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Show On the road with Shirley Smith In Phoenix U i Most people don't think of going to Phoenix for an "Oriental Experience", but that is just what we did a couple of weeks ago. (It won't be quite the same for you, but at least you can sample a meal at a couple of fine Chinese restaurants.) We boarded a Republic Airlines flight one cold, snowy day in Salt Lake and were met a pleasant hour later in warm, sunny Phoenix by our Malaysian friend and his 16 month old son. Ouf relationship with Ting, a Chinese Malaysian, goes back to 1970 when he first came to study in the U.S. and we were his host family. We had not seen one another for 7 years so there were changes. Ting now has his PhD and is teaching at the American Graduate School of International Management. He also has a Chinese wife from Taiwan, studying for her Master's in International Business and a 16 month old son, Ralph, studying to be the cutest litte Chinese boy in town. Living with them in their very American 4 bedroom home in the suburbs are an 18 and 19 year old niece and nephew -Chinese Moslems from Malaysia - studying Agriculture and Engineering at Arizona State. We, however, studied eating. The first night found us at the Mandarin Palace in Scottsdale. To us small town folk it seemed a long drive from our friend's house in Glendale, but then everything in Phoenix seemed like a long drive. Decided finally that it is because the city is so flat and there are no landmarks to aim for. At any rate, dinner at the Mandarin Palace was well worth the drive and we settled in for a most satisfying evening of Schezuan food, ordered and discussed in Mandarin Chinese. Highly recommended are the lemon chicken and pot stickers. The next day saw us out bright and early for a day of sight seeing. Ever noticed how many of Phoenix's main streets are lined with orange trees? Sun City first, with its winding, manicured streets, abundance of large, American cars and rakish golf cart, older gentlemen in plaid pants and coiffed ladies in silver blue hair. Opened in1960 Sun City has grown to a population of 47,000 with 6 shopping centers, a 250 bed hospital, 2 medi-cal offices, 11 golf courses, 7 rec. centers, 7 swimming pools, 5 bowling greens and 1 bowling alley. A drive through the city's streets and neighborhoods - all vaguely similar some how, well tended and cared for - with more restaurants and shopping centers per square block than any city I know of, and a late morning visit to the Desert Botanical Gardens, a 3,000 acre portion of Papago Park off E. McDowell Road containing cacti from around the world. A self guided tour takes you through the well laid out grounds and offers information on the hundreds of plants lining the walkways. A visit now to the Metro Center - the largest shopping center between Chicago and Los Angeles, the locals say - and our only non oriental meal of the weekend, a Mexican lunch at Emiliano's. Dinner that night, served to an international group of friends, you won find in a restaurant. Durian fruit cakes sent from Malaysia, spiced watermelon seeds and "dragon eyes" and for the main course a medley of barbequed meats seasoned with Malaysian sate spices and served with peanut sauce. Our Sunday afternoon flight allowed us time for a leisurely drive to Lake Pleasant where sailboats and hobie cats dotted the waters and it seemed for all the world like summer. Arizona, the guide book says, has the highest per capita boat ownership of any state in the U.S.! Ah, and one last meal. Dim Sun at the China Doll in downtown Phoenix. Served only on Sundays from 12-2:30, Dim Sun brings Chinese from as far as Tucson. The outer dining room of the huge restaurant was filled with Caucasians enjoying standard fare, but the Dim Sun room itself was full of Oriental faces and the cadence of Chinese. The waitress arrives at your table with a rolling cart covered with small dishes of wonderfully foreign delicacies -sweet dumplings and pork balls, spiced shrimp in soft pastry, smooth egg custards yellow and creamy. You choose from the cart, one of this, two or three of that, and wait for the next cart to bring a new and different selection. Our friends tell us that there are places in Taiwan and Singapore where people spend from morning til night sitting at the Dim Sun tables r drinking tea, plaving mah jong and sampling delicacies. . For, f i ; us an hour has to suffice and wc left Phoenix feeling for al the, C ' - wirUlUifc4'r vc liad siopped for a moment in the orient. |