours of accounting. 

At UofM, that is 7 classes with 3 credit hours each. These classes involve a wide array of accounting: asset, corporate, cost, and tax. Auditing is included in these classes also. (I though asset accounting sounded interesting, if you got to go through safe deposit boxes.) 

Ms. S. said business law is required to become an accountant. Business law is included on the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) Examination. You must take and pass this examination to be certified. In addition to passing the examination, you must work with a public accounting firm in order to be certified. Business law is essential. An accountant has a legal liability towards the client. There are certain things you can and cannot do. 

Every accountant who comes into the firm must have a college degree. Ms. S. has many bosses. Each time she goes to a different client, she is on a different auditing team. Each new boss evaluates her work in the field. She chose to be an accountant, because she reached a decision point in college where she asked herself, “Do I need a French degree? Do I need a degree in painting? Shouldn’t I develop something practical with my degree?” If she had not become an accountant, she would have looked for a job with languages. Ms. S. noted she would probably still be looking for a job. (Note: 1979 was not the global era.) She has seen many people with anthropology degrees have a hard time finding a job. She said 15,000 people graduate with anthropology degrees and there are 15 job openings.

In business school, there are a few choices of what job you can go Into: 

-Marketing – this is basically salesmanship, but it is not sales work. An example, would be IBM. At IBM, you sell computer systems. They send you through training courses to learn everything about computers. You go through training for 1½ years. You have to be extremely confident, know your stuff, and have a quick memory.

-Retail Sales – sales management 

-Actuarial – I was very interested in this. Their function is very mathematical. They analyze life insurance tables. These tables estimate how long people live on the average and what kinds of risks they are running with different factors in their lives. An example of these factors would be old age and sickness. They also deal with pension plans. Actuarial work is very challenging. 

I asked her to explain the promotion system at Cooper and Lybrand. Promotions occur in January and July. Personnel looks at employee evaluation forms that various supervisors and managers filled out. These people observe your attitude, leadership, maturity, how well you get along with other people, how well you work on teams, technical competence, and assertiveness. Ms. S. explained to me that with 4 or 5 years of experience at Coopers and Lybrand, you were eligible to be a supervisor. 

After the supervisor level comes manager. You need more talents to become a manager. Some people are not born leaders. If you do not attain manager in three tries, that is a subtle clue to look for another firm. Personnel does executive searches to help people find other jobs.

Becoming a partner is an entirely different ballgame. The partners do not have to promote anyone to partner, if they do not want to. A special kind of politics comes into play. If a manager is up for partner twice but does not make it, they should look for another job. 

Night school is discouraged, because employees are expected to work overtime. Courses are offered in the office and self-study materials are available to employees, so that they can keep up with the times. They are expected to read the Wall Street Journal and other magazines dealing with business. Ms. S. said, “Studying for the annual Certified Public Accountant Exam will occupy your time.

Many of the client systems are computerized, so it is wise to know at least one computer language. A group of computer specialists always accompanies the audit team, but if you do not understand how a computer system works, you cannot tell the computer team what results you need. (Note: I first used a desktop Apple computer in my senior year of college.) 

Coopers and Lybrand takes up 3½ floors of the Renaissance Center. I got to go on an office tour. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about accounting. Later in life, I worked for two major accounting firms (EY and Deloitte) in Chicago and Paris using math in my writing. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Newspaper Columnist Interview by Ruth Paget

Newspaper Columnist Interview by Ruth Paget 

When I started high school, I attended a private Friends School in Detroit (Michigan) to learn about my Quaker ancestors from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

The Friends School taught standard high school subjects as well as electives such as non-violence workshop where we read the works of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, non-violent games that promoted happiness for all such as caring for an egg for a week, meditation and journaling for conflict resolution, and the World of Work for vocational training. 

For World of Work, we began our studies by reading Working by Chicago writer Studs Terkel, who interviewed people from all sorts of jobs about job satisfaction and the skills needed to perform the job. 

We all took the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory, which tests on which kinds of jobs you are suited for based on your interests and skills. 

I wanted to be a writer, but my quantitative skills came out first and writing second. The best job for me was accountant. I was mortified! 

However, my Quaker teacher told me, “Just use math when you write.” 

