One of my favorite foods is Mongolian BBQ. It’s not something that’s available in our area, and in fact it’s hard to find in most places in the United States. I’ve had it in Hawaii, but it isn’t the same as I’ve had in other places in the world.
In the mid-1980s, I spent a lot of time in California — mostly northern California. I first ran across Mongolian BBQ in California in the Los Angeles area at a place called Colonel Lee’s Mongolian BBQ. I thought it was just about the best Mongolian BBQ I’d ever had. The guys that I was traveling with thought it was a dump and weren’t nearly as impressed as I was.
It turns out that Colonel Lee’s was a small chain — only in California as far as I know. Since I was spending a great deal of time in the San Francisco area — mostly Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, I was excited that I found a Colonel Lee’s in that area, located on Castro Street in Mountain View. That location wasn’t very far from were I was working and I think I managed to eat there at least several times a week.
Obviously I got to know the owner and the staff very well and they always made me feel like an honored guest. I often took some of the guys I was working with, but only a couple of the them thought it was as good as I did. More than once, when I had to work late, the restaurant was closed when I got there, but if any of the staff was still there, they always opened the door and usually met me with a Tsingtao (Chinese beer.)
One night a friend/co-worker and myself went there for dinner, but Colonel Lee’s Mongolian BBQ was closed due to a private party having their wedding reception in the restaurant. We looked in and saw the place all re-arranged with all the tables nicely decorated with nice table cloths. The wedding party was sitting at a long table facing the other tables, near the front of the dining room.
We were just about to turn around when the manager came running out… told us how glad he was to see us and to “come on in.” I explained that I thought that if the party had rented the restaurant for the night, it was just for their invited guests. Well, the manager said he was sure they wouldn’t mind and in fact a table was already being set up for us near the back — complete with a white table cloth, flowers and “wedding favors,” and of course a couple of Tsingtao beers.
We were the only ones in the place not of Asian descent. We got a number of stares, and we just smiled and waved at everyone…. most of them smiled and waved back.
We had the usual great meal and a number of Tsingtao’s along with a couple of glasses of champagne. As the night progressed we started hitting our glasses with a knife as a way of urging the bride and groom to kiss (a tradition at a lot western weddings…apparently not so much at Asian weddings.) But a lot of the guests picked up on it and were making quite a lot of noise. Finally, the bride announced that “we don’t do that!” Both my friend and I wondered if the groom knew that beforehand….
Mongolian BBQ is still one of my favorite foods and Colonel Lee’s Mongolian BBQ will always be one of my all-time favorite restaurants. There are a number of Mongolian BBQ establishments in California, especially the Los Angles area — But there will never be another Colonel Lee’s.
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