A few days ago I blogged about Colonel Lee’s Mongolian BBQ — one of my all time favorite places from my past. It turns out that there really was a Colonel Lee and he really was a colonel — in Taiwan’s Republic of China army.
I actually met Colonel Lee… during one of my many nights at Colonel Lee’s in Mountain View, he came into his restaurant that was located on Castro Street. I’m pretty sure he lived in the Los Angeles area at the time. The manager/owner of the Mountain View restaurant brought Colonel Lee over to our table and he sat down with us for a few minutes — maybe because he was told that I was their best customer…. even though I lived in Virginia.
As I said, Colonel Lee, who was introduced to me as “John,” was an actual colonel in Taiwan’s army and immigrated to the U.S. in 1966. I remember having a very nice conversation and told everyone the next day that I had met the real Colonel Lee. No one was as impressed as I was.
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