After the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory, I set up informational interviews to find out about the world for work for jobs I would like and those that used a lot of math. I found some of my interview write-ups recently and think much is still relevant today. I have left the interviews in most of my ninth-grade English. One of my first interviews was with Detroit Free Press columnist JF: 

JF likes his job. He says it is fun to be making a living doing something you like. He finds ideas for his columns everywhere. His is constantly taking notes and reads a lot. JF works in the city room at the Detroit Free Press. 

He spends 25 hours a week typing his column. JF said he is actually working all the time. When he thinks of an idea while he is sleeping, he gets up and immediately writes it down. 

Before coming to the Free Press, he worked on a weekly newspaper – the Lapeer County Press. He worked there for 25 years. The last 15 years, he was the editor. 

JF was an advertising salesman when he got out of college. He wrote a column for the paper entitled “My Customers.” Gradually, it became a general interest column.  Eventually, he became a reporter and, then, editor. JF still continued to write his column while he was editor. Other papers caught on to his column. He was at one time in all the weeklies in Michigan. 

Through the years, the Free Press made him several offers while he was editor. Finally, he decided it was time to make the change and went to work at the Free Press. I was interested in what an editor does, so I asked more about this subject. An editor works 50 to 60 hours a week. It is a time consuming and boring job. The editor takes care of the day-by-day business of running a newspaper. (I thought he was being sarcastic.) 

The Lapeer County Press had 10 people working at it. You only needed the editor to run the newspaper. A newspaper the size of the Free Press has many assistant editors and department editors. It is more fragmented. 

JF wanted to write since high school. There was no doubt in his mind about what he was going to do. He majored in journalism at Michigan State University. He learned more on the job than he did at school. 

JF says he hits dry spells when he just cannot write. It is all a matter of being a professional. You just write your column. It just takes longer. He turns his columns in early to avoid deadline pressure. 

If JF were not a columnist, he would be in some field of writing. If writing were ruled out, he would probably be a postman. In his free time, JF and his wife go to restaurants, nightclubs, movies, and live theater. 

Note: I was one of JF’s regular column readers. He was one of Detroit’s men-about-town. I learned from him how important it is to create a town for yourself to support your life needs and lifestyle in a large city like Detroit. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Eating Russian Food in Detroit by Ruth Paget

Eating Russian Food in Detroit by Ruth Paget 

Whenever my mother and I went shopping at Detroit’s Renaissance Center on the riverfront, we would first go to lunch at Olga’s Kitchen located in the RenCen. 

We took the tourist trolley, which stopped right outside our apartment building on Washington Boulevard. (The current monorail system was just being built.) The trolley was warm in icy weather and protected us from potential falls. The trolley turned left onto Jefferson Avenue at the end of Washington Boulevard and brought us to the entrance of the five-towered Renaissance Center designed by architect John Portman. 

From the warm trolley, my mom and I would go to Olga’s Kitchen for Russian-American food. Olga’s was famous for their thick and large blini pancakes wrapped around Detroit fillings like Greek gyros and Arab schwarma. 

My mother and I ordered gyros blinis, which came with garlicky yogurt sauce, pickled slices of white and red onion, and tomatoes. A toothpick held this delicious combo together. The blini came with a side salad, French fries, and a drink. Olga’s Kitchen provided a tonic lunch before setting out for an afternoon of shopping. 

Our first stop was Winkelman’s Clothing Store. My mother was going to inspect the discounted designer clothing I had been making payments on as layaway purchases. She would make the final the final payment, if the deal were a good one. If not, she would get money back and apply it to other layaway deals. She would also look through the store merchandise for designer deals herself, too. 

From Winkelman’s we would go to the RenCen’s crystal boutique. We both liked Waterford relish trays and Baccarat ship’s decanters. The salesman gave us a corporate gift brochure when she found out my mother worked at the Free Press. (Mom had asked about discounts on large order purchases to see if she could lower the price of the items on sale.) 

Our last stop on our RenCen shopping trips would be the Godiva Chocolate Boutique. My mom would buy a pound of chocolate and made sure we got some samples to taste before making our purchase. 

We took the trolley home with our purchases. I felt like a junior boyar, an elite Russian merchant who dealt with mink coats and caviar and who dined on Beef Stroganoff, with our bags of nice purchases.

For more information on authentic Russian food, readers might like the book entitled Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets’ A Gift to Young Housewives translated by Joyce Toomre (published by Indiana University Press). 

