<Begin Segment 23>

JS: How did your husband -- kind of jumping a little bit ahead -- but when did you meet your husband, and how did he become involved... he eventually became manager of the Mandarin.

MN: Uh-huh, yes.

JS: Could you tell us a little bit about that?

MN: Well, he, he was one of our regulars at the restaurant; he used to come in with some of his friends, and we met like that. It was nothing. [Laughs]

JS: And then, then how long after you met him did you get married?

MN: A year.

JS: A year?

MN: Uh-huh.

JS: And then how did he become involved in working at the restaurant?

MN: I think I asked him to help out one day.

JS: Okay. What was he doing before that?

MN: He was working for this company called Pottery, Garden City Pottery, where right now it's Blockbuster and Sushi Maru, and Ikebana, that Sogetsu Ikebana and Classic Rock is there right now, and that used to be a huge, huge pottery plant.

JS: So he was working there.

MN: There, uh-huh.

JS: Then you asked him to come help at the restaurant.

MN: Yes, uh-huh.

JS: What did he do when he first started?

MN: He, when he first started, he was helping the chef. He would, he would be just like a fry cook.

JS: And who was the chef at this time?

MN: At the time, there was a Chinese gentleman named Louie, and Louie had a cousin named Sing, and so they were both working there. And they were the two that lasted the longest; they stayed there a long time, at least ten years.

JS: So they could take constructive criticism? [Laughs]

MN: Yes, uh-huh, yes. Oh, not, not too much, but then we didn't wanna, we didn't wanna hire any more cook, or, so we just kept them until they both died.

JS: What were you doing at this time?

MN: We were, I was a waitress.

JS: Okay. Did you, did you always stay a waitress there?

MN: Yes, uh-huh. My sister-in-law and I, we...

JS: And how many hours a day did you work, and can you describe what a typical day was like for you?

MN: Well, let me see. It, it varied because for a while, we, we had, we brought our kids to work, and then we put them in the banquet room and then they had, we had a playpen for them and buggy and everything, all the comforts of home for them. And then as they grew older, then they were able to take care of themselves, so they, they all started to work at the restaurant, too, uh-huh, every one of them did that. My brother had five boys, and I had five; I had three, three girls, two girls and three sons, and they all helped there.

JS: How did you feel about working there?

MN: Oh, it was hard work. It was very hard work, and I think we were quite busy all the time.

JS: Any good aspects of it that you liked?

MN: Yeah, good food. Oh, we can't get any food; and people will tell you, "How do you make this dish? How do you make that dish? Would you ever publish a cookbook on your Mandarin food?" 'Cause it was different -- oh, I forgot to tell you this, after those two cooks died, my brother took over, and he became the head chef.

JS: That's, which brother is this?

MN: Bill. He became the head chef, and then my husband was the buyer; he bought all the, the produce and the meat, and my brother was the... he cooked all kinds of food, I mean, that you can never, never get at any other restaurant.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.