There is an easy recipe for making blini pancakes topped with smoked salmon, sour cream, and caviar in the book Hors d’oeuvres and Appetizers (Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library) by Chuck Williams and the Scotto Sisters. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France 

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Detroit Bean Salad $ Hack Recipe by Ruth Paget

Detroit Bean Salad $ Hack Recipe by Ruth Paget 

This bean salad with cheese cubes and sliced celery is something I made on “snow days” when Detroit (Michigan) Public Schools would be closed due to inclement weather that threatened power lines and clogged city streets. This Detroit blizzard bean salad does not require cooking, and is an inexpensive, vegetarian dish. You can easily leave out what you do not like as well. 

Serves 6 to 8 

Ingredients: 

1 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can navy beans, drained and rinsed 

1 (16-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed 

1 cup cubed cheddar or Swiss cheese 

4 stalks celery, rinsed and sliced in ½-inch slices 

1 cup French dressing or Italian dressing 

Steps: 

1-Place all ingredients in a large salad bowl and mix. 

2-Chill until serving 

Other blizzard weather tips: 

-serve the above salad on torn iceberg lettuce 

-place canisters of peanuts, cashew, and other nuts on counter tops while you can see them in case of power outage. 

-make tea in several pots and add bottled lemon juice. The tea that gets cold can be easily made into iced tea. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Eating Venetian Food in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget

Venetian Food in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget 

I ate my first Venetian meals in Detroit (Michigan) at Syros Restaurant, which was located behind my apartment building on Griswold Street.  The island of Syros is Greek, but at one time it was part of the Republic of Venice, which explains the restaurant’s Venetian dinner specials. 

My neighborhood’s Catholics, the priests from Saint Aloysius Church, the rabbis from the downtown synagogue, and fashion district workers all ate one or two meals at Syros thanks to reasonable prices on liver and fish dinners. 

I used my allowance on fegato alla veneziana (liver with caramelized onions) and baked fish made with lemon, olive oil, garlic, halved cherry tomatoes, and chopped parsley. Both dishes came with a side of peas and rice (risi e bisi). Detroit’s large Eastern Market kept produce from warmer climates available all winter long. 

Those two dinner items came with a cup of soup or a salad. The soups were chicken noodle or meatless minestrone. I liked the minestrone for the pinto beans, which tasted good with grated Parmesan. I never ate dessert, but they always had custardy rice pudding with vanilla and cinnamon available. I drank iced tea with my meal in summer and coffee with cream in the winter. 

These dinners are nice weekday meals. They are inexpensive and easy to make at home, if you learn how to handle the ingredients. Liver is rich in iron. There is a good recipe for it with grapes, sour cherries, and polenta, if you do not want onions, in Venetian Republic: Recipes from Veneto, Adriatic Croatia, and the Greek Islands by Nico Zoccali. 

For more information about the history and culture of Venice, readers might be interested in the book Inventing the World: Venice and the Transformation of Western Civilization by anthropologist Meredith F. Small. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Homage to Las Brisas Restaurant in Detroit, Michigan by Ruth Paget

Homage to Las Brisas Restaurant in Detroit (Michigan) by Ruth Paget 

I learned to appreciate Mexican food at a young age when my mom took me to Las Brisas Mexican Restaurant in Detroit’s Mexican Village Neighborhood on Vernor Highway. 

My mom always ordered what Las Brisas called a botana (today’s super nachos). I just loved the mountain of botana food – warm tortilla chips covered with ground beef, black beans, melted cheese, spicy peppers, chopped green onions, and sour cream. I thought that tasted like a crunchy garden burger. I still like crunchy food. 

I walked to school in Detroit’s Siberian winters, so I had no problem polishing off the botana and not gaining any weight. I still had room for a chimichanga, which I ordered just because I liked the name of the food item. 

A chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito. I would order a chimichanga with beans and cheese, because that was the kind of burrito I ordered at Jack in the Box. (There was a Jack in the Box near our house in Royal Oak, but that is another story.) 

I loved the crunchy chimichanga with gooey cheese inside. I topped it off with hot sauce and sour cream and thought that chimichangas should be sold at Jack in the Box, too. (Hint! Hint!) 

I also loved going to Detroit in the 1970s for restaurants even if places like Las Brisas had to have security in the parking lot. I still do not mind paying to park in a garage today for security when I go to restaurants.  

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Interning with a Dutch Accountant by Ruth Paget

Interning with a Dutch Accountant by Ruth Paget 

When I moved to Detroit (Michigan) from the suburbs (Royal Oak), I attended a private Friends School (Quaker) my freshman year. 

The Quakers wanted Detroit’s nomenklatura kids (“We’re going to live on the parents’ auto stocks”) to do vocational training that would lead to jobs. We first took the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory to find out what kinds of work skills we already had. 

I scored highly in quantitative and analytical skills with accountant listed as a good profession for me. I was mortified. I wanted to be an anthropologist, travel writer, and art historian. My smart Quaker teacher said, “Use math and analysis when you do all of those.” 

We next did informational interviews with people doing jobs we thought we like to do. One of the people I interviewed was an accountant at Coopers and Lybrand, who worked in the Renaissance Center downtown. (I liked the office location and wanted to live in the hotel there.) The accountant’s job was very busy, but interesting. She noted that communication skills were just as important as math skills to be an accountant. 

When it came time to do our internship, I worked for the school accountant, who was Dutch. I wanted to be compatible with a Dutch boss, so I put on my anthropologist’s hat and did some research. 

One of my friends in Royal Oak was Dutch, so I did know some things about Dutch culture: 

-The Dutch eat lots of casseroles made with sliced vegetables, shredded cheese, and cream. Casseroles are a delicious food $ hack. 

-The Dutch also eat pancakes at any time of day. These are made with eggs and milk for a hidden source of protein and calcium. 

-My friend’s mom worked part-time selling Amway cleaning products. 

-My friend’s dad was an engineer with Wayne County and was probably waiting to get a job at an auto company. 

-The family’s religion wad Dutch Reform. I went to vacation Bible School with my friend several summers and won Bibles for memorizing Bible stories. 

-The kids and I all went ice skating after school like little Hans Brinkers. 

That was my ethnographic survey of second-generation Dutch in Michigan. I also read about the importance of maintaining dikes to keep below-sea-level Netherlands from flooding in a Time-Life book about the country. 

I thought my Dutch boss would be a stickler about maintaining order given her cultural background for my analytical part of internship preparation. 

My boss told me I would be helping her organize “Accounts Payable” – bill or invoices the school had to pay. The “Accounts Receivable” – tuition payments and other sources of income – were private. She had a stack of bills piled up on my desk. She showed me a legal date stamp and told me to stamp areas on invoices with no printing on them to not cover up numbers. 

Once I went through those, she gave me a chronological journal to write up the bills I had stamped with the following information: 

-date received 

-creditor name 

-invoice amount 

-creditor invoice number 

Once I had the chronological file done, I was to assign payments to budget accounts. The accountant showed me the Chart of Accounts, budgets allocated for payment. She cut up strips of sticky notes and had me write the account number of which account I thought the invoice should be paid from along with the name of the account to help me memorize the Chart of Accounts. 

Then, I was to put the invoices in order by account number. Once, the invoices were in numeric order. I had to put them in alphabetical order within the account number. 

The accountant reviewed all my work before entering it into the IBM computer. 

I also used a business correspondence reference book to help draft business letters for the accountant and did inventory control (newest items in back of older ones). 

At the end of the internship, I told my teachers I had learned the value of maintaining systems, especially financial ones. 

(Note: I met my Dutch boss at a Youth for Understanding host family orientation several years later where I was volunteering as a former exchange student to Japan. She was going to host a student. I knew she and her family would have a happy, well-organized time.) 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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T-Shirt Economics by Ruth Paget

T-Shirt Economics by Ruth Paget 

Detroit Tale 

Motown Detroit is also known as Detroit Rock City due to major funds generated by white rock bands selling merchandise, especially T-shirts. 

Every white Detroiter buys a T-shirt at a rock concert and has a collection of 15 – 20 of them in use at one time. Bars also sell T-shirts in this working class town. 

My big sister K. taught me at a young age the following math equation: 

10 T-shirts x $20 = $200 

T-shirts sell for $30 now, so the new equation is : 10 shirts x $30 = $300 

With these new tap credit cards, you can get 10 taps in 15 minutes for $300. 

In an hour using tap credit cards, one person can generate $1,200 in sales. 

If you have 10 people tapping credit cards in an hour, you could generate $12,000 in sales. 

- 40 T-shirts can generate $1,200 in sales. 

- 400 T-shirts can generate $12,000 in sales 

Stadium shows can generate a lot of money, if you have skilled retail workers running credit card machines. 

T-shirts also publicize as rock bands know, so they keep prices relatively low. 

I think T-shirts should be marketed more extensively, because they also do not cost too much to buy the basic shirt. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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DuMochelle Auction House in Detroit, Michigan by Ruth Paget

DuMochelle’s Auction House in Detroit, Michigan by Ruth Paget 

While my friends attended classical music concerts at the Detroit Institute of the Arts on Saturday mornings, my mother and I would walk down Washington Boulevard from our apartment building to DuMochelle Auctioneers on the riverfront. 

We had the DuMochelle auction bid sheet and item descriptions mailed to us to look over before the auction. 

DuMochelle’s slogan was, “We have sold everything in Grosse Pointe four or five times.” 

Grosse Point was an exclusive Detroit suburb full of wealthy European aristocrats, descendants of people who had come to the United States before World War II started. They had furnishings sent after them and bought while in the US. Inheritance taxes made heirs send items to DuMochelle’s for auction. 

Detroiters and Canadians felt no compunction buying antique items at DuMochelle’s. When I would preview auction items on Friday after school, I would say to myself, “So, like where did you get this?” as I viewed floral silk screens from Versailles that went in front of unlit fireplaces. 

I would joke with my mom and say, “Do you think we could mix and match this Biedermeier desk with the Chinese Chippendale furniture we have at home? They are all nice pieces.” 

My mom would say, “I’m here for silver, crystal, jewelry, and Oriental carpets.” She really was and waited long enough to get deals on all of them. I loved learning about art. 

Detroit’s Dutch population keeps a steady flow of Renaissance still life paintings on sale at DuMochelle’s. A salesman told me, “The still lifes of food remind you to keep food and meals in the house to fend off death.” 

I remembered that as I ate the mustardy turkey and provolone sandwiches offered by DuMochelle’s to auction goers. I also added cream to the free coffee they offered with lunch. The auction crew had fun and free lunch. 

I viewed DuMochelle’s as a potential employer one day. I had a science and arts curriculum at Cass Technical High School in Detroit. I studied industrial art as a minor with classes in the following areas as part of my high school degree:  

-one year of art history for painting 

-one year of art history for sculpture 

-one semester pen and ink drawing 

-one semester figure drawing 

-four years of French language study 

I did not work at DuMochelle’s, but I did work in France, so these studies were not wasted. 

I also passed on my knowledge of art history to my daughter Florence Paget by having her study art and design and art history in high school as well and encouraging her to go through the educator pages for the Asian Art Museum website in San Francisco. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Dance Party Fundraising by Ruth Paget

Dance Party Fundraising by Ruth Paget 

One of the quickest ways the Inner-City Youth Tour to China raised money was with dance parties in 1978 – 1979. 

The way this worked was that you paid $5 if you brought something to eat or drink for the party. If you just showed up, you paid $10. Wrists were marked with “paid” stamps like they are at small club shows as a receipt. Homes in Detroit are large. 

You can easily fit 100 people in a living room with a full dining room off the side. We could raise between $500 - $750 in an evening with a dance party – an absolute win-win fundraiser. 

People are not finicky eaters in Detroit. I think the standard party dish is onion dip with Lay’s potato chips and soda. If you make onion dip yourself, it is super cheap. 

Detroit has a huge Eastern European population that came to the city to build cars, which means that sour cream is plentiful and inexpensive in the Motor City. 

The hillbilly contingent to the workforce (including my dad) mixes dry French onion soup mix with sour cream to make onion dip. This is great with plain potato chips or the ones with chives and sour cream. I taught the Puerto Ricans on the tour how to make this. 

Dance parties were a huge hit, because this was the Disco Era when we were raising money to go to China. We danced and sang into the night to Donna Summer, Lionel Richie, Gloria Gaynor, Sister Sledge, Chaka Khan, Santana, and Earth, Wind, and Fire. 

The Inner-City Youth Tour to China did go to China, and the dance alumni of our fundraising efforts went on to make beach parties at Daytona Beach, Florida a huge success, too, I think. 

One of the co-leaders of the youth tour went on to found and edit People en Español as a lasting cultural impact of our fundraising efforts. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Cold Brew and Iced Coffee $ Money Hacks by Ruth Paget

Cold Brew and Iced Coffee $ Hack by Ruth Paget 

Both iced coffee and cold brew are mega money savers, if you make them at home. I let a lot of coffee go cold in Detroit (Michigan) as I watched the news in French that was broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Channel (CBC) in Windsor (Canada) just across the Detroit River when I was in high school. (Free French oral comprehension lessons to go with high school French classes.) 

I was teaching myself to like bitter coffee, so I could pass as French in Canada. I thought coffee was bilge, though, compared to tea, especially cold. 

However, I did not want to waste money and throw out the coffee in the pre-microwave era I lived in. (All this money management economics destined my college to be the Austrian School of Economics at the University of Chicago I sometimes think.) 

I knew the Greeks made iced coffee, so I poured the cold coffee over ice and added milk and sugar. That was good and refreshing. I made it summer and winter and still do despite loving Starbucks. 

So, that is how to make inexpensive iced coffee. Cold brew is even simpler. 

I have learned to love coffee now that I am middle-aged. Coffee is even supposed to be good for you now due to its antioxidants. 

Cold brew coffee is now the rage and so easy to make at home. Place 1 or 2 tablespoons of ground coffee in the bottom of a French Press Coffee Pot. Pour in water and let the water stand on the coffee grounds for twelve hours. 

Press down on the grounds with the French Press lid and serve the cold brew over ice. 

I use a Starbucks insulated 3-cup container for this. These recipes are easy and can fit all budgets depending on the coffee you use. Amazon sells Starbucks, Lavazza, and Dallmayr coffee, if you cannot find these items in your area. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Suburban Detroit French Terrine $ Hack by Ruth Paget

Suburban Detroit French Terrine $ Hack by Ruth Paget 

My Polish babysitter epitomized the Detroit credo of “If I can make a car, I can cook.” 

I learned about Polish admiration for French food from my Polish babysitter in Troy, Michigan as a child. She made homemade French pork and liver terrines and duck terrines and had me eat them with her for lunches and dinners. 

The French eat terrine slices with either bakery-baked, long baguette bread or round, crusty loaves of country bread they make at home. The Polish babysitter, who knew how to bake, mostly made country bread. 

She also made her own sweet gherkin pickles to go with the terrine, which the French always eat with terrine. 

Finally, she filled half the plate with torn and chilled Boston bibb lettuce and homemade blue cheese dressing made with Maytag blue cheese from Iowa, which is the equivalent of the great blue cheeses of Europe: 

-Roquefort (France) 

-Cabrales (Spain) 

-Gorgonzola (Italy) 

(I think we need tasting competitions to decide who has the best blue cheese.) 

The French consider terrine a waste-not dish, because it is made from the odds and ends of butchering meat. A 1.5-quart terrine mold yields 15 slices or 2 slices for 2 people over 7 days with 1 slice leftover to share. My Polish babysitter viewed terrine as delicious, nutritious, and economical and so did I. 

My babysitter drank a sweet white wine with the pork and liver terrine from Michigan’s Warner Winery. She made sure to tell me that the great Hungarian sweet white wine Tokaj was the best match with terrine, but Warner worked for everyday, because Tokaj was expensive. 

The Polish babysitter gave me apple cider to go with my terrine lunch. (Apples grow in abundance in Michigan. Johnny Appleseed is a children’s book everyone in the state reads.) 

I thought of these lovely childhood lunches when I purchased Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman. This 250-page recipe book has recipes that cover meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables. 

I prefer terrines to confit and rillettes, because it is easier to measure slices for portion control. However, spreadable rillettes are easier to make. You can measure out preserved pieces of delicious duck confit, but pieces tend to be irregular, which makes it hard to count calories. 

Several dishes I thought would be make use of rural resources include: 

-chicken and wild mushroom terrine 

-cauliflower, pea, and red pepper mousse en terrine 

-portobello and red pepper terrine 

-two-potato terrine 

-cauliflower mousse 

-onion confit 

-fennel confit 

-chanterelle and garlic confit rillettes 

These terrines might sell well at a place like Costco, if they are not too expensive as they can be made into a week’s worth of food. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Detroit (Michigan) Bake Sale $ Hacks by Ruth Paget

Detroit (Michigan) Bake Sale $ Hacks by Ruth Paget 

When I was elected president of the National Honor Society in inner-city Detroit (Michigan) for the 1981 – 1982 school year, Detroit was in a recession, which felt like a depression with auto plant closures due to the “invasion” of small, fuel-efficient Japanese cars that cut into sales of the American auto industry. 

I think what clinched my election was my experience in running profitable bake sales to fund a freshman year trip to China for myself and 21 other young people from Detroit. I knew how to make hot cocoa in 10-gallon coffee makers and inexpensively make muffins and cupcakes from scratch. 

I also said in my election speech that it was ok for working moms to purchase cupcakes and donate them to the bake sale. NHS members could also get community service hours working at the bake sale. The strategy was to price everything at 50 cents and make it easy to give change for singles, fives, tens, and twenties. 

Each class in my high school had 900 students plus about 200 teachers. If you arrived at school early and set up everything, you had an audience of 3,800 people to sell to. 

The bake sales sold out all hot cocoa and cupcakes. A bake sale could garner $400 to $450. The school security guards escorted me to the school treasurer’s office for money counting and deposit. 

The National Honor Society used funds we raised to help charitable organizations in Detroit, who approached the principal and club sponsor via a written petition that was presented to the club for approval by vote. 

I am still proud that in a recession Cass Tech High School was able to help UNICEF pay for a rainwater collection tank to be used in a school in Africa (Gela Jar Project). I wanted the club to have an international project and asked UNICEF to petition the school for project funding. 

The true secret of bake sales I learned in high school was to make a quick, easy, and accurate transfer of goods. I have used this lesson for everything from cupcake sales to National Endowment for the Humanities grants. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Detroit (Michigan) Muffins Food $ Hack by Ruth Paget

Detroit (Michigan) Muffins Food $ Hack by Ruth Paget 

One of the reasons I wanted to live in downtown Detroit, Michigan in high school was the city’s proximity to Windsor (Ontario), Canada. 

I loved Detroit for being able to take a half hour bus ride through the tunnel under the Detroit River to Windsor, a small English town with river front gardens and many French restaurants and tearooms. 

All along Oulette Street, Windsor’s main thoroughfare, you can find china shops selling Spode and Wedgewood, Baccarat crystal stores, and Christofle silverware shops. You can also find made-to-order fur coat stores reflecting Detroit and Canada’s rugged winters. 

Bucolic English culture has many lovers in industrial Detroit. I was one of them. My family heritage is mostly English and Scottish, and I wanted to be a trim English woman with everyday tea dinners complete with tea biscuits and Red Rose tea, which I brought home as souvenirs. 

I knew from grocery shopping with my mother that tea cakes and muffins do not cost much to make and went through a cookbook (Joy of Cooking) for recipes. I made English tea suppers to save money, so my mother and I could go out to Detroit’s Greektown, Lelli’s Italian Restaurant, Carl’s Chop House, and/or Syros around the corner from our apartment building on Gratiot Avenue on the weekend. 

I would make two dozen muffins on the weekend using eggs and sour cream for protein and calcium I reasoned. I used cayenne pepper to flavor them one week and dill on the other. I ate 4 or 5 muffins each day along with slices of cheddar cheese. I also made fresh fruit salad with bananas, oranges, apples, kiwis, tea-soaked raisins, and orange juice to go with plain yogurt. I felt vitamins coursing through my veins eating this meal and ready to do calculus homework after an hour of skating at Hartt Plaza on the icy riverfront.

I tried to maintain a 2,000 to 2,500 calorie diet in high school, so I could be thin like Vogue models. I walked a mile each way to school and was rarely sick. The muffins fed me and kept me strong. 

I think muffins are inexpensive to make still and might help stretch food budgets. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Fundraising Ideas for Historical Museums by Ruth Paget

Fundraising Ideas for Historical Museums by Ruth Paget 

I associate historical museums more with field trips than as money generating sites, but I think historical museums need to think about revenue generating activities when seeking donors or government support. 

Class field trips like the ones I took as an elementary school student to the Detroit Historical Society helped provide that organization with operating funds as well as teaching young students about the Chippewa Native Americans, French fur traders and Michigan trading posts, and the impact of the Ford Model T on American society. 

The high cost of insuring field trips has made them almost a relic of the past in public schools in cash-strapped districts. This situation has probably forced historical societies to seek donors to ensure operating funds. I love historical museums and think there are several ways they could increase revenue. 

The first way is to seek out parents who will take their own children on field trips. Reaching parents is not as easy as contacting a school board, but historical museums might think of advertising the benefits of a visit to their site to the following markets, especially if they have newsletters: 

-religious organizations 

-sport teams 

-language organizations 

-charter schools 

-K12 school groups 

-music schools 

-dance schools 

-drama groups 

When I lived in Wisconsin in the 1990s, field trips had become a parent’s responsibility. I took my daughter Florence to the Wisconsin Historical Museum on Capitol Square in Madison to see exhibits about the Ho-Chunk Nation Native Americans, the lumber and paper industries, and German and Norwegian settlers, who lived in log cabins. This is another historical museum that is important for understanding the sociological and cultural history of the state. 

Historical museums have events that other historical museums might replicate. The Pickett’s Mill Battlefield, a Georgia State Park, holds re-enactments of the Civil War Battle fought there with African-American and white troops on the Union side. This event engages volunteers and the community. Even a nominal fee to attend this re-re-enactment could raise operating funds. 

Many historical museums offer hikes around their site or long walks in the museum. Museum visitors might welcome the chance to buy items such as the following to help support the museum:  

-cold water 

-cold soda 

-cheddar cheese fish chips 

-shrimp chips 

-tortilla chips 

-potato chips 

-brownies 

-guava cookies 

-cold brew coffee 

A combination of donors, sales, and parent doing their own field trips might increase historical museum revenue to keep these community resources open and increase funds for temporary exhibits and historical documentaries shown at the site. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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50-50 Raffle Fundraising by Ruth Paget

50-50 Raffle Fundraising by Ruth Paget 

When I joined the Inner-City Youth Tour to China in 1978 when I lived in Detroit (Michigan), my family and family friends used 50-50 raffles to help pay for my trip to the Peoples’ Republic of China with 21 other young people. 

Fundraising for this trip was difficult, because the United States would only diplomatically recognize the Peoples’ Republic of China on March 1, 1979. Potential donors asked me, “Why do you want to visit a Communist country?” 

I thought that question was an evasion answer. Detroit was in a recession in 1978, which meant auto plant closures. People did not have a lot of money to spend on fundraisers to buy chocolate bars even, which I also sold to help finance my trip to China.  

50-50 raffles worked very well in a recession situation as a win-win fundraiser. For example, you can sell raffle tickets for $1 for an hour. At the end of the hour, you draw a winner and evenly split the jackpot. If you raise $50, the organizer and winner get $25 each. If you run six 50-50 raffles in an evening, you can raise $150 for six hours work with the minimal financial outlay of buying raffle tickets. 

50-50 raffles are not legal in all states. You have to check with your local supervisor’s office or mayor’s office to see if these raffles are legal or what you need to do to petition to make them so. 

These 50-50 raffles helped make my dream of going to China a reality in 1979. Slow and steady income also keeps morale up for big fundraising events as an added benefit. 

Even in non-recession times, 50-50 raffles are a quick way to make money, which local governments might consider for non-profit organizations to earn money. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Teen in China, Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Coleslaw with Shrimp Recipe by Ruth Paget

Shrimp with Coleslaw Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Serves 6 

Ingredients: 

For Dressing: 

-1 cup mayonnaise 

-1 tablespoon lemon juice 

-1 tablespoon Tabasco juice 

For Coleslaw: 

-3 cups finely shredded cabbage 

-3 tablespoons finely sliced scallions 

-3 tablespoons finely chopped green peppers 

-1 tablespoon caraway seeds 

-36 cooked shrimp without shells or heads 

Steps: 

1-Mix mayonnaise with lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. 

2-Toss sauce with cabbage, scallions and green peppers. 

3-Place coleslaw on 6 individual plates and sprinkle with caraway seeds. 

4-Place 6 shrimp on each plate around the coleslaw and serve. 

(A Royal Oak, Michigan recipe) 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Coffee Cake Recipe by Ruth Paget

Coffee Cake Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Serves 6 

Ingredients: 

-1¾ cups flour 

-1 cup sugar 

-1 teaspoon salt 

-2 teaspoons baking powder 

-2 beaten eggs 

-1/2 cup milk 

-1 teaspoon vanilla 

-1/2 cup softened butter 

Steps: 

1-Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2-Mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. 

3-In another bowl, mix eggs, milk, and vanilla together. Blend in the softened butter. Add liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to form a batter. 

4-Place cake batter in a greased 8-inch cake pan. 

5-Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. For a chocolate cake, add two tablespoons Valrhona chocolate. 

(A Royal Oak, Michigan recipe) 